Narrative Comprehension

Narrative Comprehension

An extract from Wind Song by Carol Moore.

Rachel and her family stopped at the general store and noticed a yellow bird in a cage. So bright a yellow, it was a miniature piece of the sun in that dusty place. At that moment the little bird lifted its head, swelled its chest, and sang out a joyous trill.

Rachel bought the canary and never regretted it, because the little bird entertained the family endlessly. Sir Gallant, they called him because he did battle with the wind that moaned and wailed around the house. Sir Gallant lifted their spirits, turning dust days back into sunshine days.

One afternoon, the children noticed the canary sitting motionless and silent on his perch. "Is Sir Gallant sick?" they asked in alarm.

"No. It's just a dark day outside," their mother reassured them. "It'll be raining soon and he probably doesn't feel like singing."

The younger children accepted this explanation but not Rachel. She went to the door and looked outside. It was deathly quiet: no wind or sounds of birds or prairie dogs. She saw black thunderclouds stacked high into the sky. There was a heaviness to the air and a prickly feeling.

Rachel thought about Sir Gallant's odd behavior and the angry thunderclouds and how strange it felt. Straining to hear, she caught a faint rumbling and it was the sound of thunder.

Suddenly Rachel knew. She absolutely knew they were in danger. "Mum," she shouted. "It's a tornado!" 

Multiple Choice

The phrase " it was a miniature piece of the sun" in that dusty place suggest that the bird made the family feel

• upset

• happy

• uncomfortable

• big

Multiple Choice

Rachel bought the canary and never regretted it, because the little bird entertained the family endlessly. Sir Gallant, they called him because he did battle with the wind that moaned and wailed around the house. Sir Gallant lifted their spirits, turning dust days back into sunshine days.

Which phrase suggests the wind made an unpleasant sound?

• did battle

• moaned and wailed

Open Ended

One afternoon, the children noticed the canary sitting motionless and silent on his perch. "Is Sir Gallant sick?" they asked in alarm.

What does the phrase "in alarm" suggest about the children's feelings?

Open Ended

The younger children accepted this explanation but not Rachel. She went to the door and looked outside. It was deathly quiet: no wind or sounds of birds or prairie dogs. She saw black thunderclouds stacked high into the sky. There was a heaviness to the air and a prickly feeling. List three details that the writer used to create an mood of impending doom?

​- Name of Author

When I returned to the common, the sun was setting. The crowd about the pit had increased, and stood out black against the lemon yellow of the sky-a couple of hundred people, perhaps. There were raised voices, and some sort of struggle appeared to be going on about the pit. Strange imaginings passed through my mind. As I drew nearer I heard Stent's voice: "Keep back! Keep back!" A boy came running towards me. "It's movin'," he said to me as he passed; "it’s screwin' and screwin' out. I don't like it. I'm goin' home, I am." I went on to the crowd. There were really, I should think, two or three hundred people elbowing and jostling one another, the one or two ladies there being by no means the least active. "He's fallen in the pit!" cried some one. "Keep back!" said several. The crowd swayed a little, and I elbowed my way through. Everyone seemed greatly excited. I heard a peculiar humming sound from the pit. "I say!" said Ogilvy. "Help keep these idiots back. We don't know what's




in the confounded thing, you know!"

Open Ended

The women were described as being "by no means the least active" in the crowd. What does this suggests about the behaviour?

Multiple Choice

The people in the crowd were first ‘elbowing and jostling’ one another because

• they were retreating in fear from the pit.

• some were trying to push others into the pit.

• they were excited and curious to see what was in the pit.

• there were no police present to control them.

I saw a young man, a shop assistant in Woking I believe he was, standing on the cylinder and trying to scramble out of the hole again. The crowd had pushed him in. The end of the cylinder was being screwed out from within. Nearly two feet of shining screw projected. Somebody blundered against me, and I narrowly missed being pitched onto the top of the screw. I turned, and as I did so the screw must have come out, for the lid of the cylinder fell upon the gravel with a ringing concussion. I stuck my elbow into the person behind me, and turned my head towards the Thing again. For a moment that circular cavity seemed perfectly black. I had the sunset in my eyes. I think everyone expected to see a man emerge-possibly something a little unlike us terrestrial men, but in all essentials a man. I know I did. But, looking, I presently saw something stirring within the shadow: greyish billowy movements, one above another, and then two luminous disks-like eyes. Then something resembling a little grey snake, about the thickness of a walking stick, coiled up out of the writhing middle, and wriggled in the air towards me-and then another.

A sudden chill came over me. There was a loud shriek from a woman behind. I half turned, keeping my eyes fixed upon the cylinder still, from which other tentacles were now projecting, and began pushing my way back from the edge of the pit. I saw astonishment giving place to horror on the faces of the people about me. I heard inarticulate exclamations on all sides. There was a general movement backwards. I saw the shopman struggling still on the edge of the pit. I found myself alone, and saw the people on the other side of the pit running off, Stent among them. I looked again at the cylinder and ungovernable terror gripped me. I stood petrified and staring. A big greyish rounded bulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear, was rising slowly and painfully out of the cylinder. As it bulged up and caught the light, it glistened like wet leather. Two large dark-coloured eyes were regarding me steadfastly. The mass that framed them, the head of the thing, was rounded, and had, one might say, a face. There was a mouth under the eyes, the lipless brim of which quivered and panted, and dropped saliva. The whole creature heaved and pulsated convulsively. A lank tentacular appendage gripped the edge of the cylinder, another swayed in the air.

Open Ended

The writer "felt a sudden chill" at the appearance of the creature. Why do you think this was so?

Open Ended

List two phrases that describe the crowd's reaction to the creature.

Draw

Draw the creature that was

described in the text.

Those who have never seen a living Martian can scarcely imagine the strange horror of its appearance. The peculiar V-shaped mouth with its pointed upper lip, the absence of brow ridges, the absence of a chin beneath the wedgelike lower lip, the incessant quivering of this mouth, the Gorgon groups of tentacles, the tumultuous breathing of the lungs in a strange atmosphere, the evident heaviness and painfulness of movement due to the greater gravitational energy of the earthabove all, the extraordinary intensity of the immense eyes-were at once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous. There was something fungoid in the oily brown skin, something in the clumsy deliberation of the tedious movements unspeakably nasty. Even at this first encounter, this first glimpse, I was overcome with disgust and dread.

From ‘The War of the Worlds’, by H G Wells