4
LEAVING CERTIFICATE
2. Read the following passage carefully, and then
answer the questions on it :—
The creaking which sounded all day from the wood
was not the groaning of one bough against another in the
wind, but the croaking of a carrion crow on her nest,
brooding the eggs. It was a harsh, monotonous noise,
and sounded sinister among the pervading grace and lightness
of spring. As indeed it was, for, with the hatching of the
young, increasing depredations were to be expected on my
chicks. The crow haunted our buildings, like a vile omen;
one would ever come round a corner to find her shadowing
silently away with some small prey, or slinking only a little
way off to await her further opportunity.
It became a duel of watchfulness and elusion. A single
shot, well-aimed, would rid me of her and her brood, but
the carrion crow is crafty. So I wore a green cap and a
green coat, the less easily to be seen, but she saw me. To sit
thus still in a wood may seem dull, but they were fascina¬
ting hours ; the wood came to life. A fox padded about,
vaguely uneasy ; pheasants strolled like fine gentlemen in
a park ; a white owl swooped so close that I felt the beat
of its wings in the air ; and in the dusk the white tails of
rabbits fluttered like fairies’ delicate wings.
I had her at last, though. One evening, as I stepped
out of the wood, I found her flying straight towards me. She
gave a cry, and veered sharply, but she was right above me,
and she knew that her hour had come. I shot her full in
the head ; she crashed into the wood like a stone, and
never moved. She lay on her back, caught up in a bramble
thicket, her wicked claws curled empty in the air, while a
dead chick dropped from branch to branch to the ground.
[a) (i) Describe the surroundings in which the crow
had her nest.
(ii) What do you gather from the passage about the
nature and habits of the crow ?
(iii) Tell in your own words the manner of the crow’s
death. (20)
(h) Explain carefully the meaning of the following
phrases, as used in the passage :—among the
pervading grace and lightness of spring ; as indeed
it was ; the wood came to life ; vaguely uneasy;
her hour had come, (10)