Section A: Reading and Comprehension (30 marks)
Read the passage carefully and answer all the questions.
The Friends
“Monkey-chaser’ and ‘teacher’s pet’- that’s what the children in her new school call Phyllisia. They don’t
like her because she’s an outsider. She comes from the West Indies, speaks with a different accent, and
can answer more questions in class. Then comes the dreadful day when nearly all the class gang up on
her and wait for her after school. They attack her and she is terrified. She feels angry and frustrated, and
tries to explain the situation to her mother. Her sister Ruby has found her own way of dealing with the
bullies, but Phyllisia is reluctant to take her advice.
Rushing into the apartment, planning to hide in my room, I ran right into my mother’s arms. “Bon Dieu”,
she cried after one look at my face. “What is this? What have they done to you?”
The look of my mother-tall and with an olive complexion with black, black eyes has always awed me. As I
saw her now, heard her voice, rich, deep, softened by the French Creole of the Island-it tickled the pores
of my skin, thickened my throat with unshed tears and jumbled my words as they fell thick and heavy
from my swollen lips.
“Al-all the chi-children bunch up and wa-nt to fi-fight me”. “Want to? From the look of your face I would
say they did fight you.” She called to my sister. “Ruby, Ruby, bring me a basin of water and a rag”. Then
pulling me into the living room, she sat on the couch holding me to her knees.”Tell me, Phyllisia, why?
Don’t the children like you?” The pity in her voice pushed me to the brink of hysterics. “No. They hate
me! Everybody hates me!”
“But how so?”
“I answer the questions the teacher asks and the gi-girl behind says that I-I am the teacher’s pet. And
wh-en I co-me down-stairs th-they all stand around wait-ing…”
“How long has this been going on?”
“Since the beg-beginning. They say all ki-kinds of nas-ty things to me”.
“Nasty things like what?”
“They call me mon-monkey chaser”.
Ruby had come into the room with the basin of water. Mother turned to her:”Do you have trouble like
this, Ruby?”
“No, Mother.”
“Why is that? Is it because the children are older in your school?”
“It’s because I don’t stick my hand in the air all the time and try to prove how smart I am”. Ruby spoke in
her usual vain, airy manner. “After all Mother, you know how Phyllisia is. If she did not try to act so
smart and know-it-all, she would not be opening up her mouth and be reminding the children where she
comes from”.
All of my self-pity turned into a need for revenge. But I held myself at Mother’s knees not to rush up and
scratch at her pretty face. Mother’s eyes had widened. A pulse beat rapidly at her delicate throat. “Ruby
are you standing there telling me that you do not answer questions in class because you are ashamed of
where you come from?”
Ruby did not notice the reproach in Mother’s voice and went on in the same manner, “Well, the children
don’t like it and the teachers don’t demand it, so why call attention to oneself? Sometimes when the
children don’t know the answer, I even slip it to them”.
Aghast, Mother cried: “Is so? For shame, for shame, Ruby. I did not know that you were ashamed of
yourself.”
“I am not ashamed of myself, Mother”. Ruby hated to be scolded. Tears rose quickly to her eyes. “But I
want people to like me”.
“Ruby, you are a nice-looking girl. You are well-mannered. If you can also add intelligence to that list,
then you must look elsewhere for the reasons people don’t like you.”
Mother’s displeasure gave me new confidence. “Mother,” I pleaded, “I don’t want to go back to that
school tomorrow. Please, don’t make me go back to that school”.
“You have to go,” she said quietly.”You are a West Indian girl going to school in New York and you are
proud. What happens in this school will happen in any other. So if you must fight, you must”.
For a moment I just stared. Did she know what it was like to have a yelling mob ready to pounce on you?
Or to have someone as tough as Beulah hate you for nothing? And to know that she would be waiting
for you the next day? I thrust my swollen face angrily near to hers. “I don’t bargain with my intelligence,
but I don’t want to be killed for it either.”
“Oh, they will not kill you.” I felt her withdrawing into that calm where nothing could reach her.
Usually I admired this “haughtiness’. I often imitated it when I played the role of ‘grand lady’. Now,
however, I wanted to snatch at the calm, shock her into an anger equal to mine. How dare she sit thereinside of herself-and state that I would not be killed!
(From: Rosa Guy, The Friends, Penguin, 1977)
Answer all the following questions in full sentences:
1. “Al-all the chi-children bunch up and wa-nt to fi-fight me.” Why are Phyllisia’s words printed out
in this broken up way?
2. What do you, as a reader, feel for Phyllisia after you have read her broken up words?
3. What were her mother’s feelings when Phyllisia told her she was being bullied?
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Explain why hearing her mother’s voice and accent made Phyllisia want to cry.
Why were the girls bullying her, according to Phyllisia?
Why were the girls bullying her, according to her mother?
What different forms was the bullying taking?
Why wouldn’t her mother let her leave the school and go to another one?
Give two reasons why Ruby deliberately said as little as possible in class.
Was ‘being liked’ equally important to both girls? Give reasons for your answer.
Section B: Vocabulary Usage (20 marks)
Write words or phrases which could take the place of the words underlined below:
1. Ruby did not notice the reproach in Mother’s voice.
2. Aghast, Mother cried: “Is so? For shame, for shame, Ruby.”
3. Stifling the urge to throw myself on the floor to kick, to scream, have a tantrum, I screeched
instead, “But it’s me they’re fighting.”
4. She smiled condescendingly.
5. The look of my mother-tall, and with an olive complexion with black, black eyes – has always
awed me.
6. It tickled the pores of my skin.
7. He was overthrown and banished.
8. She was drenched by the downpour that happened suddenly.
9. They were sympathetic to the girl’s problem.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Replace the underlined words with the synonyms (words that have the same meaning)in bold:
The huge python did not wish to be captured.
The naturalist showed great bravery as he tried to catch the snake.
The snake was unable to hide itself.
It was the snake’s intention not to yield to the naturalist.
One of its coils began to slide smoothly over the branch.
It was difficult to judge the length of the snake.
The naturalist stood up triumphantly and lifted the snake’s head above his shoulders.
The naturalist had no option but to chase the snake, as it made for the bamboo.
Synonyms: surrender, purpose, estimate, conceal, courage, enormous, attempted, victoriously, raised,
commenced, want, slither, choice, displayed, hard, pursue.
Section C: Grammar usage (25 marks)
Form the plurals of the following words:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Chief
Calf
Wolf
Sheep
Ox
Cargo
Domino
Life
Woman
Ratio
Change each of the words in bold into its correct form:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
My suggest is that you set aside two hours per day to do your homework.
Please do not speak until you are speak to.
I like your describe of a furious teacher.
The headteacher is absence today.
You’ll need to go to the gym to development a few muscles!
She is our school’s best debate. She has taken part in many debating competitions.
A success effort requires a lot of hard work.
The school takes us on many trips that are education.
The losing team behavior badly.
The school secretary had an answer service fitted on her phone.
Rewrite the sentences below, either changing the underlined words into adverbs or changing the
position of the adverbs:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The motorcyclist sudden jammed on the brakes.
He was riding again through the quiet village.
He immediate slowed down.
Then he settled himself on to the bike.
He crashed down half on his back and half on his side.
His head violent hit the tarmac.
He recovered consciousness gradual.
Section D: Writing task (25 marks)
Choose one of the following tasks and write between 150 and 200 words:
1. A day you spent on the beach. Make sure you describe the place and explain what you liked
most about it. Describe what happened on that particular day: describe your thoughts and
feelings.
2. Write a story that includes:



A dog
A knife
A young boy
Make sure you think carefully about your characters and about the setting (where the story
takes place).
3. Write about your favourite sport. Make sure you describe what the sport is and give reasons
why it is your favourite sport. ( It can be a sport you practice or one that you like watching).
End of the examination