eQuizShow

GCSE Language Exam

Question 1

Question: What skills does this question require you to primarily focus on?
Answer: Your ability to retrieve information (support it with quotations and organise your response in a fluid, logical manner). Offering comments about how purpose, form, and audience are reflected is also encouraged.

Question: Looking at this following title question, what things do you HAVE to mention in your response?

Read Source 1, the online newspaper article called "Images bring life of lost Amazon tribe
into sharp relief" by Dom Phillips. What do you understand about the Amazon tribe and the issues it faces?
Answer: You must provide evidence that you understand who/what/where this Amazon tribe is, and you can explain the issues it faces. You should provide examples (quotations) of both parts.

Question: Spot the error. What has the student NOT done?

They grow food and the members of the tribe are wearing cotton clothes which suggests that they grow cotton. This shows that they have the abilities and skills to survive on their own. They also have a detailed culture and power structure because there was a clear leader of the tribe as well as several sub-leaders below him. They determined when the cotton crops were planted and harvested, which the whole community was involved in. The text provides several details to support the idea that the tribe is really a peaceful, thriving community, not a threat to the corporations using the land nearby.

Answer: While this portion of the response clearly answers the question, the student has not used any QUOTES to support her answer.

Question: Spot the error. What has the student done WRONG?

They are called an ‘Un-contacted tribe’ and are protected from interference from the outside world. We know of about 29 ‘un-contacted’ tribes like these but there may be as many as 70. They will only survive if they ‘remain isolated from the outside world’. For this tribe and others, contact with outsiders can bring fatal illnesses, such as the common cold, for example, which could kill up to half of them. The use of factual evidence within the article makes the information more believable. The specific reference to the number--"29 un-contacted" tribes--really emphasises just how rare an occurrence this is.

Answer: The language analysis (use of facts and analysis of the number 29) is irrelevant in question 1. Don't waste time on this.

Question: Knowing that the questions asks you to: Read Source 1, the online newspaper article called "Images bring life of lost Amazon tribe into sharp relief" by Dom Phillips. What do you understand about the Amazon tribe and the issues it faces?, then which parts of this excerpt can you IGNORE?

The tribe of 3,000 to 4,000 near Brazil’s border with Peru are hunter-gatherers. The men, their bodies decorated with red dye, are armed with bows and arrows.

“They’re not people who live by the river. They don’t have intimacy with water. They’re people from deep in the forest and they have agriculture,” said José Meirelles, who was in the helicopter when the images were taken last June. “The helicopter was more than a kilometre away. It’s not permitted to fly above. It’s aggressive and we try to do the minimum amount of damage,” he said.

Survival International, the group dedicated to tribal peoples, released the images yesterday for its Uncontacted Tribes campaign. The tribe was first spotted in 2008 but had never been seen in such clarity.
Answer: ...said José Meirelles, who was in the helicopter when the images were taken last June. “The helicopter was more than a kilometre away. It’s not permitted to fly above. It’s aggressive and we try to do the minimum amount of damage,” he said.

Survival International, the group dedicated to tribal peoples, released the images yesterday for its Uncontacted Tribes campaign.

This portion of the article does not really describe anything about the tribe or the issues it has with the outside world. It does describe how the outside world tries to avoid the tribe, but that's a positive, not a negative (an issue).

Question 2

Question: What skills does this question require you to primarily focus on?
Answer: Analyse presentational features, how they link to together, and what effects they have.

Question: What are the four things you MUST link together/analyse?
Answer: Heading, Picture, Text, Subheading (if there is one)

Question: What elements of the text is it ALSO good to link to the text/heading/picture/subheading?
Answer: Purpose, audience, form

Question: What language techniques can be found in this headline, and what effect do they have on the audience?

Slimezilla! Monster jellyfish armada threatens divers and nuclear plants
Answer: Techniques:

exaggerated language (Monster, armada), use of short sentence for impact, emotive language (threaten, monster, armada), portmanteau (Slimezilla--combining 'slime' and 'godzilla')

Effects:
Humorous, shocking, attention grabbing, alarm/fear, sense of importance (nuclear plants are affected)

Question: Link the headline with the picture. Points to the team with the best answer:

Slimezilla! Monster jellyfish armada threatens divers and nuclear plants

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0119_060119_jellyfish.html
Answer: Did you clearly identify a technique which links the two and then explain its effects, or establish how the technique or effect of one is further strengthened by the other?

Question 3

Question: What skills does this question require you to primarily focus on?
Answer: Your ability to analyse how a text reveals a character's thoughts or feelings.

(Remember: Fact 1 + Fact 2 = conclusion about thoughts/feelings)

Question: Answer all parts of the question:
a) How much time should you spend on this question TOTAL?
b) How many marks can you earn TOTAL?
c) how many marks can you earn for spelling and punctuation?
Answer: a) 15 minutes (10 for writing, 5 for reading)
b) 8
c) 0

Question: You have to explain what thoughts and emotions are shown in the text. Give me FIVE outstanding synonyms to replace the dreaded "This SHOWS that..."
Answer: Loads of answers. Points to the best grouping of 5.

depicts
implies
suggests
indicates
presents
displays
illustrates
establishes
brings attention to...



Question: Provide two pieces of evidence from this excerpt to prove that the author is thinking in a self-deprecating, humorous manner:

"I nervously threw a stick at the animal, and it didn’t move, whatever it was. A deer would have bolted. This thing just blinked once and kept staring...I peered and peered, but I couldn't see anything but those two wide-set eyes staring from the near distance like eyes in a cartoon. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to be outside and dead or inside and waiting to be dead. I was barefoot and in my underwear and shivering. What I really wanted - really, really wanted - was for the animal to withdraw."
Answer: "I couldn't decide whether I wanted to be outside and dead or inside and waiting to be dead" (funny contrast/a sarcastic catch 22)

"I was barefoot and in my underwear and shivering" (silly imagery)

"What I really wanted--really, really wanted--was for the animal to withdraw" (repetition of really, like a child)

Question: What thoughts and feelings are revealed in this excerpt? Choose a line to support your answer.

"I shuffled on my knees to the foot of the tent, cautiously unzipped the mesh and peered out, but it was pitch black. As quietly as I could, I brought in my backpack and, with the light of a small torch, searched through it for my knife. When I found it and opened the blade I was appalled at how wimpy it looked. It was a perfectly respectable appliance for, say, buttering pancakes, but patently inadequate for defending oneself against 400 pounds of ravenous fur."
Answer: Fear (pitch black, ravenous fur) and self-deprecating humour (wimpy, funny comparison) are used, as well as hopelessness (appalled at how wimpy it looked). There's also a sense of the author trying to be cautious and quiet (shuffled, quiet, peered, quietly).

Question 4

Question: What skills does this question require you to primarily focus on?
Answer: Your ability to compare or contrast the effects of language features between two texts.

Question: Answer all three parts:
a) How many marks can you earn for this question?
b) How much time should you spend on it?
c) How many marks can you earn for spelling/punctuation?
Answer: a) 16
b) 25 minutes
c) 0

Question: There are many ways to link sources together. For instance, you could analyse how two articles use the same two language techniques. Name two other ways you could link two sources together.
Answer: They have the same/opposite purposes
They have the same/opposite audiences
They have the same/opposite forms

Question: Link these two headlines (remember you can COMPARE or CONTRAST, or a mix of both)

"Slimezilla! Monster jellyfish armada threatens divers and nuclear plants" -->The Times newspaper article

"Bear Encounter" -->chapter of a Bill Bryson nonfiction novel
Answer: Both suggest a sense of danger from a physically large threat. A bear is a large beast, unlikely to be peacefully 'encountered.' Likewise, the jellyfish is described as a 'monster' which is part of an 'armada,' also suggesting a large size.

However, the first uses much more dramatic language "Slimezilla!" and "threatens" in order to grab a reader's attention. The second simply refers to an 'encounter,' which is an understated, vague word. This might be because the first source is a newspaper, which needs to entice readers to read on, while the second is a chapter of a novel, so readers are already invested and don't need to be 'hooked' by dramatic word choices.

Question: These two quotes come from two different sources. Explain how they can be linked by shared purpose and shared language technique.

"The Brazilian Indian affairs department has evidence of 29 un-contacted tribes (peoples who have no contact with the outside world) in the Amazon but believes that there could be up to 70. One theory is that tribes like this moved nearer to the head of the Amazon river 100 years ago to escape a rubber production boom that enslaved many Indians."

"They poison fish, sting humans and even attack nuclear power stations. They are 6ft wide, up to 200 kg in weight, pink, slimy and repellent...No one is sure about the reasons for the slimy plague. One theory is that global warming is heating up the sea-water and encouraging breeding."
Answer: Both sources have a shared purpose: to inform, explain
Both sources use similar language techniques: facts and figures to support ideas; presentation of a 'theory,' suggesting scientific language; emotive/violent language (enslaved, attack, repellent, plague).

Question 5/6

Question: What writing skills does question 5 require you to primarily focus on?
Answer: Describe, Inform, Explain

Question: What writing skills does question 6 require you to primarily focus on?
Answer: Argue, Persuade, Advise

Question: How would you FLAP this Q5 task?

Write an entry for your blog describing your favourite time of year and explaining why you
like it.

How would you FLAP this Q6 task?

‘There’s no point making the effort and taking the risk of travelling the world, disturbing
people and animals as you go, when you can see it all on TV or the internet.’

Write a magazine article which persuades young people either to travel or stay at home.

Answer: Q5
F: blog
L: can be informal or chatty, but this should be done with clear purpose and should not impede understanding
A: probably a younger, blog and internet-savvy audience
P: to explain (it wouldn't go amiss to entertain too though!)

Q6
F: magazine article
L: formal (this is being published!), but could mix in some informal language as the audience is younger, but do it with purpose. Use lots of persuasive techniques!
A: young people
P: to persuade

Question: What techniques make this introduction to a Q5 response engaging and creative? (Write an entry for your blog describing your favourite time of year and explaining why you like it.)

Spring time brings to mind soft, soggy, sodden ground pushing wildflowers up to the surface; laughing sunshine warming the washing on the line in the back garden; the days growing longer, pushing back the dark; the return of bird songs, and the tiny mewling of nature's young just born. It is when everything starts anew. No season is better.
Answer: Alliteration, cluster of three, personification, imagery, short sentences for impact, opinion as fact, use of sophisticated word choice and punctuation.

Question: Develop a COUNTER ARGUMENT to this statement:


Traveling is a useless activity; one should just stay at home.
Answer: Have you stated what BOTH sides believe--providing some indication that you understand the other side's position--but why YOU are correct?

Eg:

While opponents might suggest traveling is a useless activity because it is expensive, time consuming, and often requires specialised skills (like knowing a foreign language), this is a mistaken opinion. Traveling expands one's horizons, allowing one to encounter people, places, experiences that cannot be found at home. This is crucial for developing a real sense of what the whole WORLD is like, not just the five square miles around Richmond.