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Cambridge International Examinations
Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
8287/13
ENGLISH LANGUAGE (US)
Paper 1 Passages
May/June 2014
2 hours 15 minutes
No Additional Materials are required.
* 5 1 1 7 3 0 3 0 7 5 *
READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST
An answer booklet is provided inside this question paper. You should follow the instructions on the front cover
of the answer booklet. If you need additional answer paper ask the invigilator for a continuation booklet.
Answer two questions: Question 1 and either Question 2 or Question 3.
You should spend about 15 minutes reading the passages and questions before you start writing your answers.
You are reminded of the need for good English and clear presentation in your answers.
The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.
This document consists of 7 printed pages, 1 blank page and 1 insert.
DC (SJF) 91367
© UCLES 2014
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Answer Question 1 and either Question 2 or Question 3.
1
The following text is taken from an online advertisement for a luxury apartment called Pembroke in
Cape Town, South Africa.
(a) Comment on the ways in which language and style are used to promote the accommodation
and its location.
[15]
(b) The same company posts a similar online advertisement for a different luxury apartment they
run in your own part of the world.
Write a section (between 120–150 words) of this advertisement. Base your answer closely on
the style and features of the original extract.
[10]
Set on the water’s edge in the heart of Cape Town’s acclaimed waterfront, Pembroke
is the quintessence of luxury serviced accommodation for either business or holiday,
rubbing shoulders with two of the world’s leading hotels, The One and Only, and
Cape Grace.
Within walking distance of a myriad of bistros, gourmet restaurants, popular and
designer shopping, and an internationally renowned aquarium, Pembroke is an
oasis to which you can retreat after sampling the city’s busy delights.
Perched above the marina, relax and enjoy a languid drink at sunset, looking out
over the water, or contemplate the majesty of Table Mountain after an invigorating
day out and about.
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When only the very best will do for your Cape Town trip, why look any further?
Retail food outlets and fine dining establishments are within walking distance.
For a special occasion, enlist a private chef for that indulgent gourmet meal. We
can arrange tours of the Winelands, as well as trips to experience the exceptional
regional flora and fauna (e.g. botanical gardens or whale-spotting). The Cape is also 15
a hotspot for golf with many nearby courses. We will gladly organise airport transfers
as well as assist with vehicle hire during your stay.
This luxury serviced apartment’s bedroom suite, which comes with a plush extra
length king bed and luxury linen, commands superb views across the marina to
Cape Town’s waterfront and the ocean beyond. There is an open-plan dressing room
and en suite bathroom with separate wet room and power shower, a regal double
bath enjoying views over the harbour, twin basins and bidet.
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The bed is an extra length king-size, dressed with the finest linens with which to
enjoy your marina bedroom choice of TV, film or music from the flat-screen TV and
the surround-sound speakers’ link to the apartment’s integrated audiovisual system,
enhanced by mood lighting to orchestrate the ambience of the moment and all by
remote control.
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The suite enjoys vistas of Table Mountain and the cableway, Signal Hill and the Noon
Day Gun (you’ll hear its crack at twelve precisely), with The One and Only Hotel and
its private villas huddled around the canal below. There are magnificent views of the
green belt of Signal Hill from even the shower and bath. The terrace, too, invites you
to step out and contemplate this panorama. On a balmy summer’s evening, the play
of light is remarkable.
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Extra sleeping accommodation is available in the TV lounge with a pair of specially
commissioned daybeds imported from Switzerland. By day, these form very smart
and comfortable seating or lounging spaces, while, at night, they can convert into
fully functional beds on sprung bases to make a pair of twins or a king bed. This
area is serviced by another bathroom with its own wet room and power shower.
The fully-equipped kitchen is ergonomic perfection. Built-in appliances, coupled with
finger-touch drawers and cupboards, make it heaven for gastronomes. Stylish cobalt
blue stone surfaces, punctuated with silver glints, add a dramatic signature to the
kitchen’s muted off-white and teal1 colour scheme. Aspiring chefs can communicate
directly with their guests in the lounge and dining area, with a serving counter
providing direct and practical access from the kitchen.
The glass dining table is another spectacular creation and provides generous
seating for at least 8 people. The extremely comfortable dining chairs were specially
made in a grey-blue leather to match the sofa in the lounge and to marry in with
tall units in the kitchen. The lighting of the dining area was created for atmosphere
to allow focused lighting on the table while reducing the light level throughout the
rest of the open-plan space. All of this can be adjusted at the touch of a button on
the remote control. We love to dine here having put together a lovely meal with
a good bottle of wine from our cellar collection – also available to our guests. A
few tea-lights in white porcelain holders add further to the atmosphere as does the
wonderful sound of the music from the speakers. Looking towards the balcony from
the table and through the sheer red chilli metallic drapes, the lights of the marina
shine like stars. It really is so magical.
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teal : blue-green colour
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2
The following text is taken from a magazine feature which describes the underwater exploration of
the ship Titanic, which sank in 1912.
(a) Comment on the ways in which language and style are used to convey the atmosphere of the
scene.
[15]
(b) The writer publishes a magazine feature in which he describes his exploration of another
unusual location (real or imaginary). In it he creates a strong sense of atmosphere.
Write a section (between 120–150 words) of this article. Base your answer closely on the
features of the writing in the original extract.
[10]
It had been five hours since my intrepid robot Gilligan left its garage on the front of
the submersible Mir 1 and disappeared inside the cavernous shipwreck. Our sub
was parked on the upper deck of the most famous wreck in history, surrounded by
eternal blackness and over 5,000 pounds per square inch of pressure, both thanks
to a two-and-a-half-mile column of water over our heads.
Safe inside the Mir, I flew the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) with gentle nudges
of the joystick, its thrusters manoeuvering it into the ship’s treacherous interior. The
robot had penetrated to F Deck. Though the tiny vehicle was now seven decks below
me, I felt as if my consciousness were inside the robot, its cameras my eyes, staring
down the corridors of the ship. Its jeopardy was also mine, and my pulse raced
with each new hazard. Turning a corner, I barely escaped being pinned by a falling
“rusticle,” one of the stalactite-like formations created by the bacteria that are slowly
devouring the steel of the ship.
As I passed through an entrance, suddenly revealed in my lights were sparkling
reflections off a wall of gleaming blue and green tiles. Teak chaise longues lay
upturned on the floor, incredibly well preserved, and above them was an arabesque
dome covered in gold leaf. I had entered the elegant spa on the most luxurious ship
of its time. “Tell them we’re in the Turkish baths,” I said to the marine archaeologist
sitting next to me. He keyed the microphone and relayed the message up to the
surface.
Our interior archaeological survey of the ship had begun in 1995, as I was wrapping
up shooting the wreck for the movie Titanic. Back then we had an unwieldy ROV. Its
lights revealed that much of the ornate wood paneling remained intact but I could
not help wondering what lay in the shadows just beyond its lights. After the movie
was released, I commissioned the building of two revolutionary new robotic vehicles
so we could return and truly explore the interior.
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One incredible discovery followed another, in dizzying succession. In the first-class
dining saloon and reception rooms, we found the tall, leaded windows still intact.
The hand-carved mahogany paneling on the walls and columns remains, some of
it with the original white paint still visible. There are cut crystal chandeliers and, in 30
the first-class staterooms, immaculately preserved brass beds. Iron grilles cover the
yawning elevator shafts. When I first laid eyes on the intact brass call button, I felt as
if I could reach out and touch it, and a ghostly elevator might still arrive.
Of all our discoveries, the most evocative are the relics that suggest the human
hands that touched them. In Henry Harper’s D Deck cabin, his bowler hat remains in
the ruins of his closet, right where he left it. In Edith Russell’s cabin on A Deck, the
mirror still gleams in her washstand, reflecting back the robot’s LED lights instead
of Edith’s terrified face as she rushed back into the room to get her lucky toy pig
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before running to board a lifeboat. In another stateroom, a glass decanter and water
glass sit, impossibly, still on the washstand. Had the glass been empty, it would have
floated out of its holder when the room flooded, and been lost. But someone took a
drink and left it half full, and there it sits today.
In the soundproof Marconi room, the wireless apparatus survives, the knife switches
still in the positions left by the young operators revealing that they cut the power
when they abandoned their post as the water rushed up the deck outside. We even
imaged the transformer they had repaired just the night before the sinking. Capturing
these precious robot images was like touching history itself.
After 33 dives to the wreck, averaging 14 hours each, I have spent more time on the
ship than Captain Smith himself did. In all that exploration, the strongest memories
are these out-of-body experiences of ghostwalking through the corridors and
stairwells of Titanic via my ROV. Its gothic ruin exists now in a ghostly limbo, neither
in our world nor completely gone from it. The rusticles have transformed Edwardian
elegance into a phantasmagorical cavern, a surreal underworld ruled only by dream
logic. But despite the sheer alienness of the place, I felt a tingling déjà vu exploring
there. Having walked the faithfully built movie set for many weeks, I would turn a
corner in the wreck and already know, before the robot’s video camera revealed
it, what would be there. It was an eerie feeling but also strangely comforting, as if I
were somehow home.
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3
The following text is taken from an autobiographical account. The writer recalls his early life in
Havana, Cuba, and the time when the leader of the country, Batista, was overthrown by his
opponents. At this stage, the writer feels that he is an outsider both in terms of his family and the
outside world.
(a) Comment on the ways in which language and style are used to represent the writer’s thoughts
and feelings.
[15]
(b) Later, the writer’s mother records the experience of this day in her diary. Write a section of
the diary entry (between 120–150 words). Base your answer closely on the material of the
original extract.
[10]
The world changed while I slept, and much to my surprise, no one had consulted
me. That’s how it would always be from that day forward. Of course, that’s the way it
had been all along. I just didn’t know it until that morning.
I was barely eight years old, and I had spent hours dreaming of childish things, as
children do. My father, who vividly remembered his prior incarnation as King Louis
XVI1 of France, probably dreamt of costume balls, mobs, and guillotines2. My mother,
who had no memory of having been Marie Antoinette3, couldn’t have shared in his
dreams. Maybe she dreamt of hibiscus blossoms and fine silk. Maybe she dreamt of
angels, as she always encouraged me to do. “Sueña con los angelitos,” she would
say: Dream of little angels. The fact that they were little meant they were too cute to
be fallen angels.
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The tropical sun knifed through the gaps in the wooden shutters, as always,
extending in narrow shafts of light above my bed, revealing entire galaxies of swirling
dust specks. I stared at the dust, as always, rapt4. I don’t remember getting out of
bed. But I do remember walking into my parents’ bedroom. Their shutters were open 15
and the room was flooded with light. As always, my father was putting on his trousers
over his shoes. He always put on his socks and shoes first, and then his trousers.
For years I tried to duplicate that nearly magical feat, with little success. The cuffs of
my pants would always get stuck on my shoes and no amount of tugging could free
them. More than once I risked an eternity in hell and spat out swear words.
20
As he slid his baggy trousers over his brown shoes, effortlessly, Louis XVI broke the
news to me: “Batista is gone. He flew out of Havana early this morning. It looks like
the rebels have won.”
“You lie,” I said.
“No, I swear, it’s true,” he replied.
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Marie Antoinette, my mother, assured me it was true as she applied lipstick, seated
at her vanity table. It was a beautiful piece of mahogany furniture with three mirrors:
one flat against the wall and two on either side of that, hinged so that their angles
could be changed at will. I used to turn the side mirrors so they would face each
other and create infinite regressions of one another. Sometimes I would peer in and 30
plunge into infinity.
The night before, we had all gone to a wedding at a church in the heart of old
Havana. On the way home, we had the streets to ourselves. Not another moving car
in sight. Not a soul on the Malecón, the broad avenue along the waterfront. Louis
XVI and Marie Antoinette kept talking about the eerie emptiness of the city. Havana
was much too quiet for a New Year’s Eve.
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I can’t remember what my older brother, Tony, was doing that morning or for the rest
of the day. Maybe he was wrapping lizards in thin copper wire and hooking them up
to our train transformer. He liked to electrocute them. He liked it a lot.
My older brother and my adopted brother had both been Bourbon princes in a former
life. My adopted brother had been the Dauphin, the heir to the French throne. My
father had recognized him on the street one day, selling lottery tickets, and brought
him to our house immediately. I was the outsider.
The lizards remained oblivious to the news that day, as always. Contrary to what my
brother Tony liked to say as he administered shock treatments to them, the lizards
were not deluded in the least. They knew exactly what they were and always would
be. Nothing had changed for them. Nothing would ever change. The world already
belonged to them whole, free of vice and virtue. They scurried up and down the walls
of the patio, and along its brightly colored floor tiles. They lounged on tree branches,
sunned themselves on rocks. They clung to the ceilings inside our house, waiting for
bugs to eat. They never fell in love, or sinned, or suffered broken hearts. They knew
nothing of betrayal or humiliation. They needed no revolutions. They feared neither
death nor torture at the hands of children. They worried not about curses, or proof of
God’s existence, or nakedness. Their limbs looked an awful lot like our own, in the
same way that eggplants resembled breasts. Lizards were ugly, to be sure – or so I
thought back then. They made me question the goodness of creation.
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I could never kiss a lizard, I thought. Never.
Perhaps I envied them. Their place on earth was more secure than ours. We would
lose our place, lose our world. They are still basking in the sun. Same way. Day in,
day out.
1
Louis XVI : the deposed King of France at the time of the French Revolution in
1789, later executed by guillotine by his opponents
2 guillotine : device which drops a heavy blade, used to execute people
3 Marie Antoinette : wife of King Louis XVI, also executed
4 rapt : enchanted
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BLANK PAGE
Copyright Acknowledgements:
Question 1
Question 2
Question 3
© http://www.pureholidayhomes.com/cape-town-stunning-5-star-luxury-serviced-property-in-cape-town-p31270.html.
© James Cameron; Ghostwalking in Titanic; National Geographic Society; April 2012.
© Carlos Eire; Waiting for Snow in Havana; Confessions of a Cuban Boy; Free Press / Simon & Schuster Inc; 2003.
Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.
Cambridge International Examinations is part of the Cambridge Assessment Group. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of University of Cambridge Local
Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is itself a department of the University of Cambridge.
© UCLES 2014
8287/13/M/J/14