Practical Case Sample 

Text analysis.  

How the whale got his throat By R. Kipling

 

In the sea, once upon a me, O my Best Beloved, there was a Whale, and he ate fishes. He ate
the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his
mate, and the mackerel and the pickerel, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel. All the fishes he could find
in all the sea he ate with his mouth- so! Till at last there was only one small fish le in all the sea , and he
was a small ‘Stute Fish, and he swam a li le behind the Whale’s right ear, so as to be out of harm’s way.
Then the Whale stood up on his tail and said, “I’m hungry.” And the small ‘Stute Fish said in a small ‘stute
voice, “Noble and generous Cetacean, have you ever tasted Man?”

“No,” said the Whale. “What is it like?”

“Nice,” said the small ‘Stute Fish. “Nice but nubbly.”

“Then fetch me some,” said the Whale, and he made the sea froth up with his tail.

“Once at a me is enough,” said the ‘Stute Fish. “If you swim to la tude Fi y North, longitude
Forty West (that is magic), you will find, si ng on a ra , in the middle of the sea, with nothing on but a
pair of blue canvas breeches, a pair of suspenders (you must not forget the suspenders, Best Beloved),
and a jack-knife, one ship-wrecked Mariner, who, it is only fair to tell you, is a man of
infinite-resource-and-sagacity.”

So the Whale swam and swam to la tude Fi y North, longitude Forty West, as fast as he could
swim, and on a ra , in the middle of the sea, with nothing to wear except a pair of blue canvas breeches,
a pair of suspenders (you must par cularly remember the suspenders, Best Beloved), and a jack-knife, he
found one single, solitary shipwrecked Mariner, trailing his toes in the water. (He had his mummy’s leave
to paddle, or else he would never have done it, because he was a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity.).

Then the Whale opened his mouth back and back and back ll it nearly touched his tail, and he
swallowed the shipwrecked Mariner, and the ra he was si ng on, and his blue canvas breeches, and
the suspenders (which you must not forget), and the jack-knife – He swallowed them all down into his
warm, dark, inside cup-boards, and then he smacked his lips- so, and turned round three mes on his
tail.

But as soon as the Mariner, who was a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, found himself
truly inside the Whale's warm, dark, inside cup-boards, he stumped and he jumped and he thumped and
he bumped, and he pranced and he danced, and he banged and he clanged, and he hit and he bit, and
he leaped and he creeped, and he prowled and he howled, and he hopped and he dropped, and he cried
and he sighed, and he crawled and he bawled, and he stepped and he lepped, and he danced hornpipes
where he shouldn’t , and the Whale felt most unhappy indeed. (Have you forgo en the suspenders?)

So he said to the ‘Stute Fish, “This man is very nubbly, and besides he is making me hiccough.
What shall I do?”

“Tell him to come out,” said the Stute Fish. So the Whale called down his own throat to the
shipwrecked Mariner, “Come out and behave yourself. I’ve got the hiccoughs.”

“Nay, nay!” said the Mariner. “Not so, but far otherwise. Take me to my natal-shore and the
white-cliffs-of-Albion, and I’ll think about it.” And he began to dance more than ever.

“You had be er take him home,” said the ‘Stute Fish to the Whale. “I ought to have warned you
that he is a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity.”
 So the Whale swam and swam and swam, with both flippers and his tail, as hard as he could for
the hiccoughs; and at last he saw the Mariner’s natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-Albion, and he rushed
half-way up the beach, and opened his mouth wide and wide and wide and said, “Change here for
Winchester, Ashuelot, Nashua, Keene, and sta ons on the Fitchburg Road;” and just as he said “Fitch”
the Mariner walked out of his mouth.

But while the Whale had been swimming, the Mariner, who was indeed a person of
infinite-resource-and-sagacity, had taken his jack-knife and cut up the ra into a li le square gra ng all
running criss-cross, and he had ed it firm with his suspenders (now, you know why you were not to
forget the suspenders!), and he dragged that gra ng good and ght into the Whale’s throat, and thee it
stuck! Then he recited the following Sloka, which, as you have not heard it, I will now proceed to relate -

By means of a gra ng
I have stopped your a ng.

For the Mariner he was also an Hi-ber-ni-an. And he stepped out on the shingle, and went home
to his mother, who had given him leave to trail his toes in the water; and he married and lived happily
a erward. So did the Whale. But from that day on, the gra ng in his throat, which he could neither
cough up nor swallow down, prevented him ea ng anything except very, very small fish; and that is the
reason why whales nowadays never eat men or boys or li le girls.

The small ‘Stute Fish went and hid himself in the mud under the Door-sills of the Equator. He
was afraid that the Whale might be angry with him.

The Sailor took the jack-knife home. He was wearing the blue canvas breeches when he walked
out on the shingle. The suspenders were le behind, you see, to e the gra ng with; and that is the end
of that tale.

When the cabin port-holes are dark and green

Because of the seas outside;
When the ship goes wop (with a wiggle between)
And the steward falls into the soup-tureen,
And the trunks begin to slide;
When Nursey lies on the floor in a heap,
And Mummy tells you to let her sleep,
And you aren’t waked or washed or dressed,
Why, then you will know (if you haven’t guessed)
You’re ‘Fi y North and Forty West!’

 
LEXIS
1. List all the words belonging to the semantic field of SAILING:
Mariner, shipwreck, ra , shore, cliffs, whale, swam, flipper, beach,
swimming, water, fish, sea, ship, starfish, crab, mackerel, cetacean.

2. Provide synonyms- either words or expressions- FROM THE TEXT for

the following ones. State the line where you found them. Verbs may
not be in the same verb form in the text.
● Get/bring/pick up (lines 1 to 11)… to fetch
● Shrewdness/cleverness/smartness (lines 12 to 16)… sagacity
● Delight in/drool over (lines 23 to 34)… smacked his lips
● Permission/say-so (lines 12 to 27)… he had his mummy’s leave
● Begin/start (lines 48 to 66)… - (line 59) proceed

3. Provide antonyms- either words or expressions- FROM THE TEXT for

the following ones. State the line where you found them. Verbs may
not be in the same verb form in the text.
● Display/reveal (lines 56 to 76)… hid (line 56)
● In danger (lines 1 to 16)… - he could be out of harm’s way (line 6)
● Slow down (lines 43 to 61)… as hard as he could (line 43) rushed
● Yielding/loose (lines 48 to 66)… - firm (line 50)
4. Give words or expressions FROM THE TEXT for the following
definitions. Verbs may not be in the same verb form in the text.
● With small knobs or lumps: nubbly
● Shout or weep noisily: he howled
● Flow behind you as you go along behind one: trailing
● Small rounded pebbles lying on the sea-shore: shingle
● Emit or gather foam: made the sea froth up
● Emit choking sounds/involuntary spasm of respiratory organs:
hiccough…….
● Run precipitately or with great speed: he pranced rushed

SYNTAX-DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

5. Find an example of each of the following types of reference:

● Anaphoric: means that a word in a text refers back to other ideas in
the text for its meaning. It is shown by pronouns. (line 9) it; (line 15)
who; (line 21) his.
● Exophoric reference occurs when a word or phrase refers to
something outside the discourse. The use of this reference requires
some shared knowledge between two speakers. For instance, white
cliffs of Albion.
● Ellipsis: so did the whale (to e the gra ng with). Ellipsis is a
situa on in oral or wri en language where words, which we would
normally expect to use, are le out.
6. Find conjunctions linking sentences or paragraphs to one another and
classify them in the following categories (lines 17-40).

Adversative Additive Casual Temporal

Conjunction Conjunction Conjunction Conjunction
else and so then
but besides because As soon as
But far
otherwise

7. There is some world knowledge (or schemata) shared by Kipling and

his readers which belongs to their common time and culture. Give
examples:
1. Albion
2. White cliffs
3. Breeches
4. Change here for Winchester, Ashuelot, Nashua, Keene, and sta ons
on the Fitchburg Road

8. Write sentences of your own, which express ideas contained in the

text using the following connectors/conjunctions (please do not use
the ideas contained in the first paragraph). Your sentences must begin
with words given:
● No sooner had the fish given the whale instruc ons than he
swam in search of Man.
● Hardly had the fish seen Man when he opened his mouth and
swallowed him.
● Once the mariner had been swallowed he began to annoy the
whale.
● Unless you take me to the white cliffs of Albion, I won’t come
out.
● Provided that you take me to the shores of Albion, I’ll come out.
● Despite the hiccough, the whale swam very fast.
● Even though Man is nice, he is also nubbly.
 ● Not only did he cut the ra into small squares but also he ed it
up ght.
● In the face of what had happened, the Stute fish decided to hide
in the Equator.
● Neither could the whale cough up nor swallow down.

9. Write a new sentence as similar as possible in meaning to the original

one but using the word given in capital letters. The word given must
not be altered in any way.
a. Line 47. “…just as he said “Fitch” the Mariner walked out of his
mouth.”
REACTION
“Just as he said “Fitch” the Mariner’s reaction was to walk out of his
mouth.”
b. Line 4. “All the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate with his
mouth.”
SINGLE
He didn’t leave one single fish without ea ng it with his mouth.
c. The whale had a strong preference for ea ng fishes.
RATHER
“The whale would rather eat fishes.”
d. Line 6. “…’Stute Fish swam a li le behind the whale’s right ear so as
to be out of harm’s way.”
HARMFUL
Stute Fish knew the whale could be harmful so he swam a li le
behind the whale’s right ear.
PHONOLOGY/PHONETICS
10. Provide homophones FROM THE TEXT for the following words:

● See - sea ● Tide - ed

● Side - sighed ● Fare - fair
● Eight - ate ● Blew - blue
● Mite - might ● Guest - guessed
● Write - right ● Place - plaice
● Pear - pair ● Sure - shore
● Tail - tale

11. Provide a contrasting/minimal pair for the following words in the

text:
● Cough - tough ● ra - laughed
● sighed - sight ● inside - insight
● paddle - saddle ● Find - kind
● Stood - stool ● square - stare
● wide - de ● gra ng - ra ng
● rushed - blushed ● Time - tame
● Trunks - drunks ● toes - blows
● howled - hold ● trail - sail
● dace - days ● Dressed - pressed
● Breeches - preaches ● fair - hair
CURRICULUM
12.Considering the cultural requirements of the education system,
highlight the cultural implication of this text.
According to the Decree 220 of September 2nd 2015 that sets the
curriculum of Secondary Compulsory Educa on in the Region of Murcia,
the Decree 220 that sets the curriculum of Bachillerato in the Region of
Murcia and the order ECD/65 2015 that describes the rela onship among
competences, contents and evalua on criteria in all educa onal stages,
one of the key competences our students have to achieve is the Cultural
awareness and expression. Reading the learners a story like “How the
whale got his throat” can help with this as we will be exposing our student
to realia that students in English speaking countries are exposed to. We
could also take this opportunity to expose our students to R. Kipling talking
about his life awaking our students’ interest towards reading in foreign
language.

13.Explain how this topic could be introduced to the learners, bearing in

mind that the level of this text is not suitable for SECONDARY
education level students.
Although as it has been said above, the level of this text it is not
suitable for Secondary educa on level students, we could use visual aids,
mimics as well as other techniques and methodological strategies and
guidelines included in the annexes of both Decree 220/2015 and 221/2015
to help our students understand the text and the purpose of the writer:
● Create power point presenta on with pictures that we can be
used at the same me that we read the story.
● Youtube clips with some of the most popular English speaking
characters where the main theme will be similar to that one in
the target text. The video/s will be used in pre-reading stage.
● Simplify the language and adapt it to the level of our students
and the aims that we want them to achieve by reading this text
in class.
● Use several segments of the text. For example, the paragraph
that describes what the mariner does when he is inside the
whale’s belly could be used when our students learn regular
verbs forms.