Section A: Read extract one – answer the questions in full
sentences in the spaces provided (15 minutes)
Section B: Read extract two – answer the questions in full
sentences in the spaces provided (15 minutes)
Section C: Choose one of the writing tasks; plan and write in
response to the question you have chosen (30 minutes)
Name
SECTION A: Spend 15 minutes on this section
Read this passage carefully, then answer the questions that follow. The passage below describes Will Parry’s strange
observation on an Oxford road.
He came to a large traffic circle where the road going north crossed the Oxford ring road going east and west.
At this time of night there was very little traffic, and the road where he stood was quiet, with comfortable
houses set back behind a wide expanse of grass on either side. Planted along the grass at the road's edge were
two lines of hornbeam trees, odd-looking things with perfectly symmetrical close-leafed crowns, more like
children's drawings than like real trees. The streetlights made the scene look artificial, like a stage set. Will was
stupefied with exhaustion, and he might have gone on to the north, or he might have laid his head on the grass
under one of those trees and slept; but as he stood trying to clear his head, he saw a cat.
She was a tabby, like Moxie. She padded out of a garden on the Oxford side of the road, where Will was
standing. Will put down his tote bag and held out his hand, and the cat came up to rub her head against his
knuckles, just as Moxie did. Of course, every cat behaved like that, but all the same Will felt such a longing for
home that tears scalded his eyes.
Eventually the cat turned away. This was night, and there was a territory to patrol, there were mice to hunt.
She padded across the road and toward the bushes just beyond the hornbeam trees, and there she stopped.
Will, still watching, saw the cat behave curiously.
She reached out a paw to pat something in the air in front of her, something quite invisible to Will. Then she
leaped backward, back arched and fur on end, tail held out stiffly. Will knew cat behaviour. He watched more
alertly as the cat approached the spot again, just an empty patch of grass between the hornbeams and the
bushes of a garden hedge, and patted the air once more.
Again she leaped back, but less far and with less alarm this time. After another few seconds of sniffing,
touching, and whisker twitching, curiosity overcame wariness.
The cat stepped forward and vanished.
Will blinked. Then he stood still, close to the trunk of the nearest tree, as a truck came around the circle and
swept its lights over him. When it had gone past, he crossed the road, keeping his eyes on the spot where the
cat had been investigating. It wasn't easy, because there was nothing to fix on, but when he came to the place
and cast about to look closely, he saw it.
At least, he saw it from some angles. It looked as if someone had cut a patch out of the air, about two yards
from the edge of the road, a patch roughly square in shape and less than a yard across. If you were level with
the patch so that it was edge-on, it was nearly invisible, and it was completely invisible from behind. You could
see it only from the side nearest the road, and you couldn't see it easily even from there, because all you could
see through it was exactly the same kind of thing that lay in front of it on this side: a patch of grass lit by a
streetlight.
But Will knew without the slightest doubt that that patch of grass on the other side was in a different world.
He couldn't possibly have said why. He knew it at once, as strongly as he knew that fire burned and kindness
was good. He was looking at something profoundly alien.
And for that reason alone, it enticed him to stoop and look further. What he saw made his head swim and his
heart thump harder, but he didn't hesitate: he pushed his tote bag through, and then scrambled through
himself, through the hole in the fabric of this world and into another.
From ‘The Subtle Knife’ by Philip Pullman
Please answer the questions in full sentences. Look at the passage again if you need to. You may
highlight and mark the sheet.
1: In paragraph one, what simile does the narrator use to describe the appearance of the streetlights? (1 mark)
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2: Just before Will sees the cat, he is described as being ‘stupefied with exhaustion’ and two possible options
are given for what he might do next. What are those two options? (2 marks)
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3: Will sees the cat react to ‘something in the air in front of her’. Find and write down the sentence which
describes the cat’s reaction to what she sees. (1 mark)
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4: What word does the writer use to describe how the cat behaves? (1 mark)
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5: What does Will see when he looks more closely at the spot the cat has been investigating? (1 mark)
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6: Will realises that he is looking at something strange. Which two words sum up the unusual nature of what
he is looking at? Find and write down the two words. (2 marks)
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7: When Will steps ‘through the hole in the fabric of this world and into another’ which word do you think
best describes how he is feeling? Circle one letter from the letters below. (1 mark)
A: Scared
B: Anxious
C: Aggressive
D: Intrigued
SECTION B: Spend 15 minutes on this section
Read this passage carefully, then answer the questions that follow.
The Big Question: Is time travel possible, and is there any
chance that it will ever take place?
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Friday, 8 February 2008
Why are we asking this now?
Two Russian mathematicians have suggested that the giant atom-smasher being built at the European centre
for nuclear research, Cern, near Geneva, could create the conditions where it might be possible to travel
backwards or forwards in time. In essence, Irina Aref'eva and Igor Volovich believe that the Large Hadron
Collider at Cern, which is due to be switched on this year for the first time, might create tiny "wormholes" in
space which could allow some form of limited time travel.
If true, this would mark the first time in human history that a time machine has been created. If travelling back
in time is possible at all, it should in theory be only possible to travel back to the point when the first time
machine was created and so this would mean that time travellers from the future would be able to visit us. As
an article in this week's New Scientist suggests, this year – 2008 – could become "year zero" for time travel.
Is this really a serious proposition?
The New Scientist article points out that there are many practical problems and theoretical paradoxes to time
travel. "Nevertheless, the slim possibility remains that we will see visitors from the future in the next year,"
says the magazine says, rather provocatively.
It has to be said that few scientists accept the idea that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will create the
conditions thought to be necessary for time travel. The LHC is designed to probe the mysterious forces that
exist at the level of sub-atomic particles, and as such will answer many important questions, such as the true
nature of gravity. It is not designed as a time machine.
In any case, if the LHC became a time machine by accident, the device would exist only at the sub-atomic level
so we are not talking about a machine like Dr Who's Tardis, which is able to carry people forwards and
backwards from the future.
What do the experts say about the idea of time travel?
The theoretical possibility is widely debated, but everyone agrees that the practical problems are so immense
that it is, in all likelihood, never going to happen. Brian Cox, a Cern researcher at the University of
Manchester, points out that even if the laws of physics do not prohibit time travel, that doesn't mean to say it's
going to happen, certainly in terms of travelling back in time.
"Saying that the laws of physics as we know them permit travel into the past is the same as saying that, to
paraphrase Bertrand Russell, they permit a teapot to be in orbit around Venus," Dr Cox says. It's possible, but
not likely.
"Time travel into the future is absolutely possible, in fact time passes at a different rate in orbit than it does on
the ground, and this has to be taken into consideration in order for satellite navigation systems to work. But
time travel into the past, although technically allowed in Einstein's theory, will in the opinion of most physicists
be ruled out when, and if, we develop a better understanding of the fundamental laws of physics – and that's
what the LHC is all about."
From
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-big-question-is-time-travel-possible-and-is-there-anychance-that-it-will-ever-take-place-779761.html
Please answer the questions in full sentences. Look at the passage again if you need to. You may
highlight and mark the sheet.
1: When the Large Hadron Collider is switched on for the first time, what might it create? (1 mark)
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2: Which year does the New Scientist suggest could be the ‘year zero’ for time travel? (1 mark)
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3: In the article it says that the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is not designed to be a time machine. Find and
write down the sentence which does describe what the LHC is designed to do. (1 mark)
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4: Which character and his famous time machine are mentioned in the article? Name the character and the
name their time machine is known by. (2 marks)
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5: Read the statements below and circle the letter of one statement which best summarises the article’s ideas
about time travel. (1 mark)
A: Time travel is possible but unlikely to happen due to practical difficulties
B: Time travel is absolutely impossible
C: Time travel is definitely going to happen in 2008
D: The Large Hadron Collider was designed specifically to investigate time travel.
SECTION C: Spend 30 minutes on this section
Writing task
Task: choose one of the titles below and plan a piece of imaginative writing based on that
title. You must show your planning in the box below before writing an accurate response on
the page opposite. Write a minimum of half a side of A4 and a maximum of one side of A4.
You have 30 minutes to plan, write and check your work for its accuracy. Leave time to
check your spelling, punctuation and grammar. (15 marks)
1: ‘...He didn't hesitate: he pushed his tote bag through, and then scrambled through
himself, through the hole in the fabric of this world and into another.’ Plan and write an
extract from a story which describes what Will sees next and how he reacts to the parallel
world he finds.
2: Write an article for a newspaper in which you try to persuade the reader of the
possibilities of time travel and the benefits it may offer. Remember to use persuasive
techniques. (You do not have to write in columns)
3: Describe a time when you were faced with an unusual situation or something unexpected
happened. Remember to use descriptive words to make your writing vivid and interesting
for the reader.
Planning Space
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DHSB / SD