Myxomatosis

Question 1

What is Myxomatosis?

Answer 1

A deadly disease that affects rabbits

Question 2

‘Caught in the centre of a _______ field’

Answer 2

soundless

Question 3

What does the word inexplicable mean?

Answer 3

Inexplicable - can’t be explained. This is used to show how the rabbit is left ignorant and powerless ‘hot inexplicable hours’

Question 4

What technique is use here: ‘Where were its teeth concealed?’

Answer 4

Personification. The myxomatosis virus is depicted as an external predator, showing the rabbit’s ignorance about the nature of death

Question 5

‘You may have thought things would come right again/If you could only keep quite still and _____’

Answer 5

wait

Question 6

What does the word ‘suppurate’ mean?

Answer 6

Suppurate - to rot/fester. This is used to convey the brutal inescapable fate of the rabbit ‘in what jaws you were to suppurate’

Question 7

What is the significance of the form used here: ‘You seem to ask.//I make a sharp reply’?

Answer 7

The line break symbolises how the speaker ends the rabbit’s life with his ‘sharp reply’. However, this is an act of compassion, relieving the rabbit of the pain caused by the Myxomatosis virus