Catholic Junior College

JC2 Preliminary Examinations

Higher 2

LITERATURE
Instruction IN ENGLISH 9509/01
Paper 1: Reading Literature 30 Aug 2021

3 hours

Additional Materials: Set Texts

Set texts may be taken into the examination room. They may bear underlining or highlighting. Any
kind of folding or flagging of pages in texts (e.g. use of post-its, tape flags or paper clips) is not
permitted.

READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST

Write your name, class, and question number on all the work you hand in.
Write in dark blue or black pen on both sides of the paper.
Write your answer to each question on a fresh sheet of paper.
Do not use paper clips, highlighters, glue, or correction fluid on your work.

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

At the end of the examination, fasten each of your answers separately.

All questions in this paper carry equal marks.

This document consists of 7 printed pages.

[Turn over
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Section A
1
Either (a) Write a critical comparison on the following poems, considering in detail ways in
which language, style and form contribute to each poet’s portrayal of the
examination of youth.

A FRIENDS’ PHOTOS

We all looked like goddesses

and gods, glowing and smooth, sheathed
from head to foot by a golden essence
that glistened and refracted its aura
of power – the wonderful ichor1 called youth. 5

We moved as easily as dolphins

surging out of the ocean, cleaving
massed tons of transparent water
streaming away in swathes of bubbling
silver like the plasm2 of life. 10

Still potent from those black and white

photos, the palpable electric
charge between us, like the negative
and positive poles of a battery,
or the fingers of Adam and God. 15

We were beautiful, without exception.

I could hardly bear to look at those
old albums, to see the lost glamour
we never noticed when we were
first together – when we were young. 20

Ruth Fainlight (1931—)

1
ichor: a delicate and light fluid that takes the place of blood in the veins of Greek gods.
2
plasm: a formed material or substance.

B THE FLIGHT OF YOUTH

THERE are gains for all our losses,

There are balms for all our pain:
But when youth, the dream, departs,
It takes something from our hearts,
And it never comes again. 5

We are stronger, and are better,

Under manhood’s sterner reign:
Still we feel that something sweet
Followed youth, with flying feet,
And will never come again. 10

Something beautiful is vanished,

And we sigh for it in vain:
We behold it everywhere,
On the earth, and in the air,
But it never comes again! 15

Richard Henry Stoddard (1825—1903)

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Or (b) Write a critical comparison on the following poems, considering in detail ways in
which language, style and form contribute to each poet’s portrayal of labour.

A THE WORKERS

They go to work each day and everyone

Is happy all day through. When night arrives
They eagerly look forward to the leisure;
Yes, each one thrives
On all this careful blend of work with pleasure. 5
The day is happy when the night’s begun.

I am among those quiet ones who sit

Working at this and that. Day must suffice
By single day to make the pieces fit.
I am alone 10
In all I try to do. It is precise
Even if only by myself quite known.

Day, glorious as birds upon the wing

And sea which batters on the rocks and coves,
I see a glory now in everything, 15
Each thing I love
Is drawn into my work tight as a thread.
All this the morning meant, the noontide said.

Elizabeth Jennings (1926—2001)

B CONSTRUCTION

They were building a subway

station right next to our block.
Most of the time, you could not see
the workers. They worked deep down below,
beyond the reach of light - 5
like so many termites carving
ceaseless secrets into the hidden parts
of a wooden house.

At noon, they emerged from tunnels,

blinked into the sudden sun. 10
After a quick meal, they lay
in the shade of void decks
and swiftly folded themselves into sleep.

They became so still and quiet

you might have thought them dead. 15

Then a small breeze came, and one of them

stirred slightly, though he did not wake.
He would not have known it,
if you had come close enough to watch him breathe -
the way his chest slightly rose 20
and fell,
then, almost like a miracle,
slightly rose
and fell again.
Gilbert Koh (1973—)
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Section B

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD: The Great Gatsby

2

Either (a) Consider the view that dreamers are punished in The Great Gatsby.

Or (b) Write a critical commentary on the following passage, relating it to the portrayal of
impermanence here and elsewhere in the novel.

He came back from France when Tom and Daisy were still on their wedding trip,
and made a miserable but irresistible journey to Louisville on the last of his army pay.
He stayed there a week, walking the streets where their footsteps had clicked
together through the November night and revisiting the out-of-the-way places to
which they had driven in her white car. Just as Daisy's house had always seemed to 5
him more mysterious and gay than other houses, so his idea of the city itself, even
though she was gone from it, was pervaded with a melancholy beauty.
He left feeling that if he had searched harder he might have found her—that he
was leaving her behind. The day-coach—he was penniless now—was hot. He went
out to the open vestibule and sat down on a folding-chair, and the station slid away 10
and the backs of unfamiliar buildings moved by. Then out into the spring fields, where
a yellow trolley raced them for a minute with people in it who might once have seen
the pale magic of her face along the casual street.
The track curved and now it was going away from the sun which, as it sank lower,
seemed to spread itself in benediction over the vanishing city where she had drawn 15
her breath. He stretched out his hand desperately as if to snatch only a wisp of air,
to save a fragment of the spot that she had made lovely for him. But it was all going
by too fast now for his blurred eyes and he knew that he had lost that part of it, the
freshest and the best, forever.
It was nine o'clock when we finished breakfast and went out on the porch. The 20
night had made a sharp difference in the weather and there was an autumn flavor in
the air. The gardener, the last one of Gatsby's former servants, came to the foot of
the steps.
"I'm going to drain the pool today, Mr. Gatsby. Leaves'll start falling pretty soon
and then there's always trouble with the pipes." 25
"Don't do it today," Gatsby answered. He turned to me apologetically. "You know,
old sport, I've never used that pool all summer?"
I looked at my watch and stood up.
"Twelve minutes to my train."
I didn't want to go to the city. I wasn't worth a decent stroke of work, but it was 30
more than that—I didn't want to leave Gatsby. I missed that train, and then another,
before I could get myself away.
"I'll call you up," I said finally.
"Do, old sport."
"I'll call you about noon." 35
We walked slowly down the steps.
"I suppose Daisy'll call too." He looked at me anxiously, as if he hoped I'd
corroborate this.
"I suppose so."
"Well, good-by." We shook hands and I started away. Just before I reached the 40
hedge I remembered something and turned around.
"They're a rotten crowd," I shouted across the lawn. "You're worth the whole
damn bunch put together."
I've always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him,
because I disapproved of him from beginning to end. First he nodded politely, and 45
then his face broke into that radiant and understanding smile, as if we'd been in
ecstatic cahoots on that fact all the time. His gorgeous pink rag of a suit made a bright

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spot of color against the white steps, and I thought of the night when I first came to
his ancestral home, three months before. The lawn and drive had been crowded with
the faces of those who guessed at his corruption—and he had stood on those steps, 50
concealing his incorruptible dream, as he waved them good-by.
I thanked him for his hospitality. We were always thanking him for that—I and the
others.
"Good-by," I called. "I enjoyed breakfast, Gatsby."

Chapter 8

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Section C

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW: Saint Joan

3

Either (a) “Her heart would not burn, my Lord; but everything that was left is at the bottom of
the river.” (The Executioner, Sc VI)

In the light of this quotation, examine Shaw’s presentation of virtue in Saint Joan.

Or (b) Write a critical commentary on the following passage, relating it to the portrayal of
atmosphere and its dramatic effects, here and elsewhere in the play.

CAUCHON: I cannot burn her. The Church cannot take life. And my first duty is to seek
this girl's salvation.
WARWICK: No doubt. But you do burn people occasionally.
CAUCHON: No. When The Church cuts off an obstinate heretic as a dead branch from
the tree of life, the heretic is handed over to the secular arm. The Church 5
has no part in what the secular arm may see fit to do.
WARWICK: Precisely. And I shall be the secular arm in this case. Well, my lord, hand
over your dead branch; and I will see that the fire is ready for it. If you will
answer for The Church's part, I will answer for the secular part.
CAUCHON: [with smouldering anger] I can answer for nothing. You great lords are too 10
prone to treat The Church as a mere political convenience.
WARWICK: [smiling and propitiatory] Not in England, I assure you.
CAUCHON: In England more than anywhere else. No, my lord: the soul of this village
girl is of equal value with yours or your king's before the throne of God; and
my first duty is to save it. I will not suffer your lordship to smile at me as if I 15
were repeating a meaningless form of words, and it were well understood
between us that I should betray the girl to you. I am no mere political bishop:
my faith is to me what your honor is to you; and if there be a loophole
through which this baptized child of God can creep to her salvation, I shall
guide her to it. 20
THE CHAPLAIN: [rising in a fury] You are a traitor.
CAUCHON: [springing up] You lie, priest. [Trembling with rage] If you dare do what this
woman has done—set your country above the holy Catholic Church—you
shall go to the fire with her.
THE CHAPLAIN: My lord: I—I went too far. I— [he sits down with a submissive gesture]. 25
WARWICK: [who has risen apprehensively] My lord: I apologize to you for the word used
by Messire John de Stogumber. It does not mean in England what it does
in France. In your language traitor means betrayer: one who is perfidious,
treacherous, unfaithful, disloyal. In our country it means simply one who is
not wholly devoted to our English interests. 30
CAUCHON: I am sorry: I did not understand. [He subsides into his chair with dignity]
WARWICK: [resuming his seat, much relieved] I must apologize on my own account if I
have seemed to take the burning of this poor girl too lightly. When one has
seen whole countrysides burnt over and over again as mere items in military
routine, one has to grow a very thick skin. Otherwise one might go mad: at 35
all events, I should. May I venture to assume that your lordship also, having
to see so many heretics burned from time to time, is compelled to take—
shall I say a professional view of what would otherwise be a very horrible
incident?
CAUCHON: Yes: it is a painful duty: even, as you say, a horrible one. But in comparison 40
with the horror of heresy it is less than nothing. I am not thinking of this girl's
body, which will suffer for a few moments only, and which must in any event
die in some more or less painful manner, but of her soul, which may suffer
to all eternity.
WARWICK: 45
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Just so; and God grant that her soul may be saved! But the practical problem
would seem to be how to save her soul without saving her body. For we
THE CHAPLAIN: must face it, my lord: if this cult of The Maid goes on, our cause is lost.
[his voice broken like that of a man who has been crying] May I speak, my
WARWICK: lord? 50
Really, Messire John, I had rather you did not, unless you can keep your
THE CHAPLAIN: temper.
It is only this. I speak under correction; but The Maid is full of deceit: she
pretends to be devout. Her prayers and confessions are endless. How can
she be accused of heresy when she neglects no observance of a faithful 55
CAUCHON: daughter of The Church?
[flaming up] A faithful daughter of The Church! The Pope himself at his
proudest dare not presume as this woman presumes. She acts as if she
herself were The Church. She brings the message of God to Charles; and
The Church must stand aside. She will crown him in the cathedral of 60
Rheims: she, not The Church! She sends letters to the king of England
giving him God's command through her to return to his island on pain of
God's vengeance, which she will execute. Let me tell you that the writing of
such letters was the practice of the accursed Mahomet, the anti-Christ. Has
she ever in all her utterances said one word of The Church? Never. It is 65
always God and herself.

Scene IV

Copyright acknowledgements:
Question 1a © Ruth Fainlight; Sugar-Paper Blue; Bloodaxe Books, 1997, Hexham.
Question 1a © Richard Henry Stoddard; The World’s Best Poetry, Ed. Bliss Carman; John D. Morris & Co, 1904, Philadelphia.
Question 1b © Elizabeth Jennings; Poetry: A Magazine of Verse Vol. 114, No. 2; Ed. Harriet Monroe, 1969, Chicago.
Question 1b © Gilbert Koh; Quarterly Literary Review Singapore Vol. 3, No. 2; Ed. Toh Hsien Min, 2004.
Question 2 © F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Great Gatsby; Oxford University Press, 1998, New York.
Question 3 © George Bernard Shaw; Saint Joan; Methuen Drama, 1923/2008, London.

Permission to reproduce this paper should be sought from Catholic Junior College.

© CJC 2021 9509/01