Question and extract
The extracts your exam questions are based on will be longer than the one here. You should still be able to find at least five points to answer the question. First of all, have a read, and see what ideas you can come up with. Remember to link each point to a quotation or example.
Question
How does the writer use language and structure to create an entertaining description for the reader?
Extract
In this extract from his autobiography Clive James describes a go-carting disaster.
I could not build go-carts very well. Other children made superb carts with wooden frames and wheels that screamed on the pavements like a diving aeroplane. The best I could manage was a fruit box with silent rubber wheels taken off an old pram.
After school and at weekends boys came from all over town to race along our street. There would be twenty or thirty carts. The noise was incredible.
Go-carts racing down the pavement on one side had a straight run of about a quarter of a mile all the way to the park. The carts would reach such high speeds that it was impossible for the rider to get off. All he could do was crash when he got to the end.
On the other side of the road we could only go half as far, before a sharp right-angle turn into Irene Street. The back wheels slid round the corner, leaving black, smoking trails of burnt rubber, or skidded in a shower of sparks.
The Irene Street corner was made more dangerous by Mrs Braithwaiteâs poppies. Mrs Braithwaite lived in the house on the corner. We all thought that she was a witch. We believed that she poisoned cats. She was also a keen gardener. Her flower beds held the areaâs best collection of poppies. She had been known to phone the police if even one of her poppies was picked by a passer-by.
It was vital to make the turn into Irene Street without hurting a single poppy, otherwise the old lady would probably come out shooting. Usually, when the poppies were in bloom, nobody dared make the turn. I did because I thought that I was skilful enough to make the turn safely.
Unreliable Memoirs, Clive James