Section A: Seen Poetry [10 marks]

Remember to support your ideas with relevant details from the poem using the
Point-Evidence-Analysis (PEA) format.

1 Read the poem carefully, and then answer the questions that follow it.

My Paper Planes

My Paper Planes

These planes I fly for you today.

I meant to fly some every day,
But there was always homework,
And a thousand other things:
My planes are broken birds with pinioned1 wings. 5

I remember your planes swirling with grace,

Dancing to your bubbling laughter's pace,
Lifted by your capers2 and your smiling face;
You loved to give life to phoenixes galore
And fling them off tower blocks, watch them soar 10
In defiance of every earthly law.

I regret now not joining you,

Siding with Mom when you set free
Earthbound homework into dreams that flew;
I asked you to grow up, face the world, 15
But I didn't actually expect to see,
Didn't expect you to follow your planes onto the brutal road.

I've thrown away my last one now.

I hope the wind will lift its wings to you,
And you can judge how well 20
I've tried to make my planes!
If only my spirit could be airborne like yours was...
I suppose you're happier now,
Riding on your imagination's flight,
Away from the dull earth you understood better 25
Than I do.

Poor pieces of paper

Are all I have left of you.

(by Kenneth Wee)

1 pinioned – tied up or restrained to prevent flight

2 capers – a playful skipping movement
(i) What are two impressions you have of the speaker? Use Point-Evidence-
Analysis (PEA) to structure your responses. [6 m]
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(i) Do you feel sympathy for the speaker? Why or why not? Offer at least 2
pieces of evidence. Use PEA to structure your answer. [4m]

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 Section B: Passage-Based Questions for Set Text [15 marks]
ELIZABETH LAIRD: Red Sky in the Morning

Remember to support your ideas with relevant details from the text using
the Point-Evidence-Analysis (PEA) format.

Mind you, I had second thoughts about teaching Ben to kiss. I began to wish I'd
taught him something else. The problem was that once he'd learned how to do it, he
wouldn't stop. He never seemed to get bored with it. And no one else, except Mum
and sometimes Dad, seemed quite so keen to be kissed by Ben. Even I had to admit
that his mouth was wetter than most people's. 5
‘I think it's disgusting,' Katy used to say, looking all prissy, and stuck-up. 'I
don't know how you can stand it, getting dribbled all over like that.’
A few weeks earlier, I'd have pinched Katy good and hard for saying that, but I
was growing too big for childish squabbles. Anyway, I'd realized that the poor child
was suffering from the pangs of jealousy. They were no stranger to me. I knew how it
1
felt to see one's best friend go off with a snotty little sycophant. That was one of my
0
best descriptions of Emma. I'd thought up lots of them, especially last thing at night,
but 'snotty sycophant' combined, I thought, strict truthfulness and a neat elegance of
phrasing. It was exquisitely crushing. I'd never dared say it to her face, but I was
holding it in reserve. One day, I knew, my time for annihilating Emma would come.
I'd realized that Katy was jealous the day she shrieked at me.
'You never play with me like you do with Ben. What have I got to do? Get 1
myself handicapped or something?' 5
I was just about to tear her limb from limb when I suddenly understood, and a
calm feeling of superiority came over me. I felt about fifty years old. So I smiled at
her, and said very kindly, 'Now now, Katy, don't be jealous. Of course I'm really very
fond of you.’
But the wretched child just got madder than ever. After that I tried to ignore her. 2
I promised myself that one day I'd do something really stunning for her, like taking her 0
out for a hamburger, or letting her listen to my golden oldie Beatles record. But l kept
putting it off. The trouble was, she made me feel guilty. I really did like Ben much
better than her.

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5

(i) What are two impressions you have of Katy based on this passage? Use
Point-Evidence-Analysis (PEA) to structure your responses.

(ii) What are two themes explored in this passage? Use Point-Evidence-
Analysis (PEA) to structure your responses.
You may use the following words / phrases to decide on the themes for your
Point (P):

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family love, friendship, coping with disability, roles and responsibilities,
jealousy

4
Revision notes on themes (write in your journal)

Themes are the big ideas that a writer explores in a text. The following are some of
the major themes in Red Sky in the Morning.

family love, friendship, coping with disability, roles and responsibilities,

jealousy

Family love: the love that one has for family members, for example, the
unconditional love that parents have for their children, and the love between siblings

Friendship: The text explores teenage friendships, and the peer pressure teenagers
face in their desire to be accepted by their peers.

Coping with disability: The text explores the difficulties of taking care of a family
member who is disabled. This includes the burdens of caregiving as well as the fear
of facing judgement by others who are less empathetic and insensitive.

Roles and responsibilities: As Ben is a character who cannot look after himself, he
requires the care of other characters in the novel. As a result, the family members
take on certain roles and responsibilities and the text explores how each of these
characters handles their responsibilities and deal with the stress that comes with it.

Jealousy: Different characters are jealous of others for different reasons but at
the end of the day, jealousy is portrayed as a petty feeling that stems from a lack
of understanding for or towards the other party.