Question 1 of 10
Joey says he had 'a voice like a canary.' What literary technique is the author using here?
A) Metaphor
B) Simile
C) Personification
D) Onomatopoeia
Question 2 of 10
The story is told in the first person by Joey himself. What effect does this have on the reader?
A) It makes the story feel unreliable because children always exaggerate
B) It makes the story confusing because we can only see one point of view
C) It lets us hear Joey's distinctive voice and understand his thoughts, making the story feel personal and immediate
D) It means the author doesn't need to describe what Joey looks like
Question 3 of 10
Joey describes Rose's hair as 'bright as new carrots' and the leeks as 'white as milk.' What do these comparisons tell us about Joey?
A) He naturally describes things using images from his own world — food, fruit, and vegetables
B) He is hungry and can only think about food
C) He is not very intelligent and can only think of simple comparisons
D) He wants to impress the reader with fancy literary language
Question 4 of 10
The last line of paragraph one is 'They like that' — written in present tense while the rest is in past tense. Why does the writer make this change?
A) It is a grammatical error that the author didn't notice
B) It shows that Joey has stopped telling the story and is now talking to himself
C) It shows that customers are still smiling at Joey to this day
D) It breaks from the story to share a timeless truth directly with the reader — customers always like being smiled at
Question 5 of 10
Several details in the passage tell us it is set about 200 years ago. Which of the following is NOT evidence of the historical setting?
A) The butcher's shop is lit by gas lamps
B) Joey says his voice was like a canary
C) Children are working as street sellers instead of going to school
D) Prices are given in old pennies and halfpennies
Question 6 of 10
Joey calls the customer 'lady' to her face but refers to her as 'a woman' in his thoughts. What does this contrast reveal about Joey's character?
A) He is rude and disrespectful towards adults when they cannot hear him
B) He cannot remember whether she is a lady or an ordinary woman
C) He is streetwise and uses flattery as a calculated sales technique
D) He has been taught by Curly to always call female customers 'lady'
Question 7 of 10
How does Joey read the woman's character from 'her thin mouth'? What does this tell us about him?
A) He is highly observant and can judge a customer's personality from small physical details, showing his street experience
B) He is being unkind by judging people on their appearance
C) He has met this woman before and remembers that she haggles
D) He is guessing randomly and just happens to be right
Question 8 of 10
In the violet-selling trick, Rose says 'Ought to be threepence' and the woman beats her down to twopence. What role does Rose play in the trick?
A) She is genuinely disappointed and wanted threepence all along
B) She sets a high anchor price so the woman feels she must bargain down — landing on the price the children actually wanted
C) She accidentally ruins the trick by asking for too much money
D) She is trying to compete with Joey by getting a higher price than he did
Question 9 of 10
The passage contains several examples of coster slang — 'bunts', 'shallows', and 'twisters'. Why does the author include these words?
A) To make the passage harder to understand so the reader has to work at it
B) To show that Joey is uneducated and cannot use proper English
C) To prove that the story is set exactly 200 years ago and nowhere else
D) To make Joey's first-person voice feel authentic and bring the coster community's distinct culture to life
Question 10 of 10
The final line — 'Neither of us laughed until the woman had gone' — is the shortest sentence in the passage. What effect does this create?
A) It shows the children are exhausted and have no energy left to say more
B) It is a weak ending that leaves the story feeling unfinished
C) It creates a perfect, understated punchline — the shared laughter reveals the trick and ends the story on a warm, satisfying note
D) It shows that Joey feels ashamed of what they did and wants to move on quickly