ENGLISH PRIMARY LANGUAGE
PAPER II
SEPTEMBER 2005
GRADE 12
TIME: 3 HOURS
MARKS: [100]
INSTRUCTIONS
1.This questions paper consists of 3 sections.
2.Section A (Poetry): Answer all the questions.
3.Answer a further two questions, one from each of Sections B and C; i.e. do not answer more than one question per book.
4.In answering Section B and C, you may not do two essays or two contextual questions. Choose either the contextual from Section B and an essay from Section C or the essay from Section B and a contextual from Section C.
5.Once the requirement of a Section has been satisfied, any extra answers to questions from that section will not be marked.
Note:
ARRANGEMENT OF ANSWERS: Begin each section on a new page. Do not write headings for your answers. Write only the question numbers.
SUGGESTED LENGTH OF ESSAY ANSWERS: 400 - 550 words; i.e. approximately two pages of average-sized handwriting.
LENGTH OF CONTEXTUAL ANSWERS: Aim at conciseness and relevance. Be guided by the mark allocation. Answer in your own words as far as possible, except when actually quoting.
PRESENTATION: Accuracy in grammar, spelling and punctuation, as well as neat presentation, will count in your favour.
PERSONAL JUDGEMENT: Do not hesitate to give your personal judgement frankly. The examiners will assess your answers on the competence with which they are expressed and the understanding of the texts which they reveal.
SECTION A (Poetry)
QUESTION 1 (Unseen Poem)
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow:
For a cent
Each morning
corner of Pritchard and Joubert
and leaning on a greasy crutch
near a pavement dustbin
and old man begs,
not expecting much.
his spectacles are cracked and dirty
he does not see my black hand
drop a cent into his scurvy palm.
but instinctively he mutters:
‘THANK YOU MY BAAS’
Strange
that for a cent
a man can call his brother
‘BAAS’
Don Mattera
Did you read the instructions for the paper?
1.1Which period in South African history does this poem refer to?
A.Apartheid
B.After Apartheid
C.Under English rule
D.Under Dutch rule
(1)
1.2What is a cent?
(1)
1.3Why is it significant that the poet should describe his hand as black?
(2)
1.4With which word does the word “ much” rhyme in the first stanza?
(1)
1.5What is a “scurvy palm”?
(2)
1.6The beggar mutters “instinctively”. The word “instinctively” suggests the beggar is used to something. What is that something?
(1)
1.7Why is the ending of the poem ironic?
(2)
[10]
QUESTION 2 (Kubla Khan - Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow:
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Kubla Khan
OR, A VISION IN A DREAM.
A FRAGMENT.
- In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
- A stately pleasure-dome decree :
- Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
- Through caverns measureless to man
- Down to a sunless sea.
- So twice five miles of fertile ground
- With walls and towers were girdled round :
- And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
- Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
- And here were forests ancient as the hills,
- Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
- But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
- Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !
- A savage place ! as holy and enchanted
- As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
- By woman wailing for her demon-lover !
- And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil
- Seething,
- As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
- A mighty fountain momently was forced :
- Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
- Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
- Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :
- And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
- It flung up momently the sacred river.
- Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
- Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
- Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
- And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :
- And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
- Ancestral voices prophesying war !
Did you read the instructions for the paper?
2.1Who was Kubla Khan?
(2)
2.2Which palace is Coleridge writing about in this poem?
(1)
2.3What does the phrase “pleasure-dome” refer to?
(1)
2.4What is the meaning of the word “decree”?
(1)
2.5What inspired Coleridge to write this poem?
(1)
2.6Give your interpration of the meaning of the phrase “caverns measureless to man”?
(2)
2.7What is significant about the fact that the sea is “sunless” (line 5)?
(1)
2.8How much ground did Kubla Khan acquire to build this place? USE YOUR OWN WORDS.
(1)
2.9Say in your own words what it means when they say the “the towers were girdled round” line 7?
(1)
2.10What is a “twisting rill”?
(1)
2.11With what do you associate the word ‘sinuous’(line 8)?
(1)
2.12Line 12 and 13 do not constitute a sentence. What are they?
(1)
2.13What does the poet really try to say when he calls this a “savage place” (line14)
(2)
2.14In lines 14-16 you can see that Coleridge is truly a romantic poet. Give two reasons why?
(2)
2.15What may the poet refer to symbolically in lines 20-24?
(1)
2.16Which figure of speech is portrayed in lines 25-28?
(1)
[20]
QUESTION 3 (Shalom Bomb - Bernard Kops)
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow:
Shalombomb
1.I want a bomb, my own private bomb, my shalom bomb.
2.I'll test it in the morning, when my son awakes,
3.hot and stretching, smelling beautiful from sleep. Boom! Boom!
4.Come my son dance naked in the room.
5.I'll test it on the landing and wake my neighbours,
6.the masons and the whores and the students who live downstairs.
7.Oh I must have a bomb and I'll throw open windows and
8.count down as I whizz around the living room,
9.on his bike with him flying angels on my shoulder,
10.and my wife dancing in her dressing gown.
11.I want a happy family bomb, a do-it-yourself bomb,
12.I’ll climb on the roof and ignite it there about noon.
13.My improved design will gong the world and we'll all eat lunch.
14.My pretty little bomb will play a daytime lullaby and
15.thank you bomb for now my son falls fast asleep.
16.My love come close, close, the curtains, my lovely bomb, my darling,
17.my naughty bomb. Burst around us, burst between us, burst within
18.us. Light up the universe, then linger, linger
19.while the drone of the world recedes.
20.Shalom Bomb -
21.I want to explode the breasts of my wife. Ping! Ping!
22.In the afternoon and wake everyone,
23.to explode over playgrounds and parks, just as children
24.come from schools. I want a laughter bomb,
25.filled with sherbet fountains, liquor ice allsorts, chocolate kisses,
26.candy floss,
27.tinsel and streamers, balloons and fireworks, lucky bags,
28.bubbles and masks and false noses.
29.I want my bomb to sprinkle the earth with roses.
30.I want the streets of the world to be filled with crammed, jammed
31.kids, screaming with laughter, pointing their hands with wonder,
32.at my lemonade ice-cream lightning and mouthorgan thunder.
33.I want a one-man-band bomb. My own bomb.
34.My live long and die happy bomb, my die peacefully old age bomb,
35.in our own beds, bomb.
36.My Om Mane Padme Hum bomb, my Tiddley Om Pom bomb,
37.my goodnight bomb, my sleeptight bomb,
38.my see you in the morning bomb,
39.I want my bomb, my own private bomb, my Shalom Bomb.
Did you read the instructions for the paper?
3.1Describe the time frames in this poem.
(4)
3.2Explain the paradox in lines 11 and 12.
(2)
3.3Why does the poet repeat the words “I saw” in lines 12-13?
(2)
3.4How does the poet achieve a sense of horror in line 20?
(2)
[10]
TOTAL 40
SECTION B (Lord of the Flies - William Golding)
QUESTION 4 (Contextual question)
Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
Argument started again. Ralph held out the glimmering conch and Maurice took it obediently. The meeting subsided.
“I mean when Jack says you can be frightened because people are frightened anyway that’s all right. But when he says there’s only pigs on this island I expect he’s right but he doesn’t know, not really, not certainly I mean” - Maurice took a breath- “My daddy says there’s things, what d’you call’em that make ink - squids - that are hundreds of yards long and eat whales whole.” He paused again and laughed gaily. “I don’t believe in the beast of course. As Piggy says, life’s scientific, but we don’t know, do we? No certainly, I mean-”
Someone shouted.
“A squid couldn’t come up out of the water!”
“Could!”
“Couldn’t!”
In a moment the platform was full of arguing, gesticulating shadows. Ralph, seated, this seemed the breaking-up of sanity. Fear, beasts, no general agreement that the fire was all-important: and when one tried to get the thing straight the argument sheered off, bringing up fresh, unpleasant matter.
He could see a whiteness in the gloom near him so he grabbed it from Maurice and blew as loudly as he could. The assembly was shocked into silence. Simon was close to him, laying his hands on the conch. Simon felt a perilous necessity to speak; but to speak in assembly was a terrible thing to him.
“Maybe,” he said hesitantly “maybe their is a beast.”
The assembly cried out savagely and Ralph stood up in amazement.
“You, Simon? You believe in this?”
“I don’t know,” said Simon. His heartbeats were choking him. “But.....”
The storm broke.
“Sit down!”
“Shut up!”
“Take the conch!”
“Sod you!”
“Shut up!”
Ralph shouted.
“Hear him! He’s got the conch!”
“What I mean is ... Maybe it’s only us.”
“Nuts!”
That was from Piggy, shocked out of decorum. Simon went on.
“We could be sort of ...”
Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind’s essential illness. Inspiration came to him.
“What’s the dirtiest thing there is?”
As and answer Jack dropped into the uncomprehending silence that followed it the one crude expressive syllable. Release was like an orgasm. Those littluns who had climbed back on the twister fell off again and did not mind. The hunters were screaming with delight.
Simon’s effort fell about him in ruins; the laughter beat him cruelly and he shrank away defenceless to his seat.
At last the assembly was silent again. Someone spoke out of turn.
“Maybe he means it’s some sort of ghost.”
Ralph lifted the conch and peered into the gloom. The lightest thing was the pale beach. Surely the littluns were nearer? Yes - there was no doubt about it, they were huddled into a tight knot of bodies in the central grass. A flurry of wind made the palms talk and the noise seemed very loud now that darkness and silence made it so noticeable. Two grey trunks rubbed each other with an evil squeaking sound that no had noticed by day.
Piggy took the conch out of his hands. His voice was indignant.
“I don’t believe in no ghosts - ever!”
Jack was up too, unaccountably angry.
“Who cares what you believe - Fatty!”
“I got the conch!”
There was the sound of a brief tussle and the conch moved to and fro.
“You gimme the conch back!”
Ralph pushed between them and got a thump on the chest. He wrested the conch from someone and sat down breathlessly.
“There’s too much talk about ghosts. We ought to have left all this for daylight.”
A hushed and anonymous voice broke in.
“Perhaps that’s what the beast is - a ghost.”
The assembly was shaken as by a wind.
Did you read the instructions for the paper?
3.1What do the boys argue about?
(2)
3.2Why are the boys concerned about things coming out of the water?
(2)
3.3What causes the breaking up of sanity on the island?
(4)
3.4Why did blowing on the conch help to quiet down the children?
(2)
3.5Why is Ralph amazed about Simon’s statement that maybe there is a beast?
(2)
3.6When Ralph asks Simon if he believes in this, what does the “this” refer to?
(2)
3.7Which storm broke?
(2)
3.8What does Simon mean with maybe the beast is “only us”?
(3)
3.9Why was Piggy shocked out of decorum by Simon’s statement?
(2)
3.10How do you become of you become inarticulate?
(1)
3.11What do you think is mankind’s essential illness?
(1)
3.12Why does Simon ask the group what the dirtiest thing is they know?
(2)
3.13Why is it significant that Jack is able to express in a way the dirtiest thing they know?
(3)
3.14Why was Jack angry when Piggy spoke and said he did not belief in any ghosts?
(1)
3.15Why was the assembly shaken by the idea that the beast may be a ghost?
(1)
[30]
QUESTION 4 (Essay question.
Did you read the instructions for the paper?
4.1 In Chapter 5, Golding writes, “In a moment the platform was full of arguing, gesticulating shadows. To Ralph, seated, this seemed the breaking up of sanity.” How is sanity defined? How does this novel contribute to an understanding of sanity and of madness? What are some other instances of madness in the novel?
[30]
SECTION C (Hamlet - Contextual question)
OPHELIA
My lord, I have remembrances of yours,
That I have longed long to re-deliver.
I pray you now receive them.
HAMLET
No, not I,95
I never gave you aught.
OPHELIA
My honoured lord, you know right well you did,
And with them words of so sweet breath composed
As made the things more rich. Their perfume lost,
Take these again, for to the noble mind100
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
There, my lord.
(She takes jewels from her bosom and places them on the table before him)
HAMLET
(Remembers the plot) Ha, ha! are you honest?
OPHELIA
My lord?
HAMLET
Are you fair?105
OPHELIA
What means your lordship?
HAMLET
That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse
to your beauty.
OPHELIA
Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?
HAMLET
Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from110
what it is to a baws, than the force of honesty can translate beauty into
his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it
proof. I did love you once.
OPHELIA
Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
HAMLET
You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our115
old stock, but we shall relish of it - I loved you not.
OPHELIA
I was the more deceived
HAMLET
(Points to the faldstool) Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a
breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse
me of such things, that it were better my mother had not borne me.120
I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck,
than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape,
or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do, crawling
between heaven and earth? We are arrant knaves all, believe none of
us. Go thy ways to a nunnery...(Suddenly)Where’s your father?125
OPHELIA
At home, my lord.
HAMLET
Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool no where
but in’s own house. Farewell.
Hamlet off
OPHELIA
(Kneels before the crucifix) O help him, you sweet heavens!
Enter Hamlet, distraught
HAMLET
If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry. Be though as130
chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee
to a nunnery, go! Farewell! (He paces to and fro) Or if thou wilt needs
marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you
make of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too! Farewell!
He rushes out.
OPHELIA
O heavenly powers, restore him!135
HAMLET
I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath given you
one face and you make yourself another. You jig, you amble, and
you lisp, you nickname God’s creatures, and make your wantonness
your ignorance. Go to, I’ll no more on’t, it hath made me mad. I say
we will have no more marriage. Those that are married already, all140
but one, shall live, the rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.
Hamlet off
OPHELIA
O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s eye, tongue, sword,
Th’expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion, and the mould of form,145
Th’observed of all observers, quite quite down,
And I of ladies most deject and wretched,
That sucked the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune an harsh,150
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth,
Blasted with ecstasy! O, woe is me!
T’have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
She prays. Enter the King and Polonius from behind the arras.