The Traditional Tutor

Putting learning before teaching

Comprehension Extracts – PENEE Practice
Aim for 10 minutes per question
Read the question.
Highlight relevant pieces of evidence.
Organise/plan your answer so you know what you want to say.
Write at high speed, focusing on how you are going to put your ideas in words.
Leave time to check SPOG.

Extract 1

From The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

She could not go to sleep again. The mournful sound kept her awake because she
felt mournful herself. If she had felt happy it would probably have lulled her to
sleep. How it “wuthered” and how the big rain-drops poured down and beat against
the pane!

“It sounds just like a person lost on the moor and wandering on and on crying,” she
said.

She had been lying awake turning from side to side for about an hour, when
suddenly something made her sit up in bed and turn her head toward the door
listening. She listened and she listened.

Question 1

Look at three different ways in which Burnett uses language and comment on their
effect.

(8 marks)

Leon Conrad
www.traditionaltutor.co.uk
 The Traditional Tutor
Putting learning before teaching

Extract 2

From Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Cedric did not know that he looked like a young lord; he did not know what a lord
was. His greatest friend was the groceryman at the corner--the cross groceryman,
who was never cross to him. His name was Mr. Hobbs, and Cedric admired and
respected him very much. He thought him a very rich and powerful person, he had
so many things in his store,--prunes and figs and oranges and biscuits,--and he had a
horse and wagon. Cedric was fond of the milkman and the baker and the apple-
woman, but he liked Mr. Hobbs best of all, and was on terms of such intimacy with
him that he went to see him every day, and often sat with him quite a long time,
discussing the topics of the hour. It was quite surprising how many things they found
to talk about--the Fourth of July, for instance. When they began to talk about the
Fourth of July there really seemed no end to it. Mr. Hobbs had a very bad opinion of
“the British,” and he told the whole story of the Revolution, relating very wonderful
and patriotic stories about the villainy of the enemy and the bravery of the
Revolutionary heroes, and he even generously repeated part of the Declaration of
Independence.

Question 2

Explore three different ways in which Burnett uses contrast in this extract and
comment on the effect(s).

(8 marks)

Leon Conrad
www.traditionaltutor.co.uk
 The Traditional Tutor
Putting learning before teaching

Extract 3

From Swallow and Amazons by Arthur Ransome.

CHAPTER I

THE PEAK IN DARIEN

"Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific - and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise
Silent, upon a peak in Darien."

ROGER, aged seven, and no longer the youngest of the family, ran in wide zigzags, to
and fro, across the steep field that sloped up from the lake to Holly Howe, the farm
where they were staying for part of the summer holidays. He ran until he nearly
reached the hedge by the footpath, then turned and ran until he nearly reached the
hedge on the other side of the field. Then he turned and crossed the field again.
Each crossing of the field brought him nearer to the farm. The wind was against him,
and he was tacking up against it to the farm, where at the gate his patient mother
was awaiting him. He could not run straight against the wind because he was a
sailing vessel, a teaclipper, the Cutty Sark. His elder brother John had said only that
morning that steamships were just engines in tin boxes. Sail was the thing, and so,
though it took rather longer, Roger made his way up the field in broad tacks.
Question 3
Comment on the author’s description of movement in this passage, citing at least
three pieces of evidence from the text to support your point(s).
(8 marks)

Leon Conrad
www.traditionaltutor.co.uk
 The Traditional Tutor
Putting learning before teaching

Extract 4
From The Life and Adventures of
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
CHAPTER IV—FIRST WEEKS ON THE
ISLAND
When I waked it was broad day, the
weather clear, and the storm abated,
so that the sea did not rage and swell
as before. But that which surprised
me most was, that the ship was lifted
off in the night from the sand where
she lay by the swelling of the tide, and
was driven up almost as far as the rock which I at first mentioned, where I had been
so bruised by the wave dashing me against it. This being within about a mile from
the shore where I was, and the ship seeming to stand upright still, I wished myself
on board, that at least I might save some necessary things for my use.
Question 4
Comment on the author’s use of descriptive and emotive language in the above
extract.
(8 marks)

Leon Conrad
www.traditionaltutor.co.uk