2024 CHS Prelim Question Paper

Name: Index Number: Class: CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL Preliminary Examination Secondary 4 (O-Level Programme) Humanities (Social Studies, Geography) Humanities (Social Studies, History) Humanities (Social Studies, Literature) Social Studies 2260/01 2261/01 2262/01 Additional Materials: Answer Booklet 19 August 2024 1 hr 45 mins READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST Write your name, index number and class on all the work you hand in. Write in dark blue or black pen. You may use a soft pencil for any rough working. Do not use staples, paper clips, highlighters, glue or correction fluid. DO NOT WRITE ON THE MARGINS. Answer all questions. Write all answers on the Answer Booklet provided. For examiner’s use only: Section A / 35 m Section B / 15 m Total / 50 marks At the end of the examination, submit Section A and B separately. The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question. This document consists of 8 printed pages. [Turn over

2 ©CHS 2024 SECTION A (Source-Based Case Study) Answer all questions. Living in a Diverse Society Study the Background Information and the sources carefully, and then answer all the questions. You may use any of the sources to help you to answer the questions, in addition to those sources, which you are told to use. In answering the questions, you should use your knowledge of the issue to help you interpret and evaluate the sources. 1. Study Source A. What is the message of the source? Explain your answer using details from the cartoon. [5] 2. Study Source B. What was the intention of the speech? Explain your answer. [6] 3. 4. 5. Study Sources C and D. Would the academic (in Source C) agree with the business analyst (in Source D)? Explain your answer. Study Sources E and F. Having read Source E, are you surprised by Source F? Explain your answer. ‘The challenges to social mobility can be overcome.’ Using the sources in this case study, explain how far you would agree with this statement. [7] [7] [10]

3 ©CHS 2024 Is social mobility increasingly impossible to achieve? BACKGROUND INFORMATION Read this carefully. It may help you to answer some of the questions. Globally, social mobility – typically referring to the ability for one to move up the socioeconomic ladder – is increasingly challenging to achieve. Factors such as growing income inequality, educational disparities, and systemic barriers hinder social mobility. Wealth concentration widens the gap between rich and poor while unequal access to quality education and healthcare further entrenches social divides. Additionally, changing mindsets towards work amongst the young can sometimes impede progress in the right direction. Study the following sources to find out more about why social mobility is increasingly a challenge. Source A: A cartoon published by an American artist, November 2012. [Turn over

4 ©CHS 2024 Source B: From a speech by Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for Social and Family Development, at the 4 th Singapore-China Social Governance Forum on 19 June 2024. Based on a 2015 survey of Singaporeans in their 30s, 14% of those with parents in the lowest income tier managed to move up to the top tier of income earners. While the proportion is higher than the 7.5% in the U nited States (US) , 9% in the United Kingdom (UK), and about 12% in Denmark, we want to do better. We reach out to parents as early as during the mother’s pregnancy. These measures prevent disparities in the early years from snowballing into greater disparities down the road. We have seen many come forward to address intractable problems like inequality . Businesses support policies like the Progressive Wage Model * that uplift lower wage workers, even though it requires paying higher wages to individuals as they upgrade their skills. Individuals step forward as volunteers with social service agencies and give of their time and energies to befriend and journey with families. *Progressive Wage Model (PWM) is a wage structure that helps to increase wages of workers in selected industries through upgrading skills and improving productivity Source C: From an online article by an academic, published on 27 October 2022. The ‘lying flat’ or tang ping movement is a phenomenon that emerged in China in 2021. It describes the generations born in the late 1990s and 2000s who, disappointed by their lack of social mobility and economic stagnation, have decided to ‘not strive for their futures’. They do not want to follow the values of hard work, home ownership, marriage or living standards sought after by past generations. The question is why the movement has spread among Chinese youth despite forty years of economic prosperity. The reality is that China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth has steadily declined since 2010. Now an economic downturn — due to worldwide inflation from the pandemic and the Ukraine war — threatens to end the golden period of Chinese prosperity. Increasing tensions between the US and China, a looming property crisis and declining employment for unskilled workers have cast further doubts on the future of China.

5 ©CHS 2024 Source D: From an online article by a business analyst, published on 8 December 2021. Around the world, millions of people are rethinking how they work and live – and how to better balance the two. The Great Resignation has US workers quitting their jobs in record numbers – more than 24 million did so from April to September this year – and many are staying out of the labour force. Germany, Japan, and other wealthy nations are seeing shades of the same trend. But the pressure has been building in developed countries for decades. Incomes have stagnated, job security has become precarious, and the costs of housing and education have soared, leaving fewer young people able to build a financially stable life. Almost half of the world’s workers are considering quitting, according to a Microsoft Corp oration survey. About 4 in 10 millennial and Gen Z respondents say they’d leave their job if asked to come back to the office full time*. *Many companies have adopted flexible work arrangements, such as Work from Home initiatives, since the Covid-19 pandemic Source E: From an opinion piece published online by a news agency in 2021. Many young people in mainland China are not only choosing, or forced by economic circumstances, to remain childless. A substantial number of them are removing themselves from the rat race in a recent phenomenon known as “lying flat”. Discouraged by uneven access to resources and opportunities, the futility in chasing shifting and unreachable socio-economic markers, and the heavy toll the chase is taking on their minds, bodies and relationships, many young Chinese are simply opting out. This isn’t an exclusively Chinese development; youths in many parts of the world face the same predicament and have reacted with similar resignation and cynicism. [Turn over

6 ©CHS 2024 Source F: Adapted from an article written by a Chinese academic who specialises in labour relations and economics. The article was published in 2021. Instead of working hard to strive for success, the "lying flat” youths have chosen to escape in the face of pressures and live a life without fighting . The development of such a dangerous social phenomenon deserves our attention. To motivate young people to struggle with positivity, society and the media should pay more attention to individual contributions; pub