TEST2ndeDOOR TO CRIME READING COMPREHENSION LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER

ENGLISH TEST : READING

DATE:

COMPREHENSION NAME: FORM :

MARK :

/ 20

COMMENTS:

Read the text carefully, use the methods you have learnt in class to make sense of it. Answer the questions.



Before you start, become a detective and follow a few leads! Remember these tips:

Peripheral information :

surligner en vert toutes les informations liées à la source du document à étudier.

WHO : griser les informations sur l’identité des personnages. WHERE/ WHEN : entourer en bleu toutes les informations sur les lieux mentionnées et le temps de la narration.

WHAT : entourer en rouge tous les pronoms pour trouver à quoi ou à qui ils renvoient.

SYNTAX : encadrer les répétitions

 GENERAL COMPREHENSION  Identify the nature of the document . Give details. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 The narrative is a - person narrative



first- person narrative



third

 According to you, who is the narrator ? ……………………………………………………………… 

Complete your information with these stills . Make guesses.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 

About the main characters :

NUMBER : RELATIONSHIP :

NAMES :

 Explain in your own words : …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 About

: 

the characters’ jobs : …………………………………

:

…………………………………

When is the action set ?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… List all the places : where the character (s) come from /go(es)/ is, and the places mentioned : 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 

Feelings felt by the female character throughout the narration :

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 DETAILED COMPREHENSION  Say what or who the following pronouns or nouns refer to in the narrative :  she : (l.1) ………………………… …………………………

 he : (l.1)

 Darling : (l.3) ……………………… …………………………  him : (l.13) ………………………… …………………………

 we : (l.3)

 it : (l.16)

 it : (l.27) ………………………… …………………………

 they : (l.29)

 his : (l.33) ………………………… …………………………

 steel bar : (l.34)

 there : (l35.) …………………………

True or False ? Tick the corresponding boxes and justify by quoting from the text : 

a. The male character has been a policeman for quite a long time . T 

F  (L …… ) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… b. The female character is pregnant . T  F  (L …… ) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… c. The characters had made plans to eat out that night . T  F  (L …… ) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

d. The characters never eat meat. They are vegetarian .

T  F  (L …… ) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… e. The male character has something important to tell her that might change her life forever. T  F  (L …… ) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… f. When she heard about the news she was both startled and shocked. T  F  (L …… ) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… g. She concentrates on one thing throughout the text . T  F  (L …… ) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… h. She was deeply in love with her husband . T  F  (L …… ) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………  Imagine why her husband is leaving her ? Make a guess : ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 Draw a map of what you understand : places, people, objects. Draw it on a piece of paper with all the details you understand.

You can represent movements with an arrow ( ).

In your own words, explain what happened to the male character and why . 

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Here ‘s a still from the movie? Pick out the sentence that best illustrates what is happening in the picture. 

……………………………………………………………………………… 

Deduce the meaning of the following words with the help of the context :

 lamb : to the slaughter :

 to bring a lamb

According to you , the title “Lamb to the Slaughter” may refer to :

 a play on words. Mary brings the "lamb to the slaughter," although the lamb is the weapon, not the victim.  a religious phrase of an innocent as sacrifice

 the killing

It’s time to see if you are a good private eye ! Here are some clues . Predict what is going to happen next . 

Make guesses using modal verbs .

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

TEXT:

B1

"I think it's a shame," she said, "that when someone's been a policeman as long as you have, he still has to walk around all day long." Patrick didn't answer. "Darling," she said," If you're too tired to eat out tonight, as we had planned, I can fix you something. There's plenty of meat and stuff in the freezer." Her eyes waited to an answer, a smile, a nod, but he made no sign. She moved uneasily in her chair. This was her sixth month expecting a child. Her mouth and her eyes, with their new calm look, seemed larger and darker than before. "But you have to have supper. I can easily fix you something. I'd like to do it. We can have lamb. Anything you want. Everything's in the freezer." "Forget it," he said. "But, darling, you have to eat! I'll do it anyway, and then you can have it or not, as you like." She stood up and put placed her sewing on the table by the lamp. "Sit down," he said. "Just for a minute, sit down." It wasn't until then that she began to get frightened. "Go on," he said. "Sit down." She lowered herself into the chair, watching him all the time with large, puzzled eyes. He had finished his second drink and was staring into the glass. "Listen," he said. "I've got something to tell you." "What is it, darling? What's the matter?" He became absolutely motionless, and he kept his head down. "This is going to be a big shock to you, I'm afraid," he said. "But I've thought about it a good deal and I've decided that the only thing to do is to tell you immediately." And he told her. It didn't take long, four or five minutes at most, and she sat still through it all, watching him with puzzled horror. "So there it is," he added. "And I know it's a tough time to be telling you this, but there simply wasn't any other way. Of course, I'll give you money and see that you're taken care of. But there really shouldn't be any problem. I hope not, in any case. It wouldn't be very good for my job." Her first instinct was not to believe any of it. She thought that perhaps she had imagined the whole thing. "I'll fix some supper," she whispered. When she walked across the room, she couldn't feel her feet touching the floor. She couldn't feel anything except a slight sickness. She did everything without thinking. She went downstairs to the freezer and took hold of the first object she found. She lifted it out, and looked at it. It was wrapped in paper, so she took off the paper and looked at again --- a leg of lamb. All right, then, they would have lamb for supper. She carried it upstairs, held the thin end with both her hands. She went into the living room, saw him standing by the window with his back to her, and stopped. "I've already told you," he said. "Don't make supper for me. I'm going out." At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause , she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head. She might as well have hit him with a steel bar. She stepped back, waiting, and the strange thing was that he remained standing there for at least four or five seconds. Then he crashed onto the carpet. The violence of the crash, the noise, the small table overturning, helped to bring her out of the shock. She came out slowly, feeling cold and surprised, and she stood for a few minutes, looking at the body, still holding the piece of meat tightly with both hands.

Adapted from Lamb to the Slaughter , a short story by Roald Dahl , 1953