The Cambria International School & Jr College
Practice Paper – 1
(Answers)
2020-2021
Grade: AS Level
Subject: English
Topic: Definitions & Introduction to AS Level English language
INSTRUCTIONS
● Answer all the questions.
● You are reminded of the need for good English and clear presentation in your
answers.
Q1 Write the definitions for the following terms:
1. Context: The situation or background to a text or its writer.
2. Audience: The readers or listeners to a text.
3. Purpose: The reason why a text has been written and what the writer is seeking to
achieve.
4. Mood: The atmosphere or feeling created by a text or elements of a text.
5. Tone: The level of feeling closely linked to the mood created.
6. Form: The shape and overall presentation of the text.
7. Structure: The way the text is organized and ordered.
8. Simile: Direct comparison between two inanimate objects using ‘like’ or ‘as’.
9. Metaphor: Indirect comparison between inanimate objects without using ‘like’ or
‘as’.
10. Personification: Giving human attributes or qualities to a thing or idea.
11. Symbolism: A particular person, image, object or idea representing a larger idea.
12. Onomatopoeia: A word describing a sound of the object or action.
13. Hyperbole: The use of exaggeration to emphasize the phrase.
14. Modal verbs: Auxiliary verbs that indicate the possibility, obligation or certainty of
an action or state.
15. Pathetic fallacy: A kind of personification which gives human emotions and traits to
inanimate objects or nature.
Q2 Comment on the audience, context & purpose from the below extract.
What a divine night it is! I have just returned from Kentish Town; a calm twilight
pervades the clear sky; the lamp-like moon is hung out in heaven, and the bright west
retains the dye of sunset. If such weather would continue, I should write again; the
lamp of thought is again illumined in my heart, and the fire descends from heaven that
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kindles it. Such, my loved Shelley, now ten years ago, at this season, did we first meet,
and these were the very scenes – that churchyard, with its sacred tomb, was the spot
where first love shone in your dear eyes. The stars of heaven are now your country,
and your spirit drinks beauty and wisdom in those spheres, and I, beloved, shall one
day join you. Nature speaks to me of you. In towns and society I do not feel your
presence; but there you are with me, my own, my unalienable!
I feel my powers again, and this is, of itself, happiness; the eclipse of winter is passing
from my mind. I shall again feel the enthusiastic glow of composition, again, as I pour
forth my soul upon paper, feel the winged ideas arise, and enjoy the delight of
expressing them. Study and occupation will be a pleasure, and not a task, and this I
shall owe to sight and companionship of trees and meadows, flowers and sunshine.
Sample Answer:
The extract from the personal account narrated by the writer is divided into three
different contexts such as the beautiful summer’s evening linked to God’s creation
which speaks about the time and setting followed by the memories of the churchyard
and the influence of the natural world and its beauty in contrast to city life. The writer
has made a direct address to her late husband as the audience in the personal
memories from the extract. The writer has skillfully used the rhythmic essence of
figurative language to acclaim the purpose by explaining the continuing strength of her
love even after the passage of time.
Q3 Comment on the form and structure from the below extract.
She had explored the woods behind the house many times. Often, in late autumn, her
mother took her to gather nuts among the fallen leaves. Today she made her own path,
bouncing this way and that way, vaguely keeping an eye out for snakes. She found, in
addition to various common but pretty ferns and leaves, an armful of strange blue
flowers with velvety ridges and a sweet suds bush full of the brown, fragrant buds.
By twelve o’clock, her arms laden with sprigs of her findings, she was a mile or more
from home. She had often been as far before, but the strangeness of the land made it
not as pleasant as her usual haunts. It seemed gloomy in the little cove in which she
found herself. The air was damp, the silence close and deep.
Sample Answer:
The extract from the story is divided into two paragraphs which roughly addresses the
time the girl spends before midday and where she finds herself at the moment midday
arrives. The very first short sentence tells us that the narrator has done this walk ‘many
times’ previously and the second supporting sentence tells us more about those walks
with her mother to gather nuts. So in fact, the opening two sentences with the use of
the past perfect had sent us back in time before returning the reader to the present.
The idea of familiarity is established so that the initial tone is unthreatening. The first
paragraph then provides the details by altering the tone somewhat making the familiar
becoming noteworthy and the second paragraph suddenly locates the readers with
specific time with shorter sentences and ominous tone.
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Q4 Comment on the point of view or voice used in the below extracts.
a. I was 4 years old before we had a phone. When I was 5 we finally bought furniture —
a table and two chairs. Throughout the war we heard news of young boys perishing
on the front lines, entire families wiped out by bombs. For a while, street bombings
became frequent in our neighborhood, and when my father left home in the
morning, my mother remained fearful till nightfall, uncertain if he would return.
- First Person Narrative with the use of ‘I’.
b. He drank an Anis at the bar and looked at the people. They were all waiting
reasonably for the train. He went out through the bead curtain. She was sitting at
the table and smiled at him.
- Third person narrative with the use of ‘He’.
Q5 Comment and explain on the figurative language and use of senses being
used in the below extract.
The enchanted forest beckoned me into its pulsing heart. How could I resist such a lush
Garden of Eden? The deep, haunting ballad of its ancient song called out to me. As old
as Adam, the forest was still steeped in lushness and opulence.
With a light heart, I plunged into the over-arching vault of leaf and limb. It was not what
I had expected. The exquisiteness of the dawn’s light had not yet lanced to the lush,
green sward. Because of this, hoods of black shadow hung in the groves.
Coils of vaporous mist enwrapped the shaggy heads of the oak trees. They writhed
around them like a conjuror’s milky smoke, sensuous and illusory. Sieves of mist
caressed the lichen-encrusted bark. Adding its phantasmal gas to the damp breath of
the forest, it glided with deadly intent. It deadened sound, haunted glades and poured
into empty spaces. A sepulchral silence overhung the hallowed ground where the trees
dared not grow. Nothing stirred, nothing shone, nothing sang. A hollow echoing, like
the hushed tones of a great, slabbed cathedral, entombed the wood.
Then a finger of supernal light poked through the misty mesh. It was followed by a
whole loom of light, filtering down in seams of gold. Like the luminal glow of the gods, it
chased the shadows, banished the gloom and spilled into spaces where the mist once
stalked. The fluty piping of a songbird split the silence just as the forest became
flooded with light. A fusillade of trilling and warbling detonated all around me as the
primordial forest came alive with the troubadours of the trees. I darted between shafts
of lustrous-gold light as I went, admiring the butterflies. They pirouetted in the air, their
wings a-whirr like little ripples of silk.
The glory of the forest was revealed in the birthstone-bright light. Almond-brown trees
stood serenely, awash with a tender glow. Their bark looked like riffled toast and gems
of amber clasped their crusty exterior. The first blush of the morn gave the leafy bower
a green-going-to-gold complexion.
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Idling past suede-soft flowers, I caressed them softly, getting tingles in my fingers. My
ears perked up at the metallic, tinkling sound of a stream. It flashed with a tinsel tint
through the lace of leaves. When the trees parted, I could see it was sliding into an
infinity-pool. The pool looked like a polished mirror of silver, with skeins of swirl-white
twisting slowly on the surface. A shiny spillway led to a choppier pond. Boulders
colonized the edges of the pond, buffed with pillows of moss. They caused a rocky
gurgling as water met stone; a swish, a clunk, a swell and a clop. Sweet fragrances,
alluvial and palliative, seemed to flit in and out of my awareness. Sight and smell vied
for attention in this soul-enriching dream world.
Sample Answer:
The writer has used almost the sensory depictions to describe the forest.
Red Color for Sight
Yellow color for Sound
Green color for Touch
Blue color for Smell
The writer has used the following figures of speech:
1. deep, haunting ballad of its ancient song called out to me – Personification –
Human quality of calling is been given to indicate the liveliness of the forest.
2. As old as Adam – Simile – To indicate the age of the forest calling out an immortal
element with the Biblical Character Adam.
3. Hoods of black shadow hung in the groves – Personification – the human quality
of holding has been given to the groves to emphasize the intensity and density of
the forest.
4. Like a conjuror’s milky smoke – Simile – To compare and indicate the upward
spiral of the smoke something peaceful and pure.
5. Nothing stirred, nothing shone, nothing sang – Repetition and Use of three – To
lay the emphasis on the surroundings.
6. A Howl echoing like the hushed tones of a slabbed cathedral – Simile – To indicate
the direct comparison made between the sounds incurred from the forest and
cathedral.
7. Like the luminal glow of the gods, it chased the shadows – Simile – To compare the
radiant light coming from the forest with that of the presence of God’s ablaze.
8. Like little ripples of silk – Simile – The movement of the butterflies is directly
compared to the warmth and the elegance of undulation of silk.
9. green-going-to-gold – Alliteration – The letter ‘g’ is repeated for creating
emphasis.
10.pool looked like a polished mirror of silver – Simile – Direct comparison being
made to indicate the representation of the pool with clear, silvered mirror.
( More figurative language is used but the above ones can be taken to indicate the
description of the forest)
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