From Taking on the World

Question 1

‘Agonized for hours’

Answer 1

Shows she’s a perfectionist, she needs to be because her situation is dangerous. Also fairly emotive; worse than just being worried

Question 2

‘Halyard’, ‘reef’, ‘jumar’ etc

Answer 2

Semantic field vocabulary, lack of definitions within the text show that she either expects the reader to already know the vocab or look it up’

Question 3

‘Despite the loss in dexterity’

Answer 3

Builds suspense

Question 4

‘I knew’

Answer 4

Definite future tense, very certain, builds suspense

Question 5

‘Mast slices erratically’

Answer 5

Dynamic verbs to build a sense of danger and tension

Question 6

‘Tugged and tugged’

Answer 6

Repetition for emphasis

Question 7

‘Wind whistled’

Answer 7

Alliteration and personification

Question 8

‘It had to come’

Answer 8

Persuading herself and the reader, semi-informal language

Question 9

‘Kiddo’

Answer 9

Uses it to give herself encouragement, emphasises the danger and gravity of the situation, repeated later in the text for cohesion. She speaks to herself in 2nd person

Question 10

‘I had my heart in my mouth’

Answer 10

Idiom, emphasises fear

Question 11

‘Like a million dollars’

Answer 11

Simile, emphasises joy

Question 12

Notes on date

Answer 12

Christmas, the fact that she is performing a very dangerous task on this day emphasises her isolation

Question 13

‘Hardest climb to date’

Answer 13

Foregrounding that this will be tense and dangerous

Question 14

‘Christmas eve’ at beginning + Christmas at end

Answer 14

Gives text cohesion

Question 15

Notes on the genre

Answer 15

Autobiographical - writing to inform and recount

Question 16

‘I had worked through the night preparing for it’

Answer 16

Expert and methodical - long build up to climb shows the importance of it

Question 17

‘When it got light’

Answer 17

Shows that she’s been awake for a long time

Question 18

‘I kitted up in my middle-layer clothes’

Answer 18

Fairly technical

Question 19

‘The most dangerous thing’

Answer 19

Superlative

Question 20

‘It would not be difficult to break bones up there’

Answer 20

Understatement

Question 21

‘A world over which I had no control’

Answer 21

Dangerous and alien environment

Question 22

Repetition of ‘you’ in third paragraph

Answer 22

Second person to engage audience and build tension

Question 23

Notes on third paragraph (explanation of thought process and worries etc)

Answer 23

Explaining to a non-specialist

Question 24

‘I climbed down. …’

Answer 24

Details how she had to stop her first attempt which emphasises danger and build tension

Question 25

‘I knew that I would not have the energy’

Answer 25

Only 1 chance, foregrounds how she will only have one possibly try

Question 26

‘Slices’

Answer 26

Connotations of danger

Question 27

‘I would wrap…’

Answer 27

‘Would’ used in the frequentive aspect, implying she had to do it a lot

Question 28

‘Shuddering’

Answer 28

Personification

Question 29

‘Which I could feel us surf down’

Answer 29

Her and her boat; identifies with it

Question 30

‘And hoped’

Answer 30

Shows that she isn’t in control

Question 31

‘Eyes closed and teeth gritted, I hung on tight, wrists clenched…’

Answer 31

List of physical actions

Question 32

‘Conjure up more energy’

Answer 32

Metaphor - drawing on reserves of energy that aren’t actually there

Question 33

‘The halyard was heavier and heavier …’

Answer 33

Telling story in real time to increase the tension

Question 34

‘Hike’

Answer 34

Implies that it was arduous

Question 35

‘Squinted’

Answer 35

Implies that she is weak and has no energy

Question 36

‘The size and length of the waves emphasised by this new aerial view’

Answer 36

Her subjective perception

Question 37

‘The albatross’

Answer 37

Use of the definite article to encompass all albatrosses

Question 38

‘Whip’

Answer 38

Violent metaphor

Question 39

‘It had to come, quite simply the rope had to come free’

Answer 39

Interspersing the primarily past tense account with direct thought to make the reader empathise with her

Question 40

‘The most dangerous part’

Answer 40

Superlative

Question 41

‘I fumbled’

Answer 41

Shows she is not in control

Question 42

‘Whatever happened now I had the whole mast to climb down’

Answer 42

Continue suspense

Question 43

‘Like a million dollars’

Answer 43

Simile