Paper 2 Past Papers

IB A1 English SL

Paper 2 Past Papers

May 2008

TZ1

Drama

1. Either

(a) The desire for power drives many of the tensions of drama. Discuss the ways in which dramatists have presented tensions which arise from the desire for power in at least two plays.

Or

(b) “In drama there are more interesting roles for men than for women.” Discuss to what extent you agree with this statement and what it is that makes a role interesting. Refer closely to at least two plays you have studied.

General Questions on Literature

5. Either

(a) Literature consists of victors and victims. Discuss how the idea of victors and victims has been presented in at least two works you have studied.

Or

(b) To what extent, and in what ways, do writers present humans as being dependent on the society they live in? Discuss with reference to at least two works that you have studied.

Or

(c) Authors can use sickness realistically or metaphorically. Explore the ways in which at least two writers have used sickness, and to what effect.

Or

(d) In what ways have at least two of the works you have studied changed your ideas or your understanding of the world?

May 2008

TZ2

Drama

1. Either

(a) “In drama there are more interesting roles for men than for women.” Discuss to what extent you agree with this statement and what it is that makes a role interesting. Refer closely to at least two plays you have studied.

Or

(b) How do guilt and/or blame contribute to conflict and the overall effect in at least two of the plays you have studied?

General Questions on Literature

5. Either

(a) Structure and sequence are important elements in works of literature. How and to what effect have writers of at least two of the works you have studied used these elements to shape their works?

Or

(b) Family relationships are often significant in works of literature. How far and in what ways is this significance explored in at least two of the works you have studied?

Or

(c) Some writers establish precisely the time and/or place in which their works unfold; others are less precise. Discuss the effects and effectiveness of the techniques used to establish time and place in at least two of the works you have studied.

Or

(d) Powerful emotion is the raw material of literature. To what extent and to what end is emotion employed in at least two of the works you have studied?

May 2007

Drama

1. Either

(a) With reference to two or three plays you have studied, examine the dramatic significance of failures in communication.

Or

(b) Consider the ways in which scene changes may highlight the development of the characters and their relationships in two or three plays you have studied.

General Questions on Literature

5. Either

(a) How, and to what effect, have strong females been depicted in two or three works you have studied?

Or

(b) Many works of literature deal with a sense of longing. How, and to what effect, have two or three writers you have studied made use of a sense of longing in their works?

Or

(c) Fear and hope are significant in any person’s life. How have two or three writers you have studied presented these emotions in a convincing way, and what role have they played in the works concerned?

Or

(d) “Literary works persuade us that human beings are worth caring for and writing about, no matter what their circumstances or condition.” To what extent is this evident in two or three works you have studied?

May 2006

Drama

1. Either

(a) Comparing the opening scenes of at least two plays, discuss what audience expectations are aroused and how.

Or

(b) “Drama explains individuals, not relationships.” Paying close attention to how individuals and relationships are presented in two or three plays you have studied, say how far you find this statement to be true.

General questions

5. Either

(a) “There is no literature without conflict.”

How and to what effect is conflict used in two or three works you have studied?

Or

(b) In what ways and to what effect have your writers focused on either the darker or lighter side of life in two or three works you have studied?

Or

(c) There are many ways of achieving a memorable ending to a work of literature. In two or three of the works you have studied, how have your chosen authors made endings memorable?

Or

(d) “A literary work is not a mere play of the imagination, but a reflection of contemporary manners and customs.” Discuss the validity of this statement in relation to two or three works you have studied.

May 2005

Drama

1. Either

(a) How do characters and the choices they make contribute to meaning in two or three plays you have studied?

Or

(b) Compare and contrast how dramatists create and use suspense in the development of two or three plays you have studied.

General Questions on Literature

5. Either

(a) “It’s love that makes the world go round.” To what extent and in what ways does love, or its absence, dominate two or three of the works you have studied?

Or

(b) “Look to the future and beware.” How and to what effect have writers depicted the future? Discuss with reference to two or three works you have studied.

Or

(c) Health and sickness may appear in the works of writers either in plots, characters, imagery or themes. In what ways and to what effect have writers used health and sickness in two or three works you have studied?

Or

(d) What can a writer accomplish through the use of repetition? Respond with reference to two or three works you have studied.

May 2004

Drama

1. Either

(a) Compare the means by which atmosphere is created in two or three plays you have studied. In each case, discuss how the atmosphere presented contributes to your appreciation and understanding of the play as a whole.

Or

(b) Through an analysis of some of the characters in two or three plays you have studied, compare the ways in which the struggle between internal and external forces is presented.

General Questions on Literature

5. Either

(a) Explore the ways in which “chance” or “coincidence” is used in any two or three works of literature you have studied.

Or

(b) In what ways have writers shown that things are not always what they seem? Illustrate your answers with reference to any two or three works of literature you have studied.

Or

(c) Compare and contrast the treatment of different, new or alien cultures in any two or three works of literature you have studied.

Or

(d) How successfully have writers been able to portray the opposite sex? Refer in detail to any two or three works of literature you have studied.

May 2003

Drama

1. Either

(a) “Drama at its best investigates the problems that beset ordinary individuals.” In light of this statement consider the ways in which two or three dramatists you have studied explore the problems that affect individuals.

Or

(b) Compare the presentation and functions of the openings in two or three plays you have studied.

General Questions on Literature

5. Either

(a) “Good’s good and bad’s bad.” In the light of this statement, examine the ways in which writers explore moral issues, with close reference to two or three works you have studied.

Or

(b) “If love is judged by its visible effects, it often looks more like hatred.” In the light of this statement, compare the treatment of love in any two or three works you have studied.

Or

(c) Compare the use of contrast as a literary device in any two or three works you have studied.

Or

(d) Compare how writers you have studied have incorporated landscape, or celebration, or travel, and with what effect.

May 2002

Drama

1. Either

(a) All characters in a play are mouthpieces for their author. From a consideration of some characters from the plays you have studied, say how far you agree.

Or

(b) A necessary part of drama is not only to present conflict between the characters in a play but also to create conflicts within each member of the audience. Compare and contrast two or three plays you have studied in the light of this comment.

General Questions on Literature

5. Either

(a) “The past is another country: they do things differently there.”

Discuss the problems and benefits of reading works from another age.

Or

(b) What questions about power has your study of literature raised?

Or

(c) A novelist wrote: “As regards plots I find real life no help at all. Real life seems to have no plots.”

From your reading, draw some of your own conclusions about the relationships between writing and .real life.

Or

(d) In reading a work of literature, how useful or misleading is information about the author’s life?

May 2001

Drama

1. Either

(a) “The theatre brings into the open important issues of the time.”

How have dramatists presented .important issues in plays you have studied?

or

(b) Compare and discuss how the action unfolds in two or three plays you have studied, paying attention to the sequence of particular scenes. How effective do you find the arrangements to be in each play as a whole?

General Questions on Literature

5. Either

(a) How illuminating do you think it would be to place two or three works you have studied in the context of an opposition between .tradition and the new? You should illustrate your discussion with specific reference to the texts you choose.

or

(b) “Man’s a strange animal and makes strange use / Of his own nature.”

Discuss some of the attitudes to human nature, its tensions and satisfactions, which you have identified in works you have studied. Compare the ways in which they have been presented.

or

(c) Compare how two or three writers from different cultures approach the art of story-telling.

or

(d) “If human nature does alter, it will be because we begin to look at ourselves in a new way.”

In what ways, and by what means, do the works of writers you have studied make us look at ourselves in a new way?

November 2008

Drama

1. Either

(a) Most plays have stage directions; some have none or almost none. What do you see as the relevance of stage directions in at least two plays you have studied?

Or

(b) Plays frequently explore moral or ethical dimensions of choices people make. Discuss in at least two plays the dramatic handling of such issues.

General Questions on Literature

5. Either

(a) Conversations and interchanges can take place in literature both internally (inside a speaker’s head) and externally (with other beings). Discuss ways in which at least two writers in your study have used conversations and interchanges to enrich their texts.

Or

(b) Curiosity can drive characters, reflections, and plots. How have at least two writers that you have studied incorporated curiosity into their works, and to what effect?

Or

(c) In what ways do obsessions or fixations affect writers, speakers, or characters of at least two of the works you have studied?

Or

(d) Honour is often an issue in literary works, whether threatened, defended or lost. How and to what extent has honour been used in at least two works you have studied

November 2007

Drama

1. Either

(a) Some plays appeal more to the head than the heart, while others seem to want to evoke an emotional response. Referring to at least two works you have studied, discuss with specific evidence the ways in which playwrights have appealed either to the “heads” or the “hearts” of their audiences, or to both.

Or

(b) Drama sometimes invites us to become acquainted with times and cultures not our own.

What particular situations perhaps different to your own circumstances have at least two playwrights included in their plays and by what dramatic means have they delivered them to their audiences?

General questions on Literature

5. Either

(a) Consider the ways in which public places and/or private or solitary moments are used by at least two writers in works you have studied and the effects achieved through such settings.

Or

(b) Often an element in a work that appears early or at the beginning will appear in similar or transformed ways in later or concluding parts of the work. How have at least two writers in your study used such elements to bring unity or surprise or other effects into their works?

Or

(c) Reminiscence can play an important role in literary works. By what means and with what effect have at least two writers in your study included effective use of reminiscences in creating their works?

Or

(d) “One of the things a writer is for is to ask difficult questions.” Choosing some of the difficult questions posed in at least two works you have studied, connect their significance to the way they are presented by writers.

November 2006

Drama

1. Either

(a) “The success of a play depends not on our liking, or approving of, the characters but on whether we recognize in them something of ourselves.” Say how far you would agree or not with this view of characters in two or three plays you have studied, discussing how characters are presented and with what effect.

Or