COLEGIO ALBANIA

MIDDLE YEARS PROGRAM

STUDY GUIDE - PREPARATION SEMESTER EXAM
DATE: Dec 2024

Subject: English Teacher: Thomas Howard Class: 7th Grade

Thomas McCuller

Topics we have covered Students need to study all notes from the notebook for The Hunger Games.
Theme
Symbolism
Conflicts
Characterization
Appositives
Series
Paragraph Writing

RUBRIC Directions:
Assessment Criterion: • Handwrite the answers in separated sheets (note pad).
Analysis - Although this is the • Answer the questions in order, following the given instructions.
main criterion, your language
usage will be taken into
account when grading the
exam.

Level Level descriptor Activities or models of questions

7-8 The student provides

perceptive identification
and comment upon THE OPEN WINDOW
significant aspects
of texts The Open Window by H. H. Munro (Saki) "My aunt will be down presently, Mr.
Nuttel," said a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen; "in the meantime you
ii. provides perceptive must try and put up with me." Framton Nuttel endeavoured to say the correct
identification and something which should duly flatter the niece of the moment without unduly
comment upon the discounting the aunt that was to come. Privately he doubted more than ever
creator’s choices whether these formal visits on a succession of total strangers would do much
towards helping the nerve cure which he was supposed to be undergoing. "I know
iii. gives detailed how it will be," his sister had said when he was preparing to migrate to this rural
justification of opinions retreat; "you will bury yourself down there and not speak to a living soul, and your
and ideas with a range of nerves will be worse than ever from moping. I shall just give you letters of
examples, and thorough introduction to all the people I know there. Some of them, as far as I can
explanations; uses remember, were quite nice." Framton wondered whether Mrs. Sappleton, the lady
accurate terminology to whom he was presenting one of the letters of introduction, came into the nice
division. "Do you know many of the people round here?" asked the niece, when
she judged that they had had sufficient silent communion. "Hardly a soul," said
Framton. "My sister was staying here, at the rectory, you know, some four years
ago, and she gave me letters of introduction to some of the people here." He made
the last statement in a tone of distinct regret. "Then you know practically nothing
about my aunt?" pursued the self-possessed young lady. "Only her name and
address," admitted the caller. He was wondering whether Mrs. Sappleton was in
the married or widowed state. An undefinable something about the room seemed
to suggest masculine habitation. "Her great tragedy happened just three years
ago," said the child; "that would be since your sister's time." "Her tragedy?" asked
Framton; somehow in this restful country spot tragedies seemed out of place. "You
may wonder why we keep that window wide open on an October afternoon," said
the niece, indicating a large French window that opened on to a lawn. "It is quite
warm for the time of the year," said Framton; "but has that window got anything
to do with the tragedy?" "Out through that window, three years ago to a day, her
husband and her two young brothers went off for their day's shooting. They never
came back. In crossing the moor to their favourite snipeshooting ground they were
all three engulfed in a treacherous piece of bog. It had been that dreadful wet
summer, you know, and places that were safe in other years gave way suddenly
without warning. Their bodies were never recovered. That was the dreadful part
of it." Here the child's voice lost its self-possessed note and became falteringly
human. "Poor aunt always thinks that they will come back some day, they and the
little brown spaniel that was lost with them, and walk in at that window just as
they used to do. That is why the window is kept open every evening till it is quite
dusk. Poor dear aunt, she has often told me how they went out, her husband with
his white waterproof coat over his arm, and Ronnie, her youngest brother, singing
'Bertie, why do you bound?' as he always did to tease her, because she said it got
on her nerves. Do you know, sometimes on still, quiet evenings like this, I almost
get a creepy feeling that they will all walk in through that window - " She broke off
with a little shudder. It was a relief to Framton when the aunt bustled into the
room with a whirl of apologies for being late in making her appearance. "I hope
Vera has been amusing you?" she said. "She has been very interesting," said
Framton. "I hope you don't mind the open window," said Mrs. Sappleton briskly;
"my husband and brothers will be home directly from shooting, and they always
come in this way. They've been out for snipe in the marshes to-day, so they'll make
a fine mess over my poor carpets. So like you men-folk, isn't it?" She rattled on
cheerfully about the shooting and the scarcity of birds, and the prospects for duck
in the winter. To Framton it was all purely horrible. He made a desperate but only
partially successful effort to turn the talk on to a less ghastly topic; he was
conscious that his hostess was giving him only a fragment of her attention, and her
eyes were constantly straying past him to the open window and the lawn beyond.
It was certainly an unfortunate coincidence that he should have paid his visit on
this tragic anniversary. "The doctors agree in ordering me complete rest, an
absence of mental excitement, and avoidance of anything in the nature of violent
physical exercise," announced Framton, who laboured under the tolerably wide-
spread delusion that total strangers and chance acquaintances are hungry for the
least detail of one's ailments and infirmities, their cause and cure. "On the matter
of diet they are not so much in agreement," he continued. "No?" said Mrs.
Sappleton, in a voice which only replaced a yawn at the last moment. Then she
suddenly brightened into alert attention - but not to what Framton was saying.
"Here they are at last!" she cried. "Just in time for tea, and don't they look as if
they were muddy up to the eyes!" Framton shivered slightly and turned towards
the niece with a look intended to convey sympathetic comprehension. The child
was staring out through the open window with dazed horror in her eyes. In a chill
shock of nameless fear Framton swung round in his seat and looked in the same
direction. In the deepening twilight three figures were walking across the lawn
towards the window; they all carried guns under their arms, and one of them was
additionally burdened with a white coat hung over his shoulders. A tired brown
spaniel kept close at their heels. Noiselessly they neared the house, and then a
hoarse young voice chanted out of the dusk: "I said, Bertie, why do you bound?"
Framton grabbed wildly at his stick and hat; the hall-door, the gravel-drive, and the
front gate were dimly-noted stages in his headlong retreat. A cyclist coming along
the road had to run into the hedge to avoid an imminent collision. "Here we are,
my dear," said the bearer of the white mackintosh, coming in through the window;
"fairly muddy, but most of it's dry. Who was that who bolted out as we came up?"
"A most extraordinary man, a Mr. Nuttel," said Mrs. Sappleton; "could only talk
about his illnesses, and dashed off without a word of good-bye or apology when
you arrived. One would think he had seen a ghost." "I expect it was the spaniel,"
said the niece calmly; "he told me he had a horror of dogs. He was once hunted
into a cemetery somewhere on the banks of the Ganges by a pack of pariah dogs,
and had to spend the night in a newly dug grave with the creatures snarling and
grinning and foaming just above him. Enough to make anyone their nerve."
Romance at short notice was her specialty.

Multiple Choice Questions

Choose the best answer for each question.

1. Why does Mr. Nuttel visit the countryside?

o a) To go hunting
o b) To visit friends
o c) To relax and improve his health
o d) To find a new job
2. What does Vera tell Mr. Nuttel about her aunt’s husband and
brothers?
o a) They are away on vacation.
o b) They went hunting and never returned.
o c) They are busy working in the city.
o d) They are very afraid of open windows.
3. How does Mr. Nuttel react when he sees the men approaching the
house?
o a) He laughs at Vera’s story.
o b) He runs out of the house.
o c) He greets them warmly.
o d) He hides behind the couch.
4. What can we infer about Vera’s personality based on her interactions
with Mr. Nuttel?
o a) She is kind and honest.
o b) She is shy and nervous.
o c) She is clever and mischievous.
o d) She is scared of her aunt.
5. What is the significance of the open window in the story?
o a) It is part of Mrs. Sappleton’s favorite view.
o b) It symbolizes the mystery in the story.
o c) It allows a breeze into the house.
o d) It scares the dog away.
Fill-in-the-Blank Questions

Complete each sentence with the correct word or phrase.

6. Mr. Nuttel has come to the countryside to find _______.

7. Vera tells Mr. Nuttel a story about the men going ______ and never
returning.
8. Mrs. Sappleton always leaves the ______ open because she believes
her husband and brothers will come back through it.
9. Vera says that her aunt’s husband and brothers were lost in a _______
while hunting.
10. Mr. Nuttel runs out of the house because he thinks he has seen
_________.

Short Essay Questions

Answer each question in 2-3 sentences.

11. Describe how Vera’s story affects Mr. Nuttel. Why does he react the
way he does when he sees the men coming toward the house?
12. Why do you think Vera chooses to tell Mr. Nuttel a story about her
aunt’s husband and brothers? What does this reveal about her
character?
13. Explain the significance of the open window in the story. How does it
serve as more than just a literal window in the story’s plot?

Sentence Combining: Appositives and Series

Appositives

o Vera is a clever and imaginative girl.

o She is the niece of Mrs. Sappleton.

o Mr. Nuttel is a nervous visitor.

o He has come to the countryside for a rest.
 o
o
o Mrs. Sappleton has a habit of leaving the window open.
o She is Vera’s aunt.

o The open window is tall and wide.

o It is a key feature in the story.

Series

o Mr. Nuttel feels nervous.

o Mr. Nuttel feels uneasy.
o Mr. Nuttel feels a little scared.

o Vera tells Mr. Nuttel the men went hunting.

o She says they haven’t come back.
o She says her aunt keeps the window open, waiting for them.

o Mr. Nuttel can see the green lawn.

o He can see the tall trees.
o He can see the distant fields.

Theme and Thematic Statements

• If you had to express the theme of The Open Window in one sentence,
what would it be?

• (Follow-up: Can you make this sentence about people or life in

general rather than the story’s specific events?)

• Write a thematic statement based on the theme of “deception” in The

Open Window. How does Vera’s behavior illustrate this theme?

• What message or lesson do you think Saki wanted readers to take

away from The Open Window?

• (Follow-up: How do specific events in the story support this

message?)

• What emotions does Mr. Nuttel experience throughout the story? How
do these emotions help reveal a theme?
Resources

Students should use their digital notebooks and activities as a resource with examples.
Irony - https://youtu.be/-wK5hTaANI0?si=a1h8CwDlsjvClLDY
Characterization - https://youtu.be/IRW6yVOHCQc?si=YqnDbbkfYB5svm-r
Theme - https://youtu.be/IaipS229HOY?si=pqvPfQN421XGY8Ps
Conflicts - https://youtu.be/rM5cp_YL77k?si=2iyqN71QyI60D4FW
Symbolism - https://youtu.be/EYL8Dwy7XS0?si=8KT_pj48dB8p2wPU

Materials you must bring to the test

black pen and liquid paper