Had a go
Nearly there
Nailed it!
SECTION A
READING
Word classes
Read the opening of the newspaper article below (Source 1), then answer Questions 1 and 2.
Source 1
I
At a loss in the Rocky Mountains
lose handbags; I leave them behind when
travelling – Italy (on a train), Norway (in a mountain
cabin), Scotland (in a distillery). I had a safe canvas
bag with a shoulder strap for Canada.
We headed along Highway One, the Trans-Canada
Highway, a straight line far into the distance.
‘You’d think the Romans had been here,’ my husband
said.
Not the Romans but the early pioneers, enterprising
adventurers going west, not knowing what lay ahead. We
knew. We were going to the Rocky Mountains. The land
was flat as we left Calgary, the sprawling development
making it difficult to know exactly when we did leave.
Then we saw the profiles of the ski jumps, challenging
monsters for other brave men, a legacy from the Winter
Olympic Games in 1988. We stopped to take photographs
and decided to have lunch in a local café.
1 Circle and label at least one noun, one verb, one adjective and one adverb in the extract.
2 In the opening sentence, the writer has used lots of proper nouns: Italy, Norway, Scotland.
What effect does this list of proper nouns create?
Read more of the article, then answer Questions 3 and 4.
Then on again, the road developing ups and downs as the
hills became mountains. We drove slowly, taking in the
ever more spectacular view. At times it felt that we were
diving down into a bowl surrounded by peaks. Just
scribbles of cloud in the blue sky, the mountain tops
clear, inviting photos that would never do justice to the
landscape. When we reached Canmore, a ski resort near
Banff, we decided to stop for a look around and to
imagine the place in winter.
I opened the car door and reached down by my feet for
my handbag. Not there. Nor on the back seat. I stood
immobile as I relived the last hour or so of my life. The
picture was as clear as that of the ski jumps. It was on the
floor by my chair in the café.
3 Choose one verb from the extract above that you think is particularly effective. Write a sentence
explaining the effect this verb has on the reader.
4 Find one or two sentences in the extract in which the writer has used lots of adjectives. What effect
do they create?
29
01 604 AQA English WB Section A.indd 29
28/02/2013 13:49