Paper 2 - English Language

Revision Guide

Non-Fiction – Writer’s
viewpoints and Perspectives

1
 How to use the Revision Guide
1. Learn all the key language terminology in this booklet. Write
the definitions on flashcards, with words missing, and put the
missing words on the back.

2. Practice using these techniques in your own writing, or try to

find them and analyse the effect in the extracts

3. Read through the example answers, and highlight where it hits

different elements of the mark scheme.

4. Complete the practice papers at the back. Use the structure on

page 3 to help you ensure you are hitting the mark scheme.
(practice papers from Page 19)

5. Use the PSAAARL structure to help you practice non-fiction

writing and learn the good vocab (P11-12)

6. Learn all of the key vocabulary, and use it in your writing.

7. Practice using better sentence structures with the “upgrade

your sentence” grids. Use these in your writing descriptions.

8. Get someone to test you on the structure of the exam (eg.

what each question will be about and what the paragraph
structure needs to be like)

9. Read the example pieces of writing, and highlight any

impressive vocabulary. Write next to it what that word means.

10. Create your own Paper 2 exam questions, using an extract

from a book you are reading at the moment. Use the example
questions in the practice papers to help you.

2
 Language Paper Two (1h 45 mins) – Non-Fiction

P2, Q1 – Four true statements (4 marks)

- Ensure you shade the circles of the four TRUE statements

P2, Q2 – Summarise the differences (8 marks)

Do the below x 2
Source A: Statement à quote/s à Inference 1 à Inference 2
Source B: Comparison à Statement à quote/s à Inference 1 à Inference 2

P2, Q3 – Comment on language and viewpoint (12 marks)

Open with an overall effect statement: “The writer uses language to describe the elephant as (insert two or
three points)

Quotation - What the word means - What does it associate with – Why are you told this?

S&C – are there any patterns in language that you can analyse?

P2, Q4 – Compare points of view (16 marks)

Introduction - Comparative statement – “The writer in source A clearly thinks/feels…whereas/similarly the
writer in source B feels…

The writer of source A feels…I know this because (quote)…this suggest that…the writer’s use of (method) is
effective because, whereas/similarly, the writer of source B feels… I know this because (quote)…this suggest
that…the writer’s use of (method) is effective because. Do this x 2!

S&C – try to comment on the writer’s TONE. Is it positive – eg. Celebratory/humorous or is it negative eg.
Critical/frustrated?

P2, Q5 – Persuasive/ point of view (40 marks)

- A05: Content and organisation (24 marks)
- A06: Technical accuracy (16 marks)
- Be clear which audience, form, and audience you are writing for. Open and close appropriately according to
the FORM.
- Be ambitious: vocabulary voices, punctuation choices, ideas and arguments, and style of writing
- Aim for at least three A4 pages
- Plan and writing using PSAAARL (see the structure near the end of booklet)

3
Homework – Paper Two

1) Search ‘Geoff Barton Weekly Reading’.

a) Read a non-fiction article
b) Note down five words you do not understand. Find out their definition/s. Correctly use the word/s in a
sentence
c) Summarise the writer’s attitude on the topic they are writing about in less than thirty words
d) Write down five methods/devices they have used to convey this attitude. Include short quotes and
terminology in your example

2) Search ‘The Guardian comment is free opinion’

a) Read a non-fiction article
b) Note down five words you do not understand. Find out their definition/s. Correctly use the word/s in a
sentence
c) Summarise the writer’s attitude on the topic they are writing about in less than thirty words
d) Write down five methods/devices they have used to convey this attitude. Include short quotes and
terminology in your example

3) Search ‘The Telegraph opinion’

a) Read a non-fiction article
b) Note down five words you do not understand. Find out their definition/s. Correctly use the word/s in a
sentence
c) Summarise the writer’s attitude on the topic they are writing about in less than thirty words
d) Write down five methods/devices they have used to convey this attitude. Include short quotes and
terminology in your example

4) Search ‘The Independent opinion’

a) Read a non-fiction article
b) Note down five words you do not understand. Find out their definition/s. Correctly use the word/s in a
sentence
c) Summarise the writer’s attitude on the topic they are writing about in less than thirty words
d) Write down five methods/devices they have used to convey this attitude. Include short quotes and
terminology in your example

5) Make a revision guide for each of the questions for Language Paper Two
6) Complete Q1-3 for one of the practice papers
7) Complete Q4 for one of the practice papers
8) Plan and complete a P2, Q5. Self assess against the success criteria on p.25
9) Complete an ‘upgrade your sentence’ on p.25

4
P2, Q2 – Summarise and compare (8 marks)
Statement and quote/s à Inference à Comparison à Point and quote/s à Inference à Comparison

6 mark answer:
Use details from both sources to write a summary of the different reasons for strike action

Both Source A and Source B discuss the reasons behind strike action involving women.

In Source A one of the reasons given is the women’s belief that the owners are trying to ‘extract more work’
from them which they believe to be unfair; however, in Source B they key reason behind strike action is that of
the ‘gender pay gap’, which stands at ‘14%’, results in inequality between men and women.

In addition, another reason highlighted in Source A is that to do with the ‘dismissal of two girls’, which,
although contrasts the manager’s reason for the strike, appears to have played a contributing factor. On the
other hand, in Source B four key reasons are outlined and discussed. These include: women in low paid jobs
and ‘unpaid work’ being undertaken by women such as household duties and child-care.

7-8 / 8 marks - Perceptive, summary

SUPPORT
- Shows perceptive synthesis and interpretation of both texts
- Makes perceptive inferences from both texts
 In Source A…
- Makes judicious use of quotes relevant to the question
 - ‘…’
- Statements show perceptive understanding of differences
 This
suggests/implies/evokes/hig
5-6 / 8 marks – Clear, relevant summary hlights/conveys/reveals/reinf
- Shows clear synthesis and interpretation of both texts orces/reminds/indicates
- Makes clear inferences from both texts  Whereas, in Source B…
- Selects clear quotes relevant to the question  - ‘…’
- Statements show clear understanding of differences  This
suggests/implies/evokes/hig
3-4/ 8 marks – Some understanding and comment hlights/conveys/reveals/reinf
- Shows some interpretation from one/both texts orces/reminds/indicates
- Attempts some inference/s from one/both texts
- Selects some appropriate quotes from one/both texts
- Statements show some understanding of differences

1-2/ 8 marks – Simple, limited comment

- Shows simple awareness from one-both texts
- Offers paraphrase rather than inference
- Makes simple reference to quotes
- Statement/s show a simple understanding of differences

5
P2, Q3 – Comment on language and viewpoint (12 marks)

Open with an overall effect statement - Quotation - What the word means - What does it associate with – Why
are you told this?

S&C – are there any semantic fields that you can analyse?
Can you analyse the SENTENCE lengths – how do they slow down or speed up the pace and WHY has the writer
done this?

9 mark answer:
How does the writer use language to convey his opinion on women’s employment rights?

The writer adopts a viewpoint that he does not agree with the current women’s employment rights and
believes that change is necessary.

The writer uses a range of statistics in his piece – ‘14% pay gap’ to highlight the inequality faced by women in
relation to pay. In addition to this, it is further supported by his use of comparative statistics when used to
highlight the difference between men and women – men doing ‘9 hours per week’ of household duties in
comparison to women’s ’15 hours’. The use of these add factual ‘weight’ to his argument and go a way in
realistically exemplifying his viewpoint.

Furthermore, the writer suggests that the current situating is one that is in a state of flux as he states that he’d
like to ‘jump into the fray’. The use of the word ‘fray’ suggests that the current situation is disorganised and in
need of repair. As readers we too are brought into ‘the fray’ through the writer’s use of personal pronouns –
‘we should all participate’, suggesting that a collaborative approach is needed in order to change the current
state of affairs.

10 -12 / 12 marks – Perceptive, detailed analysis

- Shows detailed and perceptive understanding of SUPPORT
language
- Analyses the effects of the writer’s choices of language  This suggests…
- Selects judicious range of quotes  This implies…
- Makes sophisticated and accurate use of terminology  This reinforces
 This indicates
7 - 9 / 12 marks – Clear, relevant explanation  This evokes a sense/feeling
- Shows clear understanding of language of…
- Selects a range of relevant quotes  This emphasises…
- Makes clear and accurate use of terminology  Because
 Also, and, in addition,
another…
4 - 6 / 12 marks – Some understanding and comment
- Shows some understanding of language
- Attempts to comment on the effect of language
- Selects some appropriate quotes
- Makes some use of terminology, mainly appropriately

1 - 3 / 12 marks – Simple, limited comment

- Shows simple awareness of language
- Offers simple comment on effect of language
- Selects simple references or textual detail
- Makes simple use of terminology, not always appropriately

6
P2, Q4 – Compare points of view (16 marks)
Introduction - Comparative statement – “The writer in source A clearly thinks/feels…whereas the writer in
source B feels…/Both writer’s feel….however….

The writer of source A feels…I know this because (quote)…this suggest that…the writer’s use of (method) is
effective because, whereas/similarly, the writer of source B feels… I know this because (quote)…this suggest
that…the writer’s use of (method) is effective because. Do this x 2!

13 mark answer:
Compare how the writers have conveys their different views and experiences of the working conditions
experienced by women

Both writers discuss the working conditions experienced by women. However, they are primarily different in
their methods of recording these differences.

Written in the nineteenth century, the article has been written for a newspaper and primarily reports the
events of the women’s strife as a result of their working conditions, as is evident through the formal, almost
report-like tone established early on.

On the other hand, although again an article, Source B feels to provide a more personal opinion on working
conditions experienced by women and consequently his documentation of this is far less formal – ‘we seem to
have entered striking season’, which establishes both purpose and tone almost immediately.

As a result of its formal tone and style, Source A adopts a somewhat unbiased approach when discussing the
experiences of the women as it seeks to present differing viewpoints for the strike. For example, the reported
‘one version’ of events is presented before the article then present ‘another’ version. It is evident that whilst
Source A wants to go some way in highlighting the issues experienced by the women such as: unfair dismissal,
and unattainable expectations and fines.

In stark contrast, Source B adopts a primarily biased approach in the discussion of women’s employment rights
and working conditions. Unlike in Source A where varying opinions were addressed, the purpose of Source B
appears to be to highlight the negatives working conditions of women through his discussion of: the gender
pay gap, women essentially working ‘for free’ and a need to ‘close’ the inequality between men and women.

Unlike in Source A which reports an actual strike that took place where ‘1,500 ceased work on Thursday’,
Source B uses persuasive methods – even going so far as to promote a date for the strike through the
rhetorical question ‘why that date and time?’ to convey and reinforce his opinion that working conditions for
women must change – and that men should support this opinion by ‘striking as well’.

7
13 – 16 / 16 marks – Perceptive, detailed
- Compares ideas and perspectives in a perceptive way
- Analyses how writers’ methods are used
- Selects a range of judicious quotes from both texts
- Shows a detailed understanding of ideas and perspectives in both texts

9 - 12 / 16 marks – Clear, relevant

- Compares ideas and perspectives in a clear and relevant way
- Explains clearly how writers’ methods are used
- Selects relevant detail to support from both texts
- Shows a clear understanding of ideas and perspectives in both texts

5 - 8 / 16 marks – Some attempts

- Attempts to compare ideas and perspectives
- Makes some comment on how writers’ methods are used
- Selects some appropriate quotes, not always from one or both texts
- Identifies some ideas and perspectives

1 -4 / 16 marks – Simple, limited

- Makes simple cross reference of ideas and perspectives
- Makes simple identification of writers’ methods
- Uses simple quotes from one or both texts
- Shows simple aware of ideas and perspectives

SUPPORT

 The writer’s use of [method/perspective]

shows/reveals… as/because…
 The noun/adjective/verb/adverb
suggests/implies/reinforces/emphasises…
 In contrast/on the other hand/conversely…

8
Q5 – Persuasive/ point of view (40 marks)
- A05: Content and organisation (24 marks)
- A06: Technical accuracy (16 marks

Paper 2 – Question 5 – PSAAARL Structure

Open appropriately

Letter:
Dear (audience) if unknown, say sir/madam,
I am writing today to….

Speech:
Good morning (audience),
I’m here today to speak to you about…

Podcast:
Good morning listeners!
Thanks for tuning in! Today, I will be discussing…

Newspaper Article:
Create a catchy headline, and tagline to summarise article. Use alliteration, or a rhetorical
question, or simple a statement. Try to make your argument clear.
Eg. Too Fall or Fly?
Are parents’ too protective over their children?

Online Article:
The same as a newspaper article

9
Picture this: - create an image in the reader's mind of a scene, that helps to
support your argument. Eg. If it is about homework, and you’re arguing it is
stressful, describe a young person drowning in their bedroom under piles of
books etc. Or if you need to convince your reader that social media isolating,
describe an image of young people only communicating on their phones etc.

Sounds - Sounds unthinkable/absolutely fantastic - doesn't it? Recently,

………..has claimed...This is ludicrous/I whole-heartedly agree because....I am
writing to you today to request…./I want this article to open your eyes to/I am
here today to plead with you to consider…

Argument 1 - "Firstly, I would like to draw your attention to…”

Could include: believable fact/statistics. Emotive Language. Repetition/Anaphora.
Counter-argument. Alliteration. Rhetorical questions. List of three.

Argument 2 – “Secondly, Don’t you think…….?.........”

Could include: believable fact/statistics. Emotive Language. Repetition/Anaphora.
Counter-argument. Alliteration. Rhetorical questions. List of three.

Arguments 3 (solution) - The solutions I have outlined are simple: ….. It is without a
doubt important that… This could include…. Final powerful statement

Rhetorical Question to summarise - If I haven't managed to convince you so

far, just ask yourself this one question: .......

Link to beginning (headline or opening sentence) - After all/To conclude…

10
Close appropriately
Letter:
Yours sincerely,
Laura Bray

Speech:
Thank you for listening.

Podcast:
Thanks for listening. Tune in tomorrow for…..

Article:
Just close with your last paragraph

Online Article:
For more information, please visit www…………
Please comment below with your opinions on this matter

Essay:
To conclude, I think that…

Better Vocabulary Choices

Stupid: ludicrous, unimaginable

Horrible: soul destroying, atrocious
Boring: monotonous, tedious
Sad: heart-wrenching, wretched
Unfair: unjust, unwarranted
Absolutely: unquestionably, categorically
Really: entirely, utterly
Disagree: contest, challenge
Agree: concur, in accordance
Good: moral, correct
Bad: evil, wicked, appalling, abysmal
Important: vital, imperative
Mean: heartless, callous, cruel

11
Type of Key features
writing
Letter  an indication that someone is sending the letter to someone
 a date
 a formal mode of address if required e.g. Dear Sir/Madam or a named recipient
 effectively/fluently sequenced paragraphs
 an appropriate mode of signing off: Yours sincerely/faithfully
Article  a clear/apt/original title
 a strapline/alliterative headline
 subheadings
 an introductory (overview) paragraph
 effectively/fluently sequenced paragraphs
Text for a  a clear/apt/original title
leaflet  organisational devices such as inventive subheadings or boxes
 bullet points
 effectively/fluently sequenced paragraphs
Text for a  a clear address to an audience
speech  effective/fluently linked sections to indicate sequence
 rhetorical indicators that an audience is being addressed throughout
 a clear sign off e.g. ‘Thank you for listening’
Essay  an effective introduction and convincing conclusion
 effectively/fluently linked paragraphs to sequence a range of ideas
Blog  an informal opening
 may include neologisms (new words)
 humour may be used

12
The Write to explain Write to argue Write to persuade Write to instruct/advise
purpose of
the
writing
How the Explain what you think Argue the case for or Persuade the writer of the Advise the reader of
question about… against the statement statement that… the best way to...
might that...
start:

STRETCH AND CHALLENGE – Persuasive Devices

Aposiopesis Anadiplosis Diacope

The use of three dots (…) or a dash The intentional use of the final The repetition of a word or
(–) to indicate where a character’s word of one particular clause or phrase, broken up by a small
thoughts or dialogue have sentence as the first word of the number of intervening words –
stopped prematurely. next. usually one or two.
Useful for showing uncertainty or Useful for creating a sense of logic Useful for confident emphasis or
creating suspense. and gravitas. elaboration
The love of wicked men converts
I love money, and want money –
He limped away through the fruit to fear,
want it dreadfully. I hate to be
trees, drawn by the thought of the That fear to hate, and hate turns
poor, and we are degradingly
poor food, yet bitter when he one or both
poor, offensively poor, miserably
remembered the feast. Feast To worthy danger and deserved
poor, beastly poor.
today, and then tomorrow… death.
Lord of the Flies, by William
Our Mutual Friend, by Charles
Golding Richard II, by William
Dickens
Shakespeare
Enallage Epistrophe Epizeuxis
The repetition of the same word
A deliberate grammatical error The immediate and intentional
or clause at the end of two or
(e.g. through the confusion of repetition of a word or phrase,
more sentences. See also:
tenses or the omission of a word where the word or phrase retains
anaphora, where the repetition
in a sentence). exactly the same meaning.
occurs at the start.
Useful for conveying a sense of Useful for emphasising a Useful emphatically emphasising
authenticity. particular point or idea. a conviction.
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat
“It wasn't nothing,” said Slim. “I The big sycamore by the creek was
have life,
would of had to drowned most of gone. The willow tangle was gone.
And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt
'em anyways. No need to thank The little enclave of untrodden
come no more,
me about that.” bluegrass was gone.
Never, never, never, never!
Of Mice and Men, by John Flood: A Romance of Our Time, by
King Lear, by William
Steinbeck Robert Warren
Shakespeare
Hyperbole Isocolon Litotes

13
The intentional exaggeration of a Two or more sentences that share A figure of speech in which an
statement or claim (not always the same structure, or two or understatement (often
used to convey serious or sincere more clauses that are containing a double-negative) is
sentiments). grammatically balanced. intentionally presented.
Useful for creating a grand (or Useful for creating an abstract Useful for establishing a
mock-heroic) tone. sense of harmony. diplomatic or ironic tone
It was the best of times, it was the I lived at West Egg – well, the less
I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
worst of times, it was the age of fashionable of the two, though
Till China and Africa meet,
wisdom, it was the age of this is a most superficial tag to
And the river jumps over the
foolishness, it was the epoch of express the bizarre and not a
mountain
belief, it was the epoch of little sinister contrast between
incredulity. them.
As I Walked Out One Evening, by
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott
W. H. Auden
Dickens Fitzgerald

19 + 12 mark answer
TASK - Homework has no value and should be abolished' write an article for a broadsheet newspaper stating
your opinion on this statement.

Hometime Means Hometime

Just like Brexit, we need to take a hardline with homework- and vote to leave!

You just finish your 25th lesson of the week, five days of five demanding hours of non-stop learning. Constant
reminders of your upcoming exams. You look forward to the weekend stretching out in front of you...but no.
Inside that heavy bag upon your back are your assignments: book reports, practice exam questions, revision
resources. Hours upon hours of extra work. Hometime no longer means hometime to students in 2017.

1,170 hours. That is the length of time an average student, regardless of ability or school, taking into account
holidays and days off, allowing for the odd forgotten piece or hungry dog, spends on their homework,
according to the latest report by the department of education. That is the average- so how much time are the
students at the top of the scale spending? Then consider at what cost does that time expunge? Socialisation,
family time, relaxation- all things that children need when faced with a heavy academic timetable. When do
we expect our would be medics to fit in their necessary work experience? How will our poets permit time for
crucial reading for pleasure? How will our aspiring athletes allocate hours required to hone their skills? The
short answer is, they won't.

This is why our teenagers are so unhappy. Cramming in endless exercises to drill in knowledge to their young
and fragile minds will only result in mental overload. In Europe our teenagers are the most unhappy; their
unhappiness manifests itself in a number of bleak ways. We see record levels of self harm, attempted suicide,
and eating disorders amongst British teens. These are league tables we do not wish to be topping.

Those all important league tables, so crucial, so imperative to our analysis of school performance. We use
them to decide where to send our children; to rate and compare and apply value to qualifications gained by

14
fifteen and sixteen year old children. Such pressure! Is this what pushes the need for homework? The fear of
slipping down the league tables?

Literacy and numeracy standards have fallen, claim experts. Britain is falling behind other countries, and
children are now leaving school unequipped for the working world, say employers. We cannot afford to abolish
homework when we clearly have so much work to do. Yet, what is the evidence for this? Year on year the
GCSEs become more challenging and rigorous. Year on year the results go up. It is simply a fallacy to insist that
standards have fallen, when in fact the opposite is true.

Abolish homework, unless there is an urgent need for a task to be done at home- alter the requirement from
'regular' to 'occasional' and perhaps our children will have their childhoods back. Demands for fewer pieces
should see a rise in quality (although, we can never guarantee the dog will stay away) and it should always be
able to completed on school premises. The disparity in equipment from home to home should not
disadvantage students unfairly.

You finish your twenty fifth lesson and breathe a sigh of relief. You call your friends, you plan a football match,
you pick up a book from the library to read that weekend: you live. Life at hometime should be all about home,
not homework.

15 + 11 mark answer
TASK - Homework has no value and should be abolished' write an article for a broadsheet newspaper stating
your opinion on this statement.

What Miss? Homework?

Consolidation, concentration, congratulations: three reasons why you should remember your homework

"Without the commitment to my studies both at home and at school, I would not have been able to achieve
these grades," smiled Aaron Kingston, the proud owner of 10 Grade Nine GCSEs. This is someone who knows
about homework- young Aaron set up a work station in his living room when he was just seven years old; it
begun with a pile of reading books and times table squares, and progressed to stacks of history books, calculus
text books and periodic tables. Aaron attributes his success to these habits of excellence that he formed back
in primary school. Homework, he insists, made all the difference.

So what is the difference between work completed at home, compared to the work rushed in school?
Independence, firstly. In a classroom you have a teacher at your disposal, unsure of anything and you stick
your hand in the air and wave it around, and your teacher is there to prompt you; at home there are no such
prompts, forcing a more independent problem solving attitude. Solitude, secondly. The peace and quiet of
your home in stark contrast to your busy school full of bustle and noise. Homework allows a quietness that
encourages a restful peace for all that knowledge to percolate in teenage brains. Finally, repetition. Repetition,
repetition, repetition. The absorption of knowledge and the acquirement of new skills necessitates the
frequent and regular repetition of the same activity. Clearly, there is not the time in schools to facilitate this-
therefore making homework absolutely crucial for students at both ends of the ability scale.

Whether it is excellence or the basics that you are mastering, homework is the cornerstone of your success. It's
a chance to think outside of the rigid confines of the curriculum: read a book by an author you won't be tested
on; hone your artistic talents in a different medium incompatible with the classroom; research a historical

15
figure of your choosing, who later turns into your hero and role model...and the subject of your university
thesis.

Projects, reading diaries, costumes: we've all seen homework that made our stomachs sink. Three words- the
class bear. Yet, we cannot let these negative associations with homework discolour our overall opinion of
homework. To abolish homework on the basis of some tedious tasks wouldn't just be throwing the baby out
with the bath water, it would be blowing up the entire bathroom.

Aaron Kingston is due a huge congratulations- and that is the final part of homework. We celebrate our
knowledge, we smile happily as we recall the rule for multiplying out the brackets (although, for me knowing
the rules didn't always help!) and we can thank homework for that smile. Therefore, do your homework, and
be grateful it is set at all. Mrs Butler would be proud.

19 - 24 / 24 marks – A05: Content and organization - Compelling, convincing

- Register is convincing and compelling
- Assuredly matched to purpose
- Extensive and ambitious vocabulary
- Sustained crafting of devices
- Writing is compelling, incorporating a range of convincing and complex ideas
- Fluently linked paragraphs with seamlessly integrated discourse markers
13 - 16 / 16 marks – A06: Technical accuracy
- Sentence demarcation consistently accurate
- Wide range of punctuation used with a high level of accuracy
- Wide range of appropriate sentence forms used for effect
- High level of accuracy in spelling and ambitious vocabulary

13 - 18 / 24 marks – A05: Content and organization – Consistent, clear

- Register is consistently matched to audience and purpose
- Increasingly sophisticated vocabulary chosen for effect
- Range of successful linguistic devices
9 - 12 / 16 marks – A06: Technical accuracy
- Sentence demarcation is mostly secure and accurate
- Range of punctuation is used, mostly with success
- Uses a variety of sentence forms for effect
- Generally accurate spelling, including complex and irregular words
- Increasingly sophisticated use of vocabulary

7 - 12 / 24 marks – A05: Content and organization - Some success

- Some sustained attempt to match register to audience

16
 - Some sustained attempt to match purpose
- Conscious use of vocabulary
- Some use of linguistic devices
- Increasingly variety linked and relevant ideas
- Some use of paragraphs and some use of discourse markers
5 - 8 / 16 marks – A06: Technical accuracy
- Sentence demarcation is sometimes accurate
- Some control of a range of punctuation
- Attempts a variety of sentence forms
- Some accurate spelling of more complex words
- Varied use of vocabulary

17
 Paper Two – Table Manners

SOURCE A: Victorian Table Manners

Below is an article, taken from a Victorian cook book published in 1890, detailing proper table
manners. This provides a good overview of how to handle the various utensils on the properly
set table as well as discussing the finer points of table service.

The best teachers of etiquette are the fathers and mothers, and their lessons should be given
mainly through example. The best company in the world are those of our own households; they
deserve all the love and sweetness which we can bestow upon them, and the gracious manners of
the home must follow them through life. All good breeding includes kindness, courtesy,
unselfishness, respect, tact, gentleness and modesty of deportment.

If children are carefully taught to hold the knife and fork properly, to eat without the slightest
sound of the lips, to drink quietly, to use the napkin rightly, to make no noise of the implements of
the table, and, last but not least, to eat slowly and masticate the food properly, then they will
always feel at their ease at the grandest tables in the land. Once seated at the table gloves are
drawn off and laid in the lap under the napkin, which is spread lightly, not tucked in.

Soup is always served for the first course, and it should be eaten with dessert spoons, and taken
from the sides, not the tips of them, without any sounds of the lips, and not sucked into the mouth
audibly from the ends of the spoon. Bread should not be broken into soup or gravy. Never ask to
be helped to soup a second time. Fish chowder, which is served in soup plates, is said to be the
exception which proves this rule, and when eating of that it is acceptable to take a second plateful,
if desired.

Drink sparingly while eating, as it is far better for digestion, but when you do drink, do it gently and
easily and do not pour the liquid down your throat. Do not talk loudly or boisterously at the table,
but aim to be cheerful and companionable and join in the conversation, but do not dominate it.
Do not twirl your goblet, nor soil the tablecloth by placing bones or fragments on it. Never pour
tea or coffee into your saucer to cool it, nor blow your soup. If you do not like any dish which you
are served, allow it to remain untouched until the servant removes it.

Sit upright at the table, without bending over or lowering your head to partake of your food. Do
not sit too far away or too near the table, and do not sit with one arm lying on the table with your
back half-turned to your left hand neighbour.

Then one who serves at the table should not help too abundantly, or flood the food with gravies,
as many do not like them, and it is better to allow each guest to help himself. Water should be
poured to the right of a person - everything else is passed to the left. Do not watch the dishes
while being uncovered or talk with your mouth full. If you discover anything objectionable in the
food, do not attract the attention of others to it, but quietly deposit it under the edge of your
plate.

Spoons are sometimes used with firm puddings, but forks are better style. A spoon should never
be turned over in the mouth. One's teeth are never picked at the table; but if it is impossible to
prevent it, it should be done behind the napkin.

Let us mention a few things concerning the eating of which there is sometime doubt. A cream-
cake and anything of similar nature should be eaten with a knife and fork, never bitten. Asparagus
may be taken from the finger and thumb. Pasty should be broken and eaten with a fork, never cut
with a knife. Raw oysters should be eaten with a fork, also fish. However, food that cannot be
held with a fork should be eaten with a spoon. Potatoes, if mashed, should be mashed with a fork.

At the conclusion of a course, where they have been used, a knife and fork should be laid side by
side across the middle of the plate - never crossed - with handles to the right. The servant should
offer everything at the left of the guest, that the guest may be at liberty to use the right hand,
18
except water, which is always poured at the right side.

When you rise from your chair, leave it where it stands.

SOURCE B: The Guardian newspaper article, published 3rd October 2013

‘Why teaching table manners can do more harm than good’

It might be messy, but children should play with their food to stop them becoming fussy eaters.
What are your rules at mealtimes?

My seven-year-old daughter has a friend round for dinner. They’re pretending that raspberries
are lipstick and squidging them against their lips, with lots of giggles and red-stained fingers. I
could object. Instead, I smile and start loading the dishwasher.

It’s not that I think table manners are entirely unimportant. I have no intention of raising slurpy,
finger-licking, face-smearing chimps. But I’ve always instinctively felt that if I wanted my children
to grow up with a positive, happy, healthy, adventurous attitude to food, nagging them from a
young age to behave like mini adults at the dinner table was going to be counterproductive. Not
only would it create tensions at the table, it would crush their enthusiasm and open-mindedness
towards food pretty damn quickly.

My own childhood memories of mealtimes are still marred by my mum constantly pestering me
to hold my knife right and telling me off for sculpting faces in my Angel Delight with my spoon.
No, if I wanted my children to explore food by eating it, I was going to have to relax and let them
explore it in any other ways, too.

Food is, after all, multisensory. It doesn’t appeal to us through taste alone. The smell of freshly
baking bread can sell houses. The colour of the inside of a perfectly ripe avocado is good enough
to be painted on living room walls. And the snap of a carrot stick is a rather satisfying sound. A
young child learns about the world directly through their senses. Just as a five- or six-month-old
puts toys in their mouth as part of their developmental process, so babies and toddlers naturally
want to touch food, feel it, squidge it, squelch it, sniff it and see what noises it makes. It’s not a
substitute for eating, or a distraction from it. It’s an important part of learning to love food and to
be comfortable around it.

Anna Groom is a lead NHS paediatric dietitian. She works with children who are “selective eaters”
(fussy buggers to you and me) on a daily basis. “It’s really important to let children explore the
sensory side of food as a whole – not just what it tastes like,” she says. “It makes it more familiar
to them. It makes them feel ‘safe’ with it.” The idea is that they are more likely to try it, and less
likely to become fussy.

She points out that the emphasis on keeping everything clean and tidy and under control at
mealtimes often starts at weaning. Watch many a parent feeding her baby and notice how they
scrape the spoon around the baby’s mouth after each mouthful, how they hold the bowl at arm’s
reach when the baby swipes for it eagerly. Yet exposure to a food, she explains – any exposure –
is a vital first step, whether the child eats it or not. “When I work with children who have become
phobic about a particular food, I get them to draw it, touch it, play with it, smell it, kiss it, lick it!”

So – even at age seven – I will continue to let my daughter mould sand dunes out of her rice,
make a clown’s nose out of cherry tomato or put a blob of peanut butter on her boiled egg just to
see what it tastes like. I am teaching her table manners, but I’m doing it gradually and gently. In
fact, I believe it has the most impact when I talk to her about them away from the table, when
she’s not hungry and trying to enjoy her food. The other day, as she was engrossed in using her
fork to make fossil patterns in her mashed potato, she looked up and said: “You know Mummy, I
wouldn’t do this if I was in a restaurant.”

My other child is now 14. He has always eaten everything and anything that comes his way, with
the exception of raw tomato. How are his table manners? Pretty good. I’ve noticed he still likes to
have a (discreet) animalistic sniff of a frankfurter before he puts it in his mouth, but he knows

19
 how to eat politely and conform to society’s expectations.

By the time I’ve finished loading the dishwasher, the girls have gone off to play. I go to clear the
last things from the table. The squashed raspberries have all been eaten.

Q1: Read Source A. Tick four statements below which are TRUE

• The writer believes parents should teach their children table manners
• The writer suggests that soup should be eaten with a tea spoon
• The writer considers it rude to talk loudly at the dining table
• The author thinks it is unacceptable to turn a spoon over in the mouth
• The author thinks it is acceptable to blow your soup if it is hot
• The writer suggests you should eat all your food, even if you dislike it
• The writer explains you should cross your knife and fork when finished
• The author states that raw oysters should be eaten with a fork
[4 marks]

Q2: Refer to Source A and Source B.

Write a summary of the writers’ different attitudes to table manners.
[8 marks]

Q3: Refer to Source B.

How does the writer use language to engage the reader with her opinions about table manners?

[12 marks]

Q4: Now refer to both Source A and Source B.

Compare how the writers convey their different attitudes to manners.
[16 marks]

In your answer, you should:

• compare their different attitudes

• compare the methods they use to convey their attitudes
• support your ideas with quotations from both texts

Q5: ‘People in 2017 are too busy and too egotistical for good manners. We are now living in a self-obsessed
era’. Write an article for a tabloid newspaper in which you persuade people your point of view on this issue.

24 marks for content and organisation

16 marks for technical accuracy)
[40 marks]

Paper Two – Pollution

This is a journal entry by Flora Tristan, a Frenchwoman who visited London in 1839. Overseas
visitors to London rarely commented favourably on the English weather. It was often claimed

20
by visitors that in England there are “eight months of winter and four months of bad weather.”
In her journal entry, the author is complaining about the smog – air pollution from houses and
factories so bad it created a thick, smoky fog.

SOURCE A: A journal entry, written in 1839

Over every English town there hangs a pall compounded of the Ocean vapours that perpetually
shroud the British Isles, and the heavy noxious fumes of the Cyclops’ cave. No longer does timber
from the forests provide fuel for the family hearth; the fuel of Hell - coal - snatched from the very
bowels of the earth, has taken its place. It burns everywhere, feeding countless furnaces,
replacing horse-power on the roads and wind-power on the rivers and the seas which surround
the empire.

Above the monster city a dense fog combines with the volume of smoke and soot belching from
thousands of chimneys to wrap London in a black cloud which allows only the dimmest light to
penetrate and shrouds everything in a funeral veil.

In London, misery is in the very air you breathe and enters in at every pore. There is nothing
more gloomy or disquieting than the aspect of the city on a day of fog or rain or black frost. Only
succumb to its influence and your head becomes painfully heavy, your digestion sluggish, your
breathing laboured for lack of fresh air, and your whole body is overcome by fatigue. Then you
are in the grip of what the English call “spleen”: a profound despair, unaccountable anguish,
cantankerous hatred for those one loves the best, disgust with everything, and an irresistible
desire to end one’s life by suicide. On days like this, London has a terrifying face: you seem to be
lost in the necropolis of the world, breathing its sepulchral air. The light is wan, the cold humid;
the long rows of identical sombre houses, each with its black iron grilles and narrow windows,
resembles nothing so much as tombs stretching to infinity, whilst between them wander corpses
awaiting the hour of burial.

On such black days the Englishman is under the spell of his climate and behaves like a brute beast
to anybody who crosses his path, giving and receiving knocks without a word of apology on either
side. A poor old man may collapse from starvation in the street, but the Englishman will not stop
to help him. He goes about his business and spares no thought for anything else; he hurries to
finish his daily task, not to return home, for he has nothing to say to his wife or children, but to go
to his club, where he will eat a good dinner in solitude, as conversation fatigues him. Then he will
drink too much, and in his drunken slumber forget the troubles which bother him during the day.
Many women resort to the same remedy; all that matters is to forget that one exists. The
Englishman is no more of a drunkard by nature than the Spaniard, who drinks nothing but water,
but the climate of London is enough to drive the most sober Spaniard to drink.

Summer in London is hardly any different than winter; the frequent chilling rainstorms, the heavy
atmosphere charged with electricity, the constant change of temperature, cause so many colds,
headaches and bouts of colic that there are at least as many sick people in summer as in winter.

SOURCE B: Taken from The Independent newspaper, Tuesday 6th January, 2015

Air pollution in London's Oxford Street has already breached the legal limit for the whole of
2015 – in just four days!

Air pollution in one of London's busiest roads has already exceeded the legal limit for the whole of

21
2015, in the space of just four days, experts have warned.

Campaign group Clean Air In London has reported that the excessive levels for nitrogen dioxide
(NO2) in Oxford Street had passed the limit set by the EU by January 4, the Evening Standard has
reported. Simon Birkett, founder and director of Clean Air In London, told The Independent the EU
and UK regulations limited NO2 levels so they must not exceed 200 micrograms per cubic metre
for more than 18 hours in an entire year.

But Mr Birkett said Oxford Street had already reached 19 hours in excess of the limit by January 4,
while Putney High Street also passed the limit yesterday.

According to statistics supplied by Clean Air In London, in 2014 Oxford Street clocked up 1,361
hours where the NO2 levels were exceeded. Putney High Street meanwhile saw a total of 999
hours where the levels were exceeded. The road with the highest number of hours where NO2
levels were exceeded in 2014 was Brixton Road, with 1,732 hours.

Mr Birkett said: "The Mayor has taken a succession of backward steps on his proposed Ultra Low
Emission Zone (ULEZ) since announcing it two years ago. The gap between what the Mayor says
and what he needs to do and actually does has never been wider. Meanwhile, concerns about air
pollution, particularly NO2 and diesel exhaust, have risen exponentially. Leading scientists say that
many roads in central London will tend to have the highest NO2 concentrations in the world."

Mr Birkett has called for a ban on diesel from the worst affected areas by 2020. He said: "The
Mayor seems to have a love affair with diesel that must end."

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: "At the heart of his plans is the world’s first Ultra
Low Emission Zone in central London from 2020, and already, progress is being made. The oldest
and most polluting vehicles have been taken off the streets, and around Oxford Street alone, the
Mayor’s measures have reduced emissions by a third in two years. Unlike many cities, London has
met EU rules on particulate matter. The number of Londoners living in areas above NO2 limits has
halved since 2008. Under this Mayoralty, emissions of NOx (nitrogen oxides) are down by 20 per
cent and PM10 by 15 per cent. Furthermore, the Mayor has set out how, with government and EU
support, London can meet targets for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions by 2020, ten years ahead
of government predictions."

In November, the Government's scientific advisors were reported to be set to warn that air
pollution, largely from diesel vehicle road traffic, may be to blame for as many as 60,000 early
deaths in Britain each year.

Q1: Read lines 10-20 of Source A. Tick 4 statements below which are TRUE.

 The writer thinks smog makes London seem gloomy

 The author claims that the houses resemble tombs
 The narrow windows are why the light is so dim

22
  She describes Londoners as the dead, awaiting burial
 She says that the smog causes you to feel fatigued
 The author regards London as an attractive city
[4 marks]

Q2: Q2: Refer to Source A and Source B.

Write a summary of the writers’ attitudes to air pollution in London. [8 Marks]

Q3: Now refer to Source A.

How does the writer use language to convey her opinions of smog in London? [12 marks]

Q4: Compare how the two writers convey their attitudes to air pollution.
In your answer you should:

 compare their attitudes

 compare the methods they use to convey their attitudes.
 support your ideas with quotations from both texts. [16
marks]

Q5: ‘Planet Earth is threatened by global warming, flooding, and environmental disaster. It is unequivocally
clear we must take urgent action to avert certain, imminent disaster’. Write a letter to your local MP where
you persuade them on your views on this issue.

24 marks for content and organisation

16 marks for technical accuracy)
[40 marks]

Paper Two – Disability

SOURCE A: from the autobiography ‘My Left Foot’ by Christy Brown, published 1954

Chapter 1 - The Letter ‘A’

I was born in the Rotunda Hospital, on June 5th, 1932. There were nine children before me and

23
twelve after me, so I myself belong to the middle group. Out of this total of twenty-two, seventeen
lived, four died in infancy, leaving thirteen still to hold the family fort.

Mine was a difficult birth, I am told. Both mother and son almost died. A whole army of relations
queued up outside the hospital until the small hours of the morning, waiting for news and praying
furiously that it would be good.

After my birth mother was sent away to recuperate for some weeks and I was kept in the hospital
while she was away. I remained there for some time, without name, for I wasn’t baptized until my
mother was well enough to bring me to church.

It was mother who first saw that there was something wrong with me. I was about four months old
at the time. She noticed that my head had a habit of falling backwards whenever she tried to feed
me. She attempted to correct this by placing her hand on the back of my neck to keep it steady. But
when she took it away back it would drop again. That was the first warning sign. Then she became
aware of other defects as I got older. She saw that my hands were clenched nearly all of the time
and were inclined to twine behind my back; my mouth couldn’t grasp the teat of the bottle because
even at that early age my jaws would either lock together tightly, so that it was impossible for her to
open them, or they would suddenly become limp and fall loose, dragging my whole mouth to one
side. At six months I could not sit up without having a mountain of pillows around me; at twelve
months it was the same.

Very worried by this, mother told father her fears, and they decided to seek medical advice without
any further delay. I was a little over a year old when they began to take me to hospitals and clinics,
convinced that there was something definitely wrong with me, something which they could not
understand or name, but which was very real and disturbing.

Almost every doctor who saw and examined me, labelled me a very interesting but also a hopeless
case. Many told mother very gently that I was mentally defective and would remain so. That was a
hard blow to a young mother who had already reared five healthy children. The doctors were so
very sure of themselves that mother’s faith in me seemed almost an impertinence. They assured her
that nothing could be done for me.

She refused to accept this truth, the inevitable truth – as it then seemed – that I was beyond cure,
beyond saving, even beyond hope. She could not and would not believe that I was an imbecile, as
the doctors told her. She had nothing in the world to go by, not a scrap of evidence to support her
conviction that, though my body was crippled, my mind was not. In spite of all the doctors and
specialists told her, she would not agree. I don’t believe she knew why – she just knew without
feeling the smallest shade of doubt.

Finding that the doctors could not help in any way beyond telling her not to place her trust in me, or,
in other words, to forget I was a human creature, rather to regard me as just something to be fed
and washed and then put away again, mother decided there and then to take matters into her own
hands. I was her child, and therefore part of the family. No matter how dull and incapable I might
grow up to be, she was determined to treat me on the same plane as the others, and not as ‘queer
one’ in the back room who was never spoken of when visitors were present.

That was a momentous decision as far as my future life was concerned. It meant that I would always
have my mother on my side to help me fight all the battles that were to come, and to inspire me
with new strength when I was almost beaten. But it wasn’t easy for her because now the relatives
and friends had decided otherwise. They contended that I should be taken kindly, sympathetically,
but not seriously. That would be a mistake. “For your own sake,” they told her, “don’t look to the
boy as you would to the others; it would only break your heart in the end.” Luckily for me, mother
and father held out against the lot of them. But mother wasn’t content just to say that I was not an
idiot, she set out to prove it, not because of any rigid sense of duty, but out of love. That is why she
was so successful.

24
Source B: ‘The Elephant Man’ by Sir Frederick Treves, published 1923

In this autobiographical extract, the writer is a doctor who describes meeting a man named John
Merrick who was born with severe physical deformities. Merrick was being exhibited as a ‘freak
show’ attraction in a circus – and was given the nickname, ‘The Elephant Man.’

The shop was empty and grey with dust. Some old tins and a few shrivelled potatoes occupied a
shelf and some vegetables littered the window. The light of the place was dim, being obscured by
the painted placard outside. The far end of the shop – where I expect the late proprietor sat at a
desk – was cut off by a curtain or rather by a red tablecloth suspended from a cord by a few rings.
The room was cold and dank, for it was the month of November. The year, I might say, was 1884.

The showman pulled back the curtain and revealed a bent figure crouching on a stool and covered
by a brown blanket. In front of it, on a tripod, was a large brick heated by a Bunsen burner. Over
this the creature was huddled to warm itself. It never moved when the curtain was drawn back.
Locked up in an empty shop and lit by the faint blue light of the gas jet, this hunched-up figure was
the embodiment of loneliness. It might have been a captive in a cavern or a wizard watching for
unholy apparitions in the ghostly flame. Outside the sun was shining and one could hear the
footsteps of the passers-by, a tune whistled by a boy and the familiar hum of traffic in the road.

The showman – speaking as if to a dog – called out harshly: “Stand up!” The thing arose slowly and
let the blanket that covered its head and back fall to the ground. There stood revealed the most
disgusting specimen of humanity that I have ever seen. In the course of my profession I had come
upon tragic deformities of the face due to injury or disease, as well as mutilations and contortions
of the body depending upon like causes; but at no time had I met with such a degraded or
perverted version of a human being as this lone figure displayed. He was naked to the waist, his
feet were bare, he wore a pair of threadbare trousers that had once belonged to some fat
gentleman’s dress suit.

From the advertisement in the street I had imagined the Elephant Man to be of gigantic size. This,
however, was a little man below the average height and made to look shorter by the bowing of his
back. The most striking feature about him was his enormous and misshapen head. From the brow
there projected a huge bony mass like a loaf, while from the back of the head hung a bag of
spongy, fungous-looking skin, the surface of which was comparable to a brown cauliflower. On the
top of the skull were a few long lank hairs. The osseous growth on the forehead almost obscured
one eye. The circumference of the head was no less than that of the man’s waist. From the upper
jaw there projected another mass of bone. It protruded from the mouth like a pink stump, turning
the upper lip inside out and making of the mouth a mere slobbering aperture. This growth from
the jaw had been so exaggerated in the painting as to appear to be a rudimentary trunk or tusk.
His nose was merely a lump of flesh, only recognizable as a nose from its position. The face was no
more capable of expression than a block of gnarled wood. The back was horrible, because from it
hung, as far down as the middle of the thigh, huge, sack-like masses of flesh covered by the same
loathsome cauliflower skin.

The right arm was of enormous size and shapeless. It suggested the limb of the subject of
elephantiasis. It was overgrown also with pendent masses of the same cauliflower-like skin. His
hand was large and clumsy – a fin or paddle rather than a hand. There was no distinction between
the palm and the back. The thumb had the appearance of a radish, while the fingers might have
been its thick, tuberous roots. As a limb it was almost useless. The other arm was remarkable by
contrast. It was not only normal but was, moreover, a delicately shaped limb covered with fine skin
and provided with a beautiful hand which any woman might have envied. From the chest hung a
bag of the same repulsive flesh. The lower limbs had the characters of the deformed arm. They
were unwieldy and grossly mis-shapen.

To add a further burden to his trouble the wretched man, when a boy, developed hip disease,
which had left him permanently lame, so that he could only walk with a stick. He was thus denied
all means of escape from his tormentors. As he told me later, he could never run away. One other

25
 feature must be mentioned to emphasize his isolation from his kind. Although he was already
repellent enough, there arose from the fungous skin-growth with which he was almost covered a
very sickening stench which was hard to tolerate. From the showman I learnt nothing about the
Elephant Man, except that he was English, that his name was John Merrick and that he was
twenty-one years of age.

Q1: Read Source A. Tick four statements below which are TRUE

 The writer was born on June 5th, 1942

 The author was one of twenty-two children in his family
 As a baby, the writer struggled to sit upright
 The doctors regarded the author as a hopeless case
 The writer’s mind was crippled but not his body
 The author’s mother wanted to prove her son was not an idiot
 The writer’s father regarded his son as an idiot
 The doctors thought the boy’s disability would improve as he grew up
[4 marks]

Q2: Now refer to both Source A and Source B.

Write a summary of the different ways the writers present the issue of disability. [8 marks]

Q3: Refer to Source B.

How does the writer use language to describe the Elephant Man? [12 marks]

Q4: Now refer to both Source A and Source B.

Compare how the writers convey their different attitudes to disability. [16 marks]

In your answer, you should:

 compare their different attitudes

 compare the methods they use to convey their attitudes
 support your ideas with quotations from both texts

Q5: ‘Britain is an inclusive country. Everyone living here is treated fairly and has equal opportunities’.
Write a speech for your school’s debating society where you outline your views on this issue.

24 marks for content and organisation

16 marks for technical accuracy)
[40 marks]

This extract is from the opening of a novel by Sheila Kohler published in 1999. In this section a group of
women are attending a school reunion having spent many years apart.

1 We were seventeen or eighteen years old, the last time we saw one another. Our world has changed
completely: the dormitory called Kitchener is now called Mandela. We have become awkward with one another.
We offer up our cheeks to be kissed and the step back, fast. After the first words we stand stiffly in silence with
lowered gaze and averted eyes and folded hands. Our breathing alters. Each of us fears the other will notice the
changes in us after all these years.
6 We 26are careful what we say. Our voices sound off. The words sound cracked. We have difficulty hearing. We
whisper as though someone might overhear. There are silences, clearings of the throat. There is shrill laughter,
there are shrill exclamations of delight, professions of surprise. “Not a line, not a wrinkle, my dear, well, only smile
marks around the eyes.” We do not say that some of the former beauties look old and plain, that some of the
 Paper Two – Rail Disasters Homework

The Victorian era saw n horrific number of fatal train crashes. The writer Charles Dickens was involved in a train crash
in Staplehurst on 9th June 1865 but fortunately survived. Here is his eyewitness account in a letter written to a friend:

SOURCE A

My dear Mitton,

I should have written to you yesterday or the day before, if I had been quite up to writing. I am a little shaken, not by the
beating and dragging of the carriage in which I was, but by the hard work afterwards in getting out the dying and dead,
which was most horrible.

I was in the only carriage that did not go over into the stream. It was caught upon the turn by some of the ruin of the
bridge, and hung suspended and balanced in an apparently impossible manner. Two ladies were my fellow passengers; an
old one, and a young one. This is exactly what passed:- you may judge from it the precise length of the suspense. Suddenly 5
we were off the rail and beating the ground as the car of a half emptied balloon might. The old lady cried out “My God!”
and the young one screamed. I caught hold of them both (the old lady sat opposite, and the young one on my left) and
said: “We can’t help ourselves, but we can be quiet and composed. Pray don’t cry out.” They both answered quite
collectedly, “Yes,” and I got out without the least notion of what had happened.
10
Fortunately, I got out with great caution and stood upon the step. Looking down, I saw the bridge gone and nothing below
me but the line of the rail. Some people in the two other compartments were madly trying to plunge out of the window,
and had no idea there was an open swampy field 15 feet down below them and nothing else! The two guards (one with
his face cut) were running up and down on the down side of the bridge (which was not torn up) quite wildly. I called out to
them “Look at me. Do stop an instant and look at me, and tell me whether you don’t know me.” One of them answered,
“We know you very well, Mr Dickens.” “Then,” I said, “my good fellow for God’s sake give me your key, and send one of 15
those labourers here, and I’ll empty this carriage.”

We did it quite safely, by means of a plank or two and when it was done I saw all the rest of the train except the two
baggage cars down in the stream. I got into the carriage again for my brandy flask, took off my travelling hat for a basin,
climbed down the brickwork, and filled my hat with water. Suddenly I came upon a staggering man covered with blood (I
think he must have been flung clean out of his carriage) with such a frightful cut across the skull that I couldn’t bear to 20
look at him. I poured some water over his face, and gave him some to drink, and gave him some brandy, and laid him
down on the grass, and he said, “I am gone”, and died afterwards.

Then I stumbled over a lady lying on her back against a little pollard tree, with the blood streaming over her face (which
was lead colour) in a number of distinct little streams from the head. I asked her if she could swallow a little brandy, and 25
she just nodded, and I gave her some and left her for somebody else. The next time I passed her, she was dead. No
imagination can conceive the ruin of the carriages, or the extraordinary weights under which the people were lying, or the
complications into which they were twisted up among iron and wood, and mud and water.

27
I don’t want to be examined at the Inquests and I don’t want to write about it. It could do no good either way, and I could
only seem to speak about myself, which, of course, I would rather not do. But in writing these scanty words of 30
recollection, I feel the shake and am obliged to stop.

Ever faithfully, Charles Dickens

SOURCE B: A newspaper interview with the parents of a woman who was killed in a train crash 15
years earlier known as the Paddington Rail Disaster, which occurred in London on October 5th 1999

Those present at the scene of the Paddington rail crash have said that the worst memory they have
endured over the past 15 years is the sound of mobile phones ringing from the bodies of the dead.
Among the scorched metal carcases of the two trains involved in one of Britain’s worst-ever rail
disasters, a cacophony of telephones bleeped and buzzed. At the other end of the line were anxious
family and friends, their desperation building with each missed call.
5
Denman Groves first phoned his daughter, Juliet, at around 8.30am on October 5 1999. He and his
wife Maureen had woken up in their home in the village of Ashleworth, near Gloucester, and as usual,
switched on the television news. Like the rest of the nation watching that crisp autumn morning, they
stared in shock at the plume of smoke rising from the wreckage of the two passenger trains that had
collided just outside Paddington station. Neither could even imagine that their 25-year-old daughter
might have been on board. 10

“I didn’t even think she was anywhere near Paddington that day,” says Denman. Still, when he left for
work, he tried to phone her from the car – just to make sure. There was no answer. “I thought I’d try
again, but then I was so busy that I forgot. It wasn’t until lunchtime that I called. I still couldn’t get an
answer, so phoned her company. They said: 'We’re afraid she hasn’t arrived yet, Mr Groves, and
we’re very worried.’ At that point my heart sank.” 15

Juliet Groves, an accountant with Ernst & Young, was one of hundreds aboard a Thames Trains
commuter service from Paddington station at 8.06am that morning. Petite, pretty and fiercely
intelligent – the previous year she had come seventh in the entire country in her chartered
accountancy exams, Juliet lived in Chiswick but was travelling by train to Slough, where she was
winding up a company. Despite her young age, she was already a specialist in bankruptcy and was 20
being fast-tracked to become a partner in the company. From birth she had suffered from partial
blindness and was unable to drive. As a result, she travelled everywhere by rail.

She was in the front carriage of the train when it passed through a red signal at Ladbroke Grove and
into the path of the oncoming Paddington-bound First Great Western express travelling from
Cheltenham Spa in Gloucestershire. Both drivers were killed, as well as 29 passengers, and 400 others 25
were injured. Juliet’s body was one of the last to be discovered. She was finally found on the eighth
day.

The outcry that followed led to the biggest-ever safety shake-up of the country’s rail network. In
2007, after years of campaigning by the families, Network Rail was fined £4 million for health and
safety breaches.
30
Travelling by train on the same line from Paddington towards Gloucestershire, it is easy to imagine the
scene in those carriages seconds before the impact. Passengers gaze out of windows across the

28
snaking railway lines bordered by city scrub. A few talk business into mobile phones; others sip
coffees and browse through their newspapers. The disaster, says Network Rail, “simply could not
happen today”.
35
But that promise is not enough for Denman and Maureen Groves. Neither have boarded a British train
since the crash, and never will again. Their grief would not allow it, nor the sense of lingering injustice.
“I can’t do it, I won’t do it,” says Denman. “I don’t want any involvement with Network Rail. The last
contact I had with them was at the trial in 2007. I told the chairman he ought to be ashamed of
himself.”

Q1: Read lines 4 to 11 of Source A.

Choose four statements below which are TRUE. [4 marks]

 Two carriages did not go over into the stream

 There were two ladies in the carriage with Dickens

 The young lady screamed. The old lady said “My God!”

 Two old ladies were in the carriage with Dickens

 Only one carriage did not go over into the stream

 The old lady screamed. The young one said “My God!”

 Dickens told the ladies to be quiet and calm down

Q2: Refer to Source A and Source B. Write a summary of the differences in the
writers’ viewpoints of the rail disasters they each describe. [8 marks]

Q3: Refer to Source A.

How does Charles Dickens use language to convey his thoughts and
feelings about the disaster? [12 marks]

Q4: Refer to Source A and Source B.

Compare how the writers present their different perspectives

of the national railway disasters they describe. [16 marks]

In your answer, you should:

 compare their different perspectives
 compare the methods they use to convey their attitudes
 support your ideas with quotations from both texts

Section B: Writing

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

Write in full sentences.

29
 You are reminded of the need to plan your answer.
You should leave enough time to check your work at the end.

Q5

“The government should invest more money in public transport as there are so many good reasons to
use it. It is crucial to have strong, reliable transport links.’

Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, explaining your views on this statement.

(24 marks for content and organisation

16 marks for technical accuracy)

[40 marks]
Paper Two – Exhibitions Homework

SOURCE A: Charlotte Bronte’s letter to her father, written in 1851.

TO REV. P. BRONTË

112 GLOUCESTER TERRACE,

HYDE PARK, June 7th, 1851.

DEAR PAPA,—I was very glad to hear that you continued in pretty good health, and that Mr.
Cartman came to help you on Sunday. I fear you will not have had a very comfortable week in the
dining-room; but by this time I suppose the parlour reformation will be nearly completed, and you
will soon be able to return to your old quarters. The letter you sent me this morning was from 5
Mary Taylor. She continues well and happy in New Zealand, and her shop seems to answer well.
The French newspaper duly arrived.

Yesterday I went for the second time to the Crystal Palace. We remained in it about three hours,
and I must say I was more struck with it on this occasion than at my first visit. It is a wonderful
place—vast, strange, new, and impossible to describe. Its grandeur does not consist in one thing, 10
but in the unique assemblage of all things. Whatever human industry has created, you find there,
from the great compartments filled with railway engines and boilers, with mill-machinery in full
work, with splendid carriages of all kinds, with harness of every description—to the glass-covered
and velvet-spread stands loaded with the most gorgeous work of the goldsmith and silversmith,
and the carefully guarded caskets full of real diamonds and pearls worth hundreds of thousands of 15
pounds. It may be called a bazaar or a fair, but it is such a bazaar or fair as Eastern genii might
have created. It seems as if magic only could have gathered this mass of wealth from all the ends
of the earth—as if none but supernatural hands could have arranged it thus, with such a blaze and
contrast of colours and marvellous power of effect. The multitude filling the great aisles seems
ruled and subdued by some invisible influence. Amongst the thirty thousand souls that peopled it 20
the day I was there, not one loud noise was to be heard, not one irregular movement seen—the
living tide rolls on quietly, with a deep hum like the sea heard from the distance.

Mr. Thackeray is in high spirits about the success of his lectures. It is likely to add largely both to
his fame and purse. He has, however, deferred this week’s lecture till next Thursday, at the
earnest petition of the duchesses and marchionesses, who, on the day it should have been 25
delivered, were necessitated to go down with the Queen and Court to Ascot Races. I told him I
thought he did wrong to put it off on their account—and I think so still. The amateur performance
of Bulwer’s play for the Guild of Literature has likewise been deferred on account of the races.

I hope, dear papa, that you, Mr. Nicholls, and all at home continue well. Tell Martha to take her 30
scrubbing and cleaning in moderation and not overwork herself. With kind regards to her and
Tabby,

30
 I am your affectionate daughter,

C. BRONTË. 35

SOURCE B: Excerpt from ‘A History of Modern Britain’ by Andrew Marr, published 2007

Other early initiatives would crumble to dust and ashes. One of the most interesting examples is
the Dome, centrepiece of millennium celebrations inherited from the Conservatives. Blair was
initially unsure about whether to forge ahead with the £1 billion gamble. He was argued into the
Dome project by Peter Mandelson who wanted to be its impresario, and by John Prescott, who
liked the new money it would bring to a blighted part of east London. Prescott suggested New 5
Labour wouldn’t be much of a government if it could not make a success of this. Blair agreed,
though had the Dome ever come to a cabinet vote he would have lost.

Architecturally the Dome was striking and elegant, a landmark for London which can be seen by
almost every air passenger arriving in the capital. Public money was spent on cleaning up a
poisoned semicircle of derelict land and brining new Tube and road links. The millennium was 10
certainly worth celebrating. But the problem ministers and their advisers could not solve was what
their pleasure Dome should contain. Should it be for a great national party? Should it be
educational? Beautiful? Thought-provoking? A fun park? Nobody could decide. The instinct of the
British towards satire was irresistible as the project continued surrounded by cranes and political
hullabaloo. The Dome would be magnificent, unique, a tribute to daring and can-do. Blair himself 15
said it would provide the first paragraph of his next election manifesto.

A well-funded, self-confident management was put in place but the bright child’s question – yes,
but what’s it for? – would not go away. When the Dome finally opened, at New Year, the Queen,
Prime Minister and hundreds of donors, business people and celebrities were treated to a
mishmash of a show which embarrassed many of them. Bad organization meant most of the 20
guests had a long, freezing and damp wait to get in for the celebrations. Xanadu this was not. The
fiasco meant the Dome was roasted in most newspapers and when it opened to the public, the
range of mildly interesting exhibits was greeted as a huge disappointment. Far fewer people came
and bought tickets than was hoped. It turned out to be a theme park without a theme, morphing
in the public imagination into the earliest and most damaging symbol of what was wrong with New 25
Labour: an impressively constructed big tent containing not very much at all. It was produced by
some of the people closest to the Prime Minister and therefore boomeranged particularly badly on
him and the group already known as ‘Tony’s cronies’. Optimism and daring, it seemed, were not
enough.
30

31
Q1: Read Source A. Tick four statements below which are TRUE

 Charlotte comments on building works happening at her father’s house

 She had never visited Crystal Palace before writing this letter
 Charlotte’s father sent her a letter from Martha Taylor
 Charlotte was impressed by the exhibition she visited
 Charlotte states that thirty thousand people visited the attraction that day
 Despite the large crowds of people, it was surprisingly quiet at the exhibition
 Mr. Thackeray’s lectures were not very successful
 Charlotte was pleased Mr Thackeray postponed his lecture

[4 Marks]

Q2: Refer to Source A and Source B.

Write a summary of each writer’s opinions about the exhibition they describe. [8 Marks]

Q3: Refer to Source B.

How does the writer use language to describe the Millennium Dome? [12 Marks]

Q4: Now refer to both Source A and Source B.

Compare how the writers convey their different attitudes to the exhibitions. [16 Marks]

In your answer, you should:

• compare their different attitudes

• compare the methods they use to convey their attitudes
• support your ideas with quotations from both texts

Section B: Writing

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

Write in full sentences.

32
 You are reminded of the need to plan your answer.
You should leave enough time to check your work at the end.

Q5

“English and mathematics are the most important subjects at school. It is entirely justifiable that
students go on fewer and fewer trips to museums, art festivals, and musicals in 2017.’

Write an opinion piece for a broadsheet newspapers explaining your views on this statement.

(24 marks for content and organisation

16 marks for technical accuracy)

[40 marks]

33