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Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney
Vocabulary Worksheet
A) Vocabulary: Baby
Place the following words in the grid below: a cot – a pram – coo
Definition
1) Contented noise made by a baby
2) A baby's bed with high sides
3) A carriage used to push around a baby
Answer
B) Vocabulary: Flowers
Place the following words in the table below: coquelicot / perce-neige
Flowers
Translation
Colour of the flower
snowdrop
poppy
C) Vocabulary: The Body/ Death
Place the following words in the table below: funeral – corpse – bruise – temple – scar –
stanch – bandage
Definition
a) Area of discoloured skin caused by a blow / un bleu
b) Piece of material used on a wound
c) Stop the flow of blood
d) A permanent mark on skin left after healing of a wound or burn
e) A dead body
f) Flat side of head between forehead and ear
g) Burial ceremony of a dead person
D) Vocabulary: Verbs
whisper•
•
sooth •
•
cough •
•
laugh •
•
knell •
•
sigh •
•
calm a person's feelings
sudden sharp sound from the throat
sound expressing happiness and amusement
speak very softly
sound of a bell (especially at a funeral)
a long audible breath expressing sadness
Answer
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E) Prounuciation: Put the verbs above into the past simple. Now put them into the table
below according to the pronunciation of the ending – ed. See the example below:
/Id/
/d/
/t/
whispered
Add the following verbs from Exercise C and Exercise A to the table: coo, stanch, bandage
F) Miscellaneous Vocabulary
Place the following words in the table below: college sick bay – a bumper – gaudy – tearless –
take something in your stride
Definition
Bar on the front of a car which protects it during an accident / pare-chocs
Extravagantly bright and showy
Accept something without showing any emotion
School infirmary
Without tears
Vocabulary Word
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General Comprehension
1) Who is the I in the opening stanza?
 a young boy
 an old man
 Big Jim Evans
 the mother
2) Tick all the characters mentioned.
 neighbours
 his father
 his sister
 his mother
 his brother
 Big Jim Evans
 a baby
 nurses
 teachers
 a priest
3) Which settings are mentioned?
 a school
 a hospital
 the boy’s home
 a church
 bedroom
4) What has happened to the boy’s brother?
 he is ill in hospital
 he is dead
 it is his birthday
 he has been expelled from school
5) What is the general tone of the poem?
 celebratory
 angry
 tragic / sad
 joyous
 other? ………………..
Choose two words to justify your answer. ………………………………………….
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Detailed Comprehension
Part One (line 1 – 10)
1. Where is he waiting?
 headmaster’s office
 school infirmary
 church
2. How does the boy feel as he sits waiting to be picked up by the neighbours?
(Think about the references to time.)
3. Can you identify TWO examples of alliteration in the first stanza and comment on
their effect on the reader?
Technique
Alliteration
Examples
Comment
Alliteration
4. Who takes the boy home? Why might this seem strange to the boy?
5. Identify all the people that the boy meets when he gets home. How do they react?
What atmosphere is created by their behaviour?
6. Look at the two expressions: “a hard blow” and “ my trouble.” What do these refer to?
What do the expressions reveal about the people and how they feel?
7. How do you think the boy is feeling at this point?
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Part Two Lines (11 – 22)
1.What 2 pieces of information do we learn about the boy?
 he is the youngest in the family
 he studies away at school
 he is the eldest boy
 he has been expelled from school
2. Why do you think the people whisper?
3. What literary device is used in line 11? Explain its effect.
4. What gesture does his mother make? Why does she do this?
5. Contrast the mother and the father’s reaction.
6. Look at the different ways below that the dead boy is referred to. Put them in the order that
they occur in the poem:
- his cot
- he - him
- the corpse
- his temple
Does this reveal anything about a progression in the narrator’s mind?
7. Which items can be found in the bedroom?
8. Note down all the descriptions of the dead boy.
9. What is the box? What is it compared to?
10. Comment on the final line.