MGS prelim 2024 insert P2

Page 2 of 6 Methodist Girls’ School English Language Paper 2 Sec 4 Preliminary Examination 2024 Section A 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 poster for the World Car-Free Day Campaign. Text 2 is taken from a blogpost on being car-free. I’ve not owned my own car for about 20 years . My car use has been principally for adulting – moving house, collecting furniture, and stretching the working day by travelling before the first train starts and after the last train has gone. Being car-free has restricted my choices but has brought its own freedoms. While I can’t drive to collect anyone from a late-night flight, I don’t have to parallel park ever again. More importantly, I don’t have to be forced into car ownership that I can’t afford! With the provision of sustainable transport infrastructure, cheap public transport is available, and I can travel to places easily. It’s World Car-Free Day! Let's make a conscious effort to be greener and give #WalkCycleRide a try today. With our growing transport network, it is now even more convenient to get to the places you love. For a fuss-free journey on public transport, remember to tap on your contactless bank card, mobile phone, smartwatch, or your account-based EZ-link card!

Page 3 of 6 Methodist Girls’ School English Language Paper 2 Sec 4 Preliminary Examination 2024 SECTION B Text 3 The text below is about a boy who tries to pass through an underwater tunnel in a foreign country. Read it carefully and answer questions 5 – 14 in the Question Booklet. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 It seemed to him that a long time had passed, and he swam out to where he could see his mother. Yes, she was still there, a yellow spot under an orange umbrella. He swam back to the big rock, climbed up, and dived into the blue pool among the fanged and angry boulders. Down he went, until he touched the wall of rock again. But the salt burnt his eyes so fiercely that he could not see. He came to the surface, swam to shore, and went back to the villa to wait for his mother. Soon she walked slowly up the path, swinging her striped bag, the flushed, naked arm dangling beside her. “I want some swimming goggles,” he panted, defiant and beseeching. She gave him a patient, inquisitive look as she said casually, “Well, of course, darling.” But now, now, now! He must have them this minute, and no other time. He nagged and pestered until she went with him to a shop. As soon as she had bought the goggles, he grabbed them from her hand as if she were going to claim them for herself, and was off, running down the steep path to the bay. Jerry swam out to the big barrier rock, adjusted the goggles, and dived. The impact of the water broke the rubber -enclosed vacuum, and the goggles came loose. He understood then that he must swim from the surface of the water down to the base of the rock. He fixed the goggles tight and firm, filled his lungs, and floated, face down, on the water. Now he could see. It was as if he had eyes of a different kind —fish eyes that showed everything clear and delicate and wavering in the bright water. Under him, six or seven feet down, was a floor of perfectly clean, shining white sand, rippled firm and hard by the tides. Two grayish shapes steered there, like long, rounded pieces of wood or slate. They were fish. He saw them nose toward each other, poise motionless, make a dart forward, swerve off, and come around again. It was like a water dance. A few inches above them the water sparkled as if sequins were dropping through it. Fish again —myriads of minute fish, the length of his fingernail —were drifting through the water, and in a moment he could feel the innumerable tiny touches of them against his limbs. It was like swimming in flaked silver. The great rock rose sheer out of the white sand — black, tufted lightly with greenish weed. He could see no gap in it. He swam down to its base. Again and again he rose, took a big chestful of air, and went down. Again and again he groped over the surface of the rock, feeling it, almost hugging it in the desperate need to find the entrance. And then, once, while he was clinging to the black wall, his knees came up and he shot his feet out forward and they met no obstacle. He had found the hole. He gained the surface, clambered about the stones that littered the barrier rock until he found a big one, and with this in his arms, let himself down over the side of the rock. He dropped, with the weight, straight to the sandy floor. Clinging tight 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Page 4 of 6 Methodist Girls’ School English Language Paper 2 Sec 4 Preliminary Examination 2024 8 to the anchor of stone, he lay on his side and looked in under the dark shelf at the place where his feet had gone. He could see the hole. It was an irregular, dark gap; but he could not see deep into it. He let go of his anchor, clung with his hands to the edges of the hole, and tried to push himself in. He got his head in, found his shoulders jammed, and moved them in sidewise. He could hardly see anything ahead. Suddenly, something soft and clammy plastered against his face; from the corner of his eye he saw a dark frond moving against the greyish rock, and panic filled him. He thought of octopuses, of clinging weed. He pushed himself out backward and caught a glimpse, as he retreated, of a harmless tentacle of seaweed drifting in the mouth of the tunnel. It was enough. He reached the sunlight, swam to s hore, and lay on the diving rock. He looked down into the blue well of water. He knew he must find his way through that cave, or hole, or tunnel, and out the other side. 45 50

Page 5 of 6 Methodist Girls’ School English Language Paper 2 Sec 4 Preliminary Examination 2024 SECTION C Text 4 The article below is about coffee. Read it carefully and answer questions 15 – 21 in the Question Booklet. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 It is a rich dark liquid that flows across the world and greases the wheels of our economies. It is one of the most traded commodities. And there are fears that, with a seemingly irrepressible demand, we may one day run dry. We are not talking about oil, but coffee. More th an two billion “cups of joe” are drunk every day and for many, working life would feel impossible without it. As traditionally tea-drinking countries like China are seduced by coffee’s charms, it may soon become the world’s favourite drink. The early drinkers were firm believers in its medicinal properties. Recent studies suggest that coffee can offer some protection from certain common diseases. A recent review of the evidence by Susanna Larsson at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden found that each cup of coffee per day is associated with a 6% reduction in the risk of type 2 diabetes. Laura Van Dongen at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, meanwhile, has found that regular coffee drinkers were at least 20% less likely to die from heart disease. Even with today’s agricultural technologies, coffee is a notoriously difficult crop to grow. The plants that produce Arabica coffee beans are very sensitive to the climate: they thrive in a narrow temperature band and require plenty of rainfall. Just as the quality of wine depends on the terroir of grapes, the taste of each coffee blend will be shaped by the conditions in which the beans are grown. The state of Minas Gerais in Brazil provides almost perfe