Name____________________________________                             Date_______________________
           Head on a Stick
Reading Comprehension Worksheet           

Directions:  Read the passage below carefully. When you have finished reading it completely, answer the questions that follow.

A young couple were happily driving home well after midnight one night. They had enjoyed a party until the early hours of the morning and were exhausted, both looked forward to getting home and retiring to bed with the sounds of the party still ringing in their ears.

The boy, suddenly feeling that the night was still only young, abruptly took a detour off the main road home. It happens that the road they were already on was fairly desolate and surrounded by thick foliage from the dense forest as it was, but now he had chosen a gravel road, one that looked as if nobody had driven down it for quite a long time with even thicker scrub that was occasionally scraping down the sides of the old car they were driving.

Waking up and wondering where they were going, the girl inquired as to what their new destination was. The boy admitted he felt like going for a bit of drive and spending some "quality time" alone with his girlfriend. He had in mind somewhere dark and secluded, where no interruptions were going to take place. Although the girl was tired, she agreed to the new plans, knowing that the boy was far too pushy for her to say no.

It was a slow drive down the newly chosen dirt road, and the car headlights did nothing to penetrate the thick black night and scrub that surrounded them. Unexpectedly the car hit something on the road. Not knowing what it was the boy stopped immediately and hopped out to investigate. "Oh No!" he exclaimed as he spied a large log wedged underneath. He turned to see that there was also now a large stream of smoke escaping from his old, tired cars engine. The boy kicked at the log, knowing that he would need to do more than kick it to dislodge it from under his car. "Just my luck!" he thought as he got back in the vehicle and told the girl of what had happened.

Wincing, he attempted to restart the vehicle, but being an early model from the 1970's the car complained loudly then died before it ever really fired up. The starter lights showed but no amount of persuading would start the car properly.

"I'm going to have to walk back to the main road for help" he said, shaking his head and gripping the useless steering wheel in front of him. "Stay in the car and I'll be back soon" was his last words as he climbed out of the vehicle, hunched his shoulders and walked off into the darkness on his own.

Although the girl did not like the idea of spending the rest of the night alone, out on a dirt road, god knows where, she was too tired to be bothered to go with him and sleepily thought of how she might nestle down in her passenger seat and dream while he was away getting help. Anyway wasn't it his idea to come way out here?, he should be the one to go find help!.

She watched him in the side mirror for as long as she could see him, which wasn't very long at all, he seemed swallowed by the night and she thought in the back of her mind how stupid he was to take this road, and hoped he would take a while so she could get some decent shut eye.

While happily drifting off to sleep, she wondered if he'd be back before dawn, and also how on earth he would find help when they had seen no traffic on the main road anyhow.

STARTLED, she awoke suddenly. "what was that?!", sleepy confusion was fogging her thoughts as she shook her head with the distinct impression that something had happened while she was asleep, something that woke her but now had passed or stopped. Peering out the windscreen and into the side mirror all she could see was darkness, darkness and more darkness. The night was as quiet as anything, hadn't she heard night noises before? why on earth was it so still and quiet now, surely something must of woken me!.

On edge and feeling cold and shaky from being pulled from such a deep sleep, she now wished she had of noted the time when her boyfriend had gone for help. Checking her watch it seemed as though dawn was about to break through the trees at any moment. It was now 4.30am.

When did he go? Must of been around 2.00am or 2.30 am surely? her mind started flipping backwards to see if it could conjure up the memory of exactly what time he had left for help. "Well whatever time it was, it was ages ago and he should be coming back pretty soon", she quietly admitted to herself.

The night was unbelievably quiet now, need I say, dead quiet, and she had the distinct impression that she wasn't alone. Not being able to see anything in front or behind her she hoped it was her boyfriend returning with help. Goosebumps were beginning to show themselves on her arms and the hair on the back of her neck started to rise up as the blackness outside suddenly seemed to move. "I must be going mad", she said out loud to nobody in particular. She decided that she'd had enough and went for the keys left in the ignition to see if she could get the headlights working. As she stretched over to the drivers seat there was a loud "THUMP" on the roof of the car. Her instant reaction was to jump, nearly hitting her head on the roof and cower back in her seat. Looking madly around, but instinctively not moving a muscle it became apparent to her that she did see something move outside the car, in the darkness.

"THUMP, THUMP". The loud noise happened again, and a small scream escaped from her mouth. What do I do, what is it, somebody help me, were all thoughts running madly through her mind. I'm alone out here in the darkness, what on earth do I do? "THUMP!" there it goes again, somebody is up there!

Tears of utter fear and horror crawled from her eyes and down her cheeks, there was no help, she was alone, and there was most probably a monster on the roof about to eat her.

THUMP.......again..................THUMP THUMP. The fear overcame her, she decided that she wouldn't be a sitting duck, she would open the door and make a run for it. If she couldn't see into the thick darkness of the night, surely the monster couldn't. 

"THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP" and that was it. Fumbling with the lock (she'd forgotten that she'd locked all the doors earlier) and the door handle, tears now streaming from her eyes and blurring her vision, she threw the door open, nearly dislodging it from it's hinges, being so terrified and confused instead of making a grand exit and run for it she fell head first from the car and landed flat on her face in the dirt.

As she was attempting to both crawl and regain her feet and run, bright lights suddenly flooded the area. She could only see the bulbs and dark shadows behind the lights. She was rapidly succumbing to shock as she heard some voice saying something into a loud speaker. Dazed and back on her feet, she could only think to stumble un lady like towards the bright lights. Shading her eyes she could still hear the voice, it sounded like a fairly authoritative voice and it was giving some sort of instructions to her. 

Again the voice repeated. "Lady, move away from your car towards us and whatever you do, don't look back". Again "Ma'am would you please continue moving towards us do not look back, face us and don't look back". She was now on the brink of fainting and could only fall towards those bright lights. She was caught by a man in uniform which she recognized to be from the local Police Department and could suddenly see past the lights. There were possibly 10 to 15 Squad cars and double that amount of police officers with guns drawn. Before she lost consciousness she decided there was one last thing she had to do. She struggled to flip over and face the car.

On the roof of the car was what appeared to be a monster, or it could it be a deformed human? It had a large stick in its hands and was drooling madly as it laughed and banged it's stick on the car roof. She did not miss that at the end of the stick, was her boyfriend's head.

Questions:

1)   What is the tone of this selection?

2)   What is the setting of this passage?

3)   What seems to be the author's intent for writing this selection?

4)   What is the Main Idea of this passage?

5>   What does the word desolate mean?  What were your clues?

6>   How do you think all the cop cars got there without her seeing their lights or hearing them approach?

7>   What does the word succumbing mean?  What were your clues?