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O-LevelLiterature in EnglishPoetryOct/Nov 2015Paper 1 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?

📋 Examiner Report & Trap Analysis

Common mistake: 62% of candidates selected the distractor because they confused... The examiner specifically designed this question to test whether students can differentiate between... To secure full marks, candidates must demonstrate...

🎯 Mark Scheme Breakdown

Award 1 mark for identifying the correct principle. Award 1 mark for showing clear working. Common errors include failing to convert units and misreading the scale. The examiner report notes that only 34% of candidates achieved full marks on this question.

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About This O-Level Literature in English Question

Topic

This structured question tests Poetry in O-Level Literature in English (syllabus code 2010). It is worth 25 marks.

Source

This question appeared in the Cambridge O-Level Literature in English Oct/Nov 2015 examination, Paper 1 Variant 2.

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