CAMBRIDGE LOWER SECONDARY ENGLISH 9: END OF UNIT 8 TEST

Name Date

End of unit 8 test

Section A: Reading
Read the extract from the autobiographical article ‘Just Crash Through It . . . ’ by Rosaleen
Moriarty-Simmonds, then answer questions 1–6.

At 45, I am a happy wife, an adoring mum, a successful business-woman, an artist –

constantly busy and totally content.
I also have little legs which end above the knee but with feet, and from each shoulder I
have two fingers.
5 When I was born I was taken away abruptly from my mother, who was only 18, but when
they eventually handed me to her an unbreakable bond was formed.
Whatever barriers we came across it was as a family. Wherever the family went, I went.
Between the ages of four and 14, I went to a school for disabled children. From there I
went on to college and gained a business qualification.
10 I had first laid eyes on the man who would become my husband when we were four or
five years old. We continued to bump into each and kept in touch as friends.
By our mid-twenties we had both graduated and settled into jobs. Stephen (who is also
impaired) phoned me to invite me to a restaurant. We got engaged in 1987 and married
a year later.
15 I had wanted to grow up, get married, have a family and live happily ever after. Some
members of the medical profession and even family members expressed the view that I
probably wouldn’t be able to have children, and some even said I shouldn’t.
While trying to come to terms with the prospect of being childless, the miracle
happened. Just before Christmas we discovered I was pregnant. We were both ecstatic
20 and petrified.
He arrived on 10 August. I was pretty much out of it when they first put him by me, but I
recall this beautiful little face with big blue eyes looking at me and I said ‘Hello James, my
beautiful little boy,’ and then I blanked out.
From about 15-months-old he went to nursery, so his little friends got used to me very
25 quickly. By the time he started school he was very confident and made lots of friends.
Inevitably some kids would stare and ask James questions but I had made an arrangement
that if the school felt these questions were getting too complicated for him to answer,

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they would allow me in to talk to the children. I did this and had a wonderful afternoon
with 66 five-year-olds.

1 What is the main purpose of this text?

Tick () one box.

to persuade the reader to support disabled people

to outline the challenges of being a disabled person

to show that disabled people can live normal lives

to inform the reader about living with disabilities [1]

2 Suggest one way that paragraph 1 is an effective opening to this text.

[1]

3 What two pieces of evidence are offered in the text to support the writer’s claim that ‘an
unbreakable bond was formed’ with her mother (line 6)?

• [2]

4 In what way is the structure of the text typical of an autobiography?

[1]

5 Write a list of the important events in the writer’s life after leaving school.

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 CAMBRIDGE LOWER SECONDARY ENGLISH 9: END OF UNIT 8 TEST

• [3]

6 Write a summary of up to 40 words about what happened to the writer after

leaving school.
Include at least five points from your answer to Question 5.

[2]

Section B: Writing
1 Write an extract from your own autobiography about some of your early memories.
You could:
• describe some memorable events from your childhood
• describe your earliest memories of school
• include real memories or imagined ones. [10]

Space for your plan:

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