Lord of the Flies Comprehension Test

Chapter 11) What colour is:

a. Ralph’s hair?

b. Jack’s hair?

2) List 3 things you find out about Piggy in chapter 1?

3) What is the thing that most excites the boys about being on the island at the start of the novel?

4) What might the physical ‘scar’ of the plan wreck suggest about Golding’s views on humans and our relationship with the world?

5) What are 2 good ideas that Piggy comes up with in this chapter?

6) What is Jack in charge of at the beginning of the novel?

7) Complete the quotation:

‘Let’s have a vote/’

‘Yes.’

‘Vote for chief.’

‘This …………of voting was almost as pleasing as the conch.’

8) Why does Ralph nominate Jack to be in charge of the hunters?

9) Complete the quotation:

‘Echoes and birds flew, white and pink dust floated, the forest further down shook as with the passage of an enraged ………………’

10) Jack doesn’t take the opportunity to do something at the end of chapter 1, and vows that next time he will. What is it?

Chapter 2

1) a) How do the boys decide to use the conch during their meetings?

b) What might the conch be seen as a symbol of?

2) List 2 books that the boys refer to in Chapter 2 as examples of what they hope their time on the island will be like.

3) a) What animal does the boy with the birth mark first compare the beastie to?

b) What could this be seen as a religious allegory to?

4) How does Ralph react to the conversation about the beastie in this chapter?

5) What does Jack suggest using Piggy’s glasses for in chapter 2?

6) a) Why do the boys first come up with the idea to build a fire?

b) What is ironic about how the fire is used at the end of the novel?

7) Why does the signal fire end up going out?

8) a) Name the 2 animals that the fire that breaks out in the forest is likened to.

b) Number the order that the animals come in.

9) a) Who is the first person to die on the island?

b) How could this be significant in the context of who the Nazis persecuted?

10) Finish the quotation that describes the sound of the fire that is raging in the forest:

‘The separate noises of the fire merged into a ………………… that seemed to shake the mountain.’

Chapter 3

1) What weapon does Jack use to hunt with?

2) Is Jack successful with hunting the pig at the start of this chapter?

3) Why is it taking the boys a long time to time to build the huts?

4) Finish the quotation:

‘He [Jack] tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was ……….him up.’

5) What is Jack and Ralph’s first argument about in this chapter?

6) How do Jack and Ralph believe the littlun’s feel in this chapter?

7) Finish the quotation:

‘If you’re hunting sometimes you catch yourself feeling as if -.’ He flushed suddenly.

‘There’s nothing in it of course. Just a feeling. But you can feel as if you’re not hunting, but - being………………; as if something’s behind you all the time in the jungle.’

8) Who is the other boy that helps Ralph try and build the huts in this chapter?

9) How does Simon help the littlun’s at the end of this chapter?

10) Where does Simon go to at the end of this chapter?

Chapter 4

1) What is the generic title given to the younger boys in this chapter?

2) Why did Roger throw the stones ‘around’ Henry and not ‘at’ him?

3) What reason does Jack give for painting his face?

4) Complete the quotation: ‘ ___ ______ was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, _______________ from shame and self-consciousness.’

5) Give three reasons why the bigguns viewed Piggy as an ‘outsider’.

6) What did Simon see that excited everybody?

7) Why was their hope dashed?

8) What are the hunters chanting when they return from their first hunt?

9) What happens to Piggy’s glasses in this chapter?

10) How does Golding show Simon’s goodness in this chapter?

Chapter 51) Who makes a strong case that the beast could not possibly exist?

2) How does the boys’ fear of the beast help Jack?

3) Why does Ralph call a meeting late in the evening?

4) Who helped Ralph to build the shelters?

5) What does Simon say the beast is? Bonus mark for a direct quotation

6) Complete the quotation: ‘___________ to the rules’

7) What happens at the end of the meeting?

8) Why is Ralph reluctant to blow the conch again?

9) Why is Piggy insistent that Ralph remain chief?

10) Who do Piggy and Ralph wish for a message from, at the end of the chapter?

Chapter 6

1) What sign is sent from the world of the grown-ups?

2) What do Samneric mistake it for?

3) At what time of day do they see it?

4) True or False: Ralph admits to Jack that he is scared?

5) Who remains behind when the boys leave?

6) What does Jack say they don’t need anymore?

7) What is the significance of this?

8) ‘the water boiled over the table rock with a roar’. What literary technique is this an example of?

9) What did the other boys do whilst Ralph and Jack were searching for the beast?

10)What does this foreshadow?

Chapter 7

1) What does Ralph wish he could do with his hair, clothes, nails and teeth?

2) What does Simon reassure Ralph of in this chapter?

3) What things does Ralph remember as he daydreams about home?

4) What does Ralph do to the boar in this chapter?

5) Which boy is hurt in the mock hunting game?

6) Complete the quotation:

‘Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to …………and hurt was overmastering.’

7) What does Jack suggest using next time for the mock hunt game?

8) Which three boys go up the mountain to look for the beast?

9) a) What ‘beast’ do the boys see at the top of the mountain?

b) What could the religious significance be that they see the beast at the top of the mountain?

10)Complete the quotation:

‘Before them, something like a great ……………….was sitting asleep with its head between its knees.’

Chapter 8

1) Complete the missing word in the title of this chapter: ………………………………for the Darkness

2) Which boy do the others want as chief when Jack challenges them about who should lead them?

3) Where does Ralph suggest building the fire?

4) Where do the boys disappear to when they’re building the fire?

5) How does Jack suggest appeasing the beast?

6) Complete the quotation which describes the hunters attack on the sow:

‘…the hunters followed, …………..to her in lust.’

7) What do the boys do with the sow’s head?

8) Why does Simon refer to the sow’s head on the stick as the Lord of the Flies?

9) What are Jack’s hunters now collected referred to as?

10) Complete the quotation in which the Lord of the Flies is ‘speaking’ to Simon:

‘You knew, didn’t you? I’m …….of you.’

Chapter 9

1) Chapter Nine is titled “A View to a ________”

2) What does Simon discover that he desperately wants to relay to the rest of the boys?

3) Who dances in the middle of the circle of boys and pretends to be the pig?

4) Describe Jack’s appearance in Chapter Nine.

5) What does Jack ensure the boys have all had enough of?

6) Why does Jack instruct the boys to chant and dance?

7) What is the weather on the island when Simon is killed?

8) Name 2 verbs used to describe how the boys attack Simon?

9) Fill in the blank: “Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky found themselves ………………….to take a place in this demented but partly secure society.”

10)a) What part of Simon’s body does the phosphorescence attach itself to?

b) What could the religious significance be?

Chapter 10

1) Why can’t Piggy see properly any more?

2) How has the appearance of the conch changed in this chapter?

3) What is Piggy’s response to Ralph’s statement that their attack of Simon was ‘murder’?

4) What do Ralph’s group see as the main problem with them living on their own?

5) Who are the four in Ralph’s group?

6) What name is Jack now referred to by the hunters?

7) Why does Jack bring up the subject of the beast at Castle Rock even though the boys think it’s gone?

8) What do the savages steal from Ralphs’ group?

9) What does Piggy think the hunters had come to steal from them?

10)a) Who ends up getting hurt in the fight in the shelters?

b) Why?

Chapter 11

1) What is Chapter 11 called?

2) At the start of the chapter the boys gather round the fire. What has happened to it?

3) Describe Ralph’s face after the fight.

4) How does Piggy have to be lead to Castle Rock?

5) What happens when they blow the conch?

6) What are the ‘filthy objects’?

7) Complete the interrogative: ‘Which is better to have rules and agree or__ ____ ____ _____’

8) Who says it?

9) Who kills Piggy?

10)What happens to the conch (preferably in a quote)?

Chapter 12

1) Where does Ralph hide out, beginning with c?

2) What does he eat while he is hiding?

3) What does Ralph find in the clearing in the forest?

4) Write the words of the chant that Ralph hears.

5) Why is the spear sharpened at both ends significant?

6) What is an ‘ululation’?

7) What do the savages do with fire?

8) What does the naval officer represent?

9) Complete the naval officer’s line: ‘I know. Jolly good show. Like the _____ _________.

10)Complete the quotation: ‘Ralph wept for the _____ ____ _____________, the ____________ of man’s _________ and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.’