Junior Cycle English UNSEEN - Fiction: Read this extract, adapted from

Question

Read this extract, adapted from iBoy by Kevin Brooks and answer the questions which follow it. The extract begins and ends with someone throwing a mobile phone that hits Tom Harvey on the head.

The mobile phone that shattered my skull was an iPhone 3GS. It weighed 135 grams and at the time of impact it was travelling at approximately 77 miles per hour. I didn’t know any of this at the time. All I knew at the time, the only thing I was vaguely aware of, was a small black object hurtling down through the afternoon sky towards me, and then …

CRACK!

A momentary flash of blinding pain …

And then nothing.

Twenty minutes earlier, everything had been perfectly normal. It was Friday 5th March, and the streets were still mushy with the remains of last week’s snow. I’d felt school at the usual time, feeling pretty much the same as I always felt. I was just, you know, perfectly normal. I was Tom Harvey, a sixteen-year-old kid from South London. I had no worries, no secrets, no terrors, no hopes, no dreams — and I had no story to tell. I had my hopes and dreams, of course, like any sixteen-year-old, and I wanted to be a comedian one day.

And I suppose one of those hopes, one of those dreams was the girl I was thinking about as I was waiting for the bell to ring. Lucy Walker was her name and we were both in the same year at school. The only problem was I was too shy to speak to her, and she always seemed to be busy with her friends.

Lucy didn’t like her doctor anymore. I’d see her at school sometimes, and occasionally we’d walk back home together, but that was every now and then I’d go to pick her up and ask her for a while, or she’d come over to mine. But we didn’t play on the swings together any more. And I kind of missed her. I missed a lot about Lucy Walker.

So it had been kind of nice when she’d come up to me in the school playground earlier that day and asked if I could come round to her place after school.

“I need to talk to you about something,” she’d said.

“Okay,” I told her. “No problem … what time?”

“About four.”

“OK.”

“Thanks, Tom.”

And I’d been thinking about her ever since.

I remember reeling, as I headed across the square, that despite the mush of snow on the ground it was starting to feel warm. It was actually a really nice day – crisp and fresh and clear, birds singing in a sunny spring sky. I paused for a moment, looking at my watch, wondering if I was ready. Four o’clock, Lucy had said.

I was about to get going again when I heard a distant shout from above.

“Hey, HARVEY!”

I looked up. And that’s when I saw it – that small black object, hurtling down through the bright blue sky towards me, and then …

CRACK!

This text has been adapted from the original, for the purpose of assessment, without the author's prior consent.

Read this extract, adapted from iBoy by Kevin Brooks and answer the questions which follow it - Junior Cycle English - Question 5 - 2014

Worked Solution & Example Answer:Read this extract, adapted from iBoy by Kevin Brooks and answer the questions which follow it - Junior Cycle English - Question 5 - 2014

1. What was the small black object that hit Tom?

2. Who is Tom on his way to see when the incident occurs?

B. From your reading of this passage, what impression do you get of Tom Harvey? Give reasons for your answer.

C. Do you think that Tom and Lucy have a good friendship? Give reasons for your answer.

D. Write a paragraph in which you continue this story and describe what happens next! Your answer should be based on what you learn in the passage.

E. Name a NOVEL or a SHORT STORY you have studied where two characters have either a good relationship or a bad relationship with each other.

Describe the two characters.

Describe one event from the story which shows that these two characters have either a good relationship or a bad relationship.

Explain why this event shows that they have either a good relationship or a bad relationship with each other.

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