UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL EXAMINATIONS ‘Cambridge Checkpoint mbridge atid ENGLISH mye Paper 2 INSERT ‘April 2012 ‘Thour plus 10 minutes’ reading time [Turn overRead this extract from ‘The House on the Brink’ by John Gordon. The marshland was as flat as the sea. The woman walking on the low bank turned to look behind her. A line of distant trees was like the shadow under the lip of a wave about to roll in from the horizon. There was nothing to stop it. The heat of the day was intense but she shuddered. There was a man with her, a little way ahead. He raised his arms and drank in the air. “Marvellous!” he said. She turned to look in the other direction. The flat land reached away into the sea itself, turning first into sleek mud before, far away, the glazed sea lay over it. “Marvellous!” said the man again. The grass was coarse where they walked, but beyond the bank it lay in lush green clumps smoothed and limp where the tide had left them. And then the mud gently humped like the backs of seals. Except in one place. Something jutted up, rounded but ungainly. “What's that?" she said. 10 15 20 25pi ‘were going to be difficult. “Don't touch it!” Her voice from behind him was as thin as the wind through grass. Without tuning round he waved to reassure her. ‘The mud was up to his knees and he was moving unsteadily. The last few yards ‘Suddenly his raised hand was clenched as though he were fighting to keep his balance. She could see his face. The corners of his mouth were pulled back in a snarl, his eyes started, white-rimmed. For the stump was moving, turning like a black finger to point at him. Slowly, slowly — and his feet were trapped. “Aaaaaaah!” The sound in his throat was too smalll to reach her but she could see the stump. The blunt end of it seemed for another second to seek him out and then suddenly it went blind. A slight quiver and it laid itself gently down. He looked at it, panting. It was only a waterlogged stump. Since the last tide ithhad been on the point of overbalancing. He had disturbed the mud and laid it to rest. “Come back!” she was pleading. His skin had gone cold. Now he was sweating. He laughed at himself and hauled one of his feet clear to turn towards her. “Only a bit of wood,” he called. “Told you!” Is of grass to clean the mud from his feet. “Your =n gets me going at times.” 30 35 40 45 50pin an Canscaner