Saladin Days
Timed Close Reading Feedback
10. Look carefully at paragraph 10 (lines 49-53)
What is the negative thing and what is the positive thing the writer
suggests the film possesses, according to these lines?
Answer in your own words.
2U
Marking Scheme:
• Negative Quality “there is not much humour in this earnest film”
– the film is rarely funny. (1)
• Positive Quality “there is, of course, much exhilarating combat”
– there are lots of exciting fight sequences. (1)
Sample Answer:
The negative is that the author suggests that film contains little
humour. The positive is that it contains exciting, well-detailed
combat scenes.
2. Take any two of the five qualities the writer believes are necessary to
create an historical epic and explain in your own words what these
qualities are.
2U
Marking Scheme (any two of the following for 1 mark each):
• “mighty spectacle” – they are stunning to look at.
• “a grand narrative sweep that transports colourful characters through
exotic landscapes” – they have a dramatic story about interesting
people, which takes place in lots of unusual settings.
• “uplifting sentiments of a religious, patriotic, heroic or moral kind.” –
they contain lots of grand ideas and themes about things like religion,
love of your country, doing the right thing, etc.
• “soaring music” – they have an uplifting musical soundtrack
• “sheer length” – they have a long running time.
Sample Answer:
The movie has to have a great script involving different characters in
foreign places and it has to have a well composed soundtrack.
3. Look carefully at the section beginning “The first is mighty
spectacle…” (line 2) to the end of the first paragraph.
4A
How does the author effectively use language to help make hi points
about the five qualities required to make the historical epic? (You
should refer to sentence structure and word choice in your answer).
Sample Answer A:
The writer uses words like “mighty”, “grand”, “uplifting”, “soaring”
and “sheer” to make these movies seem large and important.
Sample Answer B:
“mighty” suggests that the things the audience sees in the film will be
larger-than-life and rather impressive to look at.
“soaring” suggests that the music in the film will be majestic and
emotive.
“grand” suggests that the story of the film will be about important
issues and on an extremely large scale.
Close Reading – Things to Focus On
1. Manage your time carefully, to make sure you
attempt every question.
2. Answer every question – don’t leave gaps.
3. Analysis Questions:
Analyse 1 technique for every mark the question
is worth (e.g. 4 marks – analyse 4 techniques).
4. “Own Words” Questions:
Check your answers to ensure that:
– you haven’t used any words from the passage.
– you haven’t changed the meaning of the information
from the passage when you translate it.