Ratburger KS3 Quiz (With Answers)

Q1 of 30

What is Zoe's home situation?

• She is in foster care after her mother's death
• She lives alone with her father who struggles to cope
• She lives with her father and unpleasant stepmother Sheila
• She lives with her grandmother after losing both parents

Q2 of 30

How does Zoe come to own a rat?

• She buys one with money she has saved
• She is given one by a classmate
• She finds one injured in the street
• She secretly keeps one of the rats that live in their block of flats

Q3 of 30

Who is Burt and why is he dangerous?

• A boy at school who becomes Zoe's unlikely ally
• A pest controller hired by the council
• A school bully who targets Zoe
• A sinister burger van owner who catches and uses rats as ingredients

Q4 of 30

What hidden talent does Zoe's rat display?

• He solves puzzles faster than any animal
• He can street dance to music
• He can navigate any maze perfectly
• He can mimic human speech

Q5 of 30

What does Zoe use the rat's talent for?

• She enters him in a television talent show
• She teaches other rats to dance too
• She sells videos of him online
• She charges pupils money to watch him perform after school

Q6 of 30

What does Zoe's relationship with the rat represent for her?

• The love, loyalty and joy that is entirely absent from every other part of her life
• A distraction from her real problems
• An unhealthy obsession that stops her making friends
• A responsibility that teaches her about caring for others

Q7 of 30

What does Burt's burger van represent in the story?

• The hidden violence beneath ordinary life and the exploitation of those who cannot fight back
• A realistic detail about inner-city communities
• The poor quality of food available in deprived areas
• How animals are exploited for profit

Q8 of 30

How does Walliams portray Sheila?

• As genuinely threatening to Zoe's safety
• As a complex character with her own difficult backstory
• As a woman overwhelmed by the demands of family life
• As a comic grotesque

Q9 of 30

What name does Zoe give her rat?

• Fluffy — ironically because it is the opposite
• Armitage — because it sounds grand and dignified
• Ratty — because it is simple and she has no imagination
• Sheila — after her stepmother as a joke

Q10 of 30

What does 'Ratburger' suggest about childhood poverty?

• That society fails children like Zoe
• That humour is the best way to cope with poverty
• That poor children always find a way to succeed through hard work
• That even in the hardest circumstances, love and loyalty

Q11 of 30

What does Sheila spend most of her time doing?

• Working a night shift and sleeping in the day
• Watching television and eating crisps while Zoe does all the housework
• Gambling at the local bingo hall
• Gossiping with neighbours while Zoe is at school

Q12 of 30

Why is Burt's van particularly sinister despite looking ordinary?

• It is always parked near schools and playgrounds
• It is never parked in the same place twice
• The smell from it is so strong it can be sensed from streets away
• What appears to be a normal food van conceals the processing of captured rats for burgers

Q13 of 30

How does Zoe keep the rat secret from Sheila?

• She trains it to stay completely silent and still when adults are nearby
• She gives it to a friend to look after during the day
• She keeps it in a shoebox under her bed with air holes
• She hides it inside a hollowed-out book

Q14 of 30

What does Zoe's care for her rat show about her character?

• That looking after something small helps her feel in control
• That she is capable of deep love and devotion despite receiving very little of either herself
• That she is irresponsible for keeping a wild animal
• That she uses the rat as a substitute for friends she cannot make

Q15 of 30

What is the significance of the television talent show in the story?

• It is Walliams's comment on the shallowness of reality television
• It represents Zoe's first real hope
• It is purely a plot device to advance the story
• It shows that animal talent shows exploit animals just as Burt does

Q16 of 30

How does Walliams use the setting of a tower block to explore themes of poverty and social disadvantage?

• All children in tower blocks are unhappy
• The tower block is background, and
• Tower blocks are irrelevant
• The cramped, difficult conditions of the tower block establish Zoe's social vulnerability and show how poverty limits choices and makes children like Zoe more exposed to exploitation

Q17 of 30

What does Zoe's love for Armitage suggest about the human need for connection and companionship?

• It shows she prefers animals to people
• She is too attached to an animal
• Even in a deeply isolating environment with an absent father and hostile stepmother, Zoe finds love and purpose through Armitage
• Rats are good pets

Q18 of 30

How does Walliams use the character of Burt to make a dark point about exploitation and predatory behaviour towards vulnerable communities?

• Burt is a funny villain, and
• Burt specifically targets a poor neighbourhood, exploiting people who cannot afford to question cheap food
• All burger sellers are dishonest
• Burt is an unrealistic villain

Q19 of 30

What role does Zoe's father play in the novel, and what does his depression suggest about the impact of poverty on adult wellbeing?

• Depression is not a real problem
• He is a bad father
• His depression and unemployment show how poverty can break adults as well as children
• He is irrelevant irrelevant

Q20 of 30

How does Walliams make Zoe a sympathetic but active protagonist rather than a passive victim of her circumstances?

• Zoe is passive throughout
• Despite genuine hardship, Zoe shows resourcefulness, love and courage
• Zoe gets lucky, and
• Her teacher solves everything, a reading that locates the novel's meaning in its historical and personal context rather than in its literary structure

Q21 of 30

What might Armitage the rat represent symbolically in the context of Zoe's difficult life?

• He is just a pet
• He represents Zoe's eccentricity, a reading that locates the novel's meaning in its historical and personal context rather than in its literary structure
• Rats are not symbolic
• Armitage represents joy, agency and something precious that belongs entirely to Zoe

Q22 of 30

How does the novel use comedy about disgusting food to engage young readers while exploring serious themes about food safety and exploitation?

• Walliams supports bad food hygiene
• The serious themes overwhelm the comedy
• Dark humour about rat burgers makes disturbing ideas about food contamination and exploitation accessible and entertaining for young readers, while still delivering a genuine moral critique
• The comedy is for fun, and

Q23 of 30

What does the stepmother character represent in the tradition of children's literature?

• She fits the archetype of the wicked stepmother
• All stepmothers are wicked
• The character is original with no literary tradition
• A realistic portrayal of stepmothers

Q24 of 30

How does the talent show sequence allow Walliams to explore the theme of unexpected talent and hidden worth?

• It is just exciting
• The talent show becomes a moment where the overlooked
• Talent shows are unrealistic
• the talent matters, not the symbolism, and

Q25 of 30

What does the resolution — Zoe exposing Burt on television — suggest about justice and the power of speaking out?

• The resolution is unrealistic
• Television always delivers justice, and
• The resolution shows that speaking out, even when you are small and powerless, can have enormous consequences
• Justice happens automatically, and

Q26 of 30

How does Walliams portray the relationship between Zoe and Miss Swallow to suggest the importance of just one caring adult in a child's life?

• Miss Swallow's recognition of Zoe's situation and genuine care shows that one attentive, kind adult can make a transformative difference to a vulnerable child's experience
• Miss Swallow interferes too much
• Teachers can't help with home problems
• Miss Swallow is not important

Q27 of 30

In what ways does Ratburger follow and subvert the Cinderella narrative?

• Fairy tales are irrelevant here
• It has nothing to do with Cinderella
• Like Cinderella, Zoe is a poor child with a wicked stepmother who triumphs
• Zoe is not like Cinderella at all

Q28 of 30

What does the novel suggest about the vulnerability of children in poverty to being exploited or overlooked by adult society?

• Poverty doesn't affect children's safety
• Zoe's situation shows how children in poverty can be invisible to protective systems and dangerously exposed to exploitation
• Children in poverty are resilient and need no help
• bad parents create vulnerable children, and

Q29 of 30

How does the choice of a rat — an animal considered disgusting by most people — as the hero's companion make a point about judging by appearances?

• Making a rat
• It is just a funny choice
• Rats are funny animals, and
• The choice was random

Q30 of 30

Ratburger was published in 2012. What contemporary anxieties about food, safety and poverty does it reflect?

• It has no contemporary relevance
• The novel is set in a fictional world, and
• These issues don't affect Britain
• Published during the horsemeat scandal era and rising food bank usage, the novel taps into genuine anxieties about food safety, corporate dishonesty and the vulnerability of the poor to exploitation