Insert
The source that follows is:
- Source A: 19th-century prose fiction
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
An extract from a work first published in 1899.
This extract is from early in Heart of Darkness, as Marlow arrives at a Company station in the Congo, witnesses senseless destruction and a grove where starving African labourers lie dying, before encountering an unexpectedly immaculate company accountant.
Source A
1 “I avoided a vast artificial hole somebody had been digging on the slope, the purpose of which I found it impossible to divine. It wasn’t a quarry or a sandpit, anyhow. It was just a hole. It might have been
6 connected with the philanthropic desire of giving the criminals something to do. I don’t know. Then I nearly fell into a very narrow ravine, almost no more than a scar in
11 the hillside. I discovered that a lot of imported drainage-pipes for the settlement had been tumbled in there. There wasn’t one that was not broken. It was a wanton smash-up.
16 At last I got under the trees. My purpose was to stroll into the shade for a moment; but no sooner within than it seemed to me I had stepped into the gloomy circle of some Inferno. The rapids were near, and an
21 uninterrupted, uniform, headlong, rushing noise filled the mournful stillness of the grove, where not a breath stirred, not a leaf moved, with a mysterious sound—as though the tearing pace of the launched
26 earth had suddenly become audible. “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks,
31 clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair. Another mine on the cliff went off, followed by a slight shudder of the
36 soil under my feet. The work was going on. The work! And this was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die.
41 “They were dying slowly—it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now—nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish
46 gloom. Brought from all the recesses of the coast in all the legality of time contracts, lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened, became
51 inefficient, and were then allowed to crawl away and rest. These moribund shapes were free as air—and nearly as thin. I began to distinguish the gleam of the eyes under the trees.
56 Then, glancing down, I saw a face near my hand. The black bones reclined at full length with one shoulder against the tree, and slowly the eyelids rose and the sunken eyes looked up at me, enormous and
61 vacant, a kind of blind, white flicker in the depths of the orbs, which died out slowly. The man seemed young—almost a boy—but you know with them it’s hard to tell. I found nothing else to do but to offer him one
66 of my good Swede’s ship’s biscuits I had in my pocket. The fingers closed slowly on it and held—there was no other movement and no other glance. He had tied a bit of
71 white worsted round his neck—Why? Where did he get it? Was it a badge—an ornament—a charm—a propitiatory act? Was there any idea at all connected with it? It looked startling round
76 his black neck, this bit of white thread from beyond the seas. “Near the same tree two more bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn
81 up. One, with his chin propped on his knees, stared at nothing, in an intolerable and appalling manner: his brother phantom rested its forehead, as if overcome with a great weariness; and all
86 about others were scattered in every pose of contorted collapse, as in some picture of a massacre or a pestilence. While I stood horror-struck, one of these creatures rose to his
91 hands and knees, and went off on all-fours towards the river to drink. He lapped out of his hand, then sat up in the sunlight, crossing his shins in front of him,
96 and after a time let his woolly head fall on his breastbone. “I didn’t want any more loitering in the shade, and I made haste towards the station. When near the buildings I met a white man, in such
101 an unexpected elegance of get-up that in the first moment I took him for a sort of vision. I saw a high starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket, snowy
106 trousers, a clean necktie, and varnished boots. No hat. Hair parted, brushed, oiled, under a green-lined parasol held in a big white hand. He was amazing, and had a penholder behind
111 his ear.
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 did the narrator avoid?
- a quarry
- a hole
- a sandpit
[1 mark]
1.2 Where had somebody been digging?
- in a sandpit
- in a quarry
- on the slope
[1 mark]
1.3 Where was the artificial hole that the narrator avoided?
- On the slope
- By the riverbank
- At the roadside
[1 mark]
1.4 What does the narrator say about the purpose of the hole on the slope?
- The narrator finds the purpose of the hole impossible to determine.
- The narrator states the hole is a quarry being dug for stone.
- The narrator explains the hole is a sandpit for collecting sand.
[1 mark]
Question 2
Look in detail at this extract, from lines 1 to 15 of the source:
1 “I avoided a vast artificial hole somebody had been digging on the slope, the purpose of which I found it impossible to divine. It wasn’t a quarry or a sandpit, anyhow. It was just a hole. It might have been
6 connected with the philanthropic desire of giving the criminals something to do. I don’t know. Then I nearly fell into a very narrow ravine, almost no more than a scar in
11 the hillside. I discovered that a lot of imported drainage-pipes for the settlement had been tumbled in there. There wasn’t one that was not broken. It was a wanton smash-up.
How does the writer use language here to present waste and carelessness, and the narrator’s reaction to it? 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 novel.
How has the writer structured the text to create a sense of contrast?
You could write about:
- how contrast intensifies 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 16 to the end.
In this part of the source, where the neatly dressed man appears, his clean clothes seem shocking after the scene of death. The writer suggests this man is completely cut off from the suffering around him.
To what extent do you agree and/or disagree with this statement?
In your response, you could:
- consider your impressions of the elegant white man with white cuffs
- comment on the methods the writer uses to suggest his detachment from suffering
- support your response with references to the text.
[20 marks]
Question 5
The student-run sports blog at your college is inviting short creative writing for its launch week.
Choose one of the options below for your entry.
-
Option A: Describe a velodrome during practice from your imagination. You may choose to use the picture provided for ideas:
-
Option B: Write the opening of a story about a comeback.
(24 marks for content and organisation, 16 marks for technical accuracy)
[40 marks]