The Tear Jar Level 6 Comprehension Questions

When the children have read pages 2 and 3, ask them to explain how the author has shown what period of history the class are studying.

• 
  Lena is looking forward to the school trip to the exhibition of Pompeii and Herculaneum
  
• 
  The class had been doing a project about the destruction of the two cities on 24 August, AD79
  
• 
  The teacher had shown them pictures of Romans
  
• 
  The teacher is dressed as a Roman lady
  
• 
  They see a photo of Mount Vesuvius erupting.
  

AF5/AF2

• 
  The rain is hitting the window and the author has written ‘the weather matched how she (Katy) felt’
  
• 
  The time dragged at the service station because Katy was on her own
  
• 
  The author has written that Katy felt ‘empty’
  

AF5

AF4

• 
  One of the items is a ‘tiny blue glass jar’ and the title of the book is ‘the Tear Jar’ so it is likely to be the same item and therefore significant as it is the title of the story.
  
• 
  The exhibits are described as ‘little everyday things that had been found in the ruins of Pompeii’ and Katy thinks ‘perhaps these things had belonged to a girl like her’ so maybe she will find out more about this little girl and how the items were ruined.
  

AF7

• 
  the name Livillia is not a modern name
  
• 
  the girls are very polite when talking to one another, e.g ‘My father says we must go…’
  
• 
  the children are using more complex sentences to explain their ideas than the children have earlier in the story, e.g. ‘Fish dying in great quantities’.
  

AF5

• 
  paragraph 1 explains the stillness and silence so gives the reader a sense of calm (calm before the storm?). The paragraph then goes on to add a sense of mystery and foreboding by describing the paintings of masks staring at something in the distance.
  
• 
  The second paragraph breaks through the sense of stillness by introducing the violent shaking. The rest of the paragraph goes on to describe further bangs and shaking and the effect on the two girls watching.
  
• 
  The final paragraph sums up what has happened, leaving the reader in no doubt that the volcano has erupted.
  
• 
  The mood of the story therefore changes from calm to extreme violence in the space of three short paragraphs as reflected by the opening sentence of each.
  

AF3

• 
  we know that the pebbles have come from the volcano as we know what happened on that day in history.
  
• 
  Elena does not understand what is really happening or what the pebbles are – she thinks they have come from the sea and turned to stone. This emphasizes her vulnerability as she does not know the real danger she is in.
  
• 
  People at the time of the disaster did not have the advantage of understanding what volcanoes were like we do today.
  

Low 6

• 
  Rich men (like Livilla’s father) do not listen to women or their slaves so there is no point trying to tell him things if you are a female or slave.
  
• 
  Livilla has said earlier that not only will he not listen to her as a child, he will not listen to her mother so we know that it is females rather than just young people.
  

AF6

• 
  The author has made us feel sorry for Livilla as she has come to apologise and to give Elena her bracelet but then becomes trapped away from her family. She had expected to be told off by her parents but had not expected to not be able to get back to them.
  
• 
  The author shows how frantic the people were and how dangerous the situation was by giving details about the lady being trampled and the child slipping from her mother’s grip – this makes the reader feel frightened and scared for the people living through these events.
  
• 
  When Livilla is struck on the head with the rock, the reader feels even more frightened as now one of the characters they have empathy with has been hurt.
  
• 
  The author creates a sense of further panic and despair when Afranius looks out to sea and cannot see the ship in the harbour.
  

AF4

AF7

• 
  people did not understand what was happening like we do today as they did not understand the science of volcanoes.
  
• 
  They believed that the gods had made it happen to punish them and therefore there was nothing they could do.
  
• 
  They thought that the world was going to end
  
• 
  The people believed that it was targeting them as punishment for something (e.g. ‘the cloud is coming for us’)
  

AF2

• 
  Elena’s mother knows that Livilla’s family have died and that she has nobody left to look after her.
  
• 
  She knows that Livilla will be sad but nervous about what is going to happen to her.
  
• 
  She is telling Livilla that she is welcome into the family and will adopt her as her own daughter so that she has a family again.
  

AF4

• 
  In the beginning she had stopped being friends with Lena and was ignoring her.
  
• 
  At the service station she was behaving like the other girls in the group and Lena was worried about whether she had thought about her actions.
  
• 
  Katy had left Lena to be on her own during the museum visit as she was trying to ‘stay in’ with her new group of friends. She did not consider Lena’s feelings at all at this stage.
  
• 
  When she finds Lena at the end she links arms and acts like a friend again, trying to find out what is wrong.
  
• 
  Katy then apologises for her previous behavior to Katy and explains that she was sucked in by Carly.
  

• 
  Katy has been weak throughout the story by following Carly and her group of friends and dropping her friendship with Lena
  
• 
  At the end she is a strong character again as she admits her mistakes and makes it right with Lena by doing so. She does not simply say sorry but explains how wrong she had been and how important Lena is to her.