Comprehension questions on 'The Selfish Giant' by Oscar Wilde

Every afternoon, as they were coming home from school, the children used to go and play in
the Giant’s garden.
It was a large, lovely garden, with soft green grass. Here and there over the grass stood
beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelve peach trees that in the spring-time broke
out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore rich fruit. The birds sat
on the trees and sang so sweetly that the children used to stop their games in order to listen
to them. ‘How happy we are here!’ they cried to each other.
One day the Giant came back. He had been to visit his friend the Cornish ogre and had stayed
with him for seven years. After the seven years were over he had said all that he had to say,
for his conversation was limited, and he determined to return to his own castle. When he
arrived he saw the children playing in the garden.
‘What are you doing there?’ he cried in a very gruff voice, and the children ran away.
‘My own garden is my own garden,’ said the Giant; ‘anyone can understand that, and I will
allow nobody to play in it but myself.’ So he built a high wall all round it, and put up a notice
board.
TRESPASSERS
WILL BE
PROSECUTED.
He was a very selfish Giant.
The poor children had nowhere to play. They tried to play on the road, but the road was very
dusty and full of hard stones, and they did not like it. They used to wander round the high wall
when their lessons were over and talk about the beautiful garden inside. ‘How happy we were
there,’ they said to each other.
Then the Spring came and all over the country there were little blossoms and little birds. Only
in the garden of the Selfish Giant it was still winter. The birds did not care to sing in it as
there were no children and the trees forgot to blossom. Once a beautiful flower put its head
out from the grass but when it saw the notice-board it was so sorry for the children that it
slipped back into the ground again and went off to sleep. The only people who were pleased
were the Snow and the Frost.
‘Spring has forgotten this garden,’ they cried, ‘so we will live here all the year round.’ The
Snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak and the Frost painted all the trees
silver. Then they invited the North Wind to stay with them, and he came. He was wrapped in
furs and he roared all day about the garden and blew the chimney pots down.
‘This is a delightful spot,’ he said, ‘we must ask the Hail to visit.’ So the Hail came. Every day
for three hours he rattled on the roof of the castle till he broke most of the slates and then he
ran round and round the garden as fast as he could go. He was dressed in grey, and his breath
was like ice.

© www.teachitenglish.co.uk 2019 33964 Page 1 of 4

 Comprehension questions on 'The Selfish Giant' by Oscar Wilde
‘The Selfish Giant’ comprehension questions

1. Write down seven adjectives that the author has used in the second paragraph which
begins ‘It was a large …’
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2. Tick the statements from this list that are true:

 The garden had pear trees.
 The children loved listening to the birds singing.
 The children had got used to playing in the garden as the Giant had been away for a
while.
 The Giant put up a sign that said ‘Stay off the grass’.

3. How did the Giant make sure that the children could not get into the garden to play in it?
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4. What did the words on his noticeboard mean?
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5. Find and copy the quotation that proves the road was not suitable for playing on.
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 Comprehension questions on 'The Selfish Giant' by Oscar Wilde

6. When Spring comes to the rest of the country, what happened to the birds, trees and
flowers in the Giant’s garden?
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7. Find and copy the sentence that proves that the garden was covered in snow and ice.
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8. How was the North Wind dressed?
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9. What damage was done to the Giant’s house?
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10. Explain how the author has made the weather sound as if it is real people.
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 Comprehension questions on 'The Selfish Giant' by Oscar Wilde
Suggested answers

1. Chose seven adjectives: large, lovely, soft, green, beautiful, delicate, pink, pearl, rich,
happy.

2. True statements are:

 The children loved listening to the birds singing.
 The children had got used to playing in the garden as the Giant had been away for a
while.

3. The Giant built a high wall around the garden and put up a notice.

4. Students should be able to explain that the notice basically means that if you go into the
garden you will be punished by the law. They could also explain that ‘Trespassers’ mean
people who have been told not to go somewhere but they still do.

5. ‘… the road was very dusty and full of hard stones …’

6.
 The birds didn’t sing.
 The trees didn’t blossom.
 The flowers came up, saw the notice then went back into the ground because they felt
sorry for the children.

7. ‘The Snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak and the Frost painted all the
trees silver.’

8. The North Wind was dressed in furs (‘wrapped in furs’).

9. The roof was damaged as most of the slates were broken.

10. Students could comment on the following:

 The writer uses human pronouns (he/her).
 The writer dresses them in clothes.
 The weathers speak – the writer uses direct speech.
 The weather acts like people – inviting friends over.
 The weathers are doing actions deliberately.
 The writer uses human verbs like ‘run’.
 The writer uses personification.

© www.teachitenglish.co.uk 2019 33964 Page 4 of 4

 Following instructions

Test

Before you complete this test, read ALL the following instructions and
questions carefully.

1. Write your name at the top of your answer paper.

2. Draw a grid on your answer paper with 10 numbered boxes.

3. 16 + 37 = ? Write your answer in box 3.

4. What is the 16th letter of the alphabet? Put your answer in box 7.

5. What lesson do you have period 3 on Friday? Answer in box 10.

6. Who is your form tutor? Answer in box 6.

7. Draw a star in box 1.

8. What is the capital of France? Answer in box 9.

9. Write the date of Christmas Day in Box 8.

10. Draw a heart in box 5.

11. Write your middle name in box 2.

12. Write the name of your form in box 4.

13. Only do the first task in this list.

© www.teachit.co.uk 2010 14420 Page 1 of 1

 Understanding a 19th century text
Extract from The Story of My Life from My Childhood to Manhood by George Ebers, 1837-1898,
(translated from the German by Mary J. Safford).

My father died in Leipzigerstrasse, where, two weeks after, I was born. It is reported that I
was an unusually sturdy, merry little fellow. One of my father’s relatives, Frau Mosson,
said that I actually laughed on the third day of my life, and several other proofs of my
precocious cheerfulness were related by this lady.

So I must believe that—less wise than Lessing’s son, who looked at life and thought it would
be more prudent to turn his back upon it—I greeted with a laugh the existence which, amid
beautiful days of sunshine, was to bring me so many hours of suffering.

Spring was close at hand; the house in noisy Leipzigerstrasse was distasteful to my mother,
her soul longed for rest, and at that time she formed the resolutions according to which
she afterward strove to train her boys to be able men. Her first object was to obtain pure
air for the little children, and room for the larger ones to exercise. So she looked for a
residence outside the gate, and succeeded in renting for a term of years No. 4
Thiergartenstrasse, which I have already mentioned.

The owner, Frau Kommissionsrath Reichert, had also lost her husband a short time before,
and had determined to let the house, which stood near her own, stand empty rather than
rent it to a large family of children.

Alone herself, she shrank from the noise of growing boys and girls. But she had a warm,
kind heart, and—she told me this herself—the sight of the beautiful young mother in her
deep mourning made her quickly forget her prejudice. “If she had brought ten bawlers
instead of five,” she remarked, “I would not have refused the house to that angel face.”

We all cherish a kindly memory of the vigorous, alert woman, with her round, bright
countenance and laughing eyes. She soon became very intimate with my mother, and my
second sister, Paula, was her special favorite, on whom she lavished every indulgence. Her
horses were the first ones on which I was lifted, and she often took us with her in the
carriage or sent us to ride in it.

I still remember distinctly some parts of our garden, especially the shady avenue leading
from our balcony on the ground floor to the Schafgraben, the pond, the beautiful flower-
beds in front of Frau Reichert’s stately house, and the field of potatoes where I—the
gardener was the huntsman—saw my first partridge shot. This was probably on the very
spot where for many years the notes of the organ have pealed through the Matthaikirche,
and the Word of God has been expounded to a congregation whose residences stand on the
playground of my childhood.

The house which sheltered us was only two stories high, but pretty and spacious. We
needed abundant room, for, besides my mother, the five children, and the female
servants, accommodation was required for the governess, and a man who held a position
midway between porter and butler and deserved the title of factotum if any one ever did.
His name was Kurschner; he was a big-boned, square-built fellow about thirty years old,
who always wore in his buttonhole the little ribbon of the order he had gained as a soldier
at the siege of Antwerp, and who had been taken into the house by our mother for our
protection, for in winter our home, surrounded by its spacious grounds, was very lonely.

© www.teachit.co.uk 2016 27133 Page 1 of 3

 Understanding a 19th century text
Task one: Vocabulary

Match up the words from the text with their meanings.

prudent congregation to shrink countenance indulgence lavish

mourning resolution prejudice abundant to expound

Word Meaning

to become or seem to become smaller, more compact

an adjective which means capable of exercising sound judgement in

practical matters

the expression of grief at someone's death

a gathering of people or things

to state in detail or to explain

an act or process of determining something

someone who is very generous or liberal in giving or spending, often in

an extravagant way

the act of indulging oneself, or giving way to one's own desires

a noun which means the look on a person's face that shows one's
nature or feelings

plentiful or more than sufficient

a noun which means a judgement or opinion formed before the facts

are known or a preconceived idea, favourable or, more usually,
unfavourable

Task two: Comprehension

1. What proof does the writer claim to have for having ‘precocious cheerfulness’?
2. Give two reasons why his mother moved house with her children.
3. Re-read from ‘If she had brought ten …’ to ‘that angel face’. What do these lines show
about the mother’s character?
4. What does the author mean by ‘on whom she lavished every indulgence’?
5. Read the last two paragraphs. Write a summary of the author’s memories associated with
his house.

© www.teachit.co.uk 2016 27133 Page 2 of 3

 Understanding a 19th century text
Teacher’s answers

Task one: Vocabulary

Word Meaning

to shrink to become or seem to become smaller, more compact

an adjective which means capable of exercising sound judgement in

prudent
practical matters

mourning the expression of grief at someone's death

congregation a gathering of people or things

to expound to state in detail or to explain

resolution an act or process of determining something

someone who is very generous or liberal in giving or spending, often in

lavish
an extravagant way

indulgence the act of indulging oneself, or giving way to one's own desires

a noun which means the look on a person's face that shows one's nature
countenance
or feelings

abundant plentiful or more than sufficient

a noun which means a judgement or opinion formed before the facts
prejudice are known or a preconceived idea, favourable or, more usually,
unfavourable

Task two: Comprehension

1. On the third day of his life he laughed.

2. a. She wanted to be away from the noisy city/ she wanted a quieter place.
b. She wanted her kids to grow up in a place where they will get fresh air and lot of
space.

3. Even if the writer’s mother had ten children, Frau Reichert would have agreed them to
stay in her house. His mother had an angel’s face which made Frau Reichert unable to
refuse her.

4. Frau Reichert was so fond of the girl that she was willing to do anything for her.

5. (Responses will vary.)

© www.teachit.co.uk 2016 27133 Page 3 of 3

 Reading comprehension
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
This is the famous section of the story where Oliver goes against all the rules of being in the
workhouse and dares to ask for more food.

The evening arrived; the boys took their places. The master, in his cook’s uniform,
stationed himself at the copper; his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind him; the
gruel was served out; and a long grace was said over the short commons. The gruel
disappeared; the boys whispered to each other, and winked at Oliver; while his next
neighbours nudged him. Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger, and reckless with
misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in hand, said:
somewhat alarmed at his own temerity:

“Please, sir, I want some more.”

The master was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupefied
astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds; and then clung for support to the
copper. The assistants were paralysed with wonder; the boys with fear.

“What!” said the master at length, in a faint voice.

“Please, sir,” replied Oliver, “I want some more.”

The master aimed a blow at Oliver’s head with the ladle; pinioned him in his arms; and
shrieked aloud for the beadle ...

… Oliver was ordered into instant confinement; and a bill was next morning pasted on the
outside of the gate, offering a reward of five pounds to anybody who would take Oliver
Twist off the hands of the parish.

a. Gruel = very thin tasteless porridge

b. Copper – the huge pot that the gruel would be served from.
c. Pauper= a poor person.
d. Confinement = being locked away.

1. Explain two reasons why Oliver asks for more even though it is a dangerous thing to do.

2. How does Dickens use language to prove that the Master is in great shock when Oliver asks
for more?

3. How does Dickens show that asking for more was absolutely against the rules and that Oliver
is being treated as though he has done something very wrong?

With questions 2 and 3 write in detail using integrated quotations and explore the effects of
the words chosen by Dickens to describe this scene and the characters’ reactions.

© www.teachit.co.uk 2016 24455 Page 1 of 1

 Slash and trash

The ‘Slash and trash’ technique is a useful way to put your

research on a topic into your own words. Here’s how it works:

1. Read about your topic. In this example, we’re using a passage

from the website Wikipedia.

Eyam is a small village in Derbyshire, England, best known for being the ‘plague
village’ that chose to isolate itself when the plague was discovered there in August
1665, rather than let the infection spread. The plague had been brought to the
village in a flea-infested bundle of cloth that was delivered to tailor George Viccars
from London.
Within a week he was dead and was buried on 7 September 1665. After the initial
deaths, the townspeople introduced a number of precautions to slow the spread of
the illness from May 1666. Perhaps the best-known decision was to quarantine the
entire village to prevent further spread of the disease. The plague raged in the
village for 16 months and it is stated that it killed at least 260 villagers with only 83
villagers surviving out of a population of 350.
When the first outsiders visited Eyam a year later, they found that fewer than a
quarter of the village had survived the plague. Survival appeared random, as many
plague survivors had close contact with the bacterium but never caught the disease.
Abridged from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyam#Plague_history

2. Now go through the passage and slash (highlight) the key points and trash
(delete) any words you do not need.

Eyam is a small village in Derbyshire, England, best known for being the “plague
village” that chose to isolate itself when the plague was discovered there in August
1665, rather than let the infection spread. The plague had been brought to the
village in a flea-infested bundle of cloth that was delivered to tailor George Viccars
from London.
Within a week he was dead and was buried on 7 September 1665. After the initial
deaths, the townspeople introduced a number of precautions to slow the spread of
the illness from May 1666. Perhaps the best-known decision was to quarantine the
entire village to prevent further spread of the disease. The plague raged in the
village for 16 months and it is stated that it killed at least 260 villagers with only 83
villagers surviving out of a population of 350.
When the first outsiders visited Eyam a year later, they found that fewer than a
quarter of the village had survived the plague. Survival appeared random, as many
plague survivors had close contact with the bacterium but never caught the disease.

© www.teachit.co.uk 2011 14177 Page 1 of 2

 Slash and trash
3. Present the words you have rescued as bullet points:
 Eyam
 Derbyshire, England
 ‘plague village’
 isolate
 August 1665
… and so on.

4. Write this up in your own words without looking at the original.

Eyam is a town in Derbyshire, England known as the ‘plague village’. It is a place

which isolated itself in August 1665 when the plague was brought there to stop the
disease from spreading. It is suspected that the plague was brought to the village in
a flea-infested bundle of cloth.

The townspeople introduced a number of precautions. The plague raged throughout

the entire village for 16 months and killed at least 260 villagers with only 83 villagers
surviving.

When people came into the village a year later, they discovered that fewer than a
quarter of the village had survived the plague. Survival seemed random and some of
them had come into close contact with the disease but never caught it.

5. Try out the slash and trash technique on the following text about
Shakespeare:

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was an English
poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language
and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet
and the ‘Bard of Avon’.
His surviving works consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems,
and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living
language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he
married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins
Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London
as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord
Chamberlain's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he
died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there
has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance,
sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by
others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare

© www.teachit.co.uk 2011 14177 Page 2 of 2

 Critical reading using an extract from The Secret Garden
Read the following extract then answer the questions that follow.

She looked at the key quite a long time. She turned it over and over, and thought
about it. As I have said before, she was not a child who had been trained to ask
permission or consult her elders about things. All she thought about the key was that
if it was the key to the closed garden, and she could find out where the door was, she
could perhaps open it and see what was inside the walls, and what had happened to
the old rose-trees. It was because it had been shut up so long that she wanted to see
it. It seemed as if it must be different from other places and that something strange
must have happened to it during ten years. Besides that, if she liked it she could go
into it every day and shut the door behind her, and she could make up some play of
her own and play it quite alone, because nobody would ever know where she was, but
would think the door was still locked and the key buried in the earth. The thought of
that pleased her very much.

Living as it were, all by herself in a house with a hundred mysteriously closed rooms
and having nothing whatever to do to amuse herself, had set her inactive brain to
working and was actually awakening her imagination. There is no doubt that the fresh,
strong, pure air from the moor had a great deal to do with it. Just as it had given her
an appetite, and fighting with the wind had stirred her blood, so the same things had
stirred her mind. In India she had always been too hot and languid and weak to care
much about anything, but in this place she was beginning to care and to want to do
new things. Already she felt less ‘contrary,’ though she did not know why.

1. Find one reason why Mary wanted to open the garden.

2. What does the extract suggest is the reason for the change in Mary’s behaviour?

3. Choose an interesting feature of the language or structure that the writer has
used for effect, and comment on why it has been used.

4. In this extract the writer presents the character of Mary. How well does the
writer do this?

Make two points. For each point:

 give an example from the text
 give an opinion on how well Mary is presented.

© www.teachit.co.uk 2016 26937 Page 1 of 1

 Narrative voice – revision and practice

First person narrative uses ‘I’. The storyteller is directly involved in the action of the story:
Curiously, I peered through the thick glass of the spaceship. The world that I saw was barren,
unknown, alien.

Second person narrative is very unusual. It uses ‘you’, and talks directly to the reader, almost
as if the story is about them: Curiously, you peer through the thick glass of the spaceship. The
world that you see is barren, unknown, alien. (Note the change of tense here; second person
does not really work with past tense.)

Third person narrative is told by a narrator who knows what has happened and has access to the
characters’ thoughts and feelings, but is not directly involved in the story: Curiously, Joe
peered through the thick glass of the spaceship. The world that he saw was barren, unknown,
alien.

Task 1
Mark these pieces of text ‘first’, ‘second’, or ‘third’ depending on which narrative voice they
use.

A. He was served by the same waiter as the night before and ordered the same drink,
double espresso in a foam cup, no sugar, no spoon. He paid for it as soon as it arrived
and left his change on the table.

B. Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty
miles of the sea. My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things,
seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening.

C. You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the
morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar,
although the details are fuzzy.

D. On perceiving me, the stranger addressed me in English, although with a foreign

accent. ‘Before I come on board your vessel,’ said he, ‘will you have the kindness to
inform me whither you are bound?’

E. Okay, okay. So hang me. I killed the bird. For pity’s sake, I’m a cat. It’s practically
my job to go creeping around the garden after sweet little eensy-weensy birdy-pies
that can hardly fly from one hedge to another.

© www.teachit.co.uk 2015 22710 Page 1 of 2

 Narrative voice – revision and practice
Task 2: Practising
Read both of the extracts below:

Text 1: Extract from Once by Morris Gleitzman (The narrator is Felix.)

I feel for the edge of the table and put my bowl down and wipe my glasses.

That’s when I see the carrot.

It’s floating in my soup, huge among the flecks of cabbage and the tiny blobs of pork fat
and the few lonely lentils and the bits of grey plaster from the kitchen ceiling.

A whole carrot.

I can’t believe it. Three years and eight months I’ve been in this orphanage and I haven’t
had a whole carrot in my dinner bowl once. Neither has anyone else. Even the nuns don’t
get whole carrots, and they get bigger servings than us kids because they need the extra
energy for being holy.

We can’t grow vegetables up here in the mountains. Not even if we pray a lot. It’s
because of the frosts. So if a whole carrot turns up in this place, first it gets admired,
then it gets chopped into enough pieces so that sixty-two kids, eleven nuns and one
priest can all have a bit.

I stare at the carrot.

At this moment I’m probably the only kid in Poland with a whole carrot in his dinner
bowl. For a few seconds I think it’s a miracle. Except it can’t be because miracles only
happened in ancient times and this is 1942.

Text 2: Extract from New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (The narrator is Bella.)

Alice finally seemed to process my mood. ‘Okay … later then. Did you like the scrapbook
your mom sent you? And the camera from Charlie?’

I sighed. Of course she knew what my presents were. Edward wasn’t the only member of
his family with unusual skills. Alice would have ‘seen’ what her parents were planning as
soon as they’d decided that themselves.

We reached Edward then, and he held his hand out for mine. I took it eagerly, forgetting
for a moment, my glum mood. His skin was as always smooth, hard and, very cold. He
gave my finger a gentle squeeze.

Select one of the above extracts and re-write it using third person.

© www.teachit.co.uk 2015 22710 Page 2 of 2

 The best Christmas day ever

Tasty nouns and adjectives

1. Sort these words into adjectives and nouns. (If you are not sure what any of the
words mean, look them up in a dictionary.)

fat mountains platters rich

stacks thick tureens

Adjectives Nouns

2. Now use the seven words to complete this descriptive sentence:

A hundred _____________, roast turkeys; _____________ of roast and boiled

potatoes; _____________ of chipolatas; _____________ of buttered peas, silver

boats of _____________, _____________ gravy and cranberry sauce — and

_____________ of wizard crackers every few feet along the table.

3. Based on the nouns and adjectives you filled in, what effect is the writer trying to
create? Which other details in the sentence add to this effect?

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4. The sentence comes from a longer passage in a well-known book. What is the book,
or what event is taking place?

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 The best Christmas day ever

Comprehension activities

First, read the extract, then answer the questions that follow.

Harry had never in all his life had such a Christmas dinner. A hundred fat,
roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas;
tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce
— and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. These
fantastic crackers were nothing like the feeble Muggle ones the Dursleys
usually bought, with their little plastic toys and their flimsy paper hats inside.
Harry pulled a wizard cracker with Fred and it didn’t just bang, it went off
with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke,
while from the inside exploded a rear admiral’s hat and several live, white
mice. Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard’s hat
for a flowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick
had just read him.

Flaming Christmas puddings followed the turkey. Percy nearly broke his
teeth on a silver Sickle embedded in his slice. Harry watched Hagrid getting
redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally kissing
Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, to Harry’s amazement, giggled and
blushed, her top hat lopsided …

… After a meal of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake,

everyone felt too full and sleepy to do much before bed except sit and watch
Percy chase Fred and George all over Gryffindor Tower because they’d stolen
his prefect badge.

It had been Harry’s best Christmas day ever.

From Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling, (p149-150,
Bloomsbury paperback edition 1997)

5. How close was your completed sentence to the way the author actually wrote it?
Did you guess correctly where the passage comes from?

6. The author has structured the narrative (story) chronologically. However, each
paragraph could also be said to be on a different ‘topic’. Working with a partner,
write a sub-heading for each paragraph that states what the paragraph is about.

7. Read again, carefully, the description of the wizard crackers in paragraph 1.

Highlight the words/phrases used to describe the wizard crackers in one colour and
then, in a different colour, the bits that refer to the Muggle crackers. Use your
highlighted words to help you write a paragraph explaining how J.K. Rowling
suggests that this Christmas day is so much better than Harry’s Christmas with the
Dursleys.

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 The best Christmas day ever
8. a) Using information in the first two paragraphs, complete this table to show which
teachers are present and what the author tells us about them.

Teacher/adult Behaviour

has put on a silly hat - ‘flowered bonnet’-

Professor Dumbledore
out of a cracker. Is laughing at jokes.

reading a joke to Professor Dumbledore

kissed Professor McGonagall on the cheek

Professor McGonagall

b) In your own words, write a sentence or two that summarises how the adults are
behaving. What kind of mood or atmosphere does this description help to create?
Can you explain how?

9. The passage ends with the sentence ‘It had been Harry’s best Christmas day ever.’
What helped to make it just a great day? Make a list of the details that made it the
best Christmas day ever.

Now it’s your turn ... write about your best Christmas day ever

Your aim is to write a narrative of a perfect Christmas Day, using Harry’s ‘best
Christmas day ever’ as a model. Try to:

 Follow the same paragraph structure (that you identified in question 5), with at least
one extra paragraph about what you did between lunch and tea!
 Choose (original) interesting adjectives and nouns to describe the food, how it is
served and what the table looks like.
 Create a happy, cheerful atmosphere.

If you don’t celebrate Christmas, choose another ‘feast day’ as the occasion for your
writing. Try to choose one that will help you meet the aims (the bullet points about
structure, description and atmosphere).

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 Understanding unusual words
1. Read ‘Modestine, the donkey’, below.

It was already hard upon October before I was ready to set forth, and at the high
altitudes over which my road lay there was no Indian summer to be looked for. A
traveller of my sort was a thing hitherto unheard of in that district. I was looked upon
with contempt, like a man who should project a journey to the moon …
… I was determined, if not to camp out, at least to have the means of camping out in my
possession; for there is nothing more harassing to an easy mind than the necessity of
reaching shelter by dusk, and the hospitality of a village inn is not always to be reckoned
sure by those who trudge on foot. A tent is troublesome to pitch, and troublesome to
strike again. A sleeping-sack, on the other hand, is always ready—you have only to get
into it; it serves a double purpose—a bed by night, a portmanteau by day; and it does
not advertise your intention of camping out to every curious passer-by. This is a huge
point. If a camp is not secret, it is but a troubled resting-place; you become a public
character; the convivial rustic visits your bedside after an early supper; and you must
sleep with one eye open, and be up before the day. I decided on a sleeping-sack.

This child of my invention was nearly six feet square, exclusive of two triangular flaps to
serve as a pillow by night and as the top and bottom of the sack by day. I call it ‘the
sack,’ but it was never a sack by more than courtesy: only a sort of long roll or sausage,
green waterproof cart-cloth without and blue sheep’s fur within ... I could bury myself
in it up to the neck; for my head I trusted to a fur cap, with a hood to fold down over
my ears and a band to pass under my nose like a respirator; and in case of heavy rain I
proposed to make myself a little tent, or tentlet, with my waterproof coat, three
stones, and a bent branch.

It will readily be conceived that I could not carry this huge package on my own, merely
human, shoulders. It remained to choose a beast of burden ... What I required was
something cheap and small and hardy, and of a stolid and peaceful temper; and all these
requisites pointed to a donkey … [Modestine] passed into my service for the
consideration of sixty-five francs and a glass of brandy.

From Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879) by Robert Louis Stevenson.

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 Understanding unusual words
2. The purpose of this task is to help you understand unusual words by using clues in
the text. When you come across the words and phrases listed below, try to work out
what they probably mean. Talk to a partner if you find that you’re short of ideas.

Word or phrase What it probably means

should (‘who should

project a journey to
the moon’)

to be reckoned sure

it is but a

by more than
courtesy

without (‘green
waterproof cart-cloth
without’)

it will readily be
conceived

3. Answer these questions:

a) Why was the narrator ‘looked upon with contempt’?

b) Why did he decide not to take a tent?
c) What did he plan to do if it rained?
d) How was he going to carry all his equipment?

4. Be ready to explain your meanings and your answers.

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 Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes
Missing words
The following excerpt is taken from Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes by Robert
Louis Stevenson (1879).

Stevenson has set out on a long journey on foot. He has taken a donkey with him to
carry his stuff. However, Modestine (the donkey) is not being very useful.

Task 1
Read the paragraph below. Five words have been missed out. Write one word into each
blank.

Fill each blank with a word that:

 makes sense, and

 helps us to understand the mood of the scene and the narrator.

It was blazing hot up the valley, windless, with vehement strong

sun upon my shoulders; and I had to labour so consistently

with my stick that the sweat _____________ (1) into my

eyes. Every five minutes, too, the pack, the basket, and the

pilot-coat would take an ugly ____________ (2) to one side dark wool

or the other; and I had to stop Modestine, just when I had coat often

got her to a tolerable pace of about two miles an hour, to worn by

_____________ (3), push, shoulder, and readjust the load. sailors

And at last, in the village of Ussel, saddle and all, the whole

hypothec turned round and ______________ (4) in the dust everything,

below the donkey’s belly. She, none better pleased, the whole lot

incontinently drew up and seemed to smile; and a party of immediately

one man, two women, and two children came up, and,

standing round me in a half-circle, _______________ (5) her

by their example.

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 Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes
Missing words

Task 2

Before you read the excerpt below, compare your word choices with a partner’s. Have
you chosen the same sorts of words? Do you agree/disagree with their choices? If so,
why?

Task 3

Now read the excerpt. Were you right? If not, do your words do a similar job to the
actual words?

It was blazing hot up the valley, windless, with vehement sun upon my shoulders;

and I had to labour so consistently with my stick that the sweat ran into my eyes.

Every five minutes, too, the pack, the basket, and the pilot-coat would take an

ugly slew to one side or the other; and I had to stop Modestine, just when I had got

her to a tolerable pace of about two miles an hour, to tug, push, shoulder, and

readjust the load. And at last, in the village of Ussel, saddle and all, the whole

hypothec turned round and grovelled in the dust below the donkey’s belly. She,

none better pleased, incontinently drew up and seemed to smile; and a party of

one man, two women, and two children came up, and, standing round me in a half-

circle, encouraged her by their example.

Glossary:

pilot-coat: dark wool coat often worn by sailors

slew: slide

hypothec: everything, the whole lot

incontinently: immediately

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