You are Bina in The Farewell Party as the party finishes. Write your thoughts.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2010). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [25] Bina has been a woman utterly taken up with ministering to her family and particularly to her infirm son.
2. [25] She has had few if any social contacts and, she thought, even fewer friends.
3. [25] Yet the party has revealed to her for the first time, and to her great surprise, that her apparently solitary and austere personality had actually accorded her considerable respect within the community.
4. [25] She has discovered warmth around her and not just because it is a farewell party.
5. [25] This is exemplified by the doctors who take over at the end and who reveal their attitudes towards her as being much more than the cool professionalism she had imagined.
6. [25] Something of these thoughts will be enough to ensure reasonable reward.
7. [25] For higher marks, hopefully the candidates will be able to convey in the voice her great pleasure and enjoyment at how well the party has gone, perhaps with a degree of sadness that she has discovered her standing in this society too late to take advantage.
8. [25] Still her self-confidence will no doubt have been given a boost.
9. [25] Refer to the band descriptors in arriving at your mark.