ENGLISH LANGUAGE III

Transcription

1 DATE: 14 June 2012 LENGTH OF THE EXAMINATION : 3 hours (180 minutes) PERMITTED EQUIPMENT: None SPECIAL REMARKS : Answer ALL THREE Parts There is a choice of questions in Part 3. 1/5

2 Part 1 Reading Comprehension Read the following text and then answer the questions which follow. Back to the land: from London to sheep farming on Eigg Sarah Boden swapped a career as an Observer music journalist for life on Eigg, a small Scottish island I spent my early childhood on the island of Eigg, a small, ruggedly beautiful spot, set between the Outer Hebrides and Scotland's mountainous west coast. It's the sort of place that lends itself to flights of imagination. History and folklore sit side by side and, in the untamed landscape, it's easy to picture the arrival of Vikings in longboats, clans clashing swords or even mermaids seducing foolish sailors to a watery death. Eigg stands 15 miles from the mainland in the tempestuous waters of the Minch. It's remote but, if winter storms allow, a boat makes the 75-minute crossing four times a week. There's a more regular service in the summer, when the vessels unload a curious mixture of holidaymakers, nature lovers and perennial visitors. In terms of infrastructure, there's not much here: a small grocer's and craft shop, a tea room and ceilidh* hall, a doctor's surgery and a single-classroom primary school. From the air, the island's five-by-three mile aspect looks like an inverted comma, with a single tarmac road snaking the length of it like a liquorice strip. A patchy phone signal can be found at the pier or up the highest peak, but a recent switch to wireless broadband means that the internet connection is decent, as long as the receivers haven't been blown down by gales. It's a tangle of paradoxes: isolated but with a close-knit community of 90 people; bucolic and peaceful, but with wild weather that can take you off your feet; old-fashioned but, like many Highland communities, undergoing a period of cultural and social adjustment. Eigg was, in the late 1990s, one of the first Scottish communities to buy itself out of private ownership, and more recently pioneered an island electricity grid powered by wind turbines, PV panels and a hydro dam. Don't get me wrong, London's vibrancy still excites me, but the barbaric levels of consumption instilled a sense of unease that I couldn't shrug off. I felt alienated from the self-reliant values that I grew up with, which centred on steadfastness and probity. When the Music Monthly closed I took voluntary redundancy, used some of the money to clear the stack of debts I'd amassed since university, and decided to lead a simpler life. A life on Eigg. There wasn't really a plan. I thought about putting my name on the waiting list for a croft. Crofting is a distinctive Scottish farming system in which land is rented, and there are rights to use common land to feed animals. You can't earn a living from these diminutive plots however, so, like many people on the island, I'd need to do an assortment of jobs such as cleaning holiday houses or picking shell fish to support myself. In the meantime, I could maybe stay at my parents place they'd moved back to the island six years earlier from Herefordshire for Mum to take up a teaching post. However, in an unlikely turn of circumstances, an uncle whose family has lived on the island for generations decided to retire the tenancy of his hill farm. (Continued on next page) 2/5

3 The lease could be passed to a family member, and my parents were keen to take it on. Without a great deal of persuasion, as they are in their mid-50s and don't fancy the hard graft in their old age, they generously agreed to include me as a partner. This wasn't as drastic a career change as you might think. We'd moved from Eigg years ago because my father became manager of a bull farm in Devon. Ever since attending Young Farmers meetings and spending long summers looking after calves, I had wanted to have a farming life of my own. As a child, though, I felt a responsibility to my family to enter a "respectable" profession. (I dutifully studied law but found journalism's friendliness more accommodating.) Now that an opportunity had presented itself, and on Eigg of all places, my gut instinct was that this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. I've been back on Eigg for little over a year now. It took me several months to slow to island pace, where nothing happens fast. I am master of my own time but the day's activity is usually dictated by the weather. If there's a strong south-westerly wind, it feels like a layer of your skin is being removed. On a calm day, it can be quiet enough to hear the muted whisper of passing birds. I love it out here. Sometimes, if I've been working on my own, I miss listening to the funny conversation of my colleagues, but that aside, most of my wants are food-related: strong coffee, exotically stocked Turkish corner shops, backstreet east London curry houses and London Fields' Vietnamese cafes. In moments of cold deliberation, my thoughts fall to the larger concerns of island living: as long as I'm tied to the farm, I'm tied to Eigg, and it's a big ask for someone not accustomed to this lifestyle to move here, but I'll have to leave that to fate. (840 words) Adapted from an article by Sarah Boden, Back to the land: from London to sheep farming on Eigg The Guardian, Friday 12 August 2011 ceilidh* a party with traditional music and dancing Questions to Part 1 are on the next page. 3/5

4 Part 1 Questions (total 30 marks) Answer the following questions, using your own words wherever possible. Use the number of marks allocated to each question when deciding how much to write for your answer. 1. Use a word or phrase to explain the meaning of the following as they are used in the text: (a) untamed (line 3) (1 mark) (b) tempestuous (line 6) (1 mark) (c) adjustment (line 18 (1 mark) (d) unease (line 22) (1 mark) (e) amassed (line 25) (1 mark) 5 marks 2. Give two examples of the flights of imagination referred to in line 3. 2 marks 3. (a) What is the phone reception like on the island and where can it be found? (b) How has communication on the island been improved recently? 1 mark 4. (a) What is meant by the expression a tangle of paradoxes? 2 marks (b) Give two examples of this from the text. 4 marks 5 (a) What positive and negative aspects of her life in London does the author mention? (b) What single factor helped make her mind up to move to Eigg? 2 marks (c) In the last paragraph the author mentions three things that she misses from her life in London. What are they? 6 (a) How does the author support herself now that she is living on the island? 2 marks (b) What experiences in the author s childhood prepared her for life on Eigg? Part 2 Writing (30 marks) Imagine you are a friend of Sarah s who lives in London. On your blog, she suggests that you should also consider moving out of the city. Write the exchange of views that you have on your blog.. You should write approximately 250 words. Continue to the next page for Part 3. 4/5

5 Part 3 Set Text (40 marks) Write an essay of approximately 300 words on one of the following questions. Number your answer clearly to show which question you have attempted and refer closely to the text in your answer. Either a) John Steinbeck ( ), Of Mice & Men (Penguin Books Ltd, 2006) Lennie cried out suddenly, I don like this place, George. This ain t no good place. I wanna get outta here. (Chapter 2) Account for Lennie s strong feelings and discuss and illustrate why the farm they have come to work on is not a good place for George and Lennie. Or b) John Steinbeck ( ), Of Mice & Men (Penguin Books Ltd, 2006) How are the themes of loneliness and friendship portrayed in the novel? Or c) Willy Russell (b. 1946), Educating Rita (Cambridge, 1983) Rita says to Frank, I came to tell you you re a good teacher. (Act 2 Scene 7) To what extent do you agree with Rita s judgement? Or d) Willy Russell (b. 1946), Educating Rita (Cambridge, 1983) Discuss how Rita changes throughout the play, concentrating on before and after the summer school, in particular. 5/5