ENGLISH LITERATURE YEAR 6 EXAM

Return to Exam Page

Duration – 1 hour and 30 minutes

Each correct answer is worth 1 mark out of a total of 100, unless stated otherwise.

1. On the night that Ronia is born there is a violent storm.

What does the storm do to Matt’s fort and what do you think this symbolises? How does this give the reader a clue as to what the whole story will be about?

Give examples from the story. (4 marks)

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. On page 7, Matt discovers what happened to his fort in the middle of the night.

What is his initial reaction? Include a brief quote from the book.

However, he then tries to see the positive side. What reasons does he find ‘to take comfort’? (3 marks)

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. In Chapter 2 Ronia is attacked by the Grey Dwarfs.

Lovis and Matt advise Ronia how to avoid the Dwarfs in the future. (Pages 16 -17)

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

4. Describe Matt and Lovis’s characters.

Give a brief example of their behaviour in the story that shows their individual characteristics. (4 marks)

Matt’s Character _______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

 Example of Matt’s Character _____________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________  

Example of Lovis’s Character ____________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

5. When Ronia first meets Birk, in Chapter 3, he is on the other side of Hell’s Gap. Both Birk and Ronia begin to leap across Hell’s Gap in a mad, frenzied dance of chase.

When Birk slips, Ronia saves his life. This is the first time one of them saves the others life. Can you think of two other occasions when they save each other’s lives? (2 marks)

1. _______________________________________________________________
   
   

2. _______________________________________________________________

6. When Matt and Borka meet on either side of Hell’s Gap, what do we discover about their past?

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

 
7. In Chapter 4, Matt and Borka argue about who owns the fort.

What argument does Borka use to silence Matt? (Page 36)

8. Borka’s argument shows Matt to be a hypocrite.

What does the word hypocrite mean?

9. What do Ronia and Birk do in the same chapter, which is a reflection of Matt and Borka’s argument?

10. On page 39, Birk tells Ronia –

“In any case, it’s my wood! And your wood, robber’s daughter – yes, your wood too!”

What does Birk mean? (2 marks)

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

11. When Ronia and Birk are returning home from the forest at the end of Chapter 4, Ronia is spellbound and almost hypnotised by the singing of the Unearthly Ones.

This is very similar to something that happens in one of the Greek Myths. Can you think of the name of the character in the Greek myths and the name of the hypnotic singers?

Character _____________________________

Singers ______________________________

12. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 are all about Ronia growing up.

At the beginning of Chapter 5 what does Ronia discover about Matt, what is her reaction and how is this an example of Ronia growing up? (3 marks)

Ronia’s discovery ______________________________________________________

How is this an example of Ronia growing up? _______________________________

 ___________________________________________________________________

13. How does Matt try to justify what he does and why does Matt become angry at Noddle-Pete? (See Pages 46 -47) (2 marks)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

14. In Chapter 6 Ronia is very unwell. (Pages 58 – 60)

What do you think her illness symbolises and what does Ronia think about when she is ill? (2 marks)

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

15. After she has recovered from her illness Ronia begins to feel trapped by the endless winter and the snow. She goes down into the dungeons and thinks about all the prisoners who once died there.

“…she felt that something of the moaning and sighing of those long-dead prisoners still clung to the rock walls, and it gave her a creepy feeling.” (Page 62)

What do you think the prisoners symbolise? (3 marks)

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

16. Chapter 8 marks the beginning of spring. Ronia and Birk are able to meet and play in the forest again. They capture two horses, which they call Villain and Savage. They try to tame the horses but they keep escaping.

Who do you think the two horses represent?

17. On page 86, chapter 9, Ronia has a heated argument with Matt. Ronia wants to know why Matt and Borka must be always fighting each other. She asks –

“Is there no other way?”

What two sides of human nature do Matt and Ronia represent in this argument? (4 marks)

18. Later in the same chapter, Matt captures Birk. He holds him hostage and demands a meeting with Borka at Hell’s Gap. At the meeting Matt tells Borka that if he wants his son back then he must leave Matt’s Fort.

What does Ronia do, and why? (2 marks)

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

19. As Ronia grows stronger and more independent, moving out of Matt’s Fort altogether, to live with Birk in the forest, what happens to Matt?

Why does he find it so difficult to accept what Ronia has done and what Ronia represents? (2 marks)

What happens to Matt? __________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

Why can he not accept what Ronia has done? ________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

20. When Birk asks Ronia how she thinks Matt will be feeling, Ronia replies –

“I should think he’s quite pleased. That I’ve gone, so that he can forget me.”
(Page 111)

How does her dream that night, show that Ronia does not really believe Matt will be ‘quite pleased’? (2 marks)

 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

21. In chapter 12 Ronia and Birk have their first big argument since moving into the forest together. They argue over a ‘lost’ knife and Ronia runs off.

What do Ronia and Birk learn from this argument and how does the discovery of the mare that has lost her foal help them to understand this lesson? (2 marks)

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

On page 148, Ronia says to Birk –

“I’m drinking in the summer like the wild bee sucking up honey…”

What does she mean? (2 marks)

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

23. Both Ronia and Birk know that their time in the forest is coming to an end. They know that they must face the challenge ahead of resolving their conflicts with their fathers.

What signs does the writer, Astrid Lindgren give, in chapters 13, 14 and 15, to show that it is soon time to go home? Give 2 examples.

 _____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________
  

24. At the beginning of chapter 16, Matt comes to ask Ronia to return home. He also invites Birk to join them.

Why is this a remarkable compromise for Matt to make and an emotionally powerful moment for the reader? (3 marks)

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

How do they decide who will be overall leader? Tick the correct answer.

1. They play a game of rock, paper, scissors
2. They have a democratic vote amongst all the robbers and women
3. They fight until there is a victor
4. They look for signs from the Gods to tell them who should lead

What does this tell us about Matt and Borka?

26. Both Birk and Ronia make it clear to their fathers that they will never be robbers.

What does this tell us about Birk and Ronia’s characters and the new generation, which they represent? (3 marks)

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

SECTION 2 – AESOP’S FABLES (10 marks)

27. Aesop was a brilliant storyteller from Ancient Greece. His short stories take the form of ‘fables’.

What is a fable? Use the example of one of Aesop’s Fables to help explain your answer. (Do not use the fable below in your explanation) (4 marks)

_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________

28. Read carefully the following, famous fable by Aesop. (6 marks)

The north wind and the sun were disputing which was the stronger, and agreed to acknowledge as the victor whichever of them could strip a traveller of his clothing.

The wind tried first. But its violent gusts only made the man hold his clothes tightly around him, and when it blew harder still the cold made him so uncomfortable that he put on an extra layer. Eventually the wind got tired of it and handed over to the sun.

The sun shone first with a moderate warmth, which made the man take off his top-coat. Then it blazed powerfully, till, unable to stand the heat, he stripped and went to bathe in a nearby river.

1. Why do the efforts of the North Wind to strip the traveller have the opposite effect?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Why are the efforts of the sun successful?

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

3.  What do you think is the moral of this story?

 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________