Braes High School : English DepartmentStandard Grade Homework record

Pupil’s Name: ____________________Teacher’s Name: ____________________

Homework No.

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1 82 83 74 65 56 107 88 79 810 611 1012 613 714 815 716 617 1118 919 1220 921 722 623 824 725 526 927 928 1029 1030 8

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HOMEWORK 1EXTRACT:

The life of the very young officer is full of surprises, and perhaps the most shaking is the moment when he comes face to face with his men for the first time.

His new sergeant stamps to a halt in front of him, salutes, and barks: “Platoon- presnready- frinspeckshun- sah!” and as he clears his throat and regards the thirty still figures, each; looking to its front with frozen intensity, the young subaltern realises this is it, at last; this is what he is drawing his meagre pay for.

QUESTIONS:1. Explain clearly how the author suggests the young officer is

afraid. [1]2. The phrase ‘frozen intensity’ tells you two things about the men.

Explain what these are. [2]3. What do you think “meagre” means? [1]4. Quote and explain any two ways the author uses to show how the

sergeant speaks to the young officer. [4]

HOMEWORK 2EXTRACT A:

When a man is threatened with attack, he has five options: he can fight, flee, hide, summon help or try to soothe his attacker. If the attacker is too strong to fight, there is nowhere to flee or hide, and no one comes to his aid, then soothing is the only solution. It is at such moments that Submissive Behaviour occurs.

QUESTIONS:1. In your own words, indicate when a man would be forced to use “SubmissiveBehaviour.” [3]2. Explain the use of the colon. [1]3. Why does the writer use capital letters for “Submissive Behaviour”? [1]

EXTRACT B:

Vigo was a little white seaport tucked away up a river and incongruously set against a background of blue mountains, thriving, bustling, packed with interest, and brand new people. I was fascinated with the Spain I saw, a brilliant, boldly shadowed scene, and I was fascinated by the Spanish way of life, which was new to me, fresh from Britain where equality, equal pay and

efficiency were highly regarded.

QUESTIONS:1. What do the words “thriving” and “bustling” tell you about the

town? [2]2. Explain what fascinated the author about the Spanish way of life.

[1]

HOMEWORK 3EXTRACT:

One Friday afternoon, just before Christmas, Paula Brown gave her annual birthday party, and I was invited because it was for all the children on the block. Paula lived across form Jimmy Lane on Somerset Terrace, and nobody on our block really liked her because she was bossy and stuck-up, with pale skin and long red pigtails and watery blue eyes.

She had a great many presents to show us but her favourite was a new snowsuit, which was powder blue and came in a silver box from Sweden, she said. The front of the jacket was all embroidered with pink and white roses and bluebirds, and the leggings had embroidered straps. She even had a little white angora

beret and angora mittens to go with it.

QUESTIONS:1. How does the writer show that she and Paula were not close

friends? [2]2. What is the effect of “she said” in line 6? [2]3. Quote an expression which shows why Paula was not popular. [1]4. a) How do you think the writer felt about Paula’s outfit? [1]

b) Quote an expression to support your answer. [1]

HOMEWORK 4EXTRACT:

I took dinner usually at the Yale Club – for some reason it was the gloomiest event of my day – and then I went upstairs to the library and studied investments and securities for a conscientious hour. There were generally a few rioters around, but they never came into the library, so it was a good place to work. After that, if the night was mellow, I strolled down Madison Avenue past the old hotel, and over 33rd Street to the Pennsylvania Station.

QUESTIONS:1. Suggest a reason why he regularly chose to dine in the Yale Club.

[1]2. Why do you think his dinner was “the gloomiest event” of his day?

[2]3. (a) What is odd about the phrase “a conscientious hour?” (line 3)

[1] (b) What does it tell us about Nick’s attitude towards his evening work? [1] (c) Give a reason for your answer. [1]

HOMEWORK 5EXTRACT:

I started walking past them, walking home, determined not to run, but when I had left them behind me, I felt the sharp thud of a snowball on my left shoulder, and another. I picked up a faster stride and rounded the corner by Kelly’s.

There was my dark brown shingled house ahead of me, and inside, Mother and Uncle Frank. I began to run in the cold, raw evening toward the bright squares of light in the windows that were home. Uncle Frank met me at the door. “How’s my favourite trooper?” he asked, and he swung me high on the air. There was big love in his voice that drowned out the shouting, which still echoed in my ears.

QUESTIONS:1. How does the writer show the contrast between her home and the

outside world? [2]2. Quote an expression which shows that the writer did not want to

show her fear. [1]3. a) What impression do you get of Uncle Frank? [1]

b) Quote an expression to support your answer. [1]

HOMEWORK 6EXTRACT A:

On some nights he would go straight on with his evening meal, consuming a whole cold pie followed by slice after slice of bread and jam, or bread and syrup, or bread and fish paste, until the loaf was a gaunt ruin, and Mr. Puddy was sitting back in his chair, his waistcoat undone, satiated, sickly, but in a dumb way happy and contented.

QUESTIONS:1. In your own words, explain how Mr. Puddy felt after he had finished eating.[2]2. How does the writer use sentence structure to emphasise the amount and variety of food he ate? [2]3. Quote two phrases which suggest he is uncomfortably full. [2]

EXTRACT B:

There are young officers, of course, who seem to regard themselves as born to the job, and who cruise through their first platoon inspection with nonchalant interest, conversing airily with the sergeant as they go; possibly Hannibal and Napoleon were like that.

QUESTIONS:1. Describe fully, in your own words, what “born to the job” means. [2]2. What do the phrases “conversing airily” and “cruise through” suggest about the soldiers’ attitudes? [2]

HOMEWORK 7EXTRACT:

The Power of the Tides

An avalanche of water broke on the starboard bow of the cabin cruiser, ‘Pioneer’, lifting her to a precarious angle and threatening to tip the vessel over backwards to her destruction. Her skipper seized the throttle, opened

it, and put the wheel a-starboard. The engine spluttered and stopped.

It was a pitch black night: no stars lit the scene; the rain was pelting down; the wind howled; thunder rumbled and lightning seemed to split the sky. This was no night to be afloat.

QUESTIONS:1. Why is the writer’s use of ‘avalanche’ unusual when he is describing

the sea? [2]2. What does the writer’s use of the word ‘seized’ tell us about the way

in which the skipper grabbed the wheel? [1]3. Explain what the word ‘precarious’ means. [1]4. Write down an onomatopoeic word that describes the sound of the

engine of the ‘Pioneer’ [1]5. How would you describe the structure of the first sentence of

Paragraph 2? [1]6. Explain the image ‘lightning seemed to split the sky’, and say if it is

an appropriate image for what is being described. [2]

HOMEWORK 8EXTRACT:

I was a nine-year-old boy in Dublin when a man first walked on the moon. It wasn’t just any man – it was an American. I thought I already knew something about America from Elvis, the movies and the hip gear sent home by Irish people who crossed the Atlantic. But now America meant something new. It meant having a sense of infinite possibility, doing the things everyone says can’t be done. Even this freckle-faced Irish kid could see that America went to the moon not just because it was a scientific milestone – a career move for the human race – but because it was an adventure.

QUESTIONS:1. In your own words , explain how the author formed his opinion of

America and the Americans. [2]2. a) Why has the author used italics for the word ‘America’? [2]

b) Explain the use of parenthesis in the final sentence of the paragraph. [1]

3. What tone do you think the author is using in the paragraph? Explain fully why you think this. [2]

HOMEWORK 9EXTRACT A:

The weather had turned cold again, the winter was upon the town, and night came before the last shift in the mill was done. Children kept on all their garments when they slept, and women raised the backs of their skirts to toast themselves dreamily at the fire. There were faint flickers of lamplight from the windows of the houses,

and the peach trees were scrawny and bare. In the dark silent nights of wintertime the café was the warm centre point of the town, the lights shining so brightly that they could be seen a quarter of a mile away. The great iron stove at the back of the room roared, crackled, and turned red. Miss Amelia had made red curtains for the windows, and from a salesman who passed through the town she bought a great bunch of red paper roses that looked very real.

QUESTIONS:1. What are four of the signs that winter has arrived? [2]2. Name three things that make the café welcoming. [3]

EXTRACT B:There were always plenty of people clustered around the mill – but it was seldom that every family had enough meal, garments and pork to go the round. Life could become one dim scramble just to get things needed to keep alive.

QUESTIONS:1. What kind of life did the average mill family have? [1]2. Why might ‘dim scramble’ be considered an effective expression here? [2]

HOMEWORK 10EXTRACT:

I deliberately take a long time packing the rucksack. Had even taken out half of the clothes again so that my cassettes and tape recorder could lie amongst them to prevent damage. Toothbrush, paste and razor in the side pockets. Socks and pants. Asthma tablets (it has recurred during a recent holiday in Scarborough) and hay fever tablets (past the season but better to be safe). Thinking about the hairdryer. No, I’ll leave it for her though she’ll probably never use it.

QUESTIONS:1. Select three items he packs, or considers packing, which tell us

important things about his lifestyle or personality. State what each decision reveals about his lifestyle or personality. [3]

2. What is the purpose of the brackets in lines 4 and 5? [2]3. This turns out to be a difficult parting from his grandparents for

the author. What clue is there to suggest he is reluctant to leave them? [1]

HOMEWORK 11EXTRACT:

The Harry Potter movies are filmed primarily at a former airplane factory 30 km outside London. Inside Leavesden Studios, as it’s called, is a dreamlike mishmash of Harry Potter’s past: bits and pieces of the Whomping Willow, signs from the stores in Diagon Alley, the smashed-up remains of giant chess pieces from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Honestly, is this any place to raise a child?

A lot has changed for Daniel Radcliffe since he first picked up a wand. He has got taller and lost his round little-boy’s face. He has gone through puberty, and his voice has broken. He’s dealing with some complex issues, and he’s working on some beginner’s stubble.

QUESTIONS:1. a) What impression do you get of Leavesden Studio? [1]

b) Quote two phrases to support your answer. [2]2. As far as possible, in your own words, explain fully what has

happened toDaniel Radcliffe since he first played the character of Harry Potter. [3]

3. ‘Honestly, is this any place to raise a child?’ What tone do you think the author is using here? Explain your answer. [2]

4. Think about the second paragraph. What problem can you foresee forDaniel Radcliffe in future Harry Potter films? [2]

HOMEWORK 12EXTRACT:

My name is Bijon. I am coming up to nine years of age. I feel more like a teenager because I’m coming out the little-boy box into the outside world of busyness.

Poverty means not having what you need. You have outer needs and inner needs, such as your body needs a house and food and toys and your soul needs friendship and happiness and prayer and meditation.

We are poor in money compared to most people in our town. But we are rich compared with homeless people and starving people. We weren’t always poor. Before when Mum and Dad lived together we had money, but it is more peaceful now. No more grumbles and we are rich in inner things because there is a lot of happiness in our house.

QUESTIONS:1. Why do you think Bijon feels more like a teenager? [2]2. Explain what poverty means to Bijon. [2]3. Explain how Bijon is ‘rich compared with homeless people’. [2]

HOMEWORK 13EXTRACT:

Her mother was stooping down to take something out of the oven and, as she looked down on her, Laura noticed for the first time that her looks were changing. Her blue eyes were bluer than ever, but the pink and white of her face was weathering. Her figure was hardening too; slim young grace was turning to thin wiriness; and a few grey hairs showed in her hair at the temples. Her mother was growing old, soon she would die, thought Laura with sudden compunction, and then how sorry she would be for giving her so much trouble.

QUESTIONS:1. Laura has noticed that her mother is looking older. Explain how the

word ‘weathering’ fits with this idea. [2]2. What does the word ‘grace’ mean when it is applied to the

appearance and style of a young woman? [1]3. In what way is the ‘thin wiriness’ which Laura saw in her mother

different from the slimness of a younger woman? [2]4. Why does Laura suddenly feel guilty at the thought that her mother

might die soon? Use your own words. [2]

HOMEWORK 14EXTRACT:

They squared up, circling, arms revolving, for an unconscionable time. Conn threw a punch like a signal and they found themselves released into making a series of embarrassed passes at each other until, Angus stumbling on a tuft of grass, Conn’s left hand connected with his cheekbone. Meeting the pain Angus came suddenly alive. He bull-rushed Conn and for

seconds they threshed in a tangle of arms out of which Conn miraculously escaped, like a man passing through a mincing machine alive. They came slowly together again. The fight had become real.

QUESTIONS:1. Quote a phrase from the first sentence which makes it clear that the

men are thinking of fighting. [1]2. Explain the image in the second sentence ‘threw a punch like a

signal’. [2]3. Which word in the second sentence tells you that the men are not

sure about the fight? [1]4. In your own words explain what happened to make Angus charge at

Conn. [2]5. What does the simile ‘like a man passing through a mincing machine intact’ imply about Angus’s strength? [2]

HOMEWORK 15EXTRACT:

“Good morning, Miss Brodie. Good morning girls, sit down, girls,” said the headmistress who had entered in a hurry, leaving the door wide open.

Miss Brodie passed behind her with her head up, up, and shut the door with the utmost meaning. When she had gone, Miss Brodie looked hard at the door for a long time.

“We ought to be doing history at the moment according to the timetable. Get out your history books and prop them up in your hands in case we have any further intruders.” She looked disapprovingly towards the door and lifted her fine, dark Roman head with dignity.

QUESTIONS:1. What does the author’s repetition of “up” [Line 4] tell us about Miss

Brodie as a person? [1]2. Quote an expression from later in the extract which echoes the idea

contained in “up, up”. [1]3. In your own words, describe how Miss Brodie shut the door and why

she shut it in this way. [2]4. Why did Miss Brodie “look hard at the door for a long time”? [1]5. Which single word suggests that Miss Brodie does not like visitors to

her classroom? [1]6. Apart from her attitude towards the headmistress, what evidence is

there in the extract to suggest that Miss Brodie is a bit rebellious? [1]

HOMEWORK 16EXTRACT:

More and more people join the self-defeating quest for “unspoiled” holiday resorts. Evoking the biblical simplicity of age-old fishing villages complete with water-skiing, the travel brochures echo and debase an understandable nostalgia – for societies in which, we tell ourselves, man still felt at home. And yet, bronzed and slightly disappointed, we often return with some relief to the challenge and stimulus of our own strenuous civilisation. Its blemishes, after all, are merely a reminder that the price of pace is peace.

QUESTIONS:1. Why does the writer believe the “quest for unspoiled holiday

resorts” to be self-defeating? [1]2. Describe fully, with reasons for your answer, the writer’s tone in the

statement “age-old fishing villages complete with water-skiing” [2]3. What is the author’s attitude towards the “travel brochures”?

[1]4. What is meant by “the price of pace is peace”? [1]5. What literary device is the writer employing in the use of the above

expression? [1]

HOMEWORK 17EXTRACT:

A human being, then, is never dependent on his own experience alone for his information. Even in a primitive culture, he can make use of the experience of his neighbours, friends and relatives, which they communicate to him by means of language. Therefore, instead of

remaining helpless because of the limitations of his own experience and knowledge, instead of having to discover what others have already discovered, instead of exploring the false trails they explored and repeating their errors, he can go on from where they left off. Language, that is to say, makes progress possible.

QUESTIONS:1. Which word in the first sentence confirms that this extract is taken

from a longer passage? [1]2. What do you understand by “a primitive culture”? [1]3. What distinction in meaning does the author intend us to make

between “experience” and “knowledge”? [2]4. Comment on the appropriateness and effectiveness in the context of

the metaphor “exploring the false trails”. [3]5. Comment on the structure of the sentence beginning “Therefore,

instead of…” [2]6. Comment on the effect of the last sentence of the extract. [2]

HOMEWORK 18EXTRACT:

“If you want a decent motor for under five grand, mate, you’d better get round the dealers this weekend,” said the man at the other end of the phone. “I’ve got half a dozen customers pestering me now.”

It was almost exactly four months since a salesman at the other end of the spectrum sold up his business specialising in purveying reconditioned limousines of character to the well heeled and went into property for fear of going bust.

That is the measure of the sudden surge in second hand cars sales that the trade agreed yesterday would result in generally higher prices all round and an increase, in the words of one man, in “the kids smoking up hills in their old bangers and the number of wrecks in the gutters.

QUESTIONS:1. Would you describe the relationship between the participants in the

telephone conversation as formal or informal? Quote two words or phrases that mark this relationship. [3]

2. Explain the meaning of the word groups “well-heeled” and “going bust”. What is odd about the use of these in their immediate context here? [3]

3. Quote one phrase which evokes an image which contrasts with “limousines of character”. [1]

4. Rewrite the section “the kids… the gutters” so that it would be comprehensible to a foreigner who speaks English but has no knowledge of contemporary slang. [2]

HOMEWORK 19EXTRACT:

Men are discovering with some surprise the harmful side effects of affluence and the audible penalties of living in a machine age. Standardised entertainment and preserved foods are equivocal examples of its ‘benefits’. Into cities appropriate for nineteenth-century numbers we crowd a vastly expanded population: the suburbs creep outwards to meet each other on the ruins of fields and woods. Modern communication devices might already make it possible to disperse and decentralise offices, but competitive rivalry keeps them in the city centres. And a huge unhappy tide of commuters wells back and forth daily. At night, as at weekends, the business sections of any large city become expensive deserts of brick and concrete, and the roads into the dwindling countryside are choked with lines of cars.

QUESTIONS:1. Give two examples from your own knowledge of the harmful side effects

of affluence. [2]2. Why does the writer put inverted commas round ‘benefits’? [1]3. What would you have to do to “disperse and decentralise offices”? [1]4. In your own words, what reason does the writer give for offices

remaining in the city centre? [1]5. What does the use of the word “creep” suggest to you about the

movement of the suburbs? [2]6. Comment on the effectiveness of the image contained in “a huge unhappy

tide of commuters wells back and forth daily”. [2]7. Justify the writer’s use of the singular “wells”, rather than the plural

“well”. [1]8. Comment on the position of “unhappy” within this sentence. [1]9. Justify the writer’s use of the conjunction “And” at the beginning of the

sentence. [1]

HOMEWORK 20EXTRACT:

REVERSE INTO NARROW OPENING FROM THE RIGHT

Take up position 1 metre from and parallel with edge of pavement. Rear of car to be one car length from line A-B.

Reverse to opening looking through NEARSIDE window. When rear of car appears to be parallel with line A-B pull steering to right in a slow continuous complete lock. Unwind rapidly at point C and straighten front wheels from 1 to 2, then continue to reverse to position D.

To execute reverse correctly from the right side of the opening it is imperative to swing bodily round in your seat and look through the rear window as you are unwinding. Do not unwind first and turn in your seat afterwards [or vice versa]. Unwind and turn in your seat simultaneously.

QUESTIONS:1. Offer a suggestion about the kind, readership and intention of the

publication from which this excerpt is taken. Support your suggestion about the intention of the publication with one piece of grammatical evidence from the excerpt. [4]

2. The extract refers to material to be found elsewhere in the publication. What kind of material would you expect it to be? [1]

3. If you wanted to emphasise the main point of the third paragraph, i.e. that the looking through the window should go on at the same time as the unwinding, which word would you highlight? [1]

4. Turn the first sentence of the last paragraph into the instruction implied by ‘vice versa’. [1]

5. If, for some reason, one of the sentences in the last paragraph had to excised, which sentence would you retain, and why? [2]

HOMEWORK 21EXTRACT:

Among the later Neanderthals, murder – perhaps ritual murder – is common. As striking as any example is that of the oldest known HOMO SAPIENS, found near Budapest in 1965. Called Verteszollos man, he had a brain as large as our own, he lived 350.000 years ago, and he was found with stone weapons similar to those found in East Africa. He had been killed by one of them.A propensity for the violent solution is scarcely new in

our kind. And if we regard it as just one consequence of our adaptation to violent action demanded by the hunting life, then much becomes clear in our times.

QUESTIONS:1. Explain the writer’s use of the dashes in the first sentence. [1]2. Why is “HOMO SAPIENS” in capital letters? [1]3. Comment on the nature and the effect of the last sentence in the first

paragraph. [2]4. Comment on the function of the first sentence of the second

paragraph in terms of the overall structure of the extract. [2]5. What advantage does the writer gain by using “our” in the first

sentence of paragraph two? [1]

HOMEWORK 22EXTRACT:

I do not know that our present course is reversible. It may be safer to assume that a disposition to take the violent way comes to us just as we see it and history records it. It is the way we are, and always shall be. And we must live with it.

If we see, clearly and with conviction, that every human baby born bears the potential resources of the arsonist, the vandal, the murderer, then we shall raise our children differently. If our educational philosophy accepts individual responsibility, not social guilt, as the final determinant of conduct, then we shall see some remarkable changes in the curriculum presented to our students. If we, social members as a whole, agree that no longer shall we applaud the violent, no longer shall we extend our charity to the violator while we ignore the violated, then a quite simple event may take place. Violence, whatever its temptations, could go out of fashion.

QUESTIONS:1. What advantage does the writer gain by using “our” in the first

sentence? [1]2. In your own words, what does the writer mean by “a disposition to

take the violent way”? [1]3. Comment on the writer’s choice of structure in the last two sentences

of paragraph one. [2]4. Show how the writer creates a dramatic effect in paragraph two by

the careful structuring of sentences and the paragraph as a whole. [2]

HOMEWORK 23EXTRACT:

April 22nd is Earth Day.

The beginning of the end of pollution.

Time is running out. Unless we stop what we’re doing, we’re going to kill ourselves. You toss away an average of 5.5 pounds of garbage per day. Use returnables. Not disposables. An incinerator just converts plastic and wax and aluminium containers into poisonous smoke. Use mass transit. And if you have to drive in the city, use lead-free gas and install a muffler device. Take your own shopping bag to the supermarket. Gutter your dog. Use soap instead of detergents. Boycott businesses that use ugly neon signs. Boycott clothiers who sell clothes made from skins of threatened species. [There are only about 700 Bengal tigers left in the world.] Stop throwing cigarette butts out the car window. Keep your garbage can lid on tight. Starve those dirty rats. Write a politician about the smell in the subway. Etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc… The list is endless. April 22 is Earth Day. It can be the beginning of the end of pollution. Or the beginning of the end.

QUESTIONS:1. The first essential of an advertisement is to arrest the reader’s attention and interest. Comment on the effectiveness of this advertisement in terms of the layout of the text and illustration. [2]2. The aim of this advertisement might be said to be to inspire a sense

of urgency. How does it do this in terms of language or style? [1]3. Why does the writer change from first person plural “We” to second

person singular “You”? [1]

4. Identify the country of origin of this advertisement. Offer a piece of linguistic evidence to support your answer. [2]

5. Why is the short sentence “The list is endless” particularly appropriate where it comes in the extract? [1]

6. Why does the writer use precise numbers like “5.5” and “700”? [1]

HOMEWORK 24EXTRACT:

Our culture is essentially periodical: we believe that all that is deserves to perish and to have something else put in its place. We speak of planned obsolescence. We believe that the present is better, more interesting, more real than the past, and that the future will be better, more interesting, more real than the present.

Yet the past’s relation to the artist or man of culture is almost the opposite of its relation to the rest of our society. To him, the present is no more than the last ring on the trunk, understandable and valuable only in terms of all the earlier rings. The rest of our society sees only that last great ring, the enveloping surface of the trunk; what is underneath is a disregarded, almost mythical foundation.

QUESTIONS:1. Explain the function of the colon after “periodical”. [1]2. What do you understand by “planned obsolescence”? [1]3. What is the force of “Yet” at the start of the second paragraph? [1]4. In the second paragraph the writer uses one main image. Explain

this image clearly and comment on its appropriateness in the context. [4]

HOMEWORK 25EXTRACT:

The rising tide of population, the rising tide of expectation, and the great increase in knowledge have posed problems for education which have caused more changes to occur in most countries in the last twenty years than have ever before occurred. We are seeing the whole system changed: what is taught, how it is taught, and in what circumstances it is taught, have all changed fundamentally as a result of this new knowledge. We are merely on the threshold of further change and we must seek to foresee the direction of this change.

QUESTIONS:1. In the first sentence, the author is describing the great pressure for

change in education. Explain two techniques and/or devices of language he uses in the first part of the sentence to emphasise this pressure. [2]

2. Explain the function of the colon after “changed”. [1]3. The last sentence contains an image. Explain it and comment on its

effectiveness in the context. [2]

HOMEWORK 26EXTRACT:

What I feel about the university system applies equally, in my own experience, to the school. The university is in fact merely the forced flower of the educational dungheap from which it sprouts. The only common factor to the whole educational spectrum is the utter irrelevance of the material used – certainly in the secondary school – to the ordinary daily experience of the pupils, both while they’re at school, and later in their lives.

Various ghosts from my school education sometimes wander through my brain, muttering things like “The Hampton Court Conference broke up in confusion” or occasionally when I take a drink of water out of the tap I’m reminded that it isn’t simply something from Loch Katrine but is, in fact, a scientific substance called Aitch Two Oh. By the time I was about eight, like most boys of my age, I could tell an elephant from a giraffe, a lion from a tiger; but as regards the animal life of Glasgow itself, well a cat was a cat, a dug was a dug, a burd was a burd – and anything else was for stamping on.

QUESTIONS:1. In the second sentence the writer uses an image which is designed to

colour the reader’s attitude towards university and the education system in general. Identify all of the words which make up the image, comment on how it colours the reader’s opinion and what it reveals about the writer. [3]

2. What does the word “utter” add to the impact of the sentence in which it appears? [1]

3. Comment on the appropriateness of the ghost image. [2]4. Look at the last sentence of the extract. Show how the animal

examples he gives are appropriate illustrations of what he meant about the relevance of his school education. [2]

5. Comment on the [misspelling] of “dug” and “burd”. [1]

HOMEWORK 27EXTRACT:

Perhaps the really disastrous wrong turning in British education was taken during the early years of the nineteenth century, when opinion and influence veered away from one pioneer, Joseph Lancaster, and fell in behind another, Andrew Bell. Lancaster was doubtless a crank. But he did grasp the supremacy of desire and its incompatibility with compulsion.

In choosing compulsion they were not offering a benefit which we could take or leave as seemed good to us, but forcing it upon us and smiling and

keeping the whiphand behind their backs as they pleased.

QUESTIONS:1. Explain as clearly as you can what is meant by “the supremacy of

desire and its incompatibility with compulsion”. [2]2. The writer uses one main image in paragraph one. Identify all the

words which make it up and comment on its effectiveness. [3]3. What would be the effect if the full stop after “crank” were replaced

with a comma? [1]4. What does the writer’s use of the word “crank” suggest about

Lancaster? [1]5. Comment on the appropriateness of the whip image in paragraph

two. [2]

HOMEWORK 28EXTRACT:

The impulse towards realism in prose literature – the frank and uninhibited representation and consideration of the experiences and potentialities of the community as a whole – was part and parcel of the breakdown of feudalism and of the revolution that transformed the feudal world. Because today the term ‘bourgeois’ is connected in our minds with people well-established, comfortable, conservative, it is not easy for us to think of the bourgeoisie as a revolutionary class. But we must recall that this was the very class which in seventeenth century England cut off the King’s head and established the republican commonwealth. The bourgeoisie, in order to win its freedom, had to tear the veil of romance from the face of feudalism.

QUESTIONS:1. Account for the writer’s use of dashes in the first sentence. [2]2. What kind of people led the revolution in seventeenth century

England and why do we today find it difficult to think of them as revolutionaries? [2]

3. Why does the phrase “cut off the King’s head” effectively reinforce the point the writer is making? [2]

4. What is unusual about the structure of the phrase “people well-established, comfortable, conservative”? [1]

5. Identify and comment on the effectiveness of the image in the last sentence. [1]

6. In the context, why is “tear” an effective choice of word? [2]

HOMEWORK 29EXTRACT:

It seems to me undeniable that a people has its individual character, its peculiar capacity for trust or suspicion, kindness or cruelty, energy or lassitude. On the whole, the Ghanaian is a different sort of person from the Frenchman, the German from the Pakistani, the Indian from the Nigerian. A bus strike in Glasgow is quite different from a bus strike in Guatemala, and a farmer in Falkirk treats his animals differently from the way that a farmer in Bengal does.

This is not to suggest that, given an identical environment, all human beings would become carbon copies of a single script typed by an average hand. But the broad racial and popular differences of conduct and attitude, now so apparently immutable, would soon enough diminish and eventually disappear.

QUESTIONS:1. What would be the effect on the first sentence if the first six words

were omitted? [2]2. Examine carefully the immediate context of “peculiar” and

“lassitude”. In each case, give the meaning of the word and explain how the context helps the reader to arrive at the meaning. [4]

3. The second and third sentences of the first paragraph make the same general point. What has the writer achieved by including the third sentence? [2]

4. Comment on the effectiveness of the image in the second paragraph. [2]

HOMEWORK 30EXTRACT:

Gentlemen of the Rubbish Tip

The Rat Race is a myth, a slur by humans on the good name of Rattus Norvegicus, the brown rat. The average rat is a nice guy, kind to youngsters, considerate to females, and not particularly aggressive when left alone by man.

These are the conclusions of two American scientists who spend every Saturday down at their local rubbish tip, watching the rats go about their normal lives. They maintain that rats have been misunderstood. In normal circumstances, a well-established rat colony is intolerant only of male strangers. If the intruders are under-age youngsters or females, then they are peacefully accepted into the colony. The rats were not even particularly competitive when it came to food. Chocolate is a favourite rat food, but when a piece was found, one rat simply ate the chocolate where it was discovered, while the rest stayed still. The gourmet rat was more likely to be female than male.

The two psychologists, meanwhile, continue to visit the rubbish dump. “It’s a lot of sweat,” said one. “The only good thing is that beer cans don’t upset the rats’ habitat.”

QUESTIONS:1. The author frequently refers to rats in terms that would normally be

applied to human beings. Quote four examples of such usage. [4]2. Comment on the appropriateness of the title. [1]3. Why is the expression “gourmet rat” humorous? [2]4. What do you think the psychologist meant by his comment about the

beer cans? [1]