Tampines Junior College

Preliminary Examination 2008

LITERATURE IN ENGLISH
Paper 1: Reading Literature 9725/01
8810/01
th
20 August 2008 3 hours

Read these instructions first

Write your name, civics class on all the work you hand in.
Write in dark blue or black pen on both sides of the paper.
You may use a soft pencil for any diagrams, graphs or rough working.
Do not use staples, paper clips, highlighters, glue or correction fluid.

Answer three questions, one from each of sections A, B and C.

At the end of the examination, tie each essay separately.
All questions in this paper carry equal marks.
You are reminded of the need for good English and clear presentation in your answers.

Set texts may be taken into the examination room. They may bear highlighting or underlining.
Any kind of folding or flagging of pages in texts (e.g. use of post-its, tape flags or paper clips) is not
permitted.

This document consists of 6 printed pages

© TPJC Literature Unit 2008 [Turn over

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Section A
1

Either (a) Compare and contrast the following poems. Poem A is by Edna St Vincent Millay
and Poem B is by Elizabeth Jennings. Consider carefully the way each poet’s
language and style presents their attitudes to relationship.

A Sonnet

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied

Who told me time would ease me of my pain!
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountainside, 5
And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;
But last year’s bitter loving must remain
Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide.
There are hundred places where I fear
To go, – so with his memory they brim. 10
And entering with relief some quiet place
Where never fell his foot or shone his face
I say, ‘There is no memory of him here!’
And so stand stricken, so remembering him.

B Absence

I visited the place where we last met.

Nothing was changed, the gardens were well-tended,
The fountains sprayed their usual steady jet;
There was no sign that anything had ended
And nothing to instruct me to forget. 5

The thoughtless birds that shook out of the trees,

Singing an ecstasy I could not share,
Played cunning in my thoughts. Surely in these
Pleasures there could not be a pain to bear
Or any discord shake the level breeze. 10

It was because the place was just the same

That made your absence seem a savage force,
For under all the gentleness there came
An earthquake tremor: fountain, birds and grass
Were shaken by my thinking of your name. 15
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Or (b) Compare and contrast the following poems. Poem A is by William Stafford and
Poem B is by Charles Tennyson Turner. Consider in detail the ways in which
your responses are shaped by the poet’s language, style and form.

A Traveling through the Dark

Traveling through the dark I found a deer

dead on the edge of the Wilson River road.
It is usually best to roll them into the canyon:
that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.

By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car 5

and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened already, almost cold.
I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.

My fingers touching her side brought me the reason –

her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting, 10
alive, still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated.

The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights;

under the hood purred the steady engine.
I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red; 15
around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.

I thought hard for us all – my only swerving –

Then pushed her over the edge into the river.

B On Finding a Small Fly Crushed in a Book

Some hand, that never meant to do thee hurt,

Has crush’d thee here between these pages pent;
But thou has left thine own fair monument,
Thy wings gleam out and tell me what thou wert:
Oh! that the memories, which survive us here, 5
Were half as lovely as these wings of thine!
Pure relics of a blameless life, that shine
Now thou art gone: Our doom is ever near:
The peril is beside us day by day;
The book will close upon us, it may be, 10
Just as we lift ourselves to soar away
Upon the summer-airs. But unlike thee,
The closing book may stop our vital breath,
Yet leave no luster on our page of death.
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Section B

CHARLES DICKENS : Great Expectations

Either (a) ‘Until I saw in you a looking glass that showed me what I once felt myself, I did
not know what I had done.’ (Chapter 49)

Consider this statement in the light of the characterization in the novel.

Or (b) Write a critical appreciation of the following passage, commenting in particular on

its effectiveness in the portrayal of relationships.

“Dear boy,” he said, as I sat down by his bed: “I thought you was late. But I knowed
you couldn’t be that.”
“It is just the time,” said I. “I waited for it at the gate.”
“You always waits at the gate; don’t you, dear boy?”
“Yes. Not to lose a moment of the time.” 5
“Thank’ee dear boy, thank’ee. God bless you! You’ve never deserted me, dear boy.”
I pressed his hand in silence, for I could not forget that I had once meant to desert him.
“And what’s the best of all”, he said, “you’ve been more comfortable alonger me, since I
was under a dark cloud, than when the sun shone. That’s best of all.”
He lay on his back, breathing with great difficulty. Do what he would, and love me 10
though he did, the light left his face ever and again, and a film came over the placid look at
the white ceiling.
“Are you in much pain to-day?”
“I don’t complain of none, dear boy.”
“You never do complain.” 15
He had spoken his last words. He smiled, and I understood his touch to mean that he
wished to lift my hand, and lay it on his breast. I laid it there, and he smiled again, and put
both his hands upon it.
The allotted time ran out, while we were thus; but, looking round, I found the governor
of the prison standing near me, and he whispered, “You needn’t go yet.” I thanked him 20
gratefully, and asked, “Might I speak to him, if he can hear me?”
The governor stepped aside, and beckoned the officer away. The change, though it
was made without noise, drew back the film from the placid look at the white ceiling, and he
looked most affectionately at me.
“Dear Magwitch, I must tell you, now at last. You understand what I say?” 25
A gentle pressure on my hand.
“You had a child once, whom you loved and lost.”
A stronger pressure on my hand.
“She lived and found powerful friends. She is living now. She is a lady and very
beautiful. And I love her!” 30
With a last faint effort, which would have been powerless but for my yielding to it and
assisting it, he raised my hand to his lips. Then, he gently let it sink upon his breast again,
with his own hands lying on it. The placid look at the white ceiling came back, and passed
away, and his head dropped quietly on his breast.
Mindful, then, of what we had read together, I thought of the two men who went up into 35
the Temple to pray, and I knew there were no better words that I could say beside his bed,
than “O Lord, be merciful to him, a sinner!”
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(Chapter 56)
Section C

WILLIAM SHAKESEPEARE: Othello

3 Either (a) “What the sword may do in war, the word may do in peace time.”
Comment on the significance of language in Shakespeare’s Othello.

Or (b) Write a critical examination of the following passage, showing how it

reflects the play’s themes and concerns.

Enter DUKE and SENATORS, set at a table with lights, and ATTENDANTS.

Duke. There is no composition in these news

That gives them credit.
1 Senator. My letters say a hundred and seven galleys.
Duke. And mine, a hundred and forty.
2 Senator. And mine, two hundred; 5
But though they jump not on a just accompt –
As in these cases where the aim reports
‘Tis oft with difference – yet do they all conform
A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus.
Duke. Nay, it is possible enough to judgement: 10
I do not so secure me in the error,
But the main article I do approve
In fearful sense.
Sailor. (Within) What ho! What ho! What ho!
Officer. A messenger from the galleys. 15

Enter a SAILOR.

Duke. Now, what’s the business?

Sailor. The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes;
So was I bid report here to the state
By Signior Angelo. 20
Duke. How say you by this change?
1 Senator. This cannot be,
By no assay of reason. ‘Tis a pageant
To keep us in false gaze. When we consider
The importancy of Cyprus to the Turk, 25
And let ourselves again but understand
That as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes,
So may he with more facile question bear it,
For that it stands not in such warlike brace,
But altogether lacks the abilities 30
That Rhodes is dressed in. If we make thought of this,
We must not think the Turk is so unskillful
To leave that latest which concerns him first,
Neglecting an attempt of ease and gain
To wake and wage a danger profitless. 35
Duke. Nay, in all confidence he’s not for Rhodes.
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Officer. Here is more news.

Enter a MESSENGER.

Messenger. The Ottomites, reverend and gracious,

Steering with due course towards the isle of Rhodes
Have there injointed with an after fleet. 40
1 Senator. Ay, so I thought. How many, as you guess?
Messenger. Of thirty sail, and now they do restem
Their backward course, bearing with frank appearance
Their purposes toward Cyprus. Signior Montano,
Your trusty and valiant servitor, 45
With his free duty recommends you thus,
And prays you to believe him.
Duke. ‘Tis certain then for Cyprus.
Marcu Luccicos, is he in town?
1 Senator. He’s now in Florence. 50
Duke. Write from us to him
Post-post-haste dispatch.
1 Senator. Here comes Brabantio and the valiant Moor.

Enter BRABANTIO, OTHELLO, CASSIO, IAGO, RODERIGO and OFFICERS.

Duke. Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you 55

Against the general enemy Ottoman.
[To Brabantio] I did not see you: welcome, gentle signior;
We lacked your counsel and your help tonight.

(Act 1, Sc 3)

End of Paper
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© TPJC Literature Unit 2008