Ghosts and Ghouls Stage 5 Comprehension - Parliament of the Dead PDF

STAGE 5 Unit focus: Ghosts And Ghouls Text focus: Narrative Parliament Of The Dead “Order, please! The Right Honourable Ghoul has the floor.” A strange man, who looked like he’d had an accident...

STAGE 5 Unit focus: Ghosts And Ghouls Text focus: Narrative Parliament Of The Dead “Order, please! The Right Honourable Ghoul has the floor.” A strange man, who looked like he’d had an accident with a hedge trimmer, banged a gavel and sat down. A hush swept around the curved benches like a silent Mexican wave. Nobody wanted to annoy the Shrieker of the House. “Thank you,” another man said. This one was more transparent than you might expect, as though he was made out of fog. Only his eyes seemed solid, and they glowed like the depths of an angry volcano. He was a ghoul, but that didn’t stop him from having a spot in the Parliament of the Undead any more than it did the Shrieker of the House, who was a zombie. The ghoul continued: “It is my rather unfortunate duty that I have to raise the issue of taxes once again.” He waited for the customary hubbub to die down with the help of the Shrieker. “I know that none of us wants to pay any more than we have to, but there are services that must be upheld!” Echoes of “hear, hear” bounced around the chamber, along with a few along the lines of “wot does ‘e know?”. “Waiting times to get into the a erlife are longer than ever. All of us are stuck here in limbo, just waiting to move on to whatever it is that we believe comes next. If we don’t get the waiting list down, half of us will be dead before we pass on.” “I must remind the Honourable Ghoul that we are, in fact, already dead,” the Shrieker said solemnly. “Fair enough. Not all of us can afford to have a good surgeon on hand to rea ach our arms whenever they fall off. Some of us blow away in a strong breeze. We want to pass on before there’s nothing le of us to pass! I would like us to pass a motion to raise more taxes from new arrivals.” A A thought seemed to pass through the chamber, and it was a simple ding ro Rea und all resources ©2024 Literacy Shed e um C u r r ic ul Th http://www.literacyshedplus.com one: none of us are new arrivals, so we won’t have to pay any more tax than we already do. Let the newcomers do it for us! “All those in favour of the Honourable Ghoul’s suggestion, raise an arm or whatever your own equivalent is.” A forest of arms, claws, wings and strange fogs rose into the air. The ghoul sat down, content. “I cede the floor to the Honourable Zombie from Pandemonium.” A straggly-looking zombie stood up. Unlike the Shrieker of the House, he didn’t have his own surgeon, and one of his arms was hanging on by a thread. “Thank you,” he said in a voice as dry as a crypt. “I would like to talk about the issue of rats.” “What in Limbo have rats got to do with us?” somebody at the back shouted out. “Some of us are suffering from them!” the zombie shouted out. He waved his good arm about until a rat fell out of it. “They’re eating me alive. You know what I mean,” he announced, scratching wildly. More rats fell out of his body and scurried away into the depths of the benches. Suddenly, Pandemonium was everywhere. “Order! Order!” the Shrieker bellowed, banging his gavel until it broke. In the end, he slipped out and locked the doors behind him. Sometimes, he really hated being undead. VOCABULARY FOCUS 1. Which word means “concede” or SUMMARY “give up”? FOCUS 2. Find and copy an example of a simile in the first paragraph. 3. Find and copy a word that describes something as “see-through”. 4. What impression do you get of something described as a “hubbub”? 5. Which word describes a place or thing that is stuck between one thing and another? VIPERS QUESTIONS I What tells you that there is always a lot of noise when somebody mentions taxes? R Who is in control of the Parliament? R Where is the rat-infested zombie from? S How was he different to the other zombie in the room? R What broke during the story? all resources ©2024 Literacy Shed http://www.literacyshedplus.com