2022 4E MYE Maris Stella

Class Index Number Name MARIS STELLA HIGH SCHOOL MID YEAR EXAMINATION SECONDARY FOUR ENGLISH LANGUAGE 1128/02 Paper 2 Comprehension 28 April 2022 INSERT 1 hour 50 minutes READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST This insert contains Text 1, Text 2 and Text 3. Answer all questions for Section A, Section B and Section C in the Question Booklet provided. At the end of the examination, submit separately: • Insert • Question Booklet This document consists of 5 printed pages including the cover page.

Section A [5 marks] Text 1 Refer to webpage below and answer Questions 1-4 in the Question Booklet. The Food Bank Singapore is recruiting junior Foodbankers aged 5 to 12 to encourage volunteerism from a young age! Ad – hoc volunteering opportunities and activities are held every quarter during the school holidays for children aged 5 to 12 years old. Click here to register your child as a Junior Foodbanker now! Warehouse Section The children will have a tour of Food Bank’s warehouse and assist in sorting, packing or taking inventory of the donations. Through this activity, the children will get to learn about identifying food categories, expiry learn about identifying food categories expiry labels and how our warehouse operates. Food Dis tribution through our Joy in Every Bundle Programme The children will assist in packing individual food bundles and distributing them to the homes of beneficiaries. Through this activity, the children will get to learn more about our beneficiary organisations, experience distributing food to those in need and understand their living conditions. LET’S END FOOD INSECURITY TOGETHER!

Section B [20 marks] Text 2 The text below describes the harrowing journey towards freedom of a Polish officer and his team. Read the text carefully and answer Questions 5-14 in the Question Booklet. 1 Two days without water in the hillocky, sand covered, August furnace of the Gobi Desert and I felt the first fluttering of fear. The early rays of the sun hit the tops of the billowing dunes and threw sharp shadows across the deep sanded floors of the intervening little valleys. Jitters came with small fast -beating wings and was suppressed as we sucked pebbles and dragged our feet on to make maximum distance before the blinding heat of noon. From time to time, one or other of us would climb one of the endle ss knolls and look south to see the same deadly landscape stretching to the horizon, Alarm about our position must have been very loud but no one voice it, the heat enveloped us, sucking the moisture from our bodies, putting ankle – irons of lethargy on our legs. Each one of us walked with his and her own thoughts and non spoke, dully concentrating on placing one foot ahead of the other interminably. 5 10 2 As we still walked in the rays of the setting sun the fear hit me again. It was, of course, the fundamental, most oppressive fear of all – that we should die here in the burning wilderness. I struggled against a panicky impulse to urge a return the way we had come, back to water and green things and life. I fought it down. We flopped against a tall dune and the cold stars came out to look at us, Our bone - weariness should have ensured the sleep of exhaustion but, tortured with thirst, one after another twisted restlessly, rose, wandered around and came back. 15 3 Some time after midnight I suggested we start off again to take advantage of the cool conditions. We hauled ourselves upright and began again the trudge south. It was much easier going. We rested a couple of hours after dawn and still the southerly prospect remained unalt ered. After this one trial there were no more night marches. Makowski stopped it. “can you plot your course by the stars?” he asked me. The others turned haggard faces toward me. I paused before answering, “Not with complete certainty,” I confessed. “Can any of us?” he persisted, No one spoke. “Then we could have been walking in circles all through the night,” he said heavily. 20 25 4 I sensed the awful dismay his words had caused, I protested that I was sure we had not veered off course, that the rising sun had proved us still to be facing south. But in my own mind, even as I argued, I had to admit the possibility that Makowski was right. Yet, I am sure I was right. In any case, the seed of doubt had been sown and we just could not afford to add anything to the already heavy burden of apprehension. So we went on through the shimmering stillness. Not even a faint zephyr of air came up to disperse the fine dust hanging almost unseen above the desert. 30 35 5 On the afternoon of the sixth day, I found to my faint surprise and irritation I was on my knees. I thought ….. like a man at prayer. I got up, No one had slackened pace

for me. They probably hardly noticed my stumble. It seemed to take me a very long time to regain my position at the head again. Others were falling, too, I noticed from time to time. The knees gave and they knelt there a few unbelieving seconds until realization came that they had ceased to be mobile. They came on again, There was no dropping out. These were the signs of growing, strength – sapping weakness, but it would have been fatal to have acknowledged them for what they were. They were the probing fingers of death and we were not ready to die yet. 40 45 Adapted from ‘The Long walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom’ by Slavomir Rawicz

Section C Text 3 The article is about unstructured play or free play for children. Read it carefully and answer Questions 15-20 in the Question Booklet. 1 Nothing is as natural as a child at play. Left alone, young children will launch into imaginary play, inventing characters and stories. Put together with peers, children will almost instinctually organize games and activities. It is so important to the wel l- being of children that the United Nations recognizes it as a fundamental human right, on par with the rights to shelter and education. 5 2 Yet today, play is something of an endangered activity among American children. A 2011 article from the Am erican Journal of Play notes that children’s free, unscheduled playtime has been declining steadily over the past half – century. When children play, it is more likely to be highly structured - think playdates and enrichment classes. One reason for the decl ine in free play is the ever -increasing control over children’s activities exerted by adults. As even elementary schools come under greater and greater pressure to have their students score well on standardized tests, break time has been increasingly reduc ed. In 1990, students in elementary schools had at least 45 minutes for recess. Yet just a decade later, that was reduced to only 30 minutes. Over the same period, 89% of schools extended school hours by at least an hour. In an increasingly competitive wou ld, there is less time for a child to be a child; that is, free, unstructured play does not have the payoff that another lesson or remedial class would. At least, that was what school officials thought then. Today, experts believe these changes have had lasting and negative effects on children. Over the same years that recess and playtime have declined, there have been increases in major depression, anxiety and suicide rate. 10 15 20 3 Scientists have learned that free play is not just something children like to do – it is something they need to do. Play keeps children physically active, all the more important at a time when some 20% of American children are obese – more than triple the percentage form the more play- friendly 1970s, Early activity habits matter: a 2005 study found that the most active 9 - to 18 – year- olds remained the most active later in life. More than anythi