Question pretext
Read the passage and answer to the questions.
A Frightening Story
Someone asked Mr Johnson why his neighbours were angry with him. 'It wasn't my fault,' he said. 'They told me their children liked exciting stories. I told them my best stories, but these didn't excite them at all, so then I thought of my old friend, Bayoh. He lived in East Africa for a time. I knew he had some good stories about animals or people in that part of Africa. He said these stories were all true. I didn't think his stories were frightening. Anyway, my neighbours' children were all nine, ten or eleven years old, so I was sure he couldn't frighten them. '
'Well, I was wrong.' Mr Johnson went on. 'I brought Bayoh to their house and he said, "I'll tell you a story about a lion. It's a true story, because it happened to me. You see, this lion came out of the long grass and started to follow me. It moved very slowly. It was a hot day, so perhaps it didn't want to move quickly. Or perhaps it knew it didn't have to. I couldn't get away from it by walking or running."
"Why not?" the children asked. Bayoh laughed. "Because lions can run, too," he said. "Very fast. In fact, twice as fast as men. Walking gave me more time to think.
"Then I saw a hole in the cliffs behind me. A cave! Shall I go in, I wondered? Perhaps it will get narrower and narrower as I go in, until the lion isn't able to follow me. Maybe I can lose the lion inside. And if there is no way out? Well, I'll see if I'm lucky."
"So I went into the cave. And the lion followed me. It was dark inside, so I couldn't see the lion any more, but I could smell it. The smell got stronger as I went deeper into the cave. Then I knew where I was. The cave was the lion's den!"
The children listened carefully, but they still weren't frightened. They knew that somehow or other Bayoh had escaped. After all, he was alive, and there with them now in the room. I didn't know what was coming next, either.
"Then," said Bayoh, "I came to a wall of rock. The lion was very close to me now. I turned round to face it. There was no escape now."
"So what happened?" asked one of the children.
"It ate me," Bayoh whispered quietly. "My ghost is telling you this story!" '
'And do you know,' Mr Johnson ended, 'The neighbours blamed me because their children were frightened! I ask you, was that fair?'