Experiment in style: Testing times (comments now open to all)

English exam comprehension exercise

Greetings!

One of the things I’ve been trying out is reworking a piece of text into a completely different style. A full exposition and explanation are given here:

Experimenting with styles

The aim of these experiments is to explore how different styles and approaches can affect the tone of a story.

For today’s experiment I wrote the story in the form of an English exam comprehension exercise.

But enough of this persiflage! Here is the original text on which these experiments or transformations are based:

The original (template) text

In the middle of the night, I woke up (if you can call being semi-conscious being awake), walked purposefully towards the door to go to the bathroom — and almost knocked myself out.

The reason was that in the twin states of entire darkness and semi-somnambulance I was facing in a different direction from the one I thought I was facing. As a result, instead of walking through the door, I tried to walk through the wall.

The next few days brought nausea and headaches. After much prevarication I went to Accident and Emergency, where I waited petrified among people for whom “social distancing” means not quite touching you, and who wore their masks as a chin-warmer.

An hour and a half later I emerged into the twilight, secure in the knowledge that I had nothing more serious than mild concussion. I failed to do much writing, but I was pleased to have read a further 17% of my book.

The English exam comprehension exercise

Exam hall. Image by WOKANDAPIX from Pixabay

When I attended school, one of the subjects on the curriculum was English Language — separate from English Literature. Part of the testing approach involved a comprehension exercise to see how much you’d learnt and understood. I seem to recall that half the time the questions bore only a passing relation to the text, but perhaps I am misremembering. Anyway, here you go, and there’s no need to send me your answers because I won’t be marking them!

The examination

Time allowed: 2 hours.

There are only 7 questions. Answer all of them. Read all instructions and questions carefully before you begin. You may begin when you are ready.

1. “That the writer was discombobulated by the fact that people were not adhering to the prevailing lockdown rules suggests that he was inherently sympathetic to the formalist school of literary criticism.” Discuss.

2. Answer both parts of this question.

   1. What is the narrator attempting to prove by using the term “semi-somnambulist”.

   2. Elucidate the main differences between the terms “semi-somnabulist”, “semi-conscious”, and “half-asleep”.

3. Answer both parts of this question.

   1. How does the writer show without telling that he was reading an ebook rather than a paper one?

   2. How does his reading of a digital text affect the reader’s perception of his approach to reading in general?

4. “The devil is in the detail.” How does this aphorism apply to this particular work?

5. To what extent can the author’s account be regarded as autofiction rather than memoir? Give reasons for your answer.

6. According to the post-structuralism school of literary criticism, this work lacks authenticity because it fails to include any acknowledgement or analysis of the signage in the hospital. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Give reasons.

7. Discuss the use of humour in this extract.

Did this version bring back happy memories? 😁 Remember the wise words of Oscar Wilde:

In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer.

— Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young

I hope you have enjoyed this version of the story. Comments are welcomed, as always. If you’d like to dig deeper, I often write an ‘Experiments in style extra’ post to explain how a version came about, or how I did it. That’s for paid subscribers.

If you’re new to the series, you can see the index of my experiments here: Index.

Thank you for reading!