The Hound of The Baskervilles Reading Comprehension: © WWW - Teachitprimary.co - Uk 2019 34062 Page 1 of 5
The Hound of The Baskervilles Reading Comprehension: © WWW - Teachitprimary.co - Uk 2019 34062 Page 1 of 5
The Hound of The Baskervilles Reading Comprehension: © WWW - Teachitprimary.co - Uk 2019 34062 Page 1 of 5
Read the following extract taken from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle.
Introduction
A sound of quick steps broke the silence of the moor. Crouching among the stones we
stared intently at the silver-tipped bank in front of us. The steps grew louder, and
through the fog, as through a curtain, there stepped the man whom we were awaiting.
He looked round him in surprise as he emerged into the clear, starlit night. Then he
came swiftly along the path, passed close to where we lay, and went on up the long
slope behind us. As he walked he glanced continually over either shoulder, like a man
who is ill at ease.
“Hist!” cried Holmes, and I heard the sharp click of a cocking pistol. “Look out! It’s
coming!”
There was a thin, crisp, continuous patter from somewhere in the heart of that
crawling bank. The cloud was within fifty yards of where we lay, and we glared at it, all
three, uncertain what horror was about to break from the heart of it. I was at Holmes’s
elbow, and I glanced for an instant at his face. It was pale and exultant, his eyes shining
brightly in the moonlight. But suddenly they started forward in a rigid, fixed stare, and
his lips parted in amazement. At the same instant Lestrade gave a yell of terror and
threw himself face downward upon the ground. I sprang to my feet, my inert hand
grasping my pistol, my mind paralyzed by the dreadful shape which had sprung out upon
us from the shadows of the fog. A hound it was, an enormous coal-black hound, but not
such a hound as mortal eyes have ever seen. Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes
glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in
flickering flame. Never in the delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more
savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived than that dark form and savage face
which broke upon us out of the wall of fog.
With long bounds the huge black creature was leaping down the track, following hard
upon the footsteps of our friend. So paralyzed were we by the apparition that we
allowed him to pass before we had recovered our nerve. Then Holmes and I both fired
together, and the creature gave a hideous howl, which showed that one at least had hit
him. He did not pause, however, but bounded onward. Far away on the path we saw Sir
Henry looking back, his face white in the moonlight, his hands raised in horror, glaring
helplessly at the frightful thing which was hunting him down. But that cry of pain from
Glossary
Now answer the following questions about The Hound of the Baskervilles.
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3. How do we know that the narrator and his companions are hiding at the start of the
piece?
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4. Find one piece of evidence in the text to show that the hound is a large beast.
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5. How does the narrator know that the gunshots hit the animal?
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6. Find evidence in the text to support how the narrator knows that Sir Henry is:
a. scared: ......................................................................................
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b. helpless: ....................................................................................
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10. Find a group of words in the text which suggests that the hound appeared from
nowhere.
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1. The introduction sets the scene, orientates the reader, gives the story so far, and
allows the reader to enter into the story without being confused by events leading up
to this part.
2. The glossary helps the reader to understand complex or specialised vocabulary / old
fashioned words they are probably unfamiliar with.
4. The words ‘enormous’ coal-black hound; ‘huge black creature’; ‘giant hound’ are
used to show that the hound is a large beast.
6. a. he is crying out as he runs away ‘scream after scream’; his face is white with fear
b. ‘glaring helplessly at the frightful thing’
7. They realise it is a living (mortal) creature and not some kind of ghost or demon dog.
They realise that if they can wound it, they can surely kill it as evidenced by ‘he was
vulnerable; he was mortal’.
8. The hound catches up to him and attacks him as evidenced by ‘hurl him to the
ground’. It also attacks his throat as shown by ‘worry at his throat’.
9. Dr Watson says Holmes is faster than him, and he (Watson) considers himself to be
very fast – but the hound is faster than them both.
It manages to catch Sir Henry before they can stop it.
The author uses words like ‘bound’, ‘spring’, ‘leap’, implying the speed that it covers
the ground.