Week 3 home learning activities

Extract from Evil Star

There was something wrong about the house in Eastfield Terrace. Something unpleasant. All the houses in the street

were more or less identical: redbrick, Victorian, with two bedrooms on the first floor and a bay window on either the

left or the right of the front door.

Some had satellite dishes. Some had window boxes filled with brightly coloured flowers. But looking down from the

top of the hill at the terrace curving round St Patrick’s church on its way to the Esso garage and All-Nite store, one

house stood out immediately. Number twenty-seven no longer belonged there. It was as if it had caught some sort

of disease and needed to be taken away.

The front garden was full of junk, and as usual the wheelie bin beside the gate was overflowing, surrounded by black

garbage bags that the owners had been unable to stuff inside. This wasn’t uncommon in Eastfield Terrace. Nor was it

particularly strange that the curtains were permanently drawn across the front windows and, as far as anyone could

tell, the lights were never turned on. But the house smelled. For weeks now there had been a rotten, sewagey smell

that had seemed at first to be coming from a blocked pipe but that had rapidly got worse until people had begun to

cross the street to avoid it. And whatever was causing it seemed to be affecting the entire place. The grass on the

front lawn was beginning to die. The flowers had wilted and then been choked up by weeds. The colour seemed to

be draining out of the very bricks.

The neighbours had tried to complain. They had knocked on the front door, but nobody had come. They had

telephoned, but nobody had answered. Finally, they had called the borough council at the Ipswich Civic Centre but of

course it would be weeks before any action was taken. The house wasn’t empty. That much they knew. They had

occasionally seen the owner, Gwenda Davis, pacing back and forth behind the net curtains. Once – more than a

week ago – she had been seen scurrying home from the shops. And there was one other piece of evidence that there

was still life at number twenty-seven: every evening the television was turned on. Gwenda Davis was well known in

the street.

Highlight the following words in the passage above:

Lawn telephoned rotten curtains

Satellite disease occasionally rapidly

Now answer the questions below:

Literal questions

1) What was the name of the street in the story?

1 mark

2) Who owns the dilapidated house?

3) Why did people start to cross the street to avoid number twenty-seven?

Inferential questions

4) Do you think the houses on the street are generally well looked after? Why do you think this?

5) What do you think the author means when it says ‘it was as if it had caught some sort of disease’?

Evaluative questions

6) What do you think the neighbours thought of the owner of the house? Why do you think that?

7) Do you think the borough council are effective in sorting out problems? Why do you think this?

3 marks

2 marks

2 marks

1 mark

1 mark

3 marks

1 934 + 100

1 mark

2 345 x 4

1 mark

3 8.6 + 0.6

1 mark

4 29 x 5

1 mark

5 2,452 + 573

1 mark

6 63 ÷ 7

1 mark

7 846 - 9

1 mark

8 8.3 + 0.08

1 mark

9 5 x 6 x 2

1 mark

10 7

12 -

4

12

1 mark

11 216 ÷ 8

1 mark

12 5.98 x 100

1 mark

13 8²

1 mark

14 30,000 - 700

1 mark

15 1000 x 60

1 mark

16 720 ÷ 9

1 mark

17 40% of 1,700

1 mark

18 3.59 x 4

1 mark

19 2

11 +

6

11

1 mark

20 4,329 + 1,632

1 mark

21 1,482 ÷ 6

1 mark

22 13 – 7.02

1 mark

23 Show your method

2 marks

6 3

x 5 2

24 15.5 – 6.47

1 mark

25

Show your method

1 3 4 2 2 5

2 marks

26 1

4 x

1

7

1 mark

27 55% of 480

1 mark

28 563,832 – 38,471

1 mark

29 Show your method

2 marks

6 2 5

x 4 7

30 20 x 31

2

1 mark

31 20 – 4 x 2

1 mark

32 Show your method

2 marks

3 7 2 3 3 1

33 11

5 -

1

4

1 mark

34 1

2 ÷ 4

1 mark

35 7

9 +

4

27

1 mark

36 6

12 ÷ 3

1 mark

Question 1

Which of the following sentences is punctuated correctly?

A. After we went bowling we went out for tea.

B. After, we went bowling we went out for tea.

C. After we went bowling, we went out for tea.

D. After we went bowling we went, out for tea.

Circle the letter on your answer sheet.

Question 2

Which sentence uses apostrophes correctly?

A. We tidied up the childrens’ toys.

B. We tidied up the childrens toy’s.

C. We tidied up the childrens toys’.

D. We tidied up the children’s toys.

Circle the letter on your answer sheet.

Question 3

Write the contracted form of the underlined words on your

answer sheet.

They have not been to our house for a while.

Question 4

Circle all of the pronouns in this sentence on your answer sheet.

The girls bought some snacks for themselves, but they didn’t buy

any for their bother and he was cross.

Question 5

Complete the sentence below with an adjective formed from the

word ‘art’.

The girl was very __________ and could draw well.

Question 6

Which sentence has a relative clause? Circle the answer on your

answer sheet.

A. The dog slept on the floor all day.

B. The teacher wondered what time break would finish.

C. We visited the cottage where we grew up.

D. We always go on holiday every year.

BONUS – Can you identify the relative pronoun?

Question 7

Does the modal verb in each sentence suggest certainty or possibility?

Certainty Possibility

1. Miss Tittle will be a millionaire.

2. You can come to the SATs party.

3. We might bring cake!

BONUS – Write down the three modal verbs on your answer sheet.

Question 8

What is the name of the punctuation mark that is separating the

two main clauses below?

Our school has one important rule: treat others as you wish to be

treated – not nastily.

Question 9

Circle all of the conjunctions in these sentences.

A. If you want to go outside, you’ll need to finish your

homework.

B. When you go outside, take a coat, as it’s very cold today.

C. We went out to play once we had eaten tea but we couldn’t

play out for long.

Question 10

What is the name of the punctuation in red below, used to show that

someone is speaking?

“Don’t go any further!” she commanded.

Question 11

Convert the following reported speech into direct speech, using

the correct punctuation.

The teacher told them that they could go outside now.

Question 12

Tick to show whether each clause underlined is a main clause or a

subordinate clause.

Main Clause Subordinate Clause

1. We couldn’t go to the party as we

were on holiday that weekend.

2. My dog, who is very mischievous,

stole the cake from the cupboard.

3. If you want to go to the circus,

call me back.

BONUS – Write down the three modal verbs on your answer sheet.

Question 13a

Write a sentence using the word fight as a verb.

Question 13b

Write a sentence using the word fight as a noun.

Question 14

Which sentence is written in the passive voice?

A. The gardener mowed the lawn and watered the plants.

B. The children completed the puzzle really quickly.

C. The fair will be organised by a volunteer group.

D. She lit the candle before her friends arrived.

Question 15

Tick to show whether each underlined word is an adjective or an adverb.

Adjective Adverb

1. She slammed the door shut firmly.

2. He paid thousands of pounds for the

original painting.

3. Come to my house later.

Question 16

Which sentences are commands? Choose two.

A. You must complete your homework on time.

B. Don’t push into the queue.

C. Bring your work to me when you’ve finished it.

D. It is important that you check your answers.

Question 17

Which sentence uses hyphens correctly?

A. Twenty four-year-olds signed up for the ballet class.

B. Twenty-four-year-olds signed up for the ballet class.

C. Twenty-four year olds signed up for the ballet class.

D. Twenty four year-olds signed up for the ballet class.

Question 18

Tick to show whether before has been used as a preposition, or as a

subordinating conjunction.

Preposition Subordinating

conjunction

1. Before lunch, we went to the park.

2. We managed to get to the station before the

train left.

3. Before we ran the race, we warmed up and

stretched our muscles.

Question 19

Which sentence uses the subjunctive form?

A. We were late for the play; it had already started.

B. She has been working hard this year.

C. If I were rich, I’d buy myself a helicopter to travel to school in.

D. She will be joining us on our holiday next year.

Question 20

Which sentence uses the past progressive tense?

A. She danced around her bedroom.

B. When the police arrived, the burglar had gone.

C. Even though it was raining, he was playing outside.

D. She is happy that you’ve decided to come.

Question 21

Tick to show whether the conjunction in each sentence is a coordinating

conjunction or a subordinating conjunction.

Coordinating

Conjunction

Subordinating

conjunction

1. I haven’t been to Blackpool but I would like

to go.

2. Because it’s a clear night, you can see the

stars.

3. We can go to your house or we can go to the

park.

Question 22

Circle all the determiners in the following sentence:

Every green train that comes into the station has at least two carriages.

Question 23

Which sentence uses the present perfect tense?

A. She has been dancing since she was very young.

B. If I were a dancer, I’d go on Britain’s Got Talent.

C. She was listening into our conversation.

D. He plays football every week.

Question 24

Circle the possessive pronoun in this sentence:

The pencils belong to Bob but the pens are hers.

Create a model of a London landmark using items from home. You could make:

• The London Eye

• The Tower of London

• Big Ben

• Tower Bridge

• The Gherkin

• The Shard

• St Paul’s Cathedral

Decorate your model to make it stand out. You could use the shading techniques we have

learned at school.

The Cave Mary slept fitfully. She tossed and turned without ever properly waking up, and dreams of anxiety came and went as the moon inched its way reluctantly across the cloudless sky. For the first time in many a night she was woken by neither the cries of her hungry young son, nor the late arrival of her workaholic husband.

The previous day had been a long and tiring one. Alfie had been grumpy, and had refused his milk all afternoon. Only by late evening had he finally given up and gone to sleep. The heating had broken down in the morning and the plumber hadn’t answered his phone. On top of that, Rob’s Garage had contacted her after lunch to explain that the repairs to the car were going to take much longer than expected; apparently the drive shaft was corroded and the gear box had to be replaced. Where the money was going to come from she didn’t know. She had tried to phone Jake at the office for support but had just got through to his voice mail every time. Her best friend Belinda, to whom she would normally turn for help, was on holiday and her elder sister Kate was away in Kent on business.

As she awoke, Mary felt her pillow dig sharply into her neck and she moved her head to one side to relieve the pain. A sudden shallow scratch appeared on her left cheek and she sat up with a cry of surprise. Raising her hand to her face, she dislodged the culprit - a small grain of sand - which fell silently and sulkily to disappear into the gloom by her hips.

Her bed felt hard – like stone. She put a hand down onto the mattress to discover that her favourite soft cotton sheets were unexpectedly damp and strangely unyielding under her exploring fingers. A fraction of a second later she was wide awake, mind racing, as she realised that she was not in her bed - nor even in her bedroom! Her heart drummed a frightened rhythm on her ribs and the pupils of her lovely eyes widened in a desperate quest to gather light for her brain. Mary’s right amygdala screamed at her to take action, but what action? She scrambled to her feet and hit her head hard on a rocky ceiling. Tears appeared in her eyes but she blinked them angrily away and searched in the darkness for a landmark.

Over there! A lighter patch of dark – no bigger than a grape! With her left hand outstretched, and her right hand shielding her bruised head, she bent over at the waist, crouched as much as comfort would allow, and carefully made her way towards the light.

To keep her fear at bay, she focused her thoughts on other things: the price of children’s clothes; the baby aardvark at the zoo – recalling that “It feeds on ants and termites.” She remembered the local newspaper report of the man who had apparently gone missing “without trace” from his seaside holiday home last week and that her husband was particularly fond of cheesecake.

The floor was highly uneven, but largely flat and free from obstructions, and Mary made steady progress towards her goal, collecting only minor bumps and scratches on her elbows and shins. Soon, the light had become the size of a football, and then large enough for her to see more clearly and allow her speed to increase. She soon reached the entrance of the cave.

Stopping suddenly with a sharp intake of breath, Mary looked down in disbelief. Below the delicately painted toenails of her besmirched and grimy feet stretched a sheer limestone cliff face. At its base, perhaps one hundred metres below, snaked a silent silvery stream, shimmering in the sunlight.

A large, sharp-beaked bird sat on a long moss-covered ledge to the left of the cave entrance. There was no escape that way; the ledge petered out after a few metres and in any case, it was barely wider than her foot. To the right, a few small stunted bushes clung tenaciously to the rock face, their gnarled roots taking advantage of a few deep cracks from which dark stains – evidence of water – emerged to tarnish the cliff face beneath.

Twisting her shoulders and poking her head out into the nothingness, she swivelled her eyes skywards and saw that she was standing about ten metres below what looked like the top of the cliff. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought that she could see some thin trees and yellow-flowered gorse bushes just above a line where hard grey gave way to soft green. Feeling suddenly dizzy, Mary withdrew her head into the comparative safety of the cave and sat down to think.

Her frontal lobe arrived at the obvious answer at the same time as the alarm on her mobile phone informed her that it was time to feed Tiger, the neighbour’s cat. Peter was away in Cyprus and she had volunteered to look after his beloved pet until he returned. Heaven knows why it was called Tiger – it was jet black with green eyes and it was as scared as an elderly lady in a shark tank.

Mary silenced the inappropriately jolly and annoyingly persistent tune, and noticed at the same time that there was no signal – strange, since she was so high up. She pointed the screen towards the sky, but there was still nothing. With a shrug, she got up, adopted her crouching stance, and began her journey back into the cave.

After some minutes, she looked behind her and saw that the light at the entrance had dwindled to the size of a peanut. Using the torch on her phone to speed her progress and protect her aching body from the harsh rock, she continued down the ever-narrowing tunnel. Over the last few minutes, her feelings of optimism had been gradually fading as the space around her diminished - and they were soon to evaporate completely.

After a few more steps, Mary came across the thing that she had not even dared to contemplate. The tunnel ended abruptly. She had reached the back of the cave! The walls, roof and sides of her subterranean prison joined together in a stony embrace and her way was completely blocked. She frantically waved her torch around in the darkness and checked three times in every direction, but there was no alternative. Her hopes were dashed; she had no alternative but to go back.

Surely this was impossible. How had she got here? What was going on? Her brain ached as she fought back the panic. “Think Mary, think!” Her neurons fired like an artillery barrage. Fight, flight or freeze!? None of them were an option and she knew it. She forced herself to remain calm, turned around and began reciting prime numbers to help her remain in control. She began to retrace her steps.

When she was at last reunited with the daylight, she once more poked her head out into the abyss and reassessed her limited options. Far below, she thought she could make out a yellow excavator approaching a little bridge across the river, but it was too far away to help her. Taking a deep breath, she turned her back to the sun, slid her left foot out of the cave and placed it into a small hole.

She began to climb.

The Cave – Page 1: Questions

1) Look at paragraph 1. (1 mark)

What two things have been waking Mary recently?

2) The moon inched its way reluctantly across the cloudless sky. (2 marks)

What does the word reluctantly suggest about how time seems to be passing?

Explain your answer.

3) In question 2, the moon is described as reluctant. (1 mark)

This is an example of: (Tick one)

a) Exaggeration

b) Personification

c) Antonym

d) Simile

e) Understatement

4) Find and copy one word which suggests that Mary’s husband works a lot. (1 mark)

5) What do you think is the name of Mary’s husband? (2 marks)

Why do you think this?

6) Why had the previous day been long and tiring? (2 marks)

Give three reasons.

7) How do you know that Mary is worrying about her finances? (1 mark)

8) From whom does Mary usually ask for advice when things go wrong? (1 mark)

9) Why was Mary’s sister away from home? (Tick one)

a. She was on holiday.

b. She was looking to purchase some French wine from a dealer.

c. She had taken a wrong turning off the M25.

d. She was seeing a heart specialist in a hospital.

e. She was looking for a new puppy from a rescue centre.

f. She was on a lecture tour of the south east of England.

10) Look at the third paragraph which begins: As she awoke... (1 mark)

What scratched Mary’s cheek?

11) Mary realised she was not in her bedroom and became wide awake. (1 mark)

How do you know that she could not see very well at this moment?

12) After she hit her head, Mary looked for a landmark in the darkness. (1 mark)

In what direction did she move?

13) Choose the word which best describes how Mary moved through the cave. (1 mark)

Tick one:

a. Enthusiastically

b. Eagerly

c. Warily

d. Sulkily

e. Excitedly

14) As she moved, what did Mary choose to do to stay in control and not panic? (2 marks)

Give a specific example from the text.

15) What injuries did Mary collect on her journey along the cave? (1 mark)

16) Why were Mary’s feet besmirched and grimy? (1 mark)

17) How did Mary feel when she reached the entrance to the cave? (3 marks)

Find evidence from the text to support your view.

Explain why your evidence supports your view.

18) Find the text: snaked a silent silvery stream, shimmering in the sunlight. (1 mark)

This is an example of: (Tick one)

a. Hyperbole

b. Personification

c. Synonym

d. Onomatopoeia

e. Alliteration

19) Identify one feature of Mary’s personality. (Point) (3 marks)

Find evidence from the text to support your view. (Evidence)

Explain why your evidence supports your view. (Explain)

20) Look at paragraph 1. (2 marks)

Why was there no escape to the left of the cave entrance?

21) What caused the dark stains on the cliff face to Mary’s right? (1 mark)

22) Find and copy one word which tells you that the bushes on the cliff face had (1 mark)

not grown as tall as they normally would.

23) When Mary looked up the cliff, she saw a line where hard grey gave way to (1 mark)

soft green. What does this mean?

24) Mary popped her head back into the cave and sat down to think. (2 marks)

In your opinion, what was she trying to understand?

Give a reason for your answer.

25) When Mary figured out the obvious answer to her puzzle, she immediately (2 marks)

set off back into the cave.

Why did she set off back into the cave? Explain your reasoning.

26) Read paragraph 5. Why had the light dwindled to the size of a peanut? (1 mark)

27) Mary’s feelings of optimism…were soon to evaporate completely. (1 mark)

This is an example of: (Tick one)

f) Hyperbole

g) Metaphor

h) Synonym

i) Simile

j) Alliteration

28) Find and copy one word from paragraph 6 which means to think about. (1 mark)

29) What were Mary’s feelings when she reached the back of the cave? (2 marks)

How do you know this?

30) Find the text: The walls, roof and sides of her subterranean prison joined (1 mark)

together in a stony embrace. What does this mean?

31) Why were Mary’s hopes dashed? (Tick one) (1 mark)

g. The roof had collapsed and blocked the way.

h. She was exhausted and could not carry on.

i. She did not know which tunnel to choose to escape from the cave.

j. She could see no way out.

k. Her torch batteries had run out and she could not see where to go.

l. She had forgotten to set her TV to record Strictly.

32) Choose the word which describes least well how Mary was feeling when she (1 mark)

turned around and retraced her steps. Tick one:

a. Concerned

b. Panicked

c. Agitated

d. Relaxed

e. Worried

f. Nervous

33) Find and copy an example of a simile from paragraph 7. (1 mark)

34) Find the text: Surely this was impossible. (1 mark)

Explain what was impossible.

35) What three things were not an option for Mary? (3 marks)

Explain why each one was not an option.

36) Where was Mary when she was reunited with the daylight? (1 mark)

37) When Mary poked her head out into the abyss, she (Tick one): (1 mark)

a. wondered how high up she was;

b. tried to think of a new plan to get home;

c. thought about which of the many choices for escape she would pick;

d. once more thought about her small number of possible option;

e. day-dreamed about who had won Strictly this week.

38) Why did Mary take a deep breath before leaving the cave (1 mark)

39) How did Mary leave the cave? (1 mark)

40) Do you think Mary reached safety after leaving the cave? (3 marks)

Find evidence from the text to support your answer.

Explain how this evidence backs up your opinion.