NYGH 2013-S3BT2-ALit HP

Class Register Number Name 南洋女子中学校 NANYANG GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL SECONDARY THREE BLOCK TEST 2 13 August 2013 Tuesday Advanced Literature (HP) 50 mins 1235-1325 pm 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 Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller Read the question carefully before writing your answer. WILLY: Oh, yeah, my father lived many years in Alaska. He was an adventurous man. We’ve got quite a little streak of self -reliance in our family. I thought I’d go out with my older brother and try to locate him, and maybe settle in the North with the old man. And I was almost decided to go, when I met a salesman in the Parker H ouse. His name was Dave Singleman. And he was eighty-four years old, and he’d drummed merchandise in thirty-one states. And old Dave, he’d go up to his room, y’understand, put on his green velvet slippers – I’ll never forget – and pick up his phone and cal l the buyers, and without ever leaving his room, at the age of eighty -four, he made his living. And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want. ‘Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone ,and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people? Do you know? when he died – and by the way he died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers in the s moker of the New York, New Haven and Hartford, going into Boston – when he died, hundreds of salesmen and buyers were at his funeral. Things were sad on a lotta trains for months after that. He stands up. Howard has not looked at him . In those days,, there was personality in it, Howard. There was respect, and comradeship, and gratitude in it. Today, it’s all cut and dried, and there’s no chance for bringing friendship to bear – or personality. You see what I mean? They don’t know me any more. HOWARD, moving away, to the right: That’s just the thing, Willy. WILLY: If I had forty dollars a week – that’s all I’d need. Forty dollars, Howard. HOWARD: Kid, I can’t take blood from stone, I – WILLY, desperation is on him now: Howard, the year Al Smith was nominated, your father came to me and – HOWARD, starting to go off : I’ve got to see some people, kid. WILLY: stopping him : I’m talking about your father! There were promises made across this desk! You musn’t tell me you’ve got people to see – I put in thirty-four years into this firm, Howard, and now I can’t pay my insurance! You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away – a man is not a piece of fruit! After a pause : Now pay attention . Your father – in 1928 I had a big year. I averaged a hundred and seventy dollars a week in commissions. HOWARD, impatiently: Now, Willy, you never averaged-

3 WILLY, banging his hand on the desk : I averaged a hundred and seventy dollars a week in the year of 1928! And your father came to me – or rather, I was in the office here – it was right over this desk – and he put his hand on my shoulder – HOWARD, getting up : You’ll have to excuse me, Willy, I gotta see some people. Pull yourself together. Going out: I’ll be back in a little while. (a) How does this extract reveal Willy Loman’s perspective on the career of a salesman? Explain how this perspective has an impact on Willy’s pursuit of the American Dream. (b) Identify a theme of the play from this extract and show how the theme is developed in the rest of the play. [30m]