1
Grade 12
Time: 2½ Hours
Rondebosch Boys’ High School
English Home Language Paper 2
May 2010
Marks 80
Examiners: W. Haggard
Moderators: P. Kew, C. Wren-Sargent
INSTRUCTIONS
CHOICE OF QUESTIONS
1.
This question paper consists of 3 sections.
2.
Section A: Answer any TWO of the questions from the SEEN POETRY (questions 1 – 4
are poems that have been studied in class).
Section A: It is compulsory to answer a question on the UNSEEN POEM. There is a
choice between a contextual question (question 5) and an essay question
(question 6). Do not answer both.
3.
Answer a further two questions, one from each of Sections B and C,
i.e. do not answer more than one question per genre.
4.
In answering Sections B and C, you may not do two essays nor two contextuals.
Choose either the contextual questions from Section B and an essay from Section C OR
the essay from Section B and a contextual question from Section C.
So if you choose Question 7, you must choose Question 10. But if you choose Question
8, you must choose Question 9.
5.
Once the requirements of a section have been satisfied, any extra answers to
questions from that section will not be marked.
Note:
ARRANGEMENT OF ANSWERS: Begin each section on a new page. Write down the question
numbers. Please rule a marking margin.
SUGGESTED LENGTH OF ESSAY QUESTIONS FOR DRAMA OR NOVEL: 450 words; i.e.
approximately two pages.
SUGGESTED LENGTH OF ESSAY QUESTIONS FOR POETRY ESSAY QUESTIONS: 200 –
250 words; i.e. approximately one page.
LENGTH OF CONTEXTUAL ANSWERS: Aim at conciseness and relevance. Be guided by the mark
allocation. Answer in your own words as far as possible, except when actually quoting.
PRESENTATION: Accuracy in grammar, spelling and punctuation, as well as neat presentation, will
count in your favour.
PERSONAL JUDGEMENT: Do not hesitate to give your personal judgement frankly. The examiners
will assess your answers on the competence with which they are expressed and the understanding of the
texts which they reveal.
2
SECTION A: PRESCRIBED POETRY
Answer any TWO seen poems (from questions 1 – 4) and ONE question from the unseen
poem (from questions 5 – 6).
QUESTION 1: ESSAY QUESTION
REFUGEE MOTHER AND CHILD: CHINUA ACHEBE
No Madonna and Child could touch
that picture of a mother's tenderness
for a son she soon would have to forget.
The air was heavy with odours
of diarrhoea of unwashed children
with washed-out ribs and dried-up
bottoms struggling in laboured
steps behind blown empty bellies. Most
mothers there had long ceased
to care but not this one; she held
a ghost smile between her teeth
and in her eyes the ghost of a mother's
pride as she combed the rust-coloured
hair left on his skull and then singing in her eyes - began carefully
to part it...In another life this
must have been a little daily
act of no consequence before his
breakfast and school; now she
did it like putting flowers
on a tiny grave.
5
10
15
20
The poem reveals the tenderness and love the mother has for her dying child in the
context of a particular war situation.
Show how the poem encourages sympathy from the reader.
In your answer you could consider some or all of the following aspects:



The diction (choice of words)
The shocking imagery (and figurative language)
The structure of the poem
[10]
3
QUESTION 2: CONTEXTUAL QUESTION
SUNSTRIKE: DOUGLAS LIVINGSTONE
A solitary prospector
staggered, locked in a vision
of slate hills that capered
on the molten horizon.
Waterless he came to where
a river had run, now a band
flowing only in ripples
of white unquenchable sand.
Cursing, he dug sporadically
here, here, as deep as his arm,
and sat quite still, eyes thirstily
incredulous on his palm.
A handful of alluvial
diamonds leered back and more: mixed
in the scar, glinted globules
of rubies, emeralds, onyx.
And then he was swimming in fire
and drinking, splashing hot halos
of glittering drops at the choir
of assembled carrion crows.
2.1
5
10
15
20
By referring to the images used by the poet in stanza one, prove that the
prospector is losing his mind.
2.2
Refer to lines 13 – 14.
2.2.1 Comment on the irony of the “handful of alluvial diamonds” leering back at the
prospector at this stage.
2.2.2 Discuss what negative comment on life is being made through the use of
this irony.
2.3.
2.4
(2)
(3)
(2)
Comment on the appropriateness of the words “unquenchable” and “thirstily”
in the context of this poem.
(2)
What is indicated by the presence of “the choir of assembled carrion crows.”?
(1)
[10]
4
QUESTION 3: CONTEXTUAL QUESTION
PRELUDES (an extract): T.S. ELIOT
I
The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o'clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimneypots,
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.
5
10
II
The morning comes to consciousness
Of faint stale smells of beer
From the sawdust-trampled street
With all its muddy feet that press
To early coffee-stands.
With the other masquerades
That times resumes,
One thinks of all the hands
That are raising dingy shades
In a thousand furnished rooms.
3.1
15
20
Refer to line 4. Discuss the effectiveness of this image in the context of the poem
as a whole.
(3)
3.2
Refer to line 13. Does Prelude I end on a positive note? Discuss.
(2)
3.3
Refer to Prelude II.
Human activity is depicted in terms of body parts “muddy feet” (line 17) and “the
hands” ( line 21). Suggest why the poet has done this.
(3)
Show how the image “a thousand furnished rooms” (lines 23) contributes to the
message of the poem.
(2)
3.4
[10]
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QUESTION 4 : CONTEXTUAL QUESTION
OZYMANDIAS: PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
5
10
4.1
Suggest why the poet uses “antique” rather than “ancient” in line 1.
(2)
4.2
Show how the character of Ozymandias is developed in lines 4 – 8.
(3)
4.3
Describe the tone of the inscription on the pedestal, paying careful attention to
the choice of punctuation.
(2)
Lines 12 – 14 end off on a note of irony. Discuss how this irony is heightened by
referring to the poet’s use of imagery, sentence length and alliteration.
(3)
4.4
[10]
6
UNSEEN POETRY: Read the following poem and
answer EITHER QUESTION 5 OR QUESTION 6.
THE WATCHMAN’S BLUES: OSWALD MTSHALI
He sits near a brazier
his head bobbing like a fish cork
in the serene waters of sleep.
The jemmy boys
have not paid him a visit,
but if they come
he will die in honour,
die fighting
like a full-blooded Zulu –
and the baas will say:
“Here’s ten pounds.
Jim was a good boy.”
5
10
To rise and keep awake
and twirl the kierie
and shoo the wandering waif
and chase the hobo with “Voetsak”.
15
To wait for the rays of the sun
to spear the fleeing night,
while he pines
for the three wives and a dozen children
sleeping alone in the kraal
faraway in the majestic mountains
of Mahlabathim –
“Where I’m a man
amongst men,
not John or Jim
but Makhubalo Magudulela.”
20
25
QUESTION 5: UNSEEN POETRY ESSAY QUESTION
Discuss how the issues of masculinity and identity are experienced by the man in this poem.
In your answer you could consider some or all of the following aspects:
 The experiences of different social settings
 The use of specific language
 Choice of imagery
 The overall development of the poem
[10]
OR
QUESTION 6: UNSEEN POETRY CONTEXTUAL QUESTION
6.1
Discuss the significance of the title.
(2)
6.2
How does the opening stanza create a mood of relative calmness?
(2)
6.3
Comment on the irony of the word “boy” in line 12.
(3)
6.4
Explain carefully how the mood changes in the final stanza from the previous stanzas in the poem.
(3)
[10]
TOTAL SECTION A: 30
7
SECTION B:
NOVEL
Answer EITHER QUESTION 7 (essay question) OR QUESTION 8 (contextual question).
QUESTION 7: THE GREAT GATSBY ESSAY QUESTION
One of the major themes in the novel is that of the virtue of honesty versus dishonesty as
depicted in the characters in their particular relationships.
Bearing in mind this observation, critically discuss the relationships of the main characters
in The Great Gatsby.
In your answer you could consider some or all of the following aspects:



Relationships between characters
Relationships with one’s self
Social settings
[25]
OR
QUESTION 8: THE GREAT GATSBY CONTEXTUAL QUESTION
Read the extracts below and answer the questions that follow.
EXTRACT A
Inside, the crimson room bloomed with light. Tom and Miss Baker sat at either end of the long
couch and she read aloud to him from the "Saturday Evening Post" – the words, murmurous and
uninflected, running together in a soothing tune. The lamp-light, bright on his boots and dull on the
autumn-leaf yellow of her hair, glinted along the paper as she turned a page with a flutter of slender
muscles in her arms.
When we came in she held us silent for a moment with a lifted hand.
"To be continued," she said, tossing the magazine on the table, "in our very next issue."
Her body asserted itself with a restless movement of her knee, and she stood up.
"Ten o'clock," she remarked, apparently finding the time on the ceiling. "Time for this good girl to go
to bed."
"Jordan's going to play in the tournament tomorrow," explained Daisy, "over at Westchester."
"Oh – you're Jordan Baker."
I knew now why her face was familiar – its pleasing contemptuous expression had looked out at me
from many rotogravure pictures of the sporting life at Asheville and Hot Springs and Palm Beach. I
had heard some story of her too, a critical, unpleasant story, but what it was I had forgotten long ago.
"Good night," she said softly. "Wake me at eight, won't you."
"If you'll get up."
8.1
8.1.1
8.1.2
Refer to lines 15 – 16.
To what unpleasant story is Nick referring?
Show how this links with a major theme in the novel.
5
10
15
(1)
(2)
8
EXTRACT B
About half way between West Egg and New York the motor-road hastily joins the railroad and
runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land.
This is a valley of ashes – a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and
grotesque gardens where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and
finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the
powdery air. Occasionally a line of grey cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly
creak and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades and stir
up an impenetrable cloud which screens their obscure operations from your sight.
But above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive,
after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue
and gigantic – their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face but, instead, from a pair of
enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an
oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself
into eternal blindness or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many
paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.
5
10
15
The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, and when the drawbridge is up to
let barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half
an hour. There is always a halt there of at least a minute and it was because of this that I first met
Tom Buchanan's mistress.
The fact that he had one was insisted upon wherever he was known. His acquaintances resented the
fact that he turned up in popular restaurants with her and, leaving her at a table, sauntered about,
chatting with whomsoever he knew. Though I was curious to see her I had no desire to meet her –
but I did. I went up to New York with Tom on the train one afternoon and when we stopped by the
ash heaps he jumped to his feet and taking hold of my elbow literally forced me from the car.
"We're getting off!" he insisted. "I want you to meet my girl."
20
8.2
Show how this extract develops the valley of ashes as an important symbolic setting.
(4)
8.3
In the novel, we learn that Nick is not particularly impressed with Tom’s behaviour, yet in
this extract he tags along in his company. In your view, why does Nick do this?
(2)
8.4
8.4.1
8.4.2
“I want you to meet my girl.” (line 25)
What negative traits are revealed about Tom through this statement?
Do events later in the story support these negative qualities? Provide ONE example to support
your answer.
25
(2)
(2)
EXTRACT C
There was music from my neighbour's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and
girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. At high tide
in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft or taking the sun on the hot sand
of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts
of foam. On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city,
5
between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagons scampered like a brisk
yellow bug to meet all trains. And on Mondays eight servants including an extra gardener toiled all
day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the
night before.
Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York--every Monday
10
these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves. There was a machine
9
in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred oranges in half an hour, if a little button
was pressed two hundred times by a butler's thumb.
At least once a fortnight a corps of caterers came down with several hundred feet of canvas and enough
coloured lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby's enormous garden. On buffet tables, garnished with 15
glistening hors-d'oeuvre, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry
pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold. In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and
stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guests were
too young to know one from another.
By seven o'clock the orchestra has arrived – no thin five-piece affair but a whole pitful of oboes and
20
trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos and low and high drums. The last
swimmers have come in from the beach now and are dressing upstairs; the cars from New York are
parked five deep in the drive, and already the halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary
colours and hair shorn in strange new ways and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile. The bar is in full
swing and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside until the air is alive with chatter
25
and laughter and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings
between women who never knew each other's names.
The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun and now the orchestra is playing
yellow cocktail music and the opera of voices pitches a key higher. Laughter is easier, minute by
minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word. The groups change more swiftly,
swell with new arrivals, dissolve and form in the same breath – already there are wanderers,
confident girls who weave here and there among the stouter and more stable, become for a sharp,
joyous moment the centre of a group and then excited with triumph glide on through the sea-change
of faces and voices and colour under the constantly changing light.
30
Suddenly one of these gypsies in trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the air, dumps it down for
35
courage and moving her hands like Frisco dances out alone on the canvas platform. A momentary hush;
the orchestra leader varies his rhythm obligingly for her and there is a burst of chatter as the erroneous
news goes around that she is Gilda Gray's understudy from the "Follies." The party has begun.
8.5
Explain how a mood of extravagance is established in the opening lines of this extract.
(2)
8.6
Show how the description of the processing of oranges and lemons in lines 10 – 13 becomes a
commentary on Gatsby’s parties.
(4)
Consider the description of the party. (Lines 20 – 38)
There is a change in tense from the past tense to the present tense. Comment on how this
enhances the description of the party as viewed by the narrator, Nick.
(3)
8.7
8.8
This extract reveals the public face of Gatsby. In your view, is this an accurate impression to
have of Gatsby in the context of the novel? Discuss.
(3)
[25]
TOTAL SECTION B: 25
10
SECTION C: DRAMA
Answer EITHER QUESTION 9 (essay question) OR QUESTION 10 (contextual question).
QUESTION 9: OTHELLO ESSAY QUESTION
"
...Then must you speak
of one that loved not wisely but too well,
of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
perplexed in the extreme..."
(Othello, Act 5,ii)
Othello justifies his own actions after murdering Desdemona. Do you agree or disagree with him?
In your answer you could consider some or all of the following aspects:




The character of Desdemona
Othello’s insecurities about himself
The manipulation of Othello by Iago
Desdemona’s willingness to accept abuse from her husband
[25]
OR
QUESTION 10: OTHELLO CONTEXTUAL QUESTION
Read the extracts below and answer the questions that follow.
EXTRACT A
IAGO
Thus do I ever make my fool my purse:
For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane,
If I would time expend with such a snipe.
But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor:
And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets
He has done my office: I know not if't be true;
But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do as if for surety. He holds me well;
The better shall my purpose work on him.
Cassio's a proper man: let me see now:
To get his place and to plume up my will
In double knavery--How, how? Let's see:-After some time, to abuse Othello's ear
That he is too familiar with his wife.
He hath a person and a smooth dispose
To be suspected, framed to make women false.
The Moor is of a free and open nature,
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
And will as tenderly be led by the nose
As asses are.
I have't. It is engender'd. Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.
5
10
15
20
11
10.1
To whom is Iago referring in line 1?
(1)
10.2.1 Using your own words, show what reason Iago provides for hating the Moor in this extract.
10.2.2 Iago uses this reason as part of his ammunition to destroy Othello’s marriage to Desdemona.
Do you accept or reject his reasons for doing so? Use evidence from the entire play to support
your answer.
10.3
10.4
(1)
(3)
What is revealed about Iago’s character in this extract? Provide evidence to support your
answer.
(4)
Refer to lines 21 – 22. Comment on the imagery in this couplet, and its dramatic implications
for the rest of the play.
(4)
EXTRACT B
Exit CASSIO
Enter OTHELLO and IAGO
IAGO
Ha! I like not that.
OTHELLO
What dost thou say?
IAGO
Nothing, my lord; or if – I know not what.
OTHELLO
Was not that Cassio parted from my wife?
IAGO
Cassio, my lord! No, sure, I cannot think it,
That he would steal away so guilty-like,
Seeing you coming.
OTHELLO
I do believe 'twas he.
DESDEMONA
How now, my lord!
I have been talking with a suitor here,
A man that languishes in your displeasure.
OTHELLO
Who is't you mean?
10.5
10.6
5
10
Refer to the opening stage direction in this extract.
Explain why Cassio leaves at this stage of the play.
(2)
Examine Iago’s statements to Othello in this extract.
Discuss the rhetorical techniques Iago uses to construct suspicion in Othello’s mind.
(4)
12
EXTRACT C
EMILIA
O, are you come, Iago? you have done well,
That men must lay their murders on your neck.
GRATIANO
What is the matter?
EMILIA
Disprove this villain, if thou be'st a man:
He says thou told'st him that his wife was false:
I know thou didst not, thou'rt not such a villain:
Speak, for my heart is full.
IAGO
I told him what I thought, and told no more
Than what he found himself was apt and true.
EMILIA
But did you ever tell him she was false?
IAGO
I did.
EMILIA
You told a lie, an odious, damned lie;
Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie.
She false with Cassio! – did you say with Cassio?
IAGO
With Cassio, mistress. Go to, charm your tongue.
EMILIA
I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak:
My mistress here lies murder'd in her bed, –
ALL
O heavens forfend!
EMILIA
And your reports have set the murder on.
OTHELLO
Nay, stare not, masters: it is true, indeed.
GRATIANO
'Tis a strange truth.
MONTANO
O monstrous act!
EMILIA
Villany, villany, villany!
I think upon't, I think: I smell't: O villany!
I thought so then: – I'll kill myself for grief:
O villany, villany!
IAGO
What, are you mad? I charge you, get you home.
EMILIA
Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak:
'Tis proper I obey him, but not now.
Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.
5
10
15
20
25
30
13
10.7
10.8
Examine Emilia’s speeches in this extract. Discuss the difference in Emilia’s character the
audience now observes, in contrast to her character earlier in the play.
Explain why this scene would be exciting to experience in the theatre.
(3)
(3)
[25]
TOTAL SECTION C: 25
CHECKLIST
Use the checklist below to make sure that you have answered the required number of questions.
SECTION
QUESTION
NUMBERS
NO. OF
QUESTIONS
TO ANSWER
A: POETRY
(Prescribed Poetry)
1-4
2
A: POETRY
(Unseen Poetry)
5/6
1
B: NOVEL
(Essay OR Contextual)
7/9
1
C: DRAMA
(Essay OR Contextual)
8 / 10
1
TICK
NOTE:
In Sections B and C, answer ONE ESSAY and ONE CONTEXTUAL question.
14
"Then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely but too well; of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought, perplexed in the
extreme..."
Othello justifies his own actions after murdering Desdemona. Do you agree or disagree with him?
Memo:
As you can see, one should provide a sound argument and discursive presentation around these issues. Facts
are important. Be careful of simply retelling the story.
Very important: introduction (5 lines max: signpost - i.e. state whether agree or disagree + some attempt at
paraphrasis of essay topic)
Mark for content first: if out of 25 (new curriculum) then 15 for content. A really good essay will have an indepth interpetatio and exploration of topic and might attempt to look at both sides as against a trite analysis
that only focuses on D's goodliness and sanctity and how she has been villified by O (and Iagao)
Language: 10: excellent structure and impressive language use and tone. No paragraphing = 0 - 2! Please
emphasise this. There must be a logical flow to the argument (use of co-ordinators such as "therefore" +
"furthermore" etc)
Good luck! Let me know if you need anything else!!!