YTSS Sec 4E5NA EL P2 Prelim 2020 Insert

NAME: ( ) CLASS: YISHUN TOWN SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH LANGUAGE (1128/02) SEC 4 EXPRESS / SEC 4 NORMAL ACADEMIC (EXPRESS) / SEC 5 NORMAL (ACADEMIC) PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION 2020 PAPER 2 COMPREHENSION DATE : 11 August 2020 DURATION : 1 hour 50 minutes READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST This Insert contains Text 1, Text 2 and Text 3. This document consists of 5 printed pages. [Turn over

2 Section A Text 1 Study the webpage below and answer Questions 1 –4 in the Question Booklet. TIME’S UP was born when women said, ‘Enough is Enough.’ Enough to favouritism at work. Enough to being paid less than we deserve. Enough to feeling unsafe and disempowered where we work. TIME’S UP insists upon a world where everyone is safe and respected at work. A world where women have an equal shot at success and security. A world where no one lives in fear of harassment or assault. Our work is bold, diverse, and solutions -oriented. Governments, businesses, and individuals all benefit from a world free from violence, discrimination, and barriers that hold women back. By working together, we can stand up for women’s rights at the workplace and end all the injustice. Time is up on the past. It’s time to build our future. We’re fighting for change in three key ways: Changing culture So harassment and inequality are no longer tolerated Changing companies So work is safe and equitable, everywhere Changing laws and policy So our rights are protected and expanded Join TIME’S UP NOW to fuel our fight for a world where everyone is safe and respected at work!

3 Section B Text 2 The text below is about two guards of a town named ‘Commonwealth’ which was under quarantine during a flu outbreak. Read the text carefully and answer Questions 5 –13 in the Question Booklet. 1 The road to Commonwealth was long and forbidding, stretching for miles and leading deep into the evergreen woods. The trees grew towards the cloudy skies , as if trying to reach the sun that teased them with its sparse rays. They loomed over the rock -strewn road like two warring armies perched on opposing cliffs. A few miles into the woods, the trees backed off a little, the brown dirt and occasional stumps evidence that the woods had been cleared out only recently. At the base of the hill, a tree that had recently been chopped down blocked the road. Into it s thick bark a sign was nailed, which served as a warning to travellers who did not exist, a silent cry into the woods. 5 2 No one seemed to know how far Commonwealth was from Seattle, except the town’s founder and those who transported the town’s timber. On days when the clouds were low and thick, the whereabouts of the town seemed to be forgotten by the rest of the earth. Commonwealth was no ordinary town, and that helped explain why it appeared on no map s, as if the rest of the civilised world preferred to ignore its existence. It had no mayor, no train station, no rail lines. No church, no telephones, no hospital. Commonwealth had pretty much nothing but a timber mill and the few amenities necessary to support the mill, such as a gen eral store and a clinic . For all other services, people went elsewhere. However, no one from town was allowed to leave anymore, and no one was allowed to come in. 10 15 3 Philip and Graham’s first stint as guards of the town had been uneventful. They had stood there for ten long hours, silent for stretches and chatting when the boredom became too great; wondering aloud how long the flu would last, swapping stories of past illnesses and ailments. Philip had even proposed a small wager as to how long the quarantine would last, but Graham had lightly chastised him for being insensitive. Other than that, the t ime had passed slowly. The sky gradually darkened, leaving the two watchmen damp and tired. They longed for their warm homes, though they would have nothing interesting to share with their families at the supper table. 20 4 5 6 7 Minutes of silence passed before they saw someone at the base of the hill. They saw him through the tree trunks first, hints of light brown and tan flashing every other second through that tangle of bark. Each of them stiffened, breath held, as they waited to see if a figure would emerge or if they had imagined it , like some trick of light. The figure turned the corner and looked up the hill, seeing the town in the distance. Between him and the town stood Philip and Graham, though he seemed not to notice them. After a couple of seconds, the figure reached the sign and stopped. He stopped for an unusually long time, as if he could barely read and there were one too many big words written there. Philip had not looked at the sign in days, ye t he had memorised what it said: ‘On Account of the Outbreak of INFLUENZA This Town Is Under Strict QUARANTINE. ABSOLUTELY NO ENTRY ALLOWED!’ After reading the sign, the man stepped up to the fallen tree and started climbing over it. It was an impressive tree, and it took him a moment to ascend its thick trunk. Then, he was past it and walking toward them again. ‘He’s still coming,’ Philip said helplessly, trying not to panic. He hurriedly rolled up the sleeves of Graham’s coat, wondering why he felt fidgety and nervous when Graham seemed to become even more still than usual. The man walked with a slight limp, wincing when he moved his right leg. It made his progress slower, but somehow more definite. His clothes suggested a uniform of some kind, with stripes on one sleeve, smeared with mud across parts of the chest. The unruly mop on his head appeared somewhat longer than a typical soldier’s. He looked like he had not shaved in a 25 30 35 40 45

4 8 9 10 couple of days, and there was a piece of cloth tied around his right thigh, coloured black from what might have been dried blood. The man was nearly halfway to them, no more than eighty yards away. ‘Please, help me !’ The man needed to raise his voice in order to be heard over the distance, but the effort of doing so seemed almost too much for him. ‘I’m starving. I don’t care if I get sick.’ ‘It’s not you getting sick we’re worried about. ’ Graham’s voice was firm, almost bullying. ‘We’re the only town around here that isn’t sick yet, and we aim to keep it that way. Now head on back down that road.’ The soldier looked behind him half-heartedly, before looking back at Graham. A sneeze. A cough. Loudly, thickly. How far does breath travel? Philip wondered. Adapted from The Last Town On Earth by Thomas Mullen 50 Section C Text 3

5 The article below is about how the Aboriginal Australians are struggling to fit into Australia even after many years. Read the text carefully and answer Questions 14–18 in the Question Paper Booklet. 1 Few tourists venture into the impressive stretches of red earth and shrubbery that cover vast amounts of land in the outback of Australia. It is here, in the heartland of the continent, where a humanitarian crisis continues to brew today. The numbers are s taggering – almost a third of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, also known as indigenous people, suffer from severe psychological problems, a result of collective trauma inflicted on indigenous people by past racist policies, according to research scholars at the Centre for Independent Studies. 5 2 This issue has its roots in the ‘assimilation policy’ 1 discussed way back in 1937. During the assimilation era, many indigenous people were forced to leave their homes, which