2025 RI Prelims H2 ELit P2 QP

[Turn over RAFFLES INSTITUTION 2025 YEAR 6 PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION HIGHER 2 LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 9539/02 Paper 2 Reading Literature featuring the English Romantic Period (1785–1832) Wednesday 17 September 2025 3 hours 1330-1630 No Additional Materials are required. Set texts may be taken into the examination room. Pages may be flagged with paper clips or by folding the page corners. Page numbers can be highlighted, underlined, or marked out with vertical lines. 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 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 8 printed pages.

2 © RI LIT H2 PRELIM 2025 9539/02/25 Section A Answer one question in this section. 1 Either (a) The following passage is taken from a novel called The Bee Sting (2023) by Paul Murray. Write a critical appreciation of the passage, considering in detail ways in which your response is shaped by the writer’s uses of form, style and language. Cass and Elaine first met in Chemistry class, when Elaine poured iodine on Cass’s eczema during an experiment. It was an accident; she’d cried more than Cass did, and insisted on going with her to the nurse. They’d been friends ever since. Every morning Ca ss called to Elaine’s house and they walked to school together. At lunchtime, they rolled up their long skirts and wandered around the supermarket, listening to music from Elaine’s phone, eating croissants from the bakery section that were gone by the time they got to the checkout. In the evening, they went to each other’s houses to study. Cass felt she’d known Elaine for ever; it made no sense that they had not always been friends. Their lives were so similar it was almost eerie. Both girls came from well -known families in the town: Cass’s father, Dickie, owned the local Volkswagen dealership, while Elaine’s dad, Big Mike, was a businessman and cattle farmer. Both girls were of slightly above-average height; both were bright, in fact they were consistently a