TEST CODE 01219010 ‘* J

FORM TP 2017061 MAY/JUNE 2017

CARIBBEAN EXAMINATIONS COUNCIL

CARIBBEAN SECONDARY EDUCATION CERTIFICATES

EXAMINATION

ENGLISH B

Paper 01 — General Proficiency

1 hour 4S minutes

READ THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY.

1. This paper consists of THREE questions. Answer ALL questions.

2. Write your answers in the spaces provided in this answer booklet.

3. Do NOT write in the margins.

4. You are advised to take some time to read through the paper and plan your answers.

5. lf you need to rewrite any answer and there is not enough space to do so on the
original page, you must use the extra lined page(s) provided at the back of this
booklet. Remember to draw a line through your original answer.

6. If you use the extra page(s) you MUST write the question number clearly in
the box provided at the top of the extra page(s) and, where relevant, include
the question part beside the answer.

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

Copyright0 2015 Caribbean Examinations Council

A II rights reserved.

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SECTION A — DRAMA

1. Read the following extract carefully and answer ALL the questions that follow.

[MZfSDC. Enter H EL EN]

HELEN: Jo! Your beloved old lady's arrived. Well, where is she, Romeo?
GEOF: Don't tell her I came for you.
HELEN: What? Don't mumble.
5 GEOF: I said don't tell her I came for you.

HELEN: All right. All right. This place hasn't changed much, has it? Still the same
old miserable hole. Well, where's the lady in question?
GEOF: I n there.

HELEN: What, lazing in bed, as usual? [They enter Jo’s room] Come on, get up; plenty
10
of girls in your condition have to go out to work and take care of a family.
Come on, get up.

JO: What blew you in?

HELEN: Let me have a look at you.

JO: Who told you about me?

15 GEOF: Your mother has a right to know.

JO: She has no rights where I'm concerned.

HELEN: 1 didn't need to talk to her. The whole district knows what's going on here. [To
Geof] And what's your part in this little Victorian melodrama? Nursemaid?

JO: And what has been going on?

20 H ELEN I suppose you think you can hide yourself away in this chicken run, don't you?
:
Well, you can't. Everybody knows.

She won't go out anywhere, not even for a walk and a bit of fresh air. That's
GEOF: why 1 came to you.

And what do you think I can do about it? I n any case, bearing a child doesn't
HELEN: place anyone under an obligation to it.
25

GEOF: I should have thought it did.

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JO: [To Geof} Serves you right for bringing her here, Geof.

HELEN: Where's the loving father? Distinguished by his absence, l suppose. [To Geof}
Did she hear any more of him?

30 JO: No, she didn't.

HELEN: When I'm talking to the organ grinder 1 don't expect the monkey to answer.

JO: l could get him back tomorrow if l wanted to.

HELEN: Well, that's nice to know. He certainly left you a nice Christmas box. lt did
happen at Christmas, I suppose? When the cat's away.

zs JO: Get out of here. You should have been locked up years ago, with my father.

HELEN: Let me get a hold of her!

GEOF: Please, to. Helen, p)ease!

JO: [To Helen] If you don't get out of here I’ll .. .

[There is a sudden lull.]
Shelagh Delaney, A Taste ofHonev, Grove Press, 1956, pp. 59—62.

(a) Describe what is happening in lines I — I I .

(2 marks)

(b) (i) Suggest ONE reason Geof might not want Jo to know he asked Helen to visit.

(2 marks)

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(ii) What is Jo's attitude to her ‘condition’? Support your answer with evidence from
the extract.

(2 marks)

(c) Comment on the dramatic significance of Helen's entrance.

(3marks)

(d) Describe Geof's role in the extract.

(2 marks)

(e) Briefly discuss the nature of the relationship between the mother (Helen) and daughter
(Jo) in the extract. Support your response with evidence from the extract.

(4 marks)
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(f) Comment on the dramatic impact of repetition in the following lines: “Well, that's nice
to know. He certainly left you a nice Christmas box. It did happen at Christmas, I
suppose?” (lines 33—34).

(3 marks)

(g) Explain ONE way in which the playwright uses suspense to create interest.

(2 marks)

Total 20 marks

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SECTION B — POETRY

2. Read the following poem carefully and answer ALL the questions that follow.

Affront'

Bernie fall asleep many mornings in The Dragon's

class where Geography meant saying pages by heart.

As soon as he sat down sleepiness came on like tons

he could carry no more. So almost from the start

5 of the recitations his eyes drooped and shut. By turn

we all had to repeat from memory undigested

gobbets of that day's set chapter. An unbroken drone

answered The Dragon's demand, a charlatan' vested

in the robes of a teacher. Promised punishment fell

ip on all who faltered. But most nights Bernie could not read

nor sleep. Home was not set up for that. So when we woke
him to recite the next sentence of course he couldn't

he was made to stand on one leg, (The Dragon's grim joke

about treating the class to a sleepwalker's stunt),

is for the rest of the period and through the recess.

Mr H called it an affront he was not prepared

to waive3. His record of examination success

made that c lear, he said. Now shame asks why none of us dared

to defend Bernie. Were we all like the Dragon, there

20 just to safeguard some false acclaim? We pretended that

it was not our business and left Bernie to bear

his torture alone. We turned to our own combat

with the rungs up a ladder to ascend to the top

where the ground below could not be seen. We wriggled up.

' to do or say something that shows a lack of respect for someone's feel ings
A con man/fraud
put aside or ignore

Cecil Gray,“Affront”. reena e Lflfbel

Publications, 2003, p.7.

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(a) Who is Bernie and where is the event taking place?

(2 marks)

(b) State ONE thing we learn about Bernie's behaviour. Suggest ONE reason for this
behaviour. Use evidence from the poem to support your answer.

(3 marks)

(c) What does “Promised punishment fell / on all who faltered” (lines 9—10) suggest about
the Dragon?

(2 marks)

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(d) What is the speaker's attitude towards the following characters?

(i) Bernie
(ii) The Dragon

Use evidence from the poem to support your answer.

(i) Bernie

(2 marks)
(ii) The Dragon

(2 marks)

(e) Identify the figurative device used in ONE of the following and comment on its effectiveness:

• “sleepiness came on like tons / he could carry no more” (lines 3—4)

• “The Dragon's grim joke” (line 13)

(3 marks)

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(f) Identify where the mood changes in the poem. Suggest why the mood changes.

(3 marks)

(g) How appropriate is the title of the poem? Justify your answer with evidence from the
poem.

(3 marks)

Total 20 marks

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SECTION C — PROSE FICTION

3. Read the following extract carefully and answer ALL the questions that follow.

The leopard came out in the afternoon. It came out of a clump of husky chestnuts, off
a low limb, and it was cold and wet and murderous. Save for the quick scrabble of the claws
on the slippery wood, it left the limb without a sound; and when Nebu saw it the hindlegs were
already hooking inward for sinking into the boy's shoulders. It was an alien flicker in the corner
5 of Nebu's eyes but his jungle senses instantly smote into action. He was quicker than the cat, with
the upward lunge of the spear. But the flying brute curved magnificently in the air, striking at the
iron as it passed. Nebu felt the earthquake in his shoulder, in his arm, as the point raked savagely,
helplessly, along the turning, cheating hard-skinned coat.

It dropped squarely and the fore-legs hit and bounded off the turf-like rubber pads.
Snarling, t0 it pivoted on hindlegs. The great head slashed around and Nebu looked full into the face of
the cat.
Hate, fury, purpose, flourished like green things in the tawny face; desiring Nebu, rippling to tear
him down. The claws drew red wounds into the earth. The claws were dirty, Nebu noticed. The
boy whimpered where he had fallen to the ground and the sound drew the reptilian head around
to him and the pouched lips lifted off the teeth.

15 ‘No!’ Nebu cried.

Anything to turn the pouring eyes back to himself.

He gestured with the seven-foot spear.

‘No! Child of filth! To me! Me! Carrion! Work for your meal!’ Like the nobler ones
of the forest. And Nebu heard the animal purr and he saw how the end of the tail moved I ightly,
20 and his bowels contracted as under a sharp blow and he lurched forward, yelling.

He would have plunged the spear into it but the leopard groped in the ground and found
footing, hurled itself backward and was gone with two bounds into the bush. Nebu waited until
the crash of its going was lost to the clearing.

Yictor S. Reid, The Leopard, Heinemann, 2008, pp. 63—64.

(a) Describe what is happening in the extract.

(2 marks)

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(b) What image of the leopard is created in line 6, “the flying brute curved magnificently in
the air”?

(2 marks)

(c) (i) Identify the setting of the extract.

(1 mark)

(i i) Explain how the setting is appropriate.

(2 marks)

(d) What mood is created in paragraph 2? Support your answer with evidence from the extract.

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(e) Identify the figurative device used in ONE of the following and comment on its effectiveness:

• “bounded off the turf-like rubber pads” (line 9)

• “The claws drew red wounds into the earth” (line 12)

(3 marks)

(f) (i) What is the effect of Nebu's words to the leopard?

(2 marks)

(ii) What TWO characteristics are shared by both Nebu and the leopard?

(2 marks)

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(g) What might be the outcome of another encounter between Nebu and the leopard?
Support your response with evidence from the extract.

(3 marks)

Total 20 marks

END OF TEST

IF YOU FINISH BEFORE TIME IS CALLED, CHECK YOUR WORK ON THIS TEST.

Tire Council hirs made every effort to trnce copyright holders. However, ifnny have been inadvertently
overlooked, or riny materinl has been incorrectly acknowledged, CXC will be pleased to correct this at
the earliest opportunity.

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