CAMBRIDGE LOWER SECONDARY ENGLISH 7: WORKSHEET 2.
Name Date _____________________
Section A: Reading
Read an extract from “The Red House Mystery” by A.A. Milne then answer questions 1–10.
It was three o’clock, and at three o’clock yesterday Antony and Cayley had found the body. At a
few minutes after three, [Antony] had been looking out of the window of the adjoining room, and
had been surprised suddenly to find the door open and Cayley behind him. He had vaguely
wondered at the time why he had expected the door to be shut, but he had no time then to worry
5 the thing out, and he had promised himself to look into it at his leisure afterwards. Possibly it
meant nothing; possibly, if it meant anything, he could have found out its meaning by a visit to the
office that morning. But he had felt that he would be more likely to recapture the impressions of
yesterday if he chose as far as possible the same conditions for his experiment. So he had decided
that three o’clock that afternoon should find him once more in the office.
10 As he went into the room, followed by Bill, he felt it almost as a shock that there was now no body
of Robert lying there between the two doors. But there was a dark stain which showed where the
dead man’s head had been, and Antony knelt down over it, as he had knelt twenty-four hours
before.
‘I want to go through it again,’ he said. ‘You must be Cayley. Cayley said he would get some
15 water. I remember thinking that water wasn’t much good to a dead man, and that probably he was
only too glad to do anything rather than nothing. He came back with a wet sponge and a
handkerchief. I suppose he got the handkerchief from the chest of drawers. Wait a bit."
He got up and went into the adjoining room; looked round it, pulled open a drawer or two, and,
after shutting all the doors, came back to the office.
20 "The sponge is there, and there are handkerchiefs in the top right-hand drawer. Now then, Bill, just
pretend you’re Cayley. You’ve just said something about water, and you get up."
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CAMBRIDGE LOWER SECONDARY ENGLISH 7: WORKSHEET 2.2
Feeling that it was all a little uncanny, Bill, who had been kneeling beside his friend, got up and
walked out. Antony, as he had done on the previous day, looked up after him as he went. Bill
turned into the room on the right, opened the drawer and got the handkerchief, damped the sponge
25 and came back.
"Well?" he said wonderingly.
Antony shook his head.
"It’s all different," he said. "For one thing, you made a devil of a noise and Cayley didn’t."
"Perhaps you weren’t listening when Cayley went in?"
30 "I wasn’t. But I should have heard him if I could have heard him, and I should have remembered
afterwards."
"Perhaps Cayley shut the door after him."
"Wait!"
He pressed his hand over his eyes and thought. It wasn’t anything which he had heard, but
35 something which he had seen. He tried desperately hard to see it again... He saw Cayley getting up,
opening the door from the office, leaving it open and walking into the passage, turning to the door
on the right, opening it, going in, and then—What did his eyes see after that? If they would only
tell him again!
Suddenly he jumped up, his face alight. "Bill, I’ve got it!" he cried.
40 "What?"
"The shadow on the wall! I was looking at the shadow on the wall. Oh, ass, and ten times ass!"
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CAMBRIDGE LOWER SECONDARY ENGLISH 7: WORKSHEET 2.2
Bill looked uncomprehendingly at him. Antony took his arm and pointed to the wall of the
passage.
"Look at the sunlight on it," he said. "That’s because you’ve left the door of that room open. The
45 sun comes straight in through the windows. Now, I’m going to shut the door. Look! D’you see
how the shadow moves across? That’s what I saw, the shadow moving across as the door shut
behind him. Bill, go in and shut the door behind you quite naturally. Quick!"
Bill went out and Antony knelt, watching eagerly.
"I thought so!" he cried. "I knew it couldn’t have been that."
50 "What happened?" said Bill, coming back.
"Just what you would expect. The sunlight came, and the shadow moved back again all in one
movement."
"And what happened yesterday?"
"The sunlight stayed there; and then the shadow came very slowly back, and there was no noise of
55 the door being shut."
Bill looked at him with startled eyes.
"By Jove! You mean that Cayley closed the door afterwards as an afterthought—and very
quietly—so that you couldn’t hear?"
Antony nodded.
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CAMBRIDGE LOWER SECONDARY ENGLISH 7: WORKSHEET 2.2
1 In line 3, the phrase "Antony had been surprised suddenly". What does the word
"suddenly" suggest about Antony’s emotions at that moment?
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2 In lines 7-9, the sentence "Possibly it meant nothing; possibly…’’ How does this
punctuation affect the meaning and flow of the sentence?
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3 In line 11, "But there was a dark stain which showed where the dead man’s head had
been." What is the connotation of the phrase "dark stain", and how does it contribute
to the mood?
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4 In lines 16-18, Antony says, "I want to go through it again." What does this reveal
about his personality and approach to solving the mystery?
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5 In line 20-21, Antony instructs Bill to "just pretend you’re Cayley." What does this
request suggest about Antony’s reasoning skills and investigative method?
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6 In line 22, Give one word which means strange.
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7 In line 22, the phrase "Feeling that it was all a little uncanny" is used to describe
Bill’s emotions. What does the word "uncanny" mean in this context, and how
does it shape the reader’s perception of the scene?
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CAMBRIDGE LOWER SECONDARY ENGLISH 7: WORKSHEET 2.2
8 In line 28, Antony observes that Bill "made a devil of a noise and Cayley didn’t."
What does the phrase "a devil of a noise" suggest, and what does this contrast reveal
about Cayley’s actions the previous day?
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9 In line 33, Antony says, "Wait!" as he presses his hands over his eyes. What effect
does this short, single-word sentence create in terms of suspense and pacing?
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10 In line 42, Antony reflects on what he "saw" rather than what he "heard."
Why is this distinction significant in the context of the mystery?
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