DHS 2026 Prelim P2

0 © DHS 2026 8881/02/Y6/Prelim CANDIDATE NAME CIVICS GROUP 6 C INDEX NUMBER 0 0 GENERAL PAPER 8881/02 Paper 2 25 August 2026 Candidates answer on the Question Paper. Additional Materials: Insert 1 hour 30 minutes READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST Write your civics group, index number and name on all the work you hand in. Write in dark blue or black pen. Do not use staples, paper clips, glue or correction fluid. DO NOT WRITE ON ANY BARCODES. Answer all questions. The Insert contains the passages for comprehension. Note that up to 15 marks out of 50 will be awarded for your use of language. The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question. For Examiner’s Use Short Structured Questions / 11 Summary / 8 New Item Type / 4 Application Question / 12 Language / 15 Total / 50 This document consists of 7 printed pages, 1 blank page and 1 Insert. [Turn over DUNMAN HIGH SCHOOL General Certificate of Education Advanced Level Higher 1 YEAR 6 PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION

2 © DHS 2026 8881/02/Y6/Prelim [Turn over Answer all questions. Your answers should be: • written in your own words as far as possible. Where you select the appropriate material from the passage for your answer, you must still use your own words to express it. • written in continuous prose. From Passage 1 1 In the opening paragraph, in what two ways is the use of the word ‘chorus’ (line 2) effective? [2] 2 In Paragraph 2, how does the author illustrate the idea that young people have withdrawn from ‘the social contract that once marked the recognised passage into adulthood’ (lines 10-11)? [2] 3 In Paragraph 3, how does the author use language to convey sympathy for young workers? [3]

3 © DHS 2026 8881/02/Y6/Prelim [Turn over 4 Using Paragraph 4, identify the three negative impacts on society with young people ‘opting out of collective responsibility’ (line 27). [3] 5 In paragraph 5, explain the author’s use of brackets in lines 39-40. [1]

4 © DHS 2026 8881/02/Y6/Prelim [Turn over 6 From Passage 2 Summarise the responses of young people to today’s uncertainties. Write your summary in no more than 120 words. [8] [Word Count: ______ words]

5 © DHS 2026 8881/02/Y6/Prelim [Turn over 7 From all the passages Passage 1 states that young people have ‘inherited a wreckage of an economy’ (lines 17-18). Identify one specific idea from Passage 3 which can be used to support this statement. Justify your answer. [2] 8 Passage 2 states that young people ‘eagerly pursue passions that speak to them’ (lines 4-5). Identify one specific idea from Passage 3 which can be used to undermine this statement. Justify your answer. [2]

6 © DHS 2026 8881/02/Y6/Prelim [Turn over 9 The reading passages cover a range of views about young people responding to uncertainties in life. How far do you agree or disagree with the views expressed? Support your answer with reference to  the ideas and opinions from at least one of the reading passages  examples drawn from your own experience and that of your society.

7 © DHS 2026 8881/02/Y6/Prelim [12]

1 Passage 1. An author writes about the shifts in young people’s attitude towards work and responsibility. 1 Adults have always said: ‘Young people today are just different.’ Teachers, parents, employers and politicians use it like a chorus. History offers a sobering view — people have been saying exactly this for thousands of years. Ancient Romans wrote about lazy youth. People in the 1800s worried that the younger generation was losing its values. Even your grandparents' generation was once called irresponsible. So, should we ignore it and move on? Not quite. Because even if the complaint is familiar, it does not automatically mean it is always wrong. 5 2 One of the most conspicuous features of today's younger generation is not outright rebellion, but something altogether quieter and more difficult to confront: a pervasive sense of indifference. Where previous generations responded to unwelcome expectations with visible defiance, today's youth offer a calm and unhurried withdrawal from traditional responsibilities, the social contract that once marked the recognised passage into adulthood. Previous generations spoke of duty, sacrifice, and building for the future. Today's youth have embraced a different logic: they believe that life is too short to be surrendered to obligations whose rewards are no longer guaranteed. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the workplace, where young employees draw firm boundaries around their professional lives — declining unpaid overtime, resisting constant availability, and prioritising personal well-being above organisational loyalty. 10 15 3 Certainly, this generation’s complaints are not without basis. They have inherited a wreckage of an economy defined by low wages, uncertain employment and unaffordable housing. They witnessed the failures of institutions that did not deliver. Against this backdrop, the desire to protect one’s mental health, to insist that they were not born as mere slaves to work, are not unreasonable expectations. After all, many workers feel that their extra efforts — the sleepless nights, the uncredited labour, the stolen weekends that can never be returned — are never properly acknowledged. Seen in this light, their response is not laziness but simply a call for fairness. It urges companies to re -evaluate workplace practices to ensure sustainable commitment and to respect the dignity and well-being of employees. 20 25 4 What is harder to justify is that such self-protection can be achieved without cost to others, or that opting out of collective responsibility is a sustainable model for any society. Consider parents. Many provide ongoing financial support to boomerang kids who return after college and remain at home well into their thirties, delaying their own retirement plans and depleting savings intended for their later years. Governments face the prospect of diminishing tax collection as younger workers prefer working in the gig economy over stable, taxable employment. This means less funds available for healthcare, infrastructure, and social support. More insidiously, a cycle of mutual withdrawal sets in. Young people slowly erode the very systems that would one day support them. A generation raised on the promise that they could be anything they wanted has somehow concluded that they need not be responsible for much at all. 30 35 5 The difficulty, then, lies not in the legitimacy of youthful discontent, but in its expression. To feel abandoned by the systems that were supposed to provide security is one thing; to respond by withdrawing entirely from the habits of reciprocity that keep those systems alive is quite another. What older generations condemn as laziness, the young reframe it as self-preservation (if that is what it is). 40

2 Passage 2. An author affirms young people’s commitment to make a difference in an uncertain world. 1 It has long been assumed that the world is our oyster and the chances are out there for us to seize. But with the rise of Artificial Intelligence and geopolitical turmoil, more young people are rewriting the rulebook in the face of diminishing job opportunities. Strangely, many o