Section A
[25 marks]
Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.
1
My uncle was a strange man - suave, shrewd and sophisticated, yet overly
superstitious. Looking at him, you wouldn't think the slightest trickle of
superstition ran in his blood but it did in abundance. He had a rare charisma
and almost everyone treated him with great respect and awe. Whenever I
looked at him, I couldn't for the life of me think he was remarkable in any
way, despite his film star looks and impeccable clothes. To my young
immature mind, his one saving grace was that he was filthy rich.
However, in his youth, he was in dire straits, almost on the brink of
bankruptcy. Then, out of the blue, his luck changed. A number of wealthy
widowed aunts plus a few maiden aunts died, leaving him quite a sizeable
estate. He doubled his businesses, he tripled his investments. He seemed to
be on a winning streak. Naturally, he became popular, both with men and
women.
Not being a great believer in luck myself, I was intent on finding out why my
Uncle Noble had the Midas touch. I tried pumping him for information but
he was so tight-lipped, I came up empty-handed. Uncle Noble was most
reluctant to reveal the source of his bounty. One day, however, he told me he
had a favour to ask of me and in return, he would tell me the secret of his
success.
I was in seventh heaven as I rubbed my hands with glee. I couldn't wait to
know his long-kept secret.
It all began when he was down to his last few hundred Ringgit. A total
stranger had stopped him on his way to a meal and had pressed him to buy a
lucky charm. Initially, my uncle tried to get rid of this salesman but in the
end, unable to counter the man's dogged persistence and his pathetic appeal
and arguing within himself that giving away a few paltry dollars would make
no difference to his own plight, he succumbed. The very next day, he
bumped into an old friend he hadn't seen for donkey years and whom, in his
better days, had helped overcome a terrible financial difficulty. To cut a long
story short, this old friend learned of my uncle's woes, took him into
partnership, and the rest was history.
7
8
What about the favour, then? Well, my uncle had to go away on business for
a while and he had decided to take the opportunity to settle something about
the charm that had been bothering him: Was his amazing success really due
to his possession of the amulet or was it merely coincidence? He intended to
leave the talisman in my keeping during his absence and I could be trusted
with it. I readily agreed and he passed to me a small, daintily engraved jewelbox.
Open it, he prompted. I did, only to find a rather disappointing jade square
with a winged creature engraved on it.
My uncle left the next day, assured of the lucky charm's safety. For a few
days, I kept it on my person and slept with it under my pillow at night. But, I
started to have rather disturbing dreams which irrationally I associated with
the amulet. I moved the box to a glass cabinet in the sitting room, making I
1
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
moved the box to a glass cabinet in the sitting room, making sure that it was
securely locked. The cabinet was filled with small works of
9
A week later, a burglary occurred and everything in the glass cabinet was
carted off. I felt upset until the police informed me the cat burglar had been
apprehended. My relief was only temporary when I was told the thief had
thrown the box into a rubbish bin.
10
50
We made an effort to recover the loot but it proved fruitless. I did not know
what to do. I could not contact Uncle Noble, he left leaving no forwarding
address. I thought it better to defer breaking the news until his return.
11
12
45
Six months later, there was a knock on the door. A policeman was standing
in the doorway with the unfortunate news that Uncle Noble, on his way to
see me, had been involved in an accident on a mountain road and his
limousine had gone over the cliff.
That was the end of my Uncle Noble. Pure coincidence, of course.
55
Questions 1 - 6
Answer all questions. You are advised to answer them in the order set.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
[a] From paragraph 1, what attracted the writer to his Uncle Noble?
[b] From paragraph 2, which word in this paragraph means a very bad [1 mark]
situation?
[1 mark]
[a] From paragraph 3, what did the writer want to find out about his
Uncle Noble?
[1 mark]
[b] From paragraphs 4 and 5, the word It in line 22 refers to
[1 mark]
From paragraph 6, what favour did Uncle Noble ask of his nephew?
[1 mark]
From paragraph 8, initially what did the writer do with the talisman?
[i]
[2 marks]
[ii]
[a] From paragraph 3 and 8, state the reason why the writer used the word
"irrationally" about his dreams.
[1 mark]
[b]
From paragraph 9, 10 and 11, what happened to the amulet and how did it
affect his uncle?
Answer in your own words.
[2 marks]
Section B
[25 marks]
7 Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye ofheaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession ofthat fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wandr'est in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
William Shakespeare
(a) Which line suggests that summer is temporary?
.(1 mark)
(b) What makes beauty decline?
............................................................................................................................................ [I mark]
(c) What does the word lines refer to?
.[I mark]
(d) Explain how the poet immortalizes his beloved's beauty.
...........................................................................................................................................................
...........[2 marks]
8.
The following are the novels studied in the literature component in English Language.
The Pearl
- John Steinbeck
Jungle of Hope
- Keris Mas
The Return
- K. S. Maniam
3
Choose any one of the novels and answer the following question.
Explain how the novel portrays the theme of family love. Give examples from the novel.
(15 marks)
