Q1. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions. (2.5)
Duncan was getting ready to make another wand. His master, Meerfus, was letting him try more
and more often
these days. Duncan had been working with the famous, wand-making, magician for more than
three years now, and
he was getting to an age where he needed to be able to make some of his own wands. It was
part of the learning
process. Sadly, Duncan didn’t always succeed when he tried to make wands. Meerfus claimed it
was all in his intent.
That is, what was he thinking when he was trying to make the wand? Apparently, he had to
focus completely on the
goal at hand, and could not allow himself distractions. Distractions made for poor wands, and he
was still not able
to focus all of his thoughts on the task of making wands. He always had things he was
wondering about or things
that diverted his attention. For example, when he was making a wand that was supposed to
shoo bugs out of a
house, he was also thinking about the dairy man who was delivering milk down the road at that
moment. So,
instead of just shooing away bugs, the wand switched bugs with little puddles of milk. This was
a pretty silly result
for a wand to have, and one that smelled after a few days. Another time, Duncan’s wand to
sweep the floors ended
up making dust clouds that spun like mini tornadoes. The dust devils raged around the house,
all because he’d been
staring out the window at a swirl of leaves that had been caught up in winds against the house.
He realized he really needed to focus, or Meerfus was bound to get upset. The mini tornadoes had really
messed up Meerfus’
scrolls and papers, and it had taken nearly a week to sort them back out. Meerfus decided that
Duncan needed to
work without distraction, so they’d built a curtain that surrounded his whole work table until he
figured out how to
ignore things around him. The white sheet hung on all four sides of him as he worked now.
Meerfus always said it
was not the materials that Duncan chose that caused problems, because Duncan chose those
well. So, if it was
entirely the fault of his focus, he really had no excuses now, did he? Duncan looked at the
materials on his
worktable. He was making a fire-starting wand. The ingredients for this particular wand were
warm coals, a long
splinter of dried pine, bits of tinder, and flecks of flint and steel for creating sparks. Duncan wore
gloves and
handled the coals with care, because they were hot enough to burn. He laid out the ingredients
carefully, cleared
his mind, and spoke the words that came to mind, words that helped focus his natural magic
into the wand he was
making: “Fireus Startus Easicus.” The wand picked up a glowing red aspect, as if he’d just
blown on the coals to
heat them up. The length of the wand glittered dangerously with flint and steel chips. It seemed
as if he’d
succeeded, so he took the gloves off and went out to his waiting master with his new wand in
hand. Meerfus
grinned and nodded toward the fireplace, where a few logs sat ready to be lit. All other
flammable materials had
been moved back from the fireplace at least three or four steps. Duncan shook his wrist and
pointed the wand at
the fireplace. There was no huge explosion, there was no blast of smoke and ash, and there
were no strange side effects; just a simple, warm fire started around the logs, burning cheerfully.
“Excellent work, Duncan!” Meerfus
clapped happily. “You shall have to sell that wand and keep the money for it – minus the cost of
materials, which
was next to nothing.” Duncan grinned sheepishly. He didn’t know what to say, but it seemed sad
to sell the wand.
“Can I keep it? It is my first successful wand, after all.” Meerfus nodded. “That is fine, perhaps
better than selling it.
Make another tomorrow and sell that one instead.”
1. Why is today’s wand-making special?
________________________________________________________________________ 2.What kind of wands does the story mention?
________________________________________________________________________ 3.What was wrong with the bug shooing wand Duncan made?
________________________________________________________________________4.What was wrong with the dust sweeping wand Duncan made?
________________________________________________________________________5.Why doesn’t Duncan want to sell the fire starting wand he makes?
________________________________________________________________________
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