Choosing the Representative Image
RL.5.7
Read the text, then answer the questions.
The Mill: Ivy Sallow's Account
We knew by the thread. You cannot work a loom for twenty-two years and not notice when the good cotton stops coming. From about the March, it was the cheap stuff, and it broke. So we knew something. What we did not know was how long we had, and that is the part I mind. I could have been looking. My sister found work in Derby that spring and asked me twice. I said the mill would see me out. He stood on a crate on the Friday and told us. Somebody asked how long he had known. He said he would rather not say. That was the answer, really.
- 1. What single image would represent this account, and why?
- 2. Quote accurately the words in which Ivy states her grievance.
- 3. Quote the exchange that closes the account.
The Refusal
The rule was that everyone in Year Six performed at the leavers' assembly. Kemi told Mr Adeyemi she would not. Not could not — would not. He asked why. She said that if she explained, he would try to solve it, and it was not a problem to be solved. It was a decision. He could have made her. Instead he asked whether she would run the sound desk, which nobody had volunteered for and which meant she would be there for every rehearsal. She said yes. At the assembly she was at the back, in the dark, and every cue was perfect. Her mother asked afterwards why she had not been in it. Kemi said she had been.
- 1. Quote the words in which Kemi refuses to explain.
- 2. Quote accurately the distinction Kemi draws in the second paragraph.
- 3. What single image would represent this story?
LessonPrint · RL.5.7 · Set 4 · free to copy for classroom use