Q1. Write your name

Chopak handed her a pair of flying goggles. ‘I call it “The Business”,’ he said with a wide smile, which to all their shock Moreg returned. She ran a hand along its polished length, saying, ‘Perfection! A broom, but not a broom.’ Her eyes were alight. There was a hushed silence. After some time, he closed his mouth, then turned to Willow. ‘Now, yours… I already know. As soon as I saw you, I thought… this is the girl.’ He came forward with a mid-sized broom that glided as light as feather. Its wood had a silvery sheen and mixed in with the twigs were long white tail feathers. It was simply beautiful. While she stared it seemed to disappear before their eyes, blending in with the surroundings. ‘This,’ said Chopak, leaving the broom to suspend next to Willow’s hip, ‘is Whisper. It’s a very rare Stealth-Racer. This one is most unusual; we found it on Wednesday and no one remembers making it – which is odd as it has these unusual tail feathers. They remind a little of a cloud dragon’s feathers, but that’s impossible, of course; cloud dragons have been gone from Starfell for years. Go on, give it a whirl.’ Heart pounding, Willow gripped the sleek handle, swung a leg over and sat astride. The broom hovered very slowly off the ground, but when she touched off with her toes it shot up faster than she could blink. She soared high, past the trees, her carpetbag clamped beneath her arm. Oswin’s green eyes peered out as he gasped, ‘Oh no!’ She did a loop, then re-joined the others (and her stomach, which had plummeted to the ground). It was without a doubt the best moment of her life and she couldn’t stop smiling. But reality came crashing down hard as Willow mentally calculated her spurgles and knew she didn’t have a hope in Starfell of being able to afford Whisper.

Q3. 1. Skim and scan for the words ‘The Business’. Read the sentence before, the actual sentence and the sentence after the word. Who did ‘The Business’ belong to?

Q4. 2. Skim and scan for the word ‘girl’. Read the sentence before, the actual sentence and the sentence after the word. How big was Willow’s broom?

Q5. 3. Skim and scan for the words ‘Stealth-Racer’. Read the sentence before, the actual sentence and the sentence after the word. Why is the Stealth-Racer rare?

Q6. 4. Skim and scan for the word ‘soared’. Read the sentence before, the actual sentence and the sentence after the word. How did Oswin feel on the broom?

Q7. 5. Skim and scan for the word ‘reality’. Read the sentence before, the actual sentence and the sentence after the word. Why did reality come crashing down on Willow?