Zhonghua Paper 2 Prelim 2023

2 Section A Study the online advertisement (Text 1) and the interview (Text 2) and answer Questions 1-4. Text 1 is taken from an online advertisement for the National Museum of Singapore. 1"1-icnds of lhc Muxums t:•~--,.~--· BECOME A VOLUNTEER MUSEUM GUIDE at National Museum of Singapore , !tT~~~}?.XR~JiE!t!s~oA~•!r8.~): S:IN~~Jl.O~EtS, qL[?~ST ~us~p,.fvl SHAREtYOOJR''f:>~S,;_S'IQN'iFOR ARTS, j}El~),;(.JCqE·~~lST@'BY-•TH VISITORS DOCENT TRAINING STARTS IN SEPTEMBER 2023 LIMITED SPACES. APPLY NOW :~ For more information. email: nms.dt.coheads@3moil.com Visit: www.fom.sg Text 2 is taken from an interview with a docent trainer for Singapore museums. There are many stories that should be shared. Guiding is a pure joy, to be able to share knowledge and light that spark of interest in visitors. When we review applicants, we look for people who like to be with people, who are keen to learn and make learning fun. We assume no prior knowledge. Please do not hesitate to join us. As long as you have intellectual curiosity, being a volunteer docent or guide is very fulfilling.

1 3 Section A [5 marks] Refer to the online advertisement (Text 1) and the interview {Text 2) on page 3 for Questions 1-4. Look at Text 1. Tick ( ✓) the main reason for the image in the background of the online advertisement. o To convince prospective docents to serve the museum o To inspire prospective docents to serve the museum o To inform prospective docents of the opportunities to serve the museum [1] ~ 2 Why do you think the words 'earliest' and 'oldest' are used in Text 1? ............................................................................................................................ ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...... ... ... ... ... ... ..... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ........................................ (11 3 Identify the phrase in Text 2 which reflects the quality needed to 'uncover the story' in Text 1 . 4 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ♦ •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ... ... ...... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... ...... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ........................................ (11 Look at Texts 1 and 2 and statements (a) and (b) below. Decide whether the statements refer to Text 1, Text 2, both texts or neither text. Circle the answer you have chosen for each statement. (a) The producer of the text and its target audience should share the same attitude towards docentship. Text 1 / Text 2 / Both / Neither (b) The tone of the text is informal. Text 1 / Text 2 / Both / Neither [2]

4 Section B Text3 The text below is a narrative about a family's experience with restoring a house way past its ~ormer glory_ The family had moved from Europe to America, known as the New World to Europeans smce the 1(1h century. 1 2 The house on the property our father bought s~ood ~t~p one of the highest hills on Long Island and was condemned. The Spanish roof trle, laid m 1891, had proved too heavy and caved.in. A car had crashed through one of the house's walls. Rusty beer cans floated in the wishing well. The copper Victorian dome was askew and _had to be pulled down; ~ith it went the views all the way to the Atlantic. But the ocean was still out there_, dark and ro!hng, as we 5 were reminded whenever the wind blew west and brought the salt air, and from time to time it rained so heavily that the great lawn flooded and seagulls wheeled wildly inland. The estate teetering on the edge of the New World, was on the ~rink; at ~ny ~oment our father might change his mind, switch course, and head back, taking us with him: back to I Europe, where he had spent the only happy years of his childhood. But, for the time being, 10 we were living in America, which was not a place to live, as our grandfather often said, only a place to make a living. 3 The house had been built for an American tycoon in the eighteen-nineties. No owner had lived in the house since his death. Since then, time and weather had delivered it to a state beyond repair. Much of the house had to be torn down, but our idealistic father saved its two 15 most spectacular rooms, a grand living room and a chapel with twenty-five-foot ceilings, both of which had been dismantled in England, shipped to America, and reassembled here. 4 Around those antique, wood-panelled rooms, the architect our father hired-German and famous for his brutalism-planned a modem masterpiece, but one whose artfulness forwent comfort and practicality. He proposed suspending our children's bedrooms on platforms in 20 the chapel, which could be accessed by ropes, pulleys, and suspension bridges, an idea that was only narrowly overruled by our mother, who dug in her heels and used whatever she still had of her mother's German. 5 Eventually, our bedrooms were grudgingly built instead in the new part of the house, but, ft because ourfather ran out of money, they were tiny: everything was within arm's reach of the 25 bed, as in the sleeping compartments of the space shuttle that would explode as we watched a few years later. We lived crowded in this new wing, while the huge old rooms remained forbidding and cold, too expensive to heat, salvaged and restored but impossible to integrate: a lesson in how we might learn to live with history. 6 When we arrived in our car, the house was still unfinished. There were no doors on the rooms, 30 and we had to avoid stepping with bare feet on the upturned nails on the carpet-tack strips that had yet to receive any carpet. Half the house was sheeted with plastic to keep out the rain, which found its way in anyway and flooded the basement. Trained as an aerospace engineer, our father employed himself as the construction manager in order to reduce expenses. He could afford the work only in stages, so it stretched on and on, with no end in 35 sight. 7 Th_ere wer~ endl~ss rounds of sanding and skim-coating the walls. By the time the walls were finished with their final coat of eggshell white, they had achieved a kind of sacred status. We were not allowe~ to touch them lest we should leave smudges or stains. We moved through the house at a distance from these pristine white walls. The walls were to be respected and 40

s feared, in the same way one pays homage to a deity and as with all sacred objects made for the purpose of humble prayers. If we were careless a~d caused them damage, we could bring down upon ourselves grave consequences, beginning with our father's wrath. Only whe~ 1 was a little older, and first saw photos of buildings bombed during the war, their ruined inten_or walls exposed to the exterior, did our father's obsession with restoring the house back to its 45 former glory take on a more nuanced meaning.

6 Section B [20 marks] Refer to Text 3 on pages 5 and 6 for Questions 5-14. 5 From the writer's perspective in line 2, the house his father b~ught was 'condemned'. Find two phrases from Paragraph 1 to show that it had been admirable • ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .•• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ... ••. ... ... ... . .. . .. ... . .. .. . ... ... . .. ... . . . . .. ... ... . .. . [2] ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... . • •.... 6 In Paragraph 1, the writer regarded the property his father had bought with pessimism. Explain how the language used suggests that it was in a lamentable state. Support your answer with three details from Paragraph 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • • • • ♦ ♦ ♦ • ♦ ♦ ♦ • • • • ♦ • • • • ♦ ♦ o ♦ • ♦ • •