THE HERITAGE GIRLS SCHOOL

Grade 10

Name: Date:

Read Passage A carefully, and then answer Questions 1 and 2 on the Question Paper.

Passage A
In this passage, two companions are traveling through the Haraz region of Yemen. Their
journey takes them to a wadi, a dry river valley.
August 13: The mountains of the Heraz
In the morning we were stopped as we approached a tented encampment by armed
tribesmen gesturing with their rifles. The driver stopped some way from them and got out. He
bent to pick up some sand, then stood and let it run through his fingers, and showed his
empty hand, palm out, to the Beduin.
‘I show that I have no weapon,’ he remarked to Harriet and me. 5
‘But haven’t you got a weapon?’ I asked, thinking of the rifles I had seen lying on the
floor of the vehicle.
‘Yes, of course. Everyone has guns here. But I don’t show my gun. I say I come in
peace.’
The tribes people let us approach their tents and Harriet and I breathed more easily. I 10
remember we dismounted and drank cardamom-flavoured coffee with them from tiny cups,
sitting on a carpet under the roof of a tent with three sides.
I am overwhelmed by this country. It is so beautiful, in a savage way. The people are
like the country, crowding around one in the streets.
‘Britani? You Engleesh? I speek little Engleesh? Manchester United? Good? Yes?’ 15
And you smile and say something or other, like the phrase the driver taught us: ‘Al-Yemen
balad jameel’ (The Yemen is a beautiful country).
And they nod back and smile, delighted to hear any word of their own language
spoken even if they do not understand what you are trying to say, as friendly as could be. At
the same time there is a sense that the friendliness could turn in a heartbeat to violence if 20
they thought you were an enemy.
We drove into the mountains of the Haraz, which rise in huge ramparts above
terraced slopes where farmers eke out a basic existence growing millet and maize. From
below it looks impossible for anyone to penetrate the mountains on foot, let alone in a
vehicle. But, as we had noticed before, cunning tracks made their way round the side of huge 25
shoulders of hillside, snaking between boulders the size of churches, careering down loose
and crumbling slopes and up the other side. Harriet had her eyes tight shut most of the time
on the drive in, and l could hardly bear to look out of the window myself. An error of six inches
by the driver would have had us off the edge of the track, bouncing down on the roof of the
car into the valley below. But our driver, Ibrahim, a tall bearded man in a maroon turban, 30
check shirt and jeans, drove one-handed while he smoked incessant cigarettes with the
other, and the wheels of the Toyota scraped the edges of the track but never quite went over.
Suddenly we went from bright sun into thick mist, and drops of water covered the
windows and windscreen. We could hardly see twenty yards in front, but then the mist began
to clear. In front of us we caught glimpses of a fortified village standing on a prow of rock. We 35
drove up the track to the village. Perhaps a hundred tower houses stood on top of a cliff, with
another cliff above the village soaring up into the mist. It made me think of some forgotten,
hidden world from a childhood story. We drove through a gate in the walls surrounding the
village, and along narrow lanes of sand and gravel. It was as if we had travelled back in time
hundreds of years. The streets were empty, but occasionally a child would peer at us from a 40
darkened doorway. A few chickens scattered before the wheels of our Land Cruiser.
Out the other side of the village, Ibrahim drove us down the bed of a wadi and as far
along it as he could get the Land Cruiser, which was a lot further than I thought we could
have managed. Then he went and sat on the ground on the shady side of the vehicle, his
 back propped against it, and let us continue on foot. Soon the wadi became steeper, and as 45
we turned a corner in the canyon, we had paused to catch our breath and take in the
marvellous view, when Harriet caught sight of movement behind her. Someone was coming.
Harriet turned round, and we both saw a girl walking towards us. She was dark-
skinned and thin, dressed in brightly coloured robes of greens and pinks, and she wore a
headscarf of a deep rose colour. In that barren place the vividness of her dress was all the 50
more striking. Balanced on her head with apparent ease, a pitcher sparkled in the sun like a
shock of silver hair, and in her hand she carried something. As we watched her approach, I
saw that she had come from a small house, not much more than a cave, which had been built
into the side of the mountain wall.
As the girl approached she gave a shy smile and said, ‘Salaam alaikum,’ and we 55
replied, ‘Wa alaikum as salaam,’ as Ibrahim had taught us. She took the pitcher from where it
was balanced on her head, kneeled on the ground, and gestured to us to sit. She poured
water from the pitcher into two small tin cups, and handed them to us. Then she reached into
her robe and drew out a flat package of greaseproof paper from which she withdrew a thin,
round piece of bread, almost like a large flat biscuit. She broke off two pieces, and handed 60
one to each of us, and gestured to us to eat and drink. The water and the bread were both
delicious. We smiled and mimed our thanks until I remembered the Arabic word, ‘Shukran.’
When we declined any further refreshment after a second cup of water she rose to her feet,
murmured some word of farewell, and went back to the house she had come from.

1 You are Harriet. It is the end of your day in the mountains of the Haraz, and you have found
your time there rather stressful and difficult. You have met another traveller in your hostel in
the evening, and you give them an account of your day.

In your account you:

 tell them about your impressions of the places you have seen
 explain your feelings about the people you have met and their customs
 share what you have learned about yourself from your experiences.

Write the words of your account.

Base your talk on what you have read in Passage A. Address all three bullet points. Be
careful to use your own words.

Begin your account: ‘Well, I’ve certainly had a really memorable day, but I’m not sure how
I’m going to cope staying here for the rest of the week!’

Write between 1½ and 2 sides, allowing for the size of your handwriting.

Up to 15 marks are available for the content of your answer, and up to 5 marks for the
quality of your writing.
Responses might include the following ideas:

A1 – impressions of places

Idea Detail Possible development

The lowlands before they enter the mountains
Beautiful Credit comments which display
scenery an understanding of the
‘savage’ nature of the
landscape
Barren Difficulty of growing crops; dull
greys and browns (in contrast
to the girl’s brightly coloured
clothes)
The place is beautiful but too
immense, steep, barren and
dangerous
Dusty so that your eyes sting; thirsty
(could infer from the explicit mention of
two drinks in the passage that these
were the only offered)
 The journey into the mountains
Immense and Improbably large boulders and Leads to difficulty of travel which is
mountainous hills; immense, almost vertical stressful; makes me feel small and
walls of rock; huge cliffs vulnerable
Steep and Out of breath from the steep Tiring
impenetrable walk; winding tracks; seeming
impossibility of travel
Steep, winding, Unsurfaced, sand or gravel So frightening I couldn’t open my eyes
narrow roads tracks; going around boulders
and hills and up and down very
steep slopes
Sudden Sun turns to thick, wet mist Fear due to difficulty to see in the mist;
changes in and then suddenly clears dazzled and eyes hurt when the mist
weather / clears; disorientating
climatic
conditions
The fortified village
Village is The village is enclosed by a Different from home – homesickness;
fortified wall and high up on a cliff sense of foreboding – why the big
wall?
Village appears Empty streets and children Adds to possible sense of fear – why is
deserted except peering from darkened nobody outside; what is inside the
for children doorway darkened doorways?
Village appears narrow, unsurfaced roads, Harriet may make comments similar to
ancient chickens running about Dr Jones about forgotten childhood
stories and travelling back in time
hundreds of years, but she would
mean them in a very different way
The walk up the wadi
The walk up the they turned a corner A possible inference could be that
wadi was steep suggesting twists, they were Harriet would dwell on being out of
and winding out of breath breath more than the beautiful view
The view was
beautiful
A2 – feelings about people and customs
Idea Detail Possible development
People carry Tribesmen gesturing with Fear and sense of horror; she might
weapons their rifles; guns on the floor dwell on how lightly they seem to view
of the vehicle; everyone weaponry, which is just on the floor of
carries guns the car
Unique customs letting sand run through Harriet may react with confusion to the
fingers and showing an gesture (students may infer that this is
empty palm to indicate that why Ibrahim explains his action); she
you come in peace may also see it as dishonest or
duplicitous and therefore not trust / fear
the people

The kindness of the gesture may be

appreciated, but it might be a source of
Offered bread and water by stress to eat something unpleasantly
the girl plain or dry
Unique drinks cardamom-flavoured coffee She doesn’t like the unusual / spicy
from tiny cups taste; doesn’t appreciate being served a
hot drink on a hot day in the desert; she
may comment negatively on the size of
the cup
Unique sitting on a carpet in a tent Sparseness of their homes; she may be
 accommodation with three sides
The local they crowd around you,
people’s attitude asking questions; they enjoy
to foreigners hearing foreigners speaking
their own language; sense
that they could become
voilent
Ibrahim smoked incessant cigarettes
and drove one-handed
uncomfortable
How students deal with this will be a
good discriminator since they should
pick up on the fact that Dr Jones is
speaking in general rather than
recounting something that happened on
that day; also because he doesn’t justify
his feeling that the people may be prone
to violence. Would Harriet attempt to
speak the local language and how
would the locals react if she didn’t?
Would she answer their questions?
Would she appear unfriendly? Could
this be the source of Dr Jones’ sense
that they may be violent?
Harriet may be annoyed by his constant
smoking in the car; and terrified by his
style of driving

he sat by the vehicle and let
us continue on foot
Ibrahim doesn’t speak much and this
may be interpreted as impoliteness
Harriet may not conclude as Dr Jones
does that he has driven as far as
possible up the wadi; she may be
annoyed at having to walk

he teaches them to speak the Could be interpreted as insistence

local language
The girl and her her striking and beautiful Harriet is probably struck by her
house appearance and clothes beautiful clothes; she may pity her for
her house little more than a her meagre home and manual labour
cave (carrying the jug a long way)
carrying the pitcher on her
head

A3 – what you have learnt from your experiences

This section must be answered with inference based on evidence; any

interpretation grounded in the passage can be accepted.
Students may choose to be positive: perhaps at the end of the day she realises that she
should be more open to unusual experiences and people from other cultures; she may re-
examine the way she had judged what she had seen. Alternatively she might decide that she
is simply not cut out for adventure!