Bartimaeus Inspired Tone Quiz - credit to Jonathan Stroud

Bartimaeus

The temperature of the room dropped fast. Ice formed on the curtains and crusted thickly around the lights in the ceiling. The glowing filaments in each bulb shrank and dimmed, while the candles that sprang from every

available surface like a colony of toadstools had their wicks snuffed out.

Do the underlined words have a positive or negative connotation?

• Negative

• Positive

• Neutral

• Don't know

The glowing filaments in each bulb shrank and dimmed, while the candles that sprang from every available surface like a colony of toadstools had their wicks snuffed out.

Choose synonyms for SHRANK as underlined above.

• Swelled

• Diminish

• Decline

• Narrow

The temperature of the room dropped fast. Ice formed on the curtains and crusted thickly around the lights in the ceiling. The glowing filaments in each bulb shrank and dimmed, while the candles that sprang from every

available surface like a colony of toadstools had their wicks snuffed out.

Consider the diction we have just evaluated. Why has the author used these words specifically? (Author's purpose)

• To make the reader laugh

• To create a sense of suspense

• To inform the reader of important facts

• To create a sense of calm

The darkened room filled with a yellow, choking cloud of brimstone, in which indistinct black shadows writhed and roiled. From far away came the sound of many voices screaming. Pressure was suddenly applied to the door

that led to the landing. It bulged inward, the timbers groaning.

The author uses sensory words to help the reader get a sense of the SOUND experienced in the room. Which words relate to sound?

• bulged; landing

• screaming; darkened

• groaning; voices screaming

• yellow; brimstone

The darkened room filled with a yellow, choking cloud of brimstone, in which indistinct black shadows writhed and roiled. From far away came the sound of many voices screaming. Pressure was suddenly applied to the door that led to the landing. It bulged inward, the timbers groaning.

Which phrase describes supernatural powers?

• It bulged inward

• choking cloud of brimstone

• indistinct black shadows writhed and roiled

• the timbers groaning

The darkened room filled with a yellow, choking cloud of brimstone, in which indistinct black shadows writhed and roiled.

Which word in the sentence above tells us that what is being described is mysterious and sinister?

• roiled

• choking

• writhed

• indistinct

The darkened room filled with a yellow, choking cloud of brimstone, in which indistinct black shadows writhed and roiled.

Choose the most accurate definition of "indistinct".

• not clear or sharply defined.

• not asked for; given or done voluntarily.

• lacking a coherent sequence or connection.

• the state of being diverse; variety.

The darkened room filled with a yellow, choking cloud of brimstone, in which indistinct black shadows writhed and roiled.

Choose the best description of the underlined words...

• Positive connotation... to suffer physical distress of emotional suffering

• Positive connotation... to experience the physical bliss associated with happiness

• Negative connotation... to experience the physical bliss associated with happiness

• Negative connotation... to suffer physical distress of emotional suffering

Footsteps from invisible feet came pattering across the floorboards and invisible mouths whispered wicked things from behind the bed and under the desk.

Look at the highlighted sections of the text. What sound device do they show?

• Assonance

• Hyperbole

• Onomatopoeia

• Alliteration

The sulfur cloud contracted into a thick column of smoke that vomited forth thin tendrils; they licked the air like tongues before withdrawing. The column hung above the middle of the pentacle, bubbling ever upward against the ceiling like the cloud of an erupting volcano. There was a barely perceptible pause. Then two yellow staring eyes materialized in the heart of the smoke.

Hey, it was his first time. I wanted to scare him.

And I did, too. The dark-haired boy stood in a pentacle of his own, smaller, filled with different runes, three feet away from the main one. He was pale as a corpse, shaking like a dead leaf in a high wind. His teeth rattled in his shivering jaw.

Bartimaeus wants to scare the boy. Select the words that show the boy's fear from the last paragraph.

• pale

• shaking

• rattled

• shivering