Homework, 10th October, 2016

Hi,

Read the extract from The BFG below, then answer the questions that follow. 

This is due on tomorrow (Tuesday).

Good luck!

The Giant ran on and on. But now a curious change took place in his way of running. He seemed suddenly to go into a higher gear. Faster and faster he went and soon he was travelling at such a speed that the landscape became blurred. The wind stung Sophie's cheeks. It made her eyes water. It whipped her head back and whistled in her ears. She could no longer feel the Giant's feet touching the ground. She had a weird sensation they were flying. It was impossible to tell whether they were over land or sea. This Giant had some sort of magic in his legs. The wind rushing against Sophie's face became so strong that she had to duck down again into the blanket to prevent her head from being blown away.

          Was it really possible that they were crossing oceans? It certainly felt that way to Sophie. She crouched in the blanket and listened to the howling of the wind. It went on for what seemed like hours.

          Then all at once the wind stopped its howling. The pace began to slow down. Sophie could feel the Giant's feet pounding once again over the earth. She poked her head up out of the blanket to have a look. They were in a country of thick forests and rushing rivers. The Giant had definitely slowed down and was now running more normally, although normal was a silly word to use to describe a galloping giant. He leaped over a dozen rivers. He went rattling through a great forest, then down into a valley and up over a range of hills as bare as concrete, and soon he was galloping over a desolate wasteland that was not quite of this earth. The ground was flat and pale yellow. Great lumps of blue rock were scattered around, and dead trees stood everywhere like skeletons. The moon had long since disappeared and now the dawn was breaking.

The BFG comprehension questions

Read the extract and have a go at answering the questions below on the lined paper provided. They get more difficult as they go along.

1. What word does the author use to describe the change that takes place in the way the BFG runs?

2. Complete the sentence: ‘He seemed suddenly to ...’

3. What happens the landscape as their speed increases?

4. ‘She had a weird sensation they were flying.’ What is the adjective in this sentence?

5. Look at the last sentence of the first paragraph (it begins ‘The wind rushing …’). How does the author create a sense in this sentence that they are going very, very fast?

6. ‘She crouched in the blanket and listened to the howling of the wind.’ What two verbs are used in this sentence?

8. Which of the following literary techniques are used in the sentence?

a)   Simile

b)   Personification

c)   Metaphor

d)   Rhetorical question

9. ‘Sophie could feel the giant’s feet pounding once again over the earth.’ How does the writer create a sense in this sentence that the BFG is very, very big?

10. Look at the last five lines of the extract (beginning ‘He went rattling through a great forest …’) How does the writer describe the landscape?

EXTENSION ACTIVITY (You only have to do this if you want to push yourself!):

Write your own description of the landscape that is described in the extract. Try and avoid using the words used by the author in his description.