AQA GCSE English Language support, Exams of English

Download AQA GCSE English Language support and more Exams English in PDF only on Docsity! Paper 2 models Q2: BICYCLES model: You need to refer to Source A and Source B for this question. Both sources describe the similar ways in which drivers behave. Use details from both sources to write a summary of what you understand about the similar behaviour of the drivers. [8 marks] 4/8 In Source A, the drivers go too fast. They drive ‘very closely and at speed,’ which is dangerous behaviour. In Source B, there are drivers who like chasing other people on their bikes, which is very similar to Source A, as it says ‘love to share your handle-bars and wheels, passing so close.’ This shows they think it is fun to scare them. The similarity is that they both behave dangerously towards cyclists as the drivers in Source A don’t care if they hurt someone and the drivers in Source B just think it is for fun. 8/8 Both drivers behave in inconsiderate ways that put cyclists lives at risk. One driver in Source A ‘decided to overtake my bike very closely and at speed,’ which shows he behaved in a reckless way, risking the other person’s safety. In Source B, the drivers behave in a very similar and inconsiderate way towards cyclists, as they ‘love to share your handle-bars and wheels, passing so close,’ showing they are not behaving very respectfully or carefully to drive so close to the cyclist The driver in Source A who ‘decided to overtake’ shows behaviour which is irresponsible but rational. He makes an assessment of the risk in passing ‘very closely and at speed’ and does not intend any harm, although he knows that the odds are stacked in his favour, ‘cocooned’ as he is in his car where he will not get hurt. On the other hand, the drivers in Source B are intentionally targeting cyclists by ‘passing so close,’ for ‘sport’ which suggests behaviour which is equally irresponsible, as they too know they are protected by their relative size to the bicycle, and are unlikely to get hurt, but their behaviour is irrational and immoral too because it is planned. It is perhaps unsurprising that the cabmen who are ‘chasing the lady,’ and targeting the female writer, seem particularly hostile towards women who ride bicycles, as the second text was written in the 19th century when attitudes to women, especially who act independently, were largely sexist.  2-3 differences/ similarities between the texts  Support ideas with short quotes  An inference about why the texts are similar/ different Q3: model: You now need to refer only to Source B from lines 8 to 18. How does the writer use language to describe her first experiences of cycling? [12 marks] Riding on a track began to bore me as soon as I had learnt to balance, but I remained steadily practising until I could turn easily, cut figures of eight, get on and off quickly on either side and stop without charging into unwelcome obstacles. This done, burning to try my fate in traffic, and yet as nervous as a hare that feels the greyhound’s breath, I launched my little bicycle early one Sunday morning in July into the stormy oceans of Sloane Street, on my way to visit a sick friend who lived about four miles off. The streets were really very clear, but I shall never forget my terror. I arrived in about two hours, streaming and exhausted, much more in need of assistance than the invalid I went to visit. Coming home it was just as bad; I reached my house about three o’clock and went straight to bed, where I had my lunch, in a state bordering on collapse. I only recount this adventure in order to encourage others who may have had the same experience as myself, but who may not have tried to conquer their nervousness. 5/12 The writer wants to convey that she was scared by her experience of cycling in London. The writer uses a simile to describe how she feels as she got ready for her first experience of cycling in traffic. She says she ‘was as nervous as a hare’ which shows us that she was scared. She compares herself to a hare because a hare is a frightened animal, like a rabbit, so she is saying 12/12 The writer uses a series of images to present her experiences of cycling as an epic and dangerous adventure in which she is a vulnerable victim. The writer uses a pattern of words and images to present her cycling experience as an epic adventure. Firstly she compares her bicycle to a boat by using the verb ‘launched’ which means to set sail and then reinforces this image with the metaphor of the street as a ‘stormy ocean’ which makes me think of the beginning of a grand quest in which the plucky hero embarks into dangerous waters. The writer self-mockingly continues this semantic field of an epic quest by describing the experience directly as an ‘adventure’ and suggesting that others that she is frightened too. The writer uses the word ‘terror’ and ‘nervousness’ which also suggests she was afraid of the experience. The writer also jokes that she ‘was much more in need of assistance than the invalid she went to visit.’ In other words the experience of cycling made her feel sick because she is feeling worse than the sick person she was visiting in the first place! should ‘conquer’ their nervousness. The verb ‘conquer’ makes me think of success in a battle or against an enemy. It is almost as if the writer is the protagonist of a grand quest and the other road users are the antagonists to be defeated. The writer also uses the imagery of hunting to portray herself as a vulnerable victim on the roads. She uses the simile ‘as nervous as a hare that feels the greyhound’s breath’ to describe her fear of being hounded. The image is a reference to greyhound racing, where the delicate hare races for its life ahead of a much larger, faster and more aggressive dog, emphasising how intimidated and vulnerable the writer feels as she sets off, unprotected, on her fragile bicycle, with much bigger and potentially life-threatening vehicles breathing down her neck - a victim of a cruel sport, for the sake of another’s entertainment.  Start with a summative sentence about what the writer wants to convey (the what). Be specific.  Then analyse the methods used (how). 2 – 3 specific examples explained in detail: How does the word/phrase/feature/technique make me FEEL, IMAGINE or THINK?  Say a lot about a little. 4 sentences of explanation per quotation.  Imagery (similes and metaphors) is the richest language to write about.  cross reference – look for patterns of words/ imagery Q4: For this question, you need to refer to the whole of Source A, together with the whole of Source B. Compare how the writers convey their similar perspectives on cycling in the city. In your answer, you could: • compare their similar perspectives on cycling in the city • compare the methods the writers use to convey their perspectives • support your response with references to both texts. [16 marks] Mark: 7 The writer’s perspective in Source A is that cycling is very dangerous and that car drivers should take more care. Similarly the writer’s perspective in Source B is also that cycling is very dangerous but the writer in source B is less serious. In Source A Walker argues that drivers should take more care and behave less riskily. At the end of the article he says ‘remember that these are human beings’ which is addressing the reader directly to persuade them to be more careful. This is similar to Source B where the writer thinks that the drivers are all out to get her. She says ‘cycling in the streets would be nicer… if he’d not try to kill me’ which is making a joke about being killed by the hansom cabman. This shows that even though they both think cycling is very dangerous she treats it less seriously than the other writer who thinks it is very serious. Mark: 16 Plan – Source A – cycling is dangerous – serious + moralistic tone - personal anecdote - gambling imagery “roll of the dice with my chances” - exaggerated language modifiers = ‘terrifying’ ‘alarming’ ‘appalling’ ‘pathetically’ “waging war” - Facts + stats – “it’s simple physics.+ “1,200 joules of kinetic energy.” Source B – - Sarcastic + jokey tone – describing the aggressive actions of driver sas a sport + ‘prey’ being hunted’ + the metaphor of avoiding being made into a ‘sandwich’ - Also exaggerates but for comic effect – ie I arrived ‘streaming and exhausted’ ‘bordering on collapse’ and describing drivers as ‘inflicting torture’ - Imagery of adventure - ‘skirmishing jungle’ +’dolphin around an ocean liner’ boat in a ‘stormy sea’ - Ends on a joking rhetorical question. , ‘what is your life worth ‘if your new white gloves are ruined? The writer’s of these two sources use very different tone to convey similar ideas. More specifically in source A, Walker conveys his perspective that cycling in London is dangerous using a deadly serious, almost moralistic tone. Whereas in source B, the same perspective – that cycling in London is dangerous – is portrayed using a light-hearted and humorous tone. In Source A, walker conveys his serious perspective on how dangerous cycling can be by using a mixture of personal anecdotes and facts and statistics. First he tells the story of his own experience on the road, trying to gain the sympathy of the readers, by suggesting that the driver ‘gambled’ with his ‘chance of making it home safely’ in other words suggesting he nearly died.  PERSONA  PARAGRAPHS  LANGUAGE TECHNIQUES:  RHETORIC  PERSONAL ANECDOTE  IMAGERY Paper 2 practice. Source A: 21st Century Non-Fiction Bah Humbug to all you who just hate Christmas My official policy on Christmas is that I like it. That says a lot more about me than that I'm partial to a day spent watching TV and stuffing my face. More fundamentally, it shows that I can't stand the thought of our most public and celebratory festival being a lie. It is a happy and magical time, I'm insisting, for deeper and more sinister reasons David Mitchell explains what he considers to be the new meaning of Christmas in the 21st Century in this Newspaper article from 2008. 5 than a liking for brazil nuts and Shrek 3. Other people - my enemies - love to hate Christmas. They rejoice in looking at the sparkle, the bustle, the drinking and the queues and muttering: "Christmas is a nightmare"; "It's going to be a living hell"; "The sooner we can forget all the expense and false jollity, this great capitalist hypocrisy1 dance, the better, I say", as if commerce were as exclusive to this time of year as mince pies. As they grumble and sneer their way through the season - seek each other out for affirmation that it's all just a sick joke and that participating is as joyous as diarrhoea and as prudent as a pyramid scheme2 - I stand shocked and afraid. To the boy I once was, heart buoyed3 by the air of magic, and expectation of an acquisitive nature about to be satisfied, this is a colossal slap in the face: it has finally all ended in tears. So I must sustain my policy. It's vulnerable, I know. I'm not at a good time of life for liking Christmas. The childhood enchantment has long gone, as has the excitement about presents, and I have no children to help me rediscover it vicariously4. Meanwhile, shopping is stressful, tree lights never work, turkey's not the best meat in the world and Christmas pudding is weird. If I'm not careful, I'll realise I'm only in it for the booze. But I'm still too tribal to accept this conclusion. We of the Christmas-liking tribe will keep the Christmas-cynic tribe in perpetual subjugation5 - they will be made to join in whether they like it or not and particularly if not. They will never, if we can help it, be permitted to "get away somewhere hot" but, if they do, we can be confident that our allies overseas will besiege them with spray-on snow and piped-in Slade even as they sweat round the pool. This is a time when we all come together to disagree about how Christmas is supposed to be done. It's not so much "love thy neighbour" as "mock the neon Santa on thy neighbour's roof". In another life, I could have been a great witchfinder general, paranoid anti-communist or warrior ant. I will root out people who slightly differ from me in their Christmas traditions and blow them away with the twin barrels of my British disdain gun, which are, of course, snobbery and inverse snobbery. To test your suitability for this fight, consider your reaction to the phrase: "We actually had goose this year." It's not the nature of your reaction that's important, but its strength. I'm hoping for a strong one. Either: "Yes of course, goose is a much tastier meat and an older tradition. I can't believe those turkey-eating scum are suffered to live. They should be locked up in the same hell sheds where the bland objects of their culinary affection are chemically spawned." Or, and this is the one I favour: "Piss off back to Borough Market6 with your talk of goose deliciousness. We're supposed to eat turkey - that's now the tradition. Stop pretending you're Victorian, drop this obsession with flavour and get defrosting a Bernard Matthews7." The issue of how to decorate the tree is fraught. It shouldn't look tasteful, it should look like a space-dog's dinner: masses of coloured lights and random bits of shiny litter, many made by children with few artistic gifts (either family members or Chinese child labourers). Here, I must share a terrible secret: my Christmas tree does look quite tasteful. I bought all the decorations in one go and they match. It looks like something out of a department store window (in contrast to the domestic wreckage which surrounds it) and I am ashamed. I am guilty of a tasteless lapse of tastelessness and consumed by self-loathing about it; very few things make me feel more British. And this is all about Britishness, not capitalism or Jesus. We British love to judge our close class competitors - people incredibly similar to us and therefore most threatening. We're quite tolerant of genuinely different ways of life but, for those very like our own but with just a hint of either the stuck-up or common, we reserve our highest octane vitriol. And Christmas exposes so much of this because it's when families revert to type, do what 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 they've always done: by your traditions you shall be judged. So, while we're picking sides, I'll stay pro-Christmas - specifically the one I grew up with (that's turkey not goose, fairy on the tree, cream not brandy butter and always watch the Queen despite the tedium). It's all such a lovely break from having to judge and be judged by behaviour, rather than the collection of baubles we happen to have in the attic. . 1 Hypocrisy: Pretending to have higher standards than you really do. 2 Pyramid Scheme: A fraud scheme where people make money by defrauding other people. 3 Buoyed: Kept afloat, continued to be excited. 4 Vicariously: Experience or imagine something through another person. 5 Subjugation: To gain control over somebody or a group. 6 Borough Market: A food market in London, often associated with quality and high status. 7 Bernard Matthews: Famous producer of Christmas turkeys Source B: 19th Century Literary Non-Fiction There are people who will tell you that Christmas is not to them what it used to be; that each succeeding Christmas has found some cherished hope, or happy prospect, of the year before, dimmed or passed away; that the present only serves to remind them of reduced circumstances and straitened incomes—of the feasts they once bestowed1 on 5 hollow friends, and of the cold looks that meet them now, in adversity and misfortune. Never heed such dismal reminiscences. There are few men who have lived long enough in the world, who cannot call up such thoughts any day in the year. This extract is taken from a series of non-fiction sketches written by Charles Dickens; here, he describes the scene at a traditional Christmas dinner in Victorian England. 60 Q3: You now need to refer only to source A lines 43- 50 , How does use language to describe his opinion on Christmas decorations? [8 marks]  Start with a summative sentence about what the writer wants to convey (the what). Be specific.  Then analyse the methods used (how). 2 – 3 specific examples explained in detail: How does the word/phrase/feature/technique make me FEEL, IMAGINE or THINK?  Say a lot about a little. 4 sentences of explanation per quotation.  Imagery (similes and metaphors) is the richest language to write about.  cross reference – look for patterns of words/ imagery Q4: For this question, you need to refer to the whole of source A together with the whole of source B. Compare how the writers have conveyed their views about Christmas and its meaning. In your answer, you could:  compare their different views and experiences  compare the methods used to convey those views and experiences  support your ideas with quotations from both texts. [16 marks]  First: what are the writers’ opinions or attitudes on the topic? Do they change?  Next: How do they show their opinons/ attitudes (what methods do they use?) Q5 QUESTION: ‘Due to the current pandemic, it is essential that schools are closed. Students will learn how to be self-driven and can access learning online.’ Write a newspaper article in which you argue for or against this statement.