JANUARY 2017
CARIBBEAN EXAMINATIONS COUNCIL
CARIBBEAN SECONDARY EDUCATION CERTIFICATE@
EXAMINATION
ENGLISH A
Paper 02 – General Proficiency
2 hours 10 minutes
READ THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY.
- This paper consists of FOUR sections: A, B, C and D.
- Section A consists of ONE question. You MUST answer this question.
- Section B consists of TWO questions. You MUST answer both questions from this section.
- Section C consists of THREE questions. You MUST answer ONE question from this section.
- Section D consists of TWO questions. You MUST answer ONE question from this section.
- Write your answers in the spaces provided in this booklet.
- Do NOT write in the margins.
- You are advised to take some time to read through the paper and plan your answers.
- If you need to rewrite any answer and there is not enough space to do so on the original page, you must use the extra lined page(s) provided ht the back of this booklet. Remember to draw a line through your original answer.
- If you use the extra page(s) you MUST write the question number clearly in the box provided at the top of the extra page(s) and, where relevant, include the question part beside the answer.
SECTION A
(Suggested time: 35 minutes)
Answer Question 1.
Write your answer on the RULED PAGE provided. There is space for any notes you may wish to make. THESE NOTES WILL NOT BE MARKED.
1. Read the following magazine article on globalization and Caribbean transnational crime carefully and then write a summary of it in NOT MORE THAN 120 words. If this limit is exceeded, only the first 120 words of your answer will be read and assessed. As far as possible use your own words. Your summary should be in continuous prose. In your answer you will be assessed on how well you
(a) were able to identify the main ideas and opinions
(b) organized and expressed these ideas and opinions
(c) used appropriate grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation.
Globalization and the Rise of Caribbean Transnational crime
Globalization has resulted in the speeding up and spread of worldwide interconnectedness. It has caused the world to shrink in size, since we can use technology to establish contact with far distant places in minutes. The result is that since the 1980s, international trade has tripled, and Manny New or intensified influences have come to bear on our lives. One of the most intense and concerning influences is the criminal element.
Caribbean nationals have long been going to the UK in search of opportunities, and succeeded in improving conditions for those back home. Migration to the United Kingdom alleviated the unemployment problem in the region and the migrants remitted significant sums to their relatives in the Caribbean. Today, those seeking opportunities include some of our citizens who are attracted by the illegal opportunities. It is indeed primarily the overseas drug markets that attract our professional criminals.
Since the 1980s, Caribbean criminal networks have set out to take advantage of he increased opportunities for trade to make money in illegal goods, by migrating to the markets – USA and UK. Given that the drug trade is a multimillion dollar business, they are no longer satisfied with being local producers-exporters of just cannabis, but seek to be directly involved in trading on all markets. To make this happen, they have become more organized and transnational in character. Transnational crime may be seen as a negative kind of globalization, but it is driven by a rational pursuit of wealth.
Transnational crime networks present the Caribbean and those who trade with the Caribbean with serious economic, social, and political problems. For instance, highly organized crime is accompanied by major violence, and for the people of the Caribbean, it damages their reputation abroad. lt results in negative stereotyping, marginalization, and exclusion.
Another problem is juvenile delinquency which comes from the growing number of children abandoned by parents who travelled as drug couriers and are now imprisoned overseas. In the UK, although the numbers are small, the impact is serous because it is concentrated in the inner-city communities, populated by gangs that readily become substitute family.
In recent times, particularly since 2004, there has been cooperation between the UK and the Caribbean on matters related to crime control and security. The cooperation is indicated in different ways: British police have taken up senior positions in law enforcement in St Kitts, Nevis, Jamaica, and Trinidad, for instance. Nationals in the various territories may see this development as an indication that locally we have failed to develop the appropriate level of professionalism, but they also see it as a necessary act given the spread of globalization.
Adapted from Anthony Harriott, “Yardies and Dons: Globalization and the Rise of Caribbean Transnational Crime”, Jamaica Journal. Vol. #30 No. 3, March/April 2007, p. #34.
Total 30 marks
SECTION A
You may make notes here. This will NOT be marked.
SECTION A
Question l.
You MUST write your answer on this page.
NOTHING HAS BEEN OIVIITTED.
SECTION B
(Suggested time: 40 minutes)
Answer ALL the questions in this section.
- Read the following poem carefully and then answer all the questions that follow.
On Aging
5 When you see me sitting quietly, Like a sack left on the shelf, Don’t think I need your chattering. I’m listening to myself. Hold! Stop! Don’t pity me! Hold! Stop your sympathy! Understanding if you got it, Otherwise I’ll do without it!
10 When my bones are stiff and aching And my feet won’t climb the stair, I will only ask one favour: Don’t bring me no rocking chair. r5
15 When you see me walking, stumbling, Don’t study and get it wrong, Cause tired don’t mean lazy And every goodbye ain’t gone. l’m the same person I was back then, A little less hair, a little less chin, A lot less lungs and much less wind.
20 But ain’t I lucky I can still breathe in.
Adapted from Maya Angelou, ” On Aging “,
And Still I Rise. Virago Press,
Time Warner Books UK, 2003.
- a) (i) What device is used in the phrase “Like a sack left on the shelf ” (line 2)?
(ii) What concern is the speaker expressing in this phrase?(1 Mark)
- b) Why does the writer use exclamation marks in stanza 1 (lines 5-8)? (2 marks)
- c) Identify TWO aspects of the speaker’s personality that are revealed in stanza 2. (2 marks)
- d) Quote the line where the speaker acknowledges the pain associated with aging. (2 marks)
- e) What are the TWO intentions of the speaker in the poem? (2 marks)
- f) ln what way is the tone of lines 5-8 of the poem different from the rest of the poem? (2 marks)
- g) According to stanza 3, what are TWO effects of aging on the body? (2 marks)
Total marks 15
NOTHING HAS BEEN OMITTED.
- Read the following passage carefully and then answer all the questions that follow.
5 Many people dismiss vegetarianism as if it’s some form of mystic cult with no substance behind it, as if vegetarians are not quite right in the head. There’s not an insult in the book that hasn’t been levelled at me because I eat differently from most people. But the catcalls and jibes are lessening these days. Now, more and more people are starting to listen to us, ‘nutty ‘vegetarians, because science, medicine and economics have finally caught up with our philosophy, and the disciplines of tradition are realizing that the vegetarians make sense.
10 It’s not me, but the Framingham Heart Study, the world’s longest ongoing investigation into heart disease and diet, which has run since l949,that says that, on average, vegetarian men outlive other American men 10 by six years. It’s not me, but researchers at Boston’s Brigham & Women’s Hospital who claimed that women who eat meat every day, are two and a half times more likely to have colon cancer than women who eat meat sparingly, or not at all.
15 Throughout America, more and more people are realizing that as death is not an option, medically, a vegetarian diet makes more sense. In the past ten years, the number of vegetarians in the USA has almost doubled from 6.5 million in 1985 to 12.4 million now. So, there is one good reason for heeding this vegetarian argument – saving your life. Many young people are finding it unacceptable that, in order to bring beef to the great American plate, a huge acreage of Central and South American rainforest has been razed and cleared to provide grazing land for cattle. Our kids need to know that for every ‘quarter pounder’ made from Central or South American beef, six square yards of rainforest is hewn for pasture.
20 If Americans reduce their intake of meat by just l0 per cent, that would free up enough land, water and energy from growing livestock feed to adequately feed 40 million starving people”. And that’s official from the World watch Institute.
25 Vivek Menon, Wildlife Trust of India’s executive director, said: “You can’t continue to let over a billion people live in such close proximity to 65 per cent of the world’s largest tigers, 85 per cent of the elephants in Asia, and 90 per cent of the rhinos in Asia. These animals need space. I have only one solution: give them space.
Adaptedfrom Linda McCartney, “My New Frontier: The path of the
Vegetarian”. Retrieved from www.newfrontier.com, July/August 1995.
a) What is the writer’s purpose in this passage?
(2 marks)
b) Identify ONE technique the writer uses to achieve this purpose.
(1 marks)
c) What does the passage gain from the use of references to the “Framingham Heart Study”, “Boston’s Brigham & Women’s Hospital” and the “Worldwatch Institute”?
(2 marks)
d) Why does the writer repeat the expression “lt’s not me” (lines 7 and 9)?
(2 marks)
e) Identify TWO of the suggested benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle
(2 marks)
f) What does the writer mean by the expression “death is not an option” (line 12)?
(2marks)
g) ldentify ONE example of sarcasm in paragraph 3.
(2 marks)
h) Why does the writer refer to the fact that “a huge acreage of Central and South American
rainforest” (lines 1 6-17) has been razed and cleared?
(2 marks)
Total 15 marks
SECTION C
(Suggested time: 45 minutes)
Answer ONE question from this section.
Your answer in this section should be approximately 400 to 450 words in length.
You MUST write in Standard English. However, dialect may be used in conversation.
Write your answers on the RULED PAGES provided. You are expected to adhere to the word limit.
There is a blank page for any notes you may want to make. THESE NOTES WILL NOT BE
MARKED.
In your answer you will be assessed on how well you
(a) used the stimulus provided
(b) developed and organized the content ofyour essay
(c) used language appropriate to your audience, purpose and content
(d) used appropriate grammar, sentence structure, paragraphs, vocabulary, spelling and
punctuation.
EITHER
SHORT STORY
4. Write a story based on the picture below
(35 marks)
OR
5. She withdrew the last of her savings from her bank account and headed to the airline office. Leesa
Matheson had finally decided to get away – that would be the best thing to do.
Write a story which includes these sentences. (35 marks)
OR
DESCRIPTION
6. He had returned home to visit his grandparents after living abroad for nearly 30 years. This was not what he was expecting. Describe what he saw and how he felt as he rode the minibus through the city and also what he saw and felt when he reached his grandparents’home.
(35 marks)
SECTION C
You may make notes here. This will NOT be marked.
SECTION C
Write your answer to the question you have chosen to answer in Section C here.
Remember to write your question number in the box provided below.
Question No.
SECTION C
write your answer to the question you have chosen to answer in section c here.
Remember to write your question number in the box provided below.
Question No. continued
SECTION C
Write your answer to the question you have chosen to answer in Section C herc.
Remember to write your question number in the box provided below.
Question No. continued
SECTION D
(Suggested time: 30 minutes)
Answer Question 7 or 8.
Your answer in this section should be approximately 250 to 300 words.
You MUST write in Standard English. There is a space for any notes you may wish to make. THESE NOTES WILL NOT BE MARKED.
In your answer you will be assessed on
(a) clarity, organization and development of your argument
(b) correctness of grammar, sentences, paragraphs, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation.
EITHER
7. A smartphone? What is that? All I want is a phone to make and receive calls – nothing else.
That is enough!”
Write an essay EITHER supporting or opposing this view. (35 marks)
OR
8. “Every time I read the newspapers or watch and listen to the news, there are more stories about the bad things happening around the world. Why can’t they report more on the positive things?”
Write an essay giving your views on this statement. (35 marks)
SECTION D
You may make notes herrc. This will NOT be marked.
SECTION D
Write your answer to the question you have chosen to answer in SeCligUD here.
Remember to write your question number in the box provided below.
Question No.
SECTION D
Write your answer to the question you have chosen to answer in Section D here.
Remember to write your question number in the box provided below.
Question No. continued
END OF TEST
IF YOU FINISH BEFORE TIME IS CALLED, CHECK YOUR WORK ON THIS TEST.
The Council has made every effort to trace copyright holders. However, rf any have been inadvertently
overlooked, or any material hos been incorrectly acknowledged, CXC will be pleased to correct this at
the earliest opportunity.
01218020/JANUARY/F 2017