ZIMBABWE SCHOOL EXAMINATION COUNCIL

O’ LEVEL

ENGLISH LANGUAGE PAPER 2

NOV 1999
SECTION A

Read the following passage very carefully before you

attempt any questions.

Trapped in Quicksand

1. Stepping from the train at Camforth, on the coast of Lancshire

in north- west England. Terry Howfett thought how happy he
was to be back to his favourite spot in the world. Just a short
walk would bring him to Morecambe bay. He had fire
discovered the bay in 1988 and since then he made several
trips to this solitary place he now regarded as his refuge from a
hostile world. Its seeming magic helped him think things
through. Now, on a breezy Saturday night, just short of his 30th
birthday, he had made this aspect trip from his how town with
a lot on his mind.

2. A disastrous soccer injury had brought Howlett’s promising

naval career as a weapons technician to an abrupt end. At first
he was hopeful, but after three knee operations he knew he
had to go. He was forced to resign from the navy. His
resignation changed his life dramatically overnight. He had held
a string of casual jobs; a tax clerk, barman and even car
washer. Non of these jobs lasted long because his knee putting
him in hospital.

3. Now, as he walked briskly his favourite spot he felt healed and

raring to go, but he was trapped. He knew he h ad to earn a
living somehow, yet if he got another full time menial job, he
couldn’t go to University to get the education he desperately
needed to improve his prospects in life. In all the time he
drifted from one casual job to another, he had begun to feel a
burning thirst for a university qualification of some sort. As time
passed, the desire for university education possessed him like a
demon, until his whole frame shook. During such times he
 would sit alone, a lonely figure bent double, gazing into the
future. Even during those times of torment, he allowed himself
the luxury of continuing to dream – dreaming about his
gateway from misery, university education.

4. He continued his brisk walk, his mind’s lens scanning the

landscape of his life. The worst of being unemployed and
broke, he realized, was having family and friends always on his
back. Try this, try that, they nagged. But I have tried, he
thought angrily, and nothing works. Try telling them that! They
would give him that queer look if he tried. So every time they
suggested something he just shook his head and kept quiet.
Even so, Howlett was no quitter. He was determined to get his
life sorted out. The big question was how, and he’d come to
this lonely place to ponder things over. Taking a deep breath,
he increased his pace towards the bay as if he was in a hurry to
catch up with something he sorely desired.

5. As he walked, almost trotted in fact, he took in the details of

his surroundings. A long causeway jutted about 1 500 metres
into the flat and desolate shore of the bay. As dusk was failing,
Howlette marched towards the sea, feeling the tranquility of
the marshes gather him in. At the same time, he felt lulled by
the screeches of birds and the wind. All the while he kept
muttering to himself; if I keep going, I could get a break, but if
I give up, it’ll never happen. I just have to get to university
somehow.

6. Coming to the end of the causeway, Howlett wandered onto

the beach. In the moonlight, he could make out the channel of
a river. It was probably 200 metres wide. He suddenly noticed
that the tide was well out, leaving an expanse of sand dotted
with pools of water. He felt a swell of relief up inside him. He
would be able to walk for hours on the self- grasses beyond the
channel. But after a dozen steps he began to feel himself
sinking into the soft sand.
7. Quicksand! Howlett was stunned. Windmilling his arms to keep
his balance, he tried to leap free but sank deeper. In seconds
he was up to his knees in a pudding of cold and oozing jelly.

8. There had been nothing on the surface to suggest that the

ground was soft or dangerous. But, as locals well know, the
swirling of river of tidal currents sometimes digs out isolated
hollows which fill with porridge like sediment. Only an expert
eye can detect these melgraves, as they are called. They have
a voracious appetite. Fishermen, carts, motor bikes and even
dump trucks have been known to get swallowed and disappear
without a trace. Was this to be his fate too?

9. Howlett had read long ago that farmers who got struck in
quicksand while rounding up sheep that had strayed on to the
marshes would spread – eagle themselves to distribute their
weight so they wouldn’t sink immediately. But with the sand up
to his thighs Howlett knew it was too late for that. My God, I’m
being swallowed, he thought. The sand is eating me alive!

10. Yelling for help seemed hopelessness. Nobody would hear him
as he had seen no one on this part of the bay. Near panic,
Howlett had an awful vision of himself choking to death as his
nose and throat filled with sand. I’ll disappear and nobody will
ever know what happened to me! The silence around him
seemed to intensify as even the birds appeared to have
deserted the place. Perhaps if he remained deathly still he
might delay the inevitable. The sand might then not suck him
as quickly as it would have done if he had moved or struggled.
Help might even arrive before it was too late.

11. However, Howlett continued to sink; up to his crotch, then

another centimeter, and another. Hardly daring to breathe, he
tried wriggling g his toes, but his feet seemed cast in concrete.
Only when the sand had climbed to his waist did he stop
sinking. Although Howlett’s body was immobile, his brain was
spinning and suddenly it produced a frightening thought.
Where’s the tide? When will it come in again?
12. Howlett remembered that the tide had been going out when he
reached the beach. This meant it would not be back for another
nine or ten hours. I’ve got a chance after all he told himself
with relief.

13. Faced with the prospect of drowning or being swallowed alive,

Howlett began to scoop away the sand around his waist. But,
as fast as he dug, the muddy sand oozed back into place. After
an hour his fingers were numb and sore, and his legs were
raging with cramps.

14. Then he heard a roar like a waterfall. Moments later, a vicious

squall of rain struck. Drenched in seconds, Howlett buried his
face in his hands and bowed his head. Gripped in the jaws of
sand, there was nothing more he could do.

15. Then in the distance he saw a faint light bobbing up and down
near the shore. Could it be some fishermen out on the sands,
checking his nets? Howlett started yelling. The light stopped
moving. He’s heard me! Or had he? Howlett could only wait
now, and keep on yelling.
d). Choose five of the following words or phrases. For each of
them give one word or a phrase (of not more than seven
words) which has the same meaning as it has in the passage.

1. menial
2. sorely
3. took in
4. expanse
5. welling up
6. swirling
7. immobile
8. drenched

3. Part of the passage describes how Howlett sank into and got
stuck in the quicksand.

Write a summary, outlining what Homlett did, how he felt and what
he thought as he sank into the quicksand and remained trapped in it.

Your summary, which should be in continuous writing, should not

exceed 160 words including the following 10 words given below.