Johnny and Mick Explore a Wreck - City of London School 11+
Source passage
At last they reached the edge of the reef and stood looking down into the gently heaving sea. The tide was still going out, and water was pouring off the exposed coral down hundreds of little valleys it had carved in living rock. There were large, deep pools here, open to the sea, and in them swam fish much bigger than any Johnny had seen before.
'Come along,' said Mick, adjusting his face mask. With scarcely a ripple, he slipped into the nearest pool, not even looking back to see if Johnny was following him.
Johnny hesitated for a moment, decided that he did not want to appear a coward, and lowered himself gingerly over the brittle coral. As soon as the water rose above his face mask, he forgot all his fears. The submarine world into which he had looked from above was even more beautiful, now that he was actually floating face down on the surface. He seemed like a fish himself, swimming in a giant aquarium, and able to see everything with crystal clarity through the window of his mask.
Very slowly, he followed Mick along the winding walls, between coral cliffs that grew farther and farther apart as they approached the sea. At first the water was only two or three feet deep; them quite abruptly, the bottom fell away almost vertically, and before Johnny realised what had
happened, he was in water twenty feet deep. He had swum off the great plateau of the reef, and was heading for the open sea.
For a moment he was really frightened. He stopped swimming and marked time in the water, looking back over his shoulder to check that safety was only a few yards behind him. Then he looked ahead once more - ahead and downwards.
It was impossible to guess how far he could see into the depths a hundred feet, at least. He was looking down a long steep slope that led into a realm completely different from the brightly lit colourful pools which he had just left. From a world sparkling with sunlight, he was staring into a blue, mysterious gloom. And far down in that gloom, huge shapes were moving back and forth in a stately dance.
'What are they?' he whispered to his companion.
'Groupers,' said Mick. 'Watch.' Then, to Johnny's alarm, he slipped beneath the surface and arrowed down into the depths, as swiftly and gracefully as any fish.
He became smaller and smaller as he approached those moving shapes, and they seemed to grow in size by comparison. When he stopped, perhaps fifty feet down, he was floating just above them. He reached out, trying to touch one of the huge fish, but it gave a flick of his tail and eluded him.
Mick seemed in no hurry to return to the surface, but Johnny had taken at least a dozen breaths while he was watching the performance. At last, to the great relief of his audience, Mick began to swim slowly upward, waving goodbye to the groupers as he did so.
'How big were those fish?' asked Johnny when Mick had popped out of the water and recovered his breath.
'Oh, only eighty, a hundred pounds. You should see the really big ones up north. My grandfather hooked an eight hundred-pounder off Cairns.'
'But you don't believe him,' grinned Johnny.
'But I do,' Mick grinned back. 'That time he had a photograph to show it.'
As they swam back to the edge of the reef, Johnny glanced down once more into the blue depths, with their coral boulders, their overhanging terraces, and the ponderous shapes swimming slowly among them. It was a world as alien as another planet, even though it was here on his own Earth.
And it was a world that, because it was so utterly strange, filled him with curiosity and fear.
Instructions and task
Having read Dolphin Island, imagine that Johnny and Mick have decided to return to the reef in order to explore a sunken ship which they have been told about.
Continue the story.
Instructions:
You should spend no more than 30 minutes on this section.
You do not have to finish the story.
You are being assessed on your ability to:
- Write using accurate sentences, including subordination
- Spell properly, and write with accurate punctuation and grammar
- Develop a realistic narrative
- Write engagingly to interest the reader, using metaphor, simile and personification where appropriate
Spend 5 minutes planning your writing in the box below:
💡 Writing Tips
- •
- Keep Johnny curious but aware of danger, as in the passage.
- •
- Describe the underwater wreck through his eyes.
- •
- Use realistic swimming and reef details.
- •
- Create one small discovery or surprise.
- •
- Do not rush to finish the entire adventure.
📝 Sample Answer
The next morning, Johnny and Mick returned to the reef with the sun shining through the clear water. A few yards beyond the familiar coral ledge, a dark shape lay across the seabed. It was the wreck they had heard about: a small fishing boat, resting on its side beneath a thin covering of sand.
'We stay near the surface,' Mick said. 'And we don't go inside.'
Johnny nodded, relieved that Mick was taking the expedition seriously. They swam slowly above the wreck. Fish darted through the broken railings, and strands of seaweed waved from the splintered mast like untidy ribbons. The sunlight made moving patterns on the cabin roof.
Johnny noticed a round brass fitting gleaming beneath a patch of coral. He pointed it out to Mick, who signalled for him to look but not touch. As they circled towards the bow, a cloud of sand rose suddenly from a gap in the hull. Something large had moved inside.
For a moment, Johnny froze. A shadow slid into the sunlight, followed by the broad, gentle shape of a sea turtle. It passed between them without a sound and vanished into the blue. Johnny grinned behind his mask. The wreck held secrets, but he was glad they had explored it carefully.
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