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1. The Further Adventures of Souperkid
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1. Which word tells you that this is not the first comic strip
about Souperkid?
____________________________________________________________
2. How do the two characters help each other?
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3. In the comic strip, two different spellings are used:
Superkid and Souperkid. Explain why these two spellings are used.
____________________________________________________________
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4a. In what ways is Souperkid like a traditional superhero
____________________________________________________________
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4b. In what ways is he not like other superheroes?
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5. What is the purpose of the pictures in the comic strip?
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2. Improve your health, become a dog owner By Lynne Wallis
From the Daily Telegraph newspaper, 22nd January 2007
Owning a dog is good for your mental and physical health, more so even than
cats, researchers claim today.
Dr Deborah Wells, a senior lecturer at the Canine Behaviour Centre of Queens
University, Belfast, found that dog owners have lower cholesterol and blood
pressure, fewer minor physical ailments, and are less likely to develop serious
medical problems.
In a paper published today by the British Psychological Society, she said "It is
possible that dogs can directly promote our well being by buffering us from
stress, one of the major risk factors associated with ill health. The ownership of
a dog can also lead to increases in physical activity and facilitate the
development of social contact, which may enhance both physiological and
psychological human health in a more indirect manner."
She found that people who took cats and dogs from animal rescue shelters
noticed a decrease in minor ailments such as headaches, colds and dizziness a
month after the rescue visit. But only dog owners maintained the improvements
ten months later - cat owners did not.
The research, published in the Health Psychology Journal, found that dogs
could also act as 'early-warning systems' for more serious illnesses including
cancer and epilepsy.
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1. Who is the author of:
a) The newspaper article? _______________________________________
b) The research paper? _________________________________________
2. Owning a dog can be beneficial for what types of health?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
3. Name any two minor and any two major ailments mentioned in this
article.
a) minor ____________________________________________________
b) major ____________________________________________________
4. How might owning a dog increase a person’s physical activity and
widen their social contact?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
5. What is the meaning of the word ‘facilitate’? Circle one:
organise develop make easier prohibit
6. What made researchers believe that dogs are even better than cats at keeping people healthy?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
7. In what publication could you read the full report? ____________________________________________________________
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3. The Railway Children by E. Nesbit The Railway Children was first published in 1906. In this part of the story the main characters meet the local train station porter, who tells them all about life on the railway. Trains then were powered by steam (made using fire and water) and not by electricity or diesel as they are today.
When their father is suddenly taken away, Roberta, Peter and Phyllis go with their mother to live in a country cottage in Yorkshire – where they have all kinds of adventures. They reached the station and spent a joyous two hours with the Porter. He was a worthy man and seemed never tired of answering the questions that begin with "Why—" which many people in higher ranks of life often seem weary of. He told them many things that they had not known before — as, for instance, that the things that hook carriages together are called couplings, and that the pipes like great serpents that hang over the couplings are meant to stop the train with. "If you could get a hold of one o' them when the train is going and pull 'em apart," said he, "she'd stop dead off with a jerk." "Who's she?" said Phyllis. "The train, of course," said the Porter. After that the train was never again 'It' to the children. "And you know the thing in the carriages where it says on it, 'Five pounds' fine for improper use.' If you was to improperly use that, the train would stop." "And if you used it properly?" said Roberta. "It’d stop just the same, I suppose," said he, "but it isn't proper use unless you're being murdered. There was an old lady once — someone kidded her on it was a refreshment-room bell, and she used it improper, not being in danger of her life, though hungry, and when the train stopped and the guard came along expecting to find someone weltering in their last moments, she says, "Oh, please, Mister, I'll take a glass of stout and a bath bun," she says. And the train was seven minutes behind her time as it was." "What did the guard say to the old lady?" "I dunno," replied the Porter, "but I lay she didn't forget it in a hurry, whatever it was."
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1. What are Peter’s sisters called?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2. What does the word ‘weary’ mean?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
3. The Porter explains that ‘couplings’ are what?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
4. What was the penalty for pressing the bell to stop the train when
there was no emergency?
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5. The Porter uses some old fashioned words and slang. In your own
words, explain what he means by:
a) “someone kidded her on”
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
b) “I lay she didn’t forget in a hurry”
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
6. What features of this text suggest that it is fiction?
____________________________________________________________
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4. A Child’s Christmas in Wales
by Dylan Thomas
This text, about a house on fire, is from a long poem by the Welsh writer Dylan Thomas.
Something was burning all right; perhaps it was Mr. Prothero, who always slept there after midday dinner with a newspaper over his face. But he was standing in the middle of the room, saying, "A fine Christmas!" and smacking at the smoke with a slipper. "Call the fire brigade," cried Mrs. Prothero as she beat the gong. "They won't be here," said Mr. Prothero, "it's Christmas." There was no fire to be seen, only clouds of smoke and Mr. Prothero standing in the middle of them, waving his slipper as though he were conducting. "Do something," he said. And we threw all our snowballs into the smoke — I think we missed Mr. Prothero—and ran out of the house to the telephone box. "Let's call the police as well," Jim said. "And the ambulance." "And Ernie Jenkins, he likes fires." But we only called the fire brigade, and soon the fire engine came and three tall men in helmets brought a hose into the house and Mr. Prothero got out just in time before they turned it on. Nobody could have had a noisier Christmas Eve. And when the firemen turned off the hose and were standing in the wet, smoky room, Jim's Aunt, Miss Prothero, came downstairs and peered in at them. Jim and I waited, very quietly, to hear what she would say to them. She said the right thing, always. She looked at the three tall firemen in their shining helmets, standing among the smoke and cinders and dissolving snowballs, and she said: "Would you like anything to read?"
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1. Why does Mr Prothero think the fire brigade won’t be available?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2. What does he mean by “A fine Christmas!”?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
3. What indications are there that this is not a modern day, twenty-first
century household?
____________________________________________________________
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4. The children considered making various phone calls. Which one was
not to an emergency service?
____________________________________________________________
5. Why do you think they only called the fire brigade in the end?
____________________________________________________________
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6. It is claimed that Miss Prothero always says the right things. Do you
think she said the right thing to the firemen? Explain your answer.
____________________________________________________________
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7. Do you think the boys were more excited by or afraid of the fire?
Explain your answer.
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5. Matilda by Roald Dahl
Occasionally one comes across parents who show no interest at all in their children. Mr and Mrs Wormwood were two such parents. They had a son called Michael and a daughter called Matilda, and the parents looked upon Matilda as nothing more than a scab. It is bad enough when parents treat ordinary children as though they were scabs, but it becomes somehow a lot worse when the child in question is extraordinary, and by that I mean sensitive
and brilliant. Matilda was both of these things, but above all she was brilliant. Her mind was so fast and she was so quick to learn that her ability should have been obvious even to the most half-witted of parents. By the time she was three, Matilda had taught herself to read by studying newspapers and magazines that lay around the house. At the age of four, she could read fast and well and she naturally began looking for books. The only book in the whole of her house was something called Easy Cooking belonging to her mother, and when she had read this from cover to cover and had learnt all the recipes by heart, she decided she wanted something more interesting. "Daddy," she said, "do you think you could buy me a book?" "A book!” he said. "What do you want a book for?" "To read, Daddy." "What's wrong with the television, for goodness sake? We've got a lovely TV with an enormous screen and now you come asking for a book! You're getting spoiled, my girl!" Nearly every weekday afternoon Matilda was left alone in the house whilst her father was at work and her mother went to play bingo. On the afternoon of the day when her father had refused to buy her a book, Matilda set out all by herself to walk to the library in the village. "Where are the children's books please?" Matilda asked the librarian, Mrs Phelps. "They're over there on those lower shelves," Mrs Phelps told her. "Would you like me to help you find a nice one with lots of pictures in it?" "No, thank you," Matilda said. "I'm sure I can manage." From then on, every afternoon, as soon as her mother had left for bingo, Matilda would toddle down to the library. When she had read every single children's book in the place, she started wandering round in search of something else. Mrs Phelps, who had been watching her with fascination for the past few weeks, now got up from her desk and went over to her. "Can I help you, Matilda?" she asked. "I'm wondering what to read next," Matilda said. "I've finished all the children's books." "You mean you've looked at the pictures?" "Yes, but I've read the books as well."
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1. The author describes Matilda as ‘extraordinary’. How is she different
to other children?
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2. Why is the first book that Matilda reads a cookery book?
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3. What does Matilda do on afternoons when she is left at home alone?
____________________________________________________________
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4. How do you think Mrs Phelps feels when Matilda says: “I’ve finished
all the children’s books”?
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5. Why do you think Matilda reads so many books?
____________________________________________________________
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6. How are Matilda’s parents different from other parents?
____________________________________________________________
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7. If you were to recommend a book to Matilda what book would it be? Explain your answer. ____________________________________________________________
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6. How To Make a Wormery The scientist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) believed that without worms, life on earth would be impossible. They make soil richer, encouraging healthy plant growth, and reduce the amount of plant waste in the environment. The instructions here tell you how to breed worms, which you can then release into your garden or local park.
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1. Look at instructions 1 to 7. What is similar about the first word in each
instruction?
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2. Which material may be used as an alternative to chalk?
____________________________________________________________
3. How do you create a cylinder form a bottle?
____________________________________________________________
4. The wormery’s thickest layers will be made of what?
____________________________________________________________
5. What sort of leaves do you need?
____________________________________________________________
6. Why do you think it is necessary to keep out the light?
____________________________________________________________
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7. How long can you keep a wormery without any worms dying?
____________________________________________________________
8. Why do you think you should leave it ‘another week or so’ before
setting up another wormery?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
9. Which methods of finding worms require no tools or equipment?
____________________________________________________________
10a. What is the name of the method that involves rocking a garden fork
to and fro and how long does this method take?
____________________________________________________________
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7. Rain Poems
The lights are all on, though it’s past midday. There are no more indoor games we can play. No one can think of anything to say, It rained all yesterday, it’s raining today. It’s grey outside, inside me it’s grey.
I stare out of the window, fist under my chin, The gutter leaks drips on the lid of the dustbin, When they say ‘cheer up’, I manage a grin, I draw a fish on the glass with a sail-sized fin, It’s sodden outside, and I’m damp within.
Matches, bubbles and papers pour into the drains, Clouds smother the sad laments from the trains, Grandad says it brings on his rheumatic pains, The moisture’s got right inside of my brains, It’s raining outside, inside me it rains.
by Brian Lee
How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and heat,
In the broad and fiery street,
In the narrow lane, spout!
How beautiful is the rain!
How it clatters along the roofs,
Like the tramp of hoofs!
How it gushes and struggles out
From the throat of the overflowing
Across the window pane
It pours and pours;
And swift and wide,
With a muddy tide,
Like a river down the gutter it roars
The rain, the welcome rain!
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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1. In the poem ‘Rain’, name one of the bad effects of rain that the poet lists. ____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2. What did the poet do while it was raining? List two things.
1 ...............................................................................................................
2 ...............................................................................................................
3. In each verse of ‘Rain’, all the lines end with the same rhyme. How does this add to the meaning of the poem?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
4. In ‘Rain in Summer’, why does the poet think rain is beautiful?
____________________________________________________________
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5. Why do you think the poet chooses the words clatters and tramp of hoofs to describe the sound of the rain?
____________________________________________________________
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6. What is the main purpose of the second verse of the poem? ____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
7. Explain how each poet gives a different feeling about the rain. You will need to think about: • the effect of rain on the writer • how the rain is described.
____________________________________________________________
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8. Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
WHEN I was four months old, my mother died suddenly and my father was left to look after me all by himself. This is how I looked at the time.
I had no brothers or sisters. So all through my boyhood, from the age of four months onward, there was just us two, my father and me. We lived in a small old caravan behind a filling station. My father owned the filling station and the caravan and a small meadow behind, but that was about all he owned in the world. It was a very small filling station on a small country road surrounded by fields and woody hills. While I was still a baby, my father washed me and fed me and changed my nappies and did all the millions of other things a mother normally does for her child. That is not an easy task, but my father didn't seem to mind. During my early years, I never had a moment's unhappiness or illness, and here I am on my fifth birthday.
I was now a scruffy little boy as you can see, with grease and oil all over me, but that was because I spent all day in the workshop helping my father to fix the cars. The caravan was our house and our home. My father said it was at least one hundred and fifty years old. There was only one narrow room, the shape of the caravan itself, and against the back wall were two bunk beds, one above the other. The top one was my father's, the bottom one mine. For furniture, we had two chairs and a small table, and those, apart from a tiny chest of drawers, were all the home comforts we possessed. They were all we needed. Immediately behind the caravan was an old apple tree. It bore fine apples that ripened in the middle of September. You could go on picking them for the next four or five weeks. Some of the branches of the tree hung right over the caravan and when the wind blew the apples down in the night, they often landed on our roof. I would hear them going thump... thump... thump... above my head as I lay in my bunk, but those noises never frightened me because I knew exactly what was making them. I really loved living in that caravan. I loved it especially in the evenings when I was tucked up in my bunk and my father was telling me stories. The lamp was turned low, and I could see lumps of wood glowing red-hot in the old stove, and wonderful it was to be lying there snug and warm in my bunk in that little room. Most wonderful of all was the feeling that when I went to sleep, my father would still be there, very close to me, sitting in his chair by the fire, or lying in the bunk above my own.
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1. Why was Danny left in the care of his father at such a young age?
____________________________________________________________
2. Do you think Danny’s father did a good job of raising him? Explain
your answer fully.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
3. Why was Danny sometimes a scruffy little boy covered with oil?
____________________________________________________________
4. What do Danny and his father own?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
5. How old is the caravan that they live in?
____________________________________________________________
6. How is the caravan described?
____________________________________________________________
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7. What advantages and disadvantages does Danny find to living in the caravan? ____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
8. How does Danny feel about his father? Use examples from the text to
help explain your answer.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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9. The Adventures of Robin Hood
by Patricia Leitch
Robin Hood was probably a real person who lived in Sherwood
Forest, near Nottingham, sometime between 1100 and 1300. People
have written stories about him ever since. Many of these celebrate
the victory of good over evil. Today, Sherwood Forest Country Park
and Visitor Centre attracts several million visitors every year.
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1. About how many men were practicing their fighting skills?
____________________________________________________________
2. Read the statements and decide whether each one is ‘true’ or ‘false’.
a) It is autumn when these events happen. ________________________
b) ‘Opponents’ means ‘friends’. ________________________
c) They have laid a carpet in the forest. ________________________
d) Some squirrels were watching the men fight. _____________________
e) Little John is really not little at all. ________________________
f) The men are fighting with broad-swords. ________________________
3. What does the phrase ‘call a truce’ mean?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
4. At the end of the last fight, where on his body does Robin Hood hit
Little John?
____________________________________________________________
5. After receiving the blow, what makes Little John fall over?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
6. What is ‘timber’? ____________________________________________________________
7. When and where is Robin Hood likely to have lived?
____________________________________________________________
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10. The Fox Repaid In His Own Coin
Adapted from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
This story is adapted from the famous poem The Canterbury Tales. A group of
people going to visit Canterbury Cathedral meet at an inn in London at the start
of their journey. To pass time along the way, they decide that each person
should tell a story. This is the story told by one of the priests.
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1. If a Chanticleer is a cockerel, what sort of bird is his mate, Dame
Pertelot?
____________________________________________________________
2. What made the cockerel remember his dream a few days later?
____________________________________________________________
3. Why did he think it might come true?
____________________________________________________________
4. According to Pertelot, what was the cause of Chanticleer’s bad dream?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
5. Why do you think the fox is described as ‘sly’?
____________________________________________________________
6. Write the simile that describes how Chanticleer walks.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
7. Who was the cockerel’s captor? ____________________________________________________________
8. If someone repays you in your own coin, what does it mean?
a) they flatter you
b) they behave towards you just as you behaved towards them
c) they give you back your money
9. Find words in the story that have the same meaning as:
a) noise: ________________________________
b) tricked: ________________________________
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Title: Author: Why this is THE BEST!
Title: Author: Why this is 2nd best:
Title: Author: Why this is 3rd best:
