Explorers, or Boys Messing About?

Question 1

‘Explorers, or Boys Messing About’

Answer 1

• Juxtaposition between ‘Explorers’, suggesting people with expertise and skill and ‘Boys Messing About’, suggesting foolishness and immaturity
• It heightens how foolish they are because they are doing something which requires skill and expertise which they lack

Question 2

‘Either way, taxpayer gets rescue bill’

Answer 2

• It is a direct adress
• This increases the resentment and anger of the reader, as the average reader of the Guardian is a taxpayer

Question 3

‘farce’

Answer 3

It compares them to a theatrical work of comedy, showing how foolish and risible they are

Question 4

‘tragedy’ and ‘threatened’

Answer 4

• Hyperbole
• They are peices of emotive language, and suggests danger and death, which emphasizes their foolishness as their mistakes may have caused serious outcomes

Question 5

‘plunged’

Answer 5

The childish and cartoonish imagery shows how out of control they were and their lack of having any expertise

Question 6

‘plucked’ and ‘Chilean naval ship’

Answer 6

• Juxtaposition
• The word ‘plucked’ is not a usual military term, and shows how small and feeble they were, is next to the ‘Chilean Naval Ship’ which symbolises power and discipline
• Further shows how foolish they are, while also emphasizing how much strength and real expertise was needed for their rescue

Question 7

‘The rescue involved the Royal Navy, the RAF, and British Coastguard’

Answer 7

• It is a list of three, or tricolon
• It also truly emphaises the volume of resources and skills needed for their rescue, and how much of a waste it was

Question 8

‘tens of thousands of pounds’

Answer 8

• It is a general statistic
• It angers the readers, making the explorers seem selfish, as well as immature for doing these things for their own entertainment but having serious consequences

Question 9

‘small helicopter’ and ‘hostile’

Answer 9

• Juxtaposition to show how unprepared and feeble they are
• It is contrasted to the hostility of where they went, further heightening how foolish they were to attempt it with suboptimal preperations

Question 10

’- the four seater Robinson R44 has a single engine-‘

Answer 10

• It is a parenthetical clause, as it adds information which is not an essential part of the sentence
• It further adds to show how unprepared they were

This is also jargon, which is a further juxtaposition between the experts knowledge and the two explorers

Question 11

‘“trusty helicopter”’

Answer 11

• It is a direct quotation
• The inverted commas create a mocking tone
• It uses their own words, which makes them look foolish as they believe it is trusty but it is in fact not, further showing their unpreparedness

Question 12

‘“boys messing about with a helicopter”’ said by Mrs Vestey

Answer 12

• The word ‘boys’ presents them as juvenile
• The fact that even the wife did not know what they doing shows how silly and undeliberate their task was
• The word ‘messing’ shows how they were just doing it for fun, but it still resulted in serious consequences

Question 13

‘Mr Smith, also known as Q’

Answer 13

• It is an allusion to James Bond
• It is irony, as Q is seen as a very intelligent person with expertise, which Mr Smith is shown to be the opposite of this
• Adds to the humor and satirical nature of this being a ‘farce’

Question 14

‘“emergency people”’

Answer 14

• The fact that he is calling for help from his wife shows his lack of officiality and expertise
• Emergency people is very vague, showing how he does not even know who he should call to come help him and how inept he is

Question 15

‘Breitling emergency watch’

Answer 15

• It suggests they are both wealthy
• This adds to the readers anger as the taxpayers are paying for wealthy people to be rescued, which makes the reader see them as more foolish

Question 16

‘surveying’ , ‘deciphered’ , ‘dispatched’ and ‘plucked’, ‘plunged’

Answer 16

• Juxtaposition
• Continually comparing the professional skill and expertise of their rescuers, and the lack of expertise and foolishness of the explorers

Words like dispatched are military language

Question 17

Lots of words that connotate expertise, like ‘surveying’ and ‘deciphered’ in close promoxity

Answer 17

Semantic field of expertise

Question 18

‘steaming’

Answer 18

• It is in present continuous tense
• It continues the juxtaposition of the rescuers expertise and the explorers foolishness
• The present continuous tense shows how efficient and urgent they are being, suggested professional skill and integrity

Question 19

‘it was nothing short of a miracle that they survived’ said by an expert

Answer 19

• Repetition of bringing in an expert opinion
• The expert opinion, especially the fact that he is an ‘antarctic explorer’ juxtaposes their foolishness more
• Talking about their survival reminds us of the severity of this incident and the consequences that could have occured

Question 20

‘experienced adventurers’ and ‘property developer’

Answer 20

• He is an experienced adventure, but also a property developer, suggesting he lacks expertise and is ill prepared, and exploring is not his full time job
• It shows that they are egotistic and foolish for going on an adventure like this without the correct qualifications
• It is also humourous irony, as the writer does not really believe they are experienced adventurers

Question 21

‘Mr Smith…claims to have been flying since the age of 5’

Answer 21

The word ‘claims’ creates a doubtful tone, that perhaps they are not as qualified as they say

Question 22

‘despite their experience’

Answer 22

• The word ‘despite’ creates a volta/shift in tone
• After talking about their potential expertise it goes back to the critisizing and mocking tone

Question 23

‘hit the headlines’

Answer 23

• It is a dramatic metaphor as well as alliteration
• It has connotations of infamy, explaining how it is not the first time they have done something foolish

Question 24

‘A spokesmen for the pair said it was not know what had gone wrong. The flying conditions had been excellent’

Answer 24

• It shows no apology or regret, and just shows a sense of confusion
• This will enhance the ridicule and discredit any symphathy anyone might have, and make them seem even more foolish and they seem unaware of the harm they have caused

Question 25

‘picking up the bill’

Answer 25

• It is a metaphor
• It makes the resuce mission seem personal as taxpayers will need to be the one who pays

Question 26

Talking about the taxpayer at the start and the end

Answer 26

It increases the readers anger, as they are reminded of the fact that their money is being wasted

Question 27

‘they’ll probably be sent home the long way and have their bottoms kicked’

Answer 27

• It is informal and childish language
• It is also a metaphor
• It presents them as ‘naughty chlidren’ and not serious explorers, heightening their foolishness