EL P2 Literary Analysis Revision Ans

Prepared by TYH Sec 4 Comprehension Revision Package Literary Device, Tone and Attitude Exercise 1: Monfort Sec Prelim 2015 Context: The abstract is taken from a text describing the difficulties faced by the famers in producing the biggest gooseberry for a local competition As July slowly ripens into August, a strange fever grips the necklace of villages which adorns the valley of the Esk. Curious arrangements of canvas and wire mesh, some hung with tiny bells, spring up in certain gardens. A great deal of furtive prodding around in the soil will be noticed. A sudden summer shower of rain will bring men racing from their cottages, carrying umbrellas, which they will hang over the bushes. A small squadron of wasps will create near panic. When a bush produces a promising youngster, the post-natal care it receives has to be seen to be believed. Sheets of polythene are stretched out to reflect more heat and tin lids full of water are balanced beneath the lusty young globe to encourage the absorption of more moisture. 1a. the writer describes the houses in the area as a ‘necklace of villages which adorns the valley of the Esk’ (lines 1-2). Why do you think the writer chooses to describe the villages as a ‘necklace’? The villages were in a closely spaced chain surrounding the valley like a necklace would around a neck./ The villages look pretty/picturesque/enhance the beauty of the valley. 1b. When a bush produces a promising youngster, the post-natal care it receives has to be seen to be believed’ (lines 28-29). Suggest a reason why the writer describes the gooseberry bush as a ‘promising youngster’. Like a child who has the potential to be great/successful, the gooseberry bush can develop into a champion/prize-winning fruit. 1c. Why is the expression ‘post-natal’ unusual and effective? It is unusual in that it is actually used to describe the care given to a human infant after birth and not a plant. [1] It is effective as it shows the gooseberry bush needs nurturing /care to grow like a child . [1] Exercise 2: Monfort Sec Prelim 2015 But perhaps the most majestic thing about the insects known romantically as scarabs and more descriptively as dung beetles is what they are willing and even delighted to do for a living. Dung beetles venture where many beasts refuse to tread; they descend on the waste matter of their fellow animals and swiftly bury it underground, where it then serves as a rich and leisurely meal for themselves or their off- spring.

Prepared by TYH 2. The dung beetles were described as insects which ‘venture where many beasts refuse to tread’. What can you infer about the writer’s feeling towards them? The writer feels a sense of awe/admiration for the dung beetles Exercise 3: Zhonghua Sec School MYCT 2015 Pain at last forced itself upon his attention: a dull ache, with a slow warm trickle that ran down his face. Mechanically he put his hand up to his cheek, scarcely realising that he was injured. To his horror his finger went through and touched his teeth. In the river the mare's hoof had cut open his face as a knife slits an orange. 3a. What does the simile ‘as a knife slits an orange’ tell you about the way the mare’s hoof cut his face? It was a clean cut (i.e. not jagged). [1] clean cut – cut so that the surface or edge is smooth and even cut easily X – refers to difficulty level of the cut, or how resistant his skin was OR It cut right into/ through his cheek ( slits) . [1] Lynn had swum across the Wangong with a horse many a time, but never a Wangong such as this! He had crossed it before when it had been in flood, but on a good horse, and himself strong and fit. Now he was almost at breaking-point from weariness, and also he was only too conscious of the limitations of the mare. He thought again of how she had behaved back in the trees, swerving aside at everything and nothing, and his heart failed him for a moment. But what could he do? Things would be no better tomorrow; the river would not be normal again for a week. And on the other side was home, where they were waiting anxiously for news of him. 3b. What does the phrase ‘swerving aside at everything and nothing’ tell you about the horse’s state of mind? It was restless and fidgety. [1] Restless - unable to remain at rest, uneasy Fidgety – restless, uneasy Does state of mind = emotion? State of mind = mental state (being doubtful, certain, uncertain, confused, gloomy, unhealthy state of mind, being curious, filled with wonder, being interested)

Prepared by TYH Exercise 4: Commonwealth Sec School Prelim 2015 Then the storm came. When it hit, it had the impact of a runaway truck. It made walls balloon and totter, then threw the bricks about like confetti. It lifted roofs off schools, ripped power lines away from their pylons and let them blow free, lighting the night with flashes of St Elmo’s Fire. Along the edge of the sea, it rained boats and caravans; sixty miles inland, the wind pasted windows with a grey rime of salt from the Atlantic. No one dared to go outside. You couldn’t open the door against that wind, and who in his right mind would want to face the skirl of tiles, dustbins, garden furniture and plant pots? So people sat tight. Soon after dawn, the storm quit London, leaving a high wind blowing under a sky of bad milk. Light-headed from lack of sleep, people stared through their salt-caked windows to see cars crushed by trees and craters of muddy water in the pavements where the trees had been. Broken bricks. Bits of picket fencing. Garden shrubs. Upended tricycles. Glass, tarpaper, fish bones, cardboard boxes strewn all over. During what the radio news now called The Hurricane, everyone’s rubbish had mated with everyone else’s, and white house fronts were curiously decorated with dribbles of gravy, tomato ketchup and raspberry yogurt. 4a. ‘When it hit, it had the impact of a runaway truck. It made walls balloon and totter, then threw the bricks about like confetti’ (lines 12 and 13). What two ideas does it suggest about the wind? - it suggests that the wind was: * uncontrollable / fast and * powerful / strong * aggressive * violent X – fierce/ ruthless / merciless (an indication that the wind has a mind of its own and can control its actions) 4b. The writer says that after the storm ended in paragraph 5, ‘everyone’s rubbish had mated with everyone else’s, and white house fronts were curiously decorated with dribbles of gravy, tomato ketchup and raspberry yogurt’ (lines 30 - 32). i) With reference to the underlined words, what tone is the author trying to achieve? Humorous / light-hearted / jovial tone X – amusement / amazement (not a tone but a feeling) ii) What could his intention be for doing so? It is to lessen the severity the storm/ It is to create a contrast to make the storm appear less severe / to lighten the mood

Prepared by TYH Exercise 5: Commonwealth Sec School Prelim 2015 (adapted) The sky had lifted. A paltry ration of diffused sunlight – the first for many days – lit the scene of an anarchic picnic. Children in coloured jackets swarmed in the branches of the humbled trees. Muddy dogs, tongues lolling, scrambled out of the craters. Whoever you were, the wrecked landscape had something in it for you personally. For some people, it was simply an enjoyable reminder of their grace – they’d got away with it; they were survivors. They strode across the skyline of the park like generals on a battlefield after a famous victory. Others stood still, gazing, hands in pockets. Exiles, from Beirut, Kampala, Prague, Budapest, felt a proud glow of kinship with the uprooted trees. Saturday fathers, borrowing children from their one-time wives, dwelled, with a pleasure they couldn’t explain to themselves, on the ragged pits in the earth, the torn turf, the canopies of exposed roots; while their children saw the park as a