AY 2020 - 2021

SEMESTER 2 FINAL EXAMINATION

International Baccalaureate Diploma Program

(IB-MYP) (Grade 10)

Language and Literature

Exam Date: 25 May 2021 (Tuesday) Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

Name of candidate
(as per passport)

Student ID

Maximum Level of
Criteria
Level Achievement
A: Analyzing 8

B: Organizing 8

C: Producing Text 8

D: Using Language 8

Instructions to candidates
 The number of pages for this paper is: 11
 Do not open this examination paper until instructed to do so.
 Answer all questions. Answer must be written within the answer boxes provided.
 Use only blue or black ink or ballpoint pen. Pencil is only allowed for graphs and/or diagrams.
You are not allowed to use correction liquid or correction tape.
TEXT 1

Read the passage and then answer the questions that follow.

The questions assess Criterion A (Analyzing) and Criterion D (Using Language).

Snow

In this passage, the writer remembers the experience of an unusually heavy snowfall.

The snow had started the day before. The sun was bright in a clear sky and it snowed! Each

flake caught the sun. Sparkles swam in the air, carried by the wind. People passing on Cottage
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Street looked up into the clear air to let the cold colors hit them in the eye, or on their glasses.

They smiled, admiring their shadows, as they walked in the sunny, sunny snowstorm falling

around them. A genuine curiosity, Grandpa called it. 5

Soon, though, the sky turned grey and the snow continued into the dark. This was more like it.

The falling snow stopped the litter that blew and rolled down the streets and pinned it to the
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ground. Everything, the litter, fire hydrants, the bins that stood at street corners and in house

yards, was transformed into mysterious white lumps.

It snowed all through supper and after. It snowed through the radio and Grandpa’s reading. It 10

snowed even harder when I went to bed. All night, I’d wake and go to the window to wish for

more; I pressed my face against the cold glass to peer at the sky above the roof. I wanted
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there to be more snow to come. And there was. The sky was black but the air was lit by the

streetlight at the end of the alley. Flakes of white day fell through the night and brushed against

the glass. I thought the wet chill would crack my cheek when I smiled. 15

In the morning the world was new. Yesterday’s lumps were now smooth and the spaces

between them were even and white. In the yard, the snow had rolled in on waves of wind from

over the far fence and dropped quietly and deeply. It filled the space from the back of the
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house to the alley, then buried the fence and the alley. Then it buried Aunt and Uncle Erby’s

fence across the way; then it buried their yard, too. Then everything was all the same. 20

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 The wind blew hard enough to make the electricity pole at the corner of the street sway. The

wires clacked and chattered, their icy silver loads that had been building through the storm,

trembling. Grandpa looked up and down the alley. He shook his head, grimacing.

5 ‘We’d best stay in,’ he said.

6 ‘All of us. Falling wires,’ he said. 25

7 Grandma looked into the cupboards and shook her head.

8 ‘Food’ll never last,’ she said.

When the wind howled, the snow rose alive, spinning and swirling, and the world went white.

So big a thing as Mount Amos disappeared. So too, did Aunt and Uncle Erby’s house across

the alley. Our yard began, now, at the back door and went on forever, around other houses 30
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and on forever. The world was just our place, just our house and the smoothly shaped mounds

of snow stretching forever. A few black lines crossed above, or rose from it. A pole down the

way had fallen across the path. Dead black vines were hanging in tatters from the back fence.

Then nothing. The end of the world. Our place only; we could only wait.

Task 1 – Criterion A (Analyzing) & Criterion D (Using Language)

Answer all questions

1) Explain why Grandpa calls the event described in paragraph 1, ‘A genuine curiosity ……...’ (line
5), and how people reacted to this event.

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2) Based on Paragraph 2, explain the effects of the falling snow on the surrounding environment.

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3) Give one detail from paragraph 3 that tells you the narrator was excited by the falling snow.

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4) Give one detail mentioned by the narrator in paragraph 4 that tells you that the snow was very
deep.

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5) Which one word in paragraph 5 tells you that Grandpa was concerned about the possible effects
of the snowfall?

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6) Explain why Grandpa had cause for concern"

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7) From the final paragraph, explain how have the weather conditions changed from the first
paragraph?

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8) What do the final three sentences of the passage tell you about the effect of the snow on the
family’s situation?

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TEXT 2
Extract taken from Little Chinese Seamstress
We moved stealthily towards the adjoining room. I went first with the torch, and Luo followed behind
carrying the suitcase. It seemed to be very heavy, for as we made our way, I could hear it bang
against Luo’s legs and bump into Four-Eyes’s bed and his mother’s makeshift bunk made of wooden
planks, which although small made the space seem even more cramped.

We were startled to find the window, through which we had planned to make our getaway, secured
with a nail. In our excitement at seeing the suitcase, we had forgotten to check it when we arrived.
We tried pushing, but all we heard was a faint creak, almost a sigh. It wouldn’t budge.

The situation didn’t strike us as disastrous. We returned quietly to the main room intending to carry
out the same maneuver as before: widening the slit in the double door just enough to allow a hand to
slip through and turn the master-key in the copper padlock.

Suddenly Luo whispered: ‘Shush!’

Terrified, I immediately switched the torch off. The soft padding of feet outside held us transfixed. It
took us a precious minute to realize that the footsteps were indeed coming in our direction.

At that moment we heard the muffled voices of a man and a woman, but couldn’t make out whether
or not they belonged to Four-Eyes and his mother. Preparing for the worst, we crept towards the

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kitchen. In passing the pile of luggage I switched the torch on for a second while Luo replaced the
suitcase.

It was exactly as we feared: Four-Eyes and his mother were upon us and would catch us red-handed.
They were talking by the door.

‘I’m sure it’s the buffalo blood that has upset me,’ the son said. ‘I keep having these evil- smelling
burps.’

‘Just as well I brought some medicine for indigestion,’ retorted his mother.

Panic-stricken, we were at a loss for somewhere to hide in the kitchen. It was pitch dark. I collided
with Luo just as he was raising the lid of a container for storing rice. He was at his wits’ end.

‘Too small,’ he whispered.

The chain rattled and we just had time to bolt into the side room and crawl under the beds before the
door flew open.

They stepped into the house and lit the oil lamp.

Things were not looking good. Instead of hiding under Four-Eyes’s bed, which would have made
sense as I was taller and heftier than Luo, I was stuck under his mother’s bed in a very tight space
which, judging by the unmistakable odor, I was sharing with a soil bucket. Flies swarmed around my
head. Making as little noise as possible I tried to lie down flat but bumped against the nauseating
bucket, almost spilling the contents; I heard a little splash, which only made the horrible stench
worse. I jerked my head in a reflex action, thereby inadvertently making a sound loud enough to be
noticed, and so give us away.

Task 2 – Criterion A (Analyzing), Criterion B (Organizing) and Criterion D (Using Language)

In this extract, Luo and the Narrator are breaking into Four-Eyes’s room. Explain how the language in
the extract influences your view of what Luo and the Narrator are doing. In your answer, you must
give examples of the language the writer uses. You may wish to consider how the writer:
 describes the situation
 describes what happens

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Task 3 - Criterion B (Organizing), Criterion C (Producing Text), and Criterion D (Using
Language).
Write an article to a local newspaper to explain the impact of misleading advertisements on
consumers
Misleading Advertisements

An anti-ageing skin cream advert

starring Twiggy was banned in 2009
after it emerged the real “secret” to
the model’s brighter-looking eyes
was generous airbrushing at the
hands of a photo retoucher.

You may want to include:

 What the problem is with having misleading advertisements?
 Why some advertisements are more than just misleading?
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