RI Year 3 English Language EOY 2018

NAME: CLASS: NO: RAFFLES INSTITUTION 2018 END OF YEAR EXAMINATION Subject Level Date Time ENGLISH LANGUAGE PAPER 1 YEAR 3 10 OCTOBER 2018 (Wednesday) 0800 - 0915 (1 h 15 min) Additional materials: Plain and ruled writing papers INSTRUCTIONS 1. Write your name, class, index number on the question paper, answer script and the plain paper. 2. You are to spend the fi rst 10 minutes planning your essay on the plain paper provided. 3. Write your question number clearly on your answer script. Write in dark blue or black ink Responses written in pencil will not be marked. 4. Submit your work in TWO lots: Question Paper Answer Script and plan. Tie your plan to the back of your answer script with the string provided before submitting. THIS QUESTION PAPER CONSISTS OF 1 PRINTED PAGE EXCLUDING THE COVER PAGE. 1

Argumentative Essay [30 marks] Write an essay on ONE of the following questions. You are recommended to write between 500 -800 words. 1. Do you agree that not enough is being done to help the disadvantaged in Singapore? 2. Young people in Singapore lack resilience. Do you agree with this statement? 3. People today are obsessed with being busy. To what extent do you agree that this is an accurate re fl ection of your society? 4. The school should be the place where a healthy lifestyle is promoted. Do you agree? 5. Should we be less competitive? 6. There is value in being quiet. Do you agree? END OF PAPER 1 3

NAME: CLASS: NO: RAFFLES INSTITUTION 2018 END OF YEAR EXAMINATION Subject Level Date Time ENGLISH LANGUAGE PAPER 2 YEAR 3 10 October 2018 (Wednesday) 1015 -1205 (1 h 50 min) : INSERT INSTRUCTIONS This Insert contains T ext A, T ext B and T ext C. THIS INSERT CONSISTS OF 5 PRINTED PAGES EXCLUDING THE COVER PAGE. 5

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SECTION B [20 marks] T ext B The text below describes the narator's experience as an immigrant. Read the text carefully and answer Questions 5 to 19 in the Answer Booklet. The of fi ce of the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore (ICA) thrums with the muted hum of a hundred conversations. I sit stif fl y beside my new husband, wondering if he is upset. This is not the fi rst time he has had to take time off from work to attend to my visa paperwork. 1. 5 As a divorced mother with custody of a teenage daughter, I had thought long and hard about the implications of my decision to marry a widower with a little daughter. Over late night Skype calls, we decided that, by moving to Singapore where he worked, we could give our fl edgling family a clean slate to start afresh, away from the curious eyes of family members. 2. 10 3. The immigrant experience is always an adventure - ask anyone who has chosen to move to another country for any length of time. Travel has the capacity to rejuvenate our jaded senses by transporting us from a familiar place. Moving, on the other hand, is an opportunity to grow. The immersive experience in a different culture forces us to re-examine our behaviours and motives, questions our ingrained biases and, most importantly, pushes us to adapt, adjust and ultimately appreciate another way of living. Travel is exhilarating with its sense of novelty, while learning the nuances of living in a new place can quickly become tedious. There are language and cultural barriers, food and festival differences, disparities in work ethic and social ethos. 15 20 By choosing to make my home in another country, I have also chosen to expose myself to the wonder and angst that | had experienced on another continent almost half a lifetime ago. 25 Wrapped in a new but inadequate shawl that I had bought in Bombay (as it was known then) after a rigorous search for "winter clothing" on a warm afternoon, I landed in Washington Dulles International Airport on a cold December evening. As a 22-year-old bride, I had much to look forward to and learn. 5. 30 6. Within a week of my arrival, I bought snow boots, a winter coat, gloves and hat - clothes and accessories that I had only seen in magazines. T ests for a driving license, for English pro fi ciency, and a standardised test to qualify for admission into graduate school didn't faze me. Every step towards self-suf fi ciency, no matter how arduous, was a welcome one. 35 2

Within a decade, I obtained a PhD, secured a job, became a mother. I was comfortable driving on freeways in America and bargaining with street vendors on my trips back to India. Preoccupied with charting the course of my life, I moved ahead believing that identity and belonging were personal matters, not to be measured in the context of society. However, this belief soon changed. 7. 40 One afternoon, I waited in the eerie silence of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service of fi ce in San Francisco, while holding the terse letter asking me to report to the of fi ce to sort out some paperwork related to my green card!. The necessity of having to prove the legitimacy of my residence permit, after spending years in America – fi rst as a student and later as a scientist at a reputed company - bothered me. The paperwork was eventually resolved, but I learned unequivocally that my belief in my right to belong was only my opinion. I made a promise to myself never to deal with immigration of fi cials again. 8. 45 50 I moved back to India the following year. Keeping the promise while living in the country of my birth was easy. By moving to Singapore, I have broken that promise. 9. Transitioning into this multicultural and multilingual country that is geographically closer to India has turned out to be much easier than the move to the US. Is it the technology that lets me email friends in other countries, FaceTime conversations with family and smartphone apps that help me ease into a new life? Or is it because I hear familiar words in casual conversations and formal announcements at train stations? Amidst saris and cheongsams, noodles and roti pratas, temples and mosques, I do not feel "foreign" or miss home as I did during my fi rst stint. 10. 55 60 This is our third trip to ICA where I am hoping to prove my "desirable" qualities by producing certi fi cates of my credentials. The constant reiteration of my relationship to ny husband, who has the required permit to live here, is an unwelcome reminder of my dependence on him. 11. 65 I look around the ICA of fi ce and see my husband seated patiently beside me. "Think of this as a date," he jokes. His light-hearted take reminds me of the reason why I chose to move here. To be with him; to build a family; to create a new life together. We are doing all that. And it is really alright if l need to wait here a little longer to enable the dreams we share. 12. 70 END OF TEXT B (in the US) a permit allowing a foreign national to live and work permanently in the US S BIK 9C 3 10

SECTION c [18 marks] T ext C The text below talks about travelling. Read the text carefully and answer Questions 20 to 27 in the Answer Booklet. 1. Why do we travel? It is not the fl ying I mind- I will always be awed by the physics that gets a fat metal bird into the upper troposphere. The rest of the journey, however, can feel like a tedious lesson in the ills of modernity, from the pre-dawn X-ray screening to the lamentable airport malls peddling mundane souvenirs. 5 In 2008 only 30% of trips over 50 miles were made for business, telling us that travelling is not non-negotiable. Instead we travel because we want to. Because the annoyances of the airport are outweighed by the thrill of being someplace new. Because we need to rest from stressful work. Because the fl ights were on sale. 2. 10 Travel, in other words, is a basic human desire. But here's my question: is this collective urge to travel - to put some distance between ourselves and everything we know - still a worthwhile compulsion? Because if travel is just about fun, then I think the new security measures at airports have killed it. 3 15 4. The good news is that pleasure is not the only consolation of travel. In fact, several new science papers suggest that get