YEAR 10 PAPER 1 END SEMESTER 1

Read carefully Passage A, Snow, and then answer Questions 1 and 2 on this Question Paper. Passage A: Snow In this passage, the writer remembers the experience of an unusually heavy snowfall. The snow had started the day before. The sun was bright in a clear sky and it snowed! Each flake caught the sun. Sparkles swam in the air, carried by the wind. People passing on Cottage Street looked up into the clear air to let the cold colours hit them in the eye, or on their glasses. They smiled, admiring their shadows, as they walked in the sunny, sunny snowstorm falling around them. A genuine curiosity, Grandpa called it. Soon, though, the sky turned grey and the snow continued into the dark. This was more like it. The falling snow stopped the litter that blew and rolled down the streets and pinned it to the ground. Everything, the litter, fire hydrants, the bins that stood at street corners and in house yards, was transformed into mysterious white lumps. It snowed all through supper and after. It snowed through the radio and Grandpa’s reading. It snowed even harder when I went to bed. All night, I’d wake and go to the window to wish for more; I pressed my face against the cold glass to peer at the sky above the roof. I wanted there to be more snow to come. And there was. The sky was black but the air was lit by the streetlight at the end of the alley. Flakes of white day fell through the night and brushed against the glass. I thought the wet chill would crack my

cheek when I smiled. In the morning the world was new. Yesterday’s lumps were now smooth and the spaces between them were even and white. In the yard, the snow had rolled in on waves of wind from over the far fence and dropped quietly and deeply. It filled the space from the back of the house to the alley, then buried the fence and the alley. Then it buried Aunt and Uncle Erby’s fence across the way; then it buried their yard, too. Then everything was all the same. The wind blew hard enough to make the electricity pole at the corner of the street sway. The wires clacked and chattered, their icy silver loads that had been building through the storm, trembling. Grandpa looked up and down the alley. He shook his head, grimacing. ‘We’d best stay in,’ he said. ‘All of us. Falling wires,’ he said. ‘Electrocution,’ he said. Grandma looked into the cupboards and shook her head. ‘Food’ll never last,’ she said. When the wind howled, the snow rose alive, spinning and swirling, and the world went white. So big a thing as Mount Amos disappeared. So too, did Aunt and Uncle Erby’s house across the alley. Our yard began, now, at the back door and went on forever, around other houses and on forever. The world was just our place, just our house and the smoothly shaped mounds of snow stretching forever. A few black lines crossed above, or rose from it. A pole down the way had fallen across the path. Dead black vines were hanging in tatters from the back fence. Then nothing. The end of the world. Our place only; we could only wait. Read Passage B carefully, and then answer Question 3 on the Question Paper.

Passage B: The Viking explorer who beat Columbus to North America In this article, the writer describes the Viking discovery of North America. Nearly five hundred years before the birth of Christopher Columbus, a band of European sailors left their homeland behind in search of a new world. The high prows of the Viking ships sliced through the deep, blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean as winds billowed the boats’ enormous sails. After crossing unfamiliar waters, the Norsemen, led by Leif Erikson, spied a new land, dropped anchor and went ashore. Five hundred years before Columbus ‘discovered’ America, those Viking feet may have been the first European ones ever to have touched North American soil. Icelandic legends, called sagas, recounted Erikson’s exploits in the New World around C.E.1000. These Norse stories were spread by word of mouth before being written down in the 12th and 13th centuries. Two sagas give differing accounts as to how Erikson arrived in North America. According to the ‘Saga of Erik the Red’, Erikson crossed the Atlantic unintentionally after sailing off course on his return voyage from Norway following his conversion to Christianity. The ‘Saga of the Greenlanders’, however, recounts that Erikson’s voyage to North America was no accident. Instead, the Viking explorer had heard of a strange land to the west from Icelandic trader Bjarni Herjólfsson, who more than a decade earlier had overshot Greenland and sailed by the shores of North America without setting foot upon it. Erikson bought the trader’s ship, raised a crew of 35 men and retraced the route in reverse. After crossing the Atlantic, the Vikings encountered a rocky, barren land to which Erikson gave a name as uninteresting as the surroundings – Helluland, Norwegian for ‘Stone Slab Land’. Researchers believe this location could possibly have been what is now known as Baffin Island. The Norsemen then voyaged south to a timber-rich location they called Markland (Forestland), most likely in present-day Labrador, before finally settling in a base camp most likely on the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland. The Vikings spent an entire winter there and benefited from the

milder weather compared to their homeland. They explored the surrounding region abounding with lush meadows, rivers teeming with salmon, and wild grapes so suitable for wine that Erikson called the region Vinland (Wineland). Answer all questions using your own words as far as possible. Question 1 Using your own words, explain why Grandpa calls the event described in paragraph 1, ‘A genuine curiosity ... ’ (line 5), and how people reacted to this event. (a) ........................................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................... [2] Using your own words, explain the effects of the falling snow on the surrounding environment (paragraph 2, ‘Soon, though, the sky ... ’). (b) ........................................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................... [2] Give one detail from paragraph 3, ‘It snowed all ... ’, that tells you the narrator was excited by the falling snow. (c) ........................................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................... [1] Give one detail mentioned by the narrator in paragraph 4, ‘In the morning ... ’, that tells you that the snow was very deep. (d) ........................................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................... [1]

Which one word in paragraph 5, ‘The wind blew hard ... ’, tells you that Grandpa was concerned about the possible effects of the snowfall? (e) (i) ................................................................................................................................ [1] Using your own words, explain why Grandpa had cause for concern (paragraph 5, ‘The wind blew hard ... ’)? (ii) ................................................................................................................................ ................................................................................................................................ [2] (f) From the final paragraph, ‘When the wind howled ... ’, explain: (i) How have the weather conditions changed from the first paragraph? What do the final three sentences of the passage tell you about the effect of the snow on the family’s situation? (ii) ................................................................................................................................ ................................................................................................................................ ................................................................................................................................ ................................................................................................................................ [2] Re-read paragraph 3, ‘It snowed all ... ’, and the final paragraph, ‘When the wind ... ’. Using your own words, explain what the writer means by the words underlined in each of the following quotations: (g) (i) • ‘Flakes of white day fell through the night and brushed against the glass.’ (lines 14–15) • ‘... the snow rose alive, spinning and swirling, and the world went white.’ (lines 32–33) • ‘Dead black vines were hanging in tatters from the back fence.’ (lines 37–38). Word underlined: ................................................................................................... Meaning of word underlined: .................................................................................

................................................................................................................................ Word underlined: ................................................................................................... Meaning of word underlined: ................................................................................. ................................................................................................................................ Word underlined: ................................................................................................... Meaning of word underlined: ................................................................................. ................................................................................................................................ [3] Explain how the language in each of the three underlined words in Question 1(g)(i) helps to convey the effects of the snow on the surroundings. You should refer to the whole phrase in your answer and not just the words underlined. (ii) Explanation: ........................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................ ................................................................................................................................ Explanation: ........................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................ ................................................................................................................................ Explanation: ........................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................ ................................................................................................................................ [6] Question 2 :15 marks Imagine that you are Grandma, from Passage A. It is two weeks later and the snow has finally gone. Write a letter to your sister who lives in another part of the country, telling her about all that has happened. In your letter you should cover the following points: • what happened during the first few days of the snowstorm • how the people in your household and the neighbours reacted to the snow • the problems caused by the snow and how you and your family coped with them. Base your letter on what you have read in Passage A, but do not copy from it. Be careful to use your

own words. Address each of the three bullet points. Begin your letter, ‘My dearest ... ’ Write about 200 to 300 words. Up to 10 marks are available for the content of your answer, and up to 5 marks for the quality of your writing. Read carefully Passage B, The Viking explorer who beat Columbus to North America, and then answer Question 3(a) and (b) on this Question Paper.

Question 3 Answer the questions in the order set. Notes What do you learn from Passage B about the Vikings’ discovery of North America and what they found there? Write your answers using short notes. You do not need to use your own words. Up to 10 marks are available for the content of your answer. Information about the Vikings’ discovery of North America and what they found there. (a) 1......................................................................................................................................... 2......................................................................................................................................... 3.........................................................................................................................................

4......................................................................................................................................... 5......................................................................................................................................... 6......................................................................................................................................... 7......................................................................................................................................... 8......................................................................................................................................... 9......................................................................................................................................... 10....................................................................................................................................... [10] Summary Now use your notes to write a summary of what Passage B tells you about the Vikings’ discovery of North America and what they found there. You must use continuous writing (not note form) and use your own words as far as possible. Your summary should include all 10 of your points in Question 3(a) and must be 100 to 150 words. Up to 5 marks are available for the quality of your writing