ELT109
Examination – July Semester 2015
Understanding Poems and Plays
Monday, 16 November 2015
7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
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Time allowed: 2 hours
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INSTRUCTIONS TO STUDENTS:
1. This examination contains FOUR (4) questions and comprises SIX (6) printed
pages (including cover page).
2. You must answer ONE (1) question in Section A and ONE (1) question in
Section B.
3. All answers must be written in the answer book.
4. This is a closed-book examination.
At the end of the examination
Please ensure that you have written your examination number on each answer book
used.
Failure to do so will mean that your work cannot be identified.
If you have used more than one answer book, please tie them together with the string
provided.
THE UNIVERSITY RESERVES THE RIGHT NOT TO MARK YOUR
SCRIPT IF YOU FAIL TO FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS.
ELT109 Copyright © 2015 SIM University
Examination – July Semester 2015
Page 1 of 6
SECTION A (Total 50 marks)
Answer ONE question in this section.
Question 1
Present a critical analysis of the following poem about a former basketball player. Your
answer should identify the key features of the poem and interpret the stylistic and
thematic effects of these features.
(50 marks)
Ex-Basketball Player
Pearl Avenue runs past the high-school lot,
Bends with the trolley tracks, and stops, cut off
Before it has a chance to go two blocks,
At Colonel McComsky Plaza. Berth’s Garage
Is on the corner facing west, and there,
Most days, you’ll find Flick Webb, who helps Berth out.
Flick stands tall among the idiot pumps—
Five on a side, the old bubble-head style,
Their rubber elbows hanging loose and low.
One’s nostrils are two S’s, and his eyes
An E and O. And one is squat, without
A head at all—more of a football type.
10
Once Flick played for the high-school team, the Wizards,
He was good: in fact, the best. In ’46
He bucketed three hundred ninety points,
A county record still. The ball loved Flick.
I saw him rack up thirty-eight or forty
In one home game. His hands were like wild birds.
He never learned a trade, he just sells gas,
Checks oil, and changes flats. Once in a while
As a gag, he dribbles an inner tube,
But most of us remember anyway.
His hands are fine and nervous on the lug wrench.
It makes no difference to the lug wrench, though.
25
30
John Updike
2
A soft drink.
Type of confectionery.
ELT109 Copyright © 2015 SIM University
Examination – July Semester 2015
15
20
Off work, he hangs around Mae’s luncheonette.
Grease-grey and kind of coiled, he plays pinball,
Smokes those thin cigars, nurses lemon phosphates1.
Flick seldom says a word to Mae, just nods
Beyond her face toward the bright applauding tiers
Of Necco Wafers, Nibs, and Juju Beads2.
1
5
Page 2 of 6
Question 2
Present a critical comparison of the ways in which these two poets present their
thoughts and feelings about growing old. In your answer you should identify and
interpret the poetic effects each poet uses in order to show how these effects contribute
to the poems’ overall differences.
(50 marks)
(a)
I Look into my Glass3
I look into my glass,
And view my wasting skin,
And say, “Would God it came to pass
My heart had shrunk as thin!”
5
For then, I, undistrest
By hearts grown cold to me,
Could lonely wait my endless rest
With equanimity.
But Time, to make me grieve,
Part steals, lets part abide;
And shakes this fragile frame at eve
With throbbings of noontide.
10
Thomas Hardy
(b)
From “The Tower”
What shall I do with this absurdity—
O heart, O troubled heart—this caricature,
Decrepit age that has been tied to me
As to a dog’s tail4?
Never had I more
5
Excited, passionate, fantastical
Imagination, nor an ear and eye
That more expected the impossible—
No, not in boyhood when with rod and fly,
Or the humbler worm, I climbed Ben Bulben’s5 back 10
And had the livelong summer day to spend.
It seems that I must bid the Muse go pack,
Choose Plato and Plotinus6 for a friend
Until imagination, ear and eye,
Can be content with argument and deal
15
In abstract things; or be derided by
A sort of battered kettle at the heel.
W. B. Yeats
3
Mirror.
Tin cans, pots, pans and kettles were tied to dogs’ tails for amusement.
5
Ben Bulben is a mountain in County Sligo, Ireland.
6
Ancient philosophers.
4
ELT109 Copyright © 2015 SIM University
Examination – July Semester 2015
Page 3 of 6
SECTION B (Total 50 marks)
Answer ONE question in this section.
Question 3
Apply close reading skills to the following passage. Evaluate the effects that the speeches
below have on our opinions of Bassanio and Gratiano, and the values they represent. Write an
answer that makes close reference to both the passage itself as well as other relevant parts of
the play.
(50 marks)
BASSANIO
NERISSA
GRATIANO
BASSANIO
GRATIANO
PORTIA
NERISSA
BASSANIO
GRATIANO
BASSANIO
GRATIANO
NERISSA
GRATIANO
Madam, you have bereft me of all words.
175
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins,
And there is such confusion in my powers
As, after some oration fairly spoke
By a beloved prince, there doth appear
Among the buzzing pleased multitude,
180
Where every something being blent together
Turns to a wild of nothing, save of joy
Expressed and not expressed. But when this ring
Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence;
O then be bold to say Bassanio’s dead!
185
My lord and lady, it is now our time,
That have stood by and seen our wishes prosper,
To cry “good joy.” Good joy, my lord and lady!
My Lord Bassanio, and my gentle lady,
I wish you all the joy that you can wish—
190
For I am sure you can wish none from me;
And when your honours mean to solemnize
The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you
Even at that time I may be married too.
With all my heart, so thou canst get a wife.
195
I thank your lordship, you have got me one.
My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours:
You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid.
You loved, I loved; for intermission
No more pertains to me, my lord, than you.
200
Your fortune stood upon the caskets there,
And so did mine too as the matter falls.
For wooing here until I sweat again,
And swearing till my very roof was dry
With oaths of love, at last—if promise last—
205
I got a promise of this fair one here
To have her love, provided that your fortune
Achieved her mistress.
Is this true, Nerissa?
Madam, it is, so you stand pleased withal.
And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith?
210
Yes, faith, my lord.
Our feast shall be much honoured in your marriage.
We’ll play with them first boy for a thousand ducats.
What, and stake down?
215
No, we shall ne’er win at that sport, and stake down.
But who comes here? Lorenzo and his infidel!
What, and my old Venetian friend Salerio!
Act 3 Scene 2, lines 175-218
ELT109 Copyright © 2015 SIM University
Examination – July Semester 2015
Page 4 of 6
Question 4
Apply close reading skills to the following extract. Assess what this passage does for
our estimation of Shylock and relate the presentation of Shylock in this passage to his
presentation elsewhere in the play. Although you should attend closely to the speeches
made here, you should also refer to material elsewhere in the play which you consider
relevant to the points you wish to make.
(50 marks)
DUKE
SHYLOCK
Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too,
That thou but leadest this fashion of thy malice
To the last hour of act; and then ’tis thought
Thou’lt show thy mercy and remorse more strange
Than is thy strange apparent cruelty;
And where thou now exacts the penalty,
Which is a pound of this poor merchant’s flesh,
Thou wilt not only loose the forfeiture,
But touched with human gentleness and love,
Forgive a moiety of the principal,
Glancing an eye of pity on his losses,
That have of late so huddled on his back,
Enow to press a royal merchant down
And pluck commiseration of his state
From brassy bosoms and rough hearts of flint,
From stubborn Turks and Tartars never trained
To offices of gentle courtesy.
We all expect a gentle answer, Jew.
I have possessed your grace of what I purpose,
And by our holy Sabaoth have I sworn
To have the due and forfeit of my bond.
If you deny it, let the danger light
Upon your charter and your city’s freedom!
You’ll ask me why I rather choose to have
A weight of carrion flesh than to receive
Three thousand ducats. I’ll not answer that,
But say it is my humour. Is it answered?
What if my house be troubled with a rat,
And I be pleased to give ten thousand ducats
To have it baned? What, are you answered yet?
Some men there are love not a gaping pig,
Some that are mad if they behold a cat,
And others, when the bagpipe sings i’ th’ nose,
Cannot contain their urine; for affection,
Master of passion, sways it to the mood
Of what it likes or loathes. Now for your answer:
As there is no firm reason to be rendered
Why he cannot abide a gaping pig,
Why he a harmless necessary cat,
Why he a woolen bagpipe, but of force
Must yield to such inevitable shame
As to offend, himself being offended;
So can I give no reason, nor I will not,
More than a lodged hate and a certain loathing
I bear Antonio, that I follow thus
A losing suit against him. Are you answered?
ELT109 Copyright © 2015 SIM University
Examination – July Semester 2015
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Page 5 of 6
BASSANIO
SHYLOCK
BASSANIO
SHYLOCK
BASSANIO
SHYLOCK
This is no answer, thou unfeeling man,
To excuse the current of thy cruelty!
I am not bound to please thee with my answers.
Do all men kill the things they do not love?
Hates any man the thing he would not kill?
Every offence is not a hate at first.
What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?
65
Act 4 Scene 1, lines 17-69
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ELT109 Copyright © 2015 SIM University
Examination – July Semester 2015
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