2023 TKSS PRELIM P2 INSERT

This document consists of 6 printed pages and 2 blank pages. [Turn over CANDIDATE NAME CLASS INDEX NUMBER ENGLISH LANGUAGE 1184/02 Paper 2 Comprehension 11 August 2023 INSERT 1 hour 50 minutes READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST This Insert contains Text 1, Text 2, Text 3 and Text 4. TANJONG KATONG SECONDARY SCHOOL Preliminary Examination 2023 Secondary 4

2 Section A Text 1 Study the online advertisement (Text 1) and the social media post (Text 2) and answer Questions 1 – 4 in the Question Paper. Text 1 is taken from an online advertisement for fair and progressive employment practices. This could happen to anyone. Assuming that one’s age will affect work performance and desire for career advancement is a bias that prevents people with the right skills and commitment from contributing at work. It's time we put a stop to workplace discrimination by knowing and acting on them fast. Together, let’s do our part to create a fair and inclusive workplace for all. Text 2 is taken from a social media post. Today, I become a victim of the greatest injustice in my life. After dedicating decades of my life to the company I loved, I find myself pushed aside like a discarded relic! Age should be celebrated, not used against us. This fight isn't just for myself; it's for all the elderly workers out there who face the same prejudice and indignities. We have a right to be respected, and to be valued. Such injustice could happen to anyone. Let’s not back down until change happens! To the company that let me go: you might think you've gotten rid of an ‘old’ problem, but you've ignited a fire within me and many others! #victim #stopworkplacediscrimination #oldbutstilluseful IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOUR PARENTS OR GRANDPARENTS TOO.

3 Section B Text 3 The text below describes a visit by Stephen and his three-year-old daughter to the supermarket where she went missing. Read the text carefully and answer Questions 5 - 13 in the Question Booklet. 1 In the hall Kate came towards him, holding up the scuffed toy donkey. He bent to loop the red scarf twice around her neck before they stepped outdoors onto the street, as though into a storm. The main road was an arterial route south ; its traffic rushed with ferocity. It was a two -minute walk to the supermarket, over the four-lane road by a zebra crossing. They made their way across at last, in front of a pack of cars which snarled and roared forward the moment they reached the other side. Stephen held Kate’s hand tightly as they weaved among the flux of shoppers towards the entrance. Amid voices, shouts, and the electro-mechanical rattle at the checkout counters, they found a trolley. Chattering excitedly, Kate made herself comfortable in her seat. 5 2 The people who frequented the supermarket divided into groups as distinct as tribes. There were young childless couples who thought nothing of splurging on fanciful desserts. Then there were the retirees poring over food labels. Another group consisted of young mothers pushing prams. There were also domestic helpers, shopping lists in hand, purposeful in their strides. Fathers like Stephen, child in tow, were an anomaly. Moving between the aisles, his eyes darted rapidly, trying to locate the items he needed - toothpaste, detergent, a leg of lamb, eggs and potatoes. Kate tugged at his sleeve, trying to get his attention as he navigated the labyrinth of aisles and milling shoppers. He glanced down at her and winked. She copied him, but clumsily, wrinkling her nose and closing both eyes. 10 15 3 Fifteen minutes later they were at the checkout and he joined a queue nearest the entrance. There were three people ahead of him when he stopped the trolley and there was no one behind him when he turned to lift Kate from it. She relished being on her ‘throne’ and loathed being disturbed. She whined and clung stubbornly on to her seat, causing him to lift her high to get her out. By the time this little tug-of-war was over, there was only one person ahead of them. He came round to the front of the trolley to unload his items onto the conveyor belt. Kate remained at the other end of the trolley, her little hands stretching longingly to touch the trolley seat. There was no one behind her. Now the man immediately ahead of Stephen was about to pay for several tins of dog food. Stephen lifted the first item onto the belt and as he straightened, he might have been conscious of a figure in a dark coat behind Kate. But it was hardly an awareness at all. The coat could have been a dress or a shopping bag or his own invention. He was intent on ordinary tasks, keen to finish them, and all about him shapes without definition drifted and dissolved, blending into the surroundings. 20 25 4 The man with the dog food was leaving. The cashier was already at work, her fingers flickering over the keypad as she checked out Stephen’s items. Setting his last item on the belt, Stephen asked the girl for a carrier bag. She reached under a shelf and pulled one out. He took it and turned . Kate was gone. No one was behind the trolley. Unhurriedly and calmly, he pushed the trolley clear, thinking she had ducked down behind the end of the counter. Then he took a few paces and glanced down the only aisle she would have had time to reach. He stepped back and looked expectantly to his left and right. On one side there were lines of shoppers, on the other a clear space, then the automatic doors on to the pavement. There may have been a figure in a coat hurrying away from him, but at that time Stephen was only looking for a three-year-old child, and his immediate worry was the traffic. 30 35 5 This was a theoretical, precautionary anxiety. As he shouldered past shoppers and emerged on to the broad pavement he knew he would not see her there. Kate was not adventurous in this way. She was also not a strayer, preferring to be in the company of people she was familiar with. Convinced that she had to be in the shop, and could come to no real harm there, he turned back. He expected to see her emerging from behind the lines of shoppers at the checkouts. It was easy enough to overlook a child in the first flash of concern, to look too hard, too quickly. Still, a sickness and a tightening at the base of the throat, an unpl easant lightness in the feet, were with him as he went back. He walked past all the checkouts, ignoring the girl at his who was irritably trying to attract his attention. 40 45 6 He went down all the aisles, past mountains or oranges, toilet rolls, soup. It was not until he was back at his starting point that he abandoned all propriety. He was taking long strides, bawling her name as he pounded the length of an aisle, pushing shoppers out of his way. Faces were turning towards him.

4 There was no mistaking him for one of the drunks who blundered in to buy alcohol. His fear was overwhelming; it was too evident, too raw, too forceful; and it filled the impersonal, fluorescent space with unignorable human warmth. Within moments all shopping around him had ceased. Baskets and trollies were set aside, people were converging and saying Kate’s name and somehow, in no time at all, it was generally known that she was three , that she was last seen at the checkout, tha