Adventure begins here.

CONTENTS Chapter 1 REPITION 2 Chapter 2 BILLY BLACK 12 Chapter 3 AIRBOURNE 22 Chapter 4 NEW SKIES 31 Chapter 5 HOURS OF DARKNESS 37 Chapter 6 FAMILY HISTORY 42 Chapter 7 APPARITIONS 50 Chapter 8 TARGET 54 Chapter 9 CITY LIGHTS 60 Chapter 10 BLOOD DRINKER 68 Chapter 11 TRUTH 73 Chapter 12 ILLUSIONAL 78 Chapter 13 MEET THE FAMILY 85 PREFACE SMOKE BELLOWED FROM MY UNEVEN FLOORBOARDS, FLAMES LICKED around my bedroom walls. The smoke made screaming harder so I closed my eyes and rolled up into a ball on the floor, my arms wrapped tightly around my legs. Just as I had reached unconsciousness I felt my body being picked up. My rescuers arms were stone cold and sent a sharp pain pulsating through my arm. My eyelids felt as heavy as lead as I fought for a glimpse of my rescuer. The first thing I noticed about him was his livid eyes - a liquid topaz colour that sparkled in the firelight. His dark tousled moonlight shaded hair glinted in the limited light of the flames. His face was set like stone into a scowl, anger filled in his beautiful eyes. He was wearing dark jeans and a black t-shirt. It was as if he were an ice sculpture, carved by the gods. I reached out to touch the back of his hand but resisted; he looked down at me with intelligent eyes. He looked at me for a second studying my face, my eyes, my hair but then his head quickly snapped back as his eyes locked

  • Word count: 53878
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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A Christmas Carol - Marley's Ghost.

A Christmas Carol Stave One Marley's Ghost Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a doornail. Mind! I don't mean to say that I know of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a doornail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the country's done for. You will, therefore, permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a doornail. Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly

  • Word count: 29008
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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To Kill A Mockingbird Full Summary

Part One: Chapter 1 Summary The chapter opens with the introduction of the narrator, Scout Finch, her older brother Jem (Jeremy), and their friend and neighbor, Dill (Charles Baker Harris). It quickly moves into an overview of Finch family history. Their ancestor, a Methodist named Simon Finch, fled British persecution to eventually settle in Alabama, where he trapped animals for fur and practiced medicine. Having bought several slaves, he established a largely self-sufficient homestead and farm, Finch's Landing, near Saint Stephens. The family lost its wealth in the Civil War. Scout's father, Atticus Finch, studied law in Montgomery while supporting his brother, John "Jack" Hale Finch, who was in medical school in Boston. Their sister Alexandra remained at Finch's Landing. Atticus began his law practice in Maycomb, the county seat of Maycomb County, where his "office in the courthouse contained little more than a hat rack, a spittoon, a checkerboard, and an unsullied Code of Alabama." His first case entailed his defense of two men who refused to plead guilty for second-degree murder. They instead pleaded not guilty for first-degree murder, and were hanged, marking "probably the beginning of my father's profound distaste for criminal law." Scout then presents Depression-era Maycomb ("an old tired town when I first knew it"), describing the summer heat and the slow pace

  • Word count: 23079
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) by Thomas Hardy.

Context Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840, in Higher Bockhampton in Dorset, a rural region of southwestern England that was to become the focus of his fiction. The child of a builder, Hardy was apprenticed at the age of sixteen to John Hicks, an architect who lived in the city of Dorchester. The location would later serve as the model for Hardy's fictional Casterbridge. Although he gave serious thought to attending university and entering the church, a struggle he would dramatize in his novel Jude the Obscure, declining religious faith and lack of money led Hardy to pursue a career in writing instead. He spent nearly a dozen years toiling in obscurity and producing unsuccessful novels and poetry. Far from the Madding Crowd, published in 1874, was the author's first critical and financial success. Finally able to support himself as a writer, Hardy married Emma Lavinia Gifford later that year. Although he built a reputation as a successful novelist, Hardy considered himself first and foremost a poet. To him, novels were primarily a means of earning a living. Like many of his contemporaries, he first published his novels in periodic installments in magazines or serial journals, and his work reflects the conventions of serialization. To ensure that readers would buy a serialized novel, writers often structured each installment to be something of a cliffhanger, which

  • Word count: 22025
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Sins of the Past

Sins of the Past Jackson Jones Prologue President Gregory Taylor sat at his ornate desk in the Air Force One equivalent of the Oval Office. Taylor looked weary, his jet black hair was growing greyer by the day and his black suit was crumpled. He was only 58, but at this point in time he looked in his seventies. There was a knock at the door and Taylor looked up through his wire rim glasses, "come in." The door opened and a beautiful young woman stepped in. Rachel Fletcher was thirty years old, she had dark brown hair which stretched down, just past her shoulders and her sparkling blue eyes were dazzling. She held her chin up, not in an arrogant way, but just so she could be taken seriously. "Good morning Mr. President," she smiled. Taylor sat up and looked at her, "hello Rachel." Rachel was holding a brown envelope and she held it against her black suit. She stepped forward and gave the envelope to Taylor; he took it and opened it. "That is an email; Senator Clay sent to his PA Trish Dunne," Rachel explained, "it appears he already knows who has won this election." Taylor read the sheet of white paper, "Trish, I looked at the current polls and Taylor is way in front. I don't think we can come back from this." Taylor sighed and Rachel frowned, "is that not good news sir?" Taylor got to his feet and stepped over to the window and stared out at the Alaskan landscape.

  • Word count: 20928
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Jack the Ripper - Whitechapel in the 1880's.

Introduction It was the month of August, the year of 1888, the destination of Whitechapel, a killer who got the name as Jack the Ripper for his horrifying murders. The name "Ripper" associated well with what he actually did to his victims, he didn't just murder them, he had to go further. He brutally murdered five women in the East End of London. The women he aimed at were around the age 40, apart from one of his victims, who were only 25 years of age. These victims were prostitutes that sold their body for money so that they could sleep inside in the warm for just one night. Well the five victims weren't so lucky on the nights they were murdered. Whitechapel in the 1880's It was mainly Jewish people who lived in the area of Whitechapel. This was because the rent for houses was very low, as the area had very bad living conditions. Also, few questions were asked about the Jews as well, so the Jews had another reason to be in the grotty area. The living conditions of Whitechapel during this time were terrible. "Filthy men and women living on gin, where collars and clean shirts are unknown; where every citizen wears a black eye and never combs his hair." This shows how both men and women drunk alcoholic drinks, well lived on the drink. This also shows how their shirts were always dirty and never washed and showed the average appearance of a man "wears a black eye...never

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Animal Farm.

Animal Farm Context George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Blair, a British political novelist and essayist whose pointed criticisms of political oppression propelled him into prominence toward the middle of the twentieth century. Born in 1903 to British colonists in Bengal, India, Orwell received his education at a series of private schools, including Eton, an elite school in England. His painful experiences with snobbishness and social elitism at Eton, as well as his intimate familiarity with the reality of British imperialism in India, made him deeply suspicious of the entrenched class system in English society. As a young man, Orwell became a socialist, speaking openly against the excesses of governments east and west and fighting briefly for the socialist cause during the Spanish Civil War, which lasted from 1936 to 1939. Unlike many British socialists in the 1930s and 1940s, Orwell was not enamored of the Soviet Union and its policies, nor did he consider the Soviet Union a positive representation of the possibilities of socialist society. He could not turn a blind eye to the cruelties and hypocrisies of Soviet Communist Party, which had overturned the semifeudal system of the tsars only to replace it with the dictatorial reign of Joseph Stalin. Orwell became a sharp critic of both capitalism and communism, and is remembered chiefly as an advocate of freedom and a

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Part I Section One Summary (page 1-13,

Part I Section One Summary (page 1-13, "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy...were all her fault."): Clarissa Dalloway took it upon herself to buy the flowers for the party that evening. Lucy had so much other work to do and the morning air was fresh and inviting. Air like this always reminded her of a morning when, at eighteen, she had burst open the French windows to the terrace. Peter Walsh stood within and commented on vegetables. He still wrote to Clarissa, very boring letters, and would be returning from India someday. Waiting on the curb, Scrope Purvis noticed her, thinking to himself that she was charming. Clarissa thought of the hush that fell over Westminster right before the ring of Big Ben. As the bell rang out, she looked at the people around her, living in the moment, and loved life. It was June and the Great War was over. Life sprang out all around her with a passion, dancing girls and ponies and shopkeepers in their windows. Clarissa was a part of it. Entering the park, she was met with a deeper silence. Hugh Whitbread, an old friend, walked toward her. He assured her that he would attend the party even though his wife, Evelyn, was ill. The Whitbreads always came to London to see doctors. Though she adored him, Hugh had a way of making Clarissa feel underdressed. Richard, her husband, could not stand Hugh and Peter had hated him. But Peter could be like that.

  • Word count: 16415
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Themes, Motifs, and Symbols - Themes are the fundamental concepts addressed and explored in a literary work - Civilization and Savagery

Themes, Motifs, and Symbols Themes Themes are the fundamental concepts addressed and explored in a literary work. Civilization and Savagery - The overriding theme of the novel is the conflict between two competing impulses that exist within all human beings: the instinct to live by rules, act peacefully, follow moral commands, and value the good of the group on the one hand; and the instinct to gratify one's immediate desires, act violently to obtain supremacy over others, and enforce one's will on the other. These two instincts may be called "the instinct of civilization" and "the instinct of savagery," as one is devoted to values that promote ordered society and the other is devoted to values that threaten ordered society. The conflict might also be expressed as order vs. chaos, reason vs. impulse, law vs. anarchy, or in any number of other ways, including the more generalized good vs. evil. Throughout the novel, the instinct of civilization is associated with goodness, while the instinct of savagery is associated with evil. The conflict between the two instincts is the driving force of the novel, explored through the dissolution of the young English boys' civilized, moral, disciplined behaviour as they accustom themselves to a wild, brutal, barbaric life as savages in the jungle. Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel, which means that its main ideas and themes are

  • Word count: 15721
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Adrian Mole Chapter Notes

Adrian Mole Chapter Notes January 1st Adrian makes eight New Year resolutions, most of which involve helping people; also he has vowed never to drink alcohol. Adrian's father got the dog drunk on cherry brandy the previous night at the party. Adrian is upset because his mother still won't wear his Christmas present of an apron. Adrian has got a spot on his face which he is most upset about. January 2nd Adrian is not feeling very well and blames it on his mother for singing late into the night at the top of the stairs, and regrets having a mother like her. He thinks his parents are both alcoholics and predicts that next year he could be in a children's home. Adrian's dog knocked down Adrian's father's ship model which took him three months; therefore he was naturally very upset. Adrian is very worried about his spot which is growing larger and blames it on his mother's ignorance of vitamins. January 3rd Adrian is not sleeping well as his father has banned the dog from the house and so from outside it keeps on barking which therefore keeps Adrian awake. Adrian thinks his spot is a boil and when requesting for Vitamin C his mother tells him to buy an orange, Adrian thinks this a very typical answer. He is still upset that his mother is not wearing the apron he got her and this is a factor on why he wants to go back to school. January 4th Adrian's father has

  • Word count: 14495
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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