Insert
The source that follows is:
- Source A: 20th-century prose fiction
- Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
An extract from a work first published in 1920.
This extract is from a D. H. Lawrence novel: as Connie accompanies her husband in their private wood, Clifford declares his wish to preserve old England, while the scars of wartime logging and the distant colliery hooters reveal industrial modernity encroaching.
Source A
1 Connie opened the woodgate, and Clifford puffed slowly through into the broad riding that ran up an incline between the clean-whipped thickets of the hazel. The wood was a remnant of the great forest where Robin
6 Hood hunted, and this riding was an old, old thoroughfare coming across country. But now, of course, it was only a riding through the private wood. The road from Mansfield swerved
11 round to the north. In the wood everything was motionless, the old leaves on the ground keeping the frost on their underside. A jay called harshly, many little
16 birds fluttered. But there was no game; no pheasants. They had been killed off during the war, and the wood had been left unprotected, till now Clifford had
21 got his gamekeeper again. Clifford loved the wood; he loved the old oak trees. He felt they were his own through generations. He wanted to protect them. He wanted this
26 place inviolate, shut off from the world. The chair chuffed slowly up the incline, rocking and jolting on the frozen
31 clods. And suddenly, on the left, came a clearing where there was nothing but a ravel of dead bracken, a thin and spindly sapling leaning here and there, big sawn stumps, showing their tops and their
36 grasping roots, lifeless. And patches of blackness where the woodmen had burned the brushwood and rubbish. This was one of the places that Sir Geoffrey had cut during the war for
41 trench timber. The whole knoll, which rose softly on the right of the riding, was denuded and strangely forlorn. On the crown of the knoll where the oaks had
46 stood, now was bareness; and from there you could look out over the trees to the colliery railway, and the new works at Stacks Gate. Connie had stood and looked, it was a breach in the
51 pure seclusion of the wood. It let in the world. But she didn't tell Clifford. This denuded place always made Clifford curiously angry. He had been
56 through the war, had seen what it meant. But he didn't get really angry till he saw this bare hill. He was having it replanted. But it made him hate Sir Geoffrey.
61 Clifford sat with a fixed face as the chair slowly mounted. When they came to the top of the rise he stopped; he would not risk the long and very jolty
66 downslope. He sat looking at the greenish sweep of the riding downwards, a clear way through the bracken and oaks. It swerved at the bottom of the hill and disappeared; but it had such a lovely
71 easy curve, of knights riding and ladies on palfreys. "I consider this is really the heart of England," said Clifford to Connie, as
76 he sat there in the dim February sunshine. "Do you?" she said, seating herself, in her blue knitted dress, on a stump by the path.
81 "I do! this is the old England, the heart of it; and I intend to keep it intact."
86 "Oh yes!" said Connie. But, as she said it she heard the eleven-o'clock hooters at Stacks Gate colliery. Clifford was too used to the sound to notice. "I want this wood perfect ... untouched. I want nobody to trespass in
91 it," said Clifford. There was a certain pathos. The wood still had some of the mystery of wild,
96 old England; but Sir Geoffrey's cuttings during the war had given it a blow. How still the trees were, with their crinkly, innumerable twigs against the sky, and their grey, obstinate trunks rising from the
101 brown bracken! How safely the birds flitted among them! And once there had been deer, and archers, and monks padding along on asses. The place remembered, still
106 remembered. Clifford sat in the pale sun, with the light on his smooth, rather blond hair, his reddish full face inscrutable.
111 "I mind more, not having a son, when I come here, than any other time," he said.
116 "But the wood is older than your family," said Connie gently. "Quite!" said Clifford. "But we've preserved it. Except for us it would go ... it would be gone already, like the rest of the forest. One must
121 preserve some of the old England!" "Must one?" said Connie. "If it has to be preserved, and preserved against the
126 new England? It's sad, I know." "If some of the old England isn't preserved, there'll be no England at all," said Clifford. "And we who have this kind of property, and the
131 feeling for it, must preserve it." There was a sad pause.
136 "Yes, for a little while," said Connie.
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 Who puffed slowly through?
- Clifford
- Connie
- Robin Hood
[1 mark]
1.2 According to the narrator, what kind of route is the riding?
- A very old thoroughfare across country
- A newly cut track for timber carts
- A narrow bridleway leading to the village
[1 mark]
1.3 According to the narrator, how is the riding that Connie and Clifford enter described?
- An old thoroughfare across country
- A newly cut cart-track through the wood
- A private carriage drive
[1 mark]
1.4 Which description best matches the route Connie and Clifford enter after Connie opens the woodgate?
- A broad path rising between hazel thickets
- A narrow path descending into a hollow
- A flat path running beside a stream
[1 mark]
Question 2
Look in detail at this extract, from lines 26 to 40 of the source:
26 place inviolate, shut off from the world. The chair chuffed slowly up the incline, rocking and jolting on the frozen
31 clods. And suddenly, on the left, came a clearing where there was nothing but a ravel of dead bracken, a thin and spindly sapling leaning here and there, big sawn stumps, showing their tops and their
36 grasping roots, lifeless. And patches of blackness where the woodmen had burned the brushwood and rubbish. This was one of the places that Sir Geoffrey had cut during the war for
How does the writer use language here to create a bleak picture of the clearing and its effect on the wood? 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 poignancy?
You could write about:
- how poignancy deepens 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 71 to the end.
In this part of the source, Clifford sees himself as a powerful protector of 'old England'. The writer suggests this is just a fantasy by making him seem deaf to the sounds of the modern, industrial world all around him.
To what extent do you agree and/or disagree with this statement?
In your response, you could:
- consider your impressions of Clifford's desire to protect 'old England'
- comment on the methods the writer uses to portray Clifford's ideas as a fantasy
- support your response with references to the text.
[20 marks]
Question 5
Your local amateur theatre is collecting creative writing for the programme of its next mystery play.
Choose one of the options below for your entry.
-
Option A: Describe a theatre prop room, filled with strange and interesting objects from your imagination. You may choose to use the picture provided for ideas:
-
Option B: Write the opening of a story about a prop that goes missing.
(24 marks for content and organisation, 16 marks for technical accuracy)
[40 marks]