SPECIMEN MATERIAL

AQA Style
GCSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Paper 2

Insert (80 Marks)

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 AQA Style Exam Paper 2 Insert
Source A

Housework:
Heaven or Hell?
Louise Giles muses on how perceptions of housework have evolved in recent times.

Born in the 1970s, I was the eldest If I’m completely honest, it didn’t matter
daughter of a traditional middle- to me then because I was going off to
class family. Mum was a stay-at-home 40 university some day and I would be able
version: there when I got home from to make my own choices. Education
5 school to make our tea and iron our would free me of such outdated
clothes, the evidence of which was obligations, unlock my potential and set
often proudly displayed over the backs me on my own path. Who said I would
of our stripey dining room chairs. My 45 even have any children to feed and iron
dad was the sole breadwinner, working for? Having had the absolute luxury of
10 long hours and often absent from my a house-proud mother in my youth, I
youngest childhood memories. Mum promptly spent my student years living
had been a teacher but left that career like a squatter. Mum and Dad will most
behind to concentrate on having 50 definitely vouch for that!
children. You see, in the 80s and 90s,
Now, having allegedly attained
15 that was what mums did.
responsible adulthood, our house is a
What mums did? In hindsight, I realise little different. But, if I’m truthful, not
that my mum was not merely a quite as different as it maybe should
motherly wife. Or a wifely mother? She 55 be. My dad always says that the thing
was a woman with needs and desires about housework is that nobody notices
20 of her own. What were they, I find it until you don’t do it anymore. How
myself wondering, having now reached true that is! How often I used to take
my thirties with a family and house of for granted that the bathrooms would
my own? Did she simply accept that 60 be clean and that there was no need
her place was within the home, as for embarrassment when friends came
25 Mrs Beeton enthused in her Book of calling. These days, I enjoy my job, I
Household Management. Reflecting on am constantly occupied and my brain
my childhood and my mother’s role is challenged. Housework is a necessity
within it, I felt lucky to have a mum who 65 and, disappointing as this may be for my
I just knew would always be around. family, something to procrastinate over
30 She was always there when I got home wherever possible. It will never light
from school, the beds were made with my fire and I will never have a burning
military precision and the carpets desire to clean my floors. Should I be
studiously hoovered; I knew I was 70 ashamed? Have I failed as a woman? I
well looked after. But had womankind suppose the most important question is
35 really made any progress since Mrs do I care?
B’s Victorian values suffocated the
housewives of the 1800s?

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Fast forward to 2018 and enter Mrs genuinely take pleasure in the infinite
Hinch, an attractive cleaning guru who, chores that, once completed, slyly
75 in her book Hinch Yourself Happy boldly slink away to the back of the sanitizing
confesses: ‘My home means everything queue. It’s like an irritating series you’ve
to me. It means safety and cosiness 120 stuck out and watched to the end, only
and happiness. All of my achievements to be met with ‘to be continued.’
are here.’ Seriously? Are all her
The ‘Hinch Army’ would disagree whole
80 achievements really to be found within
heartedly, however. Having had their
her house? And, if it means safety, what
lives changed one budget tip at a time,
is it exactly that Mrs Hinch is frightened 125 Mrs Hinch’s Instagram followers are in
of? Surely Mrs Pankhurst would turn
their hundreds of thousands. Famed
in her grave at such open rejection of
for changing the way cleaning is viewed
85 female opportunity!
via social media, she is worth a pretty
In radiant reality, Mrs Hinch appears penny these days. From appearances
to advocate cleaning as a means of 130 on television to regular online posts,
achieving equality. She promises: Sophie Hinchliffe has most definitely
‘We’re all the same when we’re wearing achieved a huge following of fans. I
90 a pair of rubber Gregory Gloves and wonder if women of previous decades
cleaning our toilets.’ Personally, I have simply needed a tip or two from this
never heard of Gregory Gloves but 135 cleanfluencer in order to instil a lost
it absolutely gets Mrs Hinch going. sense of elation when faced, once again,
What’s more, after using a particular with those pesky household tasks.
95 cleaning spray, she raves: ‘the shine
Or, is it simply that women have more
actually got me excited.’ This is a
freedom to choose now? Yes, we can
woman who genuinely appears to 140 have an education, a career and a family.
take pleasure from cleaning. Naming a
As long as we still do the washing up,
garage cleaning cupboard ‘Narnia’ after
right? And we can do it in professionally
100 covering it in fairy lights is just another
tried-and-tested Killeen Grippaz gloves!
example of her ability to escape to a
Who knew that washing up could be
magical world of effervescent floors and 145 so darn satisfying? The Hinchers know.
twinkling toilets. Mrs Hinch’s perhaps
Notwithstanding Mrs Hinch’s regular
admirable resolve to find achievement
This Morning appearances, it seems I
105 in cleaning is a wardrobe away from
am part of an unfashionable minority
my own perspective. The very fact of
who need to, quite literally, get with
its impermanence is annoying to me. 150 the programme.
Yes, you might look at your glittering
work tops and think ‘I did that’ but Mrs Beeton would be proud.
110 how long until someone plonks their
crumb-covered dishes on your sparkling
surfaces? I have been known to take
pictures of my newly cleaned house,
just so I can remember it. Quite frankly,
115 life would be so much easier if I could

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Source B

Topsy-Turvy:
The Order of the Day
American writer Susan Fenimore Cooper describes the upheaval
involved in spring cleaning in Cooperstown, New York in April 1848.

The great spring house-cleaning [is] going on in the village just now, and a formidable
time it is in most families, second only as regards discomfort, to the troubles of moving.
Scarce an object about a house seems in its proper place – topsy-turvy is the order of
the day: curtains and carpets are seen hanging out of doors, windows are sashless, beds
are found in passages, chairs are upside down, the ceiling is in possession of the white-
wash brush, and the mop ‘has the floor,’ as reporters say of Hon. M.C.’s. Meanwhile,
the cleaners, relentless as Furies, pursue the family from room to room, until the last
stronghold is invaded, and the very cats and dogs look wretched.
Singular as it may appear, there are some active spirits in the country – women spirits,
of course – who enjoy house-cleaning: who confess they enjoy it. But then there are
men who enjoy an election, and it was settled ages ago that there is no arguing upon
tastes. Most sensible people would be disposed to look upon both house-cleaning and
elections as among the necessary evils of life – far enough from its enjoyments. One
would like to know from which ancestral nation the good people of this country inherit
this periodical cleaning propensity; probably it came from the Dutch, for they are the
most noted scourers in the old world, though it is difficult to believe that such a sober,
quiet race as the Hollanders could have carried on the work with the same restlessness
as our own housewives.
Most civilized people clean their dwellings: many nations are as neat as ourselves; some
much neater than we are; but few, indeed, make such a fuss about these necessary
labors; they contrive to manage matters more quietly. Even among ourselves, some
patriotic women, deserving well of their country, have made great efforts to effect a
change in this respect within their own sphere, at least; but alas! in each instance they
have, we believe, succumbed at length to general custom, a tyrant that few have the
courage to face, even in a good cause.
It must be confessed, however, that after the great turmoil is over – when the week, or
fortnight, or three weeks of scrubbing, scouring, drenching are passed, there is a moment
of delightful repose in a family; there is a refreshing consciousness that all is sweet and
clean from garret to cellar; there is a purity in the neighborhood, the same order and
cleanly freshness meet you as you cross every threshold. This is very pleasant, but it is
a pity that it should be purchased at the cost of so much previous confusion – so many
petty annoyances.

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