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Preparing for

National 5

Close ReadingHomework Booklet

Fiction and Non-FictionFor candidates in S3 and S4

Book 1

Passage 1

FROM EALING TO EDINBURGH

It boasts an all-star cast and Hollywood hotshot director, but can the Burke and Hare story really be turned into romantic comedy? Brian Pendreigh goes behind the scenes to find out.

1. It is a horrible night, with that particularly Scottish blend of winter damp and cold that penetrates every layer of protective clothing and seeps right into the bones. After a while it starts to snow. Two dark figures come striding out of the fog, down the dimly lit close. One is carrying a hammer and sickle. Their talk is of murder. "This is the only way," says the one with the mitts. They stop by a doorway and he blows out a lamp and everything goes black.

2. "Cut," yells John Landis, the legendary Hollywood film-maker who has come to Edinburgh to make a new version of the Burke and Hare story starring Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis as the eponymous 19th century "body-snatchers" and local boy Ronnie Corbett as the head of the local militia. "Let's do one more," says Landis. "That was perfect, but I'm nervous."

3. On screen it will look like the two figures are the only ones out on the sort of night when any sane person would be wrapped up indoors. But there are dozens of people crammed into Mylne's Court, just off Edinburgh's Royal Mile. Landis, whose previous credits include the comedy classics The Blues Brothers and An American Werewolf in London and the landmark Thriller pop video, directs proceedings with the military precision of Napoleon while looking like a giant seal in his head-to-toe waterproofs, with just a little of his bespectacled grey-bearded face poking through.

4. This is not the first film about Burke and Hare. There have been 14 previous versions, according to Landis, including one written by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. But Landis promises his film will be completely different. "This is very much a comedy... a classic romantic comedy," he declares.

5. The story of the film really began five years ago when writer Nick Moorcroft came to Edinburgh on holiday with his mum. "She harassed me into going on a ghost tour, and one of the guides told us the story about Burke and Hare," he says, huddled for shelter in the museum in an out-of-the-way corner of Edinburgh Castle. "I immediately rang Piers (Piers Ashworth, Moorcoft's regular writing partner) and said: 'Piers, this is a very interesting story...' There was a macabre element to it of course, but there was also a blindingly obvious comedy."

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6. William Burke and William Hare were Irish immigrants who came to Scotland to work on the Union Canal in the early 19th century, an age of great technical and scientific advances. Edinburgh led the world in medical study and research and there was an ongoing demand for dead bodies. The shortage of bodies encouraged the activities of grave-robbers, also known as "body snatchers" or "resurrectionists".

7. Burke and Hare sold their first body to the anatomy lecturer Dr Knox when a tenant at Hare's lodging house died owing Hare rent. The next body belonged to another tenant, who was ailing, but not quite dead. They decided to help him on his way. But most of Burke and Hare's corpses were hale and hearty when they first came across them.

8. Burke's lover and Hare's wife got involved and they had quite a thriving business. The problem was people were turning up on the dissecting table hours after they had been seen alive and apparently in full health. Then there was the lodger who found a corpse under the bed. In the 12 months from November 1827 to October 1828 Burke and Hare committed at least 16 murders around the West Port area. Hare testified against Burke and was freed. Burke was hanged.

9. Moorcroft and Ashworth completed their script, playing up the humour and the practical difficulties of killing people and moving bodies around. They also introduced an element of romance, as Burke is motivated by the desire to raise money for an all-female version of Macbeth which his actress girlfriend wants to stage. But as a period film it was going to be expensive and Moorcroft points out that it was not exactly Austen or Dickens. The script sat on a shelf while they made St Trinian's instead.

10. Enter John Landis. He read the script. "Next day he rang to say he wanted to make it," says Moorcroft. "Everyone in Europe looks at American Werewolf as the breakthrough film in terms of a genre picture (becoming a mainstream hit), and I think he has some similarities in Burke and Hare and it felt like the perfect marriage." Landis came to Edinburgh to research the project, visited Burke and Hare's old haunts and even went to see Burke's skeleton at the university's anatomy museum, and his death mask and a notebook made from his skin at the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.

11. "I knew who Burke and Hare were, but also like most people I was wrong," says Landis. "If you ask people about them, they will say they are grave-robbers. And they were never grave-robbers ever. They were murderers. It's very different, actually terribly psychopathic and sleazy evil people. And the take in this is to make them kind of charming, romantic heroes... Like Laurel and Hardy they are terribly sweet - although they kill quite a few people."

12. There is something larger-than-life, about Serkis with his hammer and sickle, his broad smile, and his bashed-about top hat, tilted on his head at a jaunty

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angle. Looking at him and Pegg coming down Mylne's Court in period costume brings to mind Disney's Pinocchio and the scene in which the fox Honest John and his mute feline buddy Gideon divert Pinocchio from the straight and narrow with promises of adventures.

13. "The thing about Hare in our version anyway is that he's strangely amoral," says Serkis, during a break in filming, after retreating through a side door to the shelter of nearby student accommodation. "He doesn't really think what he's doing is terribly wrong. He's got a very strong grip of the capitalist mentality... He's a wheeler-dealer. He's a conman. They fall into what they do. It's incremental how they get into killing. Hare’s philosophy was that you're going to die anyway. We're just helping speed up the process a bit."

14. Pegg goes even further. "What they did was terribly wrong, but … if they hadn't killed those people then medical science might not have evolved as quickly, and more people might have died." He says the film "dares" the audience to sympathise with them, in their rather ham-fisted attempts at delivering bodies to Dr Knox.

15. Burke and Hare has a strong supporting cast, including Tom Wilkinson, as Knox, Isla Fisher, as Burke’s girlfriend, Christopher Lee, Tim Curry, Bill Bailey and Ronnie Corbett, who looks like a little toy soldier in his ornate military uniform, with its gold braid, sword and a big cap that adds around a foot to his height. He and his men have been putting up “missing person” posters at Edinburgh Castle. Landis is using the location simply as a generic Edinburgh Old Town setting, because it has the requisite old stone buildings and cobbled streets and he does not need to worry about traffic or crowds.

16. Landis is 60 and remains as in love with movie-making as ever. He is clearly very knowledgeable about Burke and Hare. And despite the romance and the comedy he promises, the new film will be more accurate than its predecessors.

17. The snow makes it impossible to write anything in my notebook, but I extend a shivering hand and old-school tape-recorder towards him "I've been standing in the rain and snow for three days," he says. Enthusiastically he motions me to look at the shot in the monitor. "The snow is gorgeous when it's backlit like that," he gushes. "I'm happy with the weather. We are getting our money's worth out of Edinburgh."

18. Once more Serkis and Pegg emerge out of the fog and Landis is beaming like a kid who has finally got the toy he wanted.

Adapted from an article in The Scotsman, October 2010

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Passage 2

IN THE SILENCE

1. The stooks1 of corn glimmered in the moonlight and boys’ voices could be heard as they played hide and seek among them. How calm the night was, how stubbly the field! Iain crouched behind one of the stooks listening, watching for deepening shadows, his face and hands sweaty, his knees trembling with excitement. Then quite suddenly he heard the voices fading away from him, as if the boys had tired of their game and gone home, leaving him undetected. Their voices were like bells in the distance, each answering the other and then falling silent. He was alone.

2. 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.

3. He moved quietly about the field, amazed at the silence. No whisper of wind, no rustle of creature—rat or mouse—moving about. He was a scout on advance patrol, he was a pirate among his strawy treasure chests. If he thrust his hand into one, he might however find not gold but some small nocturnal animal. Very faintly he heard the soft throaty call of an owl. He was on a battlefield among the dead.

4. He began to count the stooks and made them twelve in all. It was a struggle for him for he was continually distracted by shadows and also not at all good at arithmetic, being only seven years old and more imaginative than mathematical. Twelve stooks set at a certain glimmering distance from each other. Twelve treasure chests. Twelve men of straw. He counted them again, and again he got twelve so he had been right the first time.

5. A cat slanted along in front of him, a mouse in its jaws, its eyes cold and green. The mouse’s tail was dangling from its mouth like a shoelace. He put out his hand, but the cat quickly ran away from him towards its busy house, carrying its prey. Its green eyes were solid and beautiful like jewels.

6. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and began to dry his face. In the darkness he couldn’t see the handkerchief clearly, it appeared as a vague ghostly shape, and though it had red spots on it he couldn’t make them out. This was the quietest he had ever heard the world before. Even the cat had made no

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noise when it passed him. During the daytime there was always sound, but now even the dog had stopped barking. He could hear no sound of water, not any noise at all. He put his hand out in front of him and could see it only as a faint shape, as if it were separate from the rest of his body.

7. He looked up at the moon which was quite cold in the sky. He could see the dark spots on it and it seemed to move backwards into the sky as he looked. What an extraordinary calm was everywhere. It was as if he had been left in charge of the night, as if he was the only person alive, as if he must take responsibility for the whole world. No sound of footsteps could be heard from the road that lay between the wall and the houses.

8. The silence lasted so long that he was afraid to move. He formed his lips as if to speak but he didn’t have the courage. It was as if the night didn’t want him to speak, were forbidding him to do so, as if it were saying to him, This is my kingdom, you are not to do anything I don’t wish you to do. He could no longer hear the noise of the sea, as if it too had been commanded to be quiet. It was like a yellow shield in the distance, flat and made of hammered gold.

9. For the first time in his life he heard the beating of his own heart. Pitter patter it went, then it picked up power and became stronger, heavier. It was like a big clock in the middle of his chest. Then as quickly as it had started, it settled down again and he held his breath.

10.The laden enchanted night, the strangeness of it. He would not have been surprised to see the stooks beginning to dance, a strawy dance, one which they were too serious to do in the daytime, when everyone was watching. He felt daring as well as frightened, that he should be the only one to stay behind, that he should be the dweller among the stooks. How brave he was and yet how unreal and ghostly he felt. It was as if the boys had left him and gone to another country, pulling the roofs over their heads and putting off the switch beside the bed.

11.This was the latest he had ever been out. He imagined himself staying there all night and the boys appearing to him in the morning, their faces red with the sun, shouting and screaming, like warriors. The sun was on their faces like war paint. They came out of their boxes pushing the lids up, and suddenly there they were among the stubble with their red knees and their red hands.

12.The stooks weren’t all at the same angle to the earth. As he listened in the quietness he seemed to hear them talking in strawy voices, speaking in a sort of sharp, strawy language. They were whispering to each other, deep and rough and sharp. Their language sounded very odd, not at all liquid and running, but like the voice of stones, thorns. The field was alive with their conversation. Perhaps they were discussing the scythe that had cut them down, the boys that played hide and seek among them. They were busy and hissing as if they had to speak as much as possible before the light strengthened around them.

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13.Then they came closer together, and the boys seemed suddenly very far away. The stooks were pressed against each other, composing a thorny spiky wall. He screamed suddenly and stopped, for at the sound the stooks had resumed their original positions. They were like pieces on a board. He began to count them again, his heart beating irregularly. Thirteen, where there had been twelve before. Where had the thirteenth come from?

14.He couldn’t make out which was the alien one, and then counted them again and again. Then he saw it, the thirteenth. It was moving towards him, it had sharp teeth, it had thorny fingers. It was sighing inarticulately like an old woman, or an old man, its sigh was despairing and deep. Far beyond on the road he could sense that the boys were all gathered together, having got out of their boxes. They were sighing, everyone was sighing like the wind. Straw was peeling away from them as if on an invisible gale. And finally they were no longer there, but had returned to their boxes again and pulled the roofs over their heads.

15.He didn’t notice the lights of the house go out as he walked towards the thirteenth stook, laid his head on its breast and fell asleep among the thorns.

Adapted from a short story by Iain Crichton Smith

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National 5

Learning Intention:

The following assignments are designed to assess your skills in Reading. You are expected to show that you can:

Understand, analyse and evaluate detailed written texts, by:

1.1 Identifying and explaining the purpose and audience as appropriate to genre1.2 Identifying and explaining the main ideas and supporting details1.3 Applying knowledge and understanding of language to explain meaning and

effect, using appropriate critical terminology

The assignments will also provide the opportunity for you to demonstrate your skills in Literacy, covering the Reading outcome. You are expected to show that you can:

Read and understand complex word-based texts by:

1.1 Selecting and Using Information1.2 Explaining a range of aspects1.3 Evaluating effectiveness

Success Criteria:

You will be asked questions to allow you to demonstrate that you can:

identify the purpose and audience of the text you are reading and justify this by quoting or referring to its content;

show clear understanding of the most relevant points of the text; infer from the text, drawing on appropriate evidence/quotations to

support your thinking; identify and analyse various features of a writer’s use of language and

its effect; use appropriate textual reference or quotation to support statements; evaluate the effectiveness of the writing. What you have to do:

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1. Read the whole of the passage very carefully. It might help to

read it more than once.

2. If the passage is fictional, think about the genre you are reading:

poetry/prose/drama have different features.

3. Answer the questions using your own words as far as

possible. You do not have to answer in sentences.

4. Pay attention to the number of marks awarded to each

question: this gives you a guide of how many pieces of

information/evidence are required in the answer.

5. The codes listed in the right hand column refer to the

assessment standards at the top of this page.

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Task 1a

Approaching a passage

As with all areas of Close Reading, it is a good idea to annotate the text as you read through it.

This not only helps you to identify good examples of the writer’s language and use of structure, but it will also help you to recognise the writer’s main points (in non-fiction). Furthermore, it will help you to anticipate the questions you might be asked.

As you read, you should underline interesting examples of word choice, imagery and sentence structure.

If the passage is non-fiction, you should also try to identify the writer’s main points as you read. Each paragraph will make one main point with supporting detail so underline the point that is being made in each main paragraph as you read. (This is the topic sentence.)

1. Read Passage 1 following the above approach.

2. Read Passage 2 following the above approach.

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Task 1b

Remember: Use your own words as far as possible in your answers.It is acceptable to ‘quote and explain’ but quotation alone will gain no marks unless you are specifically asked to do so.

Purpose

1.1 Identifying and explaining the purpose and audience as appropriate to genre

Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh

10a. What do you think is the writer’s purpose in writing this article? With reference to the passage as a whole, justify your response. 3 1.1 1.2

10b. Explain how effective you think the writer has been in achieving his aims. Justify your answer with reference to evidence from the passage as a whole. 3 1.1 1.3

Read Passage 2: Into the Silence

6. The writer focuses on atmosphere in paragraphs 6 to 11.Explain what you think is the purpose of concentrating on the atmosphere in so much detail in this section. You might refer to plot or character in your answer. 3 1.1

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Task 2

Audience

1.1 Identifying and explaining the purpose and audience as appropriate to genre

Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh

9a. Who would be likely to read this article? Think about: Age and/or Interests and/or Nationality and/or Another audience you can identify

1 1.1 1.2

9b. Referring to evidence from the passage, explain how you reached this conclusion. 2 1.1 1.2

Read Passage 2: Into the Silence

11a. Who would be likely to read this article? Think about: Age and/or Interests and/or Nationality and/or Another audience you can identify

1 1.1 1.2

11b. Referring to evidence from the passage, explain how you reached this conclusion. 2 1.1 1.2

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Task 3

Non-Fiction: Understanding main ideas

1.2 Identifying and explaining the main ideas and supporting details

Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh

1. Read carefully paragraphs 5 – 6.In this section, Nick Moorcroft explains how he came upon the idea for his film about Burke and Hare. Explain clearly where this idea came from. 2 1.2 1.1

2. Explain clearly the reasons why Burke and Hare came to Edinburgh at that time. 3 1.2 1.1

3a. Read carefully paragraphs 11 – 14.In these paragraphs, Moorcroft discusses what Burke and Hare were like. Summarise the main point he makes about them.

2 1.2 1.1

3b. Provide three pieces of supporting evidence for this point. 3 1.2 1.1

5a. Read carefully paragraphs 15 - 19.Explain why Edinburgh’s Old Town is a good choice of location for the film.

2 1.2 1.1

5b. Provide three pieces of supporting evidence for this line of thought. 3 1.2 1.1

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Task 4

Fiction: Understanding main features of plot, character and setting

1.2 Identifying and explaining the main ideas and supporting details

Read Passage 2: Into the Silence

3a. “He was alone.” (Paragraph 1)

Explain why this is an important moment in the story.1 1.2

10. Iain is presented as a character who is both imaginative and young. From your reading of the whole passage, justify both aspects of his character. 4 1.2

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The following tasks focus on the ‘writer’s use of language’. This term refers to the writer’s word choice,

imagery, sentence structure and tone.

Task 5

Tone

1.2 Identifying and explaining the main ideas and supporting details

Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh

4a. Look carefully at the end of paragraph 11.Identify the writer’s tone here.

1 1.2 1.2

4b. Quote an example of this tone and explain why it is appropriate. 2 1.2 1.2

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Task 6

Word Choice

1.3 Applying knowledge and understanding of language to explain meaning and effect, using appropriate critical terminology

Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh

6. Read carefully paragraphs 1 – 2.

Explain clearly why the word-choice in these paragraphs helps to create a creepy atmosphere. You should choose three examples and explain their effect. 3 1.3 1.2

Read Passage 2: Into the Silence

4. How does the writer use word-choice to create a creepy atmosphere in these paragraphs? 3 1.3

5. Two qualities of the cat are identified in Paragraph 5. Explain what these are with close reference to word-choice. 4 1.3

9. How does the writer use word-choice to convey Iain’s feeling that the stooks are threatening him?

2 1.3

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Task 7

Imagery

Just as... So too...

1.3 Applying knowledge and understanding of language to explain meaning and effect, using appropriate critical terminology

Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh

8. “who looks like a little toy soldier” (paragraph 15)

Identify the figure of speech used here and explain why it is an effective way of describing Ronnie Corbett. 3 1.3 1.2

Read Passage 2: Into the Silence

2. The writer uses imagery to describe the boys’ voices. Identify and quote a suitable example. Go on to explain clearly why this is an effective way to describe the boys’ voices. 2 1.3

7. “The laden enchanted night” (Paragraph 10)With close reference to the writer’s language, show how this idea is continued in this paragraph. 2 1.3

8. “He seemed to hear them talking” (Paragraph 12)Identify and comment on the effectiveness of one technique used by the writer to describe the stooks’ language. 2 1.3

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Task 8

Sentence Structure

1.3 Applying knowledge and understanding of language to explain meaning and effect, using appropriate critical terminology

Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh

7. Read the sentence “I immediately rang… story.” (paragraph 5)

Explain why the writer has used the brackets in this sentence. 2 1.3 1.2

Read Passage 2: Into the Silence

3b. “He was alone.” (Paragraph 1)

How does the writer emphasise that this is an important moment? 1 1.2

9. How does the writer use sentence structure to convey Iain’s feeling that the stooks are threatening him? 2 1.3

Task 9

Summary

1.2 Identifying and explaining the main ideas and supporting details

Read Passage 1: From Ealing to Edinburgh

Referring to the whole article, in your own words list the key points the writer 4 1.2 1.2

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