The Reading Exam – Tuesday 5th May (pm)

Remember:

-2 hours long

-50 marks available

-40% of your final Language grade 

-3 sections in the exam

-Stick to the specified word counts as far as possible – you will be penalised for going over

Section A (20 marks) – Aim to spend 45 minutes on this section (includes planning time)

  • Marked 15 marks for reading skills
  • Marked 5 marks for writing skills
  • React to Passage A – writing in the role of someone from the non-fiction passage
  • Use the 3 bullet points to construct the 3 sections of your response
  • Bullet point A – simplest to find
  • Bullet point B – more challenging
  • Bullet point C – most challenging – you need to use the text to predict the future. What you write must always be based in the text (not completely made up)
  • There needs to be equal coverage of all bullet points – aim for about 4-5 points for each
  • Don’t use the text in your writing – rephrase in your own words (within reason e.g. if it is a location or thing that has a specific name then of course you can use it!)

Section B (10 marks) – Aim to spend 30 minutes on this section (includes planning time)

  • Marked only for reading skills – all 10 marks
  • Based on Passage A again
  • You are asked two questions A and B – each question asks you to concentrate on one numberedparagraph (don’t talk about anything outside of that paragraph!)
  • You need to aim to make 4-5 points per question
  • Use the formula: give the quote, explain the meaning of the word(s) chosen, explain the effect of this and the writer’s intentions in relation to the focus of the question

Section C (20 marks) – Aim to spend 45 minutes on this section (includes planning time)

  • Marked 15 marks for reading skills
  • Marked 5 marks for writing skills
  • React to Passage B
  • You have to find 15 different points in reaction to the focus of the question
  • List these points on the bullet point notes page – this is worth 15 marks so spend the most amount of time on getting these right
  • Make sure you don’t use up several potential bullet points in one – break it down to a number of reasons where possible (although making sure that you haven’t repeated the same point – guessing the mark scheme isn’t easy, but you need to try)
  • 5 marks is for writing up the ideas – you need to ensure that you make several points per sentence, in your own words and as concisely as possible

The Directed Writing and Composition Exam – Friday 8h May (pm)

Remember:

-2 hours long

-50 marks available

-40% of your final Language grade 

-2 sections in the exam

-Stick to the specified word counts as far as possible – you will be penalised for going over

Section A (25 marks) – Aim to spend 60 minutes on this section (includes planning time)

  • This question tests writing assessment objectives W1 to W5 (15 marks)
  • W1 articulate experience and express what is thought, felt and imagined
  • W2 sequence facts, ideas and opinions
  • W3 use a range of appropriate vocabulary
  • W4 use register appropriate to audience and context
  • W5 make accurate use of spelling, punctuation and grammar
  • and reading assessment objectives R1 to R3 (10 marks)
  • R1 demonstrate understanding of explicit meanings
  • R2 demonstrate understanding of implicit meanings and attitudes
  • R3 analyse, evaluate and develop facts, ideas and opinions
  • React to the passage in the insert – writing in the role of someone from the non-fiction passage
  • Use the 3 bullet points to construct your response
  • Bullet point A – simplest to respond to
  • Bullet point B – more challenging to respond to
  • Bullet point C – most challenging – however, you must use the text. What you write must always be based in the text (not completely made up)
  • There needs to be equal coverage of all bullet points
  • Don’t use the text in your writing – rephrase in your own words

Section B (25 marks) – Aim to spend 60 minutes on this section (includes planning time)

  • This question tests writing assessment objectives W1 to W5 (15 marks)
  • W1 articulate experience and express what is thought, felt and imagined
  • W2 sequence facts, ideas and opinions
  • W3 use a range of appropriate vocabulary
  • W4 use register appropriate to audience and context
  • W5 make accurate use of spelling, punctuation and grammar
  • Up to 13 marks are available for the content and structure of the answer, and up to 12 marks
  • You are asked to write between 350 and 450 words
  • You will be given a choice of either narrative or descriptive writing to complete
  • Within the narrative or descriptive writing choices you will have 2 choices e.g. there will be 4 questions to choose from
  • Only choose one task

Practice Exam Papers:

You will have 3 timed practice reading papers in class – one a week until the exam

There are 3 practice reading papers at the end of this revision booklet for you to complete at home.

You will be give one practice paper each week – either a reading paper or directed writing paper. These will be your homework each week and should be completed in exam conditions and in 2 hours

The spare papers left over are there for you to complete if you would like some extra practice

You will be given the mark schemes and example A grade answers to compare to what you have produced in the time available

ALL practice papers available at the end of this booklet are:

Reading:

  1. ‘Rainforest’ extended reading paper
  2. ‘Into the Wild’ extended reading paper
  3. ‘Volcano’ extended reading paper

Writing:

  1. Exam board specimen Directed Writing & Composition paper

Homework Timetable

Homework 1: Directed Writing & Composition specimen paper– week commencing 13/4/15

Homework 2: ‘Rainforest’ reading paper – week commencing 20/4/15

Homework 3: ‘Into the Wild’ reading paper – week commencing 27/4/15

Pre Public Exam Paper 2 – Extended

IGCSE Style Paper

First Language English 0522

Paper 2 Reading Passages Extended May 2015

(The Indonesian Rainforest / From Luwak Dropping to Delicious Drink)2 hours

Insert

Pre Public Exam Paper 2 – Extended

Read Passage A carefully and then answer Questions 1 and 2

Passage A: The Indonesian Rainforest

Pascal Sanches is a journalist for a conservation magazine. His editor has sent him to the Indonesian rainforest to learn about the wildlife there and the threats facing the endangered animals.

I meet my guide just before sunrise so that we can navigate our way through the forest in the relative cool before the sun heats the whole forest like an oven. We meet on a dirt track, surrounded by a wasteland of tree stumps and blackened soil. In the grey morning light, each stump looks like a gravestone in an abandoned graveyard, the flora around it, dry and dead. The track itself is lifeless, cracked and broken after endless days in the sun. Deep gashes have been cut through it from logs that have been towed away on ropes attached to lorries, headed for the city and then the West.

My guide introduces himself, shaking my hand. He is called Amin, which he informs me means trusted and faithful custodian. I smile at him, glad to be in safe hands. I climb aboard his battered truck and we make the bumpy journey towards the forest edge.

Soon, giant trees loom large before us. Amin stops the truck and signals for me to get out. He starts to walk towards the forest, not bothering to lock his vehicle. I follow, taking a large gulp from my water bottle. The sun has now risen and already the temperature is rising.

After a short walk, we enter the forest and humidity hits me like an inescapable suffocating blanket. Goliath trees tower above us, their foliage blocking out the sky and creating shards of light that cut down through the air, illuminating the dew and leaves that glistened like emeralds. I take a deep breath in, overwhelmed by the beauty and magnitude of it – and we are only at the very edge.

We continue on, me following Amin, always in single file so that I can follow his footsteps exactly and avoid stepping on unsteady ground what will cause me to slip. Amin walks freely, confidently, his legs and feet quick and adept on the uneven ground. I am slower, gripping the trees we pass to help me balance, letting my fingers savour the feeling of soft paper-like bark. Suddenly, Amin holds out his arm to stop me and raises his finger to his lips to signal for quiet. Slowly, he tilts his head and eyes upwards to the canopy above us.

Only metres away, an orangutan sits on a tree branch, lazily chewing on a large stalk covered with leaves. Its free arm carelessly lolls down beside it as its almost human eyes focus on the snack it is consuming. He is covered in a coat of brilliant auburn hair, tangled at the ends like the hair of a child who has played too long in the dirt of the garden. We watch in silence and in awe as the orangutan finishes his snack and seemingly smiles in contentedness. Then, sliding his finger into his mouth, this amazing creature starts to pick at his teeth, attempting to free a piece of stalk that has presumably become lodged. I stare up at this wild animal whose mouth mirrors mine; he has two straight lines of front teeth bookended by a pair of pointed canines just as I do – only his teeth are larger, sharper. I watch, mesmerized, as the soft skin of his face moves, so full of expression, so full of life.

Out of nowhere, a shrill call cuts through the quiet and the orangutan is immediately on its feet and swooping through the forest, its arms reaching from one branch to the next. Before I know it, he is gone.

“You are a lucky man,” Amin says. “Very few people get to witness such a thing. So many of the orangutans have been killed.” I shake my head and sigh. The killing of the orangutans is no news to me but having just seen one so close, the loss seems so much greater. I feel an ache of sadness and guilt growing inside of me as Amin speaks, explaining the threat. “You see, big companies want to grow palm oil trees here because it’s hot and because of the rain. The palm oil is used in so many of your products in the West: toothpaste, cakes, shampoo. The producers clear the natural forest here and burn it, like where I met you earlier.” I nod to show I understand although I am surprised to hear that palm oil is used in so many things. Amin continues. “They replace the rainforest trees with palm trees but it’s too late for the orangutans. Hundreds of them are killed when the trees are cut down and if they survive, they get burned in the fire.” Amin shrugs as if this is all inevitable and he turns away to continue on our trek. I hesitate for a moment, looking back to the place where the orangutan disappeared into the trees and then I follow Amin deeper into the forest.

Part 2

Read Passage B carefully, and then answer Question 3 on the Question Paper

Passage B: From Luwak Dropping to Delicious Drink

This passage from a website describes the production of kopi luwak coffee in Indonesia.

Deep in the Indonesian forest, where the air is thick with damp humidity and the buzzing of insects, you can find a troupe of young men gripping woven reed bowls, roaming the forest with their eyes fixed to the ground. They are searching for the droppings of the famous luwak and collecting up their precious findings ready to take back to their homes.

Best described as a cross between a weasel and a cat, luwaks are shy, nocturnal creatures that roam the dense forests and jungles of Southeast Asia. They are small mammals, weighing between four and eleven pounds. With pointed, meerkat-like faces, and shaggy mottled grey and black fur, they appear friendly and likeable but this is not why these Indonesian men seek them out.

What makes the luwak special is its diet; the animals feed almost exclusively on coffee berries that contain the coffee beans that are used to make coffee. Luwaks eat the berries for their fleshy pulp which is digested in the creature’s bowel. The coffee bean itself, however, remains whole and thus they can be removed from the droppings, washed, roasted and made into kopi luwak coffee.

The coffee produced, also known as civet, wolf or cat coffee, is the most expensive coffee in the world, reaching the price of up to ten American dollars per cup, even in some of the poorest areas of Southeast Asia. Coffee experts claim that the final product is superior to every other because the digestive process, as the beans pass through the luwak, break the compounds in the bean down, removing the often unpleasant bitter taste that some coffee has.

Kopi luwak coffee was first developed in the 18th century when Dutch colonies began to farm the coffee forests, turning them into plantations. They prohibited local Indonesians from picking the coffee beans for their own use. However, the Indonesians soon discovered that when luwaks ate the coffee berries, they left the coffee bean itself undigested and in-tact and so the process of collecting the luwak faeces began.

Nowadays, because wild luwak dropping are difficult to find, farmers of the coffee who collect luwak droppings from the wild are rare. More and more, wild kopi luwak coffee farming has been replaced by luwak farms where the animals are caged and the coffee beans are collected and roasted en masse. Sadly, there is no legislation regarding the treatment of luwaks and, as a result, many of the animals are kept in cramped conditions and force-fed the coffee beans in order to enhance production. Despite these new farming methods and kopi luwak coffee now being far more readily available, the price of the coffee remains exorbitantly high and the farmers also gain revenue from tourists who are eager to try the coffee in its place of origin. However, some wild kopi luwak farmers do still remain and the coffee they produce truly is the best in the entire world.

Pre Public Exam Paper 2 – Extended

IGCSE Style Paper

First Language English 0522

Paper 2 Reading Passages Extended May 2015

(The Indonesian Rainforest / From Luwak Dropping to Delicious Drink)2 hours

Exam Paper

Pre Public Exam Paper 2 – Extended

Read carefully Passage A, The Indonesian Rainforest, in the Reading Booklet Insert and then answer Questions 1 and 2 on this Question Paper.

Question 1

You are Pascal Sanches, the journalist. Write a magazine article for the conservation magazine based on your visit to the Indonesian Rainforest, with the title ‘Palm Oil Threat to Indonesian Rainforest’.

In your newspaper article you should comment on:

  • your own memories of the rainforest and your experience of seeing an orangutan
  • an explanation of the threat to the rainforest and the orangutans
  • your feelings about the rainforest and the orangutans and your predictions for their future.

Base your magazine article on what you have read in Passage A, but be careful to use your own words. Address each of the three bullets.

Begin the magazine article: ‘The Indonesian rainforest is truly a sight to behold…’.

Write about 250-350 words.

Up to 15 marks are available for the content of your answer, and up to 5 marks for the quality of your writing.

[20 marks]

......

Question 2

Re-read the descriptions of:

(a) the place Pascal met his guide in paragraph 1, beginning, “I met my guide...”

(b) the orangutan in paragraph 6, beginning, “Only metres away...”.

Select four powerful words or phrases from each paragraph. Your choices should include imagery. Explain how each word or phrase selected is used effectively in the context.

Write about 200-300 words.

Up to 10 marks are available for the content of your answer.

[10 marks]

...... Read carefully Passage B, From Luwak Dropping to Delicious Drink, in the Reading Booklet Insert and then answer Question 3(a) and (b) on this Question Paper.

Question 3

Answer the questions in the order set.

(a)Notes

What do you learn about kopi luwak coffee from Passage B?

Write your answer using short notes.You do not need to use your own words.
Up to 15 marks are available for the content of your answer. [15 marks]

What you learn about kopi luwak coffee:
  • ______
  • ______
  • ______
  • ______
  • ______
  • ______
  • ______
  • ______
  • ______
  • ______
  • ______
  • ______
  • ______
  • ______
  • ______

(b)Summary

Now use your notes to write a summary of what Passage B tells you about kopi luwak coffee.

You must use continuous writing (not note form) and use your own words as far as possible.

Your summary should include all 15 of your points in Question 3(a) and must be 200-250 words.