Week 12 · English Practice Paper

Reading Passage

The following passage tells the story of Trooper, a much-loved dog living at an English country house in the early 1900s. Trooper's life has so far been a happy one, but things are about to change...

The King of Bellhaven

paragraph 1: If Trooper could have read the newspapers, he would have known that trouble was brewing for dogs like him. Because explorers had set their sights on the frozen wastes of the far south, and those explorers wanted dogs: dogs with powerful shoulders, thick coats to withstand the ice, and the toughness to haul a sledge for days without complaint.

paragraph 2: Trooper lived at a fine house in the rolling Kentish countryside. Bellhaven, it was called. It stood well back from the lane, half-screened by cedar trees, through which glimpses could be caught of the wide stone terrace that ran along its southern side. The house was reached by a long, raked gravel drive that wound between clipped lawns and rose beds. Behind it lay the stables, where the grooms worked, a row of glasshouses heavy with grapes, and an orchard where the Colonel's grandchildren built camps among the fallen apples.

paragraph 3: And over all of this, Trooper ruled. He had been born here, and had spent every one of his four years within its walls and hedges. It was true that other dogs lived at Bellhaven too, but to him they scarcely counted. There was Mimsy, the Colonel's wife's pampered lapdog, and a nervous little terrier called Pip, who yapped at shadows and rarely set foot outside the kitchen. Then there were the spaniels, half a dozen of them, who worked themselves into a frenzy whenever Mimsy was carried past the window, kept in check only by the housemaids with brooms.

paragraph 4: But Trooper was neither a house dog nor a kennel dog. The whole estate was his territory. He plunged into the lily pond or went ratting with the stable boys; he walked at the heels of Iris and Gilbert, the Colonel's grandchildren, on long summer evenings; on cold nights he lay stretched before the library fire while the Colonel read his newspaper; and he had once, memorably, carried the youngest grandchild half a mile home on his back after a fall from a pony. Among the lesser dogs he stalked like a king inspecting his subjects, and Mimsy and Pip he simply ignored, for he was master of every living creature at Bellhaven, humans included.

paragraph 5: Such was Trooper's happy state in the autumn that an expedition ship was fitted out for the frozen south, and word went round every great house in the county that strong dogs were wanted, and would fetch a fine price. But Trooper did not read the newspapers, and he had no idea that Corran, one of the under-grooms, had already decided to sell him to the highest bidder.

paragraph 6: The Colonel was away at a hunt dinner, and the grandchildren were long since asleep, on the night of Corran's quiet treachery. No one saw him lead Trooper out through the orchard gate, the dog trotting along beside him under the impression that this was merely an evening walk. No one saw them reach the crossroads, where a cart stood waiting in the dark. A stranger climbed down, spoke briefly with Corran, and coins changed hands between them. 'Best get a rope on him before he understands what's happening,' the stranger said gruffly, and Corran crept a length of stout cord around Trooper's neck beneath his collar. 'Mind you don't choke him outright,' said Corran. 'He's worth more to you alive.'

paragraph 7: Trooper had accepted the cord with quiet trust; it was unfamiliar, but he had learned to have faith in men he knew. When the end of the rope passed into the stranger's hands, however, he gave a low, uneasy growl. Caught off guard, the rope jerked tight around his throat, cutting off his breath entirely. Outraged, he sprang at the stranger, who seized him roughly by the scruff and threw him down onto the frosty ground. Then the rope tightened again, mercilessly, while Trooper fought and struggled, his tongue lolling from his open jaws, his great chest heaving for air it could not find. Never in his life had he been treated so cruelly. But his strength ebbed away, his vision blurred and darkened, and he knew nothing more until he woke, jolted and aching, inside a wooden crate on the back of a moving cart.