IGCSE English Language
“A Passage to Africa”
Goals
1. I can gain an understanding as to how essays are
marked.
2. I can read an unseen text and answer comprehension
questions and write a 12-mark essay.
3. I can annotate “A Passage to Africa.”
How do you score high
marks on a 10-mark
question?
Task: 20 minutes
1. Read 3 example essays answering the 10-mark question
about “Taking on the World.”
2. Highlight the point in each paragraph.
3. Highlight the evidence in each paragraph.
4. Give each essay a letter grade: A*, A, B, C, C- or D. Give
a short explanation.
Candidate A
●
●
●
●
●
●
confusing opening comment
makes clear comments about passion, strength of mind and commitment
comments about the use of long sentences were not credited
comments about the inspirational character and the creation of danger and
tension were all seen as an engagement with the text.
absence of language comments was determined to have held this answer
back from higher marks
Marks?
○ 6/10
○ C-
Candidate B
● range of character points
● only comments briefly upon language with structure being
described as chronological
● comments on the use of language for self-motivation
● Marks?
○ 7/10
○ C
Candidate D
● confident response that shows a perceptive understanding
● makes clear comments on jargon, cliché and the use of
simile
● comment about being in awe of the sea showed a level of
interpretation not seen in many other responses
● Marks?
○ 9/10
○ A
Unseen text practice: 30 minutes
How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings in “A
Passage to Africa”? (12 marks)
● How the writer uses sensory experiences, e.g. taste,
touch, smell, see and hear
● How the writer shows how the smile has different roles
● How the writer expresses his key or major problem in this
passage
Unseen text practice: 30 minutes
● sensory experiences:
○ sight throughout;
○ sound, “No rage, no whimpering”;
○ smell, “the smell of decaying flesh”;
○ touch, “wipe your hands on the back of your trousers
after you’ve held the clammy palm of a mother who
has just cleaned vomit from her child’s mouth"
Unseen text practice: 30 minutes
● the smile is:
● Enigmatic, puzzling, questioning, stimulating, powerful
○ feelings are emphasised by the use of rhetorical
questions:
■ “how could it be?”
■ “What was it about that smile?”
Unseen text practice: 30 minutes
● key journalist’s problem: uncertainty and discomfort
● rhetorical question
○ “If he was embarrassed to be found weakened by
hunger and ground down by conflict, how should I feel
to be standing there so strong and confident?”
Background: Somalia 1991 and 1992: famine
Background: Somalia 1991 and 1992: famine
● Somalia, 1991-1992: Drought
and war contribute to famine
across the country; at least
200,000 famine-related deaths
reported in 1992.
Key vocabulary: matching (write the definitions on p. 23?)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
callous
enervating
dispatch
famine
deformity
revulsion
enigmatic
taboo
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
(n) a lack of food for a long time in a particular place
(adj.) making you feel weak and without energy
(n) the situation in which a part of the body has not
developed in the normal way or with the normal shape
(n.) strong, often sudden, feeling that something is
extremely unpleasant
(adj.) unfeeling; cruel
(adj.) mysterious;impossible to understand completely
(n.) an action or word that is avoided for religious or
social reasons
(v.)to send something, especially goods or a message,
somewhere for a particular purpose
Techniques: matching
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
irony
adjectives
graphic
emotive words
sentence
structure
contradictions
Imagery
idiom
A. (adj.) very clear and powerful:
B. the use of words that are the opposite of
what you mean, as a way of being funny
C. Describes a noun
D. Short, Simple, compound, complex and
compound complex
E. use of words or pictures in books, films,
paintings, etc. to describe ideas or
situations:
General: matching
1. Who is the author?
2. What is the
purpose?
3. What is the form?
4. What is the
structure?
5. When?
6. Where?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Excerpt from an autobiography
George Alagiah, BBC reporter
Somalia
End of 1991 to December 1992
To Explain his role as a reporter
and challenge the reader to think
about their own role
F. Reflective: past tense
Author: George Alagiah
● Born in Sri
Lanka
● Moved to West
Africa when he
was 5
● Lives in the UK
● BBC reporter
P1: How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings?
Passing Vocabulary
●
● lean
○ thin
● criss-crossed
○ to move in a
pattern of
lines that
cross
●
●
Point:
○ series of adjectives
Evidence:
○ “hungry, lean, scared and betrayed faces
...”
Explanation:
○ opening sentence
○ tragic tone
○ powerful imagery
○ Suffering
○ anonymous faces of the Somali people
○ extreme poverty
P1: How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings?
First of all, the reporter, Alagiah, presents his thoughts and
feelings via a series of descriptive adjectives of destitution at
the beginning of the excerpt. For example, he describes faces
as “hungry, lean, scared and betrayed.” The adjectives in the
opening sentence set a tragic tone by providing powerful
imagery, emphasizing the raw pain and suffering seen on the
anonymous faces of the Somali people because of their
extreme poverty.
P1: How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings?
● Point:
○ coordinating conjunction
● Evidence:
○ “but there is one ...”
● Explanation:
○ narrative hook in the first sentence,
○ prediction that the writer plans to describe in possibly
graphic detail one Somali person
○ contrasts with the “thousand” anonymous faces
P1: How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings?
Additionally, the writer conveys his thoughts and feelings in
the first sentence with the use of a coordinating conjunction,
as evident in this phrase: “but there is one ...” The conjunction
helps form a narrative hook, instantly engaging the reader
because he/she predicts that the writer plans to describe in
graphic detail one Somali person which contrasts with the
“thousand” anonymous faces already mentioned. We know
this to be true - in paragraph nine the writer graphically
describes one man’s smile.
P2: How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings?
●
●
●
hamlet
○ Small
village,
usually
without
a
church
jotted down
○ written
tarmac
○ Paved
road
●
●
●
Point:
○ simile coupled with a dash
Evidence:
○ “- like a ghost village”
Explanation:
○ setting of Gufgaduud
○ extremely rural, hard to reach and bleak
○ sparsely populated
○ isolated setting is reinforced
○ hyperbolic and informal idiomatic phrase, “back of
beyond,” meaning the writer is in a place far away
from a big city
P2: How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings?
Furthermore, Alagiah illustrates his thoughts and feelings
towards the setting with the use of a strategic simile coupled
with a dash, as seen in this phrase: “- like a ghost village.”
The writer’s lexicon and punctuation suggest to the reader
that the setting of Gufgaduud is extremely rural, hard to
reach, bleak and sparsely populated. In addition, the isolated
setting is reinforced by the hyperbolic idiomatic phrase, “back
of beyond,” meaning the writer is in a place far away from a
big city.
P3: How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings?
Passing Vocabulary
●
●
●
Ghoulish
○ frightening
tramped
○ The sound of heavy steps
Appalled
○ to make someone have
strong feelings of shock or
disapproval
●
●
●
●
Craving
○ Strong feeling of want
Stun
○ shock
Callous
○ Without emotion or cold-hearted
Compile
○ Collect or put together
P3: How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings?
● Point:
○ extended analogy
● Evidence:
○ “ghoulish manner of journalists ...”
● Explanation:
○ Metaphor, ghosts or spectres, plus the simile “ghost village”
= macabre association and interest with death and criticizes
journalists looking for suffering = self-critical
PEE quick write
How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings?
● Point:
○ extended analogy
● Evidence:
○ “ghoulish manner of journalists ...”
● Explanation:
○ Metaphor, ghosts or spectres, plus the simile “ghost village”
= macabre attraction with death and criticizes journalists
looking for suffering = self-critical
P3: How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings?
Moreover, the BBC reporter uses an extended analogy to
portray journalists and himself in a damning way, noting the
“ghoulish manner of journalists.” This metaphor, suggestive of
ghosts or spectres, coupled with the already mentioned simile
“ghost village, emphasizes his macabre attraction with death
and criticizes journalists for seeking out suffering people,
which means the writer is also self-critical and a cynic.
P3: How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings?
● Point:
○ metaphor
● Evidence:
○ “journalists on the hunt ...”
● Explanation:
○ like predators, searching for pictures of prey - starving Somali
people
○ reinforced by the way the journalists walked amongst the people:
they “tramped,” meaning to take heavy steps, which suggests that
the men searched aggressively for photographs
P4: How does the writer present his feelings and thoughts?
Passing vocabulary
● Edible
○ Safe to eat
● Terminal
○ Will die soon
● Half-life: difficult life
● Humanizes the Somalis:
the mother - daughter
dies: creates pathos or
pity
P5: How does the writer present his feelings and thoughts?
● Festering
○ infected
● Deposed
○ Force out a
leader
● Fuse
○ join
● Putrid
○ decaying
Graphic list of she suffers: revulsion
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Abandoned
Weak
starving
decaying flesh
Shot
shattered leg
putrid air and yellow eyes
P6: How does the writer present his feelings and thoughts?
● Great significance of the face
● connects to “one I will never forget”
● short sentence: draws attention
P7: How does the writer present his feelings and thoughts?
Passing vocabulary
●
●
●
●
●
Degeneration
○ Break down
Vitality
○ energy
Excretion
○ Bodily fluids
Surreptitiously
○ secretly
Clammy
○ wet/moist
● Honesty: revulsion - ashamed
(secretly wipes his hands)
P8: How does the writer present his feelings and thoughts?
Passing vocabulary
● Dignity
○
● Shrivelled
○ shrunken
● Soiled
○ excrement
● author’s pity
● People defeated by death
but also refuse to give up
P9: How does the writer present his feelings and thoughts?
Passing vocabulary
● Fleeting
○ Passes quickly
● Smile: changes the author
P10: How does the writer present his feelings and thoughts?
Passing vocabulary
● Urge
○ To persuade
● Clicked
○ To understand
● Feeble
○ weak
● Cannot understand the
smile
● Clicked: epiphany shameful apology
P11: How does the writer present his feelings and thoughts?
Passing vocabulary
●
●
●
●
●
Inured
○ hardened
Deprivation
○ Lack of basic needs
Unsettled
○ Unnerved
Tacit
○ Unspoken
Uttering
○ speaking
● Author is moved:
self-disgust
● appreciation of the man’s
dignity and courage
P12: How does the writer present his feelings and thoughts?
Passing vocabulary
● Resolve
○ To make decision
● Muster
○ produce
● Inspired to write about all
the horrible atrocities he
has seen in Africa: the
whole story
P13: How does the writer present his feelings and thoughts?
Passing vocabulary
● Seminal
○ Important and
influential
● Regrets that he does not
remember the man’s
name
● Expresses gratitude
How does the writer present his feelings and thoughts?
Big Questions
● Do news companies want to show complicated questions
with difficult answers?
● Is it taboo for journalists to share their feelings and make
society feel too uncomfortable?
● Does the Western world feel apathy (lack of interest) for
lower-income countries despite the poverty and suffering
sometimes found there?
How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings?
●
Point:
○
●
●
Sensory imagery to show his mixed emotions of attraction, pity and revulsion towards the
suffering
Evidence:
○ Sound: “no rage, no whimpering”
○ Smell: “decaying flesh”
○ Touch: “to wipe your hands on the back of your trousers after you’ve held the clammy palm of
a mother who has just cleaned vomit from her child’s mouth”
Explanation:
○ normalcy of death from disease / no struggle to prevent death / difficult life / part of the
dispatch
○ Graphic smell of putrefaction / prized prey for the predator journalist
○ Clear message of revulsion: but also makes us self-reflect: What is more important? Our own
health or the well-being of others. How would we react?
How does the writer present his thoughts and feelings?
●
●
●
Point:
○ Rhetorical questions and adjectives show the enigmatic meaning behind
the smile
Evidence:
○ “How could it be?”, “What was it about that smile?”, “embarrassed” and
“feeble”
Explanation:
○ Cannot understand the smile at first
○ Realizes: the smile did not make him pity the man or feel revulsion: he
becomes disgusted at himself (situational irony)
○ appreciates the man’s courage and dignity
○ Gratitude and changes his approach to journalism: see beyond the facts