If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress.

Transcription

1 English Homework Name If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress. Barack Obama Improve your grade: read Regular reading will improve your English skills. Why not try The Book Thief by Markus Zusak? Narrated by Death, this is the story of Liesel Meminger, a young foster girl living outside of Munich in Nazi Germany. Liesel scratches out a meagre existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can t resist books. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever they are to be found. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, Liesel learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbours during bombing raids, as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. On target? Your homework booklet will be marked using the key below. At all times you should be focusing on developing the accuracy and quality of your basic expression. How your written work will be marked Sp Check spelling // New paragraph needed P Check punctuation C You need a capital letter here T Please check the tense of your verb FS Please answer in a full sentence ^ There is a word missing in this sentence e.g. Needs an example or quotation Autumn Term 2016 : THREE

2 1 WRITING ABOUT THE USE OF LANGUAGE For question 2 of Paper 1 of GCSE English Language you are required to show that you can explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language and structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support your views. Her name was Mrs. Pratchett. She was a small skinny old hag with a moustache on her upper lip and a mouth as sour as a green gooseberry. She never smiled. She never welcomed us when we went in. By far the most loathsome thing about Mrs. Pratchett was the filth that clung about her. Her apron was grey and greasy. Her blouse had bits of breakfast all over it, toast-crumbs and tea stains and splotches of dried egg yolk. It was her hands, however, that disturbed us most. They were disgusting. They were black with dirt and grime. They looked as though they had been putting lumps of coal on the fire all day long. The mere sight of her grimy right hand with its black fingernails digging an ounce of Chocolate Fudge out of the jar would have caused a starving tramp to go running from the shop. from Boy by Roald Dahl How does the writer use language here to describe Mrs. Pratchett? You could include the writer s choice of: words and phrases language features and techniques sentence forms. 2 SPELLINGS deliberate triumph spectacle pursuit constancy excitability unconscious condescending implacable expunge

3 3 WRITING ABOUT THE USE OF LANGUAGE FEEDBACK AND TARGETS

4 1 EVALUATING TEXTS For question 4 of Paper 1 of GCSE English Language you are required to show that you can evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual references. In the extract below, Kafka Tamura, a teenager, is preparing to run away from home. I switch off the light and leave the bathroom. A heavy, damp stillness lies over the house. The whispers of people who don t exist, the breath of the dead. I look around, standing stock-still, and take a deep breath. The clock shows 3 p.m., the two hands cold and distant. They re pretending to be non-committal, but I know they re not on my side. It s nearly time for me to say goodbye. I pick up my backpack and slip it over my shoulders. I ve carried it any number of times, but now it feels so much heavier. Shikoku, I decide. That s where I ll go. There s no particular reason it has to be Shikoku, only that studying the map I got the feeling that s where I should head. The more I look at the map actually every time I study it the more I feel Shikoku tugging at me. It s a long way south of Tokyo, separated from the mainland by water, with a warm climate. I ve never been there, have no friends or relatives there, so if somebody started looking for me which I doubt they will Shikoku would be the last place they d think of. Haruki Murakami Kafka On The Shore Having read the above text, a teenager said: The writer clearly shows the uncertainty of Kafka as he prepares to leave home. To what extent do you agree? In your response, you could: write about your own impressions of the character evaluate how the writer has created these impressions support your opinions with references to the text. 2 SPELLINGS council personal counsel personnel extrusion persecution accustomed derision eulogy companion

5 3 EVALUATING TEXTS FEEDBACK AND TARGETS

6 1 UNSEEN POETRY Arms and the Boy Let the boy try along this bayonet-blade How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood; Blue with all malice, like a madman s flash; And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh. Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-leads, Which long to nuzzle in the hearts of lads, Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death. For his teeth seem for laughing round an apple. There lurk no claws behind his fingers supple; And God will grow no talons at his heels, Nor antlers through the thickness of his curls. Wilfred Owen 2 SPELLINGS surrender occasion excitement unfamiliar impatience likelihood imaginary miraculous intensity recite

7 3 UNSEEN POETRY Read and annotate the poem opposite. How does the poet present weapons of war and the effects they might have on the young soldier? FEEDBACK AND TARGETS

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