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The passage traces the transition from brief stillness to renewed bombardment, then follows Stephen’s forward advance through machine-gun fire, artillery barrages, and the escalating slaughter of men trying to rise, crawl, and cut through wire. It uses sharp sensory detail and shifting perception to explore meaning, fear, detachment, and the crushing inevitability of death.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":20,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/exam/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/birdsong-extract-5-birdsong/623151/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/birdsong-extract-5-birdsong/623151.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"dhado","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-06","2026-10-20",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":81},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What war setting is described in the extract?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The extract describes the first day of the Battle of the Somme, framed through Stephen’s experiences in World War I.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the extract portray Stephen’s state of mind during the advance?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It presents a shift from physical tension and fear to a dreamlike detachment where Stephen feels floating, as if he has less control over his own body.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What is the sample question asking the reader to focus on?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The question asks for an exploration of the significance of slaughter in the extract, including detailed analysis of how Faulks shapes meaning.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},623151,1792467840,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":19,"category_name":20,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":81,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":14,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":24,"preview_page_count":4},5909893218464,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","Unseen extract 5: Birdsong   \nRead the extract carefully. It is taken from Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, first published in 1993, a novel which tells the story of a British man called Stephen Wraysford at different stages of his life both before and during World War I. In this extract, the first day of the Battle of the Somme is described through the eyes of Stephen, who is now a lieutenant in the British Army.  \nSample question  \nRead the extract carefully. Explore the significance of slaughter in this extract.  \nRemember to include in your answer relevant detailed analysis of the ways that Faulks shapes meanings.  \nExtract  \nThe second hand of his watch in slow motion. Twenty-nine past. The whistle in his mouth. His foot on the ladder. He swallowed hard and blew.  \nHe clambered out and looked around him. It was for a moment completely quiet as the bombardment ended and the German guns also stopped. Skylarks wheeled and sang high in the cloudless sky. He felt alone, as though he had stumbled on this fresh world at the instant of its creation.  \nThen the artillery began to lay down the first barrage and the German machine guns resumed. To his left Stephen saw men trying to emerge from the trench but being smashed by bullets before they could stand. The gaps in the wire became jammed with bodies. Behind him the men were coming up. He saw Gray run along the top of the trench, shouting encouragement.  \nHe walked hesitatingly forward, his skin tensed for the feeling of metal tearing flesh. He turned his body sideways, tenderly, to protect his eyes. He was hunched like an old woman in the cocoon of tearing noise.  \nByrne was walking beside him at the slow pace required by their orders. Stephen glanced to his right. He could see a long, wavering line of khaki, primitive dolls progressing in tense deliberate steps, going down with a silent flap of arms, replaced, falling, continuing as though walking into a gale. He tried to catch Byrne’s eye but failed. The sound of machine guns was varied by the crack of snipers and the roar of the barrage ahead of them.  \nHe saw Hunt fall to his right. Studd bent to help him and Stephen saw his head opening up bright red under machine gun bullets as his helmet fell away.  \nHis feet pressed onwards gingerly over the broken ground. After twenty or thirty yards there came a feeling that he was floating above his body, that it had taken on an automatic life of its own over which he had no power. It was as though he had become detached, in a dream, from the metal air through which his flesh was walking. In this trance there was a kind of relief, something close to hilarity.  \nTen yards ahead and to the right was Colonel Barclay. He was carrying a sword.  \nStephen went down. Some force had blown him. He was in a dip in the ground with a bleeding man, shivering. The barrage was too far ahead. Now the German guns were placing a curtain of their own. Shrapnel was blasting its jagged cones through any air space not filled by the machine guns.  \nAll that metal will not find room enough, Stephen thought. It must crash and strike sparks above them. The man with him was screaming inaudibly. Stephen wrapped his dressing round the man’s leg, then looked at himself. There was no wound. He crawled to the rim of the shellhole. There were others ahead of him. He stood up and began to walk again.  \nPerhaps with them he would be safer. He felt nothing as he crossed the pitted land on which humps of khaki lay every few yards. The load on his back was heavy. He looked behind and saw a second line walking into the barrage in no man’s land. They were hurled up like waves breaking backwards into the sea. Bodies were starting to pile and clog the progress.  \nThere was a man beside him missing part of his face, but walking in the same dreamlike state, his rifle pressing forward. His nose dangled and Stephen could see his teeth through the missing cheek. The noise was unlike anything he had heard before. It lay against his ski","cbCaisVK63JKLfST","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaisVK63JKLfST","pdf",131920,"English","# Unseen extract: Birdsong\n## Summary of context\n## Sample question focus: significance of slaughter\n## Extract text passages\n## Copyright and reprint information","[{\"question\":\"What war setting is described in the extract?\",\"answer\":\"The extract describes the first day of the Battle of the Somme, framed through Stephen’s experiences in World War I.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the extract portray Stephen’s state of mind during the advance?\",\"answer\":\"It presents a shift from physical tension and fear to a dreamlike detachment where Stephen feels floating, as if he has less control over his own body.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the sample question asking the reader to focus on?\",\"answer\":\"The question asks for an exploration of the significance of slaughter in the extract, including detailed analysis of how Faulks shapes meaning.\"}]","Birdsong - Extract 5 - Birdsong | PDF"]