From Come Together by Josie Lloyd & Emlyn Rees

8. Read the extract below and state whether it is the first, the third or anonymous narration.

9. Is it a dramatic or interior monologue? What makes you think so?

10. Say in one sentence what situation is described in the extract.

11. Divide the extract into logical parts.

12. Analyse the first part of the extract and prove that the young man is glad to see the girl he is dating. Use the necessary stylistic devices for illustration.

13. Do you think he is surprised at his impression about the girl? To answer this question analyse the sentence “Last time I saw her…” to find out what the girl looked like during their previous meeting, and compare it with the part that begins with “Now, though…”

14. What stylistic devices create the effect of contrast? How does the girl look now in the young man’s opinion? What stylistic devices can you present to prove it?

15. How does he feel about the girl?

Amy’s standing there with a kind of wide smile that makes it impossible not to smile right on back. This kind of rattles me. A good sort of rattle, though, it has to be said – more baby than snake. Last time I saw her, what with all the freaking out she was doing about her recently deceased sex life and her unrequited crush on Matt, her lips had been all squished together like for want of a kinder description, a pair of mating slugs. Now, though – well, I have to, and am more than glad to. Admit – they’ve got a K and an I and an S and an S written all over them. Clothes-wise, she’s wearing a funky little black skirt and grab-me grey top. She looks good. Seriously. Beautiful. And confident. She holds my stare and, as she does, my nerves come surging back.

From Vertical Run by Joseph r. Garber

1. Read the extract below and divide it into logical parts. Give reasons for your division.

2. Analyze the opening part. What is the advantage of opening the fragment in such a way? Where is the action set?

3. Do you share the narrator’s opinion on the stated types of time? Which one was welcome by the soldiers? Why?

4. Find cases of metonymy in the fragment and dwell upon their symbolic functions.

5. Are the first two paragraphs contrasting? What is the role of polysyndeton in them?

6. What expressive means help to render the atmosphere of tension in the final paragraph?

7. What idea lies behind the antithesis “Nothing fazes them … They weep»?

8. Does the author exaggerate man’s behaviour at war? What stylistic devices does he resort to for this purpose?

9. How do you think it feels being a war soldier?

Here in the jungle there are two kinds of time – long time and slow time. Long time is what you usually get. You sit beneath a tree or in a hooch or in a field tent, or maybe you’re tiptoeing Indian file through the boonies, and nothing happens. Hours pass and nothing happens. Then you look at your Timex and discover that it has only been five minute since the last time you looked at it. Long time.

The other kind of time is slow time. There’s a flat metallic snap, the receiver of an AK-47 chambering a round. Then there is fire and explosions and screams and the whine of bullet all around and each one aimed at you for unending eternity. And when, after hours of hot terror, and no little rage, the shooting stops, you come back from hell and glance at your Timex.

Guess what? Five minutes have passed since the last time you looked at it.

Slow time. The clock gets choked with molasses. Men weep at how slow the seconds pass. They are MACV-SOG. Their shoulder patch is a fanged skull wearing a green beret. They are the hardest of the hard, the baddest of the bad. Nothing fazes them. They look at their watches. They weep.