I.

Carefully read the following excerpt from Terry Eagletons How to Read Literature (2013)
(1) When Heathcliff disappears from Wuthering Heights for a mysterious stretch of time, the
novel does not tell us where he runs off to. (2) There is a theory that he returns to the
Liverpool where he was first discovered as a child and grows rich in the slave trade there, but
it is equally possible that he sets up a hairdressing salon in Reading. The truth is that he does
no end up in any place on the map. Instead, he takes himself off to an indeterminate location.
There are no such locations in real life, not even Gary, Indiana, but there are in fiction. (3) We
may also ask how many teeth Heathcliff has, to which the only possible answer is an
indeterminate number. It is legitimate of us to infer that he has teeth, but the work does not tell
us how many. A celebrated critical essay is entitled How Many Children Had Lady
Macbeth? (4) We can deduce from the play that she has probably given birth to at least one,
but we are not told whether there are more. So Lady Macbeth has an indeterminate number of
children, which may prove convenient when applying for child benefit.
Literary figures have no pre-history. (5) It is said that a theatre director who was staging one
of Harold Pinters plays asked the playwright from some hint as to what his characters were up
to before they came on stage. Pinters reply was Mind your own fucking business. Emma
Woodhouse, the heroine of Jane Austens novel Emma, exists only as long as somebody is
reading about her. If nobody is reading about her at any given time (an unlikely eventuality,
given the brilliance of the novel and the billions of English-language readers in the world), she
lapses into non-existence. Emma does not survive the conclusions of Emma. She lives in a
text, not a grand country mansion, and a text is a transaction between itself and a reader. (6) A
book is a material object which exists even if nobody picks it up, but this is not true of a text.
A text is a pattern of meaning, and patterns of meaning do not lead lives of their own, like
snakes or sofa.
II. Identify the following parts of speech in the context of the sentence on which they
appear. (5 marks)
When (line 1) ____________

There (line 2)

_____________

That (line 4) ____________

Work (line 8)

_____________

Convenient (line 12) ___________

III. Identify the following parts of the sentence in the context of the sentence on which
they appear. (5 marks)
Theory (line 2) _____________

legitimate (line 8) ______________

Rich (line 3) ______________

pre-history (13) _________________

Brilliance (line 19) __________________

IV. Identify the type and function of the following phrases in the context of the sentence on
which they appear. (5 marks)

Type

1. any place on the map (line 5)

Function

___________________ ___________________

2. an indeterminate number of children ( 11) _______________________________________

3. applying for child benefit (line 12)

___________________ ___________________

4. between itself and a reader (line 20)

___________________ ___________________

5. a pattern of meaning (line 22)

___________________ ___________________

V. Fill in the charts with the information requested for the underlined sentences in the text.
Only identify the function of noun and/or adjective clauses. (5 marks)

(1) Main Clause(s)

Subordinate Clause(s)

Function

Sent. type
(structure/p
urpose)

(2) Main Clause(s)

Subordinate Clause(s)

Function

Sent. type
(structure/p
urpose)

(3) Main Clause(s)

Subordinate Clause(s)

Function

Sent. type
(structure/p
urpose)

Function

Sent. type
(structure/p
urpose)

(4) Main Clause(s)

Subordinate Clause(s)

(5) Main Clause(s)

Subordinate Clause(s)

Function

Sent. type
(structure/p
urpose)

(6) Main Clause(s)

Subordinate Clause(s)

Function

Sent. type
(structure/p
urpose)