Cambridge International Examinations

Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education

LITERATURE (ENGLISH) 0486/43

Paper 4 Unseen May/June 2015
1 hour 15 minutes
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READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST

An answer booklet is provided inside this question paper. You should follow the instructions on the front cover
of the answer booklet. If you need additional answer paper ask the invigilator for a continuation booklet.

Answer either Question 1 or Question 2.

You are advised to spend about 20 minutes reading the question paper and planning your answer.

Both questions in this paper carry equal marks.

The syllabus is approved for use in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as a Cambridge International Level 1/Level 2 Certificate.

This document consists of 5 printed pages, 3 blank pages, and 1 insert.

DC (KM) 96907/2
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Answer either Question 1 or Question 2.

Either

1 Read carefully the following poem. In it the poet writes about an albino blackbird a friend had seen.
Blackbirds are usually black birds with yellow beaks and yellow rings round their eyes. Albino
means abnormally white.

How does the poets writing convey to you her fascination with the albino blackbird?

To help you answer this question, you might consider:

how the poet imagines the bird at first

how her images of the bird change and develop
the overall impact the bird makes on her.

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Albino

The truth is, it was only part white;

the albino blackbird that came to your garden
two winters ago but into my head
comes this ghost of a bird, shadowless,
a white absence, blind negative1

in the snow. No reflection glides

over the lake where he flies, light and boneless,
no sound from his throat.

And though you say they never survive; the rare

or different, destroyed by their own kind
I see how he speeds out of the distance,
gathers weight, and darkens, over the miles
till he meets his own blackness, grows

into lustre; blackbryd, ouzel, merle2

who quickens the heart as he sings
each night from our gate-post;
his mouths open crocus3, his eye ringed with gold.

1 negative: photographic image in which black and

white are reversed
2 blackbryd, ouzel, merle: all old names for a

blackbird
3 crocus: small beak-shaped flower

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Or

2 Read carefully the following extract from an autobiography. The writer describes a boyhood trip
with his father to the local park. The father swims in the lake, while the boy, who is afraid of water,
watches him.

How does the writer vividly convey to you his feelings about this event?

To help you answer this question, you might consider:

the writers descriptions of the lake and the swans

his descriptions of his father swimming
how his thoughts and feelings about his father develop.

Instead of walking in the direction of the waterworks, we walked quietly

towards the lake in the centre of the park. Swimming here was forbidden.
The lake was surrounded by a low iron fence which was only three feet
high. So it was not meant to keep people away from the deep water, only
to emphasise the prohibition. I had never seen anyone swim here, except
a family of swans. I had heard that the lake was maybe forty feet deep. The
banks down to the waters edge were steep and overgrown with tall weeds.
One reason I think Dad liked this park was its informality. It was more like
the countryside than the term park suggested.
You wait here and mind this stuff. I wont be long, he said without
looking at me. I was immediately relieved and immediately apprehensive.
The edges of the lake had swathes of water reed growing and beyond that
a film of algae that looked like green confetti1. Only at the centre could
you see the still black sheen of unmoving water. It looked pretty at first
glance, especially when the swans moved across it. But the thought of it
was ominous, and the swans scared me. They were not like the birds in
the reservoir lakes who were used to the proximity of people with their
toy boats and the fishermen and families who often fed them bait or
breadcrumbs. The lake swans never got close to human beings because
of the fence, the bank and the reeds. The lake was their home and they
patrolled it with austere2 assurance.
Dad stepped over the fence with the rolled-up towel and swimming
trunks he had brought in the small haversack3. Within minutes, he had
changed and was descending the bank. Daddy, Daddy, what about the
swans? I asked, becoming more fearful by the second. I had seen the
waterworks swans hissing and charging at dogs they thought were too near
their nests. I had watched them stand up and spread their wings, flapping
furiously. The swans wont come near me, Dad assured me calmly as he
slid down through the waist-high weeds and entered the water like a sea
snake. He breasted the reeds and the water without a sound. A few water
hens scurried out and skimmed to the far side of the lake. Other birds
called out their warning at his alien presence in the water. Everywhere else
around us was complete silence.
But Dad was no alien here. He swam on through the algae into the
middle of the lake. I saw his head and face crusted with the green scum
and his black shiny hair sitting on top of the water. He looked like a seal
that had suddenly emerged out of the black depths. Then he disappeared
again, only to reappear a few seconds later. I watched him intensely and
felt lonely and afraid. He moved across the water as if his head was fixed to
a submerged stick and an invisible hand was moving it under the surface.
He wasnt himself. There were no signs of movement of a body beneath
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the dull water. For a moment I hardly recognised the thing in the water. All
I knew was an overwhelming sense of distance between him and me. His
hand came up out of the water and made a slight wave. And then he was
swallowed up by the lake again. I knew the wave was an encouragement
for me to be unafraid; but it was a passing gesture, as if he was only half
conscious of me or anything else. There in the middle of the lake he hardly
made a splash or a ripple. He seemed so content. Water was his element
and he melted into it. I didnt know him. I only knew the man who made
aeroplanes and who brought home animals. This aquatic beast who looked
back at me like a ponderous seal, rolled languorously4 as a beaver, shook
his wet hair and snorted like a water buffalo, was from another world.

1 confetti : small pieces of coloured paper thrown in celebration

2 austere : stern or severe
3 haversack : backpack or rucksack
4 languorously : lazily and gracefully

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UCLES 2015 0486/43/M/J/15