Week 6 Reading
Week 6 Reading
*What is a tuffet?
Miss Muffet may have been sitting on a small grassy mound – a tuft of soft grass. Another possible
meaning of a tuffet is a 'three-legged stool'. In some versions of the rhyme, Miss Muffet is sitting on
a cushion or a buffet – a word for stool from the north of England.
**What are curds and whey?
In the process of making cheese, milk is mixed with a substance called rennet. The result of this is
that the milk turns into curds, which are solid like lumps in cottage cheese, and whey which is a
watery liquid.
He admired silk worms so much that he was inspired to write the first of these two books in
verse.
Why did Miss Muffet run away?
In those days it was thought that spiders could help
cure illness. Some people used to wear a spider in
a nutshell when that had a high temperature and
others believed that swallowing a spider wrapped in
a ball of butter could help them get better. It is
thought that Dr. Muffet was interested in finding out
whether spiders could be used to cure the common
cold. It is said that he used to treat his daughter with
spiders when she was ill.
Year of birth
Occupation/job
Year of death
Name of child
2 marks
2. When Dr. Muffet wrote his book in 1599, it was described in the following way:
The Silkwormes and their Flies. Lively described in verse by T. M. (Moufet) countrie
farmar, apprentice in physicke...
What is it about the language used that tells you this description was written a long time ago?
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1 mark
3. How do the cartoon jokes make the reader think differently about the information?
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2 marks
It is thought ...
(a) What do such phrases tell you about (b) Find one more phrase that expressed
the information in these sentences the same idea as the phrases
in boldabove.
_____________________________ _____________________________
_____________________________ _____________________________
_____________________________ _____________________________
2 marks
5. Look at the section called Why did Miss Muffet run away?
Using the information in that paragraph, imagine what Dr. Muffet is saying to Patience, as he is
putting the spoon to her mouth.
2 marks
6. The Truth About Little Miss Muffet is a collection of short texts written for different purposes.
inform
give instructions
complain
amuse
give an explanation
persuade
1 mark