Nan Hua High School

End-of-Year Examination 2022 English Language 1184/02

Section B
Text 2
The text below describes an unpleasant encounter with grasshoppers.
Read the text carefully and answer Questions 5-15 in the Question Paper.

1 The light was queer and not like the changed light before a storm. The air did not
press down as it did before a storm. Laura was frightened. She did not know why.
She ran outdoors where Pa, Ma, Mary and Jack stood looking up at the sky.

2 A cloud was over the sun. It was not a cloud they had ever seen before. It was a
cloud of something like snowflakes, but they were larger than snowflakes, and also 5
thinner. Light shone through each flickering particle.

3 There was no wind. The grasses were still and the hot air did not stir, but the edge
of the cloud came on across the sky faster than wind. The hair stood up on Jack’s
neck. All at once he made a frightful sound up at that cloud, a growl and a whine.

4 Plunk! Something hit Laura’s head and fell to the ground. She looked down and 10
saw the largest grasshopper she had ever seen. Then huge brown grasshoppers
were hitting the ground all around her, hitting her head, her face and her arms. They
came thudding down like hail.

5 The cloud was hailing grasshoppers. The cloud was made up of grasshoppers.
Their bodies hid the sun and made darkness. Their thin, large wings gleamed and 15
glittered. The rasping whirring of their wings filled the whole air and they hit the
ground and the house with the noise of a hailstorm.

6 Laura tried to beat them off. Their claws clung to her skin and her dress. They
stared at her with bulging eyes, turning their heads this way and that way. Mary ran
screaming into the house. Grasshoppers covered the ground; there was not one 20
bare bit of ground to step on. Laura had to step on grasshoppers and they were
smashed as they squirmed under her feet.

7 Then everyone heard another sound, one big sound made of tiny nips, snips and
gnawings.

8 “The wheat!” Pa shouted. 25

9 The grasshoppers were eating. Millions and millions of grasshoppers were eating.
Everyone could hear the millions of jaws biting and chewing.

10 Pa ran to the stable. He began pitching old, dirty hay into the wagon as fast as he
could. Ma helped him. Then he drove around the wheat field throwing out little piles
of hay as he went. Ma lit pile after pile. Perhaps smoke would keep the 30
grasshoppers from eating the wheat.

11 Ma, Mary and Laura were quiet in the house. Through the walls came the sound of
grasshoppers eating.

12 The darkness went away and the sun shone again. All over the ground was a
crawling, hopping mass of grasshoppers. 35

Adapted from “On the Banks of Plum Creek” by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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 Nan Hua High School
End-of-Year Examination 2022 English Language 1184/02
Section C
Text 3
The article below is about some benefits of reading aloud.
Read the text carefully and answer Questions 16–21 in the Question Paper.

1 For much of history, reading was a fairly noisy activity. On clay tablets written in
ancient Iraq and Syria some 4,000 years ago, the commonly used words for “to
read” literally meant “to cry out” or “to listen”.

2 Today, silent reading is the norm. The majority of us bottle the words in our heads
as if sitting in the hushed confines of a library, so very cowardly and fearful of the 5
librarian glaring at us for daring to shatter sacred peace. Reading out loud is
largely reserved for bedtime stories and performances.

3 However, a growing body of research suggests that we may be missing out by

reading only with the voices inside our minds. The ancient art of reading aloud has
a number of benefits for adults, from helping to improve our memories and 10
understand complex texts, to strengthening emotional bonds between people.

4 Far from being a rare or bygone activity, reading aloud is still surprisingly common
in modern life. Many of us intuitively use it as a convenient tool for making sense of
the written word. Colin MacLeod, a psychologist at the University of Waterloo in
Canada, has extensively researched the impact of reading aloud on memory. 15
People consistently remember words and texts better if they read them aloud than
if they read them silently. Researchers at Ariel University discovered that the
memory-enhancing effect also works if the readers have speech difficulties and
cannot fully articulate the words they read aloud. We are generally better at
recalling distinct, unusual events and events that require active involvement. 20

5 Listening to someone else read can benefit memory in other ways. Stories make
us draw on our own memories and imagination and help us sort past experiences
into sequences. Actively listening to a story leads to more intense and deeper
information processing.

6 Reading aloud can also make certain memory problems more obvious and could 25
be helpful in detecting such issues early. In one study, people with early
Alzheimer’s disease were found to be more likely than others to make certain errors
when reading aloud. Some people read out funny emails or messages to entertain
others. Others read aloud prayers and blessings for spiritual reasons. Writers and
translators read drafts to themselves to hear the rhythm and flow. People also read 30
aloud to make sense of recipes, contracts and densely written texts.

7 Reading aloud also brings joy, comfort and a sense of belonging. Some read to
friends who are sick or dying as “a way of escaping together somewhere”. Some
people feel that when someone is reading aloud to them, they are given a gift of
time and attention. This is seen in the reading to children, that sense of closeness 35
and bonding not as often talked about, for adults.

8 In a time when our interactions with others and the information we take in are all
too transient, perhaps it is worth making a bit more time for reading out loud.

Adapted from “Why You Should Read This Out Loud” by Sophie Hardach
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