Vocabulary 1
Vocabulary 2
Elements of Plot
Comprehension Questions
Give an Example
100
This word means "crazy."
What is dotty?
100
This word means "expensive and snobbish."
What is swanky?
100

This person is the protagonist (or main character) of the story.

Billy Weaver

100
The author of "The Landlady."
Who is Roald Dahl?
100

One strange behavior of the landlady.

(Answers will vary.) What is when she looks Billy up and down very slowly as she walks up the stairs. When she fusses with the tea.

200
This word means "not easily pleased."
What is choosy?
200
This word means "the area at the front of a fireplace."
What is hearth?
200

Give an example of when suspense is used.

Any reasonable answer.

200

What the landlady requests Billy to do before going to bed.

To sign the guest book

200
One detail that shows that Billy seemed to be guided to the bed and breakfast as if under a spell.
(Answers will vary) What is when he saw the sign and felt like it forced him to move toward the bed and breakfast.
300
This word means "sounds familiar."
What is rings a bell?
300
This word means "flowering plants."
What are chrysanthemums?
300

Identify when irony is used.

The bed and breakfast is not a safe place / The tea is poisoned / The landlady is not a maternal woman

300

What Billy's tea tastes like.

Bitter almonds

300
A detail that should have given Billy a clue that the landlady was not as innocent as she appeared.
(Answers will vary) What is when he signs the guestbook and there are only two other names in it.
400
This word means "greedy."
What is rapacious?
400
This word means "agreeable, suitable, or pleasing in nature."
What is congenial?
400
The plot point when Billy realizes that the animals are stuffed.
What is the climax?
400

The number of people who had signed the guest book before Billy.

2

400
A detail that suggests that the landlady was waiting for Billy.
(Answers will vary) What is as soon as he rang the doorbell, the landlady popped out like a jack-in-the-box.
500
This word means "the fronts of buildings."
What are facades?
500
This word means "unable to make a decision."
What is dithering?
500
When the landlady says, "I stuff all my pets when they die," is an example of this.
What is foreshadowing?
500

The two common household pets that comfort Billy when he sees them through the window.

A parrot and a dog

500
An inference that the reader is forced to make at the end of the story.
(Answers will vary) What is that Billy has been poisoned by the tea.