Insert
The source that follows is:
- Source A: 19th-century prose fiction
- The Open Door by Margaret Oliphant
An extract from a work first published in 1882.
This extract is from Margaret Oliphant’s The Open Door (1882). The narrator sees a portrait of a very young woman and, when his father reveals she is his mother, he struggles to reconcile the innocent image with his understanding of motherhood.
Source A
1 It was a full-length portrait of a very young woman--I might say a girl scarcely twenty--in a white dress, made in a very simple old fashion, though I was too little accustomed to female costume to be able to fix the date. It might have been a hundred years old, or twenty, for aught I knew. The face had an expression of youth, candor, and simplicity more than any face I had ever
6 seen,--or so, at least in my surprise, I thought. The eyes were a little wistful, with something which was almost anxiety which at least was not content--in them; a faint, almost imperceptible, curve in the lids. The complexion was of a dazzling fairness, the hair light, but the eyes dark, which gave individuality to the face. It would have been as lovely had the
11 eyes been blue,--probably more so,--but their darkness gave a touch of character, a slight discord, which made the harmony finer. It was not, perhaps, beautiful in the highest sense of the word. The girl must have been too young, too slight, too little developed for actual beauty; but a face which so invited love and confidence I never saw. One smiled at it with
16 instinctive affection. “What a sweet face!” I said. “What a lovely girl! Who is she? Is this one of the relations you were speaking of on the other side?” My father made me no reply. He stood aside, looking at it as if he knew it too well to require to look,--as if the picture was already in his eyes. “Yes,” he
21 said, after an interval, with a long-drawn breath, “she was a lovely girl, as you say.” “Was?--then she is dead. What a pity!” I said; “what a pity! so young and so sweet!”
26 We stood gazing at her thus, in her beautiful stillness and calm,--two men, the younger of us full-grown and conscious of many experiences, the other an old man,--before this impersonation of tender youth. At length he said, with a slight tremulousness in his voice, “Does nothing suggest to you who she is,
31 Phil?” I turned round to look at him with profound astonishment, but he turned away from my look. A sort of quiver passed over his face. “That is your mother,” he said, and walked suddenly away, leaving me there.
36 My mother! I stood for a moment in a kind of consternation before the white-robed innocent creature, to me no more than a child; then a sudden laugh broke from
41 me, without any will of mine something ludicrous, as well as something awful, was in it. When the laugh was over, I found myself with tears in my eyes, gazing, holding my breath. The soft features seemed to melt, the lips to move, the anxiety in the eyes to become a personal inquiry. Ah, no! nothing of the kind; only because of the water in mine. My mother! oh, fair and gentle
46 creature, scarcely woman, how could any man’s voice call her by that name! I had little idea enough of what it meant,--had heard it laughed at, scoffed at, reverenced, but never had learned to place it even among the ideal powers of life. Yet if it meant anything at all, what it meant was worth thinking of. What did she ask, looking at me with those eyes? What would she have said if
51 “those lips had language”? If I had known her only as Cowper did--with a child’s recollection--there might have been some thread, some faint but comprehensible link, between us; but now all that I felt was the curious incongruity. Poor child! I said to myself; so sweet a creature: poor little tender soul! as if she had been a little sister, a child of mine,--but my
56 mother! I cannot tell how long I stood looking at her, studying the candid, sweet face, which surely had germs in it of everything that was good and beautiful; and sorry, with a profound regret, that she had died and never carried these promises to fulfillment. Poor girl! poor people who had loved her! These were my thoughts; with a curious vertigo and giddiness of my whole
61 being in the sense of a mysterious relationship, which it was beyond my power to understand.
Questions
Instructions
- Answer all questions.
- Use black ink or black ball point pen.
- Fill in the boxes on this page.
- You must answer the questions in the spaces provided.
- Do not write outside the box around each page or on blank pages.
- Do all rough work in this book. Cross through any work you do not want to be marked.
- You must refer to the insert booklet provided.
- You must not use a dictionary.
Information
- The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
- Time allowed: 1 hour 45 minutes
- The maximum mark for this paper is 80.
- There are 40 marks for Section A and 40 marks for Section B.
- You are reminded of the need for good English and clear presentation in your answers.
- You will be assessed on the quality of your reading in Section A.
- You will be assessed on the quality of your writing in Section B.
Advice
- You are advised to spend about 15 minutes reading through the source and all five questions you have to answer.
- You should make sure you leave sufficient time to check your answers.
Section A: Reading
Answer all questions in this section. You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section.
Question 1
Read again the first part of the source, from lines 1 to 5.
Answer all parts of this question.
Choose one answer for each question.
1.1 What kind of portrait does the narrator describe?
- a full-length portrait
- a half-length portrait
- a miniature portrait
[1 mark]
1.2 What is the dress like, according to the narrator?
- a white dress, made in a very simple old fashion
- a dark dress, made in a very recent modern fashion
- a coloured dress, made in a fashionable new style
[1 mark]
1.3 What does the narrator say about fixing the date of the costume?
- too little accustomed to female costume to fix the date
- able to date the costume with complete certainty
- sure the costume belongs to the present day
[1 mark]
1.4 What expression does the narrator notice in the face?
- youth, candor, and simplicity
- anger, fear, and suspicion
- pride, cunning, and severity
[1 mark]
Question 2
Look in detail at this extract, from lines 6 to 15 of the source:
6 seen,--or so, at least in my surprise, I thought. The eyes were a little wistful, with something which was almost anxiety which at least was not content--in them; a faint, almost imperceptible, curve in the lids. The complexion was of a dazzling fairness, the hair light, but the eyes dark, which gave individuality to the face. It would have been as lovely had the
11 eyes been blue,--probably more so,--but their darkness gave a touch of character, a slight discord, which made the harmony finer. It was not, perhaps, beautiful in the highest sense of the word. The girl must have been too young, too slight, too little developed for actual beauty; but a face which so invited love and confidence I never saw. One smiled at it with
How does the writer use language here to describe the young woman’s face and the effect it has on the narrator? You could include the writer’s choice of:
- words and phrases
- language features and techniques
- sentence forms.
[8 marks]
Question 3
You now need to think about the structure of the source as a whole. This text is from the start of a story.
How has the writer structured the text to create a sense of revelation?
You could write about:
- how revelation unfolds by the end of the source
- how the writer uses structure to create an effect
- the writer's use of any other structural features, such as changes in mood, tone or perspective.
[8 marks]
Question 4
For this question focus on the second part of the source, from line 31 to the end.
In this part of the source, where the narrator laughs after finding out the portrait is of his mother, his reaction seems strange. The writer suggests this is not a cruel laugh, but a sign of his complete shock and confusion.
To what extent do you agree and/or disagree with this statement?
In your response, you could:
- consider your impressions of the narrator's strange laugh
- comment on the methods the writer uses to suggest the narrator's shock and confusion
- support your response with references to the text.
[20 marks]
Question 5
At a pop-up exhibition under the railway arches, short creative pieces will be displayed about life above and below the wires.
Choose one of the options below for your entry.
-
Option A: Describe a city rooftop crowded with aerials and dishes from your imagination. You may choose to use the picture provided for ideas:
-
Option B: Write the opening of a story about a city-wide power cut.
(24 marks for content and organisation, 16 marks for technical accuracy)
[40 marks]