Question 1 of 10
Which word could best replace apprehensive in 'I felt apprehensive as Mr. Murdstone’s eyes stared at me'?
A) Curious
B) Anxious
C) Irritated
D) Confident
Question 2 of 10
Which word could best replace distinguishing in 'I had come in with an idea of distinguishing myself'?
A) Embarrassing
B) Hiding
C) Impressing
D) Amusing
Question 3 of 10
The passage says Murdstone walked David upstairs 'as if he were escorting a criminal to the gallows'. What technique is this and what does it suggest?
A) Simile — it compares the walk upstairs to a death march, suggesting Murdstone treats a child's lesson failure as a capital crime and enjoys the power of an executioner
B) Metaphor — it says Murdstone IS an executioner leading a criminal to be hanged
C) Personification — the staircase is given human qualities of being frightening
D) Alliteration — the repeated sounds make the sentence sound threatening
Question 4 of 10
Dickens calls Miss Murdstone 'a metallic lady'. What does this metaphor suggest about her character?
A) She is wealthy and wears expensive metal jewellery
B) She makes a lot of noise when she moves around the house
C) She is strong and powerful, which David admires
D) She is cold, hard, and completely without warmth or human feeling — like metal rather than flesh
Question 5 of 10
The name 'Murdstone' combines two words. What are they and what do they reveal about the character?
A) 'Murd' (from 'murmur') and 'stone' — he is quiet and solid
B) 'Murder' and 'stone' — he is violent like a murderer and cold and hard like stone, with no compassion
C) 'Mud' and 'stone' — he is dirty and heavy
D) 'Murd' (from 'mordant') and 'stone' — he has a sharp wit and is old-fashioned
Question 6 of 10
David describes being left 'fevered and hot, and torn, and sore, and raging' on the floor. What technique is Dickens using and why?
A) Onomatopoeia — the words sound like the beating
B) Alliteration — the repeated first letters create rhythm
C) A list of adjectives (accumulation) — the piling up of words builds the full weight of David's suffering, mixing physical pain with emotional anguish
D) Simile — David is compared to someone with a fever
Question 7 of 10
David says 'I felt like a criminal' after the beating. Why is this ironic?
A) Because David is the victim, not the criminal — Murdstone, who brutally beat a child, should feel guilty, but instead the abused child blames himself
B) Because David actually is a criminal and deserves to feel guilty for biting his tutor
C) Because David has been to prison before and knows what it feels like
D) Because Miss Murdstone is the real criminal and David knows this
Question 8 of 10
The passage is written in first-person retrospective narration. Which detail tells us the narrator is looking back on these events as an adult?
A) 'Mr Murdstone had threatening black eyes' — only an adult would notice someone's eyes
B) 'I always felt frightened' — the word 'always' means it happened many times
C) 'We began badly, and went on worse' — this is too well written for a child
D) 'It still sets my teeth on edge to think of it' — the word 'still' shows the narrator is remembering the bite from a much later time and can still feel the sensation
Question 9 of 10
Which word could best replace stranglehold in 'He had my head in a stranglehold'?
A) Embrace
B) Handshake
C) Vice-grip
D) Headband
Question 10 of 10
At the end of the passage, David asks three questions: 'Was it a criminal act? Would I be arrested? Was I in danger of being hanged?' What effect do these rhetorical questions create?
A) They show that David is a clever boy who understands the legal system well
B) They reveal how a frightened child's mind magnifies guilt into terror, making the reader feel deep sympathy for David's suffering and isolation
C) They prove that David really did commit a serious crime and should be worried about punishment
D) They suggest that Murdstone has threatened David with the police and hanging