The second story in James Joyce’s collection is narrated by another young boy, this time someone who has been looking to get swept away by adventure and excitement. He and his friends plan to skip school for a day, and two of them do indeed go on a walk throughout Dublin one day before the summer holiday and dream of leaving the city on a ship. However, an encounter they have during the walk might make them regret ever having left school.
Before reading the full story, please try a multi-text reading task that includes a fragment of the story. This task is designed in the same way as the second half of the reading exam, in which students will need to read three texts of different genres that all have to do with a common topic. In this case, the topic is “censorship of books,” and the texts are a fragment from "An Encounter," an editorial written by a teacher, and a news article covering legislative efforts to help libraries and schools fight against book bans. You must read all three texts and then complete the tasks. The tasks are worded in an identical way to the year 2023 exam.
Multi-Text Reading Tasks: Censorship of Books
Then, you can read the full text of "An Encounter" while completing a gap fill task similar to the exam.
After reading the story and doing the tasks, you and a partner can practice the speaking section of the exam using these task sheets based on themes from the story. Please make sure to mention the story while completing the task.
Speaking Task: Skipping School
After finishing the tasks, you can move onto the next three short stories: "Araby," "Evenline," and "After the Races".