Close Reading Workshop
Own Words Questions: Revision
Remember!
Approximately 50% of the questions in the
exam are of this type.
They are Understanding Questions. You are
being asked to show that you understand
and can explain the writer’s ideas.
Remember!
You must put the writer’s ideas into your own
words.
You get no credit at all for quoting.
You will normally receive one mark for each idea
that you can explain.
Example question
In what ways does the mall seem to encourage
consumerism? (2)
This is a story about modern consumerism; it is
being written inside a mall. From my vantage
point on a wooden bench purposely designed to
be uncomfortable and placed alongside a digital
screen pulsing ever-changing adverts selling
other outlets, other products, other ways here to
spend, spend, spend, I can watch shoals of
people hurrying in and out of stores honouring
the creed of the turbo-consumer: live to shop.
• The uncomfortable seating discourages
customers from taking a break from their
shopping.
• Seating is placed very close to
advertisements for products and services
that are in the mall.
• Technology is used to make it difficult for
customers to avoid or ignore
advertisements.
Example question
Summarise the benefits of technology as described in the
following lines (3)
Never mind that the universal presence of adequate heating has
almost eliminated those perennial scourges of the poor—
bronchitis and pneumonia—which once took the very young
and the very old in huge numbers every winter. Never mind
that the generous use of hot water and detergent, particularly
when combined in a washing machine for the laundering of
bed linen and clothing, has virtually eliminated the infestations
of body lice and fleas (which once carried plague) that used to
be a commonplace feature of poverty. Never mind that the
private car, the Green Public Enemy Number One, has given
ordinary families freedom and flexibility that would have been
inconceivable in previous generations.
• Heating has helped to reduce certain
serious diseases from the past.
• Hot water and more effective cleaning
have reduced pests/insects which carry
diseases.
• The car has given people independence
and made it easier to move around.
Example question
Outline the “doomsday scenario” predicted by Thomas Malthus (2)
It is certainly possible that the premises advanced by environmental
campaigners are sound: that we are in mortal danger from global
warming and that this is a result of human activity. Yet when I
listen to ecological warnings such as these, I am reminded of a
doomsday scenario from the past.
In his Essay on the Principle of Population, published in 1798,
Thomas Malthus demonstrated, in what appeared to be
indisputable mathematical terms, that population growth would
exceed the limits of food supply by the middle of the 19 th century.
Only plague, war or natural disaster would be capable of
sufficiently reducing the numbers of people to avert mass
starvation within roughly 50 years. This account of the world’s
inevitable fate (known as the “Malthusian catastrophe”) was as
much part of accepted thinking among intellectuals then as are
the environmental lobby’s warnings today.
• It wouldn’t be possible to grow enough
food for the growing population of the
earth.
• starvation would only be prevented if very
serious events occurred to bring the
population down.