Aisha - PAS Review - Grade 9 - Unit 1

The Day the Dinosaurs Died

Imagine sunrise on the last day of the Mesozoic era, 66 million years ago.

Shafts of sunlight rake through the swamps and coniferous forests along the coast of what is now Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.

The blood-warm seas of the Gulf of Mexico teem with life. As this lost world of dinosaurs and outsize insects squawks and buzzes and whirs to life, an asteroid the size of a mountain is hurtling toward Earth at about 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometres) an hour. For a few fleeting moments, a fireball that appears far bigger and brighter than the sun streaks through the sky. An instant later, the asteroid slams into Earth with an explosive yield estimated at over 100 trillion tons of TNT.

The underlined words/sentence is used by the writer as the key element in explanation text to...

• state facts

• inform statistics

• mention history

• give description

• cite quotations from witnesses

The Day the Dinosaurs Died

Imagine sunrise on the last day of the Mesozoic era, 66 million years ago.

Shafts of sunlight rake through the swamps and coniferous forests along the coast of what is now Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.

The blood-warm seas of the Gulf of Mexico teem with life. As this lost world of dinosaurs and outsize insects squawks and buzzes and whirs to life, an asteroid the size of a mountain is hurtling toward Earth at about 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometres) an hour. For a few fleeting moments, a fireball that appears far bigger and brighter than the sun streaks through the sky. An instant later, the asteroid slams into Earth with an explosive yield estimated at over 100 trillion tons of TNT.

The underlined words/sentence is used by the writer as the key element in explanation text to...

• state facts

• inform statistics

• mention history

• give description

• cite quotations from witnesses

The Day the Dinosaurs Died

Imagine sunrise on the last day of the Mesozoic era, 66 million years ago.

Shafts of sunlight rake through the swamps and coniferous forests along the coast of what is now Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.

The blood-warm seas of the Gulf of Mexico teem with life. As this lost world of dinosaurs and outsize insects squawks and buzzes and whirs to life, an asteroid the size of a mountain is hurtling toward Earth at about 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometres) an hour. For a few fleeting moments, a fireball that appears far bigger and brighter than the sun streaks through the sky. An instant later, the asteroid slams into Earth with an explosive yield estimated at over 100 trillion tons of TNT.

The underlined words/sentence is used by the writer as the key element in explanation text to...

• state facts

• help the reader's understanding by comparing the situations

• mention history

• give description

• cite quotations from witnesses

The Day the Dinosaurs Died

Imagine sunrise on the last day of the Mesozoic era, 66 million years ago.

Shafts of sunlight rake through the swamps and coniferous forests along the coast of what is now Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.

The blood-warm seas of the Gulf of Mexico teem with life. As this lost world of dinosaurs and outsize insects squawks and buzzes and whirs to life, an asteroid the size of a mountain is hurtling toward Earth at about 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometres) an hour. For a few fleeting moments, a fireball that appears far bigger and brighter than the sun streaks through the sky. An instant later, the asteroid slams into Earth with an explosive yield estimated at over 100 trillion tons of TNT.

This is the first paragraph of the text.

Decide the sense of mystery for this first paragraph.

• Not very mysterious

• Slightly mysterious

• Quite mysterious

• Very mysterious

• Absolutely mystifying

Up to 4% of people are said to hear a strange low-pitched noise known as the Hum. “Whenever I wake up it is there and it is unbelievably

loud. When nobody else can hear it you think you are going nuts, and it just wears you down,” says Simon Payne, 55, from Cambridgeshire. Payne is a hearer of the mysterious global phenomenon known as the Hum. “I have been desperate to get away from it, so I have stayed with friends – and even moved house.”

The underlined words/sentence is used by the writer as the key element in explanation text to...

• state facts

• help the reader's understanding by comparing the situations

• mention history

• give description

• cite quotations from witnesses

Up to 4% of people are said to hear a strange low-pitched noise known as the Hum. “Whenever I wake up it is there and it is unbelievably

loud. When nobody else can hear it you think you are going nuts, and it just wears you down,” says Simon Payne, 55, from Cambridgeshire. Payne is a hearer of the mysterious global phenomenon known as the Hum. “I have been desperate to get away from it, so I have stayed with friends – and even moved house.”

The underlined words/sentence is used by the writer as the key element in explanation text to...

• state facts

• help the reader's understanding by comparing the situations

• give statistics

• give description

• cite quotations from witnesses

It seems unlikely that anyone will ever find a specimen, a body, or a living yeti that could prove the creature’s existence beyond doubt. It seems still more unlikely, however, that any evidence will ever be found that disproves it. The legend of the yeti could live forever.

Which word(s) in the text that is (are) used by the writer to show that he DOES NOT believe that yeti is real?

It seems unlikely that anyone will ever find a specimen, a body, or a living yeti that could prove the creature’s existence beyond doubt. It seems still more unlikely, however, that any evidence will ever be found that disproves it. The legend of the yeti could live forever.

Why do you think the writer chose to end the extract with this information?

• o start with details of the characters to engage the reader’s interest in the characrers involved

• to create some suspense and to arouse the reader’s curiosity about what had happened to the characters

• because it leaves the reader wondering what could possibly have happened, and how the event happens to the characters. It creates uncomfortable feelings and a sense of mystery.

There are legends that tell of huge, hairy creatures that live in the mountains of North America. They live

in the wilderness and so are rarely seen, but they are said to walk on two legs, leaving huge footprints.

Some call the creature a Sasquatch; others call it Bigfoot.

Why do you think the writer begins the text with this information?

• to start with details of the characters to engage the reader’s interest in the characrers involved

• to create some suspense and to arouse the reader’s curiosity about what had happened to the characters

• because it leaves the reader wondering what could possibly have happened, and how the event happens to the characters. It creates uncomfortable feelings and a sense of mystery.

On 5th December 1872, after nearly a month of uneventful sailing, the crew of the Dei Gratia spotted the sails of another ship in the distance. This other ship appeared to be adrift in dangerously choppy seas. The captain

of the Dei Gratia, Captain Morehouse, ordered his crew to change course to take a closer look.

Why do you think the writer placed this information in the middle of the extract ?

• to start with details of the characters to engage the reader’s interest in the characrers involved

• to create some suspense and to arouse the reader’s curiosity about what had happened to the characters

• because it leaves the reader wondering what could possibly have happened, and how the event happens to the characters. It creates uncomfortable feelings and a sense of mystery.