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IGCSE Mock Examinations 2024

English Home Language (0500)
Paper 1: Reading
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INSTRUCTIONS

• This Reading Booklet Insert contains the reading passages for use with all the
questions on the Question Paper.
• You may annotate this Reading Booklet Insert and use the blank spaces for
planning. However, this Reading Booklet Insert is not assessed by the Examiner.
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Read Text A, and then answer Questions 1(a)-1(e) on the question paper.

Text A: Why You Really Shouldnʼt Kill the Spiders in Your Home, According to an
Entomologist

This text is a piece of advice from a scientist who studies insects and spiders.

I know it may be hard to convince you, but let me try: Donʼt kill the next spider you
see in your home.

Why? Because spiders are an important part of nature and our indoor ecosystem –
as well as being fellow organisms in their own right.

People like to think of their dwellings as safely insulated from the outside world, but 5
many types of spiders can be found inside. Some are accidentally trapped, while
others are short-term visitors. Some species even enjoy the great indoors, where they
happily live out their lives and make more spiders. These arachnids are usually
secretive, and almost all you meet are neither aggressive nor dangerous. And they
may be providing services like eating pests – some even eat other spiders. 10

My colleagues and I conducted a visual survey of 50 North Carolina homes to

inventory just which arthropods1 live under our roofs. Every single house we visited
was home to spiders. The most common species we encountered were cobweb
spiders and cellar spiders.

Although they are generalist predators, apt to eat anything they can catch, spiders 15
regularly capture nuisance pests and even disease- carrying insects – for example,
mosquitoes. Thereʼs even a species of jumping spider that prefers to eat blood-filled
mosquitoes in African homes. So killing a spider doesnʼt just cost the arachnid its life, it
may take an important predator out of your home. Some build webs where they lie
in wait for prey to get caught. Cellar spiders sometimes leave their webs to hunt 20
other spiders on their turf, mimicking prey to catch their cousins for dinner.

Itʼs natural to fear spiders. They have lots of legs and almost all are venomous –
though the majority of species have venom too weak to cause issues in humans, if
their fangs can pierce our skin at all. Even entomologists themselves can fall prey to
arachnophobia. I know a few spider researchers who overcame their fear by 25
observing and working with these fascinating creatures. If they can do it, so can you!
Spiders are not out to get you and actually prefer to avoid humans; we are much
more dangerous to them than vice versa. Bites from spiders are extremely rare.
Although there are a few medically important species like widow spiders and
recluses, even their bites are uncommon and rarely cause serious issues. 30

If you truly canʼt stand that spider in your house, apartment, garage, or wherever,
instead of smashing it, try to capture it and release it outside. Itʼll find somewhere else
to go, and both parties will be happier with the outcome.

But if you can stomach it, itʼs OK to have spiders in your home. In fact, itʼs normal. And
frankly, even if you donʼt see them, theyʼll still be there. So consider a live-and-let-live 35
approach to the next spider you encounter.

1 Refers to any creature with an external skeleton, such as insects, spiders and crustaceans.
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Read Text B, and then answer Question 1(f) on the question paper.

Text B: Amazing Spider Silk Continues to Surprise Scientists

This text is an article summarising the findings of research into the properties of spider silk.

We already know that spider silk is something of a wonder material, but scientists are
still discovering more awesome things that it can do. An international team of
researchers has found that spider silk shares a useful property: it can be used to
manipulate sound and heat.

It’s known as a band gap, and it’s what lets scientists effectively “tune” materials with 5
this property for specific applications. Photonic crystals do this for light waves.
Phononic crystals do the same for sound, but this is the first time anyone has found
such a band gap in this kind of material.

Spider silk is as strong as steel and as stretchy as rubber, on a weight-to-weight basis.

That’s why it’s inspired lots of synthetic materials mimicking those properties, such as 10
Kevlar and nylon. Plus, spider silk is sticky (the better to catch unsuspecting prey), has
natural antimicrobial properties, and is both hypoallergenic2 and biodegradable.

Those nifty properties all arise from spider silk’s intricate structure. There are rigid layers
to hold the silk together, soft areas to keep it flexible, and within those soft areas,
places that enable the silk to stretch. Two proteins are embedded in a jelly-like 15
substance that makes up the fibre. One of those two proteins has a highly ordered
structure, while the other has a less ordered structure. That tension between order
and disorder gives the silk its strength and stretch.

Spiders can also sense when a web is damaged, or when prey becomes trapped,
via vibrations that travel through the web, just like sound waves move through the 20
air. Apparently they can distinguish between different frequencies because of spider
silk’s unusual sound-absorbing ability.

“Phononic crystals give you the ability to manipulate sound waves, and if you get
sound small enough and at high enough frequencies, you’re talking about heat,” the
researchers explain. “Being able to make heat flow this way and not that way, or 25
make it so it can’t flow at all, means you’re turning a material into a thermal insulator
that wasn’t one before.”

If scientists can replicate the microstructure that makes spider silk so special, it could
translate into all kinds of interesting applications for new synthetic materials—
waveguides, for instance, or materials that can dampen sound or provide insulation. 30

2 Does not generally cause allergic reactions

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Read Text C, and then answer Questions 2(a)-(d) and Question 3 on the question paper.

Text C: Around and Around (and Around)

This text is taken from a longer narrative. At this point in the story, the mysterious and
somewhat magical circus, Le Cirque des Rêves (The Circus of Dreams) has been going
from town to town, slowly gathering a reputation for being quite unlike any other circus.
This extract details one of the attractions at the circus: an amazing carousel ride.

There is always a line for the carousel. 5

It moves swiftly and steadily, but there is always a line.

Other tents in Le Cirque des Rêves occasionally have short lines or waits for
scheduled performances, depending on the crowd or the time of night, but the line
for the carousel is constant.

It is part of the experience. 10

You enter the tent, wondering why the carousel is enclosed in canvas rather than out
in the open air.

You immediately become a part of the line, corralled in ropes of black velvet that
guide you and your fellow patrons through the space. There are young children
waiting with you but there are also teenagers and adults and even an old man with 15
a cane some places ahead.

The line curves and winds through the tent, other queuing patrons obscuring your
views. You can see very little of the carousel itself on the opposite side of the tent,
only bits and pieces that change as you progress through the space.

They are tantalising, these shattered glimpses of carousel caught in the spaces 20
between hats and arms and heads craning for better views. You can see from this
perspective, that it does look somewhat like a traditional carousel, or part of one. It is
slightly elevated on a platform, lit with multitudes of small glowing spheres that blink
and pulse in time with the soft music that echoes throughout the tent. The carousel
itself is painted in black and white and silver, patterns and patinas catching shadows 25
so the whole structure seems to be in constant motion. Sections of it sparkle with bits
of glass and mirror, reflecting the light and fracturing it, letting it dance around the
walls of the tent, over the patrons waiting in line. There are no lights in the tent save
for the ones on the carousel itself.

As the line continues winding forward, as you move closer to the carousel, you begin 30
to catch clearer glimpses of the creatures.

Only a fraction of the carousel’s menagerie is visible at a time as the creatures

process by in an orderly fashion, one by one. They are not impaled on poles, instead
they are suspended from above by braids of ribbon. Swaying gently as they move.
They never pause, creeping alone the visible length of platform in constant motion. 35

You have not seen creatures like these on any other carousel. They are wondrous
works of art, carved with obvious care and incredible detail before being painted
black or white or grey, highlighted with shimmering silvers and pearls. They seem to
glow as they move slowly past. Not all of them are instantly recognizable, and you
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can only pull names out of the depths of your memory for some of them. A silver 40
dragon. A luminous white phoenix. A jet black Pegasus with silver-tipped wings. Some
are amalgamations of different animals (a few with multiple heads) and other
appear partially human: mermaids and centaurs with beatific frozen faces, eyes so
perfectly glossy that they seem almost alive. Each one is more breathtaking than the
next as they slowly parade along. Each bears a seat moulded into their shape, 45
something like a saddle painted to perfectly match, situated just behind the
suspension ribbon. There are no stirrups, only a seat set upon each creature.

You can see the front of the line now, where costumed circus workers assist riders on
to their mounts. It is not the free-for-all of some other carousels, where people choose
the painted horse that catches their eye. Instead, each person is guided to the 50
creature awaiting a rider. It is fate that decides which beast you are destined for, not
some arbitrary affinity for colour or style.
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BLANK PAGE

Copyright Acknowledgements:

Question 1a-e © Matt Bertone; Should I kill the spiders in my home?; The Conversation 16 May 2018
Question 1f © Jennifer Ouellette; Amazing Spider Silk Continues to Surprise Scientists; Gizmodo 26 July 2016
Questions 2 & 3 © Erin Morgenstern; The Night Circus; Doubleday; 2011

Texts have been reproduced and adapted for educational examination purposes only.

© GEMS Cambridge International School, Abu Dhabi, 2024