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SPEC PAPERS – DICOCCO_ADAPTATION_FOR_ISLAND_ACADEMY_2020

CARIBBEANEXAMINATIONSCOUNCIL

CARIBBEAN SECONDARY EDUCATION CERTIFICATE

EXAMINATION

ENGLISH B

ADAPTED SPECIMEN PAPER

Paper 01 – General Proficiency

READ THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY.

1. This Adapted Specimen Paper consists of multiple choice questions based on literary excerpts.
2. In addition to this test booklet, you should have an answer sheet.
3. Each item in this test has four suggested answers lettered (A), (B), (C), (D). Read each item you are about to answer
and decide which choice is best.
4. On your answer sheet, find the number which corresponds to your item and shade the space having the same letter as
the answer you have chosen. Look at the sample item below.
Sample Item
Choose the word that BEST completes each sentence.

Someone who is suffering from influenza needs to be isolated as the disease is _____________.
(A) lasting
(B) serious
(C) destructive
(D) contagious

The best answer to this item is “contagious,” so (D) has been shaded.

5. If you want to change your answer, erase it completely before you fill in your new choice.
6. When you are told to begin, turn the page and work as quickly and as carefully as you can. Are you reading this? Well
done. If you cannot answer an item, go on to the next one. You may return to that item later.

DO NOT TURN THIS PAGE UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO.

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Items 1-8

Directions: Read the following poem carefully and then answer items 1-8 on the basis of what is stated or implied.

Trane

Propped against the crowded bar

he pours into the curved and silver horn
his old unhappy longing for a home

the dancers twist and turn

5 he leans and wishes he could burn
his memories to ashes like some old notorious emperor

of Rome, but no stars blazed across the sky when he was born
no wise men found his hovel, this crowded bar
where dancers twist and turn

10 holds all the fame and recognition he will ever earn

on earth or heaven, he leans against the bar
and pours his old unhappy longing in the saxophone.

Edward Kamau Brathwaite

1. The “silver horn” in line 2 refers to 5. Line 7 “… but no stars blazed across the sky when he
(A) A wine goblet was born” suggests that
(B) An ice bucket (A) he was born on a dark night
(C) A large vase (B) no one was aware of his birth
(D) A musical instrument (C) he was not born to famous parents
(D) his birth lacked great significance

2. Where does the action in lines 1 – 3 take place? 6. The word “hovel” in line 8 refers to
(A) In a hotel (A) A hotel
(B) In a night club (B) A cradle
(C) In a music hall (C) A poor home
(D) In a living room (D) An animal’s pen

3. Lines 2 – 3 is an example of a 7. The poet refers to the birth of Christ in lines

(A) Personification (A) 1 - 2
(B) Simile (B) 5 - 6
(C) Hyperbole (C) 7 - 8
(D) Metaphor (D) 10 - 11

4. In line 3, “his old unhappy longing for a home” 8. Which of the following BEST describes the mood of
suggests that the character the character in the poem?
(A) Did not like music (A) Anger
(B) Believed he had little talent (B) Nostalgia
(C) Was unhappy because he had no house (C) Optimism
(D) Was longing for success and recognition on a (D) Melancholy
wide scale
 3

Items 9-16

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and then answer items 9-16 on the basis of what is stated or
implied.

Nazruddin was an exotic, but he remained bound to our community because he needed husbands and wives for his
children. I always knew that in me he saw the prospective husband of one of his daughters; but I had lived with
this knowledge for so long that it didn’t embarrass me. I liked Nazruddin. I welcomed his visits, his talks, his very
alienness as he sat downstairs in our drawing room or verandah and spoke of the excitements of his far-off world.

5 He was a man of enthusiasms. He relished everything he did. He liked the house he bought (always bargains), the
restaurants he chose, the dishes he ordered. Everything worked out well for him, and his tales of unfailing luck
would have made him intolerable if he didn’t have the gift of describing things so well. He made me long to do
what he had done, to be where he had been. In some ways he became my model.

He was something of a palmist, in addition to everything else, and his readings were valued because he could do
10 them only when the mood took him. When I was ten or twelve he had given me a reading and had seen great
things in my hand. So I respected his judgement. He added to that reading from time to time. I remember one
occasion especially. He looked at my palm then said, “You are the most faithful man I know.” This didn’t please
me; it seemed to me he was offering me no life at all. I said, “Can you read your own hand? DO you know what’s
in store for you?” He said, “Don’t I know, don’t I know.”

15 The tone of his voice was different then, and I saw that this man, for whom (according to his talk) everything
worked out beautifully, really lived with a vision of things turning out badly. I thought: This is how a man should
behave; and I felt close to him after that, closer than I did to members of my own family.

Then came the crash which some people had been quietly prophesying for this successful and talkative man.
Nazruddin’s adopted country became independent, quite suddenly, and the news from that place for weeks and
20 months was of wars and killings. From the way some people talked you might have believed that if Nazruddin
had been another kind of person, if he had boasted less of his success, drunk less wine and been more seemly in
his behavior, events would have taken another turn. We heard that he fled with his family to Uganda. In due
course he came to the coast. People looking for a broken man were disappointed. Nazruddin was as sprightly as
ever, still with his dark glasses and suit. The disaster appeared not to have touched him at all.

9. The reference to Nazruddin as “an exotic” (line 1) 11. The writer’s reaction to Nazruddin’s comment, “You
indicates that he is are the most faithful man I know” (line 12), indicates that
(A) Boring the writer
(B) Snobbish (A) Did not like faithful men
(C) Scheming (B) Had himself been unfaithful
(D) Eccentric (C) Thought that faithful men led uninteresting lives
(D) Felt that faithful men had short life-spans

10. “He relished everything he did” (line 5) suggests that
Nazruddin
(A) Enjoyed all his activities
(B) Was an expert on everything
(C) Succeeded at whatever he tried
(D) Was proud of his accomplishments
12. The answer, “Don’t I know, don’t I know” (line 14),
indicates to the writer that Nazruddin
(A) Did not really know much about palmistry
(B) Foresaw the possibility of unfavourable events for
himself
(C) Was not being truthful about his experiences
(D) Did not know what the future held in store for him
 4

13. According to the extract, which of the following factors 15. According to the extract, Nazruddin left the country
caused some people to prophesy ill luck for Nazruddin? in which he was living because
I. He was too boastful. (A) The new leaders were dissatisfied with his
II. He drank too much. behavior and drove him out
III. His behavior was unacceptable. (B) His business there suffered financial ruin
(C) There was violence in the country
(A) I and II only (D) He could no longer find suitable husbands and
(B) I and III only wives there for his children
(C) II and III only
(D) I, II, and III

14. According to the extract, ONE of the reasons the writer 16. The impression given of Nazruddin in the extract is
liked Nazruddin was that he that he
(E) Inspired the writer to pattern himself after him (A) Was a coward
(F) Was a respected palmist in the community in which (B) Was not easily daunted
he lived (C) Genuinely loved his family
(G) Considered the writer a prospective husband for one (D) Did not care about the community
of his daughters
(H) Described interestingly to the writer the secrets of
his worldly successes
 5

Items 17-24

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and then answer items 17-24 on the basis of what is stated or
implied.

Every November the roads to Pushkar, a sleepy little town in Western India, become clogged with buses, bullock
carts, and camels bringing people to the Pushkar camel fair. Hundreds of camel herders along with the thousands
who are already there camped outside on the reddish rust sand dunes from afar look like the mounds of paprika in
a spice shop. Here, for two weeks before the full moon, camels are bought, bartered, and sold.

5 The Raikas, independent and hospitable people, are descended from a tribe that migrated to Asia from Germany
centuries ago. According to their mythology, however, Siva, a god of the Hindu trinity, created the first camel.
Siva had four daughters and each married a Rajput (or King) of the highest caste. Their children became camel
herders, grew tall, thin yet strong, with high cheekbones and oval faces. These mythic forebears of the Raikas
could live for days solely on camel milk.

10 The Raikas are known by many names: raberai, or “guide”, by those who respect them; and bhool, or “ghost”, by
others, perhaps jealous of their freedom. It is easy to understand how the Raikas got this last name, as they can
appear suddenly and mysteriously on the horizon with a single camel, or even a magnificent herd of a hundred.
The focal point of the Raika culture is the camel; it is reflected in their language, their religion, and their mobility.
They have 400 synonyms for camel, and refer to their favourite camels with affectionate names like “Raieao”,
15 which means brown. Herders grow up learning 15 calls to their camels.

The Raika man wears simple attire; a white tunic top and dhoti, a cloth wrapped around his waist and pulled up
between his legs, Gandhi-style. He may toss a worn blanket elegantly over one shoulder, creating style with
simple dignity and poise. The Raikas’ world of brown sands and brown camels is gloriously brightened with
garments the shades of amber, rose, and orange. Every morning, young men deftly wrap scarlet turbans, 3 yards
20 long and a yard wide, around their heads for protection against the desert’s day-time heat and bitter night-time
cold. At sundown, the sun’s sinking light seems to make the turbans glow. Night or day, the business at hand is
camels. Everything else – the dentist with his suitcase of instruments and false teeth, the barber ready to give a
quick shave on the sands, the bhopa or musician playing ballads about the camel god Pabu, the stalls with sweets
– is a distraction. Here the visitor can learn anything and everything about camels.

17. The writer mentions the congestion on the roads to
Pushkar in order to
(A) Show the popularity of the camel fair
(B) Comment on the poor state of the roads
(C) Prove that Pushkar is not a sleepy town
(D) Suggest that traffic jams can be found everywhere
19. Which of the following does mythology ascribe to the
Raikas?
(A) They can exist solely on camel’s milk
(B) They migrated to Germany centuries ago
(C) They are the descendants of a Hindu god
(D) They became camel herders at the suggestion of
Parvati

18. According to the passage, how long does the camel 20. The word “hospitable” (line 5) is CLOSEST in
fair last? meaning to
(A) Ten days (A) Proud
(B) Two weeks (B) Happy
(C) Until the full moon (C) Ancient
(D) Until all the camels are sold (D) Friendly
 6

21. The writer suggests that “bhool” could be an
appropriate name for the Raikas because
(A) Many Raikas are jealous of their freedom
(B) They belong to a tribe that is practically extinct
(C) They can surprise people by their sudden
appearance
(D) Many people are afraid of them
23. As a means of protection against desert temperatures,
the Raikas
(A) Wrap long turbans around their heads
(B) Wear white tunic tops and dhotis
(C) Brighten their garments with colored materials
(D) Are never without blankets around their shoulders

22. The writer mentions that the Raikas have “400 24. In the extract, which of the following is NOT stated
synonyms for camel” (line 14) and that herders “grow up about the Raikas?
learning 15 calls to their camels” (line 15) to show (A) They are friendly
(A) Their superiority in comparison to their herders (B) They dress simply
(B) That the Raikas know everything about camels (C) They are respectful
(C) That the Raikas are careless about names (D) They enjoy freedom
(D) How important the camels are to the Raikas
 7

Items 25-34

Instructions: Read the following extract carefully and then answer Items 25-34.

ACT I, SCENE 2

[The lights come up on JOE in his space and ROSCO half asleep on the couch. PAT and RUSS
enter the staff-room from Down Left.]

PAT: The place is as you see it, the staff as you saw them, a bunch of bloody clowns, with one or two
exceptions. The students, semi-literate mostly. The smell, it grows on you, conversation piece.
5 Things are bad, but we get by. Expect nothing, avoid disappointment. Things won’t change, not
with jokers around like … Let’s not call names, but take a fellow like Callender. He should be
banned from the classroom. Does more harm than good. He and the one they call the Chaplain,
tongue like a female, mind like a gutter. Money-grabbing capitalistic sex-fiend, bound to go to
Heaven.

10 CHAPLAIN: [Entering] Ah, Mr. Campbell, I see you are taking good care of our latest addition. You are in
good hands. So how is it going, Mr. Dacres?

RUSS: Okay.

CHAPLAIN: No trouble with the students?

RUSS: None.

15 CHAPLAIN: You should have no problems if, like me, you don’t spend fifteen minutes to settle your class, like
some of the others. You just go in – bang, bang – get some order. If they fool, you run them out.
Thirty if need be. Teach the other five. Many are called, etc. etc. Gospel.

[The bell goes. DACRES collects his things quickly and is on his way out as MICA enters. They
smile at each other. PAT notices, so does ROSCO.]

20 ROSCO: Boy, the new man anxious, eh? What a man can move fast! Him will learn all the same.

[He looks directly at PAT, smiles mischieviously, then picks up a table-tennis bat. HENDRY
enters as ROSCO begins to play with an imaginary ping-pong ball, each shot giving him a great
deal of pleasure. Synchronize his smash with the first stroke of the cane offstage.]

CHAPLAIN: Ah, the Head. [As he goes over to the Headmaster’s door.] Whoever is getting it obviously
25 deserves it. A good licking is like a good tonic. [Whacking continues.] Tones up the skin, repels
the devils. Never spare the rod. Gospel. Rules are to be obeyed [whack]. Each student, boys and
girls, should get at least six a week [whack]. They thrive on it. Break the law, you’ll be punished.
Break God’s law, you know the consequences [whack]. Yes [whack]. Yes [whack]. Yes. Ahhh!
[Overcome with pleasure.]

BLACK OUT

Trevor D Rhone, “School’s Out”.

In Two Can Play and School’s Out,
Longman, 1986, pp.95-96.
 8

25. What is the setting for this scene? 30. What inference can be drawn from Russ Dacres’
(A) A principal’s office actions as the bell goes (lines 18 – 19)?
(B) The staffroom of a school (A) Dacres is determined to make a good impression
(C) A classroom on the students
(D) The hallway in a school (B) Dacres is lazy
(C) Dacres is mischievous
(D) Dacres has taken Pat’s comments to heart

26. What is the significance of the stage directions “The 31. What is the literary device the playwright uses in the
lights come up” and BLACK OUT”? Chaplain’s statements in lines 16 – 17, and in his behavior
(A) They help to set the tone in lines 24 – 29?
(B) They help to set the atmosphere (A) Hyerbole
(C) They direct the audience to focus on the scene and (B) Metaphor
tell the audience when the scene is over (C) Personification
(D) They direct the actors to their stage positions (D) Irony

27. What do Pat’s statements in lines 3 – 9 suggest about 32. What atmosphere is created by the sound of the cane
his attitude to the school and his colleagues? offstage?
(A) He is contemptuous because he says “bloody (A) Cynical
clowns” and “semi-literate” (B) Vengeful
(B) He is cynical because he says “expect nothing, (C) Frightening
avoid disappointment” (D) Intolerant
(C) He is intolerant because he says nothing good
about anyone
(D) All of the above

28. What is the dramatic effect of Chaplain’s entrance 33. Using the stage directions in lines 24 – 29, what is the
(line 10) immediately following Pat’s description in lines Chaplain’s position on discipline in school?
7-9? (A) Disapproval
(A) To alert the audience to pay attention to this (B) Enthusiastic support
character (C) Approval
(B) To characterize Pat as intolerant (D) Ambivalence
(C) To characterize the Chaplain
(D) To alert the audience to feel contemptuous toward
the Chaplain

29. Identify TWO signals that the playwright uses to make 34. What is the dramatic purpose of Dacres and Mica
the audience aware of the headmaster’s presence. smiling at each other?
(A) The sound of flogging and the stage direction (A) To show that they are friendly people
“Chaplain: [Entering]” (B) To indicate that they might have a more intimate
(B) The stage direction “Chaplain: [Entering]” and the interest in each other
Chaplain’s acknowledgement “Ah, the Head” (C) Either of these
(C) The Chaplain’s acknowledgement “Ah, the Head” (D) Neither of these
and the sound of flogging
(D) The stage direction “[As he goes over toward the
Headmaster’s door]” and the Chaplain asking
Russ, “No trouble with the students?”
 9

Items 35-44

Instructions: Read the following poem carefully and then answer Items 35-44.

Those Winter Sundays

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labour in the weekday weather made
5 banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the clod splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

10 Speaking indifferently to him,

who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?

Robert Hayden

35. What does the use of the word “too” in line 1 tell you 38. What feeling is the poem’s speaker conveying in the
about the life of the speaker’s father? last two lines?
(A) He worked at the church on Sundays as well (A) Self-pity
(B) He woke up at two o’clock in the morning on (B) Remorse
Sundays (C) Austerity
(C) He worked nonstop, Sundays and weekdays (D) Love
(D) He woke up on Sundays to work with the speaker’s
mother

36. Which is the best description of the imagery of 39. “Driven out the cold” in line 11 is best described as
“blueblack cold”? (A) Personification
(A) The extreme severity of the weather (B) Simile
(B) Physical pain (C) Anaphora
(C) A winter so cold that it has turned the old man (D) Metaphor
black and blue – almost as if he is already dead
(D) Constant, unrelenting exposure to the weather

37. Which best describe the father’s character? 40. “The chronic angers of that house” in line 9 is best
(A) Selfless, caring, loving described as
(B) Hard-working, selfish, cruel (A) Personification
(C) Austere, angry, cold (B) Simile
(D) Severe, loving, in pain (C) Anaphora
(D) Metaphor
 10

41. The father’s action of love and the son’s indifference 43. “That ached from labour in the weekday weather”
are best described as (lines 3-4) is a form of
(A) Personification, in order to highlight the theme of (A) Personification
love (B) Contrast
(B) Contrast, in order to evoke pain or a sense of (C) Metaphor
conflict (D) Imagery
(C) Irony, in order to evoke wistfulness
(D) Metaphor, in order to highlight the theme of
innocence

42. What is the literary impact of the speaker’s adult self 44. “The clod splintering, breaking” (line 6) is an example
looking back and reflecting? of
(A) The reader understands the speaker’s pain and (A) Contrast
regret (B) Personification
(B) The reader understands the speaker’s character (C) Imagery
(C) The reader understands the speaker’s anger and (D) Metaphor
reproach
(D) The reader understands the speaker’s theme of love
 11

Items 45-52

Instructions: Read the following extract carefully and then answer Items 45-52.

Everybody in the district knew Miss Dorcas was the best looking among all other girls. All the men of his father’s
time said so. Knowing how to be warm and modest, rounded and curved in all the right places, she was the most
appealing from Negril to Mount Point, they all said. Her deep brown eyes, her voice, her smiles and slim legs
carried her like a princess. Though living alone with her poor granny, she was kept and shaped with a certain kind
5 of pride, everybody said.

Miss Dorcas could have married Mr Felix King, the Parochial Board representative, a man who these days owned
lands from mountain to sea and took truckfulls of coconuts and bananas to market, but her granny threw him out.
She could have married Mr Walter Hoffman the tax collector but her granny threw him out. The Reverend’s son
had eyes on Miss Dorcas but her granny put him off. All the other men who hung around with their favours and
10 gifts practically came to blows with Granny. Then Granny got Miss Dorcas a place at the backra-house, saying:
she wants her only person in the world to do things nicely, to learn to be respectable and be respected, to get away
from all no-good man-hawks.

Miss Dorcas had been quick to learn and Mr Bill had been quick to notice her. He watched her in the garden,
about the house and about his meal table. Miss Dorcas began to have supper with him and he began to go to her
15 separate quarters at night. Mr Bill gave Miss Dorcas a room in The Haven. She took on management of the
servants and everything and became the mistress of the household.

Then Mr Bill wanted to marry a backra girl. The man arranged with friends in town to take Ms Dorcas among
their servants. When he broke the news to her Miss Dorcas leapt on the backra man like a wild cat. Next day, a
dramatically changed person, she was taken to hospital. And Miss Dorcas never recovered from her derangement.
20 After months in hospital she came out with every hair on her head gone white.

James Berry, “Miss Dorcas”

In Caribbean New Wave Contemporary Short Stories
Heinemann, 1990, pp.21-22.

45. What is the effect of the repetition of “but her granny” 47. How does the writer prepare the readers for Miss
in the second paragraph? What tone does this help to Dorcas’ downfall?
establish? (A) By establishing her beauty hyperbolically, thus
(A) Hopeful showing her vanity
(B) Frustrated (B) By showing her granny’s anger, thus establishing
(C) Conflicted the primary conflict
(D) Humorous (C) By having her behave like the mistress of the
backra house, thus exhibiting pride before the fall
(D) By her promiscuity, thus exhibiting her
wantonness

46. What does Mr Bill’s behavior in paragraph 3 show of 48. Which of the following is the best example of contrast
his character? between paragraphs 1 and 4?
(A) He is kind and accommodating (A) The descriptions of Miss Dorcas (a “princess”
(B) He is ruthless and cruel versus a “wild cat”)
(C) He is calculating and opportunistic (B) The setting (the backra-house versus the hospital)
(D) He is loving and loyal (C) The tone (hopeful versus humorous)
(D) The characters of the men (Mr King versus Mr
Bill)
 12

49. What is one of the primary themes of this extract? 51. What is the impact of Miss Dorcas’ hair turning
(A) Love white?
(B) Childhood Innocence (A) It shows the power of true love
(C) Anger (B) It highlights how she is no longer the most
(D) Social Climbing desirable woman
(C) It sets the tone of regret
(D) It establishes her character as wanton

50. Which of the following best describes Granny’s 52. The author’s naming the backra house The Haven is
character? an example of
(A) Domineering (A) Contrast
(B) Opportunistic (B) Irony
(C) Wistful (C) Metaphor
(D) Accommodating (D) Imagery
 13

Items 53-56

Instructions: Read the following poem carefully and then answer Items 53-56.

Resilience

Perfectly patterned particles

push perpetually,
emerging: emancipated, elated,
enthusiastic.
5 Pushing proudly
up through layers upon layers of denial.
Past denaturing chemicals
and excessive heat;
curls emerge: triumphant.
10 Blatant refusal
to be ignored.
Blatant defiance of standards.
Despite countless chemicals
and incessant heat curls return:
15 a complexly simple statement
and reminder
of identity and culture.
Our hair is
as our land is
20 as we are:
EVER BEAUTIFULLY
RESILIENT.

Sunkissed Gem, “Resilience”, Retrieved 27 February 2015 from

http://www.naturallycurly.com/curltalk/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=945996

53. What is the poet’s main point here?
(A) That black hair is beautiful
(B) That wearing natural hair is an expression of the
person you are
(C) That oppressive systems exist
(D) That heat treatments damage hair and should not be
used
55. In the poem, “emancipated”, “layers of denial”
and “defiance” most likely allude to
(A) African American history
(B) Hair styles through the ages
(C) The destructive nature of protest
(D) The release of prisoners

54. What literary device is primarily used in the first four 56. The poet’s use of the diction “despite” in line 13 is
lines? effective primarily
(A) Alliteration because it
(B) Imagery (A) Heightens the sensory appeal,
(C) Personification (B) Highlights the theme of resilience
(D) Allegory (C) Emphasizes hair as a commodity in the modern
world
(D) Symbolizes hair in motion which heightens the
poet’s main point
 14

Items 57-62

Instructions: Read the following extract carefully and then answer Items 57- 62.

[A calypso chorus is heard in the distance, as the lights go up to reveal URSULA sitting at the sewing-
machine, down right, trying feverishly to finish a very elaborate and colourful costume. She is in her
forties, tired but determined. MARILYN, her teenaged daughter, stands peeping through the curtains into
the street, keeping time to the music with her body. URSULA pricks her finger with the needle and
5 grimaces in pain. She squeezes a drop of blood from the finger and sucks it.]

VOICES: [Singing] Carnival is a Bacchanal,

We don’t care!
We drink rum and we tumble down,
We don’t care!

10 Fire one, we go fire one,

Bring de rum!
And after dat we go tumble down
On de ground!

MARILYN: Ma! Look! Hector and the boys going to meet the steel band.

15 URSULA: They moving early. What they wearing?

MARILYN: Red long sleeve shirts, black pants with a white sash and wide-brim straw hats.

URSULA: Black pants. In all that heat?

MARILYN: But Pa say, you don’t feel the sun, when your mas looking good and everybody eye on you.

URSULA: Ah suppose so. At least they could get the pants to wear afterwards.

20 MARILYN: [Hesitating] Ma!

URSULA: Yes.

MARILYN: Ah want to ask you something.

URSULA: What is it now? Ah hope it ent for money, because you yourself know, your father costume take
every cent we had.

25 MARILYN: No. Is not money.

URSULA: What is it then? [MARILYN hesitates] Girl hurry up and say your piece. I can’t waste time. Your
father costume still not finish and the band go be here any minute now.

MARILYN: Well, ah wanted to ask you, to ask Pa for me.

URSULA: For what?

30 MARILYN: [Hesitating] Well you see, everybody from school go be there …

URSULA: Where?

MARILYN: In Hector steel band tonight, jumping up.

 15

URSULA: [See stops sewing] Marilyn! You want me to ask your father to let you jump up in steel band! In
the night! You must be want the man to take off my head. He done irritable, how the costume ent
35 done yet. [She continues the sewing.]

MARILYN: But Ma, I old enough now!

URSULA: [Firmly] You will go in town this afternoon, with Miss Sheila, to watch mas, and before it get
dark you will find yourself right back here.

MARILYN: But Ma …

40 URSULA: Marilyn! Don’t let us fall out. If you want to ask your father, go right ahead. Just make sure I not
around when you going do it.

MARILYN: [In an undertone] Ah will ask him too.

Errol Hill, “The Master of Carnival”

In Three Caribbean Plays for Secondary Schools
Longman Caribbean, 1979, pp.70-71

57. What do the stage direction in lines 1 – 5 [“A 60. Which of the following BEST describes the atmosphere
calypso chorus … sucks it”] tell you about how Marilyn in this scene?
and Ursula are feeling? (A) Excitement
(A) Marilyn is busy while Ursula is joyful (B) Anger
(B) Marilyn is rearing to go while Ursula is excited (C) Tension
(C) Marilyn is excited while Ursula is preoccupied (D) Excitement and tension
(D) Marilyn is tense while Ursula is rearing to go

58. How does Ursula feel about Pa? 61. Which aspects of this scene suggest that it would be
enjoyable to watch?
I. Pa is important to her
II. She wants to please him I. The song at the beginning
III. She doesn’t want to upset him II. Ursula pricking her finger
III. Marilyn’s dancing
(A) I and II only
(B) I and III only (A) I and II only
(C) II and III only (B) I and III only
(D) I, II, and III (C) II and III only
(D) I, II, and III

59. What is the primary conflict between Ursula and 62. Which of the following might explain why Ursula and
Marilyn? Marilyn are arguing?
(A) Marilyn thinks Pa is the one who makes final
parental decisions I. Their different perspectives (parent versus child)
(B) Ursula wants to please Pa II. Their different priorities in this situarion
(C) Marilyn wants to play mas III. Their different views of Pa
(D) Marilyn doesn’t want to help her mother finish
sewing Pa’s costume (A) I and II only
(B) I and III only
(C) II and III only
(D) I, II, and III
 16

Items 63 - 68

Instructions: Read the following poem carefully and then answer Items 63 - 68.

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.

5 Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-heads

Which long to nuzzle in the heart 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.

10 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

63. What is the speaker suggesting the boy should do, in
the first two stanzas of the poem?
(A) The boy should get used to the idea of a cruel
world, and dying or losing someone he loves
(B) The boy should express himself through
violence, as this is the only way to be effective
(C) The boy should embrace life with arms wide
open
(D) The boy should cuddle with those he loves, to be
protected by their warm embrace
66. What is the significance of the poet mentioning things
that the boy lacks in stanza 3?
(A) Unlike animals, the boy is not equipped to be a
fighter
(B) Without tools, the boy will remain hungry
(C) Unlike animals, the boy is full of hatred and cruel
feelings directed toward others
(D) Without the fear of death, the boy will not
accomplish anything

64. “Keen with hunger of blood” in line 2 is an example 67. The image portrayed in “Lend him to stroke these blind,
of which literary device? blunt bullet-heads/ Which long to nuzzle in the heart of
(A) Hyperbole lads” (lines 5-6)
(B) Simile (A) Suggests that, like partners snuggling together, the
(C) Personification bullets want to “nuzzle” against the boy’s heart
(D) Contrast (B) Shows that, through blindness, one can find true love
(C) Illustrates how the envious girls view the boy’s
weapons
(D) Presents a visual illustration of the struggle between
men and women

65. “Blind, blunt bullet-heads” in line 5 suggests which 68. Which of the following are used to enhance meaning in
of the following? the poem?
(A) People shoot without taking aim (A) Alliteration and sonnet
(B) The shooters are like blind men, killing with no (B) Diction and Simile
purpose (C) Imagery and Personification
(C) People are full of hatred and cruel feelings (D) Symbolism and assonance
(D) The shooters are like starving men, who will
destroy anything to satisfy their hunger
 17

Items 69 - 76

Instructions: Read the following extract carefully and then answer Items 69 - 76.

The next morning I went to the cemetery in Rosedale, Queens, where my father had been buried. He was one of
many gray tombstones in a line of foreign unpronounceable names. I brought my passport for him to see, laying it
on the grass among the wild daisies surrounding the grave.

“Caroline had her wedding,” I said. “We felt like you were there.”

5 My father had wanted to be buried in Haiti, but at the time of his death there was no way we could have afforded
it.

The day before Papa’s funeral, Caroline and I had told Ma that we wanted to be among Papa’s pall bearers.

Ma had thought it was a bad idea. Who had ever heard of young women being pall-bearers? Papa’s funeral was no
time for us to express our selfish childishness, our American rebelliousness.

10 When we were children, whenever we rejected symbols of Haitian culture, Ma used to excuse us with great
embarrassment and say, “You know they are Americans.”

Why didn’t we like the thick fatty pig skin that she would deep-fry so long that it tasted like rubber? We were
Americans and we had no taste buds. A double tragedy.

Why didn’t we like the thick yellow pumpkin soup that she spent all New Year’s Eve making so that we would
15 have it on New Year’s Day to celebrate Haitian Independence Day? Again, because we were American and the
fourth of July was our independence holiday.

“In Haiti, you own your children and they find it natural,” she would say. “They know their duties to the family
and they act accordingly. In America, no one owns anything, and certainly not another person.”

Edwidge Danticat, Krik? Krak!

Vintage Books, 1996, pp.214-215

69. Why are the words “American” and “no taste buds” 71. Which of the following words BEST describes the
(lines 9, 13) written in italics? relationship between the narrator and her mother?
(A) To show that Ma loves the girls no matter what (A) Loathing
(B) To show that these things are not really true (B) Fearful
(C) To show that Ma was very appreciative of (C) Distant
American things (D) Strained
(D) To show that Ma was contemptuous of American
things

70. In the passage, Ma functions as a 72. Which of the following MOST clearly describes the
(A) Foil narrator’s feelings about her mixed cultural heritage?
(B) Symbol (A) Resigned
(C) Paradox (B) Relieved
(D) Caricature (C) Reserved
(D) Receptive
 18

73. Which of the following expressions is used
figuratively?
(A) “I brought my passport for him to see” (line 3)
(B) “He was one of many gray tombstones” (line 2)
(C) “whenever we rejected the symbols of Haitian
culture” (line13)
(D) “We felt like you were there” (line 5)
75. For which of the following reasons is father a
significant figure in the extract?
I. He emphasizes the strong family relationship
II. His gravestone illustrates how one can feel isolated
in a foreign country
III. He symbolizes how some things must pass away
(like the girls’ Haitian culture while they live in the US)

(A) I and II only

(B) I and III only
(C) II and III only
(D) I, II, and III

74. What does “A double tragedy” (line 16) suggest about 76. The final paragraph of the passage reveals
Ma’s feelings about her daughters’ mixed cultural PRIMARILY that Ma
heritage? (A) Feels that the girls are abandoning their Haitian
(A) She is anxious. heritage in favour of American culture
(B) She is confused. (B) Feels that the girls are embracing their Haitian
(C) She is depressed. heritage and rejecting American culture
(D) She is contented. (C) Is conflicted about the different cultural value
systems her daughters embrace
(D) Is very lonely after her husband’s death