Worksheet

Level 6

Solo Saxophone Jeremy Harmer

Before reading
1. Look at the front cover. What does it show? Why
is the image powerful?
2. Read the blurb on the back cover. Who is the
main character? What do you find out about
him/her?
3. Look at the list of characters on page 4. What do
most of them do?
4. What do you understand from the quotation on
page 5?
5. Read the Author’s note on page 6 and look at
the map on page 7. What do you learn about the
context of this story?
6. If you have the recording of this story, listen to
Chapter 1.
Chapter 2
1. What does Caryl Jones want Katy to do?
2. True or False?
a) At work, Benjamin realises Katy is unhappy.
b) Katy asks Benjamin to go for a walk with her.
c) She tells Benjamin everything that has
happened.
d) She tells Benjamin what a good relationship
she has with her mother.
e) Her father left home when Katy was eight
years old.
f ) Katy is confused about her life and what to
do.
3. What do you think Katy should do, and why?
Chapter 3

Check your reading 1. Match the beginnings and endings:

Overture
1 Who are the two people in the room?
2 Where are they? What is it like?
3 Who do they see in the street?
4 What does the man do?
5 What does the woman do?
Chapter 1
1. Who says these things, and to whom?
a) ‘Where are you off to? … What’s the matter?’
b) ‘I like your work.’
c) ‘I’ve got a suggestion. One that will involve
big changes for you.’
d) ‘What are you doing here? You’re supposed
to be at work.’
e) ‘I’m sorry. Honestly. This isn’t what it looks
like.’
f ) ‘Get out of my house right now!’
g) ‘What is it this time?’
2. What do you think Caryl Jones’s offer to Katy
was?
3. Why did she go home?
4. How do you think what she discovered at home
will affect her decision about Caryl’s offer?
1) Katy meets her colleague Ed Jonas
2) Ed Jonas tells Katy
3) Ed Jonas is leaving
4) Katy travels to Sarajevo
5) A young soldier tells Katy
a) because he has cancer.
b) that the soldiers can’t do anything to help.
c) in a UN peacekeepers’ truck.
d) in Belgrade.
e) about the background to the war.
Chapter 4
1. Put the events in the correct order:
a) Haris tells her about the dangers as he drives.
b) Katy goes to her room and settles in.
c) Katy arrives in Sarajevo in an army truck.
d) She sends her first article to the paper.
e) They go to the journalists’ hotel.
f ) She meets Haris, Ed Jonas’s friend.
Chapter 5
1. Answer the questions with short answers:
a) It was much better than she’d expected. What
was?

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 Worksheet
Level 6

Solo Saxophone Jeremy Harmer

b) She was doing what she wanted. Who was? c) He studied music in Paris.
c) It didn’t taste of much. What didn’t? d) His father was killed in the war.
d) It was full. What was? e) His mother and sister are in South Africa.
2. Who did Katy talk to first in the bar? f) He wants to go and join them.
3. Who did Katy talk to second in the bar? g) He believes that music is life.
4. Carla says Colin had made a mistake. What was h) He asks Katy to come to the club again.
it?
Chapter 9
Chapter 6
1. Which of the following things are true at this
1. Who point in the story?
a) looked perfect at breakfast? a) Katy has watched Željko’s band on other
b) is head of news at Channel 3? occasions.
c) did Katy go to the market with? b) Katy and Colin have become friends.
d) acted as interpreter at the market? c) Katy has suggested she and Carla talk to
e) has four young children? some Serbs.
d) Alberto has refused to go to meet the Serbs.
Chapter 7 e) Colin is angry because he has found out that
Katy is going to meet the Serbs.
1. What made Katy happy in the morning?
f ) Željko’s band has played a concert outside.
2. Why did Colin come to talk to Katy?
3. What invitation did Colin make?
Chapter 10
Chapter 8 1. Put the following events in the correct order:
a) The soldiers drag them all out of the car.
1. Why was the drive to the nightclub dangerous?
b) They nearly crash into a truck.
a) Because of Haris’s driving.
c) A soldier hits Carla.
b) Because someone shot at the car.
d) Haris drives Carla, Katy and Alberto out of
c) Because the roads were bad.
the city.
2. Katy didn’t like being in the nightclub because
e) Captain Popović says he will take them to the
a) she doesn’t like small spaces.
Serb positions.
b) everyone was using candles.
f ) One of the soldiers hits Haris.
c) it was very crowded.
g) They get to where the road is blocked by
3. The musicians played
army trucks.
a) a cello and some saxophones.
h) Katy shouts at the soldiers, telling them they
b) a bass and some saxophones.
are Press.
c) four different saxophones.
i ) An army jeep arrives and the soldiers back
4. How did the music help the people who were
off.
listening?
2. How does Captain Popović treat the journalists?
5. Why did Carla know what music they were
playing?
Chapter 11
6. Which of the following statements are true about
Željko? 1. What is the weather like on Mount Trebović?
a) He plays the soprano saxophone. 2. What soldier (of high rank) meets the
b) He’s good-looking. journalists?

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 Worksheet
Level 6

Solo Saxophone Jeremy Harmer

3. What do the journalists and soldiers do after the d) He’s moved in with a lawyer called Millie.
introductions? Who has?
4. What does the General tell them about the e) It’s on the front page today. What is?
Serbian ‘dream’? f ) There’s only one person in the restaurant.
5. What happens at six o’clock? Who is it?
6. What does Captain Popović say about what the g) Katy goes off to find someone. Who?
General says?
7. Who arrives and what is he? Chapter 15
8. What does Katy agree to do?
1. Complete the following sentences:
Chapter 12 a) Katy searched for …
b) She ate an apple and some carrots in …
1. Describe Katy’s dream. c) She drank some beer and coffee in …
2. What helps Jack Hickton do his ‘work’? d) A woman told her that …
3. Where have you already read about the events 2. What is Željko’s plan about playing on the
described on the last page of the chapter? concert hall steps?
4. What does Katy hear at the end of the dream 3. Do you think Katy loves Željko?
and at the end of the chapter? 4. What does Katy mean when she writes in her
article ‘he teaches people how to live’?
Chapter 13

1. Match the beginnings and endings: Chapter 16

1) Katy didn’t know 1. What do the journalists say is the problem with
2) Snipers started their way of life?
3) A thin, white-haired man 2. What are they waiting for at the start of the
4) When she got back to the hotel, chapter?
5) Katy blamed herself 3. Where did they all go?
6) Katy wrote a story 4. What had happened to Colin, and why had he
a) gave her a lift on his moped. stayed?
b) about the two girls. 5. What did the three American planes do?
c) for the two girls being shot. 6. After the planes had gone, what two things could
d) where she was running to. they hear?
e) she told Colin what had happened. 7. What happened to Katy?
f ) shooting at her.
Coda
Chapter 14
1. Where is Katy?
1. Answer the following questions: 2. Who is with her at different times?
a) She was in the corridor with two bottles of 3. Where is Carla? Where is Željko?
wine, crying. Who was? 4. What unexpected information does Colin tell
b) Carla says the shells exploded in the crowd, Katy?
and they died. Who did? 5. Whose children are they?
c) She thinks he survived. Who? 6. What is the significance of it being twins?

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Solo Saxophone Jeremy Harmer
After reading
Choose some of the following activities:
1. Choose one of the characters and write a
physical and character description of them.
2. Write a long paragraph about what you found
out about the Siege of Sarajevo.
3. Think of another title for Solo Saxophone and give
reasons for your choice.
4. Make a quiz for other students about the story;
include some true/false questions and correct/
incorrect statements.
Cambridge English Readers © Cambridge University Press 2011
Worksheet
Level 6
5. Write about Katy’s life after she gets out of
hospital.
6. You are Željko – where are you and what are you
doing now?
7. Write an email to the author, Jeremy Harmer,
saying what you liked and didn’t like about the
story.
8. Write a paragraph about the life of a war
reporter – the attractions and disadvantages.
9. If you were making a film of this story, which
actors would you choose for the main roles and
why?
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