Question 3: Language and Structure Practice Questions

Question 1

6 marks

This extract is from the same novel. Jane has just been locked in the red-room on her own, in the room where her uncle, Mr Reed, died nine years earlier.

Read this extract.

1I was not quite sure whether they had locked the door; and when I dared

move, I got up and went to see. Alas! yes: no jail was ever more secure.

Returning, I had to cross before the looking-glass; my fascinated glance

involuntarily explored the depth it revealed. All looked colder and darker

5in that visionary hollow than in reality: and the strange little figure

there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and

glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of

a real spirit: I thought it like one of the tiny phantoms, half fairy,

half imp, Bessie’s evening stories represented as coming out of lone,

10ferny dells in moors, and appearing before the eyes of belated travellers.

I returned to my stool.

Daylight began to forsake the red-room; it was past four o’clock, and the

beclouded afternoon was tending to drear twilight. I heard the rain still

beating continuously on the staircase window, and the wind howling in the

15grove behind the hall; I grew by degrees cold as a stone, and then my

courage sank.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë (1847).

Glossary

looking-glass: a mirror
visionary: dreamlike, unreal
specking: making small pale spots in
dells: small, hidden valleys
belated: caught out late, after dark
forsake: abandon, leave
beclouded: cloudy, overcast
drear: dreary, gloomy
grove: a small wood

How does the writer use language and structure to show Jane's growing fear?

Support your views with reference to the text.

/ 6

Question 2

6 marks

This extract is from the same chapter. A stranger has found Pip in the churchyard, taken the bread from his pockets and sat him on a high tombstone. He is now standing over him.

Read this extract.

1After darkly looking at his leg and me several times, he came closer to

my tombstone, took me by both arms, and tilted me back as far as he could

hold me; so that his eyes looked most powerfully down into mine, and mine

looked most helplessly up into his.

5“Now lookee here,” he said, “the question being whether you’re to be let

to live. You know what a file is?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And you know what wittles is?”

“Yes, sir.”

10After each question he tilted me over a little more, so as to give me a

greater sense of helplessness and danger.

“You get me a file.” He tilted me again. “And you get me wittles.” He

tilted me again. “You bring ’em both to me.” He tilted me again. “Or I’ll

have your heart and liver out.” He tilted me again.

15I was dreadfully frightened, and so giddy that I clung to him with both

hands, and said, “If you would kindly please to let me keep upright, sir,

perhaps I shouldn’t be sick, and perhaps I could attend more.”

He gave me a most tremendous dip and roll, so that the church jumped over

its own weathercock.

From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens (1861).

Glossary

lookee here: look here; listen
file: a metal tool with a rough edge, used to cut through or smooth metal
wittles: victuals: food
attend: pay attention
weathercock: a weathervane shaped like a cockerel, on top of the church steeple

How does the writer use language and structure to show how frightening the man is to Pip?

Support your views with reference to the text.

/ 6

Question 3

6 marks

This extract is from the same short story. The narrator has climbed down into the cutting and is now standing close to the signalman for the first time.

Read this extract.

1Before he stirred, I was near enough to him to have touched him. Not even

then removing his eyes from mine, he stepped back one step, and lifted

his hand.

He directed a most curious look towards the red light near the tunnel’s

5mouth, and looked all about it, as if something were missing from it, and

then looked at me.

That light was part of his charge? Was it not?

He answered in a low voice,—“Don’t you know it is?”

The monstrous thought came into my mind, as I perused the fixed eyes and

10the saturnine face, that this was a spirit, not a man.

“You look at me,” I said, forcing a smile, “as if you had a dread of me.”

“I was doubtful,” he returned, “whether I had seen you before.”

“Where?”

He pointed to the red light he had looked at.

15“There?” I said.

Intently watchful of me, he replied (but without sound), “Yes.”

From "The Signal-Man" by Charles Dickens (1866).

Glossary

charge: responsibility
perused: studied closely
saturnine: gloomy and serious-looking

How does the writer use language and structure to show the strangeness of the signalman?

Support your views with reference to the text.

/ 6

Question 4

6 marks

This extract is from the same story. Helen is telling Holmes what happened later that night, after her sister had gone back to her own room and locked the door.

Read this extract.

1Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, there burst forth the wild

scream of a terrified woman. I knew that it was my sister’s voice. I

sprang from my bed, wrapped a shawl round me, and rushed into the

corridor. As I opened my door I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as

5my sister described, and a few moments later a clanging sound, as if

a mass of metal had fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister’s

door was unlocked, and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at

it horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By

the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the opening,

10her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for help, her whole

figure swaying to and fro like that of a drunkard. I ran to her and

threw my arms round her, but at that moment her knees seemed to give

way and she fell to the ground. She writhed as one who is in terrible

pain, and her limbs were dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought

15that she had not recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly

shrieked out in a voice which I shall never forget, ‘Oh, my God!

Helen! It was the band! The speckled band!’ There was something else

which she would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into

the air in the direction of the Doctor’s room, but a fresh convulsion

20seized her and choked her words.”

From "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Arthur Conan Doyle (1892).

Glossary

hubbub: loud, confused noise
issue: come out
blanched: drained of colour, white
convulsed: shaking violently and uncontrollably
would fain have said: wanted to say

How does the writer use language and structure to show what Helen experiences on the night of her sister's death?

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/ 6

Question 5

6 marks

This extract is from the same short story. It is the eighth night. The narrator has crept into the old man's dark bedroom and shone a thin ray from his lantern onto the old man's open eye.

Read this extract.

1And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but

over-acuteness of the sense?—now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull,

quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that

sound well, too. It was the beating of the old man’s heart. It increased my

5fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.

But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the

lantern motionless. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It

grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant. The old

man’s terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every

10moment!—do you mark me well? I have told you that I am nervous: so I am.

And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that

old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror.

Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating

grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety

15seized me—the sound would be heard by a neighbour! The old man’s hour had

come! With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room.

He shrieked once—once only.

From "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe (1843).

Glossary

over-acuteness: being too sharp or sensitive
enveloped: wrapped
refrained: held back
tattoo: a steady drumbeat
mark: listen to, pay attention to

How does the writer use language and structure to show the narrator's state of mind?

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/ 6

Question 6

6 marks

This extract is from the same novel. Victor has just brought his creature to life. Horrified, he has fled to his bedroom and fallen into an uneasy sleep, troubled by nightmares.

Read this extract.

1I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my

teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; when, by the dim and

yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window-shutters,

I beheld the wretch—the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up

5the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were

fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds,

while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear;

one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped, and

rushed down stairs. I took refuge in the court-yard belonging to the house

10which I inhabited; where I remained during the rest of the night, walking

up and down in the greatest agitation, listening attentively, catching and

fearing each sound as if it were to announce the approach of the demoniacal

corpse to which I had so miserably given life.

Oh! no mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again

15endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch.

From "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley (1818).

Glossary

wretch: a miserable or hateful creature
inarticulate: not forming clear words
detain: hold back, stop from leaving
demoniacal: devilish
countenance: face
endued with animation: given life

How does the writer use language and structure to show Victor's terror?

Support your views with reference to the text.

/ 6

Question 7

6 marks

This extract is from the same novel. Harker is now alone in the calèche with its driver, who has several times stopped and gone off into the darkness on foot. Wolves have been howling in the mountains around them.

Read this extract.

1At last there came a time when the driver went further afield than he had

yet gone, and during his absence, the horses began to tremble worse than

ever and to snort and scream with fright. I could not see any cause for

it, for the howling of the wolves had ceased altogether; but just then

5the moon, sailing through the black clouds, appeared behind the jagged

crest of a beetling, pine-clad rock, and by its light I saw around us a

ring of wolves, with white teeth and lolling red tongues, with long,

sinewy limbs and shaggy hair. They were a hundred times more terrible in

the grim silence which held them than even when they howled. For myself,

10I felt a sort of paralysis of fear.

All at once the wolves began to howl as though the moonlight had had some

peculiar effect on them. I called to the coachman to come, for it seemed

to me that our only chance was to try to break out through the ring and

to aid his approach. How he came there, I know not, but I heard his voice

15raised in a tone of imperious command, and looking towards the sound, saw

him stand in the roadway. As he swept his long arms, as though brushing

aside some impalpable obstacle, the wolves fell back and back further

still. Just then a heavy cloud passed across the face of the moon, so

that we were again in darkness.

From Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897).

Glossary

afield: away from the carriage
beetling: overhanging, jutting out
sinewy: lean and muscular
coachman: the driver of the carriage
imperious: commanding, expecting to be obeyed
impalpable: that cannot be touched or felt

How does the writer use language and structure to show what the narrator experiences when the wolves surround the calèche?

Support your views with reference to the text.

/ 6

Question 8

6 marks

This extract is from the same short story. Several of the narrator's candles have already gone out without any visible cause, and he is trying to relight them.

Read this extract.

1“This won’t do!” said I, and first one and then another candle on the

mantelshelf followed.

“What’s up?” I cried, with a queer high note getting into my voice

somehow. At that the candle on the corner of the wardrobe went out, and

5the one I had relit in the alcove followed.

“Steady on!” I said, “those candles are wanted,” speaking with a

half-hysterical facetiousness, and scratching away at a match the while,

“for the mantel candlesticks.” My hands trembled so much that twice I

missed the rough paper of the matchbox. As the mantel emerged from

10darkness again, two candles in the remoter end of the room were

eclipsed. But with the same match I also relit the larger mirror

candles, and those on the floor near the doorway, so that for the moment

I seemed to gain on the extinctions. But then in a noiseless volley

there vanished four lights at once in different corners of the room, and

15I struck another match in quivering haste, and stood hesitating whither

to take it.

From "The Red Room" by H. G. Wells (1896).

Glossary

mantelshelf / mantel: the shelf above a fireplace
queer: strange, odd
facetiousness: joking at a moment that is not funny
eclipsed: blotted out, put into darkness
extinctions: the putting out of lights
volley: a number of shots fired at the same moment
whither: where

How does the writer use language and structure to show the narrator's growing panic?

Support your views with reference to the text.

/ 6

Question 0

6 marks

This extract is from the same short story as the party in the shepherd's cottage. While the guests dance inside, someone is approaching across the hills in the rain.

1While these cheerful events were in course of enactment within Fennel’s

pastoral dwelling, an incident having considerable bearing on the party

had occurred in the gloomy night without. Mrs. Fennel’s concern about

the growing fierceness of the dance corresponded in point of time with

5the ascent of a human figure to the solitary hill of Higher Crowstairs

from the direction of the distant town. This personage strode on through

the rain without a pause, following the little-worn path which, further

on in its course, skirted the shepherd’s cottage.

It was nearly the time of full moon, and on this account, though the sky

10was lined with a uniform sheet of dripping cloud, ordinary objects out

of doors were readily visible. The sad wan light revealed the lonely

pedestrian to be a man of supple frame; his gait suggested that he had

somewhat passed the period of perfect and instinctive agility, though

not so far as to be otherwise than rapid of motion when occasion

15required. At a rough guess, he might have been about forty years of age.

He appeared tall, but a recruiting sergeant, or other person accustomed

to the judging of men’s heights by the eye, would have discerned that

this was chiefly owing to his gauntness, and that he was not more than

five-feet-eight or nine.

20Notwithstanding the regularity of his tread, there was caution in it, as

in that of one who mentally feels his way; and despite the fact that it

was not a black coat nor a dark garment of any sort that he wore, there

was something about him which suggested that he naturally belonged to

the black-coated tribes of men. His clothes were of fustian, and his

25boots hobnailed, yet in his progress he showed not the mud-accustomed

bearing of hobnailed and fustianed peasantry.

From "The Three Strangers" by Thomas Hardy (1883), collected in Wessex Tales (1888).

Glossary

pastoral dwelling: country home
without: outside
personage: person
supple: able to bend and move easily
gait: way of walking
gauntness: thinness
the black-coated tribes of men: professional men, such as clergymen and lawyers, who wore black
fustian: a thick, rough cloth worn by labourers
hobnailed: with heavy nails in the soles
peasantry: country labourers

Read the whole extract.

How does the writer use language and structure to present the stranger?

Support your views with reference to the text.

/ 6

Question 0

6 marks

This extract is from a short story set in the hills of Cumberland. The narrator, aged sixteen, is lost on the Fells (high moorland) in a snowstorm at night. Gregory is his older half-brother, whom their father treats harshly, and Lassie is Gregory's dog.

1To my surprise I heard a cry—almost as long, as wild as mine—so wild

that it seemed unearthly, and I almost thought it must be the voice of

some of the mocking spirits of the Fells, about whom I had heard so many

tales. My heart suddenly began to beat fast and loud. I could not reply

5for a minute or two. I nearly fancied I had lost the power of utterance.

Just at this moment a dog barked. Was it Lassie’s bark—my brother’s

collie?—an ugly enough brute, with a white, ill-looking face, that my

father always kicked whenever he saw it, partly for its own demerits,

partly because it belonged to my brother. On such occasions, Gregory

10would whistle Lassie away, and go off and sit with her in some outhouse.

My father had once or twice been ashamed of himself, when the poor

collie had yowled out with the suddenness of the pain, and had relieved

himself of his self-reproach by blaming my brother, who, he said, had no

notion of training a dog, and was enough to ruin any collie in

15Christendom with his stupid way of allowing them to lie by the kitchen

fire. To all which Gregory would answer nothing, nor even seem to hear,

but go on looking absent and moody.

Yes! there again! It was Lassie’s bark! Now or never! I lifted up my

voice and shouted “Lassie! Lassie! for God’s sake, Lassie!” Another

20moment, and the great white-faced Lassie was curving and gambolling with

delight round my feet and legs, looking, however, up in my face with her

intelligent, apprehensive eyes, as if fearing lest I might greet her

with a blow, as I had done oftentimes before. But I cried with gladness,

as I stooped down and patted her. My mind was sharing in my body’s

25weakness, and I could not reason, but I knew that help was at hand. A

gray figure came more and more distinctly out of the thick,

close-pressing darkness. It was Gregory wrapped in his maud.

From "The Half-Brothers" by Elizabeth Gaskell (1859).

Glossary

utterance: speech
demerits: faults
Christendom: the Christian world
gambolling: jumping about playfully
apprehensive: anxious
maud: a grey woollen plaid worn by shepherds

Read the whole extract.

How does the writer use language and structure to show the narrator's feelings as help arrives?

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Question 0

6 marks

This extract is from a short story. The narrator, a young Englishman, is spending the night in a room above a Paris gambling house. Before falling asleep he had been looking at a picture on the wall of a man in a tall hat. He is lying in a large four-poster bed, which has a canopy (a roof of heavy cloth) above it.

1Was the bed moving?

I turned on my back and looked up. Was I mad? drunk? dreaming? giddy

again? or was the top of the bed really moving down—sinking slowly,

regularly, silently, horribly, right down throughout the whole of its

5length and breadth—right down upon me, as I lay underneath?

My blood seemed to stand still. A deadly paralysing coldness stole all

over me as I turned my head round on the pillow and determined to test

whether the bed-top was really moving or not, by keeping my eye on the

man in the picture.

10The next look in that direction was enough. The dull, black, frowzy

outline of the valance above me was within an inch of being parallel

with his waist. I still looked breathlessly. And steadily and

slowly—very slowly—I saw the figure, and the line of frame below the

figure, vanish, as the valance moved down before it.

From "A Terribly Strange Bed" by Wilkie Collins (1852), collected in After Dark (1856).

Glossary

frowzy: dingy and stale
valance: the cloth hanging round the edge of the canopy
constitutionally: by nature
self-possession: calm self-control

Read this extract.

How does the writer use language and structure to show the narrator realising that the bed is moving?

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Question 0

6 marks

This extract is from a short story. Markheim has just killed an antique dealer in his shop. The shop is crowded with clocks, old portraits and china ornaments.

1Time had some score of small voices in that shop, some stately and slow

as was becoming to their great age; others garrulous and hurried. All

these told out the seconds in an intricate, chorus of tickings. Then the

passage of a lad’s feet, heavily running on the pavement, broke in upon

5these smaller voices and startled Markheim into the consciousness of his

surroundings. He looked about him awfully. The candle stood on the

counter, its flame solemnly wagging in a draught; and by that

inconsiderable movement, the whole room was filled with noiseless bustle

and kept heaving like a sea: the tall shadows nodding, the gross blots

10of darkness swelling and dwindling as with respiration, the faces of the

portraits and the china gods changing and wavering like images in water.

The inner door stood ajar, and peered into that leaguer of shadows with

a long slit of daylight like a pointing finger.

From "Markheim" by Robert Louis Stevenson (1885).

Glossary

score: twenty
garrulous: talkative
awfully: full of dread
inconsiderable: very small
leaguer: a siege, or the army surrounding a place

Read the whole extract.

How does the writer use language and structure to show how Markheim feels after the killing?

Support your views with reference to the text.

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Question 3: Language and Structure Practice Questions

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