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UK GCSE MAY 2010 : Higher Tier, English Paper 1

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General Certificate of Secondary Education 2010 Paper 1 Higher Tier G2903 English [G2903] TUESDAY 8 JUNE, MORNING TIME 2 hours. INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES Write your Centre Number and Candidate Number on the Answer Booklet provided. Answer all four questions. Answer the three questions in Section A and the one question in Section B. Spend one hour on Section A and one hour on Section B. INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES The total mark for this paper is 60. Figures in brackets printed down the right-hand side of pages indicate the marks awarded to each question. 5302 Section A This section tests reading skills. Spend about 15 minutes reading the passage carefully. Answer all three questions. The passage is set in Dublin in 1916. Europe is in the middle of World War One. Fighting has also broken out in Dublin between the forces who are fighting for Irish independence and the British Army. Jimmy Conway is forced to cross the city to find food for his family but is prevented from getting back home for several days because of the fighting and as he is ill with a fever. You, Martin, the sergeant said. Take this boy across the river. It was what Jimmy had been hoping for, but the suddenness of it took his breath away. He d been trying to think how he might persuade the soldiers to do this very thing. Now it was just happening. Private Martin saluted the sergeant and then set off towards Tara Street, and Jimmy followed him without looking back. Tara Street was quiet. There were only a few soldiers there, and the guns in the tower of the fire station were silent. From here Jimmy could see the smoking, gutted buildings at the Sackville Street end of Eden Quay. Some of them were still burning and black smoke and flames rose in the sky above Sackville Street. The whole street must be burning! Jimmy said, awestruck. It was one thing to hear about it, another to see the flames with your own eyes. He d been walking there only a few days ago. The south end of it anyway, Private Martin said. He didn t sound pleased by the fact. Private Martin offered to carry the sacks for a while. Jimmy didn t want to part with them for a second, but he told himself not to be an idiot. He eased the belt from around his neck and put the sacks on the ground. Private Martin picked them up and swung them across his shoulder. Good Lord! he said, feeling the weight. How far have you carried these? From Northumberland Road. The soldier grinned. You know, he said, you should join the army when you grow up. Carrying a pack would be no bother to you. No! said Jimmy. I ll join no army! He regretted the words instantly. Private Martin might feel insulted. But to Jimmy s surprise the soldier nodded thoughtfully. Aye lad, he said. Maybe you re right. They crossed the river at Butt Bridge. I think I ll be alright from here, Jimmy said. Private Martin looked at him doubtfully, but he nodded. Okay, old son, he said. But go carefully. Private Martin put the sacks back on Jimmy s shoulders. They seemed lighter now that he was close to home. Small and shabby though it might be, home called him now in a voice that spoke of safety and peace and a place to sleep for a very long time. Jimmy reached his own house without seeing a soul. The people of the slums, after five days of war, were cowering in their houses, hoping that the fighting would stop soon. 5302 2 5 10 15 20 25 30 [Turn over Jimmy struggled up the steps but had to rest again in the dark hallway before starting up the stairs. He d run all the way from Marlborough Street, tired and laden though he was. He didn t know where he found the strength, but it was the last that he had. He climbed the stairs very slowly, staggering with each step like a drunken man; but he didn t care. He only hoped he didn t pass out before reaching his own door. When he finally reached the door he stood for a moment just looking at it, breathing heavily and swaying. The step forward that he took was less a step than a lurch. His hand, reaching for the door-handle, didn t feel as if it belonged to him at all. It was all numb. He had to struggle with the handle, and in the end he needed both hands to turn it. Then he staggered forward, pushing the door as he fell into the room. Jimmy dropped to the floor and lay there, looking up. Yes, there was the sagging bed, there was the big mattress. By the fireplace was his Ma s rocking chair. On the mantelpiece the old clock stood silent. Under its glass cover the hands on its face stood poised at five minutes to twelve. He was home. Three people sat at the table and stared at him with wide eyes. For a long time neither he nor they moved nor spoke: they just looked at each other in shock. Sarah and Josie stared open-mouthed at their brother, as though the sight of him frightened them. Beside them, Ma looked fearful. Maybe they thought he was a ghost. Ma looked very frail, her face lined with grief and worry, her skin pale. Her eyes were red from crying, the whiteness of her skin exaggerating the colour. I m back, Jimmy said finally. I got food. I had a fever but I m better. I couldn t get across the river. I got the food from Ella s. Mrs. Breen gave me cake The spell broke. Ma screamed, frightening Jimmy into silence. But it was a scream of joy, a scream in which he heard his own name. Ma jumped to her feet. Her chair fell, ignored, to the floor. She knelt down and put her head on his shoulder, sobbing with relief and happiness. Over Ma s shoulder Jimmy saw the other two still staring. It was as though they knew that for now they had no part in the scene. This was between Jimmy and his Ma. After a long time Ma stopped crying. She stood up and wiped her eyes with her apron, keeping one hand still on Jimmy s shoulder. It was as if she could only believe he was really there as long as she touched him. She looked closely at his face and saw the exhaustion there. She became suddenly cool and businesslike then, and when Jimmy tried to begin a faltering account of his week s adventures she hushed him instantly. Later, she said. Tell me later. Rest now. You re worn out. Lie down, she ordered, her policeman s voice returning to her suddenly. He didn t lie down so much as fall on to the mattress. He was still wearing all of his clothes, even his boots. For a moment he listened to the hum of voices as his sisters finally began to speak. They all started at once, chattering excitedly. Then Jimmy heard nothing, and saw nothing, but slept more deeply and more peacefully than he had ever done in the whole twelve years of his life. Later, when Ma came to look at him, she found he was smiling in his sleep. She sat by his bed for a long time watching him, ignoring the excited whispers of the others as they examined the treasures he d brought. The smile never left Jimmy s face. Ma looked around the room. Apart from the dresser there wasn t much to look at. There was very little furniture in the Conways room. There was the big bed in the far corner, where Ma slept with Josie; when Da was home he shared the bed with Ma, and Josie slept with the other two on the mattress. In the middle of the room was the kitchen table with its battered chairs. The old rocking chair by the fireplace was Ma s. Like the old clock on the mantelpiece, it had come down to her from her mother. The clock was what Ma called an heirloom. It didn t work anymore, but it was still a lovely thing, and even valuable. The 5302 3 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 [Turn over casing had pieces of real marble in it, and the metal work was real brass. There was even 85 silver in it, and pieces of real cut crystal. Ma had often pawned it in the past with old Mr Meyer, who d kept a pawn shop in Great Britain Street before he d been driven out. More than once the clock had kept them from hunger. That ould clock, Da said one time, is a better earner nor I am. Outside, the guns screamed their deadly messages into the falling dark. Buildings burned 90 and crumbled into rubble, and men hunted each other in a deadly game whose outcome meant very little to her. Whoever might win, she would still live in a single tenement room and fend as best she could for her son and daughters. She had no choice but to wait, hoping for her husband s safe return from the bigger war,* suspecting that if he did get back he 95 would probably involve himself in this fresh fight. Let men fight each other if they must: they always had, and Ma supposed they always would. She too had a war to fight, but it was a war that made sense: the fight to feed her children and keep her family whole and safe. It was a secret war without the glory attached, a war just as old and just as dangerous as any fought by men, and the results of losing in 100 that war were just as terrible. The smiling boy sleeping now beside her had spent this week fighting in her war. Later, maybe, he d join in the wars of men, though she hoped he would have more sense. But this time at least he d enlisted in her army. She didn t need to know all the details of his week s adventures, though she was certain that she d hear them all in time. She didn t even know 105 what things he had succeeded in bringing back. He d gone out and done what he could, sickening her with worry; he d come back bearing gifts, returning her to life. The most important thing was that he d come back. Ignoring the sounds of her daughters, and the growling of the men s war that leaked in through the cracked window of the tenement room, Ma smiled a smile that echoed her 110 sleeping son s. Her son had been gone, and now he was returned to her. Tomorrow, things might be different; tomorrow, things might be better or worse. That was the way of the world. But for this day at least, in the war that for her was the only real war, she had won. * the bigger war is a reference to World War One that was raging in Europe Adapted from The Guns of Easter by Gerard Whelan, published by The O Brien Press Ltd, 1996 ISBN 0862784492 5302 4 [Turn over 1 Spend about 10 minutes on this question. Use evidence from lines 33 89 to support your answer. How does the writer create a sense that the Conways home is a poor, deprived place? 2 Spend about 15 minutes on this question. Use evidence from line 49 to the end of the passage. What do you learn about Ma? 3 [8] [10] Spend about 20 minutes on this question. Use evidence from the whole passage. How has the writer tried to capture and sustain the reader s interest? You should consider how the writer: develops an intriguing situation creates interesting characters uses descriptive words and phrases. [12] TURN OVER FOR SECTION B 5302 5 [Turn over Section B This section tests writing skills: to review, analyse and comment. Write in a way that suits this type of task. To answer this question effectively, you should aim to write at least two sides. Leave enough time to re-read your work so that you can make any changes you feel are necessary. 4 Consider the following issue: Body image is a big thing in today s world. As a result, teenagers are under too much pressure to look good. The opinions listed below raise a series of points about body image. The examiner wants you to review the points that you consider to be important. Analyse these in an extended piece of writing. You are also expected to include your own comments and conclusions on the topic. It s not easy for young people to feel good when perfect, airbrushed models stare back at them from every magazine cover and television screen. I like keeping fit and eating well. It s important to look good and remain healthy. Our image of beauty is really scary. My thirteen-year-old niece has talked about dieting. I don t ever remember thinking about my weight at that age. I don t want to watch plain and overweight people when I switch on my television. Thinner and more attractive bodies have become more popular in the media because that is what people want to see. [30] THIS IS THE END OF THE QUESTION PAPER 5302 6 [Turn over Permission to reproduce all copyright material has been applied for. In some cases, efforts to contact copyright holders may have been unsuccessful and CCEA will be happy to rectify any omissions of acknowledgement in future if notified. 1847-053-1 [Turn over

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