PREPARED BY:MOKHZANI BIN FADIR

SM TEKNIK SHAS, SEK KLUSTER KECEMERLANGAN

KUALA LIPIS, PAHANG

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READING COMPREHENSION

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WH QUESTIONS

WHERE

WHAT

HOW

WHICH

WHOWHEN

WHY

WHOM

THE TEXT

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Section C2 [25 marks] 

Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow. 

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1 I can trace exactly when and where the pressure started. I was in Standard 6 and many kids were starting to smoke. Standard 6! Can you believe that? I wouldn’t have believed it but I had been through it, so it must be true. Pocket money, which was supposed to go for nasi lemak or roti canai, snacks at break time, was saved up by the boys to buy a pack of cigarettes.

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2 Why didn’t I start smoking when all around me were? Was I the goody two-shoes my classmates accused me of being? Why were the boys so concerned when I didn’t join them behind the school for a ‘cig’ during break time? Where did the urge to start smoking originate? Why did my classmates think they needed to smoke in order to be accepted? I watched them with their cigarettes, trying to hold film-star poses. It was quite funny. Somehow I managed to stay away from the group.

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3 Now, I’m in Form 5. I know clearly why I don’t smoke, why I never really had the urge to start. It all began with my Aunt Salmah. My last and, indelibly-inked memory of Aunt Salmah was seeing her in the ward of the government hospital in the state capital. It was a week before she died. She was down to a mere 35 kilos. She looked so frail and incredibly thin. The throat cancer had eaten her inside out. She had a wan look on her face. She knew the end was near. The thing that really sticks in my mind is how she couldn’t, even then, at that late hour in her life, stop smoking. She chained-smoked the entire time of our visit. My siblings and I felt we were visiting a ghost, who couldn’t stop puffing away on her infernal cigarettes.

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Uncle Awang provided the next painful lesson in suicide by cigarette. No, cancer didn’t claim him, fatigue did. I was in Standard 5 when my Uncle Yatim called one day to speak to my father. In hushed tones, my father next spoke with my mother and then rushed off to the capital. Awang’s boss who had wanted to know why Awang hadn’t shown up at work for three days had called Uncle Yatim. Uncle Yatim, a fisherman, went to my Uncle Awang’s house. From the road, the house looked normal. Upon closer inspection there were no curtains in the windows. Everything appeared pitch-dark inside.

Uncle Yatim was a seasoned fisherman. He’d been through many bad experiences while fighting fires. He had seen some of his colleagues drop to their deaths when the roof of the warehouse they were in collapsed as they tried to douse the flames of a big fire. Yet nothing in his professional career had prepared him for the sight he found when he finally managed to get into his brother’s house.

A forensic fire examiner later determined that Uncle Awang had been watching television in this favourite armchair after a hard day at work. He had fallen asleep while smoking. The cigarette had fallen from his hand and started a fire in his armchair. Awakened by the fire, my uncle had panicked and, in trying to escape the fire, had become overpowered by smoke. He had lost his way and had stumbled into the toilet where he had died of smoke inhalation.

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THE QUESTIONS

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Questions 26-30 Answer all questions. You are advised to answer them in the order set. 26 When did the writer feel the pressure to start smoking?  27 (a) What do you understand by the phrase ‘goody two-shoes’?  (b)   Which word in paragraph 2 tells you that the other boys were trying to force the writer to smoke too?

28 (a) Where did the writer last see his Aunt Salmah?   (b)  Why could the writer not forget his last memory of her?  29 (a) Which phrase in paragraph 4 tells you that the writer’s uncle had something serious to tell the writer’s father? (b) How did the fire in Uncle Awang’s house start?

 30 In your own words state what had actually caused Uncle Awang to die?

THE QUESTIONS

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Questions 26-30 Answer all questions. You are advised to answer them in

the order set. 26 When did the writer feel the pressure to start

smoking?  27 (a) What do you understand by the phrase ‘goody

two-shoes’?   (b)    Which word in paragraph 2 tells you that the

other boys were trying to force the writer to smoke too?

   

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28 (a) Where did the writer last see his Aunt Salmah?   (b)   Why could the writer not forget his last memory of

her?  29 (a) Which phrase in paragraph 4 tells you that the

writer’s uncle had something serious to tell the writer’s father?

  (b) How did the fire in Uncle Awang’s house start?

 30 What had actually caused Uncle Awang to die?  

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THE TEXT

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1 I can trace exactly when and where the pressure started. I was in Standard 6 and many kids were starting to smoke. Standard 6! Can you believe that? I wouldn’t have believed it but I had been through it, so it must be true. Pocket money, which was supposed to go for nasi lemak or roti canai, snacks at break time, was saved up by the boys to buy a pack of cigarettes.

2 Why didn’t I start smoking when all around me were? Was I the goody two-

shoes my classmates accused me of being? Why were the boys so concerned when I didn’t join them behind the school for a ‘cig’ during break time? Where did the urge to start smoking originate? Why did my classmates think they needed to smoke in order to be accepted? I watched them with their cigarettes, trying to hold film-star poses. It was quite funny. Somehow I managed to stay away from the group.

3 Now, I’m in Form 5. I know clearly why I don’t smoke, why I never really had the urge to start. It all began with my Aunt Salmah. My last and, indelibly-inked memory of Aunt Salmah was seeing her in the ward of the government hospital in the state capital. It was a week before she died. She was down to a mere 35 kilos. She looked so frail and incredibly thin. The throat cancer had eaten her inside out. She had a wan look on her face. She knew the end was near. The thing that really sticks in my mind is how she couldn’t, even then, at that late hour in her life, stop smoking. She chained-smoked the entire time of our visit. My siblings and I felt we were visiting a ghost, who couldn’t stop puffing away on her infernal cigarettes.

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Uncle Awang provided the next painful lesson in suicide by cigarette. No,

cancer didn’t claim him, fatigue did. I was in Standard 5 when my Uncle Yatim called one day to speak to my father. In hushed tones, my father next spoke with my mother and then rushed off to the capital. Awang’s boss who had wanted to know why Awang hadn’t shown up at work for three days had called Uncle Yatim. Uncle Yatim, a fisherman, went to my Uncle Awang’s house. From the road, the house looked normal. Upon closer inspection there were no curtains in the windows. Everything appeared pitch-dark inside.

5 Uncle Yatim was a seasoned fisherman. He’d been through many bad experiences while fighting fires. He had seen some of his colleagues drop to their deaths when the roof of the warehouse they were in collapsed as they tried to douse the flames of a big fire. Yet nothing in his professional career had prepared him for the sight he found when he finally managed to get into his brother’s house.

6 A forensic fire examiner later determined that Uncle Awang had been watching television in this favourite armchair after a hard day at work. He had fallen asleep while smoking. The cigarette had fallen from his hand and started a fire in his armchair. Awakened by the fire, my uncle had panicked and, in trying to escape the fire, had become overpowered by smoke. He had lost his way and had stumbled into the toilet where he had died of smoke inhalation.

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THE ANSWERS

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Questions 26-30

Answer all questions. You are advised to answer them in the order set.

26. When did the writer feel the pressure to start smoking?

Answer 1I was in standard six and many kids were smoking.

Answer 2

He was in standard six and many kids were smoking.

Answer 3

The writer feel pressure to smoke when he was in standard six. [2 marks]

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Questions 27

(a) What do you understand by the phrase ‘goody two-shoes’?

self righteous person [1 mark]

(b) Which word in paragraph 2 tells you that the other boys were trying to force the writer to smoke too? `

Answer 1

Why were the boys so concerned when I didn’t join them behind the school for a ‘cig’ during break time?

Answer 2

concerned [1 mark]

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Questions 28

(a) Where did the writer last see his Aunt Salmah?

Answer 1

My last and, indelibly-inked memory of Aunt Salmah was seeing her in the ward of the government hospital in the state capital.

Answer 2

His last and, indelibly-inked memory of Aunt Salmah was seeing her in the ward of the government hospital in the state capital.

Answer 3

The writer last seeing her in the ward of the government hospital in the state capital.

Answer 4

in the ward of the government hospital in the state capital.

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Questions 28

(b)   Why could the writer not forget his last memory of her?

Answer 1

The thing that really sticks in my mind is how she couldn’t, even then, at that late hour in her life, stop smoking

Answer 2

The thing that really sticks in HIS mind is how she couldn’t, even then, at that late hour in her life, stop smoking

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Questions 29

(a) Which phrase in paragraph 4 tells you that the writer’s uncle had something serious to tell the writer’s father?

Answer 1

In hushed tones, my father next spoke with my mother and then rushed off to the capital.

Answer 2

In hushed tones, his father next spoke with his mother and then rushed off to the capital.

Answer 3

In hushed tones

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