|
READ THIS
A donkey strays onto the main highway and is struck by a car. Injured, he makes his way onto a small
holding where the narrator finds he has a serious decision to make.
READ THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE:
I first saw him on my way home from work. He was grazing on the Great North Road. The few grains he
could snuff up from the tarmac did not seem worth the risk.
On that stretch of road the speed limit is 60. We daily commuters usually regard this as an invitation to
give our motors STICK. I content myself with a modest 50, and am usually passed on the downward
stretch by everything not horse-drawn.
And here was this donkey snuffing up pinches of chaff and straw at the very point where the long
downgrade sweeps to the foot of the steepest rise of the road. It would be sheer bad driving not to
accelerate at this point.
I slowed down involuntarily, wondering whether to chase him out of harm's way; but with the callousness
that comes so easily to me nowadays (and which I sometimes flatter myself is a symptom of maturity) I
refused to worry about a mere donkey.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
|
TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
Did the narrator understand the situation the donkey was in when he first saw it? Explain your
answer. (3)
[Need help?]
One could argue that the narrator DID understand the position the donkey was in.
He speaks of the callousness which came to him so easily, and that he refused to worry.
Both expressions indicate an implicit knowledge.
|
What is 60 miles per hour in kilometres? (1)
[Need help?]
How do you convert miles to kilometres? Five miles = eight kilometres.
Therefore 60 miles per hour would convert to 96 kilometres per hour.
The narrator was doing a "modest 50" which converts to 80 kilometres per hour, which probably
was indeed quite a modest speed.
|
What is a "commuter"? (2)
[Need help?]
A commuter is a person who travels from one place to another, usually on a daily basis.
The term is often referred to people who travel daily by bus or train, but one can commute daily in one's
own car.
|
Why does the writer write "STICK" in upper case? (2)
[Need help?]
He wants to use emphasis, doesn't he? He could use italics, but the use of the upper case somehow
makes the emphasis bolder.
|
What is meant by "pinches of chaff"? (2)
[Need help?]
"Chaff" literally means the husks taken off wheat kernels, but in this case the narrator is probably
using the word rather loosely to refer to any bits of straw or hay which have fallen onto the road from
passing trucks.
They are "pinches of chaff" because they are very small portions, tiny bits of straw lying on the road.
|
What reason does the narrator give for not reacting? (Quote ONE word.) (1)
[Need help?]
What does the writer mean when he says he "slowed down involuntarily"? (2)
[Need help?]
The narrator means that he automatically touched his brakes when he saw the donkey on the road.
He did not think about it. It was an automatic reflex.
|
Why did he go in that direction again a while later? (2)
[Need help?]
Did he go in that direction again? Well, he decided to take his dogs for a walk and, as he walked down
the driveway of his house, he saw the donkey stumbling towards him.
|
What do you think was the writer's purpose or intention when he wrote this story? (2)
[Need help?]
The author appears to be putting forward the point that one should not play God, should not become the
executioner and kill animals unnecessarily.
In this case, the donkey was badly injured in an accident and appeared to be blind, and yet gave every
indication that he could happily continue to exist in that state, whereas the narrator had initially wished to
shoot him.
|
Where is the "Great North Road"? (1)
[Need help?]
The Great North Road is the N1 national road which runs from Johannesburg to Pretoria, and then
northwards through to Beit Bridge on the Limpopo River where it crosses into Zimbabwe.
|
|
