AUCKLAND GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Form 3A – O; English Progress Exam, Term 1, 2008

Time: 1.5 hours Marks: 75

Answer all sections: A, B, C and D. Sections A and B should be answered on the answer sheet
provided, while Sections C and D should be answered on SEPARATE sheets of Grammar refill.

SECTION A: COMPREHENSION (Use your answer sheet for this section).

I. PROSE: Read the following passage from Steinbeck’s The Pearl and answer the
questions printed beneath it.

Kino had wondered often at the iron in his patient, fragile wife. She, who was
obedient and respectful and cheerful and patient, could arch her back in child
pain with hardly a cry. She could stand fatigue and hunger almost better than
Kino himself. In the canoe she was like a strong man. And now she did a most
surprising thing. 5

‘The doctor,’ she said. ‘Get the doctor.’

The word was passed out among the neighbours where they stood close-packed
in the little yard behind the brush fence. And they repeated among themselves:
‘Juana wants the doctor.’ A wonderful thing, a memorable thing, to want the
doctor. To get him would be a remarkable thing. The doctor never came to the 10
cluster of brush houses. Why should he when he had more than he could do to
take care of the rich people who lived in the stone and plaster houses of the
town?

‘He would not come,’ the people in the yard said.

‘He would not come,’ the people in the door said, and the thought got into 15
Kino.

‘The doctor would not come,’ Kino said to Juana.

She looked up at him, her eyes as cold as the eyes of a lioness. This was
Juana’s first baby – this was nearly everything there was in Juana’s world. And
Kino saw her determination and the sound of the family sounded in his head 20
with a steely tone.

‘Then we will go to him,’ Juana said, and with one hand she arranged her dark-
blue shawl over her head and made the one end of it a sling to hold the
moaning baby and made the other end of it a shade over his eyes to protect him
from the light. The people in the door pushed against those behind to let her 25
through. Kino followed her. They went out of the gate to the rutted path and
the neighbours followed them.

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Questions:

1. How many people make up the family mentioned in the passage? (1 mark)
2. Why did Kino find Juana’s call for the doctor “a most surprising thing”? (1)
3. Identify THREE adjectives in paragraph 3 (lines 7-13) used to describe the neighbours’
reactions to get the doctor to visit. Write them down in the spaces provided and then explain
what this tells us of the society in which Juana and Kino lived. (3)
4. What figure of speech is used in line 18 of the extract? (“She looked…a lioness.”) (1)
5. Explain what you consider to be the meaning of the following sentence in its context: “ And
Kino saw her determination and the music of the family sounded in his head with a steely
tone.” (lines 19-21) (2)
6. Why did Juana need the doctor and what made her so determined to get hold of him? (2)
7. What was Kino’s attitude to his wife? Quote from the passage to support your answer. (2)
8. What have we leaned of Kino’s character from this passage? Make at least one good point
that you back up by quoting from or referring to the passage. Do not repeat material you
have used in question 7. (2)
9. Explain the meanings of the following words in their context:
a. fatigue (line 3)
b. brush (line 8) (2)

II. POETRY: Read the poem carefully and answer the questions beneath it.

The Spider

Just as my fingers close about the pen,

a spider, smaller than a grain of sand,
proceeds from nail to knuckle; pauses; then
starts the vast exploration of my hand.
Hastily tramping through warm wastes it goes 5
careless of curving hairs and rutted skin,
earthquakes of muscle, great volcanic throes
of blood and flesh beneath, scorning the din
of monstrous nostril-gales that blast its way
from wrist to elbow, where the white ascent 10
of one world-column starts. ‘Now fail!’ I say.
It does not even ponder what I meant,
but moves up through an atmosphere grown colder
towards the uncharted mountain of my shoulder.
KENNETH MACKENZIE

10. Identify the figure of speech used in each of the following lines: (Choose from Metaphor,
Simile, Personification or Hyperbole)
a. ‘the vast exploration of my hand’ (line 4)
b. ‘earthquakes of muscle, great volcanic throes
of blood and flesh beneath.’ (lines 7-8) (2)
11. What figure of speech do the following words suggest when relating to the spider:
‘proceeds’, ‘tramping’, ‘scorning’ and ‘ponder’? (1)
12. The poet describes the act of breathing as “the din of monstrous nostril-gales’?
a. What figure of speech has been used?
b. Explain why the poet has used the three bolded words. (2)
13. What does the word ‘ponder’ mean in line 12? (1)

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 14. In what tense has this poem been written? (Present, Past or Future) (1)
15. What was the persona or speaker about to do when he saw the spider? Give a reason or
quotation to support your answer. (2) [25 marks]

SECTION B: LANGUAGE. (Use your answer book to answer this section.)

A. PARTS OF SPEECH.
Identify the parts of speech of the underlined words in the following extract from the
comprehension passage. Remember to look for the word’s function in the sentence.
(Choose from: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, article, interjection
and conjunction)

The word was passed out among the neighbours where they stood close-packed in the little yard
behind the brush fence. And they repeated among themselves: ‘Juana wants the doctor.’ A
wonderful thing, a memorable thing, to want the doctor. To get him would be a remarkable thing.
The doctor never came to the cluster of brush houses. Why should he when he had more than he
could do to take care of the rich people who lived in the stone and plaster houses of the town?

[10 marks]

B. SPELLING:
Select the FIVE words from the following passage that have been incorrectly spelt and
rewrite them correctly on your answer-sheet. All the incorrect words have been taken
from the first column of the spelling list in your handbooks.

It was the beginning of the Easter season and I had to look for acommodation in the christion
quarters of the town. I had had an anonimous letter from one of the conscientious burocrats,
praising me for my courageous behaviour and offering me a room. This had not benefitted me,
however, as the writer had not supplied me with his name.

[5 marks]

C. EDITING:
Correct the error or improve the style in each of the following sentences. Read the
instruction in brackets to give you a clue. You MUST rewrite the entire sentence in each
case.

1. Talking on the phone, my dog lay at my feet. (Rewrite this sentence so that it makes
grammatical sense. You may add words.)
2. I had far less marbles than my friend did. (Change ONE word only to make this sentence
grammatically correct.)
3. Twenty boys in our class is going to Rainbow’s End this weekend. (Change ONE word in
the sentence to make it grammatically correct.)
4. I hear a noise. I get up and walk to the window. I saw a man about to enter our bathroom
window. (Rewrite ONE of the above sentences to make the tenses in all three sentences
agree.)
5. My mother gave the tickets to Gavin and I. (Rewrite the sentence changing ONLY ONE
word that has been used incorrectly.) (5 marks)

[20 marks]
Please turn over for Sections C & D

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SECTION C: WRITING. (This section should be written on a sheet of Grammar refill
and you should spend about 25minutes, maximum, on this section.)

Choose ONE of the following topics and write a short narrative piece inspired by the topic.
Your writing should be limited in terms of plot, characters and/or themes because it will be a
very short story. Write about a page or just over that, but remember that quality is more
important than quantity, so think before you write and plan briefly first.

1. Trapped in a Storm
2 The bully was caught…
3. That one moment made everything worthwhile!
4. A Hero’s Welcome.
5. Home Alone.
6. An Epic Journey

[15 marks]

SECTION D: LITERATURE (Short Stories). Write this essay on a SEPARATE sheet of

Grammar refill and spend about 20-25 minutes, maximum, on the essay. Your answer should
be between two thirds of a page and one and a half pages in length.

Choose ONE of the short stories you studied this term and answer ONE of the following
questions on character or theme based on that story.
You will be marked on:
• The ability to structure your essay.
• The ability to answer the question and the question only.
• The ability to select relevant examples and/or quotations from the story to back up the
points you make.
• Your ability to write fluently and competently.

1. Choose the most strange or amusing or bold character from one of the stories you have
studied and explain the ways in which he or she was strange or amusing or bold.
2. Choose a story in which you think the ideas or themes that the writer was trying to make us
think about were an important part of his story. Name one or two of those themes and
explain, referring to or quoting from the story, how the writer communicates it/them to the
reader.

[15 marks]

[TOTAL FOR PAPER: 75 converted to %]

Hand in your answer sheet, Section C and Section D in three separate piles.