National 4

1. National 4 CLOSE READING

2. The Layout of the Reading Paper • A short line of introduction in italics telling you where the passage came from. • Each paragraph is numbered. • Key words in bold. • Headings in bold telling you where to look for the answer. Until you see a new heading, all questions will be from this section.

3. Marking • Questions all worth 2 marks. • Some are 2/0 which means that you must get the whole answer to get the mark. • 2/1/0 might mean that you need to make two points or that you will need to explain fully. You might get 1 mark for a partial explanation.

4. TYPES OF QUESTIONS • Questions asking you to obtain particular information from a text (either as a quotation or in your own words) • Questions asking you to grasp ideas or feelings implied in a text. (Things that are not said but are suggested.)

5. Why do you think…? Which word…? Explain fully… Find an expression… How does the writer…? Write down the word… Which expression…? No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes When to quoteLook at the examples below. When should you be quoting?

6. Understanding Questions • There are two types of understanding questions: • Ones where you need to quote from the texts. • Ones where you must use your own words.

7. Whichtwowords does the writer use toemphasise thestrangenessof the dodo? • And yet the dodo is more than a cheap laugh: the dodo is an icon. It’s a creature of legend, a myth like the Phoenix or the Griffin. But it really existed. A living creature so bizarre it didn’t need the human imagination to think it up – an enigma from the first moment human beings set eyes on it…

8. ANSWER BIZARRE ENIGMA

9. Write down an expression which shows that the writer thinks this “junk” makes a strange collection. • Behind them, all kinds of people are perched on the tailgates of a variety of vehicles. Is this some bizarre store for recycled rubbish? Well, in a way it is. • Bizarre store

10. Using Your Own Words • This is an essential skill. Try the following in your pairs: • Heambled behindher tothe escalator. • He got thewhole storyof herfinancial hardship. • I examinedmy cousinsurreptitiously.

11. Now Try These! • He was forever at a loss with guests. • Her perplexity was growing into acute anxiety. • It was the “n”-th year of preparations for a visit that always, in the end, failed to happen.

12. In your own words, what does the writer’s use of the expression “unfeasible-looking” tell you about the dodo’s bill? • Yet most distinctive of all was its unfeasible-looking bill. It was huge and bulbous, possessing a business like hook at the end. • A: appeared/seemed/looked • as if it would not work

13. YOUR TURN!! • Go through the Past Paper given out and identify which questions are asking for information from the passage – either as quotes or as your own words. • Answer these in pairs.

14. QUESTIONS ASKING YOU TO GRASP FEELINGS OR IDEAS IMPLIED IN A TEXT

15. Questions where the idea or feeling is implied • With this type of question you are going deeper into the text, not just looking at facts and information, but going into feelings. These may be the feelings of: • A character • Narrator • Writer

16. Why do you think that one advert in the newspaper was “targeted in red felt tip pen”? • One advert was targeted in a ring of red felt tip pen. The introduction was in big bold italics: “This time last year I was made redundant. Now I own a £150,000 house, drive a BMW and holiday in Bali. If you…”

17. Explain why the man chose to post his letter in Victoria Road. • He kept walking, on past the pillar-box at the corner of the street. That one was definitely unlucky: nothing he has ever posted there had brought good fortune. No he would carry on to Victoria Road whose offices and air of industry made it feel a more hopeful point of departure.

18. QUESTIONS ABOUT SENTENCE STRUCTURE

19. Things to consider • Is the sentence noticeably long or noticeably short? • Is it a proper sentence or is it somehow incomplete?

20. Things to Consider • Is it: • making a statement • asking a question • exclaiming in surprise or anger • giving an order

21. PUNCTUATION • …ellipsis dots used to tail off a sentence or to show gaps in speech or writing. • : colon often used to introduce a list, a quotation, an idea, information, an explanation or a statement.

22. PUNCTUATION • - dash can be used in a pair like brackets to set aside information which is not vital, or may be used singly to introduce a piece of information. • “”inverted commas go round the exact words said when someone speaks OR go round words quoted OR can imply that something is only “so called” and not genuine.

23. PUNCTUATION • ( )brackets used to separate off information which his interesting but not vital. The writing would still make sense if the bracketed part was missed out completely.

24. PAIR WORK • You will now see various examples from recent General and Credit papers, and will be able to discuss them in pairs before the answers are revealed.

25. Why does the writer use ellipses at the end of the final sentence? • After all there’s a little collection of pressed glass over there that is so irresistible, and the old hand-knitted Shetland shawl that nobody seems to have spotted, and isn’t that a genuine stone hot water bottle lurking among the rubbish…?

26. ANSWER • To show that the list could continue OR be endless

27. Why does the writer use a colon? • It was now well into the rush hour: traffic gushed by or fretted at red lights and urgent pedestrians commanded the pavements and crossings.

28. ANSWER • To elaborate on an idea

29. Why does the writer use a colon? • At the last corner before the school’s street they both halted in an accustomed way and he squatted down to give her a kiss. She didn’t mind the ritual but not outside the gates: her pals might see and that would be too embarrassing.

30. ANSWER • To introduce an explanation

31. Why does the writer use dashes in this paragraph? • We were in Dracula’s castle – sited on the remote Tihuta mountain pass where the Victorian Gothic novelist Bram Stoker based the home of his fictitious vampire – two days’ carriage ride from Bristrita in northern Transylvania.

32. ANSWER • To provide additional information/detail/parenthesis

33. Why does the writer put the word “castle” in inverted commas? • It wasn’t the real Dracula’s castle but Hotel Castle Dracula, a three star hotel built in the mountains to service some of the nearby ski slopes. The “castle” is circled by bats every night and the surrounding forests have more wild bears and wolves than anywhere else in Europe.

34. ANSWER • Being ironic / to show that it was not really a castle.

35. What is the function of the dashes? • The driver opened the back door of the taxi and my “aunt” as we referred to her – really my mother’s aunt’s daughter- divested herself of the travelling rugs.

36. ANSWER • Parenthesis – or to provide additional information.

37. Explain the writer’s use of a question at the start of the paragraph? • But why did the bird come to be called the dodo? It has been argued that the name reflects the bird’s nonsensical appearance. Or that it sounds that the noise the bird may have made. In fact, the name dodo didn’t stick until other names had been tried…

38. ANSWER • Allows him toexplore/suggest/consider/offer/introduce possible explanations • Involves the reader

39. How does the writer’s sentence structure draw attention to the variety of actions Henry has to carry out? • Henry did the bending for him. Picked up whatever fell on the floor. Reached for merchandise on lower shelves to fill the customer’s orders. Helped unload the boxes and crates that arrived from the wholesalers. Stocked the shelves. Bagged the potatoes.

40. ANSWER • VERBS ARE AT THE START OF THE SENTENCE • OR • He gives a list • OR • The sentences have lots of verbs

41. 1. What is unusual about the writer’s sentence structure in paragraph 11?2. What does the writer’s use of this construction suggest about the speaker’s character? • “The customer’s always right,” he proclaimed one day. “But only in the store. When buying. Otherwise, they’re only people. Stupid, most of them. Don’t even know a bargain when they see one.”

42. ANSWER • THEY ARE SHORT/ GRAMMATICALLY INCOMPLETE • He is arrogant/short-tempered/ brusque