San Ġorġ Preca College Secondary School, Blata l-Bajda
Half-Yearly Examinations - February 2015
English Literature
Track 3
Form: 4
Name & Surname:
Class:
Time: 2 hours
Index No:
Teacher:
Section A – DRAMA
William Shakespeare—Macbeth
Choose one question from this section. (25 marks)
1. Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow:
Banquo
That, trusted home,
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But ‘tis
strange: And oftentimes, to win us to our
harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
In deepest consequence.
Cousins, a word I pray you.
Macbeth [Aside]
Two truths are told
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme. –I thank you
gentlemen.[Aside] This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good.
If ill, why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of
Cawdor.
120
125
a) What happened before the extract? (3 marks)
b) What are “the instruments of darkness” Banquo is referring to? (2 marks)
c) In your own words, what is Banquo telling Macbeth? (5 marks)
d) What does the gobbet reveal about Macbeth’s and Banquo’s attitude to the
supernatural forces in the play? Support your answer with relevant quotes from the
gobbet. (10 marks)
e) Macbeth says that two truths have been told. What is he referring to? (2 marks)
f) The extract contains a figure of speech in which Macbeth reveals his innermost
thoughts to the audience while the other characters cannot hear him. What is this
literary device called and by which word is it indicated? (3 marks)
English Literature Form 4 Track 3
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OR
2. It can be argued that in Act 1, women play as much an important role as the male figures.
The female characters are ultimately the ones who start the play’s events. Discuss and
support your answer with quotations and references to the play.
OR
3. Discuss the way in which the language of the play creates an atmosphere of evil and
violence. Support your answer by using relevant quotations and references to the play.
Section B – PROSE
Roald Dahl – The Great Automatic Grammatizator and Other Stories
Choose one question from this section. (25 marks)
1. Foreshadowing is a literary device which authors use to give subtle hints to the readers
of what’s to come later on in the story. With reference to two stories, discuss how
Roald Dahl uses foreshadowing and whether it is effective. Support your answers with
relevant quotations from the stories.
OR
2. A number of stories in Roald Dahl’s Great Automatic Grammatizator are classified as
‘horror’ stories. However, blood or gore does not feature in the stories. With reference
to at least two stories, discuss how Roald Dahl manages to make readers feel afraid
and uneasy.
OR
3. The relationship between men and women portrayed in Roald Dahl’s stories is often
far from perfect or nurturing. Discuss.
English Literature Form 4 Track 3
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Section C – POETRY
The Dragon Book of Verse
Choose one question from this section. (25 marks)
1. “There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in”
(Graham Greene). With reference to two poems from Dragon Book of Verse, discuss
how the poems of your choice show the transition between childhood to adulthood.
OR
2. The tone of a poem is strongly influenced by the age of the narrator. Discuss by
referring to the poems you have studied.
OR
3. Poets are able to create vivid images in the mind of the readers. Additionally, the
diction of a poem can make the readers feel, hear and smell precisely what the narrator
can. Discuss with reference to two poems from Dragon Book of Verse.
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Section D – UNSEEN TEXT
Read the following extract and answer ALL the questions about it. (25 marks)
The Wasps’ Nest by James L. Rosenberg
Two aerial tigers,
Striped in ebony and gold
And resonantly, savagely a-hum,
Have lately come
To my mail-box’s metal hold
And thought
With paper and with mud
Therein to build
Their insubstantial and their only home.
Neither the sore displeasure
Of the U. S. Mail
Nor all my threats and warnings
Will avail
To turn them from their hummed devotions.
And I think
They know my strength,
Can gauge
The danger of their work:
One blow could crush them
And their nest; and I am not their friend.
And yet they seem
Too deeply and too fiercely occupied
To bother to attend.
Perhaps they sense
I’ll never deal the blow,
For, thought I am not in nor of them,
Still I think I know
What it is like to live
In an alien and gigantic universe, a stranger,
Building fragile citadels of love
On the edge of danger.
1.
5
10
15
20
25
30
The poem consists of five sections. Summarise briefly each of these sections in order
to bring out clearly the poem’s meaning.
(5 marks)
i.____________________________________________________________________
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ii.___________________________________________________________________
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iii.___________________________________________________________________
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iv.___________________________________________________________________
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v.____________________________________________________________________
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2.
Explain what the poet is referring to and why they are effective:
(7 marks)
a. two aerial tigers (line 1)
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b. Their insubstantial and their only home (line 9)
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c. the sore displeasure/ Of the U.S. Mail (lines 10-11)
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d. hummed devotions (line 14)
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3.
What is the purpose of line 21? What do we call this in literary terms?
(2 marks)
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4.
Identify two kinds of imagery used in this poem. Quote an example of each,
and comment on their effectiveness.
(4 marks)
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5.
What is the effect of the last two lines of the poem? What figures of speech are found
here? What effect do they create?
(3 marks)
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6.
What is the poet’s attitude towards the wasps? Does it stay the same throughout the
entire poem? Justify your answer using quotations from the poem.
(4 marks)
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