saysmiss.files.wordpress.com … · Web viewThere are seventy tasks to complete; every day, pick one of the tasks and either plan or write a response. Some will take less time than

1

6st March= 70 days of Revision!

70 DAYS TO CELEBRATE:

ENGLISH LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE

REVISION

KAH

2

Seventy Days To CelebrateWelcome to your seventy day revision guide for English!

As of 6th March, there are seventy days until the first exam. It can be difficult to know how to revise for English, but also how to stay focused when there seems to be so much to do.

The best way to make sure you do your very best at this stage, is to spend a small amount of time, every day on revising for English. This will make sure you also take the time to get

enough sleep, eat healthy meals and switch off at regular intervals during revision to make sure you stand the best chance of success when exams start.

There are seventy tasks to complete; every day, pick one of the tasks and either plan or write a response. Some will take less time than others, but you should not take any longer than thirty minutes to complete a task. Write the type of task into the box for that day and review after a week; which ones do you find easiest? Which ones are you avoiding? Focus

on those ones next to challenge yourself.

Every day, complete the tasks in this guide, tick off what you have completed on the daily chart and celebrate another day of preparing yourself for success!

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28.

29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35.

36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42.

43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49.

50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56.

57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63.

64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70.

KAH

3

KAH

4

Read the LP1 text. It is from Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. Context: A mystery/detective novel with Sherlock Holmes.

I have said that over the great Grimpen Mire there hung a dense, white fog. It was drifting slowly in our direction and banked itself up like a wall on that side of us, low but thick and well defined. The moon shone on it, and it looked like a great shimmering ice-field, with the heads of the distant tors as rocks borne upon its surface. Holmes' face was turned towards it, and he muttered impatiently as he watched its sluggish drift. Every minute that white woolly plain which covered one-half of the moor was drifting closer and closer to the house. Already the first thin wisps of it were curling across the golden square of the lighted window. The farther wall of the orchard was already invisible, and the trees were standing out of a swirl of white vapour. As we watched it the fog-wreaths came crawling round both corners of the house and rolled slowly into one dense bank on which the upper floor and the roof floated like a strange ship upon a shadowy sea.

How does the writer use language to describe the fog? (10 marks)

KAH

5

KAH

6

KAH

7

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Context: The narrator, Marlow, is travelling along the Congo River sometime around 1890 in search of a man who has gone missing.

Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy and sluggish, There was no joy in the brilliance of the sunshine. The long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted, into the gloom of over-shadowed distances. The stillness of life did not in the least resemble peace.

How does the writer use language to convey the narrator’s feelings about the setting?

KAH

8

KAH

Look over the snapshot for ten minutes, and then write as much as you can remember about the character on a blank piece of paper. Include any contextual knowledge that you can link to him/her, adjectives to describe their character, relevant sections of the play, and how they change or develop.

9

KAH

10

Extract: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985).

5

10

A chair, a table, a lamp. Above, on the white ceiling, a relief ornament in the shape of a wreath, and in the centre of it, a blank space, plastered over, like the place in a face where the eye has been taken out. There must have been a chandelier, once. They’ve removed anything you could tie a rope to.

A window, two white curtains. Under the window, a window seat with a little cushion. When the window is partly open – it only opens partly – the air can come in and make the curtains move. I can sit in the chair, or on the window seat, hands folded, and watch this. There’s a rug on the floor, oval, of braided rags. This is the kind of touch they like: folk art, archaic, made by women, in their spare time, from things that have no further use. A return to traditional values. Waste not want not. I am not being wasted. Why do I want?

Read lines 1-10. How does the writer use language to describe the

setting? (10 marks)

KAH

11

KAH

12

KAH


13

PART 1

KAH

14

Extract: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyIT WAS A PLEASURE TO BURN

It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history. With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky yellow and red and black. He strode in a swarm of fireflies. He wanted above all, like the old joke, to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house. While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning.

Montag grinned the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame. How does the writer use language to describe the fire? (10 marks)

KAH

15

KAH

16

KAH


17

KAH

18

Extract: From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming (1957)

KAH

19

5

10

15

Bond’s thoughts were interrupted by the stewardess. ‘Fasten your seat-belts, please.’ As she spoke the plane dropped sickeningly and soared up again with an ugly note of strain in the scream of the jets. The sky outside was suddenly black. Rain hammered on the windows. There came a blinding flash of blue and white light and a crash as if an anti-aircraft shell had hit them, and the plane heaved and bucketed in the belly of the electric storm that had ambushed them out of the mouth of the Adriatic. Bond smelt the smell of danger. It is a real smell, something like the mixture of sweat and electricity you get in an amusement arcade. Again the lightning flung its hands across the windows. Crash! It felt as if they were the centre of the thunder clap. Suddenly the plane seemed incredibly small and frail. Thirteen passengers! Friday the Thirteenth! Bond thought of Loelia Ponsonby’s words and his hands on the arms of his chair felt wet. How old is this plane, he wondered? How many flying hours has it done? Had the deathwatch beetle of metal fatigue got into the wings? How much of their strength had it eaten away? Perhaps he wouldn’t get to Istanbul after all. Perhaps a plummeting crash into the Gulf of Corinth was going to be the destiny he had been scanning philosophically only an hour before.

Read lines 5-15. What are your impressions of the character Bond?

KAH

20

KAH

21

KAH


22

KAH

23

KAH

24

Extract: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (2011)

5

10

15

20

25

30

ANTICIPATION

The circus arrives without warning.

No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

The towering tents are striped in white and black, no golds and crimsons to be seen. No color at all, save for the neighboring trees and the grass of the surrounding fields. Black- and- white stripes on grey sky; countless tents of varying shapes and sizes, with an elaborate wrought- iron fence encasing them in a colorless world. Even what little ground is visible from outside is black or white, painted or powdered, or treated with some other circus trick.

But it is not open for business. Not just yet.

Within hours everyone in town has heard about it. By afternoon the news has spread several towns over. Word of mouth is a more effective method of advertisement than typeset words and exclamation points on paper pamphlets or posters. It is impressive and unusual news, the sudden appearance of a mysterious circus. People marvel at the staggering height of the tallest tents. They stare at the clock that sits just inside the gates that no one can properly describe.

And the black sign painted in white letters that hangs upon the gates, the one that reads:

Opens at Nightfall Closes at Dawn

“What kind of circus is only open at night?” people ask. No one has a proper answer, yet as dusk approaches there is a substantial crowd of spectators gathering outside the gates.

You are amongst them, of course. Your curiosity got the better of you, as curiosity is wont to do. You stand in the fading light, the scarf around your neck pulled up against the chilly evening breeze, waiting to see for yourself exactly what kind of circus only opens once the sun sets.

Read lines 10-30. How does the writer create tension within the extract? (10 marks)

KAH

25

KAH

26

You have been given an opportunity to present a speech to your local MP on the issue of lowering the voting age to 16. Write a speech, giving your opinions on this matter. You can incorporate the following facts:

• Numbers involved in the climate protests

• When you are 16 you are allowed to: drive a moped, choose your own GP, change your name by deed poll, be paid the national minimum wage, apply for a passport without parental consent, join the armed forces (with parental consent), get married (with parental consent).

• The age of criminal responsibility in the UK is 10 years old.

• When surveyed three quarters of 16-17 years old said they would have voted in the EU referendum.

KAH

27

KAH

28

KAH


29

KAH

30

KAH

31

'Oh, what a man he is, this Mr Willy Wonka!' cried Grandpa Joe. 'Did you know, for

example, that he has himself invented more than two hundred new kinds of

chocolate bars, each with a different centre, each far sweeter and creamier and

more delicious than anything the other chocolate factories can make!'

'Perfectly true!' cried Grandma Josephine. 'And he sends them to all the four corners

of the earth! Isn't that so, Grandpa Joe?'

'It is, my dear, it is. And to all the kings and presidents of the world as well. But it isn't

only chocolate bars that he makes. Oh, dear me, no! He has some really fantastic

inventions up his sleeve, Mr Willy Wonka has! Did you know that he's invented a way

of making chocolate ice cream so that it stays cold for hours and hours without being

in the refrigerator? You can even leave it lying in the sun all morning on a hot day

and it won't go runny!'

'But that's impossible!' said little Charlie, staring at his grandfather.

'Of course it's impossible!' cried Grandpa Joe. 'It's completely absurd! But Mr Willy

Wonka has done it!'

'Quite right!' the others agreed, nodding their heads. 'Mr Wonka has done it.'

How does the writer use language to describe the character of Willy Wonka? (10

marks)

KAH

32

KAH

33

KAH


34

KAH

35

How does the writer use language to create tension? (10 marks)

KAH

36

KAH

37

KAH

38

We should take pride in Britain’s acceptable foodThe fact that 12% of Spaniards now think our cuisine is a reason to visit the UK should be a cause for celebration David Mitchell

A phrase really jumped out at me from a newspaper last week. The Times said a recent survey into Spanish attitudes to Britain, conducted by the tourism agency Visit Britain, “found that only 12% of Spaniards considered the UK to be the best place for food and drink”. That, I thought to myself, may be the most extraordinary use of the word “only” I have ever seen.

Has its meaning recently flipped? Has it been warped by an internet hashtag or ironic usage by rappers? Is it like how “bad” or “wicked” can mean good, and actors receiving awards use the word “humbled” to mean “incredibly impressed with myself”? Because, if “only” still means what I think it means, the paper is implying it expected more than 12% of the people of Spain to think Britain was “the best place for food and drink”.

That’s quite a slur on the Spanish. How delusional did it expect them to be? What percentage of them would it expect to think the world was flat? I know we’re moving into a post-truth age, but 12% of a culinarily renowned nation considering Britain, the land of the Pot Noodle and the garage sandwich, to be the world’s No 1 destination for food and drink is already a worrying enough finding for the Spanish education system to address. It would be vindictive to hope for more.

Maybe some of the 12% are enthusiastic food anthropologists whose motivation for going anywhere is to try the food and drink. They’ve consumed everything from yak testicles to locust wee, so fascinated are they by humankind’s huge range of nourishment techniques. A bit of academic interest, and the memory of a disappointing white ant egg soup or crispy tarantula, might really help soften the blow of a first baffled visit to the salad cart at a Harvester.

You may say I’m talking Britain down, and I’m certainly not talking it up. I would argue, though, that I’m talking it along. Food here is OK. Or rather, it’s sometimes terrible and sometimes delicious but usually neither and it averages out as fine. Lots of us are really fat now – that’s got to be a good sign.

The British Ambassador to Spain betrayed weaknesses in our cooking, even as he spoke up for it: “The idea is to combat the stereotype about British food and drink and promote the idea that we take ideas from around the world and we adapt them for this cosmopolitan cuisine we know today.”

What does that mean? Despairing of our grim native fare, we steal dishes from other countries and slightly ruin them? Put chorizo in the paella and cream in the bolognese and make baguettes with the consistency of sponge? Or was he saying that our comparative dearth of culinary excellence has allowed us a greater open-mindedness to other cultures’ food traditions, which has now dragged our own food standards slightly closer to par?

Alas, the stereotype bemoaned by the ambassador has its basis in truth: delicious food has never been a cultural priority. In our collective national soul, we don’t believe that the niceness of meals is that important. Perhaps on special occasions, but not every day.

The fact that food has improved in Britain is a sign, not of a major change in those cultural priorities, but of two other factors: how international we’ve become and our competitive spirit. The food has been brought up to standard, for the same reasons that we’ve put in proper coffee machines and wifi – to show we’re keeping up. We proudly note how highly

KAH

39

the restaurants of chefs like Heston Blumenthal come in international rankings even as we peel the film off our microwave dinners. In food, as in cycling, Britain can now win.

How does the Mitchell persuade is that British food is, for the most part, not all that great?

You should comment on: • What he says• His use of language and tone The way he presents his arguments about the mediocrity of British food [10]

KAH

40

KAH

41

KAH


42

KAH

43

KAH

44

This text is taken from a letter written by George Gissing, an English novelist who lived from 1857—1903. His letter describes a national bank holiday in 1882.

It is Bank Holiday to-day, and the streets are overcrowded with swarms of people. Never is so clearly

to be seen the vulgarity of the people as at these holiday times. Their notion of a holiday is to rush in

crowds to some sweltering place, such as the Crystal Palace and there sit and drink and quarrel

themselves into stupidity. Miserable children are lugged about, yelling at the top of their voices, and

are beaten because they yell. Troops of hideous creatures drive wildly about the town in gigs,2

donkey-carts, cabbage-carts, dirtcarts, and think it enjoyment. The pleasure of peace and quietness,

of rest for body and mind, is not understood. Thousands are tempted by cheap trips to go off for the

day to the seaside, and succeed in wearying themselves to death, for the sake of eating a greasy

meal in a Margate Coffee-shop, and getting five minutes' glimpse of the sea through eyes blinded

with dirt and perspiration. Places like Hampstead Heath and the various parks and commons are

packed with screeching drunkards, one general mass of dust and heat and rage and exhaustion. Yet

this is the best kind of holiday the people are capable of.

It is utterly absurd, this idea of setting aside single days for great public holidays. It will never do

anything but harm. What we want is a general shortening of the working hours all year round, so

that, for instance, all labour would be over at 4 0'clock in the afternoon. Then the idea of hours of

leisure would become familiar to the people and they would learn to make some sensible use of

them. Of course this is impossible so long as we work for working's sake. All the world's work — all

that is really necessary for the health and comfort and even luxury of mankind — could be

performed in three or four hours of each day. There is so much labour just because there is so much

money-grubbing. Every man has to fight for a living with his neighbour, and the grocer who keeps his

shop open till half an hour after midnight has an advantage over him who closes at twelve. Work in

itself is not an end; only a means; but we nowadays make it an end, and three-fourths of the world

cannot understand anything else.

Glossary

Crystal Palace — a large, glass building in London which was often used for shows, concerts and

exhibitions.

Gigs — a gig is a two-wheeled carriage pulled by a horse.

What do you think and feel about Gissing’s description of a Bank Holiday?

You should comment on:• What is said• How it is said

KAH

45

You must refer to the text to support your comments. [10

KAH

46

KAH

47

Fashion Goes PopAlice Fisher, The Guardian, 20 March 2011 (theguardian.com)

Spring is a fertile time. Not just for the lambs and the budding trees, but for fashion and trends. The first months of each year bring the latest round of catwalk shows from New York, London, Milan and Paris, and the concurrent awards season sent the best dressed in film and music trotting up the red carpets to the Grammys, the Brits, the Baftas and the Oscars. Spring is an orgy of style.

In the old days, if you wanted to look at the beautifully ridiculous, the conceptual or the just plain silly, the fashion shows were your best bet. Awards ceremonies, by contrast, used to be elegant oceans of pretty, colourful gowns by Valentino, Marchesa and Versace. They were so sedate that, in 2001, when Björk wore a swan dress by fashion designer Marjan Pejoski and laid six eggs on the red carpet at the Oscars, she was lampooned for years. In 2011, a decade later, nobody would blink if Björk had taken off and flown to her seat. This spring, at the Grammys, Katy Perry sported angel wings, 10-year-old actress and pop star Willow Smith turned up in 8in platform trainers, US singer Nicki Minaj added leopard-print highlights to her pompadour hair to match her leopard-print dress and Lady Gaga arrived in an egg, carried like a Roman emperor.

The designers' most outrageous creations were papped2 on celebrities at red-carpet events rather than at the fashion shows. In fact, the most talked-about turn on the catwalk this season wasn't by Kate Moss, Lara Stone or any other model — it was Lady Gaga's debut at the Thierry Mugler womenswear show in Paris. Something odd is happening with celebrities and style. The stars are becoming more daring, more avant garde than the designers.

Nowadays, the biggest female names in music don't particularly set themselves apart from their predecessors through musical style — most of them create surprisingly traditional pop — but the way they look is a whole new world.

The new stars do seem to be more humorous and self-aware than their pop predecessors. When Jessie J won the Critics' Choice at this year's Brit Awards she wore a Vivienne Westwood minidress. 'l look like the evil queen from Snow White,' she told reporters. 'l just need to go and find my dwarfs now.' Similarly, when asked about her big-cat Givenchy couture3 at this year's Grammys, Minaj described her outfit as 'miraculous meets her cub meets ferocity meets fabulosity meets the runway'. Katy Perry is more pragmatic. 'We're all unique. That's why we all win and we all can exist. People don't just want vanilla. They want 31 flavours. I couldn't do what Rihanna does. I couldn't do what Gaga does. They can't do what I do.'

What these stars do is create a break in the monotony of style that has smothered culture of late. Trends used to wash from catwalk to stage to club and pavement unhampered. They may not be of vast cultural significance, but these new celebrities' style is vivid and fun. We have come a long way from laughing at a star for laying eggs on a red carpet to applauding one for arriving in an egg. It's going to be entertaining to see how much further we can go.

Glossary:

KAH

48

1 pompadour — a hairstyle in which the hair is brushed upwards for height 22 papped — photographed by paparazzi (independent photographers who take pictures of celebrities) 3 couture3 — fashionable made-to-measure clothing

How does Fisher persuade us that pop stars’ unique fashion choices are a positive thing?

You should comment on: • What she says• Her use of language and tone The way she presents her arguments about fashion [10]

KAH

49

KAH

50

KAH

51

The following text was written by Charlotte Brontë, a famous 19th-century author. Charlotte was working as a governess — a woman employed to teach and care for the children in a household. This is an extract from a letter written to her sister in 1839.

Dearest Lavinia,*

I am most exceedingly obliged to you for the trouble you have taken in seeking up my things and sending them all right. The box and its contents were most acceptable.

I have striven hard to be pleased with my new situation. The country, the house, and the grounds are, as I have said, divine. But, alack-a-day! there is such a thing as seeing all beautiful around you — pleasant woods, winding white paths, green lawns, and blue sunshiny sky — and not having a free moment or a free thought left to enjoy them in. The children are constantly with me, and more riotous, perverse, unmanageable cubs never grew. As for correcting them, I soon quickly found that was entirely out of the question: they are to do as they like. A complaint to Mrs. Sidgwick brings only black looks upon oneself, and unjust, partial excuses to screen the children. I have tried that plan once. It succeeded so notably that I shall try it no more.

I said in my last letter that Mrs. Sidgwick did not know me. I now begin to find that she does not intend to know me, that she cares nothing in the world about me except to contrive how the greatest possible quantity of labour may be squeezed out of me, and to that end she overwhelms me with oceans of needlework, yards of cambric to hem, muslin night-caps to make, and, above all things, dolls to dress. I do not think she likes me at all, because I can't help being shy in such an entirely novel scene, surrounded as I have hitherto been by strange and constantly changing faces. I see now more clearly than I have ever done before that a private governess has no existence, is not considered as a living and rational being except as connected with the wearisome duties she has to fulfil. While she is teaching the children, working for them, amusing them, it is all right. If she steals a moment for herself she is a nuisance. Nevertheless, Mrs. Sidgwick is universally considered an amiable woman. Her manners are fussily affable. She talks a great deal, but as it seems to me not much to the purpose. Perhaps I may like her better after a while. At present I have no call to her. Mr. Sidgwick is in my opinion a hundred times better — less profession, less bustling condescension, but a far kinder heart.

As to Mrs. Collins' report that Mrs. Sidgwick intended to keep me permanently, I do not think that such was ever her design. Moreover, I would not stay without some alterations. For instance, this burden of sewing would have to be removed. It is too bad for anything. I never in my whole life had my time so fully taken up.

Don't show this letter to papa or aunt, only to Branwell ** They will think I am never satisfied wherever I am. I complain to you because it is a relief, and really I have had some unexpected mortifications to put up with. However, things may mend, but Mrs. Sidgwick expects me to do things that I cannot do — to love her children and be entirely devoted to them. I am really very well. I am so sleepy that I can write no more. I must leave off. Love to all. — Good-bye.

C. BRONTË.

Glossary

* A nickname for Charlotte's sister, Emily.

**Their brother.

How does Albelli persuade us that being a nanny is a hard job?

You should comment on: • What she says• Her use of language and tone The way he presents her arguments about the school holidays [10]

KAH

52

KAH

53

KAH

54

KAH

55

KAH

56

KAH

57

KAH

58

KAH

59

KAH

60

KAH

61

KAH

Documents

saysmiss.files.wordpress.com … · Web viewThere are seventy tasks to complete; every day, pick one of the tasks and either plan or write a response. Some will take less time than