THE SIGNALMAN – COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS AND VOCABULARY PAGE BY PAGE AS YOU READ.
(then follow up worksheets to be given for subsequent self-study)
Page 8
a) What did the writer find unusual about the signalman’s response to his question?
b) Why would a sunset be “angry”?
Vocabulary.
A cutting – an open excavation through raised ground to permit a railway to cross it.
Trench – a long narrow hole cut in the ground
To be steeped – “steeped in the glow of an angry sunset” – infused, filled
To be furled – “..a flag in his hand, furled round its short pole” – rolled up
Page 9
a) Is the writer content to repeat his question to the signalman?
b) Why was the signalman reluctant to have pointed out a particular path to the writer to reach him?
Vocabulary.
By dint of – by means of
Notched out – market with v-shaped cuts
Clammy – wet and cold
Oozier – adjective of oozy – covered in thick liquid mud
Skim away – “.. a train …was skimming away over the landscape” – pass quickly
Page 10
a) How does the writer describe the signalman and his post?
Vocabulary.
Sallow – yellow-brown skin
Jagged – rough and uneven, with sharp points
Crooked – not straight
Forbidding – looking dangerous
Riveted – fixed firmly
Lonesome – solitary
Page 11
a) Why was the writer wary of him at first?
b) How does the signalman describe his job?
Vocabulary.
Daunted – discouraged
Latent – “latent fear” – not obvious, hidden
Dread – fear
Page 12
a) What else do you learn about the signalman’s past education and present job?
Vocabulary.
To grow used to – to get used to something
To be a poor hand at figures – not be good at maths
Page 13
a) What else do you learn about the signalman’s past?
b) How does he carry out his job?
c) What does the narrator notice as strange behaviour?
Vocabulary.
Workhouses – in earlier times, places for poor people to live if they had no work.
To misuse – to use inappropriately
To run wild – to be reckless, having no discipline
To make your bed and lie in it – “he had made his bed, and he lay upon it..” – accepting the negative results of something bad
you have done
Damp – moisture in the air
Page 14
a) What does the narrator agree to do?
Vocabulary.
So far asunder – apart
Rose to leave him – past of “rise” – in this case “got up to”
Page 15
a) Why was the signalman troubled?
Vocabulary.
Whisper - talk in low voice
Page 16
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a) What does the signalman tell the writer?
b) How does the writer feel about the story?
Vocabulary.
Sleeve - a part of a garment that covers all or part of an arm.
“the wet stains stealing down the walls” – steal here means moving quietly
Trickling – moving slowly in a thin stream
Page 17
a) What happened after the appearance of the ghost?
b) What does the writer say to reassure the signalman?
Vocabulary.
Shudder – shiver
“crept over me” – to creep – move up very slowly
“begged to remark” – wanted to say
“begged his pardon” – apologised
Page 18
a) What happens after the second appearance of the ghost?
Vocabulary.
Shaft – beam or line of light coming through an opening
“turned me faint” – made me feel weak
Ghastly - terrible
Page 19
a) How does the writer try to reassure the signalman?
b) Yet how does he himself really feel?
c) Is the signalman convinced?
Vocabulary.
Wail – long, sad cry
Misleads you – makes you think wrongly
Page 20
a) Does the signalman see the ghost in the writer’s presence?
b) What does the signalman want to know?
Vocabulary.
Unwilling – reluctant
Matter-of-course – accepting something as natural or inevitable
Ruminating – turning something over in your mind
Page 21
a) What is the signalman’s dilemma?
Vocabulary.
Haunting – visitation by a spirit
Cruel – unkind
Page 22
a) How did the writer calm him down?
b) What however bothered the writer the most?
Vocabulary.
Painstaking – very careful and thorough
Stake – risk losing
Treacherous – going against trust
Page 23
a) What did the writer decide to do to help the signalman?
b) What did he see when he looked down towards the trench?
Vocabulary.
Stroll – slow walk
Brink – extreme edge
Apprised – to give notice to
Rehearsing – practising
Page 24
a) What had happened to the signalman?
Vocabulary.
To take heed of – to hear
Broad day – clear light of day
a) Page 25 Why was the writer shocked by the words of warning shouted at the signalman?
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