AC 2016

YEAR 11

EXAM REVISION PACK October Half-Term 2016

ENGLISH LANGUAGE – PAPER 1 (Reading & Writing)

ENGLISH LANGUAGE – PAPER 2 (Reading & Writing)

ENGLISH LITERATURE – PAPER 1 (Text Response)

ENGLISH LITERATURE – PAPER 2 (excluding poetry)

AC 2016

ENGLISH LANGUAGE READING RESOURCE PAPER 1

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan

That was one of the hardest jobs I ever took on. My shoulder and arm ached like hell, and I was so sick and giddy that I was always on the verge of falling. But I managed it somehow. By the use of out-jutting stones and gaps in the masonry and a tough ivy root I got to the top in the end. There was a little parapet behind which I found space to lie down. Then I proceeded to go off into an old-fashioned swoon. I woke with a burning head and the sun glaring in my face. For a long time I lay motionless, for those horrible fumes seemed to have loosened my joints and dulled my brain. Sounds came to me from the house – men speaking throatily and the throbbing of a stationary car. There was a little gap in the parapet to which I wriggled, and from which I had some sort of prospect of the yard. I saw figures come out – a servant with his head bound up, and then a younger man in knickerbockers. They were looking for something, and moved towards the mill. Then one of them caught sight of the wisp of cloth on the nail, and cried out to the other. They both went back to the house, and brought two more to look at it. I saw the rotund figure of my late captor, and I thought I made out the man with the lisp. I noticed that all had pistols. For half an hour they ransacked the mill. I could hear them kicking over the barrels and pulling up the rotten planking. Then they came outside, and stood just below the dovecot, arguing fiercely. The servant with the bandage was being soundly rated. I heard them fiddling with the door of the dovecot, and for one horrid moment I fancied they were coming up. Then they thought better of it, and went back to the house. All that long blistering afternoon I lay baking on the roof-top. Thirst was my chief torment. My tongue was like a stick, and to make it worse I could hear the cool drip of water from the milllade. I watched the course of the little stream as it came in from the moor, and my fancy followed it to the top of the glen, where it must issue from an icy fountain fringed with cool ferns and mosses. I would have given a thousand pounds to plunge my face into that. I had a fine prospect of the whole ring of moorland. I saw the car speed away with two occupants, and a man on a hill pony riding east. I judged they were looking for me, and I wished them joy of their quest. But I saw something else more interesting. The house stood almost on the summit of a swell of moorland which crowned a sort of plateau, and there was no higher point nearer than the big hills six miles off. The actual summit, as I have mentioned, was a biggish clump of trees – firs mostly, with a few ashes and beeches. On the dovecot I was almost on a level with the treetops, and could see what lay beyond. The wood was not solid, but only a ring, and inside was an oval of green turf, for all the world like a big cricket-field. I didn’t take long to guess what it was. It was an aerodrome, and a secret one. The place had been most cunningly chosen. For suppose anyone were watching an aeroplane descending here, he would think it had gone over the hill beyond the trees. As the place was on the top of a rise in the midst of a big amphitheatre, any observer from any direction would conclude it had passed out of view behind the hill. Only a man very close at hand would realise that the aeroplane had not gone over but descended in the midst of the wood. An observer with a telescope on one of the higher hills might have discovered the truth, but only herds went there, and herds do not carry spy-glasses. When I looked from the dovecot I could see far away a

Introduction In this extract the narrator, Richard Hannay, is on the run from a gang of spies after escaping from a locked room in their farmhouse by using some explosive devices that he found there. Unable to travel away from the farm in daylight, he has now found a hiding place on top of a dovecote which he needs to climb in spite of having been injured in the explosion.

AC 2016

blue line which I knew was the sea, and I grew furious to think that our enemies had this secret conning-tower to rake our waterways. Then I reflected that if that aeroplane came back the chances were ten to one that I would be discovered. So through the afternoon I lay and prayed for the coming of darkness, and glad I was when the sun went down over the big western hills and the twilight haze crept over the moor. The aeroplane was late. The gloaming was far advanced when I heard the beat of wings and saw it vol-planning downward to its home in the wood. Lights twinkled for a bit and there was much coming and going from the house. Then the dark fell, and silence. Thank God it was a black night. The moon was well on its last quarter and would not rise till late. My thirst was too great to allow me to tarry, so about nine o’clock, so far as I could judge, I started to descend. It wasn’t easy, and halfway down I heard the back-door of the house open, and saw the gleam of a lantern against the mill wall. For some agonising minutes I hung by the ivy and prayed that whoever it was would not come round by the dovecot. Then the light disappeared, and I dropped as softly as I could on to the hard soil of the yard. I crawled on my belly in the lee of a stone dyke till I reached the fringe of trees which surrounded the house. If I had known how to do it I would have tried to put that aeroplane out of action, but I realised that any attempt would probably be futile. I was pretty certain that there would be some kind of defence round the house, so I went through the wood on hands and knees, feeling carefully every inch before me. It was as well, for presently I came on a wire about two feet from the ground. If I had tripped over that, it would doubtless have rung some bell in the house and I would have been captured. A hundred yards farther on I found another wire cunningly placed on the edge of a small stream. Beyond that lay the moor, and in five minutes I was deep in bracken and heather. Soon I was round the shoulder of the rise, in the little glen from which the mill-lade flowed. Ten minutes later my face was in the spring, and I was soaking down pints of the blessed water. But I did not stop till I had put half a dozen miles between me and that accursed dwelling.

Read the passage then answer the questions fully.

First responses 1) This is a typical scene from stories in the adventure genre: the injured hero hides as the

villains search for him. Give examples of similar episodes from books and films that you know.

2) What conditions make the narrator’s experience more uncomfortable?

3) What discovery does he make from the vantage point of the dovecote roof?

4) How does this discovery put him in more danger?

Close reading

1) The adventure story genre has many recognisable features. Make a list of the details that the author provides of the villains and their behaviour in this passage. Which other details and events are familiar to you?

2) Identify three narrow escapes that the narrator has before the end of this passage. How does

the account suggest that he is smarter than his enemies?

3) Hiding in the full glare of the sun, Hannay is tantalised by the near presence of cool water that he cannot reach. Explore the language that the writer has used to make the water seem all the more desirable. How does the description appeal to our senses?

4) How does the final sentence of this passage close the episode and end the chapter satisfactorily for the reader (structure)?

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Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier Chapter 1 Different from all the rocks on the beach

Lightning has struck me all my life. Just once was it real. I shouldn’t remember it, for I was little more than a baby. But I do remember. I was in a field, where there were horses and riders performing tricks. Then a storm blew in, and a woman – not Mam – picked me up and brought me under a tree. As she held me tight I looked up and saw the pattern of black leaves against a white sky. Then there was a noise, like all the trees falling down round me, and a bright, bright light, which was like looking at the sun. A buzz ran right through me. It was as if I’d touched a hot coal, and I could smell singed flesh and sense there was pain, yet it weren’t painful. I felt like a stocking turned inside out. Others begun pulling at me and calling, but I couldn’t make a sound. I was carried somewhere, then there was warmth all round, not a blanket, but wet. It was water and I knew water – our house was close to the sea, I could see it from our windows. Then I opened my eyes, and it feels like they haven’t been shut since. The lightning killed the woman holding me, and two girls standing next to her, but I survived. They say I was a quiet, sickly child before the storm, but after it I grew up lively and alert. I cannot say if they’re right, but the memory of that lighting still runs through me like a shiver. It marks powerful moments of my life: seeing the first crocodile skull Joe found, and finding its body myself; discovering my other monsters on the beach; meeting Colonel Birch. Other times I’ll feel the lighting strike and wonder why it’s come. Sometimes I don’t understand, but accept what the lightning tells me, for the lightning is me. It entered me when I was a baby and never left. I feel an echo of the lightning each time I find a fossil, a little jolt that says, “Yes, Mary Anning, you are different from all the rocks on the beach.” That is why I am a hunter: to feel that bolt of lightning, and that difference, every day.

Read the passage then answer the questions fully. First responses

1) What is your impression of the character of Mary Anning? How does she regard herself?

2) Note that this chapter is entitled ‘Different from all the other rocks on the beach’. Does the title refer to more than just the rock samples? What would have been the social status of a young, unmarried woman in 19th century England?

Close reading

1) Explain the meaning of the first two sentences in this extract. How effective are they in engaging your interest?

2) Identify the details that Mary Anning remembers from when she was struck by lightning, and

comment on the similes she uses in the second paragraph to express this unusual experience.

3) In her first person account, Mary Anning refers to other characters and events that will

follow as the novel progresses. What impression does this create of her perspective on the events she describes?

Introduction This is the opening section of an historical novel about a young woman who became acclaimed during the nineteenth century for her success in finding fossils on the Dorset coast.

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ENGLISH LANGUAGE PAPER 1 - SECTION B: WRITING

You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section.

Write in full sentences. You are reminded of the need to plan your answer.

You should leave enough time to check your work at the end. Your school or college is asking students to contribute some creative writing for its website. Either: Write a description suggested by this picture:

Or: Describe an occasion when you felt unsure or challenged. Focus on the thoughts and feelings you had at that time.

AC 2016

ENGLISH LANGUAGE READING RESOURCE PAPER 2

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson

I glanced at the rope stretched tautly above me. It ran up the wall and disappeared onto the slope above.

There was no possibility of getting back to that slope some twenty feet above me. I looked at the wall

of the crevasse close by my shoulder. On the other side another wall of ice towered up ten feet away. I

was hanging in a shaft of water ice. The decision to look down came as I was in the process of turning.

I swung round quickly, catching my smashed knee on the ice wall and howling in a frenzy of pain and

fright. Instead of seeing the rope twisting loosely in a void beneath me, I stared blankly at the snow

below my feet, not fully believing what I was seeing. A floor! There was a wide snow-covered floor

fifteen feet below me. There was no emptiness, and no black void. I swore softly, and heard it whisper

off the walls around me. Then I let out a cry of delight and relief which boomed round the crevasse. I

yelled again and again, listening to the echoes, and laughed between the yells. I was at the bottom of

the crevasse.

When I recovered my wits I looked more carefully at the carpet of snow above which I was dangling.

My jubilation was quickly tempered when I spotted dark menacing holes in the surface. It wasn’t a floor

after all. The crevasse opened up into a pear-shaped dome, its sides curving away from me to a width

of fifty feet before narrowing again. The snow floor cut through the flat end of this cavern, while the

walls above me tapered in to form the thin end of the pear barely ten feet across and nearly100 feet

high. Small fragments of crusty snow patterned down from the roof.

I looked round the enclosed vault of snow and ice, familiarising myself with its shape and size. The

walls opposite closed in but didn’t meet. A narrow gap had been filled with snow from above to form

a cone which rose all the way to the roof. It was about fifteen feet wide at the base and as little as four

or five feet across the top.

A pillar of gold light beamed diagonally from a small hole in the roof, spraying bright reflections off

the far wall of the crevasse. I was mesmerised by this beam and sunlight burning through the vaulted

ceiling from the real world outside. It had me so fixated that I forgot about the uncertain floor below

and let myself slide down the rest of the rope. I was going to reach that sunbeam. I knew it then with

absolute certainty. How I would do it, and when I would reach it were not considered. I just knew.

In seconds my whole outlook had changed. The weary frightened hours of night were forgotten, and

the abseil which had filled me with such claustrophobic dread had been swept away. The twelve

despairing hours I had spent in the unnatural hush of this awesome place seemed suddenly to have been

nothing like the nightmare I had imagined. I could do something positive. I could crawl and climb, and

keep on doing so until I had escaped from this grave. Before, there had been nothing for me to do except

lie on the bridge trying not to feel scared and lonely, and that helplessness had been my worst enemy.

Now I had a plan.

The change in me was astonishing. I felt invigorated, full of energy and optimism. I could see possible

dangers, very real risks that could destroy my hopes, but somehow I knew I could overcome them. It

was as if I had been given this one blessed chance to get out and I was grasping it with every ounce of

strength left in me. A powerful feeling of confidence and pride swept over me as I realised how right I

had been to leave the bridge. I had made the right decision against the worst of my fears. I had done it,

and I was sure that nothing now could be worse than those hours of torture on the bridge.

Introduction Joe Simpson and his fellow climber Simon Yates successfully climbed to the summit of the remote Siula Grande

mountain in the Peruvian Andes. However, during the descent Joe broke his leg. The two men tried to get back

safely to base camp, but when hit by a storm they were separated. Convinced that Joe was dead after falling into

a crevasse, Simon cut the rope that held them together. In this extract, realising that he is now alone, and

amazed that he has survived this far, Joe starts the next stage of his journey.

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My boots touched the snow and I stopped descending. I sat in my harness, hanging free on the rope a

few feet from the floor, and examined the surface cautiously. The snow looked soft and powdery, and

I was immediately suspicious of it. I looked along the edge where the floor joined the walls and soon

found what I was looking for. In several places there were dark gaps between the ice walls and the

snow. It was not a floor so much as a suspended ceiling across the crevasse dividing the abyss below

from the upper chamber, where I sat. The start of the snow slope running up to the sunshine lay forty

feet from me. The inviting snow-carpet between me and the slope tempted me to run across it. The idea

made me chuckle. I had forgotten that my right leg was useless. Okay. Crawl across it… but which

way? Straight across, or keeping near to the back wall?

It was a difficult decision. I was less worried about putting my foot through the floor than by the damage

such a fall would do to the fragile surface. The last thing I wanted was to destroy the floor and myself

stranded on the wrong side of an uncrossable gap. That would be too much to bear. I glanced nervously

at the beam of sunlight, trying to draw strength from it, and made my mind up at once. I would cross in

the middle. It was the shortest distance and there was nothing to suggest that it would be any riskier

than at the sides. I gently lowered myself until I was sitting on the snow but with most of my weight

still on the rope. It was agonising to inch the rope out and let my weight down gradually. I found myself

holding my breath, every muscle in my body tensed. I became acutely aware of the slightest movement

in the snow, and I wondered whether I would end up sinking slowly through the floor. Then some of

the tension in the rope relaxed, and I realised that the floor was holding. I breathed deeply, and I released

my aching hand from the rope.

TASK: Read the passage then answer the questions fully to test your understanding.

Questions

1) Using the details given by the writer, describe the situation in which Joe finds himself.

2) How effectively does he describe his physical condition and suffering?

3) Explore the range of emotions that he describes in this extract. What causes the shifts in his

feelings?

4) What does this account imply about Joe Simpson’s character?

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I fell through Arctic ice

by Gary Rolfe

I have travelled 11,000 Arctic miles with dogs, summer and winter. They’ve been my life. There are

fewer than 300 purebred Canadian Eskimo dogs left in the world and I had 15 of them. I sank all my

love and money into those dogs, proud to keep the breed’s working talents alive. I learnt from the best,

guys who in the 1980s had crossed Antarctica and made it to the North Pole with dogs, perfectionists

who knew all there was to know. I watched, listened, kept my mouth shut, and one day decided to go it

alone. It felt a natural progression.

Alone, it’s always dangerous. Something was bound to go wrong one day, and on Sunday March 5 last

year it did. Moving over Amundsen Gulf in the Northwest Passage, sea ice gave way. Everything was

sinking: my dogs, my sled and me. We kicked for our lives. Powerful Arctic Ocean currents dragged

vast sheets of sea ice. Underwater, I couldn’t find the hole I had fallen through and had to make one,

punching, then breathing again as ice and sea water clashed against my face.

Polar bears eat people, and swim to kill. We’d crossed bear tracks an hour before going through the ice.

I remember thinking, did the bastard follow us? Was he under us now? What will it feel like when he

bites? The floe edge was a mile away, this a busy hunting area where bears bludgeon seals twice my

size. Frantic, I ripped off my mittens. Trying to save my dogs, I was prepared to lose my hands to savage

cold. It wasn’t enough. Soon drowning and the cold had killed all but one of them.

Out of the water I stripped off sodden, icing-up clothing. The cold was brutal. My limbs and head shook

uncontrollably. I stopped shivering, indicating I was severely hypothermic. I was slowly dying. Barely

conscious, I pulled on my down suit with fingers that knocked like wood. My blood was freezing.

Human consciousness is lost when the body temperature plummets below 30C. I was heading for

oblivion.

My satellite phone failed. I always have a phone backed up with a ground to air VHF transceiver, but it

made no difference – I knew no plane was flying over. I flipped my location beacon. This is a last resort.

To flip it means I’m in a life-threatening situation and want out. In the end three polar bear hunters

came out on snowmobiles. What they saw frightened them.

I had fourth-degree frostbite, the worst form. My fingers were covered in deathly black blisters, my

hands freezing to the bone. The pain when it thaws is colossal, at the top of the human tolerance scale,

like a huge invisible parasite with a million fangs. The agony was suffocating; I writhed with it, wild

for relief.

Heavy doses of morphine helped to dull the pain for two months. The side-effects included dreams,

hallucinations, flashbacks – and constipation. Just as well because for weeks I couldn’t wipe my arse. I

went eight days without a crap. When prune juice was administered, I passed a turd the size of a baby’s

leg.

My fingers were debrided, scalpels cutting dead meat off thumbs and fingers. It hurt. Fingernails

dropped off and smelt funny, and tendons stiffened. Physiotherapy was agony, but I wanted my hands

back so badly and to endure meant to get better. My fingers looked a bloody mess, distorted and gnarled.

They were always disturbingly cold. I was told the longer we waited, the better: even dead-looking

fingers can recover.

Exercising my hands took up all my days – and within minutes they would stiffen up, giving the

impression they were dying on me. I kept going, though, and one day I clasped a cup with my right

hand. I was so excited. The first time I went out in the sun, my fingers turned blue. Without fingerprint

ridges, picking up coins was difficult. Coins felt freezing, copper ones less so.

Soon the time to thaw before the saw was up. The surgeon cut a tip as if sharpening a pencil.

AC 2016

I felt nothing. It jolted me to learn that the fingertip was dead. It was the only part still black, solid and

stone-cold; if it wasn’t removed, I’d have been susceptible to dry gangrene. It had to go.

I left hospital with 27 stitches and a metal plate on one stub-ended finger. Surgeons described my

recovery as “inexplicable” – I had been expected to lose both hands.

So what now? My dogs and I were inseparable; I miss them desperately. All I want is dog hairs on my

clothes again. The plan is a move to Greenland. It’s time to live again.

Read the article then answer the next set of questions fully.

Questions 1) What led to Gary Rolfe’s fall through the ice?

2) Explain the multiple threats he faced. What happened to his dogs? What were the physical

effects on him? What treatment did he require to help his recovery? In what way did he feel

fortunate?

3) Highlight the facts that Gary Rolfe includes in his account expressed in numbers and

statistics. What is their effect on the reader’s understanding?

4) Analyse the structure of sentences. Highlight those which contain five words or fewer. What

is their effect? How does he use question sentences? Explain what they contribute to the

structure of the passage.

5) Look again at the vocabulary used in the passage. List the words that Rolfe uses that show

his expertise and familiarity with life in the Arctic.

6) Now identify examples of colloquial language. How do these features contribute to

establishing an authentic authorial voice?

7) Gary Rolfe has been criticised for being reckless and putting his dogs’ lives in danger. What

does his account imply about his personality? What do you think drives him to spend his time

in the Arctic?

8) Compare his experience with Joe Simpson’s, Edmund Hillary’s and Captain Scott’s. What

similarities do you see in their outlook and characters? What similarities do you find in their

experiences? Which of these explorers do you respect or admire the most and why?

9) The explorers have written their accounts in different ways and for different purposes and

audiences. Explain how the features of each piece fulfil its author’s intentions.

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ENGLISH LANGUAGE PAPER 1 - SECTION B: WRITING

You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section. Write in full sentences.

You are reminded of the need to plan your answer. You should leave enough time to check your work at the end.

‘Visiting extreme landscapes like the Andes Mountains or the Arctic is stupid and dangerous. People should be banned from going to these places because they are not safe places to go.’ Write a letter to your local newspaper in which you argue for or against this statement.

AC 2016

ENGLISH LITERATURE PAPER 1

Section A: Shakespeare

Answer one question from this section on your chosen text.

Macbeth

Read the following extract from Act 3, Scene 1 of Macbeth, and the answer the question

that follows.

At this point in the play, Macbeth has been crowned King and Banquo is reflecting on

recent events.

BANQUO

Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, As the weird women promised, and, I fear, Thou play'dst most foully for't: yet it was said It should not stand in thy posterity, But that myself should be the root and father Of many kings. If there come truth from them-- As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine-- Why, by the verities on thee made good, May they not be my oracles as well, And set me up in hope? But hush! no more

Starting with this speech, explain how far you think Shakespeare presents the idea of

distrust in the play.

Write about:

How Shakespeare presents distrust in this speech

How Shakespeare presents distrust in the play as a whole.

[30 marks]

AO4 [4 marks]

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Section B: 19th Century Novel

Answer one question from this section on your chosen text.

A Christmas Carol

Read this extract from Chapter 3 of A Christmas Carol and then answer the question that follows. In this extract, Scrooge and The Ghost of Christmas Present are watching the Cratchit family on

Christmas Day.

There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not a handsome family; they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being water-proof; their clothes were scanty; and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the inside of a pawnbroker’s. But, they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another, and contented with the time; and when they faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the Spirit’s torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny Tim, until the last. By this time it was getting dark, and snowing pretty heavily; and as

Scrooge and the Spirit went along the streets, the brightness of the

roaring fires in kitchens, parlours, and all sorts of rooms, was

wonderful. Here, the flickering of the blaze showed preparations for a

cosy dinner, with hot plates baking through and through before the

fire, and deep red curtains, ready to be drawn to shut out cold and

darkness. There all the children of the house were running out into

the snow to meet their married sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles,

aunts, and be the first to greet them. Here, again, were shadows on

the window-blind of guests assembling; and there a group of

handsome girls, all hooded and fur-booted, and all chattering at once,

tripped lightly off to some near neighbour’s house; where, woe upon

the single man who saw them enter – artful witches, well they knew it

– in a glow!

Starting with this extract, how does Dickens present the importance of family in A Christmas Carol? Write about:

• how Dickens presents the Cratchits in this extract • how Dickens presents the importance of family in the novel as a whole.

[30 marks]

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ENGLISH LITERATURE PAPER 2

Section A: Modern Prose or Drama

Answer one question from this section on your chosen text.

EITHER

01. How does Priestley present the character of Mrs Birling in An Inspector Calls? Write about:

how Priestley presents the character of Mrs Birling

how Priestley presents the her relationships and development in the play.

[30 marks]

AO4 [4marks]

OR

02. What do you think is the importance of the ending of An Inspector Calls?

Write about: how the ending of the play presents some important ideas

how Priestley presents these ideas by the ways he writes.

[30 marks]

AO4 [4marks]