gcse english language specimen assessment materials ... · read carefully the passage below. then...

GCSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Specimen Assessment Materials 6

© WJEC CBAC Ltd.

SECTION A: 40 marks

Read carefully the passage below. Then answer all the questions which follow it. The novel from which this passage is taken is set in Botswana, which is a country in southern Africa.

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I am Obed Ramotswe. I love my country and I am proud I was born in Botswana. There’s no other country in Africa that can hold its head up as we can. I had no desire to leave my country, but things were bad in the past. Before we built our country we had to go off to South Africa to work. We went to the mines. The mines sucked our men in and left the old men and the children at home. We dug for gold and diamonds and made those white men rich. They built their big houses. And we dug below them and brought out the rock on which they built it all. I was eighteen when I went to the mines. My father said I should go, as his lands were not good enough to support me and a wife. We did not have many cattle, and we grew just enough crops to keep us through the year. So when the recruiting truck came from over the border I went to them and they put me on a scale and listened to my chest and made me run up and down a ladder for ten minutes. Then a man said that I would make a good miner and they made me write my name on a piece of paper. They asked me whether I had ever been in any trouble with the police. That was all. In Johannesburg they spent two weeks training us. We were all quite fit and strong, but nobody could be sent down the mines until he had been made even stronger. So they took us to a building which they had heated with steam and they made us jump up and down on the benches for four hours each day. They told us how we would be taken down into the mines and about the work we would be expected to do. They talked to us about safety, and how the rock could fall and crush us if we were careless. They carried in a man with no legs and put him on a table and made us listen to him as he told us what had happened to him. They taught us Funagalo, which is the language used for giving orders underground. It is a strange language. There are many words for push, shove, carry, load, and no words for love, or happiness, or the sounds which birds make in the morning. Then we went down the shafts. They put us in cages, beneath great wheels, and these cages shot down as fast as hawks falling on their prey. They had small trains down there and they took us to the end of long, dark tunnels, which were filled with green rock and dust. My job was to load rock after it had been blasted and I did this for ten hours every day. I worked for years in those mines, and I saved all my money. Other men spent it on women, and drink and fancy clothes. I bought nothing. I sent the money home and then I bought cattle with it. Slowly my herd got bigger. I would have stayed in the mines, I suppose, had I not witnessed a terrible thing. It happened after I had been there fifteen years. I had been given a much better job, as an assistant to a blaster. They would not give us blasting jobs, as that was a job the white men kept for themselves, but I was given the job of carrying explosives for a blaster. This was a good job and I liked the man I worked for. He had left something in a tunnel once – his tin can in which he carried his sandwiches – and he had asked me to fetch it. So I set off down this tunnel where he had been working. The tunnel was lit by bulbs, but you still had to be careful because here and there were great galleries which had been blasted out of the rock. These could be two hundred feet deep and men fell into them from time to time. I turned a corner in this tunnel and found myself in a round chamber. There was a gallery at the end of this and a warning sign. Four men were standing at the edge of this gallery and they were holding another man by his arms and legs. As I came around the corner, they threw him over the edge and into the dark. The man screamed something about a child. Then he was gone. I stood where I was. The men had not seen me yet, but one turned around and shouted out in Zulu. Then they began to run towards me. I turned and ran back down the tunnel. I knew that if they caught me I would follow their victim

GCSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Specimen Assessment Materials 7

© WJEC CBAC Ltd.

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into the gallery. It was not a race I could let myself lose. Although I got away, I knew that those men had seen me and that I would be killed. I had seen their murder and could be a witness, and so I knew I could not stay in the mines. I spoke to the blaster. He was a good man and he listened to me carefully when I told him I would have to go. There was no other white man I could have spoken to like that, but he understood. Still, he tried to persuade me to go to the police. “Tell them what you saw,” he said. “Tell them. They can catch those Zulus and hang them.” “I don’t know who those men are. They’ll catch me first. I am going home.” He looked at me and nodded. Then he took my hand and shook it, which is the first time a white man had done that to me. So I called him my brother, which is the first time I had done that to a white man. “You go back home to your wife,” he said. “If a man leaves his wife too long, she starts to make trouble for him. Believe me.” So I left the mines, secretly, like a thief, and came back to Botswana in 1960. I cannot tell you how full my heart was when I crossed the border. In the mines I had felt every day that I might die. Danger and sorrow hung over Johannesburg like a cloud. In Botswana it was different. There were no policemen with dogs; you did not wake up every morning to a wailing siren calling you down into the hot earth. There were not great crowds of men, all from some different place, all sickening for home. I had left a prison – a great, groaning prison, under the sunlight. Alexander McCall Smith

Read lines 1-9.

A1. List five reasons why Obed Ramotswe went to South Africa. [5]

Read lines 10-17.

A2. How does the writer show what Obed went through to become a miner? [5]

You must refer to the language used in the text to support your answer.

Read lines 18-30.

A3. What impressions do you get of the work in the mines from these lines?

You must refer to the text to support your answer. [10]

Read lines 31-46.

A4. How does the writer make these lines tense and dramatic? [10]

You should write about: what happens to build tension and drama; the writer’s use of language to create tension and drama; the effects on the reader.

Read lines 47 to the end.

A5. “In the last twenty or so lines of this passage, the writer encourages the reader to feel sympathy for Obed.” [10]

To what extent do you agree with this view?

You should write about: your own impressions of Obed as he is presented here and in the passage as a

whole; how the writer has created these impressions.

You must refer to the text to support your answer.

© WJEC CBAC Ltd.

GCSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

COMPONENT 1

20th Century Literature Reading and

Creative Prose Writing

1 hour 45 minutes

ADDITIONAL MATERIALS

A 12 page answer book.

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES

Use black ink or black ball-point pen.

Answer all questions in Section A.

Select one title to use for your writing in Section B.

Write your answers in the separate answer book provided.

You are advised to spend your time as follows:

Section A - about 10 minutes reading - about 50 minutes answering the questions

Section B - about 10 minutes planning - about 35 minutes writing

INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES

Section A (Reading): 40 marks

Section B (Writing): 40 marks

The number of marks is given in brackets at the end of each question or part-question.

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SECTION A: 40 marks

Read carefully the passage below. Then answer all the questions which follow it.

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This passage is about Megan, a young woman from a remote area of Canada who comes to London for the first time in the 1960s to visit a friend called Cora.

It was raining when Megan landed at Gatwick Airport, but she'd been expecting that. Everyone knew it rained all the time in England. Inside the terminal there were trolleys for luggage, which was handy because she could hardly lift her suitcase, and there was a train directly from the airport to Victoria station in the centre of London. Megan bought a ticket and got on. She had some difficulty getting the suitcase up the steps into the carriage, but a guard saw her struggling and heaved it up behind her. "What've you got in there, then?" he asked, disapprovingly. "Everything I own," Megan said cheerfully. As she said it, the truth of the statement hit her. Apart from this suitcase, she had nothing to hold her down. No responsibilities. No plans. For the first time in her life she didn't know what tomorrow would bring ‒ it was the most amazing, wonderful, exciting thought she had ever had. She found a seat and the train moved off. She watched the countryside passing by. So this was England. 'The old country' people at home had called it. The country of Shakespeare and Dickens. Well, she thought, now you're seeing the real thing. In terms of landscape, the real thing was disappointing. She expected beauty ‒ rolling hills and tranquil valleys ‒ and instead it was flat and wet and a tedious shade of grey. As they approached London it got dramatically worse. They passed mile after mile of ugly blackened buildings, all jammed up against each other like rotten teeth and so close to the railway tracks she felt she could have reached out and touched them. At first she assumed they were warehouses but then she noticed strips of curtain hanging in some of the windows and in one she saw a woman holding a baby. Megan was shocked. She hadn't known that places like this existed but how would she know? She had never been in a city before. The train had been largely empty when they had left Gatwick but every few minutes it would stop at a grimy station to collect more passengers. By the time it reached Victoria station it was like a cattle car. People wedged themselves into seats or stood hard up against each other, holding on to the luggage racks, rocking back and forth with the movement of the train. Nobody spoke. A fat man in a wet coat squeezed himself into the seat beside her, his legs sticking out sideways into the aisle. The train slowed to a crawl and people began to collect their belongings. The instant it stopped people surged towards a door. Megan stepped down onto the platform and was swallowed instantly by a churning mass of people. She had never seen so many people, never even imagined such numbers. It took her breath away. But worse, much worse, was the noise. It was like an assault. She could feel trains groaning to a halt, other trains rumbling out, doors slamming, whistles shrieking, announcements booming out of loudspeakers. The station was colossal. It was like a vast, echoing cavern. Megan stood, stunned and breathless, and then someone bumped into her, hard, and gave her an exasperated look. There were signs pointing to various exits and people pouring in and out of all of them. How was she to know which one to take? When she saw a sign for TAXIS, her breath came out in a rush of relief. She would take a taxi to Cora's. It was a terrible extravagance but she would do it just this once. There was a line of people waiting and, when her turn came, she showed the driver the address. He nodded, waited while she heaved the suitcase into the cab, and drove off. The traffic was astounding: swarms of taxis, hundreds of cars and big red buses all competing for the same space. Megan leaned forward and shouted, "Is it always like this?" "Rush hour," the driver shouted back. "You from the United States?" "Canada." He shrugged and lost interest, swerved round a cyclist, rolled down the window and yelled abuse.

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The taxi went over an elegant bridge and crossed what must have been the Thames. Megan began to worry about the cost of the ride. She hadn't known the city would be so big, that the drive would take so long. And then, suddenly, the taxi pulled up. Mean little houses lined both sides of the road. "I don't think this can be it," she said. "31 Lansdown Terrace," he said into the mirror. "Yes, but..." She'd thought the address sounded pretty, imagined it overlooking a park. "This is it," the driver said. "OK," Megan said. She handed over a ten pound note and was relieved when he passed back some change. "You want me to wait until you're inside?" said the driver. "Oh no," Megan said. "I'll be fine thanks." The driver nodded and drove off. Megan dragged her suitcase up the steps. There were three doorbells which surprised her as the house didn't look big enough to be divided up. However, she rang the top bell and waited, smiling in anticipation of seeing her friend Cora. There was no reply from the top bell so she tried the other two. No response. She lifted the doormat, wondering if Cora might have left her a key, but there was nothing. Megan saw she'd made a very foolish mistake in not waiting until she'd heard from Cora before setting off for England. Megan had written to her but there were only two weeks between her decision to go and her departure. There was scarcely time for her letter to reach England, far less for a reply to get back. There was no reason why she couldn't have delayed her flight for a few weeks, but the truth was, having told everyone she was leaving, she was desperate to go before Fate stepped in and stopped her. She sat on her suitcase and thought. She wondered how she had failed to realise that it was a weekday and everyone would be at work. It was still raining and it was cold. The problem, of course, was the suitcase. It was too heavy to carry any distance but if she left it on the doorstep it might get stolen. She cast about in her mind for a solution. None presented itself. You can freeze to death or risk losing the suitcase, she told herself. She stood up and hauled the suitcase up against the front door. She tucked her purse under her arm and set off to look for a café. It was a quarter of an hour before she found what she was looking for and, when she went in, the warmth and the sweet smell engulfed her. She saw a table at the rear of the shop so she made for it, undoing her coat as she went. The waitress came over and said, "Coffee?" "Yes. Thank you." Megan replied. She stared out of the window, wondering if her suitcase had been stolen yet. No one will steal it, she told herself. It's too heavy. When the coffee arrived, it tasted nothing like coffee but at least it was hot. After a while the waitress came over. "More coffee?" she asked. "Yes, thank you. I've been locked out of my house. Is it OK if I sit here?" The waitress said she didn't see why not. It was rainy and dark when she finally left but she saw from some distance away that the lights were on in 31 Lansdown Terrace. Relief rushed through her. The doorstep was empty but surely that meant someone had taken her suitcase in. As she got closer she heard music thudding out from the house, very loud. She knocked and the door was opened by a girl with white lipstick and huge eyelashes. "Is Cora here?" Megan asked, loudly, to be heard over the music. "Who?" the girl said. "Cora Manning. She lives here." "She left a couple of weeks ago." Megan felt sick.

Mary Lawson: Road Ends

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Read lines 1-11.

A1. List five things that Megan thinks or feels about being in England. [5]

Read lines 12-23.

A2. What are Megan’s impressions of England in these lines? [5]

You must refer to the language used in the text to support your answer, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.

Read lines 24-38.

A3. Megan does not enjoy the train journey into London. How does the writer show this? [10]


Read lines 39-64.

A4. Megan finds London strange and scary. How does the writer show these feelings? [10]


Read lines 65 -104.

A5. ‘In the last section of this passage the reader feels only sympathy for Megan.’ How far do you agree with this view? [10]

You should write about:

• your own thoughts and feelings about how Megan is presented here and in thepassage as a whole

• how the writer has created these thoughts and feelings


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JD*(S17-C700U10-1)© WJEC CBAC Ltd.

ADDITIONAL MATERIALS

Resource Material for use with Section A.A WJEC pink 16-page answer booklet.

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES

Use black ink or black ball-point pen. Do not use pencil or gel pen. Do not use correction fluid.Answer all questions in Section A.Select one title to use for your writing in Section B.Write your answers in the separate answer booklet provided, following the instructions on the front of the answer booklet.Use both sides of the paper. Write only within the white areas of the booklet.Write the question number in the two boxes in the left hand margin at the start of each answer,

e.g. 0 1 .

Leave at least two line spaces between each answer.You are advised to spend your time as follows:Section A - about 10 minutes reading - about 50 minutes answering the questionsSection B - about 10 minutes planning - about 35 minutes writing

INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES

Section A (Reading): 40 marksSection B (Writing): 40 marksThe number of marks is given in brackets at the end of each question or part-question.

GCSE – NEW

C700U10-1

ENGLISH LANGUAGE – Component 120th Century Literature Reading and Creative Prose Writing

TUESDAY, 6 JUNE 2017 – MORNING

1 hour 45 minutes

S17-C700U10-1

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(C700U10-1A)

This story is told by Ruby Lennox, who as a young girl lived above the pet shop run by her parents. She has an older sister called Patricia.

I’m glad to say that all the pets received a lot of attention from me on the afternoon of that fateful day. The kittens were fluffed up, Rags the puppy was stroked and the hamsters were allowed to run along the counter. I even attempted a conversation with the parrot. It was suddenly clear where my destiny lay – I was going to run a pet shop, like my father before me. In a few years the sign above the door would no longer read ‘G. Lennox’ but ‘R. Lennox’. Here was my future! It would no longer matter that I was not allowed to have pets of my own because all the pets would be mine one day.My father struggled through the door of the shop with an enormous can of paraffin in each hand, which he deposited with a clank and a slosh next to the barrel of sawdust in the corner. I hoped his cigarette didn’t jump over there.‘Careful,’ my mother warned as I entered the kitchen. She was making sausage, egg and chips for tea and her entire attention was concentrated on the chip pan as the sausages and eggs started to go black in the frying pan. ‘Tea’s ready,’ she said, giving the chip pan a cautious little shake as if she would have been much happier with a fire extinguisher in her hand. ‘Get Patricia.’‘She’s not very well,’ I told her.Mother raised an eyebrow ever so slightly. ‘Just get her, Ruby.’The rest of the evening was spent quietly. Father was out as usual, Patricia was in her room reading, also as usual. I was also in my room playing Scrabble with myself while my teddy looked on. My mother was in the kitchen with only her piles of ironing for company. Eventually she abandoned the ironing and, clutching her forehead all the way up the stairs, she swallowed a double dose of sleeping pills and dropped into oblivion on her bed. I heard my father come in much later, tripping and cursing his way upstairs and I drifted into the night. I was dreaming about the end of the world and so it was in some ways.Downstairs the abandoned, forgotten iron was demonstrating its faults. My mother wasn’t to know that the thermostat wasn’t working properly and that while she was snoring in her bed, the iron was getting hotter and hotter, scorching the cloth on the ironing board until the pad underneath began to sizzle and burn. The flames then found the wood of the ironing-board frame and were happy for a time but then the iron’s melting lead fell to the floor and found the carpet and a particularly energetic flame stretched up and reached the curtains. Then there was no stopping it as the flame greedily gobbled up everything in its path, including the kitchen wallpaper.In the end even that wasn’t enough and the fire left the kitchen, popping its head out of the door and into the shop where there were wonderful things to play with – paraffin, sawdust and the whispering, rustling noise of fear.‘Ruby! Ruby!’I open my eyes quickly, yet it’s not like being awake. The air is thick and Patricia is veiled in smoke. There is a smell like burnt sausages. ‘The end of the world,’ I murmur to Patricia.‘Get up, Ruby,’ she says urgently. She pulls back the covers and starts tugging me out of bed but I don’t understand until she doubles up with a fit of coughing and splutters, ‘Fire, Ruby, fire.’We make our way unsteadily to the bedroom door and Patricia whispers, ‘I’m not sure we can go out there,’ as if she didn’t want the fire to hear. But she’s not whispering. It’s the smoke rasping her throat and making her hoarse, as I discover when I try to speak. We open the door very cautiously as if all the fires of Hell were behind it. We immediately start to choke and have to stagger back inside, gasping and retching, hanging on to each other. We’re human chimneys.

© WJEC CBAC Ltd.

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SECTION A: 40 marks

Read carefully the passage below.

(C700U10-1A)

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Patricia starts pulling covers off the bed and stuffing them underneath the door. Then she flings everything out of my chest of drawers until she finds two school blouses which she wraps around our faces. In different circumstances this could have been fun. ‘Help me,’ she croaks as she tries to push up the window which is hopelessly stuck. I start to get hysterical and drop to my knees with a jab of pain and pray frantically to be saved from incineration.Patricia, more practical, grabs the nightlight and smashes it against the window again and again until she’s broken all the glass. Then she takes the bedside rug and places it over the broken glass on the window sill (Patricia really paid attention at Girl Guides, thank goodness) and we both hang out of the window gulping in great lungfuls of cold night air. Patricia turns to me and says, ‘It’s all right, the fire brigade will be here soon,’ knowing that neither of us believes this. There is no sound of sirens, no sound of life in the street and the rest of our family are probably little more than glowing cinders by now. Patricia’s face is suddenly convulsed by a spasm of pain and she wheezes, ‘Pets. Someone’s got to help the pets.’ It doesn’t cross our minds to save the family.‘Here,’ says Patricia, pushing something into my hands, which turns out, on closer inspection, to be teddy. Patricia then swings herself off the window sill and onto the drainpipe, pausing just long enough to say, ‘Stay there, and don’t move!’ in a manner inherited directly from our mother. She looks truly heroic as she climbs down, wearing only her pyjamas. Halfway down she pauses, ‘Stay there, Ruby, help will be here soon.’ I believe her. You can trust Patricia.Within minutes a stocky fireman is outside my window and I am upside down over his shoulder and we are off down the ladder. Patricia is in the yard shouting encouragement, my mother is screaming while my father is shouting something to her (probably ‘shut up’). I realise that if everyone is down there, then I have been alone in a burning building! What a story I’ll have to tell in later life.Meanwhile Patricia has been wrapped in a grey blanket and she is weeping uncontrollably and making horrible noises, partly due to the smoke and partly due to the fact that she has witnessed the ruined inside of the shop and smelt the unforgettable smell of toasted fur and feather.But then a miracle occurs. A little black dog runs into the yard, yapping itself silly, a limp, burnt ribbon dangling from its neck. Patricia frees herself from the blanket and runs to the dog. ‘Rags,’ she sobs uncontrollably and hugs his singed, smoke-blackened body to her grimy pyjamas.

Kate Atkinson

© WJEC CBAC Ltd.

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SECTION A: 40 marks

Read carefully the passage in the separate Resource Material. Then answer all the questions below.

The story in the separate Resource Material is told by Ruby Lennox, who as a young girl lived above the pet shop run by her parents. She has an older sister called Patricia.

Read lines 1-7.

List five things you learn about Ruby Lennox in these lines. [5]

Read lines 8-23.

What impressions does the writer create of the Lennox family in these lines? [5]


Read lines 24-35.

How does the writer show the fire spreading and becoming very serious in these lines? [10]


Read lines 36-49.

How does the writer make these lines exciting and dramatic? [10]


• what happens in these lines to build excitement and drama • the writer’s use of language and structure to create excitement and drama • the effects on the reader

You must refer to the text to support your answer, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.

Read lines 50 to the end.

“In the last 20 or so lines of this passage, Patricia becomes a real heroine.” How far do you agree with this view? [10]


• your own thoughts and feelings about how Patricia is presented here and in the passage as a whole

• how the writer has created these thoughts and feelings.


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(C700U10-1)© WJEC CBAC Ltd.

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Section A: 40 marks

This passage is about Justo Ansoltegui. He is a young man of eighteen who has inherited his family farm near the town of Guernica in Spain.

1 Justo Ansotegui's reputation rose from Guernica uphill to the village of Lumo where Maria Onati heard that he was a defender of causes and a wit, although some suggested he was too eager to create his own mythology. Most often she'd heard that he was the one to watch during the strength events on feast days. One friend claimed that he had carried an ox into

5 town across his shoulder and celebrated the feat by throwing the beast across the river. 'Yes', said Justo when asked about the story. 'But it was only a small ox and downhill most of the way into town. And the wind was with me when I threw it.' Maria came to dance at one of the festivals with her sisters. She also decided to watch the men's competitions, which she usually avoided.

10 Justo, the largest man standing beside a log at the start of the wood-chopping event, joked with the crowd as he removed his boots and grey socks. Going barefoot seemed foolhardy to Maria for one who would be flailing an axe so near his feet. 'After all these years of competitions I still have nine toes,' he said, proudly wiggling the four remaining toes on one of his bare feet. 'But this is my only pair of boots and I can't afford to

15 damage them.' He bent at the waist and tore into the pine log between his feet. The log split beneath him well before any others in the competition. Justo was seated, nine toes intact, and replacing his boots before the runner-up broke through his log. In the wine-drinking event, Justo was less impressive but in the 'farmer's walk' contest he

20 was unmatched. This event tested strength and endurance as the competitors carried 110lb weights in each hand along a measured course until they dropped. For most competitors the collapse followed a familiar pattern. On the second lap, the knees began to bend dramatically. On the third, the shoulders pulled the spine into a dangerous curve and finally gravity yanked the weights and the man to the turf.

25 Maria stood near the starting point when Justo was called. He grasped the weights, his face straining as if he'd never get them off the ground. It was false drama for the benefit of the audience because he easily hoisted them and marched without a struggle, his back rigid. Past the marks where others had fallen in exhaustion, Justo nodded to the little ones who would praise him to future generations.

30 'Doesn't it hurt?' a young boy asked. 'Of course, how do you think my arms got so long?' Justo answered and at that moment he straightened his arms against his sides, a move that caused the sleeves of his shirt to ride up, making his arms appear to grow in length. The boy gasped.

35 It so happened that Maria discovered the need to visit friends near the finishing line. And who could have imagined that just as Justo walked past a friend would say something so amusing that Maria unleashed her most feminine laugh which caused Justo to turn in her direction? And because it was so amusing, it was natural that she would be smiling her broadest smile when he looked her way.

40 Justo glanced at her and walked on. This must be the most arrogant man in Guernica, she thought. Behind the scenes, Maria quickly arranged to present the prize, a lamb, to the winner. 'Congratulations,' she said to Justo. She handed him the lamb and moved in for the ceremonial kiss on his cheek.

45 'Thank you,' Justo said and announced to the crowd, 'I am going to fill the valley with my flock from winning these events.' Justo waved and accepted congratulations as he walked through the crowd and Maria skirted the gathering so that he would have to pass her again. 'Would you like to dance?' she asked.

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'No, I just thought you might like to dance, if you're not too worn out from all the chopping and lifting.' But they didn't dance. They sat and talked. Her sisters watched them, and on thewalk home, they unanimously voted against her seeing this boy. She agreed he was not the most handsome man. He was frighteningly powerful and, despite his boasting in front of the crowd, he had been without confidence when they were alone.

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'He's homely,' a sister said. 'He has character,' Maria argued. 'He's ugly,' a less generous sister offered. 'He has his own farm,' Maria's mother commented from behind the group of girls and Maria looked thoughtful.

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Maria was almost twenty, the eldest of a family of six girls. Her father had injured both legs in a fall at the farm, leaving him fixed to his wooden chair. Maria returned home in silence as her sisters debated Justo's many inadequacies. Others interested in Maria presented flowers or sweets when they arrived at her home. Justo arrived empty-handed but wearing his work clothes. He gave her mother a vigorous

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handshake, patted the father on his shoulder and asked a question that instantly won over Mrs Onati and the sisters. 'What can I do to help?' 'To help?' the mother asked. 'Help. Heavy lifting, woodcutting, repairs ... whatever is hardest for you ladies.'

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Maria's mother sat down and wrote out a list. Justo nodded. 'Come on, Maria, put your work clothes on and we'll be done before dinner,' After an afternoon of work, they sat together for a relaxed meal with everyone feeling as if Justo was already part of the family. The sisters, who would not now have to repair the roof, agreed that Justo was more appealing that they first thought. Not handsome, to be sure, but

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a good catch. And looks? Well, they're not everything. A month later at the next fair, Maria stood in the front row as Justo went through his preparation for the 'farmer's walk'. He set off along the path and then he took a sharp left turn and walked directly towards Maria. He held both weights in his massive left hand and with his right hand retrieved a gold ring from his trouser pocket.

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'Will you marry me?' he asked the stunned Maria. 'Yes, of course.' They kissed. He readjusted the weights and went back to the competition. As Justo walked, a man overseeing the event walked beside him. 'Justo, you went off the path, you're disqualified,' the judge said. Justo continued past the mark of the winner, just to show he could have done it anyway, and rejoined his future bride, apologising for not adding another lamb to their flock.

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Read lines 1-7

A1. List five things you learn about Justo in these lines. (5)

Read lines 8-34

A2 How does the writer show you Justo’s physical strength and power in these lines? (5)

You must refer to the language used in the text to support your answer, using relevant subject terminology.

Read lines 35-64

A3 How does the writer show the reader that Maria is interested in Justo in these lines?

You should write about: • what Maria does to attract his attention• the writer’s use of language to show her interest in Justo• the effects on the reader (10)

You must refer to the text to support your answer, using relevant subject terminology.

Read lines 65-87

A4 What impressions do you get of Justo in these lines? (10)

You must refer to the text to support your answer, using relevant subject terminology.

Now consider the passage as a whole

A5. Evaluate the way Maria is presented in this passage. (10)


• your own thoughts and feelings about how Maria is presented in the passage as a whole• how the writer has created these thoughts and feelings


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gcse english language specimen assessment materials ... · read carefully the passage below. then...

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