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Never Let Me Go - Extract 2
How much do you know about the classroom scene in Never Let Me Go?

Never Let Me Go - Extract 2

This GCSE English Literature quiz takes a closer look at a particular extract from Kazuo Ishiguro’s book Never Let Me Go. This is the second of two extract questions for Never Let Me Go. It takes place during an English Literature lesson on poetry, perhaps poetry about the Second World War, since the topic arises during the lesson. The only dialogue in the passage is spoken by Miss Lucy and the entire event is filtered through Kathy’s watchful perception, related by her thirty-one-year-old self. Why does no one else speak? Why does no one else notice Miss Lucy? How would you explain the hysterical behaviour of the students? Read the passage through at least twice before answering the questions. When answering, pay very close attention to the details of this particular passage while considering how these details relate to the themes of the novel as a whole.

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That talk with Tommy beside the pond: I think of it now as a kind of marker between the two eras. Not that anything significant started to happen immediately afterwards; but for me at least, that conversation was a turning point. I definitely started to look at everything differently. Where before I’d have backed away from awkward stuff, I began instead, more and more, to ask questions, if not out loud, at least within myself.

In particular, that conversation got me looking at Miss Lucy in a new light. I watched her carefully whenever I could, not just from curiosity, but because I now saw her as the most likely source of important clues. And that’s how it was, over the next year or two, I came to notice various odd little things she said or did that my friends missed altogether.

There was the time, for example, maybe a few weeks after the talk by the pond, when Miss Lucy was taking us for English. We’d been looking at some poetry, but had somehow drifted onto talking about soldiers in World War Two being kept in prison camps. One of the boys asked if the fences around the camps had been electrified, and then someone else had said how strange it must have been, living in a place like that, where you could commit suicide any time you liked just by touching a fence. This might have been intended as a serious point, but the rest of us thought it pretty funny. We were all laughing and talking at once, and then Laura — typical of her — got up on her seat and did a hysterical impersonation of someone reaching out and getting electrocuted. For a moment things got riotous, with everyone shouting and mimicking touching electric fences.

I went on watching Miss Lucy through all this and I could see, just for a second, a ghostly expression come over her face as she watched the class in front of her. Then — I kept watching carefully — she pulled herself together, smiled and said: “It’s just as well the fences at Hailsham aren’t electrified. You get terrible accidents sometimes.”

She said this quite softly, and because people were still shouting, she was more or less drowned out. But I heard her clearly enough. “You get terrible accidents sometimes.” What accidents? Where? But no one picked her up on it, and we went back to discussing our poem.

There were other little incidents like that, and before long I came to see Miss Lucy as being not quite like the other guardians. It’s even possible I began to realise, right back then, the nature of her worries and frustrations. But that’s probably going too far; chances are, at the time, I noticed all these things without knowing what on earth to make of them. And if these incidents now seem full of significance and all of a piece, it’s probably because I’m looking at them in the light of what came later — particularly what happened that day at the pavilion while we were sheltering from the downpour.

Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (Faber and Faber, 2005)

1 .
What is the immediate context for this passage?
Tommy has just lost his temper on the playing field yet again
Kathy explains that she has finished telling childhood memories and wishes to move on to recalling the students' later years at Hailsham
Ruth has just stolen Kathy's tape
Miss Lucy has disappeared from Hailsham
Although Kathy explains that her memories of her later years at Hailsham are darker, the final memories of childhood which she recollects are disquieting, including the lost tape, Miss Lucy's admission about smoking, and the episode when Madame discovers Kathy dancing
2 .
What immediately follows this passage?
Miss Lucy is replaced as a guardian
The students make a visit to Norfolk
The oldest students move to the Cottages
Miss Lucy forces the students to confront their limited futures
When younger, the students were reluctant to ask questions, even when Miss Lucy explained why they should not smoke. Now that they are older, Miss Lucy firmly rebukes them for indulgently dreaming of an impossible future
3 .
Which conversation with Tommy does Kathy regard as a "turning point"?
The conversation when Kathy tells Tommy about her missing tape
The conversation when the students discuss the plot against Miss Geraldine
The conversation when Tommy tells Kathy what Miss Lucy said about the importance of being creative
The conversation when Kathy urges Tommy to get back together with Ruth
Miss Lucy's reassurance that creativity was not so important, alongside her comment that the students should be taught more about donations set Kathy and Tommy wondering about the mysterious practices at Hailsham, especially Madame's habit of collecting art for her Gallery
4 .
What is significant about the use of the word "hysterical"?
It depicts Laura's wild behaviour while also referring to the underlying, barely-controllable fear felt by the students
It suggests that Laura might injure herself by falling off her chair
It hints that Laura and the other students lack compassion for the soldiers
It signifies Miss Lucy's impending loss of control
While they are also amused at the mounting disorder in the classroom, this disorder is provoked by the fear the students have trouble controlling
5 .
How does Miss Lucy's response relate to the students' literature lesson?
Miss Lucy believes the rioting students should have the discipline of soldiers
She is attempting to get the students to calm down
Miss Lucy sees the parallels between the students' constrained lives and the imprisonment of soldiers in the camps
Her response is unrelated to the lesson
Miss Lucy becomes less and less able to teach the students as though they have a normal future before them
6 .
Which of the following phrases does NOT demonstrate Kathy's observant nature?
This might have been intended as a serious point, but the rest of us thought it pretty funny
I came to notice various odd little things she said or did that my friends missed altogether
I could see, just for a second, a ghostly expression come over her face as she watched the class
But I heard her clearly enough
Kathy notices details which other students miss
7 .
What does Miss Lucy mean by her comment about the Hailsham fences?
Miss Lucy merely wishes to protect the students from accidents
In her view, it would be natural for the horrific future in store for each of the students to lead to suicides
Miss Lucy wants nothing more than to protect the students from distress
The students are notoriously accident-prone
Miss Lucy immediately connects the student's question about suicide with what, to her, seems a logical response to the students' situation. Her use of the word "accident" is ironic, referring to how the suicides would be described euphemistically
8 .
Miss Lucy speaks softly here. Why is that significant?
She is speaking against her will and cannot bring herself to be heard
She is afraid she will be overheard by Madame
She is not sure how much she ought to tell the students
It is not significant. She always speaks quietly
Miss Lucy loses her job soon after she speaks openly to the students. At this point, her soft tone of voice demonstrates her conflicting wishes: either to follow the Hailsham way, or to ensure the students completely understand the truth
9 .
Which of the following sentences best explains why Kathy is the only student listening to Miss Lucy?
Where before I’d have backed away from awkward stuff, I began instead, more and more, to ask questions, if not out loud, at least within myself
We’d been looking at some poetry, but had somehow drifted onto talking about soldiers in World War Two being kept in prison camps
I went on watching Miss Lucy through all this and I could see, just for a second, a ghostly expression come over her face as she watched the class in front of her
Not that anything significant started to happen immediately afterwards; but for me at least, that conversation was a turning point
Kathy listens closely to Miss Lucy because she has begun to question everything she knows or has been taught about herself and the other clones
10 .
"It’s even possible I began to realise, right back then, the nature of her worries and frustrations. But that’s probably going too far; chances are, at the time, I noticed all these things without knowing what on earth to make of them." How does Kathy's reflection relate to the themes of the novel?
She has grown to mistrust Miss Lucy since leaving Hailsham and is looking for evidence that the guardian lied to the students
Kathy believes that only her own memories are valid. This is related to the theme of self-importance
Kathy is full of doubts later and realises that all of her memories of Hailsham are wrong. This is relevant because she is an unreliable narrator
She is discussing the construction of memories and their trustworthiness, which is relevant because the story is told through the narrator's memories
Throughout the novel, Kathy is careful to present the truth, according to her memories, often correcting herself when she realises that her later understanding of an event could not match her initial impressions. The novel ends with Kathy deciding that her memories will not fade and cannot be lost
You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - Never Let Me Go

Author:  Sheri Smith

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