2022 English Cedar Girls Sec MYE with ans

Section B Text 2 In the text below, a botanist saves a young girl from a snake in the Amazon. Read it carefully and answer Questions 5-15 in the Question Booklet. 1 Nathan Rand was on his way back to the village after an early morning of gathering medicinal plants when he heard her screams. He dropped his specimen bag and ran to her aid. As he sprinted, he shrugged his short -barreled shotgun from his shoulder. When alone in the jungle, one always carried a weapon. Before him, a boundless s ea of green spread to the horizon in all directions. It was as if the entire world were just forest. The only breaks in the featureless expanse of the continuous canopy were the occasional giant trees that poked their leafy crowns above their brethren, gre at monsters of the forest that served as nesting sites for birds. Otherwise, the jungle remained supreme, impenetrable, endless. 5 2 He pushed through a fringe of dense foliage and finally spotted the snake and the girl. Its black scales shone wetly. It must have been lurking under the surface when the girl had come to collect water from the river. Biting his lip, he searched through his weapon’s sight. He had no clean shot, not with the child wrapped in the muscular coils of the predator. 10 3 He tossed his shotgun aside and reached for the machete at his belt. Unhitching the weapon, Nathan lunged forward but as he neared, the snake rolled and pulled the girl under the black waters of the river. Her screams ended and bubbles followed her course. Without thinking Nathan dove in after her. Holding his breath, he searched through the muddy waters and spotted the surge of coils ahead. A pale limb waved. With a kick of his legs, he reached out to the small hand, snatching it up in his large grip. Small fingers clutched his in desperation. 15 20 4 Then the dark waters swirled, and he found himself staring into the red eyes of the giant snake. It had sensed the challenge to its meal. Its black maw opened and struck at him, jaws snapped like a vice onto his arm. Tough its bite was non -poisonous, the pressure threatened to crush Nathan’s wrist. Ignoring the pain and his own mounting panic, he brought his other arm around, aiming for the snake’s eyes with his machete. The giant anaconda rolled in the water, throwing Nathan to the silty bottom and pinning him. Nathan felt the air squeezed from his lungs as four hundred pounds of scaled muscle trapped him. He struggled and fought but he found no purchase in the slick river mud. The girl’s fingers were torn from his grip as the coils churned her away from him. 25 30 5 His abandoned his machete and pushed with his hands against the weight of the snake’s bulk. His shoulders sank into the soft muck of the riverbed, but still he pushed. For every coil he shoved aside, another would take its place. His arms weakened and his lungs screamed for air. Nathan Rank knew in this moment that he was doomed – and he was not particularly surprised. He knew it would happen one day. It was his destiny, the curse of his family. 35 6 But as Nathan remembered the heartbreak of losing his father, rage flamed through

his chest. Cursed or not, he refused to follow in his father’s foot – steps. He would not allow himself simply to be s wallowed by the jungle without a trace. Screaming out the last of the trapped air in his chest, Nathan shoved the anaconda’s bulk off his legs. Freed for a moment, he swung his feet under him sinking into the mud up to his ankles, and shoved straight up. His head burst from the river, and he gulped a breath of fresh air then was dragged by his arm back under the dark water. This time, Nathan did not fight the strength of the snake. Holding the clamped wrist to his chest, he twisted into the coils, managing to get a choke hold around the neck of the snake with his other arm. With the beast trapped, Nathan dug his left thumb into the snake’s nearest eye. The snake writhed, tossing Nathan momentarily out of the water, then slamming him back down. He held tight. 40 45 7 He bent his trapped wrist enough to drive his other thumb into the snake’s remaining eye. He pushed hard on both sides, praying his basic training in reptile physiology proved true. Pressure 45 on the eyes of a snake should trigger a gag reflex via the optic nerve. He pressed harder, his heartbeat thudding in his ears. Suddenly the pressure on his wrist released, and Nathan found himself flung away with such force that he half sailed out of the river and hit the riverbank with his shoulder. He twisted around and saw a pale from float to the surface of the river, facedown in midstream. 50 8 As he had hoped, the visceral reflex of the snake had released both prisoners.

3 Section C Text 3 The article below is coral and the colour associated with it. Read it carefully and answer Questions 16- 22 in the Question Booklet. 1 The colour forecasters at Pantone 1 declared Living Coral the colour of 2019. In its press release, the company described t his orangey pink hue as ‘vibrant, yet mellow’, providing ‘warmth’ and ‘comport’, being ‘full of life’. Reading the bitterly ironic release is a bit disconcerting, considering the continued annihilation we are inflicting on this organism and the small animals that live in coral reefs. 5 2 Coral may be that year’s official colour, but its history stretches a good way back. The ancient Greeks did not view coral as a living thing: to them coral wa as dead as stone. Since then, our understanding of coral has grown by leaps and bounds. The Romans figured that coral was not a stone, and in the first century AD Pliny the Elder suggested that coral belonged to a group with sea nettles and sea sponges, ‘neither animals nor plants, but possessed of a third nature’. In the early eleventh century Persian scientist and scholar Al-Biruni observed that coral is responsive, as it shied away from the graze of a hand. In the eighteenth century, William Herschel examined coral cells under a microscope, saw that the cells did not look like plant cells – they lacked a thick membrane –and deduced that coral was an animal. A colourful, mysterious animal, but animal nonetheless. 10 15 3 For most of human history man has used coral for jewellery as much as we used emeralds, wood, and ivory. The favoured colour for European jewellers has always been that vivid orangey pink. While coral exists in many shades, we often associate it most strongly with tha t juicy hue which falls somewhere between the shade of a ripe papaya and a summer watermelon. This breed of coral is called Corallium rubrum, primarily found in the Mediterranean but also along the coasts of Japan and Taiwan, growing in sea caves and shallow straits. In the wild, coral looks matte - it is only after being polished by human hands that it develops its characteristic shine. 20 4 People have been harvesting coral for thousands of years. A somewhat ubiquitous substance, the animal thrives in areas where the sea is warm, clear, and salty. Even though coral reefs only cover 0.1% of the earth’s surface, their undulating multi - coloured surface has inspired legends and myths around the globe, from India to Italy. In Hindu astrology, coral is associated with Mars, and jewellery made from the gem is supposed to help the wearer triumph over anxiety and adversity. Coral features in numerous H awaiian myths, and is traditionally associated with Kane the god of procreation. The Shinto sea god, Ryujin, was said to reside in an underwater palace made of delicately carved coral. Pliny the Elder believed coral helped protect men against the machinati ons of temptresses. In Christian tradition coral is said to symbolize the blood of Christ. Contemporary New Age types still recommend coral for enhancing fertilit