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Question
Thinking about Language
Here are some sentences from the text. Say which of them tell you, that the author:
(a) was afraid of the snake, (b) was proud of his appearance, (c) had a sense of humour,
(d) was no longer afraid of the snake.
1. I was turned to stone.
2. I was no mere image cut in granite.
3. The arm was beginning to be drained of strength.
4. I tried in my imagination to write in bright letters outside my little heart the words, ‘O
God’.
5. I didn’t tremble. I didn’t cry out.
6. I looked into the mirror and smiled. It was an attractive smile.
7. I was suddenly a man of flesh and blood.
8. I was after all a bachelor, and a doctor too on top of it!
9. The fellow had such a sense of cleanliness…! The rascal could have taken it and used it
after washing it with soap and water.
10. Was it trying to make an important decision about growing a moustache or using eye
shadow and mascara or wearing a vermilion spot on its forehead?
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Solution
| (a) was afraid of the snake | (b) was proud of his appearance | (c) had a sense of humour | (d) was no longer afraid of the snake | |
| 1 | I was turned to stone. |
|||
| 2 | I was no mere image cut in granite. | |||
| 3 | The arm was beginning to be drained of strength. |
|||
| 4 | I tried in my imagination to write in bright letters outside my little heart the words, ‘O God’. |
I tried in my imagination to write in bright letters outside my little heart the words, ‘O God’. | ||
| 5 | I didn’t tremble. I didn’t cry out. |
|||
| 6 | I looked into the mirror and smiled. It was an attractive smile. |
|||
| 7 | I was suddenly a man of flesh and blood. | |||
| 8 | I was after all a bachelor, and a doctor too on top of it! |
|||
| 9 | The fellow had such a sense of cleanliness…! The rascal could have taken it and used it after washing it with soap and water. |
|||
| 10 | Was it trying to make an important decision about growing a moustache or using eye shadow and mascara or wearing a vermilion spot on its forehead. |
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(1) |
Something happens to cats after we have enjoyed a delicious meal. Call it a feline sugar hit or a rush of good feelings. Abandoning our usually sedentary nature, we transform into crazy beasts who thunder down corridors, spring from one piece of furniture to another, or pounce from behind half-closed doors to attack the shoelaces of unsuspecting passersby. It is as though we are temporarily possessed. |
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That, at least, is my excuse, dear reader - and the only explanation I can offer for my entirely unplanned global TV debut. |
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(3) |
To be fair, I had no way of knowing that my master was receiving visitors that particular afternoon. Nor that he was being interviewed live, let alone by one of America’s most famous journalists. |
10 |
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(4) |
All I knew was that, a few minutes after gorging myself on a favourite treat of creamy pudding, I felt that sudden, primal explosion of energy. I made my way back to the suite of rooms that I shared with my master and felt an overpowering compulsion to do something completely mad. I wanted to run like a furious jungle cat, at that particular moment. |
15 |
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(5) |
Bursting through the door of the room in which my master received visitors, I tore up the carpet as I raced towards the sofa opposite where he was sitting. I ripped its fabric as I scrambled up its side like a savage creature clawing its way up a perilous cliff. Then with a final, frenzied burst, I launched myself off one arm of the sofa, leaping towards the other. |
20 |
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(6) |
It was only at this point that I realised the sofa was occupied by the journalist. She was halfway through a sentence, and my abrupt appearance caught my master's guest completely by surprise. |
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(8) |
I As she pushed back in her seat to avoid me, the shock on her face could not have been more evident. |
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(9) |
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(10) |
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(11) |
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Adapted from: The Dalai Lama's Cat Omnibus |
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(i)
- Given below are three words and phrases. Find the words which have a similar meaning in the passage: [3]
- inactive
- eating in a greedy manner
- dangerous
- For each of the words given below, write a sentence of at least ten words using the same word unchanged in form, but with a different meaning from that which it carries in the passage: [3]
- thunder (line 3)
- spring (line 3)
- past (line 26)
(ii) Answer the following questions in your own words as briefly as possible:
- What is the usual nature of the narrator's kind? How is it differently presented in the passage? [2]
- What did the 'favourite treat of creamy pudding' do to the narrator? [2]
- Describe the actions of the narrator after bursting into the visitors' room. [2]
- How did the journalist react when the narrator 'flew past' her face? [2]
(iii) Summarise how the narrator became a global celebrity (paragraphs 4 to 11). You are required to write the summary in the form of a connected passage in about 100 words. Failure to keep within the word limit will be penalised. [6]
Referring closely to the poem, Birches, discuss what differentiates the swinging of birches in the poet's adulthood from that in his childhood.
Complete the following sentence by providing a reason.
In the poem, Small Towns and the River, the dead are placed pointing west because ______.
