Read the following passage carefully.

The writer tells the story of two poor fishermen, Alvarenga and his inexperienced young assistant, Cordoba.

Survive the Savage Sea

1 Alvarenga knew the danger of the storms better than most, but he was on a streak - he2 had just caught half a ton of fish and there were plenty more to be taken. He expected3 storms this time of year – November was always rowdy. The key, he explained to 4 Cordoba, was to read the wind, waves and clouds. Today’s gusts had teeth – he could feel5 them as the cloud bank built over the mountaintops to the east. But Alvarenga accepted6 the challenge and refused to change his plans.

7 Around one am Alvarenga felt a deep warning. The voice of the storm had picked8 up and Alvarenga took note. The swells gathered strength and the boat began to tilt9 sideways like a ride at an amusement park.

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Cordoba was terrified and losing control. “Get us out of here. Let’s go back,” he screamed

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at Alvarenga. “We are going to die.”

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“Shut up,” Alvarenga ordered. But as the winds and waves jacked up, the boat began

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to fill with water. Alvarenga told Cordoba to start bailing; he began furiously dumping

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seawater back into the ocean. Despite Cordoba’s frantic bailing, the crashing waves filled

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their boat with water faster than they could empty it.

Text One: Survive the Savage Sea

1. From lines 1-6, select two words or phrases that show that initially Alvarenga is not bothered by the storm.

1:

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2:

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2. Look again at lines 7-18In your own words, explain how Alvarenga and Cordoba deal with the arrival of the storm.

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responses

Read the following passage carefully.

The writer shares her childhood memories of moving to a remote house beside a river near the town of Laugharne, in Wales, with her mother and father. Her father is Dylan Thomas, a famous poet.

Moving to the Boat House

1 We were met at the station by Billy Williams. My father, Dylan, my mother, Caitlin, and I piled2 in to his family taxi with our suitcases and belongings. The taxi took us to the path that led to 3 the Boat House. At the top of the path, by an old iron gate, a clump of daises radiated their4 whiteness and, although we were driving past, time seemed to stop. The pathway was too 5 narrow for a car so we carried our bags over the uneven surface while we looked over the 6 low cliff wall at the sand and the water beyond. The overhanging bushes and hanging plants7 clung to the cliff-face like flags waving a greeting. We walked, laden with bags and books, 8 along the last stretch of the path to our new home, called the Boat House.

9 It looked heavenly: a place to explore, to run around, where we would be living forever. It10

had balconies, stepped gardens, a large boat shed and a wall protecting us from the wilds

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of the friendly estuary beyond. We had fallen upon paradise. As we were settling in, my

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father wrote to Margaret Taylor, who had arranged for the place, that, “this is it; the place,

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the house, the workroom, the time,” and that he could never thank her enough. “I shall

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write in this water and tree room on the cliff, every word will be my thanks to you…”

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In my memory it hardly ever rained that season. From the balcony that ran around the

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cottage Like a midriff, on two sides of the house, I looked at the river and beyond the

Text One: Moving to the Boat House

1. From lines 2-8, select two words or phrases that show their new home is remote.

1:

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2:

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2. Look again at lines 9-17In your own words, explain how the writer feels about her new home.

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responses

Read the following passage carefully.

The writer, Ashley, is a young girl living in Iran. Her father is driving Ashley and her brother, Cameron, to pick up their mother at Tehran airport. Their journey begins on a dangerous mountain road.

Why did Daddy always have to be late?

1 “Get a move on, you donkeys!” my father yelled, leaning on the car’s horn.

2 All over the road lay watermelons that had fallen out of the back of a van. The driver struggled3 to gather them up as the sound of horns grew louder. Behind us, I could see cars and trucks4 strung like colourful beads around the mountain. Realising it was futile, the driver stuck his 5 head in the window of each car, urging us to take some of the melons. Cameron and I 6 scampered out and each lugged one back. People stopped to stretch and gossip as they 7 picked up their melons, laughing and joking, glad to take a break from driving.

8 But my father screamed from the window and waved his fist. “Let’s go!”910

With a scowl, the driver hurled the remaining melons down the slope where they burst in

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a ragged explosion of scarlet. Cameron and I were happy because we both had a melon

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rolling around under our feet, and after weeks of not knowing when or if we would see

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our mother again, we were on our way to pick her up at the airport.

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My father wrestled our old grey Rover car around one hairpin bend after another, trying to

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make up for lost time. Even without the delay of the melons we were hard pressed. We

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were on the dangerous Chaloos road, making our way to the airport at Tehran. Cameron

Text One: Why did Daddy always have to be late?

1. From lines 2-8, select two words or phrases that show the water melons were difficult to clear away.

1:

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2:

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2. Look again at lines 14.21In your own words, explain what difficulties the family faced as they travelled to the airport.

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responses

Read the following passage carefully.

Waris is a young girl, living with her family in the desert in Somalia, in Africa. She decides to run away because her father arranges a marriage for her with a very old man.

Running Away

1 A slight sound awoke me, and when I opened my eyes, I was staring into the face of a 2 lion. Riveted awake, my eyes stretched wide – very wide – as if to expand enough to 3 contain the animal in front of me. I tried to stand up, but I hadn’t eaten for several days,4 so my weak legs wobbled and folded beneath me. Collapsing, I slumped back against5 the tree where I had been resting, sheltered from the African desert sun that becomes so 6 merciless at noon. I quietly leaned my head back, closed my eyes, and felt the rough bark7 of the tree pressing into my skull. The lion was so near I could smell his musty scent in the8 hot air. I spoke to God: “It’s the end for me, my God. Please take me now.”

9 My long journey across the desert had come to an end. I had no protection, no weapon.10

Nor the strength to run. I knew I couldn’t beat the lion up the tree, because with their

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strong claws, lions are excellent climbers. By the time I got half way up – BOOM – one

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swipe and I’d be gone. Without any fear, I opened my eyes again and said to the lion,

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“Come and get me. I’m ready for you.”

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He was a beautiful male with a mane of golden hair and a long tail switching back and

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forth to flick the flies away. He was five or six years old, young and healthy. I knew he

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could crush me instantly; he was the king. All my life I’d watched those paws take down

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wildebeest and zebras weighing hundreds of pounds more than me.

Text One: Running Away

1. From lines 2-6, select two words or phrases that show the narrator is afraid.

1:

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2:

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2. Look again at lines 9-22In your own words, explain why the narrator thinks the lion is a powerful creature.

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responses

Read the following passage carefully.

In this passage, the writer describes an experience he had in Tromso, north of the Arctic Circle.

Ice Swimming in Tromso

1 By the time we’ve found the right beach, the fire is already lit and it’s burning beautifully.2 There’s no clubhouse, as it turns out, just a circle of stones on the beach with this glorious 3 blaze in the middle and gathered around it are a small group of hearty Tromso Ice Swimmers.4 There were two men and two women, all in late middle age, all in enviably good condition to 5 be honest (is this down to the Ice Swimming?), and all hilarious. ‘Welcome!’ they shout 6 mirthfully.

7 I feel like our son Rex looks before he’s got an important line in a school assembly: all 8 puffy-faced and grey (he’s a pupil not a headmaster). I do quite a lot of laughing rather 9 too loudly. Then, suddenly all of the things that have stood between me and the Ice 10

Swimming (the morning, the journey here, the walk to the beach, the banter) seem to

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have disappeared with shocking speed. Gone, all gone, and now the moment is cruelly

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upon us. The professional Ice Swimmers have all come in their swimwear under their

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outer clothes (which bear impressive national credential like ‘Norwegian Ice Swimming

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Team 2012’), so they are all ready in seconds, but I have to change right here on the snowy

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beach.

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‘What do I stand on while I’m getting ready?’ I ask poignantly (does it really matter? I’m

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going Ice Swimming, after all). Someone takes pity on me and produces a small square

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of neoprene that is actually a godsend; there is just room to perch on one foot at a time

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while I hop out of trousers, thermals, socks etc. Then I’m ready. If I’m going to do this,

Text One: Ice Swimming in Tromso

1. From lines 10-13, select two words or phrases that show the situation the men are in, is dangerous.

1:

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2:

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2. Look again at lines 8-27.In your own words, explain how the writer feels in the build up to Ice Swimming.

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Paper 1 – Do it

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responses

Read the following passage carefully.

Mallory and Irvine were mountaineers who died whilst climbing Mount Everest. For a long time their bodies were never found and what had happened to them remained a mystery for many years.

What Happened to Mallory and Irvine?

1 On 6th June 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine attempted to make history by2 Setting out to reach the summit of Everest and be the first men ever to stand on the peak3 Of the world’s highest mountain. When last seen they seemed to be within 800 feet of the 4 Summit. They were never seen again. Their story is one of the great romantic tragedies of 5 Everest. But what really happened in the cold, thin air at 28,000 feet?

6 For three-quarters of a century, this is all that has been known with any certainty.

7 Just after dawn on the morning of June 6th 1924, Mallory and Irvine crawled out of their 8 simple canvas tent on a wind-ravaged saddle of snow, ice and rock and took the first 9 steps in what would become a climb into history.

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The men said little to each other. There was little need. They knew the situation was

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critical. They were running out of supplies and support. In a matter of days, perhaps even

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hours, the monsoon would sweep up from the south and bury the mountain under wave

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upon wave of snow.

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Now on, this promising June morning, Mallory and Irvine struggled into their primitive,

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unreliable, and brutally heavy oxygen equipment. Irvine, a strapping young man only

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twenty-two years old, stands calmly with his hands in his pockets, his head twisted slightly

1 as he watches Mallory fuss with his oxygen mask. Mallory, while certainly the finest

Text One: What Happened to Mallory and Irvine?

1. From lines 10-13, select two words or phrases that show the situation the men are in, is dangerous.

1:

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2:

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2. Look again at lines 14-22.In your own words, explain the importance of this expedition to the men.

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responses

Read the following passage carefully.

As a child the writer lived with his mother, named Jenny, and Alexander his brother, on an isolated hilltop sheep farm. In this passage he describes a dramatic snow storm.

Blizzard!

1 That evening Jenny turned away from the radio and towards the supper she was making,2 frowning. The forecast was not good. We ate, played and built one of our great fires. We 3 filled the grate with branches over crumpled newspaper and twigs, lit it, and basked in 4 the heat of a roaring fire, which sent sparks popping and swirling up the chimney and 5 flung ruddy light into the cold sitting room. We perched as close to it as we could, until6 our clothes were almost too hot to touch and our clammy backs felt feverish, as though 7 they too were glowing red. The crackling branches spat sparks on to the rug, and we 8 stamped them out, barely noticing the little black holes that remained. When the blaze9 had burned down to its embers we went to bed and the next day the storm arrived.

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As Alexander and I retreated to the living room, arming ourselves with toy guns, Jenny

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set out to feed the sheep.

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Snow was already drifting in the lanes, forming waves against every wall, hedge and

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bank. The world was changing shape. The cold soon drained the strength out of Jenny’s

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arms and legs, but she did what she could, dragging out bales of hay. The wind spun

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armfuls of hay away into the white, swirling it off like so much dust. She made it as far

Text One: Blizzard!

1. From lines 3-7, select two words or phrases that show how the family try to keep warm.

1:

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2:

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2. Look again at lines 12-19.In your own words, explain the effect of the snow storm.

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responses

Read the following passage carefully.

As a small boy, the writer went to the docks with his friend Robert.

A Visit to the Docks

1 I found myself in a great shed big enough to swallow up half a dozen of the houses from the 2 street I lived in. The place was full of men and only a few kids. There was an air of 3 viciousness about them like dogs waiting to attack. I was dreading having to walk past them,4 but my school chum strode past like he owned the place. Sheepishly I followed. Everyone5 seemed to be shouting or laughing in a loud way. Boxes were banged about, handcarts6 collided as their owners cursed and threatened one another. One carter in a hurry to 7 pass us called out, “Are you two frozen or what? Move, come on!” The violence of this8 command petrified me, but McCartney was having none of it. “Move yourself, you old9 fool!” I was stunned. I had never heard such brazen bravado in my friend before. At school10

he was quiet and shy: here he was altogether a different creature. The little boy who sat

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beside me at school was suddenly ten feet tall, growling and snarling back at anyone

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who gave us offence.

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“See that big brown horse there – that was my granda’s when it was a foal,” Robert said.

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The brown horse looked nothing like a horse to me. More like a status of a horse. It was

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immense. We both walked over to the great beast. “You stay here while I go off and get

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you a stick,” my pal ordered.

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The massive beast held me hypnotized. It was everything a horse shouldn’t be. It was

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bulky and still. The big black collar around its neck must have weighed more than I did.

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Its eye was as big as a cricket ball and its coarse eyelashes looked like the bristles on a

2 yard brush. The size of its head stunned me. I thought it was three times the size of any

Text One: A Visit to the Docks

1. From lines 2-5, select two words or phrases that show that the writer is intimidated by the men.

1:

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2. Look again at lines 17-27.In your own words, explain why the writer finds the horse so impressive.

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responses

Read the following passage carefully.

The writer, with his partner Wanda, is driving across Europe. They have arranged to meet their friend Hugh in order to go on an adventure together.

Istanbul – City of Dreams

1 I arrived with Wanda in Istanbul. As we drove along the last long stretch of road, the Sea 2 of Marmara appeared before us, green and windswept, deserted except for a solitary 3 boat. Our spirits rose at the thought of seeing Istanbul when the sun was setting, but 4 when we reached the outskirts it was already quite dark. We had planned to enter the 5 city by the Golden Gate, for it sounded romantic and appropriate and we had been 6 looking forward to it all the way across Europe, not knowing that for several hundred 7 years the gate had been sealed up. Instead we found ourselves on an interminable8 bypass lined with luminous advertisements for banks and razor blades. It was a fitting 9 end to an uncomfortable journey.

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We let the car in the courtyard of the old Embassy and changed our money with one

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of the gatekeepers. We asked him where we should stay.

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‘Star Hotel, clean hotel, cheap hotel, good hotel, hotel of my brother.’

****

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‘Room with bed for two,’ said the proprietor, flinging open a door at the extreme end.

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It was a nightmare room, the room of a drug fiend or a miscreant or perhaps both.

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It was illuminated by a forty-watt bulb and looked out on a black wall with something

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slimy growing on it. The bed was a fearful thing, almost perfectly concave. Underneath

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it was a pair of old boots. The sheets were almost clean but on them there was the

Text One: Istanbul – City of Dreams

3. From lines 1-4, select two words or phrases that show that the writer’s arrival in Istanbul was disappointing.

1:

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4. Look again at lines 13-21.In your own words, explain what we learn about the writer’s hotel room.

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responses