These seven questions practise the skills in narrative and teaching. Write each answer first, then open the explanation.
The set is part of the SPM Bible Knowledge learning guide. The passages are original and are not prescribed texts.
Passage A
“The teacher, Puan Aini, stood at the classroom door as the class came in. ‘Put your bags down and sit quietly,’ she said. ‘The test starts when everyone is ready, not before.’”
Question 1. Who is speaking, and who is the audience?
Answer
Puan Aini is speaking, and the audience is the class entering the room. The narrator gives the setting, and the quoted words are hers.
Question 2. State the main purpose of her words and give a quotation.
Answer
Her purpose is to instruct the class to settle before the test. The quotation “Put your bags down and sit quietly” is an instruction. A second purpose, to explain, appears in “The test starts when everyone is ready”.
Question 3. A student writes, “The narrator tells the class to sit quietly.” What is wrong?
Answer
The instruction is inside quotation marks, so it belongs to Puan Aini, not the narrator. The narrator only describes where she stood. Crediting the wrong voice would lose the mark.
Passage B
“After the match was cancelled, Ben kicked the ball against the wall and muttered. Adi folded the goalposts, then asked the others if they wanted to play in the hall instead.”
Question 4. Identify one similarity and one difference in their responses.
Answer
Similarity: both reacted to the same cancellation with an action. Difference: Ben showed frustration (“kicked the ball against the wall and muttered”), while Adi looked for another option (“asked the others if they wanted to play in the hall”). The answer needs both, with a quotation for each.
Question 5. Write a two-sentence comparison using a linking word.
Answer
“Both boys responded to the cancelled match, but Ben ‘kicked the ball against the wall and muttered’, whereas Adi ‘asked the others if they wanted to play in the hall’. Ben showed frustration, while Adi proposed a new plan.”
The linking words but and whereas join the two boys.
Question 6. Is this safe: “Ben was angry at Adi”?
Answer
No. The passage shows Ben frustrated by the cancellation, not by Adi. The statement assigns a feeling to a target the text does not mention. A safe version: “Ben showed frustration after the match was cancelled.”
Question 7. In two sentences, explain why Adi’s response might be described as constructive.
Answer
“Adi’s response was constructive because he moved towards a solution. He ‘asked the others if they wanted to play in the hall instead’, which offered a way to keep the game going.”
The first sentence answers, and the second gives evidence and the link.
If you got these wrong
- Speaker and audience mix-ups: identifying speaker, audience and purpose.
- Descriptions that do not compare: comparing two responses to an event.
- Theme questions: tracing a theme across the prescribed passages.
For teacher feedback on your own attempts, see online one-to-one Bible Knowledge tuition.