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Worksheet 1. The Curious Incident of the Night-time. (pages 1 – 77).

1. What is Asperger’s Syndrome? Find out about its main characteristics.

2. Watch the following video online. http://www.horizonsct.org/video/ What is it about? On which webpage does it appear? What is the message given?

3. How are special needs people cared for/ accepted/ integrated in Argentinian society? State your opinion

briefly.

4. Describe Christopher, the protagonist, as completely as possible.

5. What kind of father is Christopher’s dad? What kind of personality does he seem to have?

6. Outline the main events in the story.

7. Put the summaries of the first thirteen chapters in order. Then go back to ex. 6. Make any corrections or

additions as necessary.

The story returns to Mrs. Shears’s lawn, where Christopher removes the garden fork and picks up

Wellington. Mrs. Shears appears on her patio and yells at Christopher to get away from her dog. Mrs.

Shears does not stop, even when he puts the dog down. So Christopher puts his hands over his ears

and curls into a ball on the grass, trying to block out the sound.

Departing from his story (Christopher does this frequently throughout the novel), Christopher

explains that he has difficulty determining people’s emotions from their facial expressions. But he

can name each country in the world, their capitals, and every prime number up to 7,057. He recalls

the first time he met Siobhan, eight years earlier. She drew faces on a piece of paper and asked him

what emotions the faces expressed. Christopher could only identify the sad face, which represents

how he felt when he found Wellington dead, and the happy face, which shows how he feels when he

wanders the neighborhood at three or four in the morning. He could not identify the other emotions.

Christopher reveals that we are reading his murder-mystery novel, written after Siobhan advised him

to try writing a story he would want to read. Siobhan thought that the opening of the novel should

grab people’s attention, which is one of the reasons that Christopher started it with Wellington's

death. The other reason is that he could not start it any other way: this story actually happened to

him, and he has trouble putting events in any order other than the order in which they occurred.

At the crime scene, two police officers arrive. Christopher initially finds their presence comforting,

but he grows agitated when the policeman begins to ask him questions too quickly, seeming to

implicate him in the murder. Christopher curls into a ball again, and he hits the police officer when

the officer tries to lift him to his feet.

It is seven minutes after midnight, when the narrator, Christopher John Francis Boone, finds

Wellington, the poodle belonging to Mrs. Shears, his neighbor, dead on Mrs. Shears's lawn with a

garden fork through its side. Christopher touches the dog’s muzzle and observes that it is still warm.

He wonders who killed Wellington, and why.

Father arrives at the station and greets Christopher by holding up his hand with his fingers outspread.

Christopher does the same, allowing their fingers to touch. Christopher explains that they greet each

other this way because he does not like to be hugged. An officer takes Christopher to the

investigator, who releases Christopher with a stern warning.

Christopher states that his book will not be funny. To be funny you have to tell jokes, and jokes often

rely on the multiple meanings of words. The fact that one word can have multiple meanings confuses

Christopher and makes him uncomfortable, so he will not put jokes in his book.

The officer arrests Christopher for assault. As the officer drives him away, Christopher considers the

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Milky Way through the window of the squad car. He feels comforted by the order he sees in the

stars, and by the fact that policeman has done his job in a predictable manner.

At the police station, Christopher empties his pockets at the front desk, carefully describing every

item. When the police put him in his cell, he marvels that the cell is almost a perfect cube. He

wonders if Mrs. Shears lied and told the police that he killed Wellington.

Christopher describes the rules used to determine prime numbers, a potentially infinite number of

which exist. He thinks prime numbers act like life: logical, but impossible to fully comprehend. He

likes them, so he has ordered the chapters in his book according to prime numbers.

On the drive home, Christopher tries to apologize to his father for making him come to the police

station, but his father does not want to talk about it. When they arrive home, Christopher goes to his

room. At 2:07 a.m. he goes to the kitchen to get a drink before bed, and notices his father sitting

alone in the living room with tears in his eyes. Christopher asks him if he feels sad about Wellington.

His father stares at him for a long time before replying that he does.

Christopher explains that, in order to form a lie, he would have to pick an event that did not happen

to replace the one that did. But he can’t pick any one thing from among the infinite number of things

that did not happen, so he does not tell lies. Consequently, everything that he has written in his book

is true.

Christopher finds people confusing because they often communicate non-verbally through facial

expressions. They also use metaphors, which equate one thing with another when neither has any

actual relation to the other.

8. What kind of book is TCI? A detective novel? A diary? A teenager’s notebook on science and math?

How different is it from other books you’ve read before? What else is peculiar about the story?

9. Answer these questions:

Wellington, which Christopher discovers dead at the outset of the novel, is what kind of animal?

(A) Poodle

(B) Tabby Cat

(C) Parakeet

(D) Friend from School

What implement was used to kill Wellington?

(A) Swiss Army knife

(B) Shovel

(C) Garden fork

(D) Poisoned Twinkie

Why does the police officer arrest Christopher at the murder scene?

(A) Christopher hits the police officer

(B) Christopher is trespassing on Mrs. Shears’s property

(C) Christopher has been reported missing

(D) Christopher is a suspect in the crime

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10. Now make five similar exercises on your own, basing yourself on information from the first thirteen

chapters (pages 1 – 77).

11. Share them with your partners. See if they can answer them correctly.

12. A book review is a usually a short newspaper article which analyzes and comments upon a particular

book. Read the following book review on Haddon’s novel and fill in the blanks.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon – Book Review

'This has got to be one of the most fascinating, gripping and unusual stories I have ever read' Christopher is fifteen. Fifteen and three months and two days. He has a…………… memory. He knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every ……….. number ……. 7,507. He does not find……… maths …………... What he does find hard is people: …… they work, ….. they think, and ….. they lie. When Christopher finds his …………..dog ……..in her back garden, he wants to ……….. why. His Dad doesn't want him to go asking questions, …….. Christopher has to know …… someone ….. kill that dog, but when Christopher starts …….. to work ……….. the mystery he………. other, much bigger secrets... Christopher ………..understand people and people generally don't understand Christopher, but I think that Mark Haddon has ……………. the mind of a fifteen year old ………..boy brilliantly and this book ………..you to see the world …………..Christopher's ………….. As the ………..progresses, ………. does our understanding …………the way that Christopher …………… Each character is well ………….... I have read this book at least three times and ………… time I could not ………it down. This has got to be one of the most fascinating, ………… and unusual stories I have ever read and I think that …………who has not read it …………do, as…………. as possible. It gives you a ……………different way of looking ………. the world and that is definitely ………..the better.

13. Complete the following text with the corresponding prepositions:

It was 7 minutes ….midnight. The dog was lying ……the grass ……the middle….the lawn……Mrs

Shears's house. Its eyes were closed. It looked….if it was running….its side, the way dogs run when they

think they are chasing a cat …..a dream. But the dog was not running or asleep. The dog was dead. There

was a garden fork sticking ……..the dog. The points……. the fork must have gone all the way…….the dog

and…….the ground because the fork had not fallen…….. I decided that the dog was probably

killed……..the fork because I could not see any other wounds………..the dog and I do not think you would

stick a garden fork……. a dog after it had died……some other reason, ……..cancer, for example, or a road

accident. But I could not be certain………this.

14. Hand it out to your partner for peer correction.

15. Go to the moodle platform and post five new words in the glossary.

16. Pick five words from the glossary that you haven’t posted yourself, and make your own examples with

them. If you can combine two or more new words in one example, much the better.

17. What are whole numbers? And prime numbers? Explain with your own words how one can work prime

numbers out.

18. Read Christopher’s description of his prison cell:

“It was nice in the police cell. It was almost a perfect cube, 2 meters long by 2 meters wide by 2 meters high.

It contained approximately 8 cubic meters of air. It had a small window with bars and, on the opposite side,

a metal door with a long, thin hatch near the floor for sliding trays of food into the cell and a sliding hatch

higher up so that policemen could look in and check that prisoners hadn't escaped or committed suicide.

There was also a padded bench.”

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What sounds odd/ striking about his description?

19. Imagine you are in a prison cell yourself. How would you describe it? You might borrow certain

expressions and structures from Christopher’s description, but you must also provide some of your own.

20. What is a metaphor? Compare Christopher’s definition with the definition from the dictionary. How

similar or different are both of them?

21. In chapter 29 Christopher lists some metaphors.

I laughed my socks off.

He was the apple of her eye.

They had a skeleton in the cupboard.

We had a real pig of a day.

The dog was stone dead.

Check the meaning of those idiomatic expressions in the dictionary. Write the meaning down. Think of a

situation where they might be used. Write the examples down. Mention at least three more metaphorical

expressions in English we use in everyday language. You can use the idioms dictionary for help.

22. Fill in the blanks with anything/ nothing/ everything/ anybody/ nobody/ everybody. Be ready to

justify your choice.

Nothing special happened at school so I knew ………..special was going to happen after school.

When I got to the police station they made me take the laces out of my shoes and empty my pockets

at the front desk in case I had ………..in them that I could use to kill myself.

Siobhan said that I should write ………. I would want to read myself.

I said that I wanted to write about……… real.

Then you know you are safe because you cannot hear ………. else.

Siobhan said that the book should begin with …………to grab people's attention.

I didn't say ………… because this wasn't a question.

Then I heard…………for a long while.

And when I try and make a picture of the phrase in my head it just confuses me because imagining

an apple in someone's eye doesn't have ……..to do with liking someone a lot.

In 10 years there will be ………except his skeleton left.

I decided that I would go and ask some of the other people who lived in our street if they had seen

………….killing Wellington.

I'm meant to say that they have learning difficulties or that they have special needs. But this is stupid

because ………….has learning difficulties.

I don't know why Mr. Shears left Mrs. Shears because………… told me.

The world is full of obvious things which ……..by any chance ever observes.

I hated it because if you went into a shop or a restaurant or on a beach you couldn't understand what

…………was saying, which was frightening.

23. Notice the profusion of examples of and and but in initial position. Point out at least five examples in

the novel. Is this encouraged in academic writing?

24. Rewrite the following to avoid repetition, run-on sentences, and the use of and and but in initial

position.

All the other children at my school are stupid. Except I'm not meant to call them stupid, even though this is

what they are. I'm meant to say that they have learning difficulties or that they have special needs. But this is

stupid because everyone has learning difficulties because learning to speak French or understanding

relativity is difficult and also everyone has special needs, like Father, who has to carry a little packet of

artificial sweetening tablets around with him to put in his coffee to stop him from getting fat, or Mrs. Peters,

who wears a beige-colored hearing aid, or Siobhan, who has glasses so thick that they give you a headache if

you borrow them, and none of these people are Special Needs, even if they have special needs.

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25. Christopher’s father sometimes uses four-letter words, and Christopher reproduces them verbatim. Can

you detect any instances in chapter 37 and chapter 41? What’s the effect of the inclusion of foul

language on the reader?

26. In chapter 13, Christopher explains a joke. Which one is it? Why is it funny? Why doesn’t he find it

funny?

27. Many jokes in English include homonyms to convey ambiguity. Make sure you know the meaning of the

following words. You will need them to solve the following exercises from Build your Case.

ATE

BRAKE

BUM

DIRTY FIGHTER

DYE

FLEW

FLU

GOAL

GRAVE (adj)

GRAVE (noun)

HOLE

KNEW

LEAD (verb)

LOAN

MALE

MEAT

NYLONS

OVERDONE (about food)

PLAIN

PLANE

REIGN

RESTORE

SAIL

SALE

SHOPLIFTER

SHOVEL

SOLE

SOUL

STEAL

STEEL

STORE

TAIL

TALE

TO LEAD

WHOLE