RI H2 Literature 9509 P1 Prelim 2023

2023 H2 P1 RI LIT PRELIM 9509/01/23 [Turn over RAFFLES INSTITUTION 2023 YEAR 6 PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION HIGHER 2 LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 9509/01 Paper 1 Reading Literature Wednesday 13 September 2023 3 hours 1330-1630 No Additional Materials are required. Set texts may be taken into the examination room. They may bear underlining or highlighting. Any kind of folding or flagging of papers in texts (e.g. use of post -its, tape flags or paper clips) is not permitted. READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST Writing paper will be provided. If you need additional paper ask the invigilator. Write your name and CT group on all the work you hand in. Answer three questions: one question from Section A, one question from Section B, and one question from Section C. You are reminded of the need for good English and clear presentation in your answers. At the end of the examination tie your answer sheets to each section securely. Hand in your answers separately. All questions in this paper carry equal marks. This document consists of 9 printed pages and 1 blank page.

2 ©RI 2023 H2 P1 RI LIT PRELIM 9509/01/23 Section A 1 Either (a) Write a critical comparison of the following poems, considering in detail ways in which language, style and form contribute to each poet’s portrayal of the natural world. A HAWK ROOSTING I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed. Inaction, no falsifying dream Between my hooked head and hooked feet: Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat. The convenience of the high trees! The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s ray Are of advantage to me; And the earth’s face upward for my inspection. My feet are locked upon the rough bark. It took the whole of Creation To produce my foot, my each feather: Now I hold Creation in my foot Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly - I kill where I please because it is all mine. There is no sophistry in my body: My manners are tearing off heads – The allotment of death. For the one path of my flight is direct Through the bones of the living. No arguments assert my right: The sun is behind me. Nothing has changed since I began. My eye has permitted no change. I am going to keep things like this. 5 10 15 20 Ted Hughes (1930 - 1998) B SOLITARY CROW Why Solitary Crow? He in his feathers Is a whole world of crow – of dry-stick nest, Of windy distances where to be crow is best, Of tough-guy clowning and of black things done To a sprawled lamb whose blood beads in the sun. Sardonic anarchist. Where he goes he carries, Since there’s no centre, what a centre is, And that is crow, the ragged self that’s his. Smudged on a cloud, he jeers at the world then halts To jeer at himself and turn two somersaults. He ambles through the air, flops down and seesaws On a blunt fencepost, hiccups and says Caw. The sun glints greasy on his working craw And adds a silver spot to that round eye Whose black light bends and cocks the world awry 5 10 15 Norman MacCaig (1910-1996)

3 ©RI 2023 H2 P1 RI LIT PRELIM 9509/01/23 Or (b) Write a critical comparison of the following poems, considering in detail ways in which language, style and form contribute to each poet’s portrayal of relationships. A MUTE SWANS Two swans skim the expectant lake. Secrets stippled on water’s uncomprehending skin. You tell me they do not sing till death. I imagine a wild inelegance of sound splintering the flutes of their necks. I think of us— how we too, circle in silence, waiting for our hearts to be seized in a tumble of wings. 5 10 Amanda Chong (1989–) B WINTER SWANS The clouds had given their all - two days of rain and then a break in which we walked, the waterlogged earth gulping for breath at our feet as we skirted the lake, silent and apart, until the swans came and stopped us with a show of tipping in unison. As if rolling weights down their bodies to their heads they halved themselves in the dark water, icebergs of white feather, paused before returning again like boats righting in rough weather. 'They mate for life' you said as they left, porcelain over the stilling water. I didn't reply but as we moved on through the afternoon light, slow-stepping in the lake's shingle and sand, I noticed our hands, that had, somehow, swum the distance between us and folded, one over the other, like a pair of wings settling after flight. 5 10 15 20 Owen Sheers (1974–) [Turn over

4 ©RI 2023 H2 P1 RI LIT PRELIM 9509/01/23 JANE AUSTEN: Pride and Prejudice 2 Either (a) “I never saw such a woman. I never saw such capacity, and taste, and application, and elegance, as you describe, united.” Discuss Austen’s presentation of women in Pride and Prejudice. Or (b) Write a critical commentary on the following passage, relating it to the portrayal of judgement, here and elsewhere in the novel. The first part of Mrs. Gardiner’s business on her arrival, was to distribute her presents and describe the newest fashions. When this was done, she had a less active part to p lay. It became her turn to listen. Mrs. Bennet had many grievances to relate, and much to complain of. They had all been very ill-used since she last saw her sister. Two of her girls had been on the point of marriage, and after all there was nothing in it. “I do not blame Jane,” she continued, “for Jane would have got Mr. Bingley, if she could. But Lizzy! Oh, sister! it is very hard to think that she might have been Mr. Collins’s wife by this time, had not it been for her own perverseness. He made her an offer in this very room, and she refused him. The consequence of it is, that Lady Lucas will have a daughter married before I have, and th at Longbourn estate is just as much entailed as ever. The Lucases are very artful people indeed, sister. They are all for what they can get. I am sorry to say it of them, but so it is. It makes me very nervous and very poorly, to be thwarted so in my own family, and to have neighbours who think of themselves before anyone else. However, your coming just at this time is the greatest of comforts, and I am very glad to hear what you tell us, of long sleeves.” Mrs. Gardiner, to whom the chief of this news had been given before, in the course of Jane and Elizabeth’s correspondence with her, made her sister a slight answer, and in compassion to her nieces turned the conversation. When alone with Elizabeth afterwards, she spoke more on the subject. “It seems likely to have been a desirable match for Jane,” said she. “I am sorry it went off. But these things happen so often! A young man, such as you describe Mr. Bingley, so easily falls in love with a pretty girl for a few weeks, and when accident separates them, so easily forgets her that these sort of inconstancies are very frequent.” “An excellent consolation in its way,” said Eliza