The English School

Mid-Entry Examination 2019

English – Year 4
Time Allowed: 1hour 15minutes

General Instructions:

1. Answer all the questions asked

2. Use your own words unless otherwise stated

3. Write neatly

4. Check your work carefully at the end

Marks Allocated:

Section A: Comprehension (20 marks)

Section B: Directed Writing (10 marks)

Section C: Composition (20 marks)

Good Luck!

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Section A: Reading Comprehension (20 marks)

Read the following extract from a novel titled “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. In the following
extract, the narrator, Scout, and her brother Jem are visiting an old lady, Mrs Dubose.

The following Monday afternoon Jem and I climbed the steep front steps to Mrs Dubose’s house and
padded down the open hallway. Jem, armed with Ivanhoe and full of superior knowledge, knocked at the
second door on the left.

‘Mrs Dubose?’ he called.

Jessie opened the wood door and unlatched the screen door.

‘Is that you, Jem Finch?’ she said. ‘You got your sister with you. I don’t know - ’

‘Let ‘em both in, Jessie.’ said Mrs Dubose. Jessie admitted us and went off to the kitchen.

An oppressive odour met us when we crossed the threshold, an odour I had met many times in rain-rotted
grey houses where there are coal-oil lamps, water-dippers, and unbleached domestic sheets. It always
made me afraid, expectant, watchful.

In the corner of the room was a brass bed, and in the bed was Mrs Dubose. I wondered if Jem’s activities
had put her there, and for a moment I felt sorry for her. She was lying under a pile of quilts and looked
almost friendly.

There was a marble-topped washstand by her bed; on it were a glass with a teaspoon in it, a red ear-
syringe, a box of absorbent cotton, and a steel alarm clock standing on three tiny legs.

She was horrible. Her face was the colour of a dirty pillow-case, and the corners of her mouth glistened
with wet, which inched like a glacier down the deep grooves enclosing her chin. Old-age liver spots
dotted her cheeks, and her pale eyes had black pinpoint pupils. Her hands were knobbly, and the cuticles
were grown up over her finger-nails. Her bottom plate was not in, and her upper lip protruded; from time
to time she would draw her nether lip to her upper plate and carry her chin with it. This made the wet
move faster.

I didn’t look any more than I had to. Jem reopened Ivanhoe and began reading. I tried to keep up with
him, but he read too fast. When Jem came to a word he didn’t know, he skipped it out. Jem read for
perhaps twenty minutes, during which time I looked at the soot-stained mantelpiece, out the window,
anywhere to keep from looking at her. As he read along, I noticed that Mrs Dubose’s corrections grew
fewer and farther between, that Jem had even left one sentence dangling in mid-air. She was not listening.

I looked towards the bed.

Something had happened to her. She lay on her back, with the quilts up to her chin. Only her head and
shoulders were visible. Her head moved slowly from side to side. From time to time she would open her
mouth wide, and I could see her tongue undulate faintly. Cords of saliva would collect on her lips; she
would draw them in, then open her mouth again. Her mouth seemed to have a private existence of its
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own. It worked separate and apart from the rest of her, out and in, like a clam hole at low tide.
Occasionally it would say, ‘Pt,’ like some viscous substance coming to a boil.

I pulled Jem’s sleeve.

He looked at me, then at the bed. Her head made its regular sweep towards us, and Jem said, ‘Mrs
Dubose, are you all right?’ She did not hear him.

The alarm clock went off and scared us stiff. A minute later, nerves still tingling, Jem and I were on the
sidewalk headed for home. We did not run away, Jessie sent us; before the clock wound down she was in
the room pushing Jem and me out of it.

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Answer all the question which follow, in your own words unless otherwise stated.

1. What view is made clear in this simple statement - ‘She was horrible.’ (in italics in the text)

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(1 mark)

2. What technique is being used in the quote ‘…inched like a glacier down the deep grooves enclosing her
chin.’? (in italics in the text)

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(1 mark)
Explain the effect of this on the reader.

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(2 marks)

3. Describe the atmosphere created in the room, using evidence from the text to explain your view.

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(4 marks)

3. a) Re-read the paragraph which begins, ‘Something happened to her…’.

Find and quote one simile from this paragraph and explain its effect.

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(1 mark)

Effect

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 (2 marks)

4. Notice the two single line paragraphs. What change in the narrator’s actions is emphasized through
these simple sentences?

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(2 marks)

5. Match the following words from the passage with their meaning as they are used in the text. The words
have been highlighted for you.

glistened doorway

threshold stick out

protruded vibrate

tingling stinging

undulate sparkled
(5 marks)

6. Why do you think Jessie pushed Jem and Scout out the room at the end of the extract?

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(2 marks)

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Section B: Directed Writing (10 marks)

Imagine you are Jem at the end of this extract. Write a letter to your father explaining what it was like in
Mrs Dubose’s house.

In your letter you should mention:

 what you did whilst you were there

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Section C: Composition (20 marks)

Choose ONE of the following tasks and write approximately 300-350 words.

EITHER

Narrative
1. Write a story which ends with the words ‘I never saw her again.’

You should:
 develop a realistic plot
 use a variety of narrative techniques
 use language for effect.

OR

Descriptive
2. Describe an elderly person you know.

You should:
 use the senses
 use imagery
 provide detail for your reader
 make sure you do NOT write a story.

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- This is the end of the examination -

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