Sample Question 1:

Based on one of the novels you have read, choose a

character that you admire. Give
reasons for your choice.

Sample Answer:

I refer to the novel The Railway Children by Edith
Nesbit. Among all the characters
in the novel, the character I admire the most is the
old gentleman because he is kind,
helpful and generous. He travels regularly on the
morning train and sees the children
waving to him. He opens up to them readily when
they need help. When Bobbie
writes to him for help to get better food for their sick
mother, he gives generously.
Again, when Bobbie approaches him for help to
investigate the truth
about her father, he tells her that he will do his best
and he has high hopes that
things will turn out well because he believes in her
fathers innocence. In the end he
is also rewarded when his only grandson, who is
injured during a paper-chase, is
rescued from the train tunnel by thechildren.
When he learns of this, his generosity ensures that the
children have a
comfortable life with their mother. He gets the family
a housemaid and a cook while
his grandson stays with the family. He eventually helps
to get the childrens father
released.

Sample Question 2:

Based on one of the novels that you have chosen,
write about an event that has
taught you a very important lesson.

Sample Answer 2:
I refer to the novel The Railway Children by Edith
Nesbit. An event which
has taught me a lesson is the rescue of the hound in
the red shirt. Upon realising
that the boy has gone into the train tunnel and has
not emerged while all the others
have, Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis immediately run into
the tunnel to search for him.
They brave an oncoming train passing through the
tunnel. They finally find the boy,
hurt and unconscious.
They manage to wake him up. Peter and Phyllis run
off to get help while
Bobbie bravely accompanies the boy in the dark
and tries to make him as
comfortable as possible. Bobbie then firmly decides
that they will take the boy, Jim
home to their mother.
This event has taught me a very good lesson about
taking initiative.
The children are very observant when they notice
that Jim has not emerged from the
train tunnel. They act immediately to look for him in
case he is lying injured
somewhere. They find him and naturally take him
home to be nursed by their mother.3

Sample Question 3:

Based on one of the novels that you have chosen,
write about your favourite theme.

Sample Answer:
I refer to the novel The Railway Children by Edith
Nesbit. My favourite
theme is about showing initiative. First of all, as
Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis realise that
things are different for them now after their father is
taken away, they try to make life
easier for their mother by being good. The first thing
they do is to get up early the first
morning in their countryside house to prepare
breakfast for her.
They are quick-thinking and always take the initiative
to solve a
problem or crisis when it arises. They try to stop an
approaching train by themselves
when they realise that there will be a disaster if the
train is not warned about the
landslide by the railway track. They run quickly Into
the tunnel when they realise that
the hound in red shirt has not emerged from the
tunnel during the paper-chase. The
children also discover that Perks has never
celebrated his birthday and they get the
villagers to participate in their birthday plan for Perks.
The children take to their new environment in the
countryside because they
are energetic, spirited and have a lot of initiative.
They do not need to be told how to
behave. They are proactive.


Sample Question 4:

Based on one of the novels that you have learned,
write about the relationship
between two characters. Give evidence from the
novel to support your answer.

Sample Answer:
I refer to the novel The Railway Children by Edith
Nesbit. I would to describe
the relationship between Bobbie and her mother.
Bobbie is the eldest child and feels
responsible for her mother and her siblings. She is
always sensitive to her mothers
needs and she senses that her mother must be lonely
because she has no one to
talk to about their troubles. When they first wake up in
the morning in their new
countryside home, she is eager to make life easier for
her mother by getting
everything in order in the house. Bobbie acts like an
adult when their mother is sick.
She looks after her during the day and night.
Bobbie and her mother have a special relationship.
When she reads
about her father being jailed, she confides in her
mother and says nothing to her
siblings. Bobbie shares a rather special relationship
with her mother because she is
the eldest and feels the responsibility of being the
eldest child.4


Based on " THE RAILWAY CHILDREN " by EDITH NESBIT, write about the
synopsis of the novel.


ROBERTA ( also known as BOBBIE ), PETER, PHYLLIS lived a
comfortable home in London with a wonderful mother and father as
well as a maid.

One day, their father left home with two men. He was actually
taken away to prison but the children did not know this at first. When
he left and did not come back, they had to move to a poor cottage
in the country (rural area) near a railway station. The children
became familiar with the passing trains, the workers at the train
station and signal-box, and life in a small town while their mother
struggled to make ends meet by writing stories.

They learnt to live with what little they had and they got used to
be poor. They also learnt not a steal coal from the railway station;
even they had so little to keep warm. They had various adventures -
stopping a train when a landside covered, the tracks , finding an
injured boy in the train tunnel and getting help, while dealing with
the mystery of their father disappearance. Sometimes they argued
and had crises , but in the time they made many new friend.

They also experienced amusing adventures aplenty which
happened near the railway and the canal. The children develop the
habits of waving to the train as it went past and sometimes the
people in the coaches waved back. Their friendly gestures forged a
special friendly with one person in particular, who went by in the
train. He eventually got to know them, and helped them out in
various ways. Then, one day a train called at the station and the
children were pleasantly surprised to see their father. They were
finally re-united.



SAMPLE (2) ANSWER FOR THE NOVEL : THE RAILWAY CHILDREN BY
EDITH NESBIT

Based on " THE RAILWAY CHILDREN " by EDITH NESBIT, write about the
place that you like the most in the novel.



The novel that i chosen is " The Railway Children " by EDITH NESBIT.
The place that i like the most in the story is the railway station. There
are many interesting things there.

Besides the shinning railway lines, telegraph wires and signals,
seeing trains that use coal for their engines is really interesting.

It is also fascinating to see the railway leading towards the ' dark
opening of the tunnel '. This is because when the railway lines begin '
to shake ' a train will come ' screaming out of the tunnel '. According
to BOOBIE, when the train is gone, it is ' like a great wild animal going
by '.

Just like BOOBIE, PETER and PHYLLIS, I like this place as it is their
place of ' hope '. This is the place where the 9.15 train went to
London. They believed that this train was a magic train and it send
their love to their father.

The railway station and the lines that lead to it made this the most
interesting place for children. I wish I can be there with them to
experience all the adventures around the railway children.



SAMPLE (3) ANSWER FOR THE NOVEL : THE RAILWAY CHILDREN BY
EDITH NESBIT



Based on 'The Railway Children' by Edith Nesbit, the character I
admire is PETER. PETER is only 10 years but he has many positive
qualities. We see these qualities in what he says and does.



PETER clever and quick to stop the 11.29 train from crashing into a
landslide. He cuts his sister red petticoats into six pieces. Then, he and
his sister make six flags with them and some sticks. They wave the
flags and stop the train. They save the train and its passengers.

PETER also observant and confident that many people in the
village will give PERKS presents because he is nice to everybody. He
plans to give PERKS, the porter at the station, a nice birthday. He has
a clever idea to collect presents from the village for PERKS. The
children collect the present and give them to PERKS. Because of
PETERS kindness and clever idea, PERKS has the best birthday and
the best birthday presents in his life. He is very happy.

I admire PETER because he is alert and brave too. For examples,
during a paper-chase, JIM, the old gentlemans grandson does not
come out of the tunnel for a long time. PETER says that JIM is in
danger and goes into the dark and dangerous tunnel to look for him
with his sisters.

PETER is also like a scout. He has things like a candle, penknife and
matches with him. They are useful in the tunnel. The children find JIM
beside the railway lines. He has broken his leg. BOBBIE cuts his boot
with the penknife. Then PETER and PHYLLIS get some farm workers to
carry JIM to their house.

One more reason I admire PETER is because he is brave to steal
coal to keep the family warm. When Station Master catches PETER,
he tells him that his sisters do not know anything about the coal to
save them. He is mature and protective of them. He does not want
them to get into trouble. He wants to be responsible for his action
himself.

I admire PETER because he has many positive qualities.



SAMPLE (4) ANSWER FOR THE NOVEL : THE RAILWAY CHILDREN BY
EDITH NESBIT



Based on " THE RAILWAY CHILDREN " by EDITH NESBIT, write about the
moral values of the novel.



The moral values responsibility is highlighted in the novel " The
Railway Children ". The story concerns a family who fell upon hard
times after the father was taken away for being spy. Forced to move
to a small house in the country, the family unit was held together by
the childrens mother. She earned a living by writing stories to sell to
magazines.

She is a responsible person. When they became poor, she worked
hard to make ends meet to look after the welfare of her children. If
spite of a difficult life, she put up a brave front and did not neglect
her children. She was able to shoulder the sole responsibility of caring
for them. She provided them with basic needs such as food and
clothing.

The childrens mother is also responsible in looking after JIM, the
grandson of the old gentleman. JIM took part in a paper-chase
game and broke his leg while running in a tunnel. The childrens
mother let him stay at her house to recuperate. She was willing to
care for him.


Question:
Thoughtfulness is the key to happiness. Based on the novel
you have learnt, describe an event that shows
thoughtfulness.

Model Answer
I read the novel, "The Railway Children" by Edith Nesbitt.
In this novel, there are many events which show
thoughtfulness. One of them is when the children asked to
have cakes on Thursday.
They wanted to make a birthday tea for Perks. Peter
wanted to ask everybody in the village to help them give
Perks a nice birthday. On Thursday, the children went
around to collect presents the people had promised. At
three oclock, the children took the presents and the pram
to Perks house. When Perks came home and saw the pram
and the presents, he was angry. He thought people would
laugh at him for being poor and needing their things.
Bobbie explained that the people wanted to give him the
presents because they liked him. Perks calmed down. He
was glad that his neighbors thought so kindly of him. By
being thoughtful, the children had made Perks happy.
In this event, Bobbie and her siblings had made Mrs
Ransomed happy. They found out that Mrs Ransome was
not happy because no one remembered her birthday and
she did not want to join them and give Perks a birthday
present. The next day, Bobbie and Phyllis gave Mrs.
Ransome roses and a handkerchief for her birthday. Old Mrs
Ransome thanked them for the roses. She gave them
apples for Perks. By being thoughtful, the children had
made a lot of people happy and this definitely proves that
'thoughtfulness is the key to happiness.