SWISS COTTAGE SECONDARY SCHOOL

SECONDARY FOUR
MID-YEAR EXAMINATION
N
Name: ( ) Class:

HUMANITIES 2177/ 02
(Elective: Literature in English)
Wednesday 11 May 2022

Paper 2 Prose and Unseen 1 hour 40 minutes

Additional Materials: Writing Paper (6 sheets)

READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST

Write your name, class and index number on all the work you hand in.
Write in dark blue or black pen on both sides of the paper.
Do not use highlighters or correction fluid.

Answer two questions: one question from Section A and one question from Section B.
You are reminded of the need for good English and clear presentation in your answers.

At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together.
All questions in this question paper carry equal marks.

Submit Section A and Section B separately.

Question 1 /25
Question 2 /25
Total /50

This document consists of 4 printed pages.

Setter: Mdm Mini Sathiya Sidhan

Vetter: Mr Lee De Yi [Turn over]
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Section A

Answer one question from this section.

PHILIP HOLDEN (ed.): Hook and Eye

1 Either (a) What do you find disturbing about the story Rich Man Country (by Leonara
Liow)? Refer closely to details from the text.

Or (b) What are your impressions of Atiqah in (by Yu-Mei

Balasinghamchow)?

Or (c) Read the following passage from The Moral Support of Presence (by Karen
Kwek carefully and then answer the questions that follow it:

A light breeze was stirring, picking up the dried leaves in the car park and
swirling them in eddies. I stepped off the void deck into the car park and lit my
fourth cigarette, exhaling into the cool air. The moon seemed preternaturally
large, a grapefruit
shoulder. Only a few of her words reached me--tired bad luck but when Pa 5
put his hand protectively on the small bump of her tummy, I had a sudden awful
revelation of what Ma must have known for months and borne alone. 3.53 am. I
saw white carnations in a hospital, and the car park started to spin.

10
beneath the casket moved with a sigh it could have been the wind and
something fluttered out, circled the void deck and made straight for Alexa. It
looked like a very large butterfly or moth emerald green, with a wingspan as
wide as my open hand. She screamed and tried to bat it away with her fists.
15

She was on her feet now, eyes ablaze. The peanuts on the table broke rank,
willy-

20
t
until one week later, I thought.

knows whether people kee siao is different? Come back anyhow and do
anything? I do a new family now. This kind 25

The green moth let her go and came to rest on the sleeve of my T-shirt.

30
opened the car door and was getting in. I shrugged my indifference and the Audi
s Beetle.
I returned to the void deck. Ma lay peacefully behind the glass pane.

35
I scrolled past new

The moth was still on my T-shirt sleeve, my own badge of mourning. Up

close, its four wings were majestic and really quite spectacular, spread laterally
and tented down its back, ending in tails of pale pink. I pictured the specimen 40
mounted behind glass, wings pinned in place, so that someone could keep it
forever. At last I brushed a finger against its wing. The insect was gone in an
 3
instant, an illusionist in a mist, leaving a fine, powder-like dust on my fingertip.
Where a bleary sun would soon be, a blush was spreading in the sky through the
tops of the rain trees fringing the car park. 45
I thought I saw a glimmer of emerald in the distance, beyond the glow of the

(i) What are your feelings for Mun in this passage?

(ii) What do you feel towards Mun in the earlier parts of the story?
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Section B

2 Read this poem carefully, and then answer the questions that follow it:

Home

Across the seas, I have a home

Too far to reach, too close to forget
A place where I find genuine comfort
A place far better than the rest of the world

But then I have to bid my farewell 5

Say my goodbyes without shedding tears
Leave those who are dear to me
For a better life, for the future I see

Now, I am in the land of the lion's head

Searching for grace, counting the days 10
Fearing that at the end of my plea1
All my struggles will be nothing but history
Yes, I long for that place I call home
Too far to reach, too close to forget
The road back there, I shall once heed 15
For at the end of my journey, there shall I rest

Towards that home that's dear to me

The sail of my boat, I shall aim one of these days
Going beyond the horizon that limits my sight
On a plight far 2treacherous than the 3Odyssey 20

Yes, there is a home that's so dear to me

Too far to reach, too close to forget
A place that bears all of my past
A place I longed for my future to start

And as I close my eyes from the 4shenanigans of today 25

All I hope is a tomorrow where I can be
Towards the home I long to see
Towards that dream that seems to be of infinity.

(by Edna Pilapil Manatad)

(i)

(ii) What makes the struggles of her journey so moving in this poem?
Refer closely to the poem as you answer.

END OF PAPER

1
plea: prayer
2
treacherous: dangerous
3
Odyssey: important journey
4
shenanigans: wrongdoings