Comprehension:

1) The narrator’s name is Helen.

2) The narrator lives in Liverpool, which is situated in Great Britain.

3) In total, there are seven children. Their names are: Fiona, Alan, Helen, Brian, Tony, Avril and Edward.

4) a) TRUE: “The four younger children […] had in August, 1939, been evacuated to the country for safety…”
b) FALSE: “Some children, however, were never evacuated; they ran wild in the streets, and vandalism and theft became widespread.”
c) FALSE: “At the beginning of the war they had been closed..” (only at the beginning) and “on their return to Liverpool, the youngsters face almost immediately four sharp, frightening air raids… Fortunately for our children, the Government had reopened the city schools“. (air raids mean war is still going, yet school has re-opened)

5) The story takes place in the middle of world war 2, therefore the children were evacuated for their safety from all the violence of the war because at the time the city they lived in, Liverpool, was subject to enemy assaults such as air raids.

6) The words “small predators” refers to the children running wild in the streets.

7) The “small predators” , or wild children, would vandalise, steal and run wild. The reason for which they behaved in such a manner, was because their teachers had accompanied the evacuated children to the country side, and there was no one left to take care of them, and teach them.

8) The narrator’s mother wanted her to stay home and quit her job so that she would be able to look after her younger siblings, and help with all the chores around the house, such as the dishes, the shopping, the house-cleaning…

9) She didn’t want to obey her mother because she felt that she had satisfied her requirement to help at home, that she had sacrificed enough of her own personal time to do the house chores and endured all of the labour. Also, the previous time she had been forced in to it, she lived in horrendous conditions, always