P7 - Week Beginning 13 Sept 2010

Reading - Visualization Skill

Read the following extract from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

And with that this brave fellow turned his back directly on the cook, and set off walking for the beach. But he was not destined to go far. With a cry, John seized the branch of a tree, whipped the crutch out of his arm-pit, and sent that uncouth missile hurtling through the air. It struck poor Tom, point foremost, and with stunning violence, right between his shoulders in the middle of the back. His hands flew up, he gave a sort of gasp, and fell.

Whether he were injured much or little, none could ever tell. Like enough, to judge from the sound, his back was broken on the spot. But he had no time given him to recover. Silver, agile as a monkey, even without leg or crutch, was on top of him next moment, and had twice buried his knife up to the hilt in the defenceless body. From my place of ambush, I could hear him pant aloud as he struck the blows.

The character of Long John is shown to have a different side to his personality, from the pleasant person described in last weeks extract.

Use the information from the text to draw a picture of the action. Ensure you draw Long John in a way which shows that he has a negative trait.

Why do you think the author used the simile "hopping like a bird" in the first extract, but "agile as a monkey" in the second?