NAN HUA HIGH SCHOOL
END-OF-YEAR EXAMINATION 2023
____________________________________________________________________
Subject : Literature in English
Level : Secondary Two Express
Date : 6 October 2023
Duration : 1 hour
READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST
Write your name, class and index number on all the work you hand in.
Write in dark blue or black pen on both sides of the paper.
Do not use staples, paper clips, glue or correction fluid/tape.
Answer all questions from Section A and one question from Section B.
Begin your answer to each question on a new page.
Write all the question numbers clearly in the margin.
You are reminded of the need for good English and clear presentation in your answers.
At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together.
The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question.
INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES
The total mark for this paper is 20.
This paper consists of 6 printed pages.
Page 1 of 6
Nan Hua High School
2023 End-of-Year Examination Literature in English 2065
SECTION A [15 Marks]
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: The Merchant of Venice
Answer all questions in this section.
Remember to support your ideas with relevant details from the text.
1 “What is just is also merciless.” To what extent is this true of the courtroom
hearing in Act 4.1 of the Merchant of Venice?
Write 2 PEDAL paragraphs to support your stand. [10]
Page 2 of 6
Nan Hua High School
2023 End-of-Year Examination Literature in English 2065
AND 2 Read this passage carefully, and then answer the question that follows it:
SHYLOCK: Why, there, there, there, there! A diamond gone cost me two
thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse never fell upon our nation
till now – I never felt it till now. Two thousand ducats in that and
other precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter were dead
at my foot, and the jewels in her ear; would she were hearsed at 5
my foot, and the ducats in her coffin. No news of them? why, so!
And I know not what’s spent in the search. Why thou – loss upon
loss! The thief gone with so much, and so much to find the thief,
and no satisfaction, no revenge, nor no ill luck stirring but what
lights on my shoulders, no sighs but on my breathing, no tears but 10
of my shedding.
TUBAL: Yes, other men have ill luck too – Antonio, as I heard in Genoa—
SHYLOCK: What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck?
TUBAL: – hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis.
SHYLOCK: I thank God, I thank God! Is it true, is it true? 15
TUBAL: I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck.
SHYLOCK: I thank thee, good Tubal; good news, good news: ha ha! heard in
Genoa!
TUBAL: Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, one night, fourscore
ducats. 20
SHYLOCK: Thou stick’st a dagger in me – I shall never see my gold again.
Fourscore ducats at a sitting, fourscore ducats!
TUBAL: There came divers of Antonio’s creditors in my company to
Venice, that swear he cannot choose but break.
SHYLOCK: I am very glad of it – I’ll plague him, I’ll torture him – I am glad of 25
it.
TUBAL: One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter for a
monkey.
SHYLOCK: Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal – it was my turquoise; I
had it of Leah when I was a bachelor. I would not have given it for
a wilderness of monkeys.
How does Shakespeare use Leah’s ring to present Shylock as a character? [5]
Page 3 of 6
Nan Hua High School
2023 End-of-Year Examination Literature in English 2065
SECTION B [5 Marks]
UNSEEN POETRY OR PROSE
Answer either Question 3 or 4.
Remember to support your ideas with relevant details from the text.
EITHER 3 Read this passage carefully, and then answer the question that follows it:
Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the
color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don't walk
barehead in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your
little cloths right after you take them off; when buying cotton to make yourself a
nice blouse, be sure that it doesn't have gum on it, because that way it won't hold 5
up well after a wash; soak salt fish overnight before you cook it; is it true that you
sing benna1 in Sunday school?; always eat your food in such a way that it won't
turn someone else's stomach; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the
low-class woman you are so bent on becoming; don't sing benna in Sunday 10
school; you mustn't speak to wharf-rat2 boys, not even to give directions; don't
eat fruits on the street flies will follow you; but I don't sing benna on Sundays at
all and never in Sunday school; this is how to sew on a button; this is how to make
a buttonhole for the button you have just sewed on; this is how to hem a dress 15
when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like
the low-class woman I know you are so bent on becoming; this is how you iron
your father's khaki shirt so that it doesn't have a crease; this is how you iron your
father's khaki pants so that they don't have a crease; this is how you grow okra3
- far from the house, because okra tree harbors red ants; when you are growing 20
dasheen4, make sure it gets plenty of water or else it makes your throat itch when
you are eating it; this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole
house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you smile to someone you don't
like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don't like at all; this is how
you smile to someone you like completely; this is how you set a table for tea; this 25
is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an
important guest, this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table
for breakfast, this is how to behave in the presence of men who don't know you
very well, and this way they won't recognize immediately the low-class woman I
have warned you against becoming, be sure to wash every day, even if it is with 30
Page 4 of 6
Nan Hua High School
2023 End-of-Year Examination Literature in English 2065
your own spit, don't squat down to play marbles - you are not a boy, you know -
don't pick people’s flowers - you might catch something; don't throw stones at
blackbirds, because it might not be a blackbird at all, this is how to make a bread
pudding; this is how to make doukona5; this is how to make pepper pot, this is
how to make a good medicine for a cold; this is how to catch a fish; this is how to 35
throw back a fish you don’t like, and that way something bad won't fall on you,
this is how to bully a man, this is how a man bullies you; this is how to spit up in
the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doesn't fall on you;
always squeeze bread to make sure it's fresh; but what if the baker won't let me
feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind
of woman who the baker won't let near the bread?
By Jamaica Kincaid
1
benna: an African music genre, characterised by scandalous gossip and a call-and-
response format
2
wharf-rat: a person who lazes around
3
okra: lady’s fingers
4
dasheen: a variety of taro root, a starchy edible tube
5
doukona: a Jamaican pudding made from starchy food that is sweetened and spiced
How does the writer strikingly convey the expectations of women in this
passage? [5]
Page 5 of 6
Nan Hua High School
2023 End-of-Year Examination Literature in English 2065
OR 4 Read this poem carefully, and then answer the question that follows it:
Remember to support your ideas with relevant details from the poem.
Nothing in this House Works Anymore
My grandma says as we knead flour
into pasty dough, besides the carcass
of the old Philips mixer. The lamp
flickers so often I am used to ghosts.
The heat comes in pulses - fraying 5
tempers, cracking tiles. My brother tries to
resuscitate the fan, motionless since its
untimely demise in the heatwave of 2010.
Two nights ago my womb stopped ticking
along with the house clock. I do not know 10
how to speak of it; my tongue was lost
years ago in an accident with the blunt knife.
The table rocks as we gather for dinner.
Ma cleaves my heart when she asks about
my daughter. We should renovate the house, 15
she says, before the baby comes. Old wires
are fire hazards.
by Ally Chua
How does the poet vividly convey the speaker’s grief? [5]
END OF PAPER
Page 6 of 6
