Grade 8-Revision

Read the given passage and answer the ques ons given below:

Kya, a young girl, is having to attend school for the rst time.
Kya sat down fast in her seat at the back of the room, trying to
disappear like a bark beetle blending into the furrowed trunk of an oak.
Yet, as the teacher continued the lesson, she leaned forward, waiting to
learn what came after twenty-nine. So far all Miss Arial had talked about
was something called phonics, and the students, their mouths shaped
like O’s, echoed her sounds of ah, aa, o, and u, all of them moaning like
doves.
About eleven o’clock the warm-buttery smell of baking yeast rolls and
pie pastry filled the halls and seeped into the room. Kya’s stomach
panged and fitted, and when the class finally formed a single file and
marched into the cafeteria, her mouth was full of saliva. Copying the
others, she picked up a tray, a green plastic plate, and flatware1. A large
window with a counter opened into the kitchen and laid out before her
was an enormous enamel pan of chicken pie crisscrossed with thick,
crispy pastry, hot gravy bubbling up. A tall black woman, smiling and
calling some of the kids by name, plopped a big helping of pie on her
plate, then some peas in butter and a yeast roll. She got banana
pudding and her own small red-and-white carton of milk to put on her
tray.
She turned into the seating area, where most of the tables were full of
kids laughing and talking.She recognized Chase Andrews and his
friends, who had nearly knocked her off the sidewalk with their bikes, so
she turned her head away and sat at an empty table. Several times in
quick succession, her eyes betrayed her and glanced at the boys, the
only faces she knew. But they, like everyone else, ignored her.
Kya stared at the pie full of chicken, carrots, potatoes, and little peas.
Golden brown pastry on top. Several girls, dressed in full skirts fluffed
out wide with layers of crinolines2, approached. One was tall, skinny,
and blond, another round with chubby cheeks. Kya wondered how they
could climb a tree or even get in a boat wearing those big skirts.
Certainly couldn’t wade for frogs; wouldn’t even be able to see their
own feet.
ti
fi
As they neared, Kya stared at her plate. What would she say if they sat
next to her? But the girls passed her by, chirping like birds, and joined
their friends at another table. For all the hunger in her stomach, she
found her mouth had gone dry, making it difficult to swallow. So
after eating only a few bites, she drank all the milk, stuffed as much pie
as she could into the milk carton, carefully so nobody would see her do
it, and wrapped it and the roll in her napkin.
The rest of the day, she never opened her mouth. Even when the
teacher asked her a question, she sat mute. She reckoned she was
supposed to learn from them, not them from her. Why put maself up for
being laughed at? she thought.
At the last bell, she was told the bus would drop her three miles from
her lane because the road was too sandy from there, and that she had
to walk to the bus every morning. On the way home, as the bus swayed
in deep ruts and passed stretches of cord grass, Tall skinny blonde and
Round chubby cheeks, the girls at lunch, called out, ‘Where ya been,
marsh hen? Where’s yo’ hat, swamp rat?’
The bus finally stopped. The driver cranked the door open, and Kya
scooted out and ran for nearly half a mile, heaved for breath, then
jogged all the way to their lane. She didn’t stop at the shack but ran full
out through the palmettos3 to the lagoon and down the trail that led
through dense, sheltering oaks to the ocean. She broke out onto the
barren beach, the sea opening its arms wide, the wind tearing loose her
braided hair as she stopped at the tide line. She was as
near to tears as she had been the whole day.
Above the roar of pounding waves, Kya called to the birds. The ocean
sang bass, the gulls sang soprano. Shrieking and crying, they circled
over the marsh and above the sand as she threw piecrust and yeast
rolls onto the beach. Legs hanging down, heads twisting, they landed.
A few birds pecked gently between her toes, and she laughed from the
tickling until tears streamed down her cheeks, and finally great, ragged
sobs erupted from that tight place below 50 her throat. The gulls
squatted on the beach around her and went about their business of
preening their gray extended wings. So she sat down too and wished
she could gather them up and take them with her to sleep... a fluffy
bunch of warm, feathered bodies.
Glossary:
1
flatware: cutlery
2
crinolines: a stiff undergarment to hold out a skirt 3palmettos: low-
growing palm trees

1 Look at the first paragraph (lines 3–7).

(a) In the first sentence, what literary technique does the writer use to
describe how Kya feels? Tick () one box.
simile ____
hyperbole ______
metaphor _______
assonance _____

(b) What does this sentence tell the reader about how Kya is feeling?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

2 Look at the second paragraph (lines 8–16).

• (a) What does the verb seeped tell the reader about the smell?

___________________________________________________________________________

• (b) Give one phrase that shows how hungry Kya is.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

• (c) Look at lines 11 to 16.

How does the writer use sentence structure to build up a lot of
detail?
______________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

3 Look at the third paragraph (lines 17–21). What does the writer mean
by her eyes betrayed her?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

4 Look at lines 27–34.

(a) Why does the writer use questions here?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

(b) Why does the writer use an alternative word instead of ‘myself’ in the
second question?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

5 (a) Look at lines 35–45.

Which phrase shows the bus route was along a rough track?

_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________

(b) On the bus, Kya recognises two girls from school. How does the way
she refers to these girls when she sees them on the bus link back to the
information in the fourth paragraph (lines 22–26)?
Fourth paragraph:
____________________________________________
On the bus: ___________________________________
(c) What makes Kya want to run away from the bus?
______________________________________________________________________________

(d)When Kya arrives at the beach, her mood lifts.

Explain how the writer uses personification to show this. Give a
quotation to support your answer.
Explanation:
______________________________________________________
Quotation: _____________________________________________

6 Look at the final two paragraphs (lines 46–53). The writer shows that
there is a musical harmony in nature’s sounds. Give one sentence from
the text that emphasises this.
The ocean sang bass and the gulls soprano
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

7 The structure of the text reflects Kya’s feelings at different stages

during her first day at school. Complete the flow chart by choosing one
word from the box to summarise her feelings at each stage during the
day. Three examples have been done for you. There is one extra word
in the box you do not need to use.

Isolation Defiance Interest Release wonder

First paragraph feeling _________________

Defiance

Second paragraph feeling ______Hunger

Third, fourth and fth paragraph feeling _________

Isolation

Sixth paragraph feeling _______________-

Wonder

Seventh paragraph feeling _____Dejection

fi
Eighth paragraph feeling _____Gratitude

Ninth and tenth paragraph feeling ____________

Release

8 Explain how the writer shows that Kya does not fit in at school
because of her different background. Give three ideas and support each
idea with a quotation from the text.
Idea 1: ________________________________
Quotation 1: ___________________________
Idea 2:_______________________________
Quotation 2: __________________________
Idea 3: ______________________________
Quotation 3: ___________________________

Writing
Write a story called My First Day.It could be about your first day on a
new team, or on vacation, or at a new club. You should think about:
• Did your first day go well? Why / why not?

• Who did you meet?

• How did you feel?