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The Secret Garden (opening of Chapter 5)

by Frances Hodgson Burnett · published 1911

Frances Hodgson Burnett died in 1924. The text is in the UK public domain. Source: The Secret Garden (1911) — Chapter 5, "The Cry in the Corridor". Text via Project Gutenberg.

Public domain · free to use
THE ORIGINAL EXTRACT

At first each day which passed by for Mary Lennox was exactly like the others. Every morning she awoke in her tapestried room and found Martha kneeling upon the hearth building her fire; every morning she ate her breakfast in the nursery which had nothing amusing in it; and after each breakfast she gazed out of the window across to the huge moor which seemed to spread out on all sides and climb up to the sky, and after she had stared for a while she realized that if she did not go out she would have to stay in and do nothing — and so she went out.

She did not know that this was the best thing she could have done, and she did not know that, when she began to walk quickly or even run along the paths and down the avenue, she was stirring her slow blood and making herself stronger by fighting with the wind which swept down from the moor. She ran only to make herself warm, and she hated the wind which rushed at her face and roared and held her back as if it were some giant she could not see.

Tap any underlined word for a child-friendly definition.
Q1 of 4
Literal retrieval
Who built the fire each morning in Mary's room?

A. Mary herself

B. Martha

C. Her uncle

D. A footman

Tap a sentence in the passage to pin evidence.
Q2 of 4
Vocabulary in context
In paragraph 1, "amusing" most nearly means:

A. expensive

B. entertaining or interesting

C. damaged

D. noisy

Tap a sentence in the passage to pin evidence.
Q3 of 4
Word choice & figurative language
What is the effect of describing the wind as "some giant she could not see"?

A. It suggests the wind is harmless and gentle

B. It personifies the wind as a powerful, almost living force that fights Mary

C. It tells the reader Mary is afraid of all weather

D. It suggests Mary has seen a giant before

Tap a sentence in the passage to pin evidence.
Q4 of 4
Inference
What is the writer suggesting when she says Mary "did not know that this was the best thing she could have done"?

A. Mary is making a serious mistake

B. Mary is doing something genuinely good for herself without realising it

C. Mary has been told not to leave the house

D. Mary is doing something forbidden

Tap a sentence in the passage to pin evidence.