2011 Year 9 — Literacy preparation material
Reading and Viewing
Wait for your teacher.
Read page 2 of the magazine and then
answer questions 1–7.
Can you read this? Look closer!
These words look like Chinese writing, but they are written in a script invented by the
1
Chinese artist Xu Bing. He uses the techniques of Chinese calligraphy to create
2
what he calls “square words”. These square words look like Chinese characters but
people who read English can understand them.
A quick glance and you think: “I can't read it!” Now look again, and start with “The” at
the top, easy to spot. The next word is underneath, so you read the phrase from top
to bottom. Then, within the words, you read the letters in the order used in Chinese
characters, that is, from left to right, top to bottom, outside to inside. Little by little you
can decipher “The third asia pacific triennial of contemporary art.”
Texts painted in square words are beautiful in themselves. But Xu Bing says he
wants them to give viewers a problem to solve, one that makes them “think about
their cultural condition” and “open new spaces in their minds.”
1
calligraphy: artistic writing using special materials.
2
1
Chinese calligraphy is
Shade one
bubble.
a language
a handwriting style
an invention by Xu Bing
a brush used for writing
2
characters are words written in Chinese script.
In which language is the square words text written?
Japanese
Chinese
English
Arabic
3
A quick glance and you think: “I can’t read it!”
What makes English readers think at first that they can’t read square words?
They think the letters are in the wrong order.
They think the words are in the wrong order.
They expect brush strokes to make paintings, not texts.
They expect brush strokes to make texts in a foreign language.
1
4
Which of these is the second word of the square words text?
5
Here are two other square words written by Xu Bing. These words are
Shade one
bubble.
our home
red phone
one world
men women
6
The final paragraph explains Xu Bing’s purpose for creating square words.
Which of the following reactions by viewers to his work is closest to what he intended?
“This should replace the usual way we write English words.”
“For a moment, I stopped thinking of writing as ordinary.”
“The patterns were very pretty. I’d like one on a T shirt.”
“It would make a great code for spies to use.”
7
What does Xu Bing mean by a person’s cultural condition?
how clever they are
how well-educated they are
how they learn to think and feel
how often they go to art galleries
2
Read page 3 of the magazine and then
answer questions 8–17.
Much of the Pacific was unknown to Europeans until Captain James Cook's three voyages
in the 1770s. On his final voyage, in the ship HMS Resolution, Cook carried prototypes of
the first accurate ship's clocks. Both worked quite well, although the Arnold design proved
more successful. This poem is about Cook's two clocks.
Five Visions of Captain Cook, Section III
by Kenneth Slessor, 1931.
1 Two chronometers the captain had,
One by Arnold that ran like mad,
One by Kendall in a walnut case,
Poor devoted creature with a hangdog face.
Chronometer by
John Arnold
Courtesy: British Museum, London.
5 Arnold always hurried with a crazed click-click,
1
Dancing over Greenwich like a lunatic.
Kendall panted faithfully his watch dog beat,
2
Climbing out of Yesterday with sticky little feet.
Arnold choked with appetite to wolf up time,
10 Madly round the numerals his hands would climb,
His cogs rushed over and his wheels ran miles,
3
Dragging Captain Cook to the Sandwich Isles.
But Kendall dawdled in the tombstoned past,
With a sentimental prejudice to going fast,
15 And he thought very often of a haberdasher's door
4
And a yellow-haired boy who would knock no more.
All through the night time, clock talked to clock
In the captain's cabin, tock-tock-tock,
One ticked fast and one ticked slow,
20 And Time went over them a hundred years ago.
1. Dancing over Greenwich like a lunatic: Running faster than standard time as measured at the
Greenwich Observatory in England.
2. feet: The beat of a poem is based on units, called feet, containing a pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables.
3. Sandwich Isles: Hawaii, unknown in Europe before Cook found them. On a return visit he was killed.
4. haberdasher's door/ And a yellow-haired boy: When he was 16, Cook worked in a haberdasher
(sewing) shop.
8
In the word chronometer, the root word chrono means
ship.
time.
clock.
gauge.
9
Shade one
bubble.
In lines 2 and 3, the word by means
named by.
owned by.
made by.
close by.
10
Three of the five verses (stanzas) contrast one clock with the other.
Which are the two verses that describe only one clock without mentioning the other?
verse number ___________ and verse number ______________
11
Line 6 and line 12 suggest that Cook
looked forward to the time he would return to Greenwich.
wanted to arrive at the Sandwich Isles at a special time.
recorded times and places visited in his log books.
located his position in relation to time in England.
3
12
And he thought very often of a haberdasher’s door
And a yellow-haired boy who would knock no more (lines 15 and 16)
This means that Kendall is associated with
shops.
sewing.
memory.
childishness.
13
At the end of the poem, both clocks
pass into history.
tell equal time.
are forgotten.
stop working.
14
The poem gives each clock a personality.
Which of the following best describes Arnold’s personality?
committed
abnormal
polite
eager
15
The poet exaggerates the way the clocks ran slow and fast.
One effect of this in the poem is to make Cook’s
clocks comparable with his ships.
past contrast with his future.
authority seem uncertain.
voyages seem comical.
4
Shade one
bubble.
16
One reader of this poem marked the stressed (/) and
unstressed (x) beats like this:
/
/
x
x x
x
/
/
Shade one
bubble.
/
Two chronometers the captain had,
/
/ x x x /
/
/
One by Arnold that ran like mad,
By using varying numbers of unstressed beats, the poet, Slessor, imitates the
sound of the clocks together.
tinkering of a clock maker.
movement of the ship.
rhythm of the waves.
17
The dial of a clock is called a face. In line 4, the poet makes a joke (a pun) by
comparing a slow clock to a person with a hang-dog face.
Which of the following words is used literally (that is, without making a punning
comparison)?
feet (line 8)
case (line 3)
hands (line 10)
wheels (line 11)
5
Read page 4 of the magazine and then
answer questions 18–28.
Opinion
Solo, around-the-world teenage sailors
Should we stop these young adventurers?
Teenage solo endurance sailors have been making
headlines in quick succession. A young person alone in a
dangerous situation attracts attention – and sponsors.
Young sailors also attract divided opinions. For example,
Jessica Watson was asked by the Queensland
government to cancel her voyage; yet the Prime Minister
called her “a hero for young Australians” when she
returned. It seems there is confusion about the
competence and independence of young people.
Recent solo circumnavigations by teenagers
Completion
date
Name
Days
of travel
Age
Conditions
July
2009
Zac Sunderland
396
17
with stops
August
2009
Michael Perham
284
17
with stops
and
assistance
May
2010
Jessica Watson
210
16
non-stop,
unassisted
USA
UK
AUS
One misunderstanding at least should be cleared up:
children are not going to sea in an unregulated way.
Consider the case of the Dutch girl, Laura Dekker. When
her father agreed to her making a solo voyage at age 13,
the Dutch Council for Child Care prevented it. The World
Sailing Speed Record Council also moved to discourage
very young sailors by abolishing their age-based records
in early 2009.
So considerable community control of children under
16 years already happens. But the case for controlling
older teenagers as if they were children is weak.
Teenage brains, so the popular psychologists tell us,
are liable to make faulty judgments. But such
generalisations often do not apply to specific individuals.
Between the ages of 14 and 18, teenagers vary greatly in
their abilities. The amount of autonomy each is allowed
should be determined not simply by their age but by
negotiations with the relevant, responsible adults.
18
Teenage solo endurance sailors are making headlines in
quick succession. (paragraph 1)
Some teens are certainly inexperienced and capable of
childish mistakes, but the ones who attempt dangerous
journeys normally do so by winning the confidence of
hard-headed and well-qualified adult supporters.
But it is also wrong to think that any 16 year old can
aspire to achievements as unusual as Jessica Watson’s.
Watson seems to suggest they can when she calls
herself “an ordinary girl who had a dream”. Her intention
is to encourage teenagers but this notion can have the
reverse effect of making them feel inadequate because
spectacular feats are beyond them. Should all teens have
such dreams? In reality, individuals face varying
circumstances that restrict their aspirations.
Teenage circumnavigators should not be judged by
preconceived views about young people. But nor should
“ordinary” teenagers feel pressure to aspire to
extraordinary personal goals. In fact, I believe the
example of solo sailing over-stresses individualism.
The teenage years are when most of us “ordinary” people
learn that we can achieve great things in collaboration
with others.
Jessica Watson sailed for seven months around the Southern Ocean.
Shade one
bubble.
Which column of the table supports this claim?
Completion date
Days of travel
Conditions
Name
19
This text uses Jessica Watson as an example of a teenage sailor because she is
a female.
an exception.
the most successful.
the most well-known.
20
children are not going to sea in an unregulated way (paragraph 2)
The writer backs this claim by
citing relevant occurrences.
criticising people who disagree.
questioning the definition of child.
appealing to the reader’s emotions.
21
Zac Sunderland, Michael Perham and Jessica Watson had no opportunity to attempt
an official record as the youngest circumnavigator.
This can be confirmed by information in
the table alone.
paragraph 2 alone.
paragraph 2 and the table.
the table and the photo caption.
6
22
so the popular psychologists tell us (paragraph 4)
Shade one
bubble.
The writer’s attitude here is
humorous.
respectful.
doubtful.
defiant.
23
In the fourth paragraph, the writer
agrees that teenagers should not sail solo.
disputes that teenagers are a uniform group.
denies that teenagers make faulty judgments.
concedes that teenage solo sailors are immature.
24
In the fifth paragraph, the writer asks: Should all teens have such dreams?
The purpose of this question is to
draw attention to a difficult problem to solve.
invite readers to draw their own conclusion.
imply that the answer is “yes”.
imply that the answer is “no”.
25
The writer wants people who disapprove of teen solo sailors to
become a supporter of these sailors.
reconsider their ideas about teenagers.
get angry enough to write a letter to the editor.
tolerate people with opinions different from theirs.
26
This text tries most to appeal to the reader’s sense of
fairness.
curiosity.
patriotism.
admiration.
7
27
Shade one
bubble.
Which of these questions is not relevant to the debate about
teen sailors?
What do companies gain from sponsoring the sailors?
Which political party does each of the sailors support?
Are the sailors likely to be attacked by modern-day pirates?
Can taxpayers recover costs if the sailors need to be rescued?
28
Outline an argument against solo endurance sailing by
teenagers.
Write your answer
on the lines.
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................
8