Introducing the Story

Literary Focus: Omniscient Narrator

Literary Focus: Surprise Endings

Reading Skills: Monitoring Your Reading

The Interlopersby Saki

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The Interlopersby Saki

The InterlopersIntroducing the Story

The world perishes not from bandits and fires, but from hatred, hostility, and all these petty squabbles.

Anton Chekhov

The InterlopersIntroducing the Story

Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym are sworn enemies. What happens when these two armed enemies come face to face in the woods on a winter night?

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The InterlopersLiterary Focus: Omniscient Point of View

An omniscient narrator

• can reveal characters’ thoughts and actions

• can zoom from place to place

• may tell all or save information until the end

• is not a character in the story

• knows everything about all the characters in the story

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The InterlopersLiterary Focus: Surprise Endings

A surprise ending resolves a story’s conflict in a totally unexpected way.

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• The ending, while surprising, is still logical.

• The unexpected ending may make you rethink the story.

The InterlopersReading Skills: Monitoring Your Reading

When you encounter a difficult sentence or passage, try one of these strategies.

• Use context clues to figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words. Context clues may

• give the word’s definition

• restate the word’s meaning in a different way

• provide an example

• show comparison or contrast

• Look for the subject and the verb.

• Stop to rephrase or summarize.

• Break long sentences into simpler ones.

• Finally, take time to re-read.

When you encounter a difficult sentence or passage try one of these strategies.

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The InterlopersReading Skills: Monitoring Your Reading

Agree or Disagree?

Serious arguments can begin over trivial matters.

Agree or Disagree?

People who quarrel for a long time often forget why they started fighting in the first place.

Agree or Disagree?

Arguments always weaken as time goes by.

Agree or Disagree?

When arguing you should never give in or show your weakness.