Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Question 1

‘Between a rock and a hard place’

Answer 1

• Idiom
• Forshadows the coming predicament he will find himself in

Question 2

‘maybe eleven or twelve feet high’

Answer 2

• Casual tone
• Shows his confidence and expertise

Question 3

‘refrigerator chockstone’

Answer 3

• Jargon
• Shows his confidence and expertise

Question 4

‘ten feet downstream’ and ‘the claustrophobic feel of a short tunnel’

Answer 4

Foreshadowing for the events to come

Question 5

‘at the lip of the drop off’

Answer 5

• Personification
• Makes the canyon seem more menacing, as if it is out to get him

Question 6

‘it’s possible for me to stem my body across the slot’

Answer 6

• Stem, across and slot are all sibilant sounds
• It shows how deft and agile he is while he slithers and slides around the canyon

Question 7

‘Controlling the counterpressure’

Answer 7

• Alliteration
• Emphasises his control and expertise

Question 8

‘This technique is known as stemming or chimneying; you can imagine using it to climb up the inside of a chimney’

Answer 8

• Compound sentence and jargon
• ‘stemming or chimneying’ are present continuous verbs
• Shows his expertise and his sense of being in control, as well as using domestic imagery to make it relatable which is quite condescending
• It shows how confident he is which foreshadows the events to come

Question 9

‘Just below the ledge where I’m standing is a chockstone the size of a large bus tire stuck fast in the channel between the walls, a few feet out from the lip’

Answer 9

• Complex sentence
• Shows his expertise in being able to survey his situation, but also highlights the precarious situation he is in, foreshadowing the events to come

Question 10

‘If I can step onto it, then I’ll have a nine-foot height to descend’

Answer 10

• ‘If I can step onto it’ is a dependant clause
• It shows how he is planning things, further emphasising him being in control
• It also creates an element of uncertainty, foreshadowing the events to come

Question 11

‘I press my back against the south wall and lock my left knee which pushes my foot tight against the north wall’

Answer 11

• Complex sentence
• Reassures us that he is still in control

Question 12

‘teeters slighty’

Answer 12

The verb and adverb start to create tension, which is further foreshadowing

Question 13

‘akin to climbing down from the roof of a house’

Answer 13

• Similie
• Allows the average person to relate, showing he is still confident and an expert as he is trying to make things more accessible to the average person

Question 14

‘I feel the stone respond to my adjusting grip’

Answer 14

• Personification of the stone
• Builds tension and makes the readers uneasy

Question 15

‘Instantly’

Answer 15

• Adverb which is also a volta
• Creates a shift in tone from confident and in control to fear and chaos

Question 16

‘round rocks below’

Answer 16

• Alliteration
• Highlights how treacherous the situation is

Question 17

‘Fear shoots my hands over my head’

Answer 17

• Passive sentence (it is being done for him)
• Juxtaposition to him being in control just moments ago
• Shows how severe the moment is, and how out of control he is

Question 18

‘The next three seconds play out at a tenth of their normal speed’

Answer 18

• Temporal language
• Slows down the pace, emphasising the horror of the moment

Question 19

‘As if I’m dreaming’

Answer 19

• Similie
• Shows the trance-like state he is in and emphasises the severity of the moment

Question 20

‘rock richochets’

Answer 20

• Alliterations
• Highlights the violence and chaos of the moment

Question 21

‘The boulder then crushes my right hand and ensnares my right arm’

Answer 21

• Personification of the boulder
• Makes the boulder seem to have malicious intent

Question 22

‘the wrist, palm in, thumb up, fingers extended’

Answer 22

• Asyndeton
• Helps to build up a gruesome image, with each point being in quick succession to the next

Question 23

‘Then silence’

Answer 23

• Short and incomplete minor sentence
• Shows how everything in the world froze, which is a temporal shift compared to the chaos of the last paragraph

Question 24

‘My disbelief paralyzes me’

Answer 24

• The word ‘paralyze’ is a juxtaposition to his earlier, deft and agile self
• Shows the impact and severity of the event

Question 25

‘my nervous systems pain reponse’ and ‘my desperate brain’

Answer 25

• Shows how he feels like he is not in control of his body in any way as it is doing things external to his control
• The synecdoches work to show this

Question 26

‘grimace and growl’

Answer 26

• Alliteration and animalistic language
• Shows the immense pain and suffering he is enduring

Question 27

‘brute force’ and ‘grunting’

Answer 27

• Anamalistic language
• Shows how he is reverting back to his insticts as oppose to rational reasoning, highlighting the chaos, pain and desperation he is going through

Question 28

‘“Come on…move!’ Nothing”’.

Answer 28

• Exclamatory sentence followed by a minor, short sentence
• Shows his desperate plea to get out of the situation, but then shows how these attemps are futile further emphasizing the suffering of the moment