An extract from ‘The Secret Garden’
If you come across words that you do not know, please look
up the meaning.
At last the horses began to go more slowly, as if they were climbing up-hill, and presently there seemed to be no more hedges and no more trees. She could see nothing, in fact, but a dense darkness on either side. She leaned forward and pressed her face against the window just as the carriage gave a big jolt.
“Eh! We’re on the moor now sure enough,” said Mrs. Medlock.
The carriage lamps shed a yellow light on a rough-looking road which seemed to be cut through bushes and low-growing things which ended in the great expanse of dark apparently spread out before and around them. A wind was rising and making a singular, wild, low, rushing sound.
“It’s—it’s not the sea, is it?” said Mary, looking round at her companion.
“No, not it,” answered Mrs. Medlock. “Nor it isn’t fields nor mountains, it’s just miles and miles and miles of wild land that nothing grows on but heather and gorse and broom, and nothing lives on but wild ponies and sheep.”
“I feel as if it might be the sea, if there were water on it,” said Mary. “It sounds like the sea just now.”
“That’s the wind blowing through the bushes,” Mrs. Medlock said. “It’s a wild, dreary enough place to my mind, though there’s plenty that likes it—particularly when the heather’s in bloom.”
On and on they drove through the darkness, and though the rain stopped, the wind rushed by and whistled and made strange sounds. The road went up and down, and several times the carriage passed over a little bridge beneath which water rushed very fast with a great deal of noise. Mary felt as if the drive would never come to an end and that the wide, bleak moor was a wide expanse of black ocean through which she was passing on a strip of dry land.
“I don’t like it,” she said to herself. “I don’t like it,” and she pinched her thin lips more tightly
together.
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Answer these questions about the text that you’ve just read.
1. What can Mary see when she first looks out of the carriage?
A Hedges and trees
B Darkness
C The road
D The sea
E The moor
2. Which of these things is not mentioned by Mrs Medlock?
A Moor
B Gorse
C Wind
D Water
3. How do you think Mary feels as they travel?
A Excited
B Anxious
C Tired
D Sick
E Enthusiastic
4. How is the moor described in the passage?
A Treacherous and boggy
B Full of wildlife
C Untamed and desolate
D Mountainous and bare
E Dry and barren
5. Why does Mary ask “it’s not the sea, is it?” (line 9)?
A She can hear seagulls above her.
B She can see nothing but darkness all around.
C She can smell salt in the air.
D She can feel the carriage jolting.
E She can see water out of the window.
6. Which of these best describes the journey?
A Uphill and smooth
B Fast and exciting
C Uncomfortable and lonely
D Strange but interesting
E Long and disorientating
7. What kind of mood does the author create in lines 17-23?
A Unsettling
B Relaxing
C Melancholy
D Terrifying
E Cheerful
8. What kind of text is this?
A Biography
B Travel writing
C A fairy tale
D Fiction
E A diary
E Sheep
9. Which of these words is closest in meaning to the word “expanse” (line 7)?
A Open
B View
C Area
D Boundary
E Horizon
10. Which of these words is closest in meaning to “singular” (line 8)?
A Strange
B Loud
C Quiet
D Lonely
E Exciting
11. “the carriage passed over a little bridge beneath which water rushed” (lines 18-19).
Which of the words in this sentence is a preposition?
A the
B carriage
C little
D beneath
E rushed
12. “the wide, bleak moor was a wide expanse of black ocean” (lines 20-21).
What technique is used here?
A A simile
B A metaphor
C An allusion
D Onomatopoeia
E A cliché
13. What type of words are these?
ponies sheep mountains bushes
A Abstract nouns
B Proper nouns
C Common nouns
D Collective nouns
E Pronouns
Thursday, April 7, 2022
DESCRIPTIVE WRITING
Write a descriptive composition entitled, My Dream Room.
Your composition should use your senses to describe the room.
Go into lots of detail about what it looks like (color, decorations, lights, furniture)
What does it sound like (Is it mostly silent, do you play music?)
What does it smell like? (does is smell like candles, food, incense, dirty laundry)
What does it feel like? (is it warm and cozy, is it cold?)
Comments
Post a Comment