Part A

What inference can be drawn about Bilbo's character base on Chapter 3 of The Hobbit?


He is uncomfortable with the encounters on the journey.

He is confused about the goals of the expedition.

He doesn’t understand the danger of the outside world.

He is curious about the world around him.
Question 2
Part B

Which excerpts from Chapter 3 best support the answer in Part A?

Select the two correct answers.


"'Is that The Mountain?' asked Bilbo in a solemn voice, looking at it with round eyes. He had never seen a thing that looked so big before.

A. 'Of course not!' said Balin. 'That is only the beginning of the Misty Mountains, and we have got to get through, or over, or under those somehow, before we can come into Wilderland beyond. And it is a deal of a way even from the other side of them to the Lonely Mountain in the East where Smaug lies on our treasure.'"


B. “'Don’t dip your beard in the foam, father!' they cried to Thorin, who was bent almost on to his hands and knees. 'It’s long enough without watering it.' 'Mind Bilbo doesn’t eat all the cakes,' they called. 'He is too fat to get through key-holes yet.' 'Hush, hush. Good People! and goodnight!' said Gandolf, who came last. 'Valleys have ears, and some elves have over merry tongues. Good night!' And so at last they all came to the Last Homely House, and found its doors flung wide."

"'What are moon-letters?' asked the hobbit full of excitement. He loved maps, as I have told you before; and he also liked runes and letters and cunning handwriting, though when he wrote himself it was a bit thin and spidery.

C. 'Moon-letters are rune-letters, but you cannot see them,' said Elrond, 'not when you look straight at them. They can only be seen when the moon shines behind them, and what is more, with the more cunning sort it must be a moon of the same shape and season as the day when they were written.'"


D. "Bilbo never forgot the way they slithered and slipped in the dusk down the steep zig-zag path into the secret valley of Rivendell. The air grew warmer as they got lower, and the smell of the pine-trees made him drowsy, so that every now and again he nodded and nearly fell off, or bumped his nose on the pony’s neck. Their spirits rose as they went down and down."