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Read the extract below then answer the questions that follow. “Father! Mother! Come quickly! Tony is dying! He burst into their room throwing his manners...

Read the extract below then answer the questions that follow.
“Father! Mother! Come quickly! Tony is dying! He burst into their room throwing his manners completely to the wind. Elizabeth was already on her way across the room. Like all mothers she slept without sleeping and Tony’s screams had brought her to consciousness and to her feet before Aoro started out of the room. Mark struggled to wake up and saw his wife streaking out of the room.

“What the heck is going on?” He asked the empty room. There was of course no answer, but the panicked sounds in the boys’ room were enough to direct him.

Tony was writhing on the floor; clearly the boy was very sick. Mark rushed to the neighbours to ask for transport. Those were the days before people learned to barricade themselves behind their doors for fear of thugs masquerading as people in distress. The neighbour who owned a VW rushed the sick boy who held on his mother’s lap in the front seat with his father in the back, to the general hospital.
Doctors who stare death in the face on daily basis are never in as much a hurry as relatives would like them to be, but eventually the boy was seen and a diagnosis of acute appendicitis was made. He was scheduled for an emergency operation, but since there was one apparently more serious case before him, it wasn’t until the early hours of the morning that they took him to the theatre, where an ugly inflamed appendix was incised and removed.

Back at home, Aoro was climbing walls with fear and worry. His sisters with the death like slumber of the young had managed to sleep throughout the whole commotion. At dawn he decided enough was enough so he went to their room and shook them awake.

“What is it?” She asked alarmed.

“Tony is sick. He was rushed to hospital at night and they haven’t come back.” He could not add the unspeakable – the fear that his brother was dying or dead.

“Why didn’t you wake us up you idiot?” Asked Vera annoyed such a thing could have happened without her knowing it; so she took it out on her brother. Becky continued to lie in her bed. Few things bored her as much as sickness, suffering and death. She simply could not identify with them. At sixteen she was a breathtaking beauty and had a horde of admirers and aspiring boyfriends none of whom she had yet shown interest in. She did not believe in wasting time. Besides, her sister was always with her and she knew her parents would not take kindly to such goings on. She stretched luxuriously in bed, enjoying the feel of her young lithe body. Aoro, tired of being called names retired back to his room. Vera looked questioningly at her sister, and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. She was beginning to have doubts about the young lady.

Questions
a) What had happened shortly before the excerpt?

b) Father! Mother! Come quickly! Tony is dying. (Rewrite in reported speech)

c) How does Tony’s sickness and treatment affect Aoro’s future life?

d) Contrast the characters of Becky and Vera according to their reaction towards their brother’s sickness.

e) Why had Becky not shown interest in any of her boyfriend?

f) Identify and illustrate any evident theme in the extract.

g) What in the extract shows that Elizabeth is a caring mother?

h) Identify and illustrate any evident style in the extract.

i) Give any two phrasal verbs used in the extract.
j) Explain the meaning of the following words as used in the extract.
1) Writhing
2) Masquerading
3) Appendicitis
4) Incised
5) Commotion

Answers

Peter
a) Aoro and Tony had been punished for taking the twins to the river where they almost drowned. Tony and Aoro had vowed not to let the twins follow them anymore. They dodged them Then Tony fell sick in the night.
b) He called father and mother to come quickly because Tony was dying.
c) A doctor removed Tony’s appendix and stitched the wound. This fascinated Aoro; he caught a frog, cut it open and stitched it again and the frog hopped away. From that day Aoro fell in love with medicine. He later became a doctor.
d) Vera
- Vera is concerned as she gets out of bed hurriedly to inquire about Tony while Becky is unconcerned since she is not interested in knowing what happened to Tony.
- Vera is responsible when she gets out of bed to go and make breakfast while Becky is abusive and irresponsible as she calls Aoro ‘You ugly boy’ and continues lying in bed

e) She thought the boys were a waste of time and she also feared that Vera would report her to their parents.
f) Family life Mark’s family and children are depicted in this extract. Elizabeth and Mark are depicted as good, caring and concerned parents. His children Aoro, Tony, Becky and Vera are also depicted. Each child’s temperament and what goes on in their life is clearly brought out.

g) ‘She slept without sleeping, like all mothers.’ This shows she half slept for the sake of her children. ‘Elizabeth was already across the room even before Aoro told them what was happening.’
h) Dialogue – there is dialogue between Aoro and Vera. Vera wanted to know what happened. This is done to break the monotony of narration.
i) The phrasal verbs are below.
- Take kindly to
- Identify with
j) i) Writhing – moving and twisting in pain
ii) Masquerading – pretending
iii) Appendicitis – serious swelling of the appendix
iv) Incised – cut open
v) Commotion – noisy confusion

Musyoxx answered the question on March 16, 2018 at 17:00

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