Week 8: SciFi Synopsis, Roosters and Folk Tales

WORKSHEET 8

1. CULTURAL CONTACTS: The War of the Worlds

2. AROUND THE WORLD: The Red Rooster
3. GRAMMAR HAMMER: Flannan Isle (Inference)
4. BITING WRITING: Writing a Folk Tale
1. CULTURAL CONTACTS: The War of the Worlds

A science fiction synopsis

This story is set in the early 20th century near London. The narrator is not
given a name. He witnesses the landing of a cylinder spaceship. It was launched from
Mars. It opens to let out tentacled Martians. They assemble strange machinery in the
form of tripods. When humans move towards the Martians, they are incinerated by an
invisible heat-ray. The narrator flees the scene. He meets a soldier. This man tells him
that another cylinder has landed. It cuts the narrator off from his wife.
These war machines defeat the army’s weapons and start to attack the local
communities. More cylinders land across the English countryside and people flee their
homes in the face of the invasion. Three of the tripods are destroyed by the military,
but soon all organised resistance has been overcome. A Martian red weed appears. It
takes over the landscape. The narrator becomes trapped in a half-destroyed building.
He sees the Martians from close by. They behave in a terrifying way towards the
humans they catch. He only narrowly escapes capture himself.
In the end, both the red weed and the Martians themselves are defeated by
bacteria. These do not exist on Mars and so have a fatal effect.
 1. Write a plot synopsis of the story you wrote in your screenplay in the previous
worksheet. Remember to keep it in the correct tense.

Plot Synopsis Mrks

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Teacher’s comments:
3. GRAMMAR HAMMER: The Mystery of the Three Missing Men of Flannan Isle

This is the first part of a

ballad, which tells of the
search for three missing
lighthouse keepers on a tiny
remote island.

Flannan Isle by William Wilson Gibson

Though three men dwell on Flannan Isle

To keep the lamp alight,
As we steer’d under the lee, we caught
No glimmer through the night!

A passing ship at dawn had brought

The news; and quickly we set sail,
To find out what strange thing might ail
The keepers of the deep-sea light.

The winter day broke blue and bright,

With glancing sun and glancing spray,
While o’er the swell our boat made way,
As gallant as a gull in flight.

But, as we neared the lonely Isle;

And look’d up at the naked height;
And saw the lighthouse towering white,
With blinded lantern, that all night
Had never shot a spark
Of comfort through the dark,
So ghostly in the cold sunlight
It seem’d, that we were struck the while
With wonder all too dread for words.
And, as into the tiny creek
We stole beneath the hanging crag,
We saw three queer, black, ugly birds -
Too big, by far, in my belief,
For cormorant or shag -
Like seamen sitting bolt upright
Upon a half-tide reef:
But, as we neared, they plunged from sight,
Without a sound, or spurt of white.

And still too ‘mazed to speak,

We landed; and made fast the boat;
And climbed the track in single file,
Each wishing he were safe afloat,
On any sea, however far,
So it be far from Flannan Isle:
And still we seemed to climb, and climb,
As though we’d lost all count of time,
And so must climb for evermore.
Yet, all too soon, we reached the door -
The black, sun-blister’d lighthouse door,
That gaped for us ajar.

As, on the threshold, for a spell,

We paused, we seemed to breathe the smell
Of limewash and of tar,
Familiar as our daily breath,
As though ‘twere some strange scent of death:
And so, yet wondering, side by side,
We stood a moment, still tongue-tied:
And each with black foreboding eyed
The door, ere we should fling it wide,
To leave the sunlight for the gloom:
Till, plucking courage up, at least,
Hard on each other’s heels we passed
Into the living–room.

Yet as we crowded through the door,

We only saw a table, spread
For dinner, meat and cheese and bread;
But all untouch’d; and no one there:
As though, when they sat down to eat,
Ere they could even taste,
Alarm had come; and they in haste
Had risen and left the bread and meat:
For on the table–head a chair
Lay tumbled on the floor.

We listened; but we only heard

The feeble cheeping of a bird
That starved upon its perch:
And, listening still, without a word,
We set about our hopeless search.

INFERENCE

Good readers take in the explicit (explained and obvious) information given by a
writer, and also notice the implicit (implied and not obvious) suggestions being
made, so reading comprehension (understanding) has two levels. We can infer the
solution to the mystery as long as we can pick up the clues in the text. The clues can
take many forms, such as the choice of words, the way a character is described, the
way they talk, the tone of the narrative voice. Sometimes one of the characters is
naive (unsuspecting) and we can guess things which they are not able to guess or
have misunderstood. Even in a non-fiction text the attitude of the writer to the
subject may be something which is implied, requiring reader inference.

1. Discuss whether the searchers will find the three men. What do you think
happened to them? What is the evidence from the Text which gives you this
impression?

Answer Marks

/25
2. AROUND THE WORLD: The Red Rooster

A Folk Tale
Problems can be overcome by dividing
resources more equally. The following text
is a folk tale from Ethiopia. It is about two
brothers whose rich old father died, and left
all his wealth and land to his proud and
selfish elder son. His younger son, who was
kind and goodhearted, only received a
rooster with fine red feathers.

Harvest time came, and the elder brother gathered in his crops and filled his grain
stores until they were overflowing, but he never gave any grain to the younger man.

‘It can’t be helped,’ the younger brother said to his wife. ‘No doubt he needs all the
grain for himself.’

The rich brother sometimes killed a cow and gave feasts for his friends, but he never
invited his brother.

‘Ah well,’ the younger brother said. ‘He is still my brother, after all.’ Then one day, the
elder brother fell ill. He sent for the medicine man who came to examine him.

‘You won’t get better,’ the medicine man said, ‘unless you eat the flesh of a big rooster
with fine red feathers.’

‘I haven’t got a rooster,’ the sick man cried.

‘No, but your brother has,’ said his wife. ‘That horrid thing! It wakes me up every
morning with its ugly crowing.’
‘Then go and ask my brother to give it to me,’ the older brother moaned. ‘And hurry
up. I feel so ill I’m sure I’m about to die.’

His wife ran to the younger brother’s house.

‘Your elder brother’s ill,’ she said. ‘And the only thing that can cure him is the flesh of
a big rooster with fine red feathers.’

‘Husband,’ said the younger brother’s wife. ‘That rooster is the only thing we have.’

Her husband frowned at her.

‘If my brother needs it, he must have it,’ he said.

So he gave the rooster to his brother’s wife, and she took it away and killed it and gave
its meat to the sick man to eat.

Very soon the elder brother began to feel better.

‘Slaughter a cow,’ he said to his wife. ‘Make a feast. Invite my friends. Let’s celebrate
my recovery.’

But he didn’t invite his brother.

The feast was at its height and everyone was sitting at their ease, enjoying the tasty
stews, when the elder brother felt that something strange was happening to him. He
touched his legs and felt his arms.

‘Help!’ he shouted. ‘What’s happening to me? I’m growing feathers!’

His wife and all his guests jumped up in horror. It was true. Bright red feathers were
growing all over the body of their host. THe medicine man and the elders came
running as soon as they heard the news. They sat down together to discuss the
problem.

‘You’ve been greedy,’ they said at last to the sick man. ‘You took everything that your
father left you and gave nothing to your brother. You even took his rooster, his only
possession, without a word of thanks, although he gave it to you freely and
generously. You will be cursed and your feathers will grow until he has forgiven you.’
At once the elder brother went to the younger brother and begged his forgiveness.

‘Brother, forgive me,’ he said. ‘I’ve been selfish and greedy, and I took all you had
without a word of thanks.’

His younger brother embraced him affectionately.

‘Of course I forgive you,’ he said, ‘for we are brothers, after all.’ At once the feathers
dropped off the elder brother and he had a man’s skin again. He shared his property
equally with his younger brother, and from that time on they lived in harmony with
each other.

1. What lessons do you think this folktale teaches?

Answer Marks

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2. How would you have divided up the property left to the two brothers?

Answer Marks

/10
4. BITING WRITING: Writing A Folk Tale

Folk tales (like the story of the Red Rooster above) are often simply written and
constructed. They are usually designed to illustrate some kind of message, and
present a story with a moral or lesson. In addition, they usually reflect the culture
and traditions of the area they come from.

● Write your own folktale. It can relate to a story you know, or make it up
entirely.
● Base your story around a message about the way people behave, or the
conflicts they face.
● Use a simple, clear style and use paragraphs to structure your story.

(30 marks)
Teacher’s comments: /30

Total /100