DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL NACHARAM

CAMBRIDGE ASSESSMENT INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION – IN174

AY 2023 -2024
27-11-23 Concept check - 2
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SUBJECT: English Grade/Section: 8A/ B

Name of the student: ___________________________ Max Marks: 15
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Section A: Reading
Read the extract from the novel If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor,
then answer questions 1–8.

If you listen, you can hear it.

The city, it sings.
If you stand quietly, at the foot of a garden, in the middle of a street, on the roof of a
house.
5 It’s clearest at night, when the sound cuts more sharply across the surface of things,
when the song reaches out to a place inside you.
It’s a wordless song, for the most, but it’s a song all the same, and nobody hearing it
could doubt what it sings.
And the song sings the loudest when you pick out each note.
10 The low soothing hum of air-conditioners, fanning out the heat and the smells of shops
and cafes and offices across the city, winding up and winding down, long breaths
layered upon each other, a lullaby hum for tired streets.
The rush of traffic, even in the dark hours a constant crush of sound, tyres rolling and
engines rumbling, loose drains clack-clacking like castanets.
15 Road-menders mending, choosing the hours of least interruption, rupturing the cold
night air with drills sweating beneath the fizzing hiss of floodlights, shouting to each
other like drummers in rock bands calling out rhythms.
Lorries reversing, it seems every lorry in town is reversing, backing through gate-ways,
easing up ramps, forklift trucks heaping and stacking and loading.
20 And all the alarms, calling for help, each street and estate, each every way you turn has
alarms going off, coming on, going off, coming on, crying their needs to the night like
babies waawaa-ing.
Sung sirens, sliding through the streets, through the darkest of the dark hours, a
lament lifted high, held above the rooftops and fading away, lifted high, flashing past,
25 fading away.
 And all these things sing constant, the machines and the sirens, the cars, the hoots and
the shouts and the hums and the crackles, all come together like a choir, sinking and
rising with the turn of the wind, expecting more voices.
So listen.
Listen, and there is more to hear.

1 Suggest one way that the opening of the novel is interesting.

Its a short sentence, with interesting choice of words that engages the reader.
[1]

2 Identify the literary technique that the writer uses associated with song.

Pathetic fallacy [1]

3 Explain what the writer suggests by ‘And the song sings loudest when you pick
out each note’ (line 9).
The writer is trying to emphasize on how the sound of the city sounds when we focus on listening

to it individually.
[1]

4 In lines 10–14, the writer uses aural imagery to contrast different types of sounds.
Choose two contrasting images and explain how they help convey the
atmosphere of the city.
‘low soothing hum of air-conditioners’ and ‘fanning out the heat and the smells of shops
• and cafes and offices across the city,

the first line says a part of the the city you can hear air-conditioners
•
the second line says how hot a part of the city is
•

• and they show the opposite sides of the city [2]

5 What is ‘the fizzing hiss’ (line 16) an example of?

Tick (✓) one box.

simile

personification
onomatopoeia
pathetic fallacy [1]
6 ‘And all the alarms, calling for help, each street and estate, each every way you
turn has alarms going off, coming on, going off, coming on, crying their needs to
the night like babies waawaa-ing.’
Explain how the writer uses language and structure in this paragraph to
emphasise the impact of the alarms. Give clear examples to support your ideas.
The repetition of the phrase “going off, coming on” emphasizes on how the alarms
Language:

work and simile as the writer compares the cries of babies to the sound of the alarms.

Structure:
It creates a rythym and explains the overwhelming nature of alarms because of the use of long
uninterrupted sentence with commas.

[2]

Section B: Writing

1 Write a description of a busy market or shopping mall. Remember to focus on

what you can see and hear.
You could include:
• what you can see all around you
• what you can hear all around you
• figurative language to make your descriptions interesting. [7]
The thronging market scatters before me like the seeds are spread by the wind, birds, and animals.

The air reverberates with the harmony of quibble voices, creating a cacaphony of arbitrations that

echos through the narrow alleys. The stalls are decorated with a kaleidoscope of hues, and the vendors

skillfully showcase their goods, turning the mundane into a spectacle.

The aroma of exotic spices wafts through the maze-like kiosks, luring onlookers with the promise

of dectatable treats. A sensory experience is evoked by the harmonious blend of the sweet perfume

of ripe fruits and the strong aroma of freshly ground coffee. The fragrant maze is a sensory journey

, guiding from the fragrant spice merchant’s ambiance to the alluring blooms of a florist.

The market’s architecture, with its worn facades and cobblestone walkways, is a monument to the

passage of time and the generations of vendors and consumers who have passed through its narrow

lanes. The market is alive with history, an old agora where trade flows in and out like a never-ending

ritual.

Time seems both stand and still and move quickly in this frenetic market, blending tradition and

modernity in a complex dance. It is a dynamic exemplar of the tenacity of human endaevor, where the

material and immaterial coexist in a complex tapestry of sights, sounds and smells
Content, purpose and audience. (Wa) 2

Text structure and organisation. (Wt) 2

Sentence structure and punctuation. (Wp) 2

Spelling (Ws) 1

[ Total 7 ]