There are a lot of new words in this chapter.
You will understand some words because they are similar to German words or words from another language which are used in German.
You will recognize new words whose meaning is clear to you because you know other words of the same word family and you have learned some word building rules.
Sometimes you will know the meaning of a word because you have learnt a similar word in another foreign language.
There will certainly also be words whose meaning you don't understand, but which are not really important for an understanding of the text.
Sometimes the context in which a word appears will give you clues to it meaning.
Only look up a word in a dictionary if you can't really guess the meaning of it and it is important to understand the story.

List of words in chapter 2.

Answer see solution site

Summarize this chapter in four or five sentences

Summary see solution site

Ten years later Harry speaks to the snake on Dudley's birthday at the zoo.

freedom - self-expression - rebirth

Ericthonius, the half snake man, son of Hephaestus and raised by Athena. He was King of Athens.

1. Mr Dursley

   He likes to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, the bank, motorbikes. He barks at Harry. He has got a new car.

2. Mrs Dursley

   She spoils her son Dudley very much. She has a shrill voice.

3. Dudley Dursley

   It is Dudley's birthday. He gets 39 presents as he is very spoiled. He gets everything he wants: a second television set etc., and it is never enough. He's very fat and Harry is Dudley's favourite punch-bag. He doesn't want Harry to come to the zoo.
   Dudley looks like a baby angel. He looks like his father and has a large, pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes and thick blond hair and a fat head. He's lazy; he watches TV all day and doesn't get any exercise.

4. Aunt Marge (mentioned)

   She sends Dudley a birthday present. She hates Harry.
   Info
   She's Vernon's sister. She likes Dudley.

5. Piers Polkiss

   He's Dudley's friend and is taken to the zoo on Dudley's birthday. He's a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He usually holds people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hits them.

6. Mrs Figg (mentioned)

   She babysits Harry on Dudley's birthday every year. But now she has broken her leg and can't look after Harry. She has got a lot of photographs, of all the cats she has ever had. She is a friend of the Dursleys and lives 2 streets away. Her house smells of cabbage. Harry hates her house.

7. Tibbles, Snowy, Mr Paws and Tufty (mentioned)

   They are Mrs Figg's cats.

8. Yvonne (mentioned)

   She is Mrs Dursley's friend. She is on holiday in Majorca and can't look after Harry.

9. Harry

   He sleeps in a cupboard under the stairs at the Dursleys'. He always wears Dudley's old clothes, which are much too big because he is small and skinny. He has a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair and bright-green eyes. He wears round glasses. He has a very thin scar on his forehead like a bolt of lightning. He thinks his parents died in a car crash - as he is always told - and that the scar is from that crash. He can't ask questions about his parents - as he is not allowed to. He can talk to the boa constrictor from Brazil and unwillingly frees him. He's laughed at for his clothes and Sellotaped glasses at school.

10. Dudley's gang (mentioned)

    They hate Harry.

11. A man, an old woman, a bold man (mentioned)

    They vanish the second Harry tries to look at them. They seem to come from the wizard world.

1. Dudley's home

   Dudley's home has changed over the last ten years. There are now photographs of Dudley as a large, blond boy. Ten years ago there were pictures of what looked like a pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bobble hats: the baby Dudley.

2. The zoo

   They visit the zoo on a sunny Saturday. There are a lot of families. There are gorillas they watch. They eat in the restaurant there. They visit the reptile house after their lunch. There are all sorts of lizards, snakes, cobras and pythons. Harry can talk to the boa constrictor from Brazil. The constrictor is freed by Harry.

1. Strange things happened during the first decade of Harry's life. What?
   
2. Which of the Dursleys' rules does Harry break and how is he punished?
   
3. Why does Harry empathize with the boa constrictor?
   
4. Why does Harry have dreams of flying motorbikes?
   
5. Where did Harry's scar come from? Where does he think it came from?
   
6. What are the two conflicts Dudley and Harry have in this chapter?
   
7. Explain: "Harry felt, afterwards, that he should have known it was all too good to last?
   
8. Why did the Dursleys hate "talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't"?
   
9. Why do his aunt and uncle treat Harry so badly? How do they treat Harry?

   Answers see solution site

J. K. Rowling uses wordplay in names: Piers Polkins, Dinky Duddydums, Dudley Dursley .

What is a fixed stare?
What does it mean to be "rooted to the spot"?
Explain the different meanings:

1. Harry woke with a start.
2. Dudley would start to throw a tantrum at almost anything.
3. When Dudley got mad he would scream.
4. Mrs Figg was a mad old lady.

Answers see solution site