Close reading Revision tips – Part 2. Reminder Apart from understanding and sentence structure...

Close reading

Revision tips – Part 2

ReminderApart from understanding and sentence

structure questions, you will be expected to answer questions on word choice.

Word choice questions test your knowledge of language and technique.

Word choice questions

A writer will choose specific words to achieve a particular effect.

For example: What is the difference between the following

sentences?• He put the book on the table.• He slammed the book on the table.• He slid the book on the table.• He dropped the book on the table.

Word choice questions(from SQA General paper 2007)

In this extract, 19 year old Kerri is applying for a job to ride a motorcycle on the Wall of Death.

Ken Fox revved up the demonstration bike and spun it on to the 45-degree wooden apron that bridges the ground and the perpendicular wall and then took it three or four times around the lower bits of the wall itself to see if she could cope. Then he went round with Kerri sitting on the handlebars. She passed that test, too. She thought it was fantastic. Unbelievable. The best!

Question: How does the writer suggest Kerri’s enthusiasm after her test on the bike:

(a) by word choice? (b) by sentence structure?

Answer: (a) fantastic/unbelievable/the best [2]

(b) short sentences/minor sentences [2]


Later, Luke and his father dip and zig-zag their bikes across each other, spinning round the drum every four seconds, as the holiday crowds peer tentatively down over the safety wire and then, in the traditional way, shower coins into the ring after being told that wall-of-death riders can never get insurance. Each show lasts 20 minutes; at one stage four riders are zipping up, down and all around.

Question: “shower coins into the ring...”

Give two reasons why “shower” is an effective word to use in this context. [2]

Answer: Suggests coins falling down into the ring [1]

Suggests a lot/large number of coins [1]


But if celebrity has been a cultural phenomenon for centuries, why should it have become a problem now? McCutcheon and Maltby believe the scale of it has made a huge jump in recent years. The average westerner is now exposed to hundreds of star images every day, through advertising, broadcasting, fashion, the internet and innumerable other forms.

Though sales of some celebrity magazines are slipping, figures show that new publications are thriving. In America, the thirst for star images is so strong that one photographer was recently paid £70,000 for a single picture.

Question: What does the word “thirst” suggest about the American attitude towards celebrity gossip? [2/0]

Answer: Cannot get enough/shows their need/desire/strength/intensity of feeling/addiction to... etc. [2]

Word choice questions(from P&N General paper 2004-2005)

When Mrs Partridge returned, she thrust a plate of hot mince pies under their noses. ‘I’ll show you up’. She led the way to a large family bedroom.

An octopus of paper-chains hung between the centre lampshade and the picture rails. Tinsel garlands sagged in swags from bedpost to bedpost, while pop-up paper Santas pinned to the wall thrust out concertina bellies which had faded to pink in the brilliant sunshine. Behind the door, above the Fire Notice, a letter-heading had been taped to the wall. It said: FOREVER XMAS: Christmas comes but once a year... except with us!

Question: Why is the word “octopus” particularly suitable for describing the paper chains?

Answer: Because there are lots of lines (like arms and legs) [1] coming from a central point [1]

Language technique questions

To answer questions on language technique, you need to be certain you remember what following techniques are:

• Simile• Metaphor• PersonificationIn your groups, write down the definitions for

each of the above, and give at least two examples of each technique.


Simile: a comparison between two objects using the words “like” or “as”

For example:“Her hair shone like gold”.


Metaphor: a comparison between two objects without using the words “like” or “as”.

For example: “The cat was a buzzing machine of soft

black fur”.


Personification: A comparison of an inanimate object with an animal or person.

For example:The wind howled through the trees.


However, it is not enough merely to identify these techniques. You will also be expected to explain why these techniques are effective.

In other words you need to analyse them!


(from P&N General paper 2008-2009)All the stalls were kept in the market yard at the back of Tesco’s, nudging and

elbowing in the wind like kids lined up in the playground. The owners had their names burned into them with pokers or sprayed on with aerosol, and my first quick look as I ran round the corner was always to see if Cox’s was in there. Most of his pitch was set up off the back of his van, reversed up tight to the High Pavement, but he always had enough stuff to overflow on to his hand stall.

Question: a)Write down the simile or comparison which describes how the stalls were “kept in the market yard.” [2]

b) Explain what is appropriate about this comparison. [2]Answer: a) “nudging and elbowing in the wind like kids lined up in the

playground”. [2] b) It shows how close the stalls were together/packed tightly/in a

row/jostling for space. [2]Any one attempt to show awareness of image.


(from P&N General paper 2005-2006)In this extract, the writer is describing a visit to the pyramids of the Giza

Plateau in Egypt.

Unfortunately, where there’s a pyramid there’s a posse of horse, camel and donkey hustlers to hassle you. They circle like Indians round a Wild West wagon train. The moment you raise a camera to your eye or pull a guide book from your pocket there is a massed camel charge like a scene from the film ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.

Question: (a) Quote the simile or comparison which shows how the hustlers behave. [2]

(b) Explain what is appropriate about this comparison. [2]

Answer: (a) “... like Indians round a Wild West wagon train.” [2]

(b) they are on horseback [1]/ they are threatening [1]/ you are surrounded or can’t escape [1] Any two.


(from P&N General paper 2004-2005)Perhaps the car picked up on all their unspoken yearnings not to reach

Linstock and that caravan. For all of a sudden it stopped. There was no garage within sight, no telephone, no roadside houses, nothing – only a long purple valley and a lake scrawled on, like a pale blue paper, by whole sentences of ducks, punctuated with moorhens and exclamations of sunlight.

Question: In this paragraph, the writer describes the lake as “scrawled on, like blue paper, by whole sentences of ducks, punctuated with moorhens and exclamations of sunlight.”

Explain the effectiveness of any one part of this image. [2]

Answer: Answers should show how the shape/position is well described- for example “scrawled” (like doodles) or “sentences” (like a string/chain of ducks/words) or “punctuated” (dotted here and there) or “exclamations” (sudden streaks) [2 marks for any one well explained]


(from P&N General paper 2004-2005)As they waited, Joy let her eyes run idly over the house. The names of the

proprietors were written across the lintel: Licensed for the sale of... Props: Colin and Ivy Partridge. There was a Tourist Board car sticker in the glass of the front door, and each pane had white sediment in one corner. Despite the bright sunlight, at this close range, Joy could see now that a string of dirt-caked, dislodged light bulbs snaked to and fro beside the porch. By turning her head sideways she could just make out that the bulbs formed letters, words: FOREVER X. A further group of unlit bulbs had clumped together underneath, like purple grapes left to wither on the vine.

Question: (a) Write down the word the writer uses to describe how the first group of lights were hanging. [2]

(b) The writer describes the second group of light bulbs as “like purple grapes left to wither on the vine”. Explain what is appropriate about this comparison. [2]

Answer: (a) “snaked” [2](b) Answers should refer to any two of: similarity of shape/being bunched

together/the idea of being unlit = dead, withering [1 mark for each]


(from SQA Credit paper 2010)The moonlight shimmered among the stooks so that they looked like men, or

women, who had fallen asleep upright. The silence gathered around him, except that now and again he could hear the bark of a dog and the noise of the sea. He touched the stubble with his finger and felt it sharp and thorny as if it might draw blood. From where he was he could see the lights of the houses but there was no human shape to be seen anywhere. The moon made a white road across the distant sea.

Question: “The moon made a white road across the distant sea.”

(a) What technique is used in this expression? [2]

(b) Explain fully what this expression suggests about the moonlight. [2]

Answer: (a) metaphor [2]

(b) straight/long or stretches into the distance/(almost) “solid” quality/bright/contrasts with darkness Any two [1]+[1]

Close reading Revision tips – Part 2. Reminder Apart from understanding and sentence structure...

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