SERANGOON JUNIOR COLLEGE

JC2 MID-YEAR EXAMINATION 2014

ENGLISH LITERATURE
HIGHER 1
8811/01
PAPER 1:
READING LITERATURE

TUESDAY
TIME:
VENUE:

20 MAY 2014

3 HOURS

0800 1100
B1-2

Additional materials: Answer paper

Set texts may be taken into the examination room. They may bear underlining or
highlighting. Any kind of folding or flagging of papers in texts (e.g. the use of post-its, tape
flags or paper clips) is not permitted.
INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
Write your name, civics group on every answer sheet.
Write in dark blue or black pen on both sides of the paper.
You may use a soft pencil for any diagrams or graphs.
Do not use staples, paper clips, highlighters, glue or correction fluid.
Write your answers on the separate answer paper provided.
Answer three questions.
You are reminded of the need for good English and clear presentation in your answers.
At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together.
All questions in this paper carry equal marks.

This question paper consists of 8 printed pages and 0 blank pages. [Turn over]

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Section A
Answer one question in this section
1
Either

(a)

Write a critical commentary on the following poem, considering in detail

ways in which your response is shaped by language, style and form.
The Sisters
After hot loveless nights, when cold winds stream
Sprinkling the frost and dew, before the light,
Bored with the foolish things that girls must dream
Because their beds are empty of delight,
Two sisters rise and strip. Out from the night
Their horses run to their low-whistled pleas
Vast phantom shapes with eyeballs rolling white,
That sneeze a fiery stream about their knees:
Through the crisp manes their stealthy prowling hands,
Stronger than curbs, in slow caresses rove,
They gallop down across the milk-white sands
And wade far out into the sleeping cove:
The frost stings sweetly with a burning kiss
As intimate as love, as cold as death:
Their lips, whereon delicious tremours hiss
Fume with the ghostly pollen of their breath.
Far out on the grey silence of the flood
They watch the dawn in smouldering gyres1 expand
Beyond them: and the day burns through their blood
Like a white candle through a shuttered hand.
(Roy Campbell, 1930)

Rotating ocean currents

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Or

(b)

Write a critical commentary on the following poem, considering in detail ways

in which your response is shaped by language, style and form.
Beach Glass
While you walk the waters edge,
turning over concepts
I cant envision, the honking buoy
serves notice that at any time
the wind may change,
the reef-bell clatters
its treble monotone, deaf as Cassandra2
to any note but warning. The ocean,
cumbered by no business more urgent
than keeping open old accounts
that never balanced,
goes on shuffling its millenniums
of quartz, granite, and basalt.
It behaves
toward the permutations of novelty
driftwood and shipwreck, last nights
beer cans, spilt oil, the coughed-up
residue of plasticwith random
impartiality, playing catch or tag
or touch-last like a terrier,
turning the same thing over and over,
over and over. For the ocean, nothing
is beneath consideration.
The houses
of so many mussels and periwinkles
have been abandoned here, its hopeless
to know which to salvage. Instead
I keep a lookout for beach glass
amber of Budweiser, chrysoprase
of Almadn and Gallo3, lapis
by way of (no getting around it,
Im afraid) Phillips
Milk of Magnesia4, with now and then a rare
translucent turquoise or blurred amethyst
of no known origin.
The process
goes on forever: they came from sand,
they go back to gravel,
along with the treasuries
of Murano5, the buttressed
astonishments of Chartres,
which even now are readying

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Princess from Greek mythology with the power of prophecy but the curse of never being
believed
3
Budweiser, Almaden and Gallo: brands of alcohol
4
A laxative
5
Murano is an island in Venice known for glasswork; Chartres in a town in France known
for its medieval cathedral with stained glass windows

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for being turned over and over as gravely
and gradually as an intellect
engaged in the hazardous
redefinition of structures
no one has yet looked at.
(Amy Clampitt, 1983)

Section B
Answer one question in this section
3
Either

(a)

Critically comment on the significance and use of setting in The Remains of

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the Day.
Or

(b)

Write a critical commentary on the depiction of Stevens character in the

extract below, relating it to the novels larger themes.

I am glad to be able to recall numerous occasions when the silver at

Darlington Hall had a pleasing impact upon observers. For instance, I recall
Lady Astor remarking, not without a certain bitterness, that our silver 'was
probably unrivalled'. I recall also watching Mr George Bernard Shaw, the
renowned playwright, at dinner one evening, examining closely the dessert
spoon before him, holding it up to the light and comparing its surface to that
of a nearby platter, quite oblivious to the company around him. But perhaps
the instance I recall with most satisfaction today concerns the night that a
certain distinguished personage a cabinet minister, shortly afterwards to
become foreign secretary paid a very 'off the record' visit to the house. In
fact, now that the subsequent fruits of those visits have become well
documented, there seems little reason not to reveal that I am talking of Lord
Halifax.
As things turned out, that particular visit was simply the first of a whole
series of such 'unofficial' meetings between Lord Halifax and the German
Ambassador of that time, Herr Ribbentrop. But on that first night, Lord Halifax
had arrived in a mood of great wariness; virtually his first words on being
shown in were: "Really, Darlington, I don't know what you've put me up to
here. I know I shall be sorry."

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Herr Ribbentrop not being expected for a further hour or so, his lordship
had suggested to his guest a tour of Darlington Hall a strategy which had
helped many a nervous visitor to relax. However, as I went about my
business, all I could hear for some time was Lord Halifax, in various parts of
the building, continuing to express his doubts about the evening ahead, and
Lord Darlington trying in vain to reassure him. But then at one point I
overheard Lord Halifax exclaiming: "My goodness, Darlington, the silver in
this house is a delight." I was of course very pleased to hear this at the time,
but what was for me the truly satisfying corollary to this episode came two or
three days later, when Lord Darlington remarked to me: "By the way, Stevens,
Lord Halifax was jolly impressed with the silver the other night. Put him into a
quite different frame of mind altogether." These were I recollect it clearly
his lordship's actual words and so it is not simply my fantasy that the state of
the silver had made a small, but significant contribution towards the easing of
relations between Lord Halifax and Herr Ribbentrop that evening.

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It is probably apt at this point to say a few words concerning Herr

Ribbentrop. It is, of course, generally accepted today that Herr Ribbentrop
was a trickster: that it was Hitler's plan throughout those years to deceive
England for as long as possible concerning his true intentions, and that Herr
Ribbentrop's sole mission in our country was to orchestrate this deception. As
I say, this is the commonly held view and I do not wish to differ with it here. It

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is, however, rather irksome to have to hear people talking today as though
they were never for a moment taken in by Herr Ribbentrop as though Lord
Darlington was alone in believing Herr Ribbentrop an honourable gentleman
and developing a working relationship with him. The truth is that Herr
Ribbentrop was, throughout the thirties, a well-regarded figure, even a
glamorous one, in the very best houses. Particularly around 1936 and 1937, I
can recall all the talk in the servants' hall from visiting staff revolving around
'the German Ambassador', and it was clear from what was said that many of
the most distinguished ladies and gentlemen in this country were quite
enamoured of him. It is, as I say, irksome to have to hear the way these same
people now talk of those times, and in particular, what some have said
concerning his lordship. The great hypocrisy of these persons would be
instantly obvious to you were you to see just a few of their own guest lists
from those days; you would see then not only the extent to which Herr
Ribbentrop dined at these same persons' tables, but that he often did so as
guest of honour.
(Day Three, Morning)

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Section C
Answer one question in this section
2
Either

(a)

The characters in The Duchess of Malfi exhibit a distinct lack of awareness,

which inevitably proves to be fatal.
To what extent to you agree with the above assessment of the play?

Or

(b)

DOCTOR

PESCARA
DOCTOR

FERDINAND
MALATESTE
FERDINAND
MALATESTE
FERDINAND
MALATESTE
FERDINAND
MALATESTE
FERDINAND
MALATESTE
FERDINAND

Write a critical commentary on the following extract, paying particular

attention to the presentation of Ferdinands character and relating it to the
larger concerns of the play.
I'll tell you.
In those that are possess'd with't there o'erflows
Such melancholy humour they imagine
Themselves to be transformed into wolves,
Steal forth to churchyards in the dead of night,
And dig dead bodies up; as two nights since
One met the Duke, 'bout midnight in a lane
Behind St. Mark's Church, with the leg of a man
Upon his shoulder, and he howled fearfully,
Said he was a wolf, only the difference
Was, a wolf's skin was hairy on the outside,
His on the inside; bade them take their swords,
Rip up his flesh, and try. Straight, I was sent for,
And, having ministered unto him, found his grace
Very well recovered.
I am glad on't.
Yet not without some fear
Of a relapse. If he grow to his fit again,
I'll go a nearer way to work with him
Than ever Paracelsus dreamed of: if
They'll give me leave, I'll buffet his madness out of him.
[Enter FERDINAND, MALATESTE, CARDINAL, and BOSOLA (follows
and watches apart)]
Stand aside; he comes.
Leave me.
Why doth your lordship love this solitariness?
Eagles commonly fly alone, They are crows, daws,
and starlings that flock together.--Look, what's that follows me?
Nothing, my lord.
Yes.
'Tis your shadow.
Stay it; let it not haunt me.
Impossible, if you move, and the sun shine.
I will throttle it.
[Throws himself down on his shadow.]
O, my lord, you are angry with nothing.
You are a fool: how is't possible I should catch
my shadow unless I fall upon 't? When I go to hell, I
mean to carry a bribe; for, look you, good gifts evermore

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PESCARA
FERDINAND
PESCARA
FERDINAND

CARDINAL
FERDINAND
DOCTOR
FERDINAND
PESCARA
FERDINAND
DOCTOR
FERDINAND
DOCTOR
FERDINAND
DOCTOR
CARDINAL
DOCTOR

FERDINAND

make way for the worst persons.

Rise, good my lord.
I am studying the art of patience.
'Tis a noble virtue.
To drive six snails before me from this town to
Moscow; neither use goad nor whip to them, but let them
take their own time--the patientest man i'th' world
match me for an experiment!-- and I'll crawl after like a
sheep-biter.
Force him up.
[They raise him.]
Use me well, you were best. What I have done, I
have done, I'll confess nothing.
Now let me come to him.--Are you mad, my lord,
are you out of your princely wits?
What's he?
Your doctor.
Let me have his beard saw'd off, and his eyebrows
filed more civil.
I must do mad tricks with him, for that's the only way
on't. -- I have brought your grace a salamander's skin, to
keep you from sun-burning.
I have cruel sore eyes.
The white of a cockatrix's egg is present remedy.
Let it be new-laid one, you were best-Hide me from him! Physicians are like kings,
they brook no contradiction.
Now he begins to fear me; now let me be alone with him.
How now? Put off your gown?
Let me have some forty urinals filled with rose-water;
he and I'll go pelt one another with them.-- Now he
begins to fear me.--Can you fetch a frisk, sir?-- Let him
go, let him go upon my peril: I find by his eye he stands
in awe of me; I'll make him as tame as a dormouse.
Can you fetch your frisks, sir?--I will stamp him
into a cullis, flay off his skin, to cover one of the anatomies
this rogue hath set i'th' cold yonder in Barber-Chirugeon's
Hall.--Hence, hence! You are all of you
like beasts for sacrifice; there's nothing left of you but
tongue and belly, flattery and lechery.
[Exit.]
(Act 5 scene 2)

END OF PAPER

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