10DA 2014

READING TASK:

Read the following extract and then do the activities that follow:

"The Rain Came" by John Marsden
The very next day the rain came, good soaking rain that filled the dams and greened the country, even if it was too late to give us much feed. But I never found out if the heifers got in calf or not, because less than a month after that the soldiers invaded and normal life ended forever. There was no time then for for carefully culling poor performers as part of a long-term programme to improve the fertility of the breed. No time for long-term programmes of any kind.From the time the bombers roared overhead and the tanks and convoys rolled down our highways, there was time for one thing only and that was survival. All our energy went on that.

Sometimes there didn't even seem much point to it. Why go through hunger, cold,exhaustion,burns,bullet wounds,the death of family and friends, when at the end of the day the invasion had been so successful that we had nothing to look forward to anyway?

From: The Night is for Hunting, Pan Macmillan, Australia.

1. What country do you think this story was set in? Justify your answer with any evidence you feel you have acquired to support it.
2. When do you believe these events occurred? Why do you think that?
3. Describe what life would have been like up until the invasion.
4. How do you think life would have been altered at the end of the invasion?
5. What steps would the author have to take to try and recover the farm and it's function to pre-invasion days.


VOCABULARY:
Copy the words and beside each one write their meaning as you understand them to mean, then select 4 to write the dictionary meaning of them, how close is your understanding?

e.g. soaking: Me  Getting wet right through.
                      Dictionary: completely wet.

soldiers                                                 convoys                                     wounds
culling                                                   survival                                     invasion
fertility                                                  exhaustion                                 successful

COMPREHENSION
Using evidence from the text to form your answers, complete these:
a. The rain came too late to do what?
b. What does culling poor performers mean?
c. Do you think the author sounds happy and up beat, or unhappy and downcast? Give reasons for your answer.