Question 3 A

David Tran Khai Ca

- There seems to be numerous incidents in the mine they are working at, described as a
“the daily potential for disaster.”
- Four years ago, the miner in question was part of an accident involving a faulty winder
that was, according to the text “just fitted”.
- People are literally stuck miles underground.
- The management doesn’t care about them and don’t take anything seriously.
- There is a lasting sense of dread in the air.
- Cramped working conditions.
- They are expected to work for the rest of their lives.

Question 3 B
The miners were generally put under harsh working conditions. There seems to be multiple
accidents in the mine, the narrator describes it as a daily potential for disaster. For example,
four years from the retelling of this story the miner was involved in an accident with a faulty
winding elevator that was just fitted at the mine. Yet the management also seems to not care
about the near-death experience at all and deemed it a “silly incident” and an “excuse to come
out of the pit and hope to be paid our wages”. He described mining as being literally stuck
underground. The working space is cramped and there seems to be a lasting sense of dread in
the air. Overall, the miners are generally expected to do this job for the rest of their lives, if not
so then for at least 40 years or more. In short, it’s a pretty horrible job, having to come to work
every day in the same place and expecting to conclude your life as a miner is just a horrible
existence if you ask me. The wages are minimal and the food is not worth it, I have no idea why
anyone does these jobs anymore.

Question 2
four powerful words or phrases from each paragraph.
A)
already packed in like sardines: because when you say that they are packed in like sardines you
are saying that they are standing so close together that they are like sardines in a can
(assuming you’ve eaten sardines in a can).
overall sea of blue: this is used to further strengthen the point of the workers being so crowded
(and the room being so small) that there are no gaps, thus forming a “sea of blue”.
navigated our way: Instead of using “normal” words like “lead my way”, or “found our way”,
the writer decided to use the word navigate to emphasize that they had to navigate their way
through the “sea of blue” to reach the “brown foodstuff on offer”.
What would be my ‘something’ to accompany my chips: Here the writer deliberately used the
words something to describe the baked beans because the writer is saying that even he doesn’t
know what the “brown foodstuff” on offer was.

B)
holiest place in the entire company: this was deliberately put in to say that the only reason
they work is because of the money, thus the Accountings Office is (according to workers) the
holiest place in the building.
Sufficiently important in the company: The writer is emphasizing that feeling he get when he
enters the accountings office by describing it as entering the “holies of holies” and meeting the
“The One with Absolute Power” (the clerk) and getting his card for the first time.
Dad was granted an audience: This is to say that the narrator’s dad is “Sufficiently important in
the company” to be able to get an entry.
warning of perilous doom awaiting mortals: Describing the workers as “mortals” is saying that
the workers sometimes feel like mortals in the eyes of “The One”.

Question 1
Imagine you are Dad from Passage A. The owner of the company wants to introduce holiday
work experience for more young people. You have been asked to present a report to the owner
of the company following your son’s experience.

In your report you should comment on:

 the challenges faced by Andrew and what you hoped he would gain
from his six weeks at the factory
 how different staff members treated Andrew
 what you have learned about the thoughts and feelings of the people
who work at the company.

Summer work experience for young people needs to be more engaging in order to engage
future workers. My son has recently experienced the working environment at the factory and I
have devised further plans to entrap more young people in our factories. Firstly, we must put
work experience students at the plushiest, most exiting jobs in order for working at our
factories to become a legitimate career path. Secondly, we must have separate eating facilities
provided for work experience students (this is an investment in future workers). Thirdly we
must separate the common workers from the work experience student, remember, we don’t
want our future workers to even think of protesting once they work for us. And finally, we must
always make I seem as if working conditions at our factories are top notch, and that we are
heads above everyone else in terms of design, quality, and overall customer satisfaction. After
all we want to be the top recommended choice for workers of all kinds. And we can “persuade”
the recruiting agencies too put our posters out in front. This might be the key we’ve been
looking for in order to finally take over the coil-winding industry and the wire manufacturing
industry. And let me remind you that we cannot grow unless we have the necessary skilled
workforce, so I imagine this objective tantamount to our survival in the coil-winding and wire
manufacturing industry. And you still owe me for the relentless work I’ve done for this company
for the last 5 years. Maybe I can finally get that penthouse that I’ve been eyeing for a year now.
And you know what they say “Catch them young”.