Thetford Grammar School
To Kill a Mockingbird
Revision Guide
Here are the past questions for the most recent examinations going back to January
2011
A common style of question asks:
What methods does Lee use to present an idea or
‘How does she use details to tell us about someone or something?’
The first keyword here is ‘show’ or ‘present.
This is a special style of question and in novels that means a number of specific types
of quotes should be remembered. They are:



Descriptive language in a descriptive passage.
What a character says in the beginning, middle and end of the play
What another character says about them
Methods or details usually requires you to start off simply by talking about
symbolic items which stand for someone. Working through a list of these items
will go along way towards writing a good response.
It is also good to mention how this scene fits in with the rest of the story
especially if you have a descriptive passage about a place. Saying if it will be important
later would show good knowledge.
However there is a second part to this question which asks you to tell the
examiner about the culture or history of the period.
This is where your Y9 history course on the great depression comes in handy. A simple
answer would say that America in the 30’s was one of the following for ordinary
people: hard, poor, hungry, sexist, racist.
Here it would good to link these ideas with the big themes of the book which are
mainly to do with justice . All of these can be located somewhere in the passage too
Have a go at responding to the question or talking it through with your parents.
January 2011
Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird
OR
Question 24
2 4 Read the passage and then answer part (a) and part (b).
Every town the size of Maycomb had families like the Ewells. No economic
fluctuations changed their status – people like the Ewells lived as guests of the
county in prosperity as well as in the depths of a depression. No truant officers
could keep their numerous offspring in school; no public health officer could free
them from congenital defects, various worms, and the diseases indigenous to filthy
surroundings.
Maycomb Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro
cabin. The cabin’s plank walls were supplemented with sheets of corrugated iron,
its roof shingled with tin cans hammered flat, so only its general shape suggested its
original design: square, with four tiny rooms opening on to a shotgun hall, the cabin
rested uneasily upon four irregular lumps of limestone. Its windows were merely
open spaces in the walls, which in the summertime were covered with greasy strips
of cheesecloth to keep out the varmints that feasted on Maycomb’s refuse.
The varmints had a lean time of it, for the Ewells gave the dump a thorough
gleaning every day, and the fruits of their industry (those that were not eaten)
made the plot of ground around the cabin look like the playhouse of an insane
child: what passed for a fence was bits of tree-limbs, broomsticks and tool shafts,
all tipped with rusty hammer-heads, snaggle-toothed rake heads, shovels, axes
and grubbing hoes, held on with pieces of barbed wire. Enclosed by this barricade
was a dirty yard containing the remains of a Model-T Ford (on blocks), a discarded
dentist’s chair, an ancient ice-box, plus lesser items: old shoes, worn-out table
radios, picture-frames, and fruit jars, under which scrawny orange chickens pecked
hopefully.
One corner of the yard, though, bewildered Maycomb. Against the fence, in a
line, were six chipped-enamel slop jars holding brilliant red geraniums, cared for as
tenderly as if they belonged to Miss Maudie Atkinson, had Miss Maudie deigned to
permit a geranium on her premises. People said they were Mayella Ewell’s.
Part (a)
(a) How does Lee use details in this passage to present the position of the Ewells in
Maycomb society?
and then Part (b)
(b) How does Lee present Mayella Ewell in the novel as a whole? (30 marks)
June 2011
Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird
OR
Question 24
2 4 Read the passage and then answer part (a) and part (b)
Tim Johnson reached the side-street that ran in front of the Radley Place, and what
remained of his poor mind made him pause and seem to consider which road he
would take. He made a few hesitant steps and stopped in front of the Radley gate;
then he tried to turn around, but was having diffi culty.
Atticus said, ‘He’s within range, Heck. You better get him now before he goes down
the side street - Lord knows who’s around the corner. Go inside, Cal.’
Calpurnia opened the screen door, latched it behind her, then unlatched it and held on
to the hook. She tried to block Jem and me with her body, but we looked out from
beneath her arms.
‘Take him, Mr Finch.’ Mr Tate handed the rifl e to Atticus; Jem and I nearly fainted.
‘Don’t waste time, Heck,’ said Atticus. ‘Go on.’
‘Mr Finch, this is a one-shot job.’
Atticus shook his head vehemently: ‘Don’t just stand there, Heck! He won’t wait all
day for you—’
‘For God’s sake, Mr Finch, look where he is! Miss and you’ll go straight into the
Radley house! I can’t shoot that well and you know it!’
‘I haven’t shot a gun in thirty years—’
Mr Tate almost threw the rifl e at Atticus. ‘I’d feel mighty comfortable if you did now,’
he said.
In a fog, Jem and I watched our Father take the gun and walk out into the middle of
the street. He walked quickly, but I thought he moved like an underwater swimmer;
time had slowed to a nauseating crawl.
When Atticus raised his glasses Calpurnia murmured, ‘Sweet Jesus help him,’ and
put her hands to her cheeks.
Atticus pushed his glasses to his forehead; they slipped down, and he dropped them
in the street. In the silence, I heard them crack. Atticus rubbed his eyes and chin; we
saw him blink hard.
In front of the Radley gate, Tim Johnson had made up what was left of his mind.
He had fi nally turned himself around, to pursue his original course up our street. He
made two steps forward, then stopped and raised his head. We saw his body go
rigid.
With movements so swift they seemed simultaneous, Atticus’s hand yanked a
ball-tipped lever as he brought the gun to his shoulder.
The rifl e cracked. Tim Johnson leaped, fl opped over and crumpled on the sidewalk
in a brown-and-white heap. He didn’t know what hit him.
Part (a)
(a) What methods does Lee use to build up a sense of danger in this passage?
and then Part (b)
(b) How does Lee use Atticus in one other event in the novel to show injustice
in America in the 1930s? (30 marks)
January 2012
Harper Lee : To Kill a Mockingbird
OR
Question 24
2 4 Read the following passage and then answer part (a) and part (b).
‘I simply want to tell you that there are some men in this world who were born to do
our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father’s one of them.’
‘Oh,’ said Jem. ‘Well.’
‘Don’t you oh well me, sir,’ Miss Maudie replied, recognizing Jem’s fatalistic noises,
‘you are not old enough to appreciate what I said.’
Jem was staring at his half-eaten cake. ‘It’s like bein’ a caterpillar in a cocoon, that’s
what it is,’ he said. ‘Like somethin’ asleep wrapped up in a warm place. I always
thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, least that’s what they seemed
like.’
‘We’re the safest folks in the world,’ said Miss Maudie. ‘We’re so rarely called on to be
Christians, but when we are, we’ve got men like Atticus to go for us.’
Jem grinned ruefully. ‘Wish the rest of the county thought that.’
‘You’d be surprised how many of us do.’
‘Who?’ Jem’s voice rose. ‘Who in this town did one thing to help Tom Robinson, just
who?’
‘His coloured friends for one thing, and people like us. People like Judge Taylor.
People like Mr Heck Tate. Stop eating and start thinking, Jem. Did it ever strike you
that Judge Taylor naming Atticus to defend that boy was no accident? That Judge
Taylor might have had his reasons for naming him?’
This was a thought. Court-appointed defences were usually given to Maxwell Green,
Maycomb’s latest addition to the bar, who needed the experience. Maxwell Green
should have had Tom Robinson’s case.
‘You think about that,’ Miss Maudie was saying. ‘It was no accident. I was sittin’ there
on the porch last night, waiting. I waited and waited to see you all come down the
sidewalk, and as I waited I thought, Atticus Finch won’t win, he can’t win, but he’s the
only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like that. And I
thought to myself, well, we’re making a step - it’s just a baby-step, but it’s a step.’
‘’t’s all right to talk like that - can’t any Christian judges an’ lawyers make up for
heathen juries,’ Jem muttered. ‘Soon’s I get grown—’
‘That’s something you’ll have to take up with your father,’ Miss Maudie said.
Part (a)
How does Lee use details in this passage to present Miss Maudie’s view of Maycomb?
and then Part (b)
In the novel as a whole, how does Lee show what life was like in a small town such
as Maycomb in 1930s southern America? (30 marks)
June 2012
Question 24
Read the following passage and then answer part (a) and part (b)
(From ‘ ‘What’d you get for.....’ page 87 to ‘....she’d never had one.’ Page 88
Heinemann edition)
Part (a)
In this passage, what methods does Lee use to present Scout’s feelings about Aunt
Alexandra and Francis? Refer closely to the passage in your answer.
and then Part (b)
In the novel, how does Lee show that other people expect Scout to behave in particular
ways? What do you think these expectations show about the society in which the
novel is set? (30 marks)
Another revision task:
Write down ten quotations and explain their significance
Name
Quotation
Significance