DATE:

ENGLISH TEST : READING

COMPREHENSION
NAME:
FORM : MARK : / 20

COMMENTS:

Read the text carefully, use the methods you have learnt in class to make sense of it.
Answer the questions.

 Before you start, become a detective and follow a few leads! Remember these tips:

Peripheral information : surligner

surligner en
en vert
vert toutes
toutes les
les informations
informations liées
liées àà la
la source
source du
du
document
document àà étudier.
étudier.

WHO :
WHO : griser
griser les
les informations
informations sur
sur l’identité
l’identité des
des personnages.
personnages.

WHERE/
WHERE/ WHEN :
WHEN : entourer
entourer en
en bleu
bleu toutes
toutes les
les informations
informations sur
sur les
les lieux
lieux mentionnées
mentionnées et
et le
le
temps
temps de
de la
la narration.
narration.

WHAT :
WHAT : entourer
entourer en
en rouge
rouge tous
tous les
les pronoms
pronoms pour
pour trouver
trouver àà quoi
quoi ou
ou àà qui
qui ils
ils renvoient.
renvoient.

SYNTAX :
SYNTAX : encadrer
encadrer les
les répétitions
répétitions

 GENERAL COMPREHENSION
 Identify the nature of the document . Give details.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 The narrative is a  first- person narrative  third - person narrative

 According to you, who is the narrator ?

………………………………………………………………

 Complete your information with these stills . Make guesses.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 About the main characters :

NUMBER : NAMES :
RELATIONSHIP :
 Explain in your own words :
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 About the characters’ jobs :

: ………………………………… : …………………………………

 When is the action set ?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 List all the places : where the character (s) come from /go(es)/ is, and the places mentioned :

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 Feelings felt by the female character throughout the narration :

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 DETAILED COMPREHENSION
 Say what or who the following pronouns or nouns refer to in the narrative :

 she : (l.1) …………………………  he : (l.1) …………………………

 Darling : (l.3) ………………………  we : (l.3) …………………………

 him : (l.13) …………………………  it : (l.16) …………………………

 it : (l.27) …………………………  they : (l.29) …………………………

 his : (l.33) …………………………  steel bar : (l.34) …………………………

 there : (l35.) …………………………

 True or False ? Tick the corresponding boxes and justify by quoting from the text :

a. The male character has been a policeman for quite a long time . T  F  (L …… )
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
b. The female character is pregnant . T  F  (L …… )
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
c. The characters had made plans to eat out that night . T  F  (L …… )
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
d. The characters never eat meat. They are vegetarian . T  F  (L …… )
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
e. The male character has something important to tell her that might change her life forever. T  F
 (L …… )
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
f. When she heard about the news she was both startled and shocked. T  F  (L …… )
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
g. She concentrates on one thing throughout the text . T  F  (L …… )
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
h. She was deeply in love with her husband . T  F  (L …… )
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
  Imagine why her husband is leaving her ? Make a guess :
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 Draw a map of what you understand : places, people, objects. Draw it on a piece of paper with
all the details you understand.

You can represent movements with an arrow ( ).

 In your own words, explain what happened to the male character and why .

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 Here ‘s a still from the movie? Pick out the sentence that best illustrates what is happening in
the picture.

………………………………………………………………………………

 Deduce the meaning of the following words with the help of the context :

 lamb :  to bring a lamb to the slaughter :

According to you , the title “Lamb to the Slaughter” may refer to :

 a play on words. Mary brings the "lamb to the slaughter," although the lamb is the weapon, not the victim.

 a religious phrase  the killing of an innocent as

sacrifice

 It’s time to see if you are a good private eye ! Here are some clues . Predict what is going to
happen next .

Make guesses using modal verbs .

 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

TEXT: B1

"I think it's a shame," she said, "that when someone's been a policeman as long as you have, he still has to walk
around all day long."
Patrick didn't answer. "Darling," she said," If you're too tired to eat out tonight, as we had planned, I can fix you
something. There's plenty of meat and stuff in the freezer." Her eyes waited to an answer, a smile, a nod, but he made
no sign. She moved uneasily in her chair. This was her sixth month expecting a child. Her mouth and her eyes, with
their new calm look, seemed larger and darker than before.
"But you have to have supper. I can easily fix you something. I'd like to do it. We can have lamb. Anything you want.
Everything's in the freezer."
"Forget it," he said.
"But, darling, you have to eat! I'll do it anyway, and then you can have it or not, as you like."
She stood up and put placed her sewing on the table by the lamp.
"Sit down," he said. "Just for a minute, sit down." It wasn't until then that she began to get frightened.
"Go on," he said. "Sit down." She lowered herself into the chair, watching him all the time with large, puzzled eyes. He
had finished his second drink and was staring into the glass.
"Listen," he said. "I've got something to tell you."
"What is it, darling? What's the matter?"
He became absolutely motionless, and he kept his head down.
"This is going to be a big shock to you, I'm afraid," he said. "But I've thought about it a good deal and I've decided that
the only thing to do is to tell you immediately." And he told her. It didn't take long, four or five minutes at most, and she
sat still through it all, watching him with puzzled horror.
"So there it is," he added. "And I know it's a tough time to be telling you this, but there simply wasn't any other way. Of
course, I'll give you money and see that you're taken care of. But there really shouldn't be any problem. I hope not, in
any case. It wouldn't be very good for my job."

Her first instinct was not to believe any of it. She thought that perhaps she had imagined the whole thing.
"I'll fix some supper," she whispered. When she walked across the room, she couldn't feel her feet touching the floor.
She couldn't feel anything except a slight sickness. She did everything without thinking. She went downstairs to the
freezer and took hold of the first object she found. She lifted it out, and looked at it. It was wrapped in paper, so she took
off the paper and looked at again --- a leg of lamb.

All right, then, they would have lamb for supper. She carried it upstairs, held the thin end with both her hands. She went
into the living room, saw him standing by the window with his back to her, and stopped.

"I've already told you," he said. "Don't make supper for me. I'm going out."
At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause , she swung the big frozen leg of lamb
high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head. She might as well have hit him with a
steel bar.
She stepped back, waiting, and the strange thing was that he remained standing there for at least four or five seconds.
Then he crashed onto the carpet.
The violence of the crash, the noise, the small table overturning, helped to bring her out of the shock. She came out
slowly, feeling cold and surprised, and she stood for a few minutes, looking at the body, still holding the piece of meat
tightly with both hands.

Adapted from Lamb to the Slaughter ,

a short story by Roald Dahl , 1953