NCHS Lit P1

Name: Register Number: Class: PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION 2020 SECONDARY FOUR EXPRESS LITERATURE IN ENGLISH/ HUMANITIES 2065/01, 2274/02 Prose and Unseen Texts Additional Materials: Answer Paper 28 August 2020, Friday 1 hour 40 minutes READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST Write your name, class and index number on the work you hand in. Write in dark blue or black pen on both sides of the paper. Do not use staples, paper clips, glue or correction fluid/tape. Answer two questions: one question from Section A and one question from Section B. You are reminded of the need for good English and clear presentation in your answers. All questions in this paper carry equal marks. At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together. This paper consists of 6 printed pages including the cover page. For Marker’s Use

2 SECTION A Answer one question from this section. RAY BRADBURY: Fahrenheit 451 Remember to support your ideas with relevant details from the text. 1 Either (a) In what ways does Bradbury make the transformation of Montag so striking? Or (b) In what ways does Bradbury make fire such a powerful symbol in the novel? Or (c) Read this passage carefully, and then answer the questions that follow it. Granger looked into the fire. "Phoenix." "What?" "There was a silly damn bird called a Phoenix back before Christ: every few hundred years he built a pyre and burned himself up. He must have been first cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we're doing the same thing, over and over, but we've got one damn thing the Phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things we've done for a thousand years, and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, some day we'll stop making the goddam funeral pyres and jumping into the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember, every generation." He took the pan off the fire and let the bacon cool and they ate it, slowly, thoughtfully. "Now, let's get on upstream," said Granger. "And hold on to one thought: You're not important. You're not anything. Some day the load we're carrying with us may help someone. But even when we had th e books on hand, a long time ago, we didn't use what we got out of them. We went right on insulting the dead. We went right on spitting in the graves of all the poor ones who died before us. We're going to meet a lot of lonely people in the next week and the next month and the next year. And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say, We're remembering. That's where we'll win out in the long run. And some day we'll remember so much that we'll build the biggest goddam steam - shovel in history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in and cover it up. Come on now, we're going to go build a mirror -factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them." They finished eating and put out the fire. The day was brightening all about them as if a pink lamp had been given more wick. In the trees, the birds that had flown away now came back and settled down. Montag began walking and after a moment found that the others had fallen in behind him, going north. He was s urprised, and moved aside to let Granger pass, but Granger looked at him and nodded him on. Montag went ahead. He looked at the river and the sky and the rusting track going back down to where the farms lay, where the barns stood full of hay, where a lot of people had walked by in the night on their way from the city. Later, 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

3 in a month or six months, and certainly not more than a year, he would walk along here again, alone, and keep right on going until he caught up with the people. But now there was a long morning's walk until noon, and if the men were silent it was because there was everything to think about and much to remember. Perhaps later in the morning, when the sun was up and had warmed them, they would begin to talk, or just say the things they remembered, to be sure they were there, to be absolutely certain that things were safe in them. Montag felt the slow stir of words, the slow simmer. And when it came to his turn, what could he say, what could he offer on a day like this, to make the trip a little easier? To everything there is a season. Yes. A time to break down, and a time to build up. Yes. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. Yes, all that. But what else. What else? Something, something . . . And on either side of the river was there a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Yes, thought Montag, that's the one I'll save for noon. For noon... When we reach the city. 40 45 50 55 (i) How does Bradbury make this passage so hopeful? (ii) Explore one other moment in the novel in which Bradbury conveys hope so vividly in the novel.

4 SECTION B Answer either Question 2 or Question 3. Either 2 Read this poem carefully, and then answer the questions that follow it: Remember to support your ideas with relevant details from the writing. For My Grandmother Knitting There is no need they say but the needles still move their rhythms in the working of your hands as easily as if your hands were once again those sure and skilful hands of the fisher-girl. You are old now and your grasp of things is not so good but master of your moments then deft and swift you slit the still-ticking quick silver fish. Hard work it was too of necessity. But now they say there is no need as the needles move in the working of your hands once the hands of the bride with the hand-span waist once the hands of the miner’s wife who scrubbed his back in a tin bath by the coal fire once the hands of the mother of six who made do and mended scraped and slaved slapped sometimes when necessary. But now they say there is no need the kids they say grandma have too much already more than they can wear too many scarves and cardigans – gran you do too much there’s no necessity. At your window you wave them goodbye Sunday. 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

5 With your painful hands big on shrunken wrists. Swollen-jointed. Red. Arthritic. Old. But the needles still move their rhythms in the working of your hands easily as if your hands remembered of their own accord the pattern as if your hands had forgotten how to stop. (by Liz Lochhead) (i) What impressions do you form of the old lady in lines 1-14 of the poem? (ii) How does the poet use words and images to create feelings of sadness in the poem as a whole? 40 45

6 Or 3 Read this poem carefully, and then answer the questions that follow it: Remember to support your ideas with relevant details from the writing. Chinese Workers on the Evening Train their tongues are rough, but fluent. They carve our silence into syllables that explore the crowd, fingers scouring thick curls in search of roots. there is disquiet at this intrusion. leave us alone, our lips say. we are pressed and drained by the office; you are from a different world. but they stay, and continue speaking, voices raucous and very dusty. the safety patches on their vests ring loudly against our suits. we have learnt your words before. Our lips open in protest. We have no time for the