How well do you interpret prose passages?
Dahlia Bartley, Contributor

For today's lesson, we will work through a comprehension passage together. This past-paper question was designed to test how well candidates are able to interpret a prose passage and to see if they are able to discern the motives of characters in the passage. These skills are necessary if you are to do well in the English A exam.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions set on it.

(In the following extract, the narrator and her sister have come from New York to visit their grandmother, Da-duh, in the Caribbean.)

One morning toward the end of our stay, Da-duh led me into a part of the gully that we had never visited before, an area darker and more thickly overgrown than the rest, almost impenetrable. There in a small clearing amid the dense bush, she stopped 10 before a royal palm which rose cleanly out of the ground, and drawing the eye up with it, soared above the trees

around it into the sky. It appeared to be touching the blue dome of sky, to be flaunting its dark crown of fronds right in the blinding white face of the late morning sun.

Da-duh watched me a long time before she spoke, and then she said very quietly, "All right, now, tell me if you've got anything this tall in that place you're from."

I almost wished, seeing her face, that I could have said no. "Yes," I said. "We've got buildings

30 hundreds of times this tall in New York. There's one called the Empire State Building that's the tallest in the world. I can't describe how tall it is. Wait a minute. What's the name of that hill I went to visit the other day, where they have the police station?"

"You mean Bissex?"

"Yes, Bissex. Well, the Empire State Building is way taller than that."

"You're lying now! She shouted, trembling with rage. Her hand lifted to strike me.

"No, I'm not," I said. "It really is, if you don't believe me I'll send you a picture 50 postcard of it soon as I get back home so you can see for yourself. But it's way taller than Bissex."

All the fight went out of her at that. The hand poised to strike me fell limp to her side, and as

she stared at me, seeing not me but the building that was taller than the highest hill she knew, the small stubborn light in her eyes began to fail. Finally, with a vague gesture that even in the midst of her defeat still tried to dismiss me and my world, she turned and started back through the gully, walking slowly, her steps groping and 70 uncertain, as if she were suddenly no longer sure of the way, while I followed triumphant yet strangely saddened behind.

(From To Da-duh, In Memoriam in Reena and Other Stories, Paule Marshall, The feminist Press, 1983.)

(a) What characteristic of the royal palm is suggested by EACH of the following?

(i) "... rose cleanly out of the ground" (line 11)

(ii) "... drawing the eye up with it" (line 12)

(iii) "... flaunting its dark crown of fronds" (lines 16 -17) (3 marks)

Note: An important word in the question is characteristic. For (i) to (iii), you are, therefore, required to write about a special quality of the royal palm. You should not explain or paraphrase each phrase.

(i) No root is visible

(ii) The height

(iii) Pride/magnificence of the leaves

(b) Why did Da-duh watch the girl for a long time before she spoke? (2marks)

Da-duh watched the girl for she wanted to observe her granddaughter's reaction to the royal palm.

(c) What does the writer suggest by the phrase "All the fight went out of her ..." (line 54)? (2 marks)

Note: The phrase must not be taken literally; in other words, the writer is not speaking of a physical fight.

Da-duh is humiliated and has acknowledged defeat.

(d) In lines 68-71, the writer states that Da-duh was "... walking slowly, her steps groping and uncertain, as if she were suddenly no longer sure of the ..."

Give the real reason why she was walking in that way. (2 marks)

Da-duh was confused and or disturbed. She had lost confidence in her world.

(e) Explain why the author is "strangely saddened" (line 74) (2 marks)

Note: You must pay attention to 'strangely'.

The narrator is strangely saddened for Da-duh is hurt and the narrator feels responsible for having been the one to hurt her feelings.

Of course, you had no difficulty with the exercise. Let me give you some guidelines to help you gain maximum marks for such an exercise.

Read the passage more than once to ensure that you understand it fully. Look at the questions after you feel that the passage is clear to you.

• Express yourself as clearly and as accurately as possible.
• Your answer should not be long-winded.
• Use your own words to answer and do not copy sections of the passage unless you are asked to quote. Remember the use of quotation marks when you do quote.
• Always indicate clearly the sub-part of the question to which you are responding.
• Skip a line between answers.
• Answer in complete sentences.

Well, this is all for this week. See you next week.

From left: Robert Toby-Grant, Megan Allison McKain and Shun Lawton sport winning smiles as the National Commercial Bank recognised the 2009 Calendar Competition winners from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, at The Atrium, on Trafalgar Road. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

Dahlia Bartley teaches at Glenmuir High School.