Narrative Comprehension_Chocolates

Narrative Comprehension

Chocolates by Roald Dahl

Every now and again, a plain grey cardboard box was dished out to each boy in our House, and this, believe it or not, was a present from the great chocolate manufacturers, Cadbury. Inside the box there were twelve unique bars of chocolate, all of different shapes, all with different fillings and all with numbers from one to twelve stamped on the chocolate underneath. Eleven of these bars were new inventions.

Multiple Choice

How often were the chocolates given to the students?

• regularly

• often

• seldom

• sometimes

'every now and again'

This suggests that it is done

occasionally, sometimes,

not regularly/often

Multiple Choice

What does the phrase 'believe it or not' suggest about the present given by Cadbury?

• It's surprising

• It's not true

• Nobody can believe it

• It's unbelievable

Multiple Choice

What is the meaning of 'unique'?

• ordinary

• regular

• one and only

• usual

Draw

Highlight the evidence to show that the chocolates are 'unique'.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following statement is TRUE?

• There are elevent chocolate bars in the box.

• Only eleven of the chocolate bars are unique.

• Only one of the chocolate bar is not a new invention.

• Twelve of the chocolate bars are new inventions.

Multiple Select

Which is your favourite chocolate brand?

• CHEY! whoever likes chocolate?

• ferrero rocher

• cadbury

• i like anything with chocolate

The twelfth was the ‘control’ bar, one that we all knew well, always a Cadbury’s Coffee Cream bar. Also in the box was a sheet of paper with the numbers one to twelve on it as well as two blank columns, one for giving marks to each chocolate from nought to ten, and the other for comments. All we were required to do in return for this splendid gift was to taste very carefully each bar of chocolate, give it marks and make an intelligent comment on why we liked it or disliked it.

Multiple Choice

What does the term ‘control’ bar suggest?

• It is the only different one

• It always remains the same

• It is to describe how Ms Christina controls the class.

Draw

How do you feel about this comprehension lesson? Did it help you understand the passage better? Draw what you feel...

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is the control bar?

• Coffee Cream bar

• Chocolate Bar

• Chocolate Cream Bar

• New Inventions Bar

Multiple Choice

What was the paper in the box for?

• To write down the flavour of the chocolate

• To write down marks for the chocolates

• To write down comments for the chocolate

• To Write down comments and marks for the chocolates.

​It was a clever stunt. Cadbury’s was using some of the greatest chocolate-bar experts in the world to test out their new inventions. We were of a sensible age, between thirteen and eighteen, and we knew intimately every chocolate bar in existence, from the Milk Flake to the Lemon Marshmallow. Quite obviously our opinions on anything new would be valuable. All of us entered into this game with great gusto, sitting in our studies and nibbling each bar with the air of specialists, giving our marks and making our comments. I remember noting that the taste of some of the bars were ‘too subtle for the common palate’; people tend to enjoy it saccharine sweet or tastefully bitter.

Multiple Choice

Who are the 'greatest chocolate bar experts'?

• The inventors of the chocolates

• The adults

• The children

• Charlie

Multiple Choice

'Knew intimately every chocolate bar in existence'

• knows very well every single chocolate bar they have invented

• Knows the inside of the chocolate bar

• Knows how many flavours there are

• Knows the secret of all the chocolate bars

Multiple Choice

Where can you find one's 'palate'

• teeth

• throat

• mouth

• tongue

Multiple Choice

What's the meaning of 'subtle'?

• very obvious

• not obvious

• sweet

• bitter

Multiple Choice

Which of the following statement(s) is true?

• The children took the chocolate tasting as a game.

• The children usually gobble down the chocolates.

• The children taste the chocolates in school.

​For me, the importance of all this was that I began to realise that the large chocolate companies actually had inventing rooms and they took their inventing very seriously. I used to picture a long white room like a laboratory with pots of chocolate and fudge and all sorts of other delicious fillings bubbling away on the stoves. Men and women in these rooms had to wear white coats while they moved between the bubbling pots, tasting and mixing and concocting their wonderful new inventions.

Multiple Select

Which of the following shows that the chocolate-makers take the chocolate-making very seriously?

• There were stoves bubbling

• Men and women wore white lab coats

• They work in a long white room that looks like a lab

• They were coming up with new inventions

Multiple Select

Which is Ms Christina's favourite chocolate flavour?

• white chocolate

• bitter chocolate

• dark chocolate

• chocolate mint

​I used to imagine myself working in one of these labs. I would suddenly come up with something so absolutely unbearably delicious that I would grab it in my hand and go rushing out of the lab.  I would burst right into the office of the great Mr Cadbury himself and ‘I’ve got it, sir!’ I would shout, putting the chocolate in front of him. ‘It’s fantastic! It’s fabulous! It’s marvellous! It’s irresistible!’

Draw

Give the two-word phrase that has ironical (opposite) meanings.

Draw

Highlight all the adjectives used in this paragraph to describe the chocolate. (5)

​Slowly, the great man would pick up my newly invented chocolate and he would take a small bite. He would roll it around in his mouth. The flavours must have been perfect for all at once, he would leap up from his chair, crying, ‘You’ve got it! You’ve done it! It’s a miracle!’ He would slap me on the back and shout, ‘We’ll sell it by the million! We’ll sweep the world with this one! How on earth did you do it? Your salary is doubled!’

​I have no doubt at all that it was lovely dreaming those dreams. Thirty-five years later, when I was looking for a plot for my second book, I remembered those little cardboard boxes and the newly-invented chocolates inside them. I began to write a book called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Multiple Choice

What is the meaning of 'doubt'?

• worries

• confusion

• completely certain

• not being certain

Multiple Choice

What book did the writer write?

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

• Charlie Puth and the Cream Factory

• Chocolate and the Charlie Factory

• Charlie and the Cream Factory

Multiple Choice

What is the meaning of 'every now and again'?

• regularly

• occasionally

• rarely

• seldom