English Homework
Name
“ If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking,
eventually you'll make progress.”
Barack Obama
Improve your grade: read
Regular reading will improve your English skills.
Why not try The Book Thief by Markus Zusak?
Narrated by Death, this is the story of Liesel Meminger, a young foster girl living
outside of Munich in Nazi Germany. Liesel scratches out a meagre existence for
herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist – books. Soon she
is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever they
are to be found. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, Liesel learns to
read and shares her stolen books with her neighbours during bombing raids, as well
as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.
On target?
Your homework booklet will be marked using the key below. At all times you should
be focusing on developing the accuracy and quality of your basic expression.
How your written work will be marked
Sp
Check spelling
//
New paragraph needed
P
Check punctuation
C
You need a capital letter here
T
Please check the tense of your verb
FS
Please answer in a full sentence
^
There is a word missing in this sentence
e.g.
Needs an example or quotation
Autumn Term 2016 : THREE
1
WRITING ABOUT THE USE OF LANGUAGE
For question 2 of Paper 1 of GCSE English Language you are required to show that you can
‘explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language and structure to achieve effects
and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support your views’.
Her name was Mrs. Pratchett. She was a small skinny old hag with a
moustache on her upper lip and a mouth as sour as a green
gooseberry. She never smiled. She never welcomed us when we went
in. By far the most loathsome thing about Mrs. Pratchett was the filth
that clung about her. Her apron was grey and greasy. Her blouse had
bits of breakfast all over it, toast-crumbs and tea stains and splotches
of dried egg yolk. It was her hands, however, that disturbed us most.
They were disgusting. They were black with dirt and grime. They
looked as though they had been putting lumps of coal on the fire all
day long. The mere sight of her grimy right hand with its black
fingernails digging an ounce of Chocolate Fudge out of the jar would
have caused a starving tramp to go running from the shop.
from Boy by Roald Dahl
How does the writer use language here to describe Mrs. Pratchett?
You could include the writer’s choice of:
 words and phrases
 language features and techniques
 sentence forms.
2
SPELLINGS
deliberate
triumph
spectacle
pursuit
constancy
excitability
unconscious
condescending
implacable
expunge
3
WRITING ABOUT THE USE OF LANGUAGE
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FEEDBACK AND TARGETS
1
EVALUATING TEXTS
For question 4 of Paper 1 of GCSE English Language you are required to show that you can
‘evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual references’.
In the extract below, Kafka Tamura, a teenager, is preparing to run away from home.
I switch off the light and leave the bathroom. A heavy, damp
stillness lies over the house. The whispers of people who don’t exist,
the breath of the dead. I look around, standing stock-still, and take a
deep breath. The clock shows 3 p.m., the two hands cold and distant.
They’re pretending to be non-committal, but I know they’re not on my
side. It’s nearly time for me to say goodbye. I pick up my backpack and
slip it over my shoulders. I’ve carried it any number of times, but now it
feels so much heavier.
Shikoku, I decide. That’s where I’ll go. There’s no particular
reason it has to be Shikoku, only that studying the map I got the feeling
that’s where I should head. The more I look at the map – actually every
time I study it – the more I feel Shikoku tugging at me. It’s a long way
south of Tokyo, separated from the mainland by water, with a warm
climate. I’ve never been there, have no friends or relatives there, so if
somebody started looking for me – which I doubt they will – Shikoku
would be the last place they’d think of.
Haruki Murakami Kafka On The Shore
Having read the above text, a teenager said: “The writer clearly shows the uncertainty of Kafka
as he prepares to leave home. ”
To what extent do you agree?
In your response, you could:
 write about your own impressions of the character
 evaluate how the writer has created these impressions
 support your opinions with references to the text.
2
SPELLINGS
council
personal
counsel
personnel
extrusion
persecution
accustomed
derision
eulogy
companion
3
EVALUATING TEXTS
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FEEDBACK AND TARGETS
1
UNSEEN POETRY
‘Arms and the Boy’
Let the boy try along this bayonet-blade
How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood;
Blue with all malice, like a madman’s flash;
And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh.
Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-leads,
Which long to nuzzle in the hearts of lads,
Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth
Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death.
For his teeth seem for laughing round an apple.
There lurk no claws behind his fingers supple;
And God will grow no talons at his heels,
Nor antlers through the thickness of his curls.
Wilfred Owen
2
SPELLINGS
surrender
occasion
excitement
unfamiliar
impatience
likelihood
imaginary
miraculous
intensity
recite
3
UNSEEN POETRY
Read and annotate the poem opposite. How does the poet present weapons of war and the
effects they might have on the young soldier?
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FEEDBACK AND TARGETS
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