2025 VJC Prelims H2 ELit P1 QP

VICTORIA JUNIOR COLLEGE JC2 PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION 2025 HIGHER 2 LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 9539/01 Paper 1 3 hours Additional Materials: Answer Paper Set texts may be taken into the examination room. They may bear underlining, highlighting or vertical lines. Pages can be flagged with paper clips or by folding the page corners. Any other kind of folding or flagging of pages in texts (for example, use of sticky notes or tape flags) is not permitted. READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST Begin each answer on a FRESH 4-PAGE BOOKLET. If you need additional answer paper ask the invigilator for a continuation booklet and label appropriately. 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, ensure your name and class is written at the beginning of each answer. All questions in this paper carry equal marks. This document consists of 9 printed pages [Turn over

2 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 presentation of national monuments. A Us by the Merlion When I told you there were many islands that could be loved by you other than this, you shook your head and Mona-Lisa-smiled. I dry-heaved till I merlioned. Take that, it seemed to say, the puke stain on your shoe, so much for claiming to be well-travelled and worldly-wise. Who could love a prison? Did swallowing myths morph away your mind? Of course not. But how else could you account for loyalty instead of turning tail? Because what we hate is but a brief slice, when there are many more days it has seen. In the distance, the creature spewed, its spray never quite reaching us here where we stood. Ian Chung 5 10 B The New Colossus1 Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Emma Lazarus 5 10 1 Colossus: refers to the ancient Colossus of Rhodes, a massive bronze statue of the Greek sun god Helios . New Colossus: refers to the Statue of Liberty in New York, modelled after the Roman goddess of liberty.

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4 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 her mother tongue. A A Poet’s Confession ‘I did it. I killed my mother tongue. I shouldn't have left her there on my own. All I wanted was a bit of fun with another body but now that she's gone - it's a terrible silence. She was highly strung, quite possibly jealous. After all, I’m young and she, the beauty, had become a crone despite all the surgery. Could I have saved her? made her feel at home? Without her reproaches. I feel so numb, not free, as I’d thought… Tell my lawyer to come. Until he’s with me, I’m keeping mum.’ Gwyneth Lewis 5 10 15 20

5 B The Way My Mother Speaks I say her phrases to myself in my head or under the shallows of my breath, restful shapes moving. The day and ever2. The day and ever. The train this slow evening goes down England browsing for the right sky, too blue swapped for a cool grey. For miles I have been saying What like is it. The way I say things when I think. Nothing is silent. Nothing is not silent. What like is it. Only tonight I am happy and sad like a child who stood at the end of summer and dipped a net in a green, erotic pond. The day and ever. The day and ever. I am homesick, free, in love with the way my mother speaks. Carol Ann Duffy 5 10 15 20 2 The day and ever. Scottish phrase meaning “today and forever”.

6 Section B TAN TWAN ENG: The Garden of Evening Mists 2 Either (a) ‘Everywhere I turn, I hear echoes of sounds made long ago.’ (Chapter 1) With this comment in mind, explore Tan’s presentation of the past in the novel. Or (b) Write a critical commentary on the following passage, relating it to the portrayal of Yun Ling, here and elsewhere in the novel. Leaving the study, I walk past the ink painting of Lao Tzu. Its emptiness glows in the shadows. I stop and look at it, this drawing made by Aritomo’s father. Lao Tzu, the disillusioned philosopher from China, had gone to the west and was never seen or heard from again. Aritomo also set down his thoughts and his teachings before he left: he had recorded them in his garden, and he had painted them on my body. My decision to restore the garden is the correct one, the only one I can make. I will ensure that Yugiri will remain. For my sister. When the garden is ready, I will open it to the public. I will put up a plaque by the Pavilion of Heaven, describing Yun Hong’s life. The garden will also be a living memory of what Aritomo has made. I have told Tatsuji that Aritomo’s ukiyo -e must be returned to Yugiri. I will put them on permanent exhibition here. The house will have to be repaired as well. And I have to writ e down as many instructions as I can for Vimalya. I must look for Aritomo’s Sakuteiki and give it to her. So many things to do. I will be kept busy in the coming weeks and months. I remind myself to ask my secretary – my former secretary – to go to my house in KL and send Yun Hong’s watercolour to me. It will be on display to the visitors who come to see the garden. It is right that Yun Hong will be remembered as I gradually forget and, in time, become forgotten. The garden must continue to exist. For that to happen, the horimono has to be destroyed after my death. I cannot entrust that responsibility to anyone, not Tatsuji, and not Frederik. I will have to do it myself. The darkness in the sky is thinning when I go out to Usugumo Pond. A bird flies across the sky, returning to the mountains. A memory comes to me of the cave where Aritomo took me to see the swiftlets. I wonder if the aborigines are still harvesting the nests there, if the bamboo scaffolding they used is still pinned to the walls; I wonder if I can find the cave again. Perhaps the blind old monk Aritomo spoke to on his walk across the countryside when he was a young man was correct: there is no wind; the flag does not move; it is only the hearts and minds of men that are restless . But I think that, slowly and surely, the turbulent heart will soon also come to a stillness, the quiet stillness it has been beating toward all its life. Even as I am losing myself, the garden will come back to life again. I will work in the garden, and I will visit Frederik. We will talk and laugh and weep like only old friends can. And in the evenings I will walk in the hills. Ah Cheong will be waiting at the front door, holding out Aritomo’s walking stick to me. I will take it, of course. But I know there will come a day when I will tell him that I do not want it. 5 10 15