Section 1: Text 1

Text one is an extract from a short story. Refer to the animation for questions 1-15. They are based on the following text.

An extract from the Short Story 'Samantha: Pyro-ranger'

1 Suddenly but quietly, Johnny killed two birds with one stone. With an overwhelming sense of satisfaction he tripped down to the rocky fiord where he waited wistfully for his bounty to float towards him down the stream.

Johnny heard a twig snap and his ears pricked up. It was Samantha.

"Did you get 'em?" she shouted.

"Shh" he whispered back soothingly.

"Well..." She asked more quietly.

"What do you think?" replied Johnny growing impatient and hissing through his teeth.

2 Samantha had always been impressed by Johnny's craft. The pyro-ranger had caught her attention one summer. She had been walking with her parents through the green mountains when the sky was still blue and before it had happened. Johnny was the first of his kind. Samantha was taken by the swift movements and wildness of Johnny, even though she had only seen a glimpse of him through the trees and shrubs.

3 Samantha had tracked him down the day afterwards. She had finally decided that she had no choice but to leave the cave of tangled, mangled destruction. She would find him. Whoever he was. Whatever he was.

4 As it turned out, Samantha's forty days of crawling, hiding and seeking paid off. The heat, blistering her feet and rendering her pale skin a beetroot red, had almost maddened her. Deep in the green mountains, lost and disorientated she knelt to drink from the purplish stream, aware of its potential dangers but with an indifferent desperation. As her withered hands dangled in the opaque purple liquid and her lips desired the icy relief, a shabby brown leather bag dropped to her side with a thud. Too tired to notice she continued staring wanly at the liquid, mesmerised by its magic. Johnny had had enough, something deep beneath his wild eyes and tough skin and hardened heart leaped with pity. His black and shrivelled heart beat once more and he leapt lithely to her side and pulled her away from the abyss.

5 Since then Johnny had looked after her and guided her in the new way. He revived her to her healthy state until she was fit enough to learn about sinterpy, lagsteins and rules of the rangers such as taking-the-rise. Johnny infected her with the new way and he was pleased with his progress. Despite her life and her love for him he could sense a change. She was hardening. Her instincts were sharpening.

6 With a flick of his wrists, Johnny whipped the birds out of the fiord and in one movement strung them around a low lying branch. Here they would wait for three weeks for the magic of the fiord to evaporate from the soaking wings. He stood proudly smiling at Samantha.

"They're not as big as this morning's." She disapproved. Johnny was taken aback.

"I'd like to see you do better."

7 Ashamed of his petulant and immature reply, Johnny turned on his heel and sped off through the shrubs. He stopped at a nearby cave that he used for thinking. "What was that look on her face?" he asked the cavernous walls which answered endlessly "What was that look on her face? What was that look on her face? What was that look on her face?"

8 Meanwhile, Samantha waited in anticipation for the fiord to deliver her own prize. Instinctively she flicked her wrists. She heard the thud, crack of the treasure land behind her on the branches of the tree. She smiled victoriously. She turned to find three birds swinging near Johnny's. They were bigger and plumper.