Avengers Assemble!
National 4 and 5 Close Reading
Reading for Understanding and
Analysis
UNDERSTANDING QUESTIONS
WHAT ARE “U” QUESTIONS?
Understanding questions really just want
to see if you actually get what the writer’s
been saying. It’s to check that you’re on
the right page before you even begin to try
unscrambling metaphors and the like.
 SUMMARY:
 Understanding Questions focus on WHAT
the writer is saying.

IN YOUR OWN WORDS
Aha! As I am a
misanthropic
genius, I have
superior “In Your
Own Words”
skills!
Yes, but as a
result, I find you
rude and
annoying.
I prefer to
consider myself
“witty and
eccentric”.
IN YOUR OWN WORDS

Now these questions almost always want
you to WRITE IN YOUR OWN WORDS. If
I could make that flash in neon lights, I
would. That means DO NOT take words
from the passage! Use you mental
thesaurus and LOCATE and
TRANSLATE. Find the answer, then
make it your own. Let’s have a try:
IYOW QUESTION:
1.
In paragraph 1, what does the writer
consider to be “a hugely admirable
endeavour”?
Okay, so let’s find what it’s talking
about first…

Regular readers of this blog might recall that I've
tended to vacillate between wide-eyed
anticipation and benevolent concern when it
comes to the subject of Marvel. The budding film
studio's ongoing effort to revolutionise the comic
book movie by successfully realising multiple
superhero storylines on the big screen for the
first time has always come across as a hugely
admirable endeavour, which is unlikely to
deliver an entirely satisfactory outcome.

What I’ve done here is LOCATE the
answer. My first step in doing that was to
find the words in the question (the bold
bits) and then read around it until I found
what was relevant. Next up is to
TRANSLATE. Here’s my attempt at an
answer…
MY ANSWER

The writer admires the fact that the new
Avengers movie will have several
characters each with an individual plot.
Ta-da!

Wow, that was easy, wasn’t it? As you can
see, I totally avoided the following words:
“MULTIPLE”, “SUPERHERO” and
“STORYLINES”. The main idea we’re
aiming for are: loads of recognisable
characters and big plots. 2 marks in the
bag!
QUOTE
Sure thing, Tony.
I particularly
enjoyed the
phrase
“Hulk Smash”.
Our movie was
full of “quoteable” moments,
wasn’t it, Cap’?
QUOTE

The next question type when considering
Understanding questions is an easy one.
Quote. These are magic questions that
are basically just handing you marks.
Once again, they are looking for you to
show that you’re following the writer’s
point and that you can prove it by pulling
out key words or phrases. For example:
QUOTE QUESTION
2.
Quote a phrase from lines 1-3 which
shows that the writer has been excited
about previous Marvel films.
MY ANSWER
See what I mean about these being easy
ones? They are telling you where to look
(lines 1-3) and you’re just looking for a
phrase that means excitement or looking
forward to something. Nice and simple:
 “wide-eyed anticipation”
 It’s like being handed marks for free!

I have to say, as
a man from
another time, I
really struggle
with these ones.
CONTEXT
Well, being
frozen for 50
years doesn’t
really help
much, does it,
Cap?
CONTEXT

Now for a trickier one…Context
questions. Everyone in the class seems to
hate these. The main problem with these
questions is that if you really don’t know
what the word means, you can feel kind of
stuck. But do not fear as your context
formula is designed to try and help you out
of such a pickle. Here’s a formula
reminder:
CONTEXT FORMULA
Quote the word
 Give a definition
 Find a quote that shows the meaning.
 Explain how they show this

CONTEXT

By finding words that help you understand
the meaning, you can work out the
meaning a lot easier. So, if you don’t
know the meaning of the word, search
around it. The questions are called
“context” questions for a reason – let the
context of the passage help you out. Now
we’re going to have a shot:
CONTEXT QUESTION
3.
How does the context of the passage
help you understand the meaning of the
word “vacillate”? (paragraph 1).
CONTEXT

Eeep, what in the name of Thor’s Hammer
does “vacillate” mean? Holy moly, what
are we going to do?! *stress stress stress*
Well, first up, you’re going to stop pulling
your hair out. Then you are going to find
the word in the passage:
CONTEXT

Regular readers of this blog might recall
that I've tended to vacillate between wideeyed anticipation and benevolent concern
when it comes to the subject of Marvel.
CONTEXT

There we go, highlighted in bold and
underlined. Good first step. Now let’s
look around it. What does the sentence
actually mean? Well, the writer appears
to be saying that with Marvel movies he
jumps from excited to worried and back
again. Wicked. That helped a bit, didn’t
it? So now that we know what he’s
saying, we can decode the word a little.
CONTEXT

If he’s going between two different opinions, we
can guess that vacillate might mean “waver”
(which it does). So that’s the first part of our
answer down. So now onto the words around it
that helped us get there. “Between” stands out
as it would back up this idea of having different
opinions, just like Mr Blonde in Resevoir Dogs,
he’s “stuck in the middle” (har har). Also, by
giving us 2 opinions, we can also back up this
idea that he jumps between those 2 opnions.
MY ANSWER





“vacillate”
Means to waver
“between” helps us to understand the meaning
as this shows us that he isn’t set on one opinion
but goes “between” two.
“wide-eyed anticipation and benevolent concern”
also helps to understand this as these are the
two stances he is wavering between.
Therefore “vacillate” means to waver between
things and we can see this as the writer jumps
between two different opinions on Marvel
movies.
CONTEXT

I know that looks like loads, but by doing
this you’re covering your back by giving as
full an answer as you can. Great, that’s us
got context questions completely covered!
Woohoo!
Ah Link
Questions.
Really not that
tricky…
Sure but what kind
of saddo stayed
behind after every
film to watch 30
seconds?
LINK
Kind of like the way
that all those little
post-credits
sequences linked the
Avengers films
together?
Miss McDonald.
What a weirdo…
LINK

Last, but by no means least, we have Link
Questions. Big marks up for grabs here
and they really are quite simple to do.
Here’s a formula reminder:
LINK
Quote part that links back to previous
paragraph
 Explain how it does so
 Quote part that links forward to next
paragraph
 Explain how it does so.

LINK QUESTION

4.
Simple. Let’s try a question…
Explain how the first sentence of
paragraph 3 acts as a linking sentence.
LINK
Most people freak out at link questions but
they should be easy to spot and easy to
pull loads of marks from. For example, for
this question the first thing you would do is
find the line it’s directing you to:
 By the looks of the debut full-length trailer
for the film, which hit the web this week,
it's not likely to be Robert Downey Jr's Iron
Man.

LINK

Now does this flow on from the previous
paragraph? Of course it does. It’s
responding to the suggestion that was put
out at the end of paragraph 2 –
“someone’s going to be squeezed out the
picture”. So we’re looking for the part of
the sentence that does this. How about
“it's not likely to be”? Let’s attempt the first
half of our answer:
MY ANSWER: PART 1
“it's not likely to be”
 This links back to the previous paragraph
as paragraph 2 questioned whether or not
one of the 7 main characters were going to
be squeezed out of the picture and here
the writer is answering that by suggesting
who is not going to be kicked out.

LINK

Looks good to me. 2 marks in your back
pocket! Yay. Now onto the second half.
The next step should be to work out what
the following paragraph is about and in
this case it’s about why Iron Man is
awesome. So we must find the section in
that linking sentence that mentions him
and that’s just a matter of looking for his
name:
MY ANSWER: PART 2
“Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man”
 This links forward to the next paragraph as
it tells us more about why Iron Man will be
a welcome addition to the Avenger’s crew.

LINK

And that’s us up to 4 marks. Brilliant. It
seems like a lot of work but it’s worth it
when you can notch up 4 tasty points for
what is ultimately just a game of literary
Snap!
WARNING!!!

Let this be fair warning to you, though,
occasionally the link formula might not fit
the question or the passage. In that
case, it’s up to you to use you common
sense (a big ask, I know) to look for ways
in which the two paragraphs fit together.
For example, sometimes the paragraph
may start with a one word answer for a
question that appeared in the previous
paragraph. As long as you can spot
linking words, (but, and, however,
moreover, furthermore, etc) you should
still be able to answer renegade link
questions without just wanting to blow
them up like your old mate Tony here…
Understanding Questions Mini
Test
It would appear that Captain America finally understood why his own movie sucked…there
weren’t 6 other heroes there for him to hide behind.
Understanding Questions Mini
Test






According to the writer, what makes a bad superhero
film? (paragraph 1)
2U
What does he consider to be the problem with the
Avengers movie? Look to paragraph 2 for your
answer.
2U
How does the context of paragraph 3 help you
understand the meaning of the word “ensemble”? 2U
Quote a phrase from paragraph 3 which tells you that
the script has been worked on and rewritten several
times.
1U
Quote a phrase from paragraph 4 which shows that
Iron Man is who Marvel considers to be their best hero
in the upcoming Avengers movie.
1U
How does the first sentence in paragraph 6 act as a
link between paragraphs 5 and 6?
4U
Analysis Questions
Your puny Analysis
Questions are no
match for the
mighty God of
Thunder!
That’s nice but can
you GET THAT
DAMN HAMMER
OFF MY FOOT!
Analysis Questions
Wow, we’ve made it through the first of our
terrifying trials…Understanding questions.
But now we must take on our next villain.
Analysis! Aaaaah!
 It’s really not that scary, I promise. Just
like before, we’re going to break it down,
question by question. And with Thor on
our side, we’ve got a great big hammer to
help us do so. *smash smash*

What are A Questions?
Analysis questions are there to check if
you can recognise HOW the writer puts a
certain point across.
 This is where you pick of and comment on
WRITERS’ TECHNIQUES.

WORD CHOICE
The way you
puny humans
speak makes no
sense to me.
Hey, I’m from the
1940s, I’m just
as lost as you
are…
Word Choice

A great place to start would be Word Choice.
Wouldn’t you agree? Oh of course you do!
(mwahahaha) Now, Word Choice questions
want you to show that you can highlight words
that the writer has specifically chosen to achieve
a certain affect and that you can explain how
they achieve this. The formula works pretty well
for these questions as they ensure that you write
a full and thorough answer. Here’s a reminder:
Word Choice Formula
Quote the word and give meaning
(denotation)
 Give the ideas the word creates
(connotation)
 Explain why this is a good word
(effectiveness)

Word Choice Question

1.
Seems simple enough. How about a try?
What does the use of the word
“brooding” tell you about Christopher
Nolan’s film “The Dark Knight”?
(paragraph 2)
A Batman question! Woohoo! Bet you
were wondering when I’d slip one of those
in. Anyway, now to answer this one. First
of all where does it appear in the
passage?
 The honourable exception is, of course,
The Dark Knight, but even Christopher
Nolan's sprawling, brooding tour de force
wisely kept its main spotlight on the battle
between Batman and The Joker.

Word Choice

Since we are Batman’d out, to the max, we
should already know that brooding means
“menacing”. So there’s the first part of your
answer. The next is to show what its
connotations tell us about the film (remembering
to refer back to the question, just like in an
essay). So, ideas we get from brooding are:
dark, gloomy, threatening and ominous.
Superb. Now let’s jam that into an answer.
Bullet point answers work well with these
questions:
My Answer
“brooding” means menacing
 Its connotations include dark, gloomy,
threatening and ominous.
 This tells us that The Dark Knight had a
very dark and sinister atmosphere with
threatening and menacing characters and
themes.

All Done!!!

Sorted. A perfect answer that not only
included what the word means but also
what ideas it gave us AND it actually
answered the question. REMEMBER
sometimes just following your formula
isn’t enough; you have to make sure that
you’re actually doing what the question
has asked of you. In this case, it was
what the word tells you about the film.
Your Turn:

What does the writer’s use of the word
“sardonic” tell us about Tony Stark?
(paragraph 3)
SENTENCE STRUCTURE
My hair is so
beautiful and shiny
and my muscles are
so muscley. One
day, I will marry Miss
McD
Ooooookay…
that’s not weird
at all…
Sentence Structure
Okay dokay, lads and ladies, now onto a
wee peek at Sentence Structure
Questions. Let me say this first: THIS IS
NOT JUST A GAME OF SPOT THE
PUNCTUATION!!! You should be looking
out for the following things:
 Punctuation
 Sentence types
 Sentence Patterns

Sentence Structure Question
2.
How does the writer use sentence
structure to support his argument in
paragraph 1?
Sentence Structure
First up, find what the question’s directing
you to:
 Most of the really watchable films (SpiderMan, Superman, Batman Begins) tend to
keep the focus tight and avoid introducing
too many protagonists.
 Nice easy one here so let’s fire straight in
with an answer:

My Answer

The writer uses parenthesis to provide us
with extra information. In this case it is to
give examples of superhero films which
have been successful and enjoyable and
have stuck to a simple plot. (Spider-Man,
Superman, Batman Begins)
Sentence Structure

As you can see here, I haven’t just gone
“brackets!” and left it at that. I highlighted
what the aspect was and how it helped the
reader to follow the writer’s argument.
This would be the same whether I was
referring to punctuation or sentence types.
Magic, let’s move on.
Your Turn
1.
2.
“The vast majority of bad superhero movies
are those which attempt to focus on too many
characters, be they heroes or villains: I'm
thinking Spider-Man 3 or Fantastic Four for
starters.” (paragraph 1) What use does the
colon have here?
“By the looks of the debut full-length trailer for
the film, which hit the web this week, it's not
likely to be Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man.”
(paragraph 3) Comment on the writer’s use of
parenthesis in this extract.
IMAGERY
These questions
are as nasty as
a Hulk Smash to
the face!
Pfft, how do you
think poor Loki
feels?!
IMAGERY

Imagery Questions now. Tricky tricky. As
crafty as playing poker with Loki. Oo-er. Now
imagery questions are there to show that you
understand why writers use certain metaphors
and similes. They don’t just jam in any old
comparison, there’s a lot of thought put into
imagery so that the writer can help prove their
point. So, with an imagery question, you need to
be able to show what two things are being
compared and how effective this comparison
is. Formula reminder:
IMAGERY FORMULA
Quote image & identify
 Say what is compared to what.
 Just as…so too…
 (showing what they both have in common)
 This shows/ is effective …

IMAGERY


Now as the passage included at the beginning of
this exercise contains very little in the way of
imagery, let’s have a wee extract from an article
from www.empireonline.com.
“Given that our Captain America review
mentioned (SPOILER!) that Cap gets frozen at
the end, may we casually inform you that the
following news story contains spoilers. The
reason why we sound the spoiler horn is
because a snippet of the very brief post-feature
Avengers teaser at the end of
Captain America, showing all of the team at
Avengers HQ looking badass, has been
released online...”
IMAGERY QUESTION

How does the writer use imagery in this
paragraph to emphasise the importance
of their spoiler warnings?
IMAGERY

First up, what imagery can we see here? Let me
subtly point out the following “we sound the
spoiler horn” *hint hint*. Oh yes, now you see
it! There it is…spoiler horn. Now obviously they
don’t have an actual spoiler horn that they toot
toot away with whenever someone spoils the
end of a film (although that would be a damn
fine thing to have – I may make one). What they
do have though are several warnings and some
even in capitals. So I think we’re getting closer
to an answer here…hmmmm…
MY ANSWER



“sound the spoiler horn” = metaphor.
Just as a horn is loud and warns people of
impending danger, so too does the spoiler
warning, which gives people plenty of
opportunity to avoid having the film spoiled for
them.
This metaphor is used to emphasise how much
the magazine is trying to warn people that they
may not want to read on as the content of their
article may spoil the film for them.
IMAGERY

By gum, that was a marvellous answer! Once
again, written out in bullet point form, too. This
idea of “Just as…and so too…” is extremely
helpful. Even if you find that you’ve forgotten the
whole formula, by remembering this, you will still
be able to provide a satisfactory answer.
Remember, if you’re unsure if something is an
image, just try to work out what two things are
being compared. In this case, the spoiler
warnings were being compared to a horn as
they were difficult to miss. Imagery over and
done with! Booyah!
YOUR TURN

“Might he end up being little more than a
target for Stark to fire wisecracks at?”
(paragraph 6) How has the writer used
imagery in this extract to express his
concerns for the Hulk’s role in the new
Avengers movie?
2A