OCR GCSE English Literature Exploring modern and literary heritage texts June 2019 question paper J352/01

Anita and Me by Meera Syal and Tickets, Please! by D. H. Lawrence

Read the two extracts below and then answer both part a) and part b).

You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on part a) and 30 minutes on part b).

For part a), you should focus only on the extracts here rather than referring to the rest of your studied text.

Extract 1 from: Anita and Me by Meera Syal

In this extract, the group of women known as the Ballbearings Committee are catching the bus to work. Anita’s dad Roberto is the driver.

There was not much room for dialogue with these women, whose communal tone of voice said, I know the answer but I’ll ask you anyway but make it quick, chick. They appeared ensemble as coiffured maenads in belted macs and bright lipsticks who all worked together, lived together and played together, and bounced off the village boundaries like a ballbearing against the sides of a pinball machine. Too much energy and nowhere to put it, and though I knew some of their names, Mrs Dalmeny, Mrs Spriggs, Mrs Povey, they seemed to exist and function as a group.

Indeed, their husbands were incidental; all I knew of them was what I would glimpse through half-open doorways on these regular morning panic runs from porch door to approaching bus, men in vests and braces, with rumpled hair who clutched half-read papers and fiddled absent-mindedly with their testicles whilst their wives flung them hurried goodbyes. I noticed there was never any show of affection, no hugs or kisses, not like my parents for whom every leavetaking was accompanied by squeezes, contact numbers on the journey in case of breakdown or terrorist kidnap and always a folded white hanky. Maybe, I told my mother once, they did not love their husbands, that was why we never saw them out together. ‘Oh no,’ my mother replied. ‘They do. They work so their husbands can eat. Their husbands must feel like ghosts. Poor men. Poor women.’

Extract 2 from: Tickets, Please! by D. H. Lawrence

This is an extract from a short story about a tram car service in the North of England. It is set in war time, so the drivers are often ‘invalids’, men who are not physically fit enough for active war service. The tram conductors are all girls – one of them named Annie Stone.

From village to village the miners travel, for a change of cinema, of girl, of pub. The trams are desperately packed. Who is going to risk himself in the black gulf outside, to wait perhaps an hour for another tram, then to see the forlorn notice ‘Depot Only’ – because there is something wrong; or to greet a unit of three bright cars all so tight with people that they sail past with a howl of derision? Trams that pass in the night!

This, the most dangerous tram-service in England, as the authorities themselves declare, with pride, is entirely conducted by girls, and driven by rash young men, or else by invalids who creep forward in terror. The girls are fearless young hussies. In their ugly blue uniforms, skirts up to their knees, shapeless old peaked caps on their heads, they have all the sang- froid of an old non-commissioned officer. With a tram packed with howling colliers¹, roaring hymns downstairs and a sort of antiphony of obscenities upstairs, the lasses are perfectly at their ease. They pounce on the youths who try to evade their ticket-machine. They push off the men at the end of their distance. They are not going to be done in the eye – not they. They fear nobody – and everybody fears them.

15 ‘Halloa, Annie!’

‘Halloa, Ted!’

‘Oh, mind my corn, Miss Stone! It’s my belief you’ve got a heart of stone, for you’ve trod on it again.’

‘You should keep it in your pocket,’ replies Miss Stone, and she goes sturdily upstairs in her 20 high boots.

a) Compare how groups of women taking charge are presented in these two extracts. You should consider:

• the situations and experiences faced by the characters

• how the characters react to these situations and experiences

• how the writers’ use of language and techniques creates effects.

AND

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and The Boy with No Shoes by William Horwood

Read the two extracts below and then answer both part a) and part b).

You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on part a) and 30 minutes on part b).

For part a), you should focus only on the extracts here rather than referring to the rest of your studied text.

Extract 1 from: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

In this extract from Chapter One, Kathy and a group of other girls are watching boys (including Tommy) pick sides for football.

‘Look at him,’ someone behind me said. ‘He’s completely convinced he’s going to be first pick. Just look at him.’

There was something comical about Tommy at that moment, something that made you think, well, yes, if he’s going to be that daft, he deserves what’s coming. The other boys were all pretending to ignore the picking process, pretending they didn’t care where they came in the order. Some were talking quietly to each other, some re-tying their laces, others just staring down at their feet as they trammelled the mud. But Tommy was looking eagerly at the Senior 3 boy, as though his name had already been called.

Laura kept up her performance all through the team-picking, doing all the different expressions that went across Tommy’s face: the bright eager one at the start; the puzzled concern when four picks had gone by and he still hadn’t been chosen; the hurt and panic as it began to dawn on him what was really going on. I didn’t keep glancing round at Laura, though, because I was watching Tommy; I only knew what she was doing because the others kept laughing and egging her on. Then when Tommy was left standing alone, and the boys all began sniggering, I heard Ruth say:

‘It’s coming. Hold it. Seven seconds. Seven, six, five …’

She never got there. Tommy burst into thunderous bellowing, and the boys, now laughing openly, started to run off towards the South Playing Field.

Extract 2 from: The Boy with No Shoes by William Horwood

In this extract, the narrator, Rova, has been chosen to play rugby for his school team, Nunnestone, for the first time. He is about to tackle one of the opposition, from Menmore, who is much bigger than him. W Horwood, 'The Boy with No Shoes', pp118-119, Headline Books, 2004. Item removed due to third party copyright restrictions.

a) Compare how the cruelty of young people towards each other is presented in these two extracts. You should consider:

• the situations and experiences faced by the characters

• how the characters react to these situations and experiences

• how the writers’ use of language and techniques creates effects.

AND

b) Explore another moment in Never Let Me Go where the donors demonstrate cruelty or unkindness to each other.

Animal Farm by George Orwell and Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Read the two extracts below and then answer both part a) and part b).

You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on part a) and 30 minutes on part b).

For part a), you should focus only on the extracts here rather than referring to the rest of your studied text.

Extract 1 from: Animal Farm by George Orwell

This extract takes place just after Boxer has said he doesn’t believe that Snowball was a traitor at the beginning.

Napoleon stood sternly surveying his audience; then he uttered a high-pitched whimper. Immediately the dogs bounded forward, seized four of the pigs by the ear and dragged them, squealing with pain and terror, to Napoleon’s feet. The pigs’ ears were bleeding, the dogs had tasted blood, and for a few moments they appeared to go quite mad. To the amazement of everybody, three of them flung themselves upon Boxer. Boxer saw them coming and put out his great hoof, caught a dog in mid-air and pinned him to the ground. The dog shrieked for mercy and the other two fled with their tails between their legs. Boxer looked at Napoleon to know whether he should crush the dog to death or let it go. Napoleon appeared to change countenance, and sharply ordered Boxer to let the dog go, whereat Boxer lifted his hoof, and the dog slunk away, bruised and howling.

Extract 2 from: Lord of the Flies by William Golding

A group of schoolboys are alone on an island. They have split into two competing groups – one led by Jack and one led by Ralph. This scene occurs just after Jack’s gang have let the fire go out and have been criticised by Ralph. Samneric (Sam and Eric) are twins in Ralph’s gang.

Jack glanced back at Ralph and then at the twins.

“Grab them!”

No one moved. Jack shouted angrily.

“I said ‘grab them’!”

The painted group moved round Samneric nervously and unhandily. Once more the silvery laughter scattered.

Samneric protested out of the heart of civilisation. “Oh I say!”

Their spears were taken from them.

“Tie them up!”

Ralph cried out hopelessly against the black and green mask. “Jack!”

“Go on. Tie them.”

Now the painted group felt the otherness of Samneric, felt the power in their own hands. They felled the twins clumsily and excitedly. Jack turned to Ralph and spoke between his teeth.

“See? They do what I want.”

a) Compare how characters dealing with challenges to their authority are presented in these two extracts. You should consider:

• the situations and experiences faced by the characters

• how the characters react to these situations and experiences

• how the writers’ use of language and techniques creates effects.

AND

b) Explore another moment in Animal Farm in which the pigs deal with challenges to their authority.

An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley and Playing Sandwiches by Alan Bennett

Read the two extracts below and then answer both part a) and part b).

You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on part a) and 30 minutes on part b).

For part a), you should focus only on the extracts here rather than referring to the rest of your studied text.

Extract 1 from: An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley

This extract takes place moments after Sheila has re-entered the room in Act One.

Sheila: What’s all this about?

Birling: Nothing to do with you, Sheila. Run along.

Inspector: No, wait a minute, Miss Birling.

Birling: (angrily) Look here, Inspector, I consider this uncalled-for and officious. I’ve half a mind to report you. I’ve told you all I know – and it doesn’t seem to me very important – and now there isn’t the slightest reason why my daughter should be dragged into this unpleasant business.

Sheila: (coming farther in) What business? What’s happening?

Inspector: (impressively) I’m a police inspector, Miss Birling. This afternoon a young woman drank some disinfectant, and died, after several hours of agony, tonight in the Infirmary.

Sheila: Oh – how horrible! Was it an accident?

Inspector: No. She wanted to end her life. She felt she couldn’t go on any longer.

Birling: Well, don’t tell me that’s because I discharged her from my employment nearly two years ago.

Eric: That might have started it.

Extract 2 from: Playing Sandwiches by Alan Bennett

In this extract, Wilfred Paterson, a park-keeper, reveals his inner thoughts to the audience. He is remembering a conversation with his wife, Janet, the discovery of a body at work, and a meeting with a mother and child. Trickett is his supervisor.

Bit of excitement this morning. Body in the bushes. Little lad found it looking for his ball. Old man, one of the winos probably. Two police cars, an ambulance and more fuss made of him dead than there ever was alive. The child not worried at all, the mother hysterical. All over by half past ten and we were soon back in go mode, drizzle included.

I was heading for the tennis courts, trying to steer clear of the bandstand only Trickett shouts after me, ‘Paterson. I don’t want you skulking back there. The bandstand’s in a disgusting state.’

Somebody’d thrown up all over the seat and I’d just about got it cleared up when the girl’s calling out and the kiddy comes running in waving her little pink plastic handbag thing. ‘Samantha’s got you a present, haven’t you Samantha. Give it to Mr…. what’s your name?’ The child was putting her arms out to be lifted up.

‘Hargreaves,’ I said. ‘My name’s Hargreaves.’ ‘Give it to him Samantha,’ and she takes out a daffodil from her little handbag, and we put it in my buttonhole. ‘She picked it herself,’ the mother said. ‘My name’s Debbie.’

a) Compare how the revealing of horrible deaths is presented in these two extracts. You should consider:

• the situations and experiences faced by the characters

• how the characters react to these situations and experiences

• how language and dramatic features create effects.

AND

b) Explore another moment in An Inspector Calls where something shocking is revealed.

My Mother Said I Never Should by Charlotte Keatley and Time and the Conways J. B. Priestley

Read the two extracts below and then answer both part a) and part b).

You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on part a) and 30 minutes on part b).

For part a), you should focus only on the extracts here rather than referring to the rest of your studied text.

Extract 1 from: My Mother Said I Never Should by Charlotte Keatley

At the start of Act 1 Scene 7, Margaret is telling Doris about Ken. Doris: I’ll be glad when they’re gone. (Disdain.) Americans. Margaret: Mother! Without them we couldn’t have won the – Doris: Are you going to help me fold this sheet, or are you just going to stand there all afternoon identifying aircraft! Margaret: (staring at the sky) Maybe one of them’s Ken. Doris: (they hold the sheet by the corners and tug) I don’t see how it can be, if he’s calling in half an hour. They shake the sheet vigorously. Margaret: I can’t wait to live in London! (No reply.) Ken says he can get a job there. He’s frightfully clever. They balloon the sheet up into the air. Margaret: I’m in love, Mother. Distant rumble of thunder. Doris looks up at the sky. Doris: It’s not going to hold. (Pause.) They pull diagonals to stretch the sheet. Margaret: And I’m going to learn to type! Ken says it will be helpful if we need a second income. (As they shake the sheet.) Typing’s far more useful than all those stupid school certificates. I’ll get a proper job. Doris: What do you call running a home? (Looks up at the sky.) I knew we were in for a storm. Margaret: I’m not wasting my life. Doris (angry): Thank you Margaret!

Extract 2 from: Time and the Conways by J. B. Priestley

It is 1919, just after the end of the First World War. Here, Mrs Conway is talking to her daughters Hazel and Carol about getting married and about what the world is like after the war. Two other daughters (Madge and Kay) are not present. Hazel and Carol are more interested in work than relationships.

Carol (solemnly): It says in the paper this morning that We Must All Get On With Our Jobs. This Mere Rush For Amusement has gone on long enough now. There’s Work Waiting To Be Done.

Hazel (indignantly): A fat lot of rushing for amusement we’ve done, haven’t we? I think that’s frightfully unfair and idiotic. Just when we might have some fun, after washing up in canteens and hospitals and queueing for foul food, with nobody about at all, they go and say we’ve had enough amusement and must get on with our jobs. What jobs?

Carol: Rebuilding a shattered world. It said that too.

Mrs Conway (half lightly, half not, to Hazel): Your job will be to find a very nice young man and marry him. And that oughtn’t to be difficult – for you.

Carol: Hurry up, Hazel, and then I can be a bridesmaid. I believe you’re my only chance. Kay says she won’t get married for ages, if ever, because her Writing – Her Work – must come first.

Mrs Conway: That’s nonsense, my dear. When the proper young man comes along, she’ll forget about her writing.

Carol: I don’t believe she will, Mother. And anyhow, she won’t have bridesmaids. And if Madge ever marries, I know it will be to some kind of Socialist in a tweed suit…

a) Compare how women talking to their mothers about romantic relationships are presented in these two extracts. You should consider:

• the situations and experiences faced by the characters

• how the characters react to these situations and experiences

• how language and dramatic features create effects.

AND

DNA by Dennis Kelly and Journey’s End by R. C. Sherriff

Read the two extracts below and then answer both part a) and part b).

You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on part a) and 30 minutes on part b).

For part a), you should focus only on the extracts here rather than referring to the rest of your studied text.

Extract 1 from: DNA by Dennis Kelly

In this extract, John Tate is telling Richard not to use the word ‘dead’. Lou: You can’t ban a word. John Tate: and if anyone says it I’m going to have to, you know, bite their face. Or something. Danny: How can you ban a word? John Tate: Well just say it then. (Pause) Say it and see what happens. (They say nothing) Look, we have to keep together. We have to trust each other and believe in each other. I’m trying to help. I’m trying to keep things together. (Richard enters, with Cathy and Brian, Cathy grinning, Brian crying.) Richard: He’s dead. John Tate: Right that’s … now I really am getting a little bit cross, do not use that word. Richard: What? John Tate: No one says that word, okay, no one. Richard: What word? Cathy: This is mad, eh? John Tate: You know. Cathy: Talk about mad. I mean, it’s quite exciting as well, though, isn’t it. Richard: What, ‘dead’? John Tate: Don’t say it again, Richard, or I’m gonna Cathy: Better than ordinary life. Richard: What? John Tate: I’m gonna Richard: What? John Tate: I’m gonna I’m gonna hurt you, actually.

Extract 2 from Journey’s End by R. C. Sherriff

In this extract, two soldiers are arguing. A big attack is approaching and Hibbert is frightened he will die. He says he is ill and asks his commanding officer (Stanhope) to let him go to the doctor. He is hoping to be sent home.

Hibbert: Let me go –

Stanhope: If you went, I’d have you shot – for deserting. It’s a hell of a disgrace – to die like that. I’d rather spare you the disgrace. I give you half a minute to think. You either stay here and try and be a man – or you try and get out of that door – to desert. If you do that, there’s going to be an accident. D’you understand? I’m fiddling with my revolver, d’you see? – cleaning it – and it’s going off by accident. It often happens out here. It’s going off, and it’s going to shoot you between the eyes.

Hibbert (in a whisper): You daren’t –

Stanhope: You don’t deserve to be shot by accident – but I’d save you the disgrace of the other way – I give you half a minute to decide. (He holds up his wrist to look at his watch.) Half a minute from now –

There is silence; a few seconds go by. Suddenly HIBBERT bursts into a high-pitched laugh

Hibbert: Go on, then, shoot! You won’t let me go to hospital. I swear I’ll never go into those trenches again. Shoot! – and thank God –

Stanhope (with his eyes on his watch): Fifteen more seconds –

Hibbert: Go on! I’m ready –

Stanhope: Ten.

a) Compare how threatening someone else with violence is presented in these two extracts. You should consider:

• the situations and experiences faced by the characters

• how the characters react to these situations and experiences

• how language and dramatic features create effects.

AND

‘ Great Expectations is a story about love.’ How far do you agree with this view?

Explore at least two moments from the novel to support your ideas.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Choose ONE question.

You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section.

EITHER

Explore how Austen presents the influence of family, in this extract and elsewhere in the novel.

In this extract, Darcy admits to Elizabeth that previously he let his prejudices about class cloud his judgement.

‘I cannot give you credit for any philosophy of the kind. Your retrospections must be so totally void of reproach, that the contentment arising from them, is not of philosophy, but what is much better, of ignorance. But with me, it is not so. Painful recollections will intrude, which cannot, which ought not to be repelled. I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit. Unfortunately, an only son (for many years an only child), I was spoilt by my parents, who though good themselves (my father, particularly, all that was benevolent and amiable), allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing, to care for none beyond my own family circle, to think meanly of all the rest of the world, to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled. I came to you without a doubt of my reception. You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.’

OR

‘It is appropriate that the novel ends by telling us that Elizabeth and Darcy were always on “intimate terms” with Mr and Mrs Gardiner.’ How far do you agree with this view?

Explore at least two moments from the novel to support your ideas.

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

Choose ONE question.

You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section.

EITHER

Explore how Wells presents lack of understanding, in this extract and elsewhere in the novel.

In this extract, the narrator reflects on the lessons learnt from the Martian attack.

Neither is the composition of the Black Smoke known, which the Martians used with such deadly effect, and the generator of the Heat-Rays remains a puzzle. The terrible disasters at the Ealing and South Kensington laboratories have disinclined analysts for further investigations upon the latter. Spectrum analysis of the black powder points unmistakably to the presence of an unknown element with a brilliant group of three lines in the green, and it is possible that it combines with argon to form a compound which acts at once with deadly effect upon some constituent in the blood. But such unproven speculations will scarcely be of interest to the general reader, to whom this story is addressed. None of the brown scum that drifted down the Thames after the destruction of Shepperton was examined at the time, and now none is forthcoming. The results of an anatomical examination of the Martians, so far as the prowling dogs had left such an examination possible, I have already given. But everyone is familiar with the magnificent and almost complete specimen in spirits at the Natural History Museum, and the countless drawings that have been made from it; and beyond that the interest of their physiology and structure is purely scientific. A question of graver and universal interest is the possibility of another attack from the Martians. I do not think that nearly enough attention is being given to this aspect of the matter. At present the planet Mars is in conjunction, but with every return to opposition I, for one, anticipate a renewal of their adventure. In any case, we should be prepared. It seems to me that it should be possible to define the position of the gun from which the shots are discharged, to keep a sustained watch upon this part of the planet, and to anticipate the arrival of the next attack.

OR

‘The Martians’ weakness is obvious from the beginning.’ How far do you agree with this view?

Explore at least two moments from the novel to support your ideas.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Choose ONE question.

You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section.

EITHER

Explore how Stevenson uses silence and unwillingness to speak, in this extract and elsewhere in the novel.

In this extract, Mr Utterson and Enfield stand below Dr Jekyll’s window and try to convince him to go for a walk with them.

‘You are very good,’ sighed the other. ‘I should like to very much; but no, no, no; it is quite impossible; I dare not. But indeed, Utterson, I am very glad to see you; this is really a great pleasure. I would ask you and Mr Enfield up, but the place is really not fit.’ ‘Why then,’ said the lawyer, good-naturedly, ‘the best thing we can do is to stay down here and speak with you from where we are.’ ‘That is just what I was about to venture to propose,’ returned the doctor, with a smile. But the words were hardly uttered, before the smile was struck out of his face and succeeded by an expression of such abject terror and despair, as froze the very blood of the two gentlemen below. They saw it but for a glimpse, for the window was instantly thrust down; but that glimpse had been sufficient, and they turned and left the court without a word. In silence, too, they traversed the by-street; and it was not until they had come into a neighbouring thoroughfare, where even upon a Sunday there were still some stirrings of life, that Mr Utterson at last turned and looked at his companion. They were both pale; and there was an answering horror in their eyes. ‘God forgive us! God forgive us!’ said Mr Utterson. But Mr Enfield only nodded his head very seriously, and walked on once more in silence.

OR

‘The minor characters of Carew and Poole play important parts in moving the story along.’ How far do you agree with this view?

Explore at least two moments from the novel to support your ideas.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Choose ONE question.

You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section.

EITHER

Explore how Brontë presents the idea of being trapped, in this extract and elsewhere in the novel.

In this extract, Jane has arrived at Thornfield and although her new life is comfortable Jane longs for something different.

Who blames me? Many, no doubt; and I shall be called discontented. I could not help it: the restlessness was in my nature; it agitated me to pain sometimes. Then my sole relief was to walk along the corridor of the third storey, backwards and forwards, safe in the silence and solitude of the spot, and allow my mind’s eye to dwell on whatever bright visions rose before it – and, certainly, they were many and glowing; to let my heart be heaved by the exultant movement, which, while it swelled it in trouble, expanded it with life; and, best of all, to open my inward ear to a tale that was never ended – a tale my imagination created, and narrated continuously; quickened with all of incident, life, fire, feeling, that I desired and had not in my actual existence. It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.

OR

‘The lessons which Jane learns at Thornfield are more important than her experiences at other places where she lives.’ How far do you agree with this view?

Explore at least two moments from the novel to support your ideas.