Name: ______________________________

Practising In Your Own Words Questions

One of the most important things which you have to remember to do in Close Reading is to
USE YOUR OWN WORDS. Students frequently lose marks by not doing this.

You MUST use your own words in your answers as far as possible to show that you
understand what you are writing. Merely copying down the words of the passage does not
show that you actually understand them.

Task 1 - Provide as many alternatives for each of the following words as you can:

clever

instant

typical

crowd

ask

conduct

afraid

curious

distorted

cruel

quick

evasive

brave

friendly

easy
Task 2 - Rewrite the following sentences using your own words:
1. I found the sum too complicated to solve.
______________________________________________________________________

2. The holiday was prohibitively costly – we remained here.

______________________________________________________________________

3. That parcel is too bulky to transport by car.

______________________________________________________________________

4. The man was afraid to leave.

______________________________________________________________________

5. She replied instantly.

______________________________________________________________________

Task 3 – Now write three sentences of your own and ask someone else to ‘translate’ them
into their own words.

1. _______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Using Your Own Words questions – Strategy

1 Identify the relevant part of the passage
2 Translate each part in your own words
3 Write your answer
Try the following questions, using the ‘How to answer’ advice to help you.

1.
Insects are an occupational hazard at a dig, and for some reason there are more flies
“
higher up the mountain where she is working than at the main excavation site lower
down.
Insects are an occupational hazard . . . ”
Explain in your own words what this means. (2)
How to answer:
Translate “hazard”: __________________________________________________
Translate “occupational”: _____________________________________________

2.
Alice clutches desperately at the bushes and scrub to stop herself slipping any In
further. For a moment she lies sprawled in the dirt, dizzy and disorientated. As it
sinks in how very close she came to being crushed, she turns cold. Takes a deep
breath. Waits for the world to stop spinning.
your own words, explain why Alice “turns cold”. (2)
How to answer: Highlight the answer in the text. Write both parts of it below:
a) _________________________ b) ______________________________
Now translate the answer into your own words:
a) _____________________________________________________________________
b) _____________________________________________________________________
 3.
Feeling nervous and slightly guilty, Alice wraps the buckle in a handkerchief and A
pushes it into her pocket, then cautiously steps forward.
As she moves further in, she feels the chill air curl around her bare legs and arms like
a cat. She is walking downhill. She can feel the ground sloping away beneath her feet,
uneven and gritty. The scrunch of the stones and gravel is loud in the confined,
hushed space. She is aware of the daylight getting fainter and fainter at her back, the
further and deeper she goes.
Abruptly, she does not want to go on.
s Alice steps into the tunnel, she experiences two feelings. In your own words, explain
what these two feelings are. (2)

How to answer: Highlight the answer in the text. Write both parts of it below:
a) _________________________ b) ______________________________
Now translate the answer into your own words:
a) ______________________________________________________________________
b) ______________________________________________________________________

4.
It’s so easy when they’re puppies. You stroll down the street and they come home
W
exhausted. People stop and have conversations. “Aren’t you gorgeous?” (That can be
disappointing, of course: it’s the dog who is being addressed, not you). Then they get
bigger. They want proper walks. They want sticks thrown. We got a mongrel terrier
pup from a rescue centre. And when Wilf reached full size, I started looking to take
him for a decent walk in deep countryside—a rite of passage for a young hound,
somewhere beyond the realm of the dreaded poo bin. There were two teenage sons
too, Con and Niall, and they seemed surprisingly enthusiastic—there’s one tip for
getting your kids to walk: buy or borrow a dog.
hy is it more difficult to care for an older, bigger dog?
Use your own words in your answer. (2)

How to answer: Highlight the answer in the text. Write both parts of it below:
a) _________________________ b) ______________________________
Now translate the answer into your own words:
a) ___________________________________________________________________

b) ___________________________________________________________________
I have this fond vision of dogs in hotels and pubs. It’s an affable labrador-type creature
laid out under the table, snoozing. At the hotel, Wilf isn’t like that. He runs riot. He loves
hotels. He loves the way people drop crisps in the bar. He sneaks into a neighbour’s
room and sniffs their luggage for food. Curiously, they laugh indulgently and say things
like, “You’re a lovable chap, aren’t you?” A dog’s life doesn’t seem so bad, really. Wilf
soon settles down on his dedicated luxury bed and sleeps like a baby. I spend the night
half-awake, stirring at every doggy snort, worrying that he’ll get up and cock his leg on
the four-poster. Mercifully that doesn’t happen.
5. Describe the writer’s “vision” of how dogs should behave in pubs and hotels.
Use your own words in your answer. (2)

How to answer: Highlight the answer in the text. Write both parts of it below:
a)_________________________ b) ______________________________
Now translate the answer into your own words:
a) ________________________________________________________________________
b) ________________________________________________________________________

The following questions are taken from the 2014 National 5 RUAE paper
6.
So we are not here to examine our children. What we should do is try to find out L
where we have gone so terribly wrong. Before we come to the wretchedly indulgent
state of modern parenting, though, I suppose I’d better set out my stall. Inevitably,
when one becomes a parent, one can’t help revisiting one’s own childhood to make
comparisons.
ook at line 9, where the writer gives the view that, nowadays, parents “have gone
. . . terribly wrong”.
Explain in your own words what the writer goes on to say has gone wrong. (2)

How to answer: Highlight the answer in the text. Write both parts of it below:
a)_________________________ b) ______________________________
Now translate the answer into your own words:
a) _______________________________________________________________________
b) ________________________________________________________________________
 We never had friends round for “playdates”. Keeping children busy and happy was not a
parental priority. If we were bored, that was our own fault. In fact, there was nothing to
do for weeks on end except rake leaves (my father once made us spend a whole half-
term raking leaves) and read on our beds. Occasionally my mother would shout up the
stairs: “Stop reading!” Imagine that now, when children are on their laptops in their
rooms, looking at . . . I don’t even want to imagine.
As for school, well, reports were read, not dwelt upon, as they were not parents’
business, but ours. As for parental involvement, all I can tell you is that my father’s
proudest boast as a parent is that he never, once, attended a parent-teacher meeting at
any one of our schools.
It never did me any harm, but still, I can’t repeat this sensible, caring regime of
character-building, toughening, benign neglect for my own children . . . and nor, it
appears, can anyone else. Now examples of “wet parenting” abound.
7. Explain what is meant by the expression “benign neglect”, and explain what is surprising
about this expression. (3)
How to answer: “benign neglect” translated into your own words:
a) “benign”: _______________________________________________________
b) “neglect”: _______________________________________________________

c) Explain what is surprising about this expression:

________________________________________________________________

In my lifetime, parenthood has undergone a terrifying transition. Becoming a mother or

father is no longer something you just are. It is something you do, like becoming a vet
—complete with training courses, parenting vouchers, government targets and
guidelines, and a host of academics and caring professionals (as well as their websites,
and telephone helplines) on hand 24/7 to guide you through what to expect when your
twentysomethings return home.

8. Explain as far as possible in your own words what similarities the writer sees between
“Becoming a mother or father” and “becominga vet”. (2)

How to answer: Highlight two answers in the text. Write both of them below:
a)________________________________________________________________________
b) ________________________________________________________________________
Now translate both answers into your own words:
a) ________________________________________________________________________
b) ________________________________________________________________________

The final question in the 2014 paper is worth 5 points:

9. In this article, the writer points out several differences between parenting and
childhood when she was little and parenting and childhood now (she refers to “a
terrifying transition”, line 61). As far as possible in your own words, summarise what
some main differences are. (5)

‘Summarise’ means that you have to sum up / write a shorter version of the points in your
own words.

How to answer:
a) Read through the whole article below
b) Highlight features of parenting / childhood when the author was little in one colour.
c) Highlight features of parenting / childhood now in a different colour.

Hey, parents, leave those kids alone.

In many ways, nothing changes. We love our children. We want our children to grow up to
be competent, decent human beings fit for adult purpose. These are the main things, and in
these we have, I think we are all agreed, not done too badly. Our children, and I’ll
generalise here, are not serial axe murderers or kitten drowners. Our children do make an
effort — at least on special occasions anyway — to repay the enormous investment of time,
energy, money and emotion we have poured into them. Children are programmed to
please, to be loved, and to love us back.

So we are not here to examine our children. What we should do is try to find out where we
have gone so terribly wrong. Before we come to the wretchedly indulgent state of modern
parenting, though, I suppose I’d better set out my stall. Inevitably, when one becomes a
parent, one can’t help revisiting one’s own childhood to make comparisons.

When I was little, we were given no choices — about what we ate, what we wore, what we
did, where we went to school, when we went to bed etc. I could only choose what to read.

There was not so much stuff (many of my son’s 15-year-old friends have iPods, iPads,
MacBooks, unlimited access to their parents’ credit cards, Pay Pal, eBay and iTunes
accounts — and not just iPhones, but BlackBerrys too), so we made our own fun.

Our parents provided us with the essentials, then got on with their own lives. Which makes
me realise that my parents were brilliant, not for what they did, but more for what they
didn’t do.

So we were fed, we were clothed, we were loved, and we had all the books we could read.
But there was not the expectation of having every wish granted, as there is now, and that is
the best thing that my parents could ever have given us.
I remember only once going to a restaurant in the UK. It was a motorway café on the A303.
My father told us, wincing as he looked at the laminated text, with its stomach-churning
pictograms, that we could have the spag bol. From the children’s menu.

We had a TV, but as we lived in Belgium there was nothing to watch apart from two
American sitcoms, which came on only once a week.

My parents were so hard up that when we went to England for holidays on the family farm
on Exmoor — mainly spent “wooding” for winter fuel on rainswept hillsides — my father
would invariably book cheap overnight ferry crossings from the Continent. He would never
shell out for a cabin, despite the 1am or 3am departure slots. Instead, he would tell us to go
to sleep in the back of the car, parked in the lower deck, where we would eventually pass
out from suffocation or diesel fumes.

We never had friends round for “playdates”. Keeping children busy and happy was not a
parental priority. If we were bored, that was our own fault. In fact, there was nothing to do
for weeks on end except rake leaves (my father once made us spend a whole half-term
raking leaves) and read on our beds. Occasionally my mother would shout up the stairs:
“Stop reading!” Imagine that now, when children are on their laptops in their rooms,
looking at . . . I don’t even want to imagine.

As for school, well, reports were read, not dwelt upon, as they were not parents’ business,
but ours. As for parental involvement, all I can tell you is that my father’s proudest boast as
a parent is that he never, once, attended a parent-teacher meeting at any one of our
schools.

It never did me any harm, but still, I can’t repeat this sensible, caring regime of character-
building, toughening, benign neglect for my own children . . . and nor, it appears, can
anyone else. Now examples of “wet parenting” abound.

We also live in a world where a manic mum calls herself a Tiger Mother and writes a
bestselling book by the same name about how to produce straight-A, violin-playing, tennis-
champ, superkids, and where pushy, anxious helicopter parents hover over every school. A
friend reports that when her son was due to visit the Brecon Beacons on a school camping
trip this summer, three mothers pulled out their sons because the weather forecast was
“rainy”.

University dons are also complaining of a traumatic level of parental over-involvement just
at the exact moment that mummies and daddies are supposed to be letting go.

It was the complete opposite in my day. When I was on my gap year, I called my father
from Israel in September and told him I’d decided not to take up my place at university. I
announced that I wanted to stay in Galilee with a handsome local shepherd. For ever.

My father didn’t miss a beat. “Great scheme!” he cried, astutely divining that if he
approved the plan, I would never carry it out.
In my lifetime, parenthood has undergone a terrifying transition. Becoming a mother or
father is no longer something you just are. It is something you do, like becoming a vet—
complete with training courses, parenting vouchers, government targets and guidelines,
and a host of academics and caring professionals (as well as their websites, and telephone
helplines) on hand 24/7 to guide you through what to expect when your twentysomethings
return home.

Parenting has become subsidised and professionalised, even though anyone can (and,
frankly, does) have a baby, after which they become parents.

I love being a parent, most of the time anyway, but we should immediately de-
professionalise it, on the grounds that: one, it’s unpaid; and two, thanks to the economy,
lack of housing and jobs etc, you never get to retire.

Rachel Johnson, in The Times

In order to get 5 marks you have to recognise and restate five key points with at least one
from each side (i.e. then and now). You can repeat points made in previous answers.

Summarise 5 of the key points below, using your own words:

1. _______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
2. _______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
3. _______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
4. _______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
5. _______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

Have you included at least one answer from each side?