Exam (elaborations)
"The Mark" Contextual Test
Unseen Poem and "The Mark" contextual questions with memo and Bloom's Taxonomy.
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SECTION A: UNSEEN POETRYQUESTION 1: 10 MARKS
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
Black and White
I was flatly five
When Johanna ascended her throne
In the kiadom of our backyard.
Raised on bricks she banished
The tokoloshe from my childhood 5
And as I grew sleek-
She grated and peeled her years away.
On 2cms of black and white she watched
The gloss of “The Bold and the Beautiful”,
Moroka Swallows flew through goalless Saturdays. 10
She lined her cupboard with columns of print,
Black and white news of a world beyond.
Growing smaller in the flowered overall,
She washed and folded her years away.
She held my tears in the cracks of her hands, 15
She beamed my triumph thought the gaps in her grin,
Hers was the voice that called me from play.
Joanna. Johanna. I cannot spell your name.
I don’t know where they buried your smile.
But in the black and white backyard of my days, 20
The tokoloshe cavorts unrestrained.
Ruth Everson
Vocabulary:
Kia/kya: A South African word for an African hut or for a servant’s quarters.
Tokoloshe: A South African word for a legendary evil spirit usually imagined to be in the form of a hairy,
dwarfish man. An evil imp or goblin, active mainly at night.
1.1 a) Identify the figure of speech in the phrase: “When Johanna ascended her
throne” in line 2. (1)
b) What does this image suggest about Johanna? (2)
1.2 “She grated and peeled her years away.” (Line 7)
“She washed and folded her years away.” (line 14)
In your own words, explain the tasks that Johanna performed. (2)
1.3 Give one word from the poem which means the same as:
a) glowed with pride
b) chased away (2)
1.4 a) Identify the figure of speech in the following phrase: “gaps in her grin” (1)
b) What does this phrase tell us about Johanna’s appearance? (2)
SECTION A TOTAL: 10
1
Wyatt’s Words
, SECTION B: THE MARK CONTEXTUAL
QUESTION 2: 25 MARKS
Read Extract A and B on Edyth Bulbring’s “The Mark” and answer the questions that
follow.
TEXT A
1 We disperse into our classrooms, according to our trades. The room for drudges like
me is the largest in the education centre. We shuffle behind our desks, and I pick the
peeling skin off my knee as we wait for the teacher to arrive. She will spend the day
teaching us how to look after the homes and children of the Posh. This is going to be
my trade when I turn fifteen. 5
We are all assigned a trade at birth. Our trade numbers are spewed out by The
Machine and branded on the back of our spines. You can scrub as much as you like
and it never comes off. I know, because I have tried.
2 My trade is right down there in the gutter, with the Drainers who clean the streets. I
should have grown used to it by now, I have known about my fate for nearly ten 10
years. Ever since the day Kitty and I turned five, when the orphan warden packed us
off for our first day at school.
We arrived together, but got separated after the scholar warden examined the marks
on our backs.
3 Was it random? Or did The Machine somehow know Kitty would be beautiful 15
and that I would have large hands rough enough to mop up dirt? The people who
know things in Slum City could never give me the answer to this.
4 “You were born to serve as drudges. You will work for the Posh until you are of no
further use,” the drudge teacher told us. “This is the trade that has been chosen for
5 you.” 20
Everyone clapped and cheered. Not me. I held my claps in my fists and my
tongue behind my teeth.
The drudge teacher is as old as my trees in the museum. She is retired from her
trade and has been tasked by the Mangerians to prepare the next generation for
6 their jobs. At the beginning of the day we are made to recite the drudge pledge. 25
“Louder,” she instructs, scrutinising our faces to make sure we are chanting the
oath with pride: “I am proud to work in the homes of the Posh and to raise their
7 children and clean their homes.” 30
Hiding my fury, I spit out the words.
2.1 Place the extract in context. (2)
2.2 Refer to line 3 (‘I pick the peeling skin off my knee.’)
What feature of the environment is being alluded to here? (2)
2.3 What does Ettie’s reaction in paragraph 7 suggest about her character and the
role she will fulfil in the remainder of the novel? Quote to support your answer.
(3)
2.4 What mood is being set in paragraph 6 and why is this significant to the novel as
a whole? (3)
[10]
2
Wyatt’s Words
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