A narrative is a story.

Think about your favourite movies – if they were written in book form they'd be narratives.

A narrative is made up of the following parts – in the video we will liken these parts to the movie 'Frozen':

• Setting – where and when.
• Theme – what kind of morals/ideas does it touch upon? What's the underlying message.
• Characters – who which ones are major and which ones are minor.

• Plot – what is the story about? There are 4 parts:

  • Problem – what's the problem?
  • Response – how do characters respond to the problem.
  • Action – what do characters do about the problem.
  • Result – what happens at the end?

• Resolution – the end of the problem.

When we understand the parts of the narrative, we can then also understand where something is likely to be located based on its part.

Narrative texts usually have 2 types of components:

• Literal – what you say is what you mean (this checkpoint), and,
• Figurative – what you say means something else (next checkpoint).

In narrative texts, it is likely that the types of literal questions that will be tested are:

• Detail questions – find the details by looking at information provided in the located paragraph. Scan for the answer. This type of question occurs often.
• Main idea questions – summarises the topic/tone/atmosphere overall of the story. Look at key words that make up the solution options. The correct answer will have the most keywords 'proving their point'.

Let's look at these types of questions in the illustrated example below.

We'll also put into practice the approach to answering questions too.

Illustrated Example

The following passage is a funny short story

A photographer from a national magazine was assigned to get pictures of a forest fire. Smoke at the scene was so thick; he called his editor and requested permission to hire a plane.

"I'll have one waiting for you at the airport," his editor told him.

Arriving at the airfield, he spotted a plane warming up. Jumping in, he slammed the door, and shouted, "Let's go!"

The pilot taxied out, swung the plane into the wind, roared down the runway and they were airborne.

"Fly over the north side of the fire," shouted the photographer "Why?" asked the pilot.

"Because," he responded, "I need to get some close-up shots."

The pilot was strangely silent for a moment. "So," he finally stammered, "you're telling me you're not the flight instructor?"

1 The way the pilot would have asked to the photographer: "Why?" (8th sentence) is best described by the following:

A in a frustrating way because he wanted to land the plane.

B he questioned the instructions received.

C bravely because he wanted to fly over the fire.

D angrily because he was afraid of the forest fire.

2 When the photographer responded to the pilot, he felt

A frustrated but tried to give an obvious explanation.

B angry but tried to be polite.

C concerned about the pilot's abilities.

D surprised but assumed the pilot could fly the plane.

3 The words "he finally stammered" refer to

A the pilot's reluctance to fly.

B the way the pilot speaks.

C thepilot's perturbation.

D the apprehensiveness of the photographer.

4 In the plane, there is an atmosphere of

A dangerous predicament.

B peaceful agreement.

C desperate hostility.

D comic rejoice.

Source:

Sharon Hendrickson, Laughter, the Best Medicine in Reader's Digest Magazine, December 2005.

Key Rules to remember:

• Narratives are made up of parts.
• There are literal and figurative components.
• Types of literal questions are: detail questions and main idea questions.

Now it's time to do your assignment.

1. Download the assignment question here.
2. Print it out or if you want to do it electronically, save it.
3. Complete the questions to it.
4. Then check the solutions on the video below or download the ANSWER KEY here.

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