 Hello and welcome to a summary of all you need to know about Emma Levine's text A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat. Now I'm going to read through and explain this text in depth and the version that I will read is what appears in the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE anthology which is an extract taken from her novel which goes by the same name. Now as I read through the extract I'll explain the meaning related to this text, language devices that you need to be aware of as well as other helpful information that you need to understand if you're writing about this text for your coursework or for exams. So let's begin. Now do you remember that this text is taken from a novel with the same name and it's based on Levine's travels throughout Asia where she was researching and filming unusual sports. So in this passage she writes about a donkey race in Karachi which is in Pakistan. So what I'll do is I'll read through different sections of the text and then pause every so often to talk through the language techniques. So let's begin. We drove off to find the best viewing spot which turned out to be the crest of the hill so we could see the approaching race. Ask the lads if we could join in the wacky races and follow the donkeys and they loved the idea. We'll open the car boot. You climb inside and point your camera towards the race as the donkeys overtake us. We'll join the cars. But will you try and get to the front? Oh yes that's no problem. The two lads who'd never been interested in this Karachi sport were suddenly fired up with enthusiasm. We waited for eternity on the brow of the hill. Me perched on the boot with a zoom lens pointing out. Nearly one hour later I was beginning to feel rather silly when the only action was a villager on wobbly bicycle who nearly fell off as he cycled past and gazed around at us. Several vehicles went past and some donkey carts carrying spectators. Are they coming? We called out to them. Coming, coming came the reply. I was beginning to lose faith in this happening but the lads remained confident. Just as I was assuming that the race had been cancelled we spotted two approaching donkey carts in front of a cloud of fumes and dust created by some 50 vehicles roaring up in their wake. As they drew nearer Yakub revved up the engine and began to inch the way the car out of the lay-by. The two donkeys were almost dwarfed by their entourage but there was no denying their speed. The Kibla donkey is said to achieve speeds of up to 40 kilometers per hour and this looked close. The two were neck and neck. The jockies perched on top of the tiny carts using the wisps energetically although not crawly. Now this opening is really interesting and there's a lot of humor and of course this basically describes her viewing and of course waiting initially for a donkey race to occur. So she begins by repeating the first personal plural pronoun we and the repetition of this pronoun makes it almost seem like a group adventure between her and the two men that are accompanying her. Furthermore she then uses a superlative best to really set up the scene for us. As we're reading from the outset we expect that something's going to happen immediately that even in the best viewing spot so they're going to capture it so we're really excited. This of course reflects the excitement that the author Emma Levine fills herself. Furthermore she speaks using a very conversational register. She uses colloquial language like clads and do remember colloquial language is informal language. What this does is it adds a very disarming tone to the text and it makes it really relatable. Furthermore she mentions wacky races. Now of course in our minds we sometimes attribute races to cars especially sports cars and this reference is a play on words referring to an old and very popular cartoon where there were lots of different characters racing on cars but also on jets. However we wouldn't really associate this type of race with donkeys. Furthermore she's told that she's going to enter the car boot. This is an interesting common noun. Again we start wondering what is this wacky race and we realize that this race is between donkeys animals that we would not expect so of course this already makes us realize that culturally this is a very different experience and of course this is also really intriguing it totally goes against what we would anticipate. Also she's told to climb inside the car boot and point her camera towards the race and this imperative sentence makes us realize that this race is going to be a curious one. Again this builds up the tension it builds up the anticipation. We're really interested and quite intrigued especially if we are not very familiar with these types of racing. Again there's a repetition of the two lads. This is repeated as I mentioned before it adds a colloquial tone it makes it kind of adds a playful and fun element to this text. Then the pre-modifier Karachi to describe this sport not only tells us about the region that she's in which of course is Pakistan but we then also anticipate that this sport is going to have a very different angle on a different element to it. Also she mentions how there were suddenly fired up and they waited for an eternity and both these hyperbolic language shows the impatience and the excitement that she feels but also of course everybody that's spectating feels to witness this race. She then mentions we waited for eternity on the bar of the hill me perched in the boot with a zoom lens pointing out. Now this complex sentence is fairly slow and it builds up our interest our anticipation not only is she in the best viewing spot now she's perched perfectly ready with her camera to witness this chase and so we're really rearing to see what's going to happen next. However we're let down when we realize that all she sees for now is the villager on a wobbly bicycle and the indefinite article a coupled with the adjective wobbly to describe the villagers bicycle really adds humor it's such a let down initially after we're so pumped up to see what's going to happen this is of course the opposite of a race. The villager also gazes at them he's bemused and of course this verb is quite humorous it shows that actually these also these people very misplaced maybe the author at this stage feels very self-conscious she feels a little bit silly. Then she's told that they will still be coming so she asks they call out to different people and the repetition of this word and of course these clipped sentences show that they are very impatient and of course it's because they know how this goes she's not very aware of how these races pan out but they are just basically telling her to just be patient this race is going to occur. Then there's this contrast between Levine's own feelings so she says I was beginning to lose faith however this is in contrast to how the lads remained confident and of course this contrast between her pessimism and the optimism shows of course she's seen this through a western lens she's not necessarily used to seeing these types of races and so she's really pessimistic it hasn't started on time therefore it's not going to happen however this is the contrast to the people who of course native to that region that know how this goes and she just needs to be a bit more patient. Then again they spot suddenly there's a change of course here and they spot these donkey carts approaching and again just as I mentioned before the mention of these donkeys who are racing this shows that there's a huge cultural gap between what we expect of a race. In our minds we would think a race maybe involves cars or some kind of mechanized technology however donkey carts is far more rudimentary and of course this is interesting it's very different. Furthermore these donkeys are in front of a cloud of fumes and dusts and now there's a lot of sudden action this vivid imagery shows just how frenzied the activity is and then she tells us that there's some 50 vehicles roaring and the onomatopoeia roaring now creates this sudden sense of excitement of course this is a contrast to the villager who's on his wobbly bicycle. Furthermore we're told that Yacoub who's the driver he revs his engine and of course this dramatic verb now shows that everything's picking up and Levine who's in the boot of course not necessarily the safest position she's now going to be filming this as Yacoub drives and she's going to be capturing this inside the boot of the vehicle. Again there's a mention of the two donkeys and here as you can see from the beginning of the passages constant reference back to the donkeys this is an aphora so we really it really makes us realise that this is going to be a very different type of race and it's a race between two donkeys and then we learn more specifically that they're called the Kibla donkey they're a type of donkey species and she uses her statistics to tell us that actually this donkey is really speedy it runs up to 40 kilometers per hour of course this goes against what we would assume of donkeys which sometimes seem to be very passive we call them beasts of burden but actually here it's the opposite they're very very quick very sporty and they're used for races she also uses the idiom neck and neck to now show just how exciting this race is we're not sure who the clear winner is we're now witnessing these donkeys as they approach and then speed past her so let's carry on with the rest of the passage the noise of the approaching vehicles grew horns tooting bells ringing and the special rattles used just for this purpose like maracas a metal container filled with dried beans men standing on top of the cars and vans hanging out of the taxes and personal lorries all cheered and shouted while the vehicles jostled to get to the front of the convoy Yaqub chose exactly the right moment to edge out of the road and swerve in front of the nearest car finding the perfect place to see the two donkeys and at the front of the vehicles this was formula one without rules or a city centre rush hour gone a gnar kick a complete flouting of every type of traffic for all in common sense our young driver relished this unusual test of his driving skills it was a survival of the fittest and depended upon the ability to cut in front of a vehicle with a shop flick of the steering wheel no lane discipline hair quick reflexes to spot a gap in the traffic for a couple of seconds nervous of steel and an effective horn there were two races the motorized spectators of the back in front the two donkeys still running close and amazingly not put off by the uproar behind them ahead of the donkeys oncoming traffic for it was a main road had to dive into the ditch and wait there and toward past Yaqub loved it we stared near to the front his hand permanently on the horn and his language growing more colorful with every vehicle that tried to cut in front the road straightened and leveled and everyone picked up speed as we near the end of the race but just as they were reaching the finishing line the hospital gate there was a near pile up as the leading donkeys swerved lost his footing and he and the cart tumbled over the race was over now here there's a lot of onomatopoeia so when we learned that the horns are tooting bells are ringing this onomatopoeia tooting and ringing really creates excitement there's now suddenly this frenzied activity and then the simile like maracas again this is really relatable and now creates a really vivid image in our minds and of course the narrator Emma Levine is proven wrong of course she was very very impatient initially and then she was told to be patient now the race has suddenly started also there is a semantic field of vehicles here so cars, vans, taxis, lorries and ironically they're not the ones that are racing they're just following and keeping up with the donkeys to see which donkey is going to win now we find that there's such a crush of activity and the vehicles are personified to show just how intensely competitive this race is people really justing for space in their cars but of course also of course there's an element of danger because it's really dangerous for so many cars to be so crowded together as if chasing and you know running after these donkeys to see which donkey wins on top of that we learned that yakuza now the person that's driving the car that the narrator is in he edges out and swerves and there's this contrast in the slow verb edge out versus a rapid verb swerve so again there's this contrast and activity suddenly he goes from being very stationary to suddenly swerving out again he wants to make sure that Levine sees all of the action furthermore we're told that this was formula one without the rules and this metaphor shows just how dangerous the race is but equally of course how exciting it is and when she likens this to city centre rush hour gone anarchic the alliteration city centre and hyperbole anarchic shows just how crazy the activity was once this race started Levine also uses Darwinian language it was the survival of the fittest showing just how adrenaline filled this event was moreover there's a mention of how this really depended on the ability of drivers to cut in front of one vehicle over another showing really how dangerous the driving was and actually the driving was far more dangerous and of course the donkeys themselves and the parenthesis and parenthesis is just a fancy way of saying brackets here the parenthesis adds humour so it's Levine's own internal monologue and it refers to the UK driving rules so of course when you're driving in the UK you have to have lane discipline you can even get a ticket if you're not in the correct lane but of course this is humorous because this is the complete opposite there's no lane discipline there's just everyone on the roads including animals racing also she uses very cliched idiomatic words such as nerves of steel to show of course just how scary this race can be it's not for the faint hearted and she then uses a declarative sentence there were two races the motorized spectators the back in front of the two donkeys still running close and amazingly not put off by the uproar just behind them this really builds a detailed picture in our minds as the readers of how really crowded this place was how much activity there was but equally this is really really intriguing and very exciting especially if this is something that one is not used to seeing every day furthermore there's a mention of the oncoming traffic and again so essentially the donkeys are racing towards the oncoming traffic there's going to be a head on collision and this is really dangerous and shocking for us and of course for some people they would say that this is maybe violating the donkey's animal rights furthermore there's a lot of alliteration used dive ditch his hand and horn highlighting and really adding to the chaos of this scene and this is in contrast however to the simple sentence yakuube loved it what this shows is one of the drivers and of course the main driver yakuube he loves this adrenaline he really loves just how crazy everything is and everything that's happening around him furthermore we learned that yakuube's language grows more colorful and this is a euphemism essentially it's saying that as he's driving and of course trying to dodge different cars he's swearing more and more and more and again this is levine's way of just adding a touch of humor to her writing furthermore it's really ironic that this really dangerous sport ends at the hospital gate so of course there's this humor and this touch of irony added that this really dangerous sport of course it will be very apt for it to end at the hospital if anybody got injured at least they're quite close to the hospital to get healed and the simple sentence the race was over really emphasizes again the sudden nature of how everything all boils up and starts really quickly and then suddenly dies down out of nowhere and of course this is probably what adds to the excitement of this type of race and then the trouble began i assumed the winner was the one who completed the race but it was not seen that way by everyone apart from the two jockeys and officials who it turned out were actually monitoring the race there were over a hundred punters who had all staked money on the race and therefore had strong opinions some were claiming that the donkey had fallen because the other one had been ridden too close to him voices were raised fists were out and tempers were rising everyone gathered around one jockey and official while the bookmakers were trying to insist that the race should be rerun yukub and ikbal were nervous of hanging around a volatile situation they agreed to find out for me what's happening ordering me to stay inside the car as they were swallowed up by the crowd they emerged some time later they're still not resolved said ikbal but starting to get nasty i think we should leave as we drove away yukub reflected on his driving skills i really enjoyed that he said i was drove off at a more sedate pace but i don't even have my license yet because i'm underage they both found this hilarious but i was glad he hadn't told me before an inexperienced underage driver causing a massive pile up in the middle of the high stakes donkey race could have caused problems so of course how she ends this passage is really really funny very humorous and really really interesting so our interest as readers is really held throughout this passage so the simple sentence and then the travel began this of course changes the tone and there's a sudden increase in tension it goes from being this crazy race where it's really entertaining suddenly people are starting to argue furthermore she uses inverted commas to refer to the officials and of course there's a mocking undercone tone because she's describing these people who of course are the ones who are also creating this argument and this disagreement also here the parenthesis shows that this race was really high stakes these so-called officials as well as lots and lots of other people were really monitoring this race it wasn't simply for fun as she had initially assumed actually there's also a lot of money riding on it also she talks about over a hundred punters who had staked money and there's a lot of gambling lexics lexics is just a fancy way of saying words so for example you've got punters you've got money but even in line 49 bookmakers all of this is just gambling language and it shows many people in this region make profits based on this sport and of course which donkey wins then the tricholon voices were raised fists were out and tempers were rising shows how emotions are running high because people of course want to win some money now here we learn about the names of both drivers of course she makes constant reference to yukub however we don't know the name of the other lad that was with her and so the proper nouns yukub and ikbal now make reference to the two people that were accompanying levine throughout this journey furthermore the adjective volatile really emphasizes how suddenly it's shifted from being this quiet place to a crazy place with lots and lots of sports and donkeys running and now it's again shifted to being a really dangerous situation people are about to fight and this shows just how things can really rapidly change in the region that she's in furthermore she talks she refers to the collective noun crowd to talk about how yukub and ikbal disappear into this group of people who are arguing and again this shows that she's in a kind of scary position as she's waiting in the boot also she she uses a stative verb to talk about how yukub is reflecting on his driving schools he feels really proud of it and we think oh wow this is great because he's a driver but then we then realize this exclamatory sentence tells us that actually he doesn't even have a license let alone being a driver which is quite hilarious of course this is very dangerous position for him to be in but it's meant to kind of add to even more the colorful environment and just how different this place is from what levine is used to she then uses the pre-modifies to emphasize just how dangerous yukub was being because he's inexperienced and underage so these pre-modifies again it does in many ways also emphasize how vastly different life in karachi is perhaps maybe there aren't as stringent rules relating to maybe driving of course there probably are rules that he's breaking but he's able to do so in a way that maybe he might not be able to get away with in different countries however what this does she doesn't necessarily make it too heavy she still makes light of it and what she's doing is really adding like a very playful tone and she ends with the euphemism this could have caused problems and of course you've also got the litteration of could and caused this euphemism ends on a touch of humor which shows of course if he didn't know what he was doing even in spite being experienced and underage of course this could have caused problems because it could have caused a car crash however he was very skilled so of course this isn't the first time that yukub maybe has been driving and levine just seems to have found this experience really interesting and entertaining and of course we as readers find this entertaining and the constant humor that's really underlying the tone of this article makes this article really really intriguing for us as readers so that's all if you found this video useful do make sure you visit our website which is there you will find lots of useful revision materials if you're studying this and indeed any other extract in the edexcel person anthology thank you so much for listening