The gift

The gift

Pencil and paperOnline interactive
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Further Resources
This task is about comprehending a text and making inferences.
Read the story The Gift [pdf] and answer the questions which follow.
Line numbers are given in the margin of the story to help you find the parts of the story you need to read to answer the questions.

Question 1Change answer

a)  Here is part of a conversation between two people who read The Gift:
Illustration from The Gift
     Give evidence from the story to show how each of these speakers could justify their points of view.
Speaker 1
Speaker 2

Question

b)  What is the woman's situation at the beginning of the story?

    • She is too weak to leave the house after days without food.

    • She is defending herself against a wild animal.

    • Her house has been surrounded by flood waters.

    • A flooded river has swept her house away.

Question 1Change answer

c)  Here are some of the early references to the panther in the story.
"the cry awoke her, a sound so anguished . . ." (line 32)
"The answer was a repeated cry, but less shrill, tired sounding . . ." (line 44)
"She had . . . heard their cries, like suffering, in the distance." (lines 52-53)
 
     Considering what happens in the rest of the story, why do you think the writer chose to introduce the panther with these descriptions?

Question

d)  "Then creaking and groaning with effort the house struggled up . . ." (line 24)
 
     What happened to the house in this part of the story?

    • It fell apart.

    • It began to float.

    • It crashed into the oak tree.

    • It sank to the bottom of the river.

Question 1Change answer

e)  What does the story suggest was the woman's reason for feeding the panther?

Question

f)  When the woman says, "and then I'll see to you" (line 92) she means that she is ...

    • sure that the cat won't hurt her.

    • trying to frighten the cat.

    • intending to shoot the cat.

    • planning to feed the cat.

Question 1Change answer

g)  Do you think that the last sentence of The Gift is an appropriate ending?
     Explain your answer, demonstrating your understanding of how the last sentence relates to the story's meaning.
Task administration: 
This task can be completed with pencil and paper or online (with some auto-marking).
Link to the story The Gift [pdf]. 
 
Students may want to have a copy of the text to refer back to as they work through the task.
Copyright: 
Source: ‘The Gift'. Written by Louis Dollarhide. In ‘Mississippi Writers: Reflections of Childhood and Youth'. Volume 1.
Edited by Dorothy Abbott.University Press of Mississippi, 1985
 
© OECD (2002). Reproduced with permission of the OECD.
Level:
5
Curriculum info: 
English, Making meaning, Reading
Keywords: 
pisa, comprehension, point of view, inference
Description of task: 
Students read a story 'The Gift' and answer questions about comprehension, point of view and inference.
Answers/responses: 
  Y11 (09/2000)
a)

 

 Answers which received score 1 for Speaker 1 and score 1 for Speaker 2.
Speaker 1 - "heartless and cruel"
Answers which provide evidence from the story to support the idea that the woman is heartless and cruel. They may refer to her intention to shoot the panther, or to the fact that she actually shoots at the panther. They may also use quotation or close paraphrase. For example:

  • She tries to shoot the panther.
  • She's cruel because her first thought is to kill the panther.
  • She laughs when she thinks about killing the cat.
  • When she was eating she laughed at the cat's whining.
  • And taking up the rifle she fired it through the window.NOTE: Quotation.

Speaker 2 - "compassionate"
Score 1: Answers which provide evidence from the story to support the idea that the woman is compassionate. They may refer to her action in feeding the panther, or to suggestions about her capacity for compassion towards the panther or more generally. They may also use quotation or close paraphrase. For example:

  • She's generous because she shares her food with the cat.
  • She gives it ham.
  • She took down what was left of the ham and shoved it through the broken pane. NOTE: Quotation
  • When she first hears the panther she thinks it sounds sad, not scary. NOTE: Evidence of capacity for compassion towards the panther.
  • It says "she wanted to cry, for herself, for all the people, for everything in the flood". NOTE: Quoted evidence of more general compassion.
 2 marks – 64%
1 mark – 15%
b) C (Her house has been surrounded by flood waters.) 83%
c)

 

 Answers which recognise that the descriptions are intended to evoke pity. Reference to the writer's intention or effect on the reader may be stated or implied. Reference to what happens in the rest of the story may also be stated or implied. Answers may suggest that:

(1)    the descriptions quoted link the panther with the woman (or humans generally) in suffering;
or  
(2)    the descriptions quoted prepare for the woman's later compassionate behaviour towards the panther;
or  
(3)    the panther is presented as an object of compassion.
 
For example:
  • The panther sounds almost like a human, so it is like the woman, and you feel sorry for both of them. NOTE: Explicit reference to the link between the panther and the woman/humans. (1) Explicit reference to the effect on the reader.
  • It makes you realise straight away that the panther is also a victim of the flood. NOTE: Implicit reference to the link between the panther and humans in "also" (1). Explicit reference to the effect on the reader.
  • The woman seems to feel sorry for it before she knows what it is. NOTE: Links the extracts with the woman's later compassionate behaviour (2), without explicit reference to intention or effect.
  • It makes you feel sorry for the panther. NOTE: Implied accurate understanding of the nuances of the descriptions (3). Explicit reference to effect on reader.
  • It sounds sad and distressed. NOTE: Implied understanding of nuances of the descriptions (3), with implicit reference to author's intention.
 46%
  Answers which refer to possible intentions (or effects) of the quoted descriptions, other than that of evoking pity. Comment is consistent with comprehension of the text. Reference to the writer's intention or effect on the reader may be stated or implied. References to what happens in the rest of the story may also be stated or implied. Answers may refer to:

(1)    the intention/effect of creating suspense or mystery. NOTE: that such terms as "frightening" and "scary" are considered to show lack of comprehension of the quoted descriptions; and "interesting", "easy to read" and "clear" are not sufficiently specific.
(2)    the idea that the panther is presented from the woman's point of view.
 
For example:
  • Because it creates suspense. You don't really know what was crying. (1)
  • It introduces the panther slowly. (1)
  • It's exciting. (1)
  • You don't know what it is, just like the woman. NOTE: Combination of (1) and (2).
  • It describes the woman's feelings about the panther. (2)
 22%
d) B (It began to float) 89%
e)

 
Answers which recognise the implication that the woman is motivated by pity or empathy towards the panther. They may also mention that the woman does not consciously understand her own motivation. For example:
  • She felt sorry for it.
  • Because she knew what it felt like to be hungry.
  • Because she's a compassionate person.
  • To help it live.
or
Answers which recognise that the story does not explicitly explain the woman's motivation and/or that she does not consciously understand it. For example:
  • She wasn't thinking what she was doing.
  • Out of whim.
  • Instinct.
  • She didn't know.
  • The story doesn't say.
or
Answers which are in terms of the panther's physical need for food or help, without referring to the woman's motivation. For example:
  • Because it was hungry.
  • Because it cried.
 57%
f) C (intending to shoot the cat) 50%
g)

 
Answers which go beyond a literal interpretation of the story but are consistent with accurate literal comprehension. They should evaluate the ending in terms of thematic completeness, by relating the last sentence to central relationships, issues or metaphors in the story. Answers may refer, for example, to the relationship between the panther and the woman; to survival; or to a gift or thanks. Opinion about appropriateness may be stated or implied. For example:
  • Yes. The story has brought the woman into contact with what is really essential in life, and the clean white bone is a symbol of that.
  • Yes. I suppose that what was left of the ham by the panther was also a gift, the message being "live and let live".
  • Yes. The bone is like a gift, and that is the theme of the story.
  • Yes. The ham bone reminds us of what could have happened to the woman.
  • It is appropriate because the animal sort of thanked her for the ham.
or
Answers which go beyond a literal interpretation of the story but are consistent with accurate literal comprehension. They should evaluate the ending in terms of style or mood, by relating the last sentence to the general style or mood of the rest of the story. Opinion about appropriateness may be stated or implied. For example:
  • Yes, it fits the matter-of-fact telling of the story.
  • Yes, it continues the effect of something eerie.
  • No, it is too abrupt when most of the story is given in great detail.
 35%
 
Literal answers, which interpret the story in a way consistent with accurate literal comprehension. They evaluate the ending in terms of narrative sequence, by relating the last sentence to explicit events, (e.g., the cat having eaten the meat; the visit of the panther to the house; the subsiding of the flood). Opinion about appropriateness may be stated or implied. For example:
  • Yes it gives you an answer to the question whether the cat ate the food.
  • No. The part about the meat was already finished.
  • It is finished because the meat is finished and so is the story.
  • Yes. Now that the flood has subsided and it has eaten the meat, there is no reason for the cat to stay.
  • I think it was a good ending because it proves that she had a panther on her porch. NOTE: Understanding at a literal level that the events in the story "really happened".
  • No, it is not a suitable end, it was not a gift, but it was very dangerous. NOTE: Indicates a wholly literal reading.
  • It is appropriate to describe that it was after the rain. NOTE: Reference to the end of the flood.
 26%

© OECD (2002). Reproduced with permission of the OECD.