HSC Standard and Advanced English
Paper 1, Section I: Short Answers – Sample responses
NOTE: In this section two answers are given for each question to suggest the variety of
ways that the questions can be interpreted. Go to Part 2 on short answers for general
advice (see CTQE).
Responses by: Andrew Pavlou and Amy Hughes
(a)
Quoted
examples and
techniques are
explained in
terms of
discovery
In what ways is dialogue used to capture the young
couple’s reactions to the items they find?
2 marks
The young couple’s response to the bounty they unearth is realistically
captured through engaging dialogue. The consistent use of exclamation
marks maintains the ever-growing enthusiasm felt by the pair, elevated
by each find: ‘Oh, man, look at this!’. The interjections ‘Oh’ and ‘Whoa!’
reflect the joy triggered by finding the items. The imperative command
‘look’ is repeated throughout the dialogue, highlighting the characters’
compulsion to share each discovery, which acknowledges the high value
they place on the objects they uncover.
Alternative answer:
Punctuation
and imperative
tone impart
the discovery
The man’s dialogue, ‘Oh, man, look at this!’ includes italics, exclamatory
punctuation and an imperative tone to emphasise his excitement at
finding the objects and sharing his discoveries with his partner. The
woman’s dialogue reveals her shared enthusiasm through exclamatory
punctuation in ‘Books here!’ and the description of her boisterous tone,
‘she cried out.’
(b)
Analysis of
visual texts
must include
comments on
the visuality
How does the image represent an individual who values
discovered objects?
2 marks
Profound discoveries should be revered, as they lead to progress and
allow humankind to understand more about their world. The salient
image of a noble man bearing a proud gaze fixed directly at the
responder suggests that he deems the discovered objects significant. His
extended arm creates a vector that guides the responder towards a
pointed finger, forcibly compelling them to observe several items. A
specimen jar is held aloft in his right hand, likening it to a prize worthy
of admiration. The background of the object shows the care taken to
classify and organise his findings in a prominent display, reinforcing the
individual’s belief that the discovered objects are significant and
valuable.
Alternative answer:
Foreground,
gaze and body
language are
The meticulous arrangement of the marine life on the velvet-adorned
table in the foreground indicates Albertus Seba’s reverence towards his
discovered objects. His demanding gaze also summons the viewer to
techniques that
convey
discovery
feast their eyes on his showcase of treasures, while his body language
proudly exhibits the objects in the foreground for the viewer’s
enjoyment and edification.
(c)
The poetic
language
reflects a
personal
response
Explain how the poem conveys the personal response of
the father to his discoveries.
3 marks
The poem employs a persona who speculates on the impact of
discoveries made in nature by their father. The father’s curiosity prompts
his early discoveries, highlighted through the hyperbole ‘he noticed
everything’ and reinforced through the cumulative listing: ‘mushroom
and scat, wildbloom, snail and iris, clubmoss, fern and cone’. The
persona uses the modal verb ‘must’ to reflect his own outlook and
project it as the father’s personal response to the natural world,
suggested by the hyperbole ‘it must have been an endless breathing in.’
The sixth stanza suggests the impact of natural phenomena on the
father’s ‘abstruse’ career decision implied through the scientific words
‘microscopes and numbers, lapel pins’. Science becomes a connection to
a past that he was ‘trying in vain to get back to’.
Alternative answer:
First sentence
responds
immediately to
the question,
supported by
examples and
summed up in
final statement
This poem celebrates the poet’s father’s personal response to his
discoveries in nature. The listing of things her father ‘noticed’ –
‘mushroom and scat, wildbloom,/ snail and iris’ – portrays how he
responded to his discoveries by appreciating even the smallest objects on
the forest floor. Her father’s transformative response to his discoveries
is represented in the visual imagery, ‘This was the moment …/ that shot
him off on his tangent/ into the abstruse world/ of microscopes’. This
conveys how her father’s childhood discoveries in the forest were the
catalyst for his career in science. Her father’s long-term emotional
response to his childhood discoveries in the forest is represented in the
nostalgic tone in the final stanza, ‘the brown meandering river/ he was
always in some way after that/ trying in vain to get back to.’
(d)
Opens with
immediate
response to
question
Analyse how the text portrays the difficulties of discovering
‘what is true and what is false’.
3 marks
The text portrays the struggle between uncovering the truth and
preserving memory. The girl recalls her grandmother’s ‘vivid and
shapely’ stories, with repetition revealing how she loved hearing them
‘again and again’. However, the legitimacy of their facts is challenged.
The writer breaks grammatical convention to repeatedly begin sentences
Quotations
become part of with a coordinating conjunction ‘Or so the story goes …’. Combined
with the ellipsis, it serves as a lingering afterthought that contests the
the sentence
accuracy of their family history. The metaphor ‘the historian at the back
of my brain’ represents the difficulties faced by her conscience, unsure
Detailed
analysis
whether she should ‘discover what is true and what is false’. She isolates
supports ideas her final thought though a short, single-sentence paragraph to reveal the
emotive desire ‘I want to leave her and her stories be’. She overcomes
the guilt of accepting false discoveries in order to preserve the fond
memories of her grandmother and her embellished stories.
Alternative answer:
Each sentence
justifies the
composer’s
choice of
language in
terms of the
question
The composer portrays her dilemma in being curious about the truth
while having a nostalgic affection for tall tales about her family history.
The first person narration ‘I know I should check the facts’ indicates her
internal conflict; as much as she loves her grandmother’s stories, she
appreciates that they may be exaggerated. The listing of ‘evidence to be
weighed, archives to be searched, family members still alive’ conveys the
complexity of the task involved in separating fact from fiction. The
qualifying, truncated sentences, ‘Or so she said’ and ‘Or so the story
goes’ portray the composer’s scepticism regarding her grandmother’s
stories, hence the difficulty of knowing what is truth and what is false.
(e)
Compare how TWO of the texts represent the significance
of curiosity in the process of discovering.
5 marks
Follows miniessay structure
with opening
introduction
linking two
texts in one
thesis
Inquisitive minds fuel an endless search for new discoveries. Sandra
Goldbloom Zurbo’s short story Scene from a Window vividly captures
the enthusiastic response of her protagonists who are intrigued by the
opportunity to explore ‘junk’ found on the side of the road. Margaret
Atwood’s poem Butterfly also tracks the discoveries born out of
curiosity, through the eyes of a persona who recollects her father’s
experiences with nature.
Close focus on
one text
In Zurbo’s story, the couple’s fervent intrigue as they begin their search
is understood through the visual and tactile images created by the series
of kinetic verbs: ‘lunged’, ‘frenzied’, ‘kicked and prodded’. The metaphor
created in the rhetorical question ‘what treasure might they find here?’
acknowledges the strength of an active imagination, turning curiosity
into an opportunity for valuable discovery. The dialogue features a string
of short, sharp sentences, which capture the candid joy of the couple as
they unearth new items. The use of the interjections ‘Oh’ and ‘woah’
combined with the repetition of the imperative command ‘look at this!’
highlight their insatiable curiosity; each discovery ignites a fresh thirst for
another.
Builds up on
original answer
for question
(a)
Close focus on
second text,
giving new
insights
Paragraph
refers back to
the first text
for further
comparison
Similarly, Atwood promotes the notion that curiosity is a catalyst for
discovery, albeit in a different context. She relies on a persona who
imparts their own curiosity about the natural world to provide an insight
into their father’s discoveries. Despite the river being described as an
unenticing ‘peat-brown’ place with ‘sedgy wetfoot shore’, curiosity is still
stimulated. The ‘scat’ conjures similar images to the squalid waste
‘rubbish’ in Zurbo’s story. Just like the couple, the father’s curiosity
compelled him to delve into an ‘ordinary’ environment and ‘notice
everything’. The visual images used to describe his ‘broad and deft’
hands and ‘fraying sleeves’ symbolise his ongoing physical exploration of
the landscape. The emotive language in the hyperbole ‘it must have been
an endless breathing in: between the wish to know and the need to
praise’ reinforces the father’s inquisitive nature, and his perpetual quest
to investigate the world.
Short
conclusion
sums up
By capturing their characters’ enthusiasm towards the process of
exploration, both composers acknowledge the influence of a curious
imagination, painting it as the driver of discovery. (353 words)
Alternative answer:
Strong thesis
linking both
texts
Texts two and three both represent the way curiosity can be very
rewarding in the process of discovering the natural world. The central
characters in both texts are represented as valuing curiosity as a
necessary catalyst for key scientific discoveries.
Close reading
of visual text
In text two, the central figure, Albertus Sema, is framed by neatly
organised canisters in the background and delicately arranged marine
specimens in the foreground. The careful arrangement of these objects
like trophies conveys his pride in his discoveries as rewards for his
curiosity. His demanding gaze and open body language encourages the
viewer to appreciate the importance of being curious about the natural
world. The vector of his left hand pointing towards an open book
indicates the value of curiosity sparked by zoological research, which
leads to the physical processes and final products of scientific discovery.
‘Similarly’ links
next text
Similarly, text three showcases the rewards for curiosity about the
natural world. The poet captures her father’s intense curiosity by listing
the minutiae he observed on the forest floor, ‘snail and iris, clubmoss,
fern and cone’. The emotional and intellectual significance of the
process of discovery sparked by his curiosity towards forest life is
represented in the imagery ‘between/ the wish to know and the need to
praise/ there was no seam.’ The lasting emotional significance of the
daily process of rediscovering the forest and indulging his curiosity is
portrayed by the nostalgic tone in the final stanza, ‘the brown
meandering river/ he was always in some way … trying to get back to.’
Both texts are
linked to the
thesis
Thus, both texts two and three represent the intellectual and emotional
significance of discovering the natural world and satisfying one’s
curiosity about nature. (274 words)