CSEC English B Paper 2 May/June 2005 - Free CXC Past Paper with Answers

Select EITHER Question 1 OR Question 2 and then complete ALL of the tasks related to the given poem or passage.

EITHER

Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow.

After the first powerful plain manifesto The black statement of pistons, without more fuss But gliding like a queen, she leaves the station. Without tearing open with astonished concern 5 She passes the houses which humbly crowd outside, The gasworks and at last the heavy page Of death, printed by gravestones in the cemetery. Beyond the town there lies the open country Where, gathering speed, she acquires mystery, 10 The luminous self-possession of ships on ocean. It is now she claims to sing – at first quite low Then loud, and at last with a jazzy madness The song of her whistle screaming at curves, Of deafening tunnels, brakes, innumerable bolts. 15 And always light, aerial, underneath Goes the slate meter of her wheels. Steaming through metal landscape on her lines She plunges new eras of wild happiness Where speed through to strange shapes, broad curves 20 And parallels clean like the steel of guns. At last, further than Edinburgh or Rome, Beyond the crest of the world, she reaches night Where only a low, dreaming brightness Of phosphorous on the heating hills is white. 25 Ah, like a comet through flames she moves entranced Wrapt in her music no bird song, no, nor bough Breaking with honey buds, shall ever equal.

Stephen Spender, The Express.

What aspect of the train is suggested in the first line of the poem?

What is the attitude of the speaker to the train he describes? How do you know?

Identify TWO figures of speech in lines 3 – 7.

Discuss the effectiveness of EACH figure of speech identified at (i) above.

State what mood is created in lines 5 – 7.

Identify THREE words that help to create that mood.

State what is meant by "the heavy page of death" in lines 6 – 7.

Identify the figure of speech being used.

Quote TWO phrases that show the grandeur of the train.

To which of the senses does the poem mainly appeal?

Give TWO examples of that appeal.

Quote TWO phrases that show the joyful exuberance of the train.

Find TWO items of evidence in the poem that hint at the destructive potential of the train.

In the light of your answer to (i), comment on how convincing you find the last THREE lines of the poem.

Read the passage below and then answer the questions that follow.

'Meena . . . Meena, wake up!' Rahim called, filled with excitement as he entered the room, only to find that Meena was already up. 'You hear, you hear what that man say 'bout my work?'

Meena, just as excited as Rahim, tried to tell him again what she had always known.

'You is the best jeweller in the island, Rahim, only you, is the only one who can't believe it. It take somebody else to make you believe.'

But Rahim felt an old, old pride welling up in him again. The kind of feeling that emanates from the marrow, the kind of feeling a man is convinced has gone dead and dry in him. It was this feeling that almost drew tears to his eyes, for it was like coming to life again, and he plunged into his trade with the little tools he had, feeling that reward at the end of the day that only living accomplishment could bring. As he lay in bed he sought to recapture all the small details of design, the subtleties of wiring and soldering, the new shapes and forms that came cascading through his mind, he felt that he could go on and on, carried along on the wonderful tide of this new hope. No more did he wonder whether there were people in the vast world who paid a casual glance to some fragment of his work. Now he knew that his dreams, all the way down to the little jewel boxes housing some brooch, some pin, were something real and that in these thoughts lay his reward – that fleeting glimpse of our eternity that he had felt whispering at his fingertips. This was so, and the world had not forgotten him. Somewhere, someone would be rooting a piece of his work. 'I wonder who made it . . . I wonder if the jeweller in Trinidad ever thought that his handiwork would come this far . . . These things he knew were so, and there was nothing in the world that could change this, nothing that could take this away from him.'

In the afternoon . . . Prince Street offered a view of sunset upon the city that was everlastingly beautiful. The sun seemed caught behind the Red House, and long horizontal shafts of light came piercing through the trees of the square, striking the low-lying areas of Rose Hill and Quarry Street, which wound enchantingly to the top where there was, as if seated at the summit, a small church looking out at the last rays of each evening's sunset.

Ismith Khan, The Jumbie Bird, Longman Inc., New York, 1961, p. 186.

What phrase in the passage best explains "again" (line 4)?

What is the effect of the word "plunged" (line 10)?

Why is Rahim "rehearsing all the small details of design" (lines 11 - 12) in his mind?

Identify the figure of speech in "cascading through his mind" (lines 12 - 13), and explain its use in the passage.

Explain the meaning of "that fleeting glimpse of our eternity that he had felt whispering at his fingertips" (line 17).

Why is the sunset described as "everlastingly beautiful" (line 23)?

What are Rahim's main realizations?

In no more than 10 lines, state in your own words what this passage is about.

CSEC English B Paper 2 May/June 2005 Questions

Question 1 (25 marks)

Question 2 (30 marks)