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ENGLISH TEACHERS ASSOCIATION

Year 11 English General Course Exam, 2018

Question Paper

ENGLISH GENERAL (Year Eleven)

Unit One Time allowed for this paper (or as determined by the school) Reading time before commencing work: Ten minutes Working time for paper: Two hours

Materials required/recommended for this paper

To be provided by the supervisor This Question Paper Standard Answer Book

To be provided by the candidate Standard items: pens, pencils, eraser or correction fluid, ruler, highlighter Special items: nil

Important note to candidates No other items may be taken into the examination room. It is your responsibility to ensure that you do not have any unauthorised notes or other items of a non-personal nature in the examination room. If you have any unauthorised material with you, hand it to the supervisor before reading any further.

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Structure of this paper

Section

Number of questions available

Number of questions to be answered

Suggested working time

(minutes)

Marks available

Percentage of exam

Section One: Comprehending

2 2

60 30 60

Section Two: Composing

6 1

60 20 40

Total 100

Instructions to candidates

1. Write your answers to each section in the Answer Book or paper supplied by your school or college.

2. You must be careful to confine your responses to the specific questions asked and to follow any instructions that are specific to a particular question.

3. This externally set task is based on the content from Unit 1 of the General English

syllabus.

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Section One: Comprehending (30 Marks)

In this section there are two (2) texts and two (2) questions. Answer both questions.

You are required to read the texts below and respond concisely in approximately 200–300

words for each question.

Suggested working time: 60 minutes

Question 1: (15 marks) Explain how Text 1 uses language features to create a particular mood or feeling.

Question 2: (15 marks) Explain how Text 2 encourages you to consider its message.

See next page for Text 1

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Text 1

The following text is an extract from the young adult fictional novel, Breathing Under Water (2016), by Sophie Hardcastle.

We stand with chilled bones and red skin, exhaling white clouds through teeth that chatter, the ocean, in all its glory, just waiting for us. We sprint across grass, wet sand, and then launch ourselves above the tide. Hands grip the rails of our surfboards and for a brief moment in time our bodies fly over a roll of vanilla foam. Our torsos land on wax, we stretch our arms forward, we dig down and draw back, pulling ourselves through the cold morning milk. White wash approaches and in unison we lunge forward on our boards, pushing deep beneath the turbulence. We ride up through the dark belly of the wave and emerge through its shoulder-blade. With air expanding our lungs, this day is born. We reach the line-up, the cold pinching every place our wetsuits cannot conceal: our wrists, our Achilles tendons, the napes of our necks. We sit up on our boards and, without passing a single word between us, float effortlessly. We have red-glass eyes and cheeks that sting, licked by the tongue of the winter sea. As the sun catches fire on the horizon, Ben looks across at me and smiles. Together we dance on waves of molten gold until our stomachs bring us to the shore, hungry for breakfast. Collecting our boards, wrapping our leg-ropes around our fins, we stroll across the sand. Beneath the outdoor shower, I rinse conditioner from my hair and jump out, wrapping my body in a towel. Ben washes coconut soap from his torso, turns off the tap, dries his face on his towel. ‘Mia is asleep in my bed,’ he says. ‘She told me she loved me last night.’ ‘What did you say back?’ ‘I said I loved her too.’

See next page for Text 2

For copyright reasons, this text cannot be published online.

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Text 2

The following text is part of a 2017 community safety campaign produced by Queensland Rail.

End of Section One

For copyright reasons, this image cannot be published online.

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Section Two: Composing (20 Marks)

In this section there are six (6) questions. Answer one (1) question.

Your response should demonstrate appropriate language, content and mode for purpose and audience. Suggested working time: 60 minutes

Question 3: (20 marks) Compose a text that persuades Australians to take action on an issue. Question 4: (20 marks) Discuss how one text you have studied shaped your response to a character, a person, or a group of people. Question 5: (20 marks) “At some point, you have to decide for yourself who you’re going to be. You can’t let anybody else make that decision for you.” Compose a text that uses this quote at a key point. Question 6: (20 marks) Explore how the setting of a text you have studied connects to its central character or theme. Question 7: (20 marks) Explain how a text you have studied encourages its audience to respond to an idea. Question 8: (20 marks) Use the image on the following page as inspiration to compose a text in a form of your choice.

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Image 1:

End of Externally Set Task

For copyright reasons, this image cannot be published online.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS SECTION ONE Text 1

Hardcastle, Sophie. 2016. Breathing Under Water. Hachette Australia. Reproduced with permission of the publisher.

Text 2 Queensland Rail. Image. Yellow Line. Reproduced with permission of Queensland Rail. SECTION TWO Image 1 Kitson, Nakita. 2013. Hands. Myanmar. Reproduced with permission of the photographer.