Introduction

In the paragraph which follows, an author describes the 'normal' image people often have of witches. Read it over, then answer the questions about the use of figurative language.

In popular folklore, she is the warty old crone who dances naked around a bonfire on the nights of the eight annual sabbats and then, as dawn breaks, smears herself with "flying ointment" and jets back home for a glass of toadslime and a hot bath.

a Explain what image the writer creates when he writes that the witch 'jets back home..' (2 - 1 - 0)

b What kind of effect does he achieve by using this description ? (2 - 0)

In a story called Tunes for Bears to Dance To, by Robert Cormier, Mr. Hairston's young assistant, Henry, has just been caught talking to Doris, Mr. Hairston's daughter. Her father is not pleased about this, however, and he instructs her to return to the family tenement above the shop. Read the extract below, then answer the question about the use of figurative language.

Mr Hairston's voice was like thunder in the quiet store and Henry leapt with surprise as he turned to confront the store owner, whose face was dark with anger.

Explain the author's use of the image contained in the expression 'Mr. Hairston's voice was like thunder..' (2 - 1 - 0)

In the following extract, an author has been writing about visiting the Badlands of Montana, in the United States. At this point in the writing he describes a length of road stretching into the distance. Read the extract, then answer the question about the way the second sentence is structured.

The road ahead tapered to infinity, in stages. Hill led to hill led to hill, and at each summit the road abruptly shrank to half its width, then half its width again, until it became a hairline crack in the land, then a faint wobble in the haze, then nothing.

'The road . . tapered to infinity, in stages'

Explain how the sentence structure of the second sentence helps to make the meaning of this expression clear. (2 - 1 - 0)

In this extract, a young girl has walked out on to the surface of a frozen lake, but she is surrounded by mist. She is alone, then she hears noises. Read the extract, then answer the questions about the way the sentences are structured.

By the time she reached the middle of the river, the mist had enveloped her. The boathouse behind her was gone, and the long, smudged line of her water-filled steps trailed away into nothingness. The pencil line of the opposite shore had disappeared. She stood still and listened. A faint sound. A scythe being drawn against a sharpening-stone. A blade being honed on something hard. She turned around, sucking her mitten, trying to figure out which direction the sound was coming from. Blades scything, blades hissing, coming closer. Where had she heard that sound before? Then she knew. It was a skater, out there in the mist, coming towards her.

a What two features of structure does the writer use to convey the sound the girl hears? (2 - 1 - 0)

b Why does he choose to write this way ? (2 - 1 - 0)

The extracts and questions which follow are 'extras', for later practice if you wish.

A girl, whose fiance has mysteriously disappeared, is frantically running to a nearby farm to raise the alarm. At this point, she is crossing a field on her way there, but the weather is worsening rapidly. Read the extract, then answer the questions about the use of figurative language.

Hampered by her narrow skirt and slender, pointed shoes, she could not move quickly, and meantime the storm which bad begun as a small, unheeded smudge on the western horizon erupted across the sky, wiping out the sun and bringing rain, first in splashes, then in a downpour of stinging spears.

a '..the storm ... erupted across the sky..'

Explain the image the writer creates by using this description of the sky. (2 - 1 - 0)

b Explain why the writer has described the rain as a 'downpour of stinging spears'. (2 - 1 - 0)

The following paragraph describes a place called Wallney, where a mother and her two children are thinking about renting a holiday cottage. Read the paragraph carefully, then answer the question about the way the second and third sentences are structured.

Quarter of a mile up the path, they came to the village of Wailney. Not much of a village: four big farmhouses, a couple of rows of flint-and-brick cottages, pub, sub-post office and an old-fashioned red phone-box. But enough to half-restore Rose's sanity. The owner of the cottage wouldn't want to let it just for a week, or even a fortnight.

Read over the second and third sentences of the paragraph ('Not much of a village.... to half-restore Rose's sanity'). Explain what is unusual about the writer's sentence structure in both these sentences. (2 - 1 - 0)