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O-LevelLiterature in EnglishPoetry2010/12 · Oct/Nov 2015 · Q525 Marks

SONGS OF OURSELVES: from Part 4 Remember to support your ideas with details from the writing. Read this poem, and then answer the question that follows it: Where I Come From People are made of places. They carry with them hints of jungles or mountains, a tropic grace or the cool eyes of sea-gazers. Atmosphere of cities how different drops from them, like the smell of smog or the almost-not-smell of tulips in the spring, nature tidily plotted in little squares with a fountain in the centre; museum smell, art also tidily plotted with a guidebook; or the smell of work, glue factories maybe, chromium-plated offices; smell of subways crowded at rush hours. Where I come from, people carry woods in their minds, acres of pine woods; blueberry patches in the burned-out bush; wooden farmhouses, old, in need of paint, with yards where hens and chickens circle about, clucking aimlessly; battered schoolhouses behind which violets grow. Spring and winter are the mind’s chief seasons: ice and the breaking of ice. A door in the mind blows open, and there blows a frosty wind from fields of snow. (Elizabeth Brewster) How does Brewster vividly convey a sense of different places in Where I Come From?

  1. How does Brewster vividly convey a sense of different places in Where I Come From?[25]

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (Oct/Nov 2015). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

  1. [25-23] Answers in this band have all the qualities of Band 2 work, with further insight, sensitivity, individuality and flair.
  2. [25-23] They show sustained engagement with both text and task.
  3. [25-23] Sustains a perceptive, convincing and relevant personal response
  4. [25-23] • shows a clear critical understanding of the text
  5. [25-23] • responds sensitively and in detail to the way the writer achieves her/his effects
  6. [25-23] • integrates much well-selected reference to the text

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About this question

Topic
Poetry, O-Level Literature in English (syllabus 2010). Structured question, 25 marks.
Source
O-Level Literature in English, Oct/Nov 2015 Paper 1 Variant 2, question 5.

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