NYGH 2011-S3BT1-Adv Lit (HP)

Class Register Number Name 南洋女子中学校南洋女子中学校南洋女子中学校南洋女子中学校 NANYANG GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL SECONDARY THREE BLOCK TEST 1 8 April 2011 Friday Advanced Literature (HP) 50 mins 0845-0935 am READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST 1. Write your name on your answer script. 2. Use dark blue or black ink . 3. Do not use correction fluid / tape. INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES You are reminded of the need for good English and legible handwriting. Setter: SW This document consists of 3 printed pages. NANYANG GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL [ Turn over]

2 Unseen Poetry Read the question carefully before writing your answer. The RMS Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world with a capacity of 2,227 passengers, when she set off on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City on 10 April 1912. The Titanic sank on April 14, 1912 after a collision with an iceberg and 1,517 lives were lost. Read carefully the two poems concerning the tragedy of the Titanic, then answer the question. (a) Compare the two poems, focusing on how perspective, tone and structure contribute to the effectiveness in conveying the tragedy. (b) Say which of the poems you prefer, making clear why this is so. Convergence Of The Twain (Lines On The Loss Of The "Titanic") – Thomas Hard y (1912) In a solitude of the sea Deep from human vanity, And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she. Steel chambers, late the pyres Of her salamandrine fires, Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres. Over the mirrors meant To glass the opulent The sea-worm crawls -- grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent. Jewels in joy designed To ravish the sensuous mind Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind. Dim moon-eyed fishes near Gaze at the gilded gear And query: "What does this vaingloriousness down here?" ... Well: while was fashioning This creature of cleaving wing, The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything Prepared a sinister mate For her -- so gaily great -- A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate. And as the smart ship grew In stature, grace, and hue, In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too. Alien they seemed to be; No mortal eye could see The intimate welding of their later history,

3 Or sign that they were bent By paths coincident On being anon twin halves of one august event, Till the Spinner of the Years Said "Now!" And each one hears, And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres. After The Titanic (written from the perspective of Bruce Ismay, the director of the White Star Line Company that owned the Titanic) Derek Mahon (1967) They said I got away in a boat And humbled me at the inquiry. I tell you I sank as far that night as any Hero. As I sat shivering on the dark water I turned to ice to hear my costly Life go thundering down in a pandemonium of Prams, pianos, sideboards, winches, Boilers bursting and shredded ragtime. Now I hide In a lonely house behind the sea Where the tide leaves broken toys and hat-boxes Silently at my door. The showers of April, flowers of May mean nothing to me, nor the Late light of June, when my gardener Describes to strangers how the old man stays in bed On seaward mornings after nights of Wind, takes his cocaine and will see no-one. Then it is I drown again with all those dim Lost faces I never understood. My poor soul Screams out in the starlight, heart Breaks loose and rolls down like a stone. Include me in your lamentations. [30m] -END-