Adapted from "Treasure"
All the high-rises were a reef, submerged and aglow. Somewhere along the waterfront
the sound check for a rock concert was in progress; Kiri could hear the wah wah of an
amplified voice. She went down fast, her feet almost overshooting the nibbled edges of the
cement steps. She turned by the leafy oaks and ran down O'Reilly Avenue, by St
(5) Mary of the Angels. From an open doorway at the back fo the St George came the
smell of greasy cooking - a smell that made her think of layers of wet yellow pastry. On
Manners Street packs of teenagers darted around her, staying in formation. The traffic
was heavy, loud; buses stopped and started, their brakes sighing in noisy exasperation.
Cars gathered behind the lights were released each minute to fill the street like a
(10) sluiceway. On either side of the leaning, green bronze statue of the fat Empress, litter
fluttered, tangled in loped rosebushes on the road islands.
Eventually, Kiri made her way at a run along the pavement on the side of the road,
under a colonnade topped by construction workers' offices. She hurrd past the mouth
of an alley, glimpsed slabs of shadow, light glinting on puddles and broken glass; and
(15) one dimply lit rectange of a window, plastered wiht brown paper.
She glanced up curiously at the dust-clogged, illuminated dial of a clock set in the wall
above her. Three-twenty. According to her watch it was half-past-eleven. The building's
facade was a novelty of ledges, flagstaffs spouting from the wall at
sizty-degree angles. it looked like the bizarre cityscape in a panel of a comic:
(20) Batman's Gotham. (It is possible for one with the requisite skill, expertise and
knowledge to traverse the five city blocks without ever once touching the street.) The flow
of traffic diminished to a trickle; one final car, back end jacked-up and minus a muffler,
cut through the amber lights and hurtles past Kiri on the far side of the rosebeds.
Questions:
1. Identify one word in lines 12-15 that shows that time has passed. (A)
2. Idenify part of a sentence from lines 16-20 which shows how the cityscape looks like a comic panel (A)
3. Explain what atmosphere is created by using the word "packs" in the sentence, "On Manners Street packs of teenagers darted aroudn her, staying in formation" (lines 6-7) (A/M/E)
4. Explain why the author chose the word "sighing" in line 8 (A/M/E)
ANSWERS
(NCEA Level 1 English revision guide. 2006 edition, Really Useful Resources, pg. 40)
the sound check for a rock concert was in progress; Kiri could hear the wah wah of an
amplified voice. She went down fast, her feet almost overshooting the nibbled edges of the
cement steps. She turned by the leafy oaks and ran down O'Reilly Avenue, by St
(5) Mary of the Angels. From an open doorway at the back fo the St George came the
smell of greasy cooking - a smell that made her think of layers of wet yellow pastry. On
Manners Street packs of teenagers darted around her, staying in formation. The traffic
was heavy, loud; buses stopped and started, their brakes sighing in noisy exasperation.
Cars gathered behind the lights were released each minute to fill the street like a
(10) sluiceway. On either side of the leaning, green bronze statue of the fat Empress, litter
fluttered, tangled in loped rosebushes on the road islands.
Eventually, Kiri made her way at a run along the pavement on the side of the road,
under a colonnade topped by construction workers' offices. She hurrd past the mouth
of an alley, glimpsed slabs of shadow, light glinting on puddles and broken glass; and
(15) one dimply lit rectange of a window, plastered wiht brown paper.
She glanced up curiously at the dust-clogged, illuminated dial of a clock set in the wall
above her. Three-twenty. According to her watch it was half-past-eleven. The building's
facade was a novelty of ledges, flagstaffs spouting from the wall at
sizty-degree angles. it looked like the bizarre cityscape in a panel of a comic:
(20) Batman's Gotham. (It is possible for one with the requisite skill, expertise and
knowledge to traverse the five city blocks without ever once touching the street.) The flow
of traffic diminished to a trickle; one final car, back end jacked-up and minus a muffler,
cut through the amber lights and hurtles past Kiri on the far side of the rosebeds.
Questions:
1. Identify one word in lines 12-15 that shows that time has passed. (A)
2. Idenify part of a sentence from lines 16-20 which shows how the cityscape looks like a comic panel (A)
3. Explain what atmosphere is created by using the word "packs" in the sentence, "On Manners Street packs of teenagers darted aroudn her, staying in formation" (lines 6-7) (A/M/E)
4. Explain why the author chose the word "sighing" in line 8 (A/M/E)
ANSWERS
(NCEA Level 1 English revision guide. 2006 edition, Really Useful Resources, pg. 40)