Analysing Structural Choices in Whole Texts · seed 1 · A4, ink-friendly. The answer key prints on its own page for grown-ups.

Follow how the text is built

English · Reading Comprehension · ages 14-16
Name ______________________   Date ____________

  1. A passage opens on a busy harbour, moves to a single boat, then ends on one sailor's face. How does the focus move?

    • From narrow to wide
    • It stays wide throughout
    • From wide to narrow

  2. What does analysing structure ask you to explain?

    • What happens, retold event by event in order
    • What the order and placement of parts do
    • Which device each single sentence uses

  3. Where a moment sits in a text can matter as much as what it contains.

    Circle one:   True   False

  4. A story opens with a girl waving at a train and ends on the same platform, now empty. What should your analysis explain?

    • Which trains run on that line and how often
    • What the empty platform changes about the opening
    • Why the writer picked a train station for the setting

  5. A chapter opens on a whole city at war, then closes in on one family's kitchen table. What does the narrowing do?

    • It turns a huge event into one family's experience
    • It drops the war completely so a new, unrelated story can start
    • It lists every part of the city the war has reached

  6. In a short story, a phone call at the exact midpoint turns a calm day into a frantic search. What does that placement do?

    • It fills space so the story reaches its length
    • It repeats the opening so that the ending feels familiar
    • It splits the story into a calm half and a tense half

  7. A student writes three pages on what happens and titles it structure analysis. What is the flaw?

    • It needs many more quotations before it counts as analysis
    • It retells content but never explains the order
    • It mentions the opening before it reaches the ending

  8. A twist is saved for the final line. Ann says placement gives it force. Ben says only content matters. Who is right?

    • Ann, because the same twist lands softer mid-page
    • Ben, because a twist works the same wherever it sits
    • Neither, because only the opening line affects readers
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Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

Follow how the text is built W1-mt_siYSy_kXUU-s1

  1. From wide to narrow · A whole harbour, then one boat, then one face: the view gets smaller each time, so the focus moves from wide to narrow.
  2. What the order and placement of parts do · Structure analysis explains what the order and placement of parts do. Retelling events or naming devices one sentence at a time does not reach the arrangement.
  3. True · Position carries meaning apart from content.
  4. What the empty platform changes about the opening · The ending returns to the opening place with one change. Your analysis should say what that change shows, such as loss or time passing.
  5. It turns a huge event into one family's experience · Moving from a whole city to one table makes the war personal: the reader now sees it through one family.
  6. It splits the story into a calm half and a tense half · A turning point at the midpoint divides the story: everything before it is calm and everything after it is tense.
  7. It retells content but never explains the order · Retelling is not structure. Decisions about order are.
  8. Ann, because the same twist lands softer mid-page · A last-line reveal hits harder than the same twist mid-page.
Worksheet · LightMySky