WORD FOCUS.

Match each Word with an appropriate meaning. Then use seven of the thirteen words to
complete the passage below. (Use one in each gap).

 Alcohol: Liquid in drinks like beer and whisky that can make people drunk
 Axe: A tool for cutting trees and wood
 Bricks: Small hard blocks that are used for building walls
 Cellar: A room in the ground under the house
 Chest: The front part of the top of the body
 Cruel: Not kind, bringing pain or trouble to someone
 Evil: Making your very frightened
 hell: The place where bad people go when they die
 Horrible: Very bad, very wrong
 Mad: With a sick mind
 Outlined: Showing the line or shape of something
 Plaster: Something soft and wet which is put over bricks and which hardens to
make the Wall flat and straight
 Socket: The hole in the head where the eye is

Then we went down to the CELLAR. And we found nothing there. But when we were
leaving, the man hit the wall with a stick. And suddenly, we heard a soft sound, but son
it grew louder and was like a cry rising from HELL! We ran to the wall and started
pulling out the PLASTER. Inside the wall, we saw something HORRIBLE – the body
of the man’s wife. And sitting on her head was a black cat with a strange mark on its
CHEST and one empty eye SOCKET. Next to the body, we found a weapon, a bloody
AXE.

Who is the person telling the story in the passage?

The person telling the story here is a police officer.

 STORY FOCUS I

In a story, the narrator is a character who tells the story. What do you think about the
narrator of The Black Cat?

The narrator of The Black Cat is a man who was once was quiet and gentle but then
went crazy driven by his alcoholism.

Choose on these adjectives for the first gap in each sentence, and then write as much as
you like to finish the sentences.

1. I think the narrator was nervous because he was going to die the next day.
2. The narrator was kind when he was young.
3. The narrator wasn’t violent and angry when he was sober.
4. When the narrator hung the cat, he was calm because he was out of his mind. No
one can be calm when killing another living being
5. After he killed his wife, the narrator was careful because he needed to hide the
body to get away with murder.

STORY FOCUS 2

Match the halves of sentences to make a paragraph of five sentences. Who do you think
the narrator is here?

The narrator here is the cat.

At first, the man was cruel to the other animals but he wasn’t cruel to me
The man was my best friend because he gave me my food and played with me every
day
For several years, the man was kind but then the man’s life slowly changed.
Then, one night, I tried to run away from him but the man caught me and shook me by
the neck.
Finally, he took a knife from his pocket and he cut my eye out of its socket.