English

Section A  Context questions      (30 marks)

Choose THREE of the following five excerpts.  Identify the texts they come from and their authors, locate the excerpt within the text, analyze the excerpt, and relate the meaning and significance of these excerpts to the texts as a whole.  You should keep your answer to no more than four or five sentences, which is approximately a short paragraph.

1.               The answer to the first question is that the pride and glory of our nation, the repository of all our love and sacrifice, …, the Indian family, is the reason we are trapped and tied to the coop.

2.      he froze women in his embrace.

         His wife thawed into stony water,

         Her old age a clear

         Evaporation.

3.      Except the landmarks racing through my blood

         Or found in ruined fortresses and artefacts

         In archives and in museums.

4.      Was it asking too much for Ali to get a good job now, marry the right girl and start a family? Once this happened, Parvez would be happy. His dreams of doing well in England would have come true. Where had he gone wrong?

5.      …Her life had become holy to her during all those years    she had struggled to maintain herself and her children.       She had filled her life with treasures of kindness and love she had gathered from others and it was all this she      wanted to protect from defilement by an evil man….

SECTION B: ESSAY QUESTION (30 MARKS)

Choose one of the following five topics.  Clear thesis (linking both texts together), coherent argument, and close and accurate references to the texts will all be taken into account.