Name:_______________________________________________________________________

__ Period:_____________
READING AND WRITING PRACTICE
Step 1: Read the following passage, in which the narrator of this novel
introduces the setting.
Exemplar Text
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were
striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his
breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly
through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not
quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from
entering along with him.
The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag
mats. At one end of it a coloured poster, too large for
indoor display, had been tacked to the wall. It depicted
simply an enormous face, more than a metre wide: the
face of a man of about forty- five, with a heavy black
moustache and ruggedly handsome features. Winston
made for the stairs. It was no use trying the lift. Even at
the best of times it was seldom working, and at present
the electric current was cut off during daytime hours. It
was part of the economy drive in preparation for Hate
Week. The flat was seven flights up, and Winston, who was
thirty-nine and had a varicose ulcer above his right
ankle, went slowly, resting several times on the way. On
each landing, opposite the lift shaft, the poster with the
enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those
pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you
about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU,
the caption beneath it ran.
Inside the flat a fruity voice was reading out a list of
figures which had something to do with the production of
pig-iron. The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like
a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the
right-hand wall. Winston turned a switch and the voice
sank somewhat, though the words were still
distinguishable. The instrument (the telescreen, it was
called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting
it off completely. He moved over to the window: a smallish,
frail figure, the meagerness of his body merely emphasized
by the blue overalls which were the uniform of the Party.
His hair was very fair, his face naturally sanguine, his skin
roughened by coarse soap and blunt razor blades and the
cold of the winter that had just ended.
Outside, even through the shut window-pane, the
world looked cold. Down in the street little eddies of wind
were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though
the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there

Vocabulary

unit of measure,
equal to about 3
feet
limited or careful
use of something;
swollen vein
obviously planned
or calculated
metal used to make
steel; oval shape
longer in one
direction than the
other
a reddish color

moving in bursts
fly which makes a
loud buzzing noise
not a real word but
an idea created by
putting two words
together

seemed to be no colour in anything, except the posters

that were plastered everywhere. The black-mustachiod
face gazed down from every commanding corner. There
was one on the house-front immediately opposite. BIG
BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the
dark eyes looked deep into Winstons own. Down at street
level another poster, torn at one corner, flapped fitfully in
the wind, alternately covering and uncovering the single
word INGSOC. In the far distance a helicopter skimmed
down beneath the roofs, hovered for an instant like a
bluebottle, and darted away again with a curving flight. It
was the police patrol, snooping into peoples windows. The
patrols did not matter, however. Only the Thought Police
mattered.
Behind Winstons back the voice from the telescreen
was still babbling away about pig-iron and the
overfulfillment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The
telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any
sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low
whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he
remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque
commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was
of course no way of knowing whether you were being
watched at any given moment. How often, or on what
system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual
wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they
watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could
plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live
did live, from habit that became instinctin the
assumption that every sound you made was overheard,
and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.
Step 2: In the chart below, write three words that you feel describe the
society that Winston Smith lives in. These words do not need to be found in
the passage. In the right column, write the sentences or phrases from the
passage that support that description.
The
society
is
Under
surveillan
ce

Clues from the passage

Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very

low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long
as he remained within the field of vision which the metal
plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard.
You had to livedid live, from habit that became
instinctin the assumption that every sound you made
was overheard, and, except in darkness, every
movement scrutinized.

dictatorial

lifeless

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said,

while the dark eyes looked deep into Winstons own.
The black-mustachiod face gazed down from every
commanding corner. There was one on the house-front
immediately opposite.
It was one of those pictures which are so contrived
that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG
BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it
ran.
Outside, even through the shut window-pane, the world
looked cold. Down in the street little eddies of wind were
whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the
sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed
to be no colour in anything, except the posters that were
plastered everywhere.

Step 4: When you are done, complete the writing exercise.

Write a short introduction about yourself. You can choose to start with a story
about your birth or childhood and including clues about your personality,
family, interests, etc. If you are struggling, try starting with a more typical
introduction (I was born in New York in 1996) and see where that takes you.
Try to let your natural voice come through in your writing.
Did you hear about the blizzard of 2002?! Okay, well, maybe it was not a true blizzard
but it certainly was a challenging and exciting day! I was born in 2002 on January 20th. It
was a blustery and dark morning when I entered the world and due to the not entirely
unexpected weather, it was hard for some of my family members to even come greet
me. However, welcome me they did and after a few days in the hospital my new family
and I went straight to our home in South Brunswick. What a nice neighborhood it was!
There were many kids my age there, and every day during my younger years I would go
to my community playground and play on the swing set and slide. In 2008, my
neighborhood slowly became quieter and all the kids that I grew up playing with left and
moved on. This was around the time that we decided to move to East Windsor. Having
kids in my neighborhood was fun because I'm an only child. I live with my mom and dad
only and my grandma used to live far from where we live. But when we moved to East
Windsor, she lived only 5 minutes away! I look at myself as an extrovert, because I like
to hang around people and make friends. But on the other hand, if I don't know anyone
at a party then Im pretty shy unless I get to know them better. Some interests that I have
are playing sports, reading, traveling around the world, and participating in different
clubs. Being an only child I get to have many more opportunities to do more activities
and travel. I hope this sums up my life and personality!