Instructions
Read the passage carefully and answer the questions below.The small village of Lapishevka lay nestled between two great forests, where the trees whispered secrets to the wind and the snow crunched beneath the feet of the villagers. For generations, the villagers lived in harmony with the forests, harvesting their resources but never overstepping. However, when a stranger appeared in the village, everything changed.
The stranger was tall, with skin as pale as the winter moon and eyes as dark as the forest night. He wore a long, flowing coat that seemed to ripple like the surface of the river, and his presence was accompanied by an unsettling silence, as if he drew the sound out of the world around him. The villagers were uneasy, but the stranger spoke with a voice that was both gentle and commanding, promising to teach them the art of making the finest springtrap in all the land.
A springtrap, or "sprunki" as the stranger called it, was a clever device made of interlocking branches and a hidden trigger. The villagers had heard of such traps before, but none had ever seen one built by a master. The stranger promised that with his guidance, their traps would be the envy of every neighboring village. The villagers agreed, and so began their lessons in the art of the sprunki.
As the days passed, the villagers grew more skilled, but they also began to notice strange occurrences. Tools would go missing, and some claimed to have seen shadowy figures lurking at the edge of the forest. The stranger seemed to know more than he let on, but he remained tight-lipped about the matter. Still, the villagers pressed on, determined to perfect their craft.
Now, answer the following questions:
1. Who was the stranger that appeared in the village of Lapishevka?
2. What promise did the stranger make to the villagers?
3. What strange occurrences began to happen as the villagers learned to make the sprunki?
4. What does the term "sprunki" refer to in this passage?
5. How did the villagers feel about the stranger when he first arrived?
6. Who taught the villagers how to make the sprunki, and how did the stranger describe the device?
7. Why did the villagers continue to learn how to make the sprunki despite the strange occurrences?
8. How would you describe the stranger's appearance, based on the passage?
9. What was the villagers' relationship with the forests before the stranger arrived?
10. What does the name "Lapishevka" suggest about the village?