Question 4: Comparing Viewpoints Practice Questions

Question 1

16 marks

Source A

In 1902 the American writer Jack London spent several weeks in London dressed as a penniless man, so that he could report on the lives of the very poor. In this chapter of his book he describes walking the streets of the West End through one wet night.

1“To carry the banner” means to walk the streets all night; and I, with

the figurative emblem hoisted, went out to see what I could see. Men and

women walk the streets at night all over this great city, but I selected

the West End, making Leicester Square my base, and scouting about from

5the Thames Embankment to Hyde Park.

The rain was falling heavily when the theatres let out, and the

brilliant throng which poured from the places of amusement was hard put

to find cabs. The streets were so many wild rivers of cabs, most of

which were engaged, however; and here I saw the desperate attempts of

10ragged men and boys to get a shelter from the night by procuring cabs

for the cabless ladies and gentlemen. I use the word “desperate”

advisedly, for these wretched, homeless ones were gambling a soaking

against a bed; and most of them, I took notice, got the soaking and

missed the bed.

15One old woman, between fifty and sixty, a sheer wreck, I had noticed

earlier in the night standing in Piccadilly, not far from Leicester

Square. She seemed to have neither the sense nor the strength to get out

of the rain or keep walking, but stood stupidly, whenever she got the

chance, meditating on past days, I imagine, when life was young and

20blood was warm. But she did not get the chance often. She was moved on

by every policeman, and it required an average of six moves to send her

doddering off one man’s beat and on to another’s. By three o’clock, she

had progressed as far as St. James Street, and as the clocks were

striking four I saw her sleeping soundly against the iron railings of

25Green Park. A brisk shower was falling at the time, and she must have

been drenched to the skin.

So I sat down on the stone steps of a building. Five minutes later a

policeman was looking at me. My eyes were wide open, so he only grunted

and passed on. Ten minutes later my head was on my knees, I was dozing,

30and the same policeman was saying gruffly, “’Ere, you, get outa that!”

I got. And, like the old woman, I continued to get; for every time I

dozed, a policeman was there to rout me along again.

And now I wish to criticise the powers that be. They are the powers,

therefore they may decree whatever they please; so I make bold only to

35criticise the ridiculousness of their decrees. All night long they make

the homeless ones walk up and down. They drive them out of doors and

passages, and lock them out of the parks. The evident intention of all

this is to deprive them of sleep. Well and good, the powers have the

power to deprive them of sleep, or of anything else for that matter; but

40why under the sun do they open the gates of the parks at five o’clock in

the morning and let the homeless ones go inside and sleep? If it is

their intention to deprive them of sleep, why do they let them sleep

after five in the morning? And if it is not their intention to deprive

them of sleep, why don’t they let them sleep earlier in the night?

45And so, dear soft people, should you ever visit London Town, and see

these men asleep on the benches and in the grass, please do not think

they are lazy creatures, preferring sleep to work. Know that the powers

that be have kept them walking all the night long, and that in the day

they have nowhere else to sleep.

From "Carrying the Banner", a chapter of The People of the Abyss by Jack London (1903).

Glossary

figurative emblem hoisted: he means that the "banner" is only an expression, not a real flag
throng: crowd
hard put: struggled
procuring: getting hold of
advisedly: deliberately, after careful thought
a sheer wreck: completely worn out and broken down
doddering: shuffling unsteadily
beat: the area a policeman patrols
rout: drive out
the powers that be: the people in authority
decree: order or rule
make bold: dare

Source B

In 1860 the novelist Charles Dickens wrote a magazine essay about a time, some years earlier, when he could not sleep and walked the streets of London all through the night.

1Some years ago, a temporary inability to sleep, referable to a

distressing impression, caused me to walk about the streets all night,

for a series of several nights. The disorder might have taken a long

time to conquer, if it had been faintly experimented on in bed; but, it

5was soon defeated by the brisk treatment of getting up directly after

lying down, and going out, and coming home tired at sunrise.

In the course of those nights, I finished my education in a fair amateur

experience of houselessness. My principal object being to get through

the night, the pursuit of it brought me into sympathetic relations with

10people who have no other object every night in the year.

The restlessness of a great city, and the way in which it tumbles and

tosses before it can get to sleep, formed one of the first

entertainments offered to the contemplation of us houseless people. It

lasted about two hours. We lost a great deal of companionship when the

15late public-houses turned their lamps out, and when the potmen thrust

the last brawling drunkards into the street; but stray vehicles and

stray people were left us, after that.

At length these flickering sparks would die away, worn out—the last

veritable sparks of waking life trailed from some late pieman or

20hot-potato man—and London would sink to rest. And then the yearning of

the houseless mind would be for any sign of company, any lighted place,

any movement, anything suggestive of any one being up—nay, even so much

as awake, for the houseless eye looked out for lights in windows.

Walking the streets under the pattering rain, Houselessness would walk

25and walk and walk, seeing nothing but the interminable tangle of

streets, save at a corner, here and there, two policemen in

conversation, or the sergeant or inspector looking after his men.

When a church clock strikes, on houseless ears in the dead of the night,

it may be at first mistaken for company and hailed as such. But, as the

30spreading circles of vibration, which you may perceive at such a time

with great clearness, go opening out, for ever and ever afterwards

widening perhaps (as the philosopher has suggested) in eternal space,

the mistake is rectified and the sense of loneliness is profounder.

Once—it was after leaving the Abbey and turning my face north—I came to

35the great steps of St. Martin’s church as the clock was striking Three.

Suddenly, a thing that in a moment more I should have trodden upon

without seeing, rose up at my feet with a cry of loneliness and

houselessness, struck out of it by the bell, the like of which I never

heard. We then stood face to face looking at one another, frightened by

40one another. The creature was like a beetle-browed hair-lipped youth of

twenty, and it had a loose bundle of rags on, which it held together

with one of its hands. It shivered from head to foot, and its teeth

chattered, and as it stared at me—persecutor, devil, ghost, whatever it

thought me—it made with its whining mouth as if it were snapping at me,

45like a worried dog. Intending to give this ugly object money, I put out

my hand to stay it—for it recoiled as it whined and snapped—and laid my

hand upon its shoulder. Instantly, it twisted out of its garment, like

the young man in the New Testament, and left me standing alone with its

rags in my hands.

From "Night Walks" by Charles Dickens (1860), collected in The Uncommercial Traveller.

Glossary

referable to a distressing impression: caused by something upsetting
faintly experimented on in bed: treated half-heartedly by staying in bed
houselessness: having no home
contemplation: thoughtful watching
potmen: men who served and cleared up in public houses (pubs)
veritable: real
pieman: a street seller of hot pies
nay: no, indeed
Houselessness: Dickens's name for himself as a homeless night walker
interminable: endless
save: except
the philosopher: a thinker of the time who suggested that a sound never completely dies away
rectified: corrected
profounder: deeper
the Abbey: Westminster Abbey
beetle-browed: with heavy, overhanging eyebrows
hair-lipped: with a split upper lip (an old term, now considered offensive)
stay: stop, hold back
the young man in the New Testament: in the Bible, a young man escapes being seized by slipping out of the cloth he is wearing and running away

For this question, you need to refer to the whole of Source A, together with the whole of Source B.

Compare how the writers convey their different attitudes to spending the night on the streets of London.

In your answer, you could:

compare their different attitudes
comment on the methods the writers use to convey their different attitudes
support your response with references to both texts.

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Question 2

16 marks

Source A

In 1928 the writer Virginia Woolf gave two talks on women and fiction to students at women's colleges in Cambridge, and turned them into a book. In it she imagines spending a day at "Oxbridge", an invented university standing for Oxford and Cambridge. She has been sitting by the river, lost in thought about her subject.

1It was thus that I found myself walking with extreme rapidity across a

grass plot. Instantly a man’s figure rose to intercept me. Nor did I at

first understand that the gesticulations of a curious-looking object, in a

cut-away coat and evening shirt, were aimed at me. His face expressed

5horror and indignation. Instinct rather than reason came to my help, he

was a Beadle; I was a woman. This was the turf; there was the path. Only

the Fellows and Scholars are allowed here; the gravel is the place for me.

Such thoughts were the work of a moment. As I regained the path the arms

of the Beadle sank, his face assumed its usual repose, and though turf is

10better walking than gravel, no very great harm was done. The only charge I

could bring against the Fellows and Scholars of whatever the college might

happen to be was that in protection of their turf, which has been rolled

for 300 years in succession they had sent my little fish into hiding.

What idea it had been that had sent me so audaciously trespassing I could

15not now remember. It then occurred to me that the very manuscript itself

which Lamb had looked at was only a few hundred yards away, so that one

could follow Lamb’s footsteps across the quadrangle to that famous library

where the treasure is kept. Moreover, I recollected, as I put this plan

into execution, it is in this famous library that the manuscript of

20Thackeray’s Esmond is also preserved. The critics often say that Esmond is

Thackeray’s most perfect novel. But then one would have to decide what is

style and what is meaning, a question which—but here I was actually at the

door which leads into the library itself. I must have opened it, for

instantly there issued, like a guardian angel barring the way with a

25flutter of black gown instead of white wings, a deprecating, silvery,

kindly gentleman, who regretted in a low voice as he waved me back that

ladies are only admitted to the library if accompanied by a Fellow of the

College or furnished with a letter of introduction.

That a famous library has been cursed by a woman is a matter of complete

30indifference to a famous library. Venerable and calm, with all its

treasures safe locked within its breast, it sleeps complacently and will,

so far as I am concerned, so sleep for ever. Never will I wake those

echoes, never will I ask for that hospitality again, I vowed as I

descended the steps in anger.

35So I went back to my inn, and as I walked through the dark streets I

pondered this and that, as one does at the end of the day’s work. I

pondered why it was that Mrs Seton had no money to leave us; and what

effect poverty has on the mind; and what effect wealth has on the mind;

and I thought of the queer old gentlemen I had seen that morning with

40tufts of fur upon their shoulders; and I remembered how if one whistled

one of them ran; and I thought of the organ booming in the chapel and of

the shut doors of the library; and I thought how unpleasant it is to be

locked out; and I thought how it is worse perhaps to be locked in; and,

thinking of the safety and prosperity of the one sex and of the poverty

45and insecurity of the other and of the effect of tradition and of the lack

of tradition upon the mind of a writer, I thought at last that it was time

to roll up the crumpled skin of the day, with its arguments and its

impressions and its anger and its laughter, and cast it into the hedge.

From A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf (1929).

Glossary

grass plot: lawn
intercept: stop, block the way of
gesticulations: wild arm movements
cut-away coat: a formal coat with tails at the back
indignation: anger at something thought to be wrong or unfair
Beadle: a college officer whose job was to keep order
Fellows and Scholars: the senior teachers and the prize-winning students of the college
repose: calm, rest
my little fish: the idea she had been thinking about; she has compared thinking to fishing
audaciously: boldly
Lamb: Charles Lamb, an essayist of the early 1800s, who wrote about seeing the handwritten copy of a poem by John Milton kept in this library
manuscript: the original handwritten copy of a book or poem
quadrangle: a square courtyard surrounded by college buildings
Thackeray’s Esmond: a novel by the Victorian writer W. M. Thackeray
issued: came out
deprecating: apologetic
silvery: silver-haired, soft-voiced
Venerable: old and respected
complacently: smugly, without a care
Mrs Seton: the mother of her friend Mary Seton, who teaches at a women's college that has very little money
tufts of fur upon their shoulders: the fur trimming on the gowns of elderly university men she had watched going into chapel
if one whistled one of them ran: an old joke she had heard, that one professor broke into a gallop at the sound of a whistle
tradition: customs and knowledge handed down over centuries

Source B

In 1864 the art critic John Ruskin gave a lecture in Manchester about the place of women in society, later printed in his book Sesame and Lilies. In this part of the lecture he speaks to parents about how their daughters should be educated.

1I believe, then, with this exception, that a girl’s education should be

nearly, in its course and material of study, the same as a boy’s; but

quite differently directed. A woman, in any rank of life, ought to know

whatever her husband is likely to know, but to know it in a different way.

5His command of it should be foundational and progressive; hers, general

and accomplished for daily and helpful use. Not but that it would often be

wiser in men to learn things in a womanly sort of way, for present use,

and to seek for the discipline and training of their mental powers in such

branches of study as will be afterwards fittest for social service; but,

10speaking broadly, a man ought to know any language or science he learns,

thoroughly—while a woman ought to know the same language, or science, only

so far as may enable her to sympathise in her husband’s pleasures, and in

those of his best friends.

And if she can have access to a good library of old and classical books,

15there need be no choosing at all. Keep the modern magazine and novel out

of your girl’s way: turn her loose into the old library every wet day, and

let her alone. She will find what is good for her; you cannot: for there

is just this difference between the making of a girl’s character and a

boy’s—you may chisel a boy into shape, as you would a rock, or hammer him

20into it, if he be of a better kind, as you would a piece of bronze. But

you cannot hammer a girl into anything. She grows as a flower does,—she

will wither without sun; she will decay in her sheath, as a narcissus

will, if you do not give her air enough; she may fall, and defile her head

in dust, if you leave her without help at some moments of her life; but

25you cannot fetter her; she must take her own fair form and way, if she

take any, and in mind as in body, must have always

“Her household motions light and free

And steps of virgin liberty.”

Let her loose in the library, I say, as you do a fawn in a field. It knows

30the bad weeds twenty times better than you; and the good ones too, and

will eat some bitter and prickly ones, good for it, which you had not the

slightest thought would have been so.

And not only in the material and in the course, but yet more earnestly in

the spirit of it, let a girl’s education be as serious as a boy’s. You

35bring up your girls as if they were meant for sideboard ornaments, and

then complain of their frivolity.

But what teachers do you give your girls, and what reverence do you show

to the teachers you have chosen? Is a girl likely to think her own

conduct, or her own intellect, of much importance, when you trust the

40entire formation of her character, moral and intellectual, to a person

whom you let your servants treat with less respect than they do your

housekeeper (as if the soul of your child were a less charge than jams and

groceries), and whom you yourself think you confer an honour upon by

letting her sometimes sit in the drawing-room in the evening?

From "Of Queens' Gardens", a lecture by John Ruskin (1864), published in Sesame and Lilies (1865).

Glossary

with this exception: Ruskin has just said that the one subject girls should not study is theology (religious teaching)
directed: aimed, used for a purpose
foundational and progressive: deep, and always building further
accomplished: polished, good enough to use in company
Not but that: though it is true that
sympathise in: share in, understand
classical: ancient Greek and Roman, or long admired
sheath: the leaf that wraps a flower bud
narcissus: a flower like a daffodil
defile: make dirty, disgrace
fetter: chain up
household motions: movements about the home (Ruskin is quoting a poem by Wordsworth)
virgin liberty: the freedom of a young, innocent girl
earnestly: seriously, sincerely
sideboard ornaments: decorations to be put on display on a piece of dining-room furniture
frivolity: silliness, lack of seriousness
reverence: deep respect
a person: a governess, a woman paid to teach girls at home
a less charge: a less important responsibility
confer an honour upon: do a great favour to
drawing-room: the best sitting room, where the family received guests

For this question, you need to refer to the whole of Source A, together with the whole of Source B.

Compare how the writers convey their different perspectives on the education of women and girls.

In your answer, you could:

compare their different perspectives
comment on the methods the writers use to convey their different perspectives
support your response with references to both texts.

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Question 3

16 marks

Source A

In the 1920s the writer George Orwell worked as a police officer in Burma (now Myanmar), which was then ruled by Britain. In this essay, published in 1936, he remembers a morning when he was called out because an elephant was causing trouble in the town where he was posted.

1Early one morning the sub-inspector at a police station the other end of

the town rang me up on the phone and said that an elephant was ravaging

the bazaar. Would I please come and do something about it? It was not, of

course, a wild elephant, but a tame one which had gone “must.” The Burmese

5population had no weapons and were quite helpless against it.

As I started forward practically the whole population of the quarter

flocked out of the houses and followed me. They had seen the rifle and

were all shouting excitedly that I was going to shoot the elephant. They

had not shown much interest in the elephant when he was merely ravaging

10their homes, but it was different now that he was going to be shot. It was

a bit of fun to them, as it would be to an English crowd; besides they

wanted the meat. It made me vaguely uneasy. The elephant was standing

eight yards from the road, his left side towards us. He took not the

slightest notice of the crowd’s approach. He was tearing up bunches of

15grass, beating them against his knees to clean them and stuffing them into

his mouth.

I had halted on the road. As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with

perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him. It is a serious matter to

shoot a working elephant—it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly

20piece of machinery—and obviously one ought not to do it if it can possibly

be avoided. And at that distance, peacefully eating, the elephant looked

no more dangerous than a cow.

But at that moment I glanced round at the crowd that had followed me. It

was an immense crowd, two thousand at the least and growing every minute.

25They were watching me as they would watch a conjurer about to perform a

trick. They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was

momentarily worth watching. And suddenly I realized that I should have to

shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had got

to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward,

30irresistibly. The crowd would laugh at me.

But I did not want to shoot the elephant. I watched him beating his bunch

of grass against his knees, with that preoccupied grandmotherly air that

elephants have. It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him.

There was only one alternative. I shoved the cartridges into the magazine

35and lay down on the road to get a better aim. The crowd grew very still,

and a deep, low, happy sigh, as of people who see the theatre curtain go

up at last, breathed from innumerable throats. They were going to have

their bit of fun after all.

When I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick—one

40never does when a shot goes home—but I heard the devilish roar of glee

that went up from the crowd. In that instant, in too short a time, one

would have thought, even for the bullet to get there, a mysterious,

terrible change had come over the elephant. He neither stirred nor fell,

but every line of his body had altered. At last, after what seemed a long

45time—it might have been five seconds, I dare say—he sagged flabbily to his

knees. His mouth slobbered. An enormous senility seemed to have settled

upon him. One could have imagined him thousands of years old.

In the end I could not stand it any longer and went away. I heard later

that it took him half an hour to die. I often wondered whether any of the

50others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.

From "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell (1936).

Glossary

sub-inspector: a junior police officer
ravaging: causing great damage to
bazaar: market
must: a period when a male elephant becomes aggressive and hard to control (now usually spelled "musth")
quarter: district of a town
conjurer: a magician who performs tricks
cartridges: bullets in their cases
magazine: the part of a rifle that holds the cartridges
innumerable: too many to count
senility: the weakness of extreme old age

Source B

Matthew Scott looked after Jumbo, a famous African elephant at London Zoo, for more than twenty years. In 1882 Jumbo was sold to the American showman P. T. Barnum, and Scott travelled with him to the United States. In 1885 Scott published this account of Jumbo's life.

1When I first saw Jumbo I met him on the coast of France. He was about

being brought from that country to England for medical care—to your humble

servant, the animals’ physician. A more deplorable, diseased, and rotten

creature never walked God’s earth, to my knowledge. However, I received

5Jumbo as I have received many other of God’s creatures that other people

have given up for “a bad job.” I received him kindly, took him tenderly

over the Channel, and lodged him in a comfortable, clean bed in my stable.

I undertook to be his doctor, his nurse, and general servant.

Once when I was riding him around in the Zoölogical Gardens, in London,

10sitting on his neck, with about a dozen children on a panier-saddle across

his broad back, we were proceeding down the path. I was engaged talking to

the dozen “little folk” who occupied his back, and encouraging them to sit

very quietly and not fall off, when all at once Master Jumbo came to a

standstill for some cause or other. I shouted to him to go along, but for

15once he did not obey the order. As I turned round to see what was the

matter, there was a lady running over the grass-plot on to the path,

screaming and shouting, “Oh, my poor child! my child, my child! oh, he

will be killed, he will be killed!” Well, I looked down from my elevation

and saw Jumbo deliberately and coolly putting his trunk around the body of

20an infant that escaped its mother’s apron-strings and had run and fallen

in front of Jumbo. Jumbo is a very careful walker, and always looks where

he is going, and, like some others of God’s creatures, is rather slow in

his movements, but both very sure footed and thoughtful. He just stopped

right there, gently picked up the child by the waist with his trunk, and

25laid it on the green grass beside its screaming mother, more tenderly than

the mother afterward took up the frightened child in her excitement.

Jumbo never gets excited when he is attending to children. He might get

mad once in a while, when some drunken fool tries to prick him with pins

stuck in a cake, or otherwise fool him.

30When the English public was informed of Jumbo’s intended departure loud

protests were raised. The feeling was intense, and the people were so

earnest and determined that Jumbo should not leave England, that a

proposition was made to raise by subscription from the masses, a

sufficient sum of money to buy him from the Zoölogical Society.

35In the dawn of a fine spring morning we started on our journey to the New

World. The box was drawn by sixteen horses, and the weight was as much as

they could draw. Thousands followed Jumbo to the river-bank, expressing

their regrets at his departure. The grief of the children was really

sorrowful.

40My heart has often been pained when I have seen these struggling crowds

crying out for a peep at the finest and most intelligent animal the world

has ever seen, and when I have led him forth down the road to the depot my

heart was made glad and thankful that Jumbo was appreciated, praised, and

shouted for. Sometimes it was a perfect ovation. The people with upturned

45faces would look on, and with flowing handkerchiefs and throats almost

rent with effort they would call out, “Here’s Jumbo! here’s Jumbo!”

“Hello, Jumbo!” “Welcome, Jumbo! you’re a greater wonder than what we

expected, Jumbo.” “Good-by, dear old Jumbo!” “We shan’t see you again,

Jumbo!”

From "Jumbo's Biography" by Matthew Scott, published with his Autobiography of Matthew Scott, Jumbo's Keeper (1885).

Glossary

He was about being brought: he was about to be brought
your humble servant: the writer means himself
physician: doctor
deplorable: in a shockingly bad state
Zoölogical Gardens: London Zoo
panier-saddle: a saddle with seats hanging down on each side
Master Jumbo: a playful title, as if Jumbo were a young boy
elevation: high position
apron-strings: the ties of an apron; the child had run away from its mother
subscription: collecting money from many people
the masses: ordinary people
the New World: America
depot: railway station
ovation: burst of applause and cheering
rent: torn
Good-by: goodbye

For this question, you need to refer to the whole of Source A, together with the whole of Source B.

Compare how the writers convey their different attitudes to the elephants they write about and to the crowds who watch them.

In your answer, you could:

compare their different attitudes
comment on the methods the writers use to convey their different attitudes
support your response with references to both texts.

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Question 4

16 marks

Source A

In January 1912 the British naval officer Robert Falcon Scott and four companions reached the South Pole, only to find that a Norwegian team had got there first. On the long journey back across the Antarctic ice, Scott kept a journal. These are some of his last entries. The final two paragraphs come from a "Message to the Public" that he wrote at the back of the same notebook. Temperatures are in degrees Fahrenheit.

1Friday, March 16 or Saturday 17.—Lost track of dates, but think the

last correct. Tragedy all along the line. At lunch, the day before

yesterday, poor Titus Oates said he couldn’t go on; he proposed we

should leave him in his sleeping-bag. That we could not do, and induced

5him to come on, on the afternoon march. In spite of its awful nature

for him he struggled on and we made a few miles. At night he was worse

and we knew the end had come.

Should this be found I want these facts recorded. Oates’ last thoughts

were of his Mother, but immediately before he took pride in thinking

10that his regiment would be pleased with the bold way in which he met

his death. We can testify to his bravery. He did not—would not—give up

hope to the very end. He was a brave soul. This was the end. He slept

through the night before last, hoping not to wake; but he woke in the

morning—yesterday. It was blowing a blizzard. He said, ‘I am just going

15outside and may be some time.’ He went out into the blizzard and we

have not seen him since.

We knew that poor Oates was walking to his death, but though we tried

to dissuade him, we knew it was the act of a brave man and an English

gentleman. We all hope to meet the end with a similar spirit, and

20assuredly the end is not far.

The cold is intense, -40° at midday. My companions are unendingly

cheerful, but we are all on the verge of serious frostbites, and though

we constantly talk of fetching through I don’t think anyone of us

believes it in his heart.

25Thursday, March 22 and 23.—Blizzard bad as ever—Wilson and Bowers

unable to start—to-morrow last chance—no fuel and only one or two of

food left—must be near the end.

Thursday, March 29.—Since the 21st we have had a continuous gale from

W.S.W. and S.W. We had fuel to make two cups of tea apiece and bare

30food for two days on the 20th. Every day we have been ready to start

for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it

remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any

better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting

weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far.

35It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more.

For God’s sake look after our people.

We are weak, writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret

this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships,

help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in

40the past. We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out

against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to

the will of Providence, determined still to do our best to the last.

Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood,

endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the

45heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must

tell the tale, but surely, surely, a great rich country like ours will

see that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for.

From the journals of Robert Falcon Scott, published in Scott's Last Expedition (1913).

Glossary

Titus Oates: Captain Lawrence Oates, one of Scott's four companions; "Titus" was his nickname
induced: persuaded
regiment: the army unit Oates belonged to
testify: give evidence of
dissuade: talk someone out of doing something
assuredly: certainly
-40°: forty degrees below zero Fahrenheit, which is also about -40°C
fetching through: getting back safely
Wilson and Bowers: Scott's two remaining companions
depot: a store of food and fuel left on the route for the return journey
W.S.W. and S.W.: west-south-west and south-west
apiece: each
drift: snow blown along by the wind
fortitude: courage in pain or trouble
Providence: God's care and will
hardihood: toughness and boldness

Source B

In the winter of 1860 the American doctor and explorer Isaac Israel Hayes was based on a ship frozen into the ice off the coast of Greenland. In October he led five of his men on a short sledge journey up onto the great ice sheet that covers the island's interior, to study it. In this extract from his book, written after his return, he describes the fourth day of the journey and what followed. Temperatures are in degrees Fahrenheit.

1The temperature had fallen to 30° below zero, and a fierce gale of wind

meeting us in the face, drove us into our tent for shelter, and, after

resting there for a few hours, compelled our return. I had, however,

accomplished the principal purpose of my journey, and had not in any

5case intended to proceed more than one day further, at this critical

period of the year.

My party had not yet become sufficiently inured to exposure at such low

temperatures to enable them to bear it without risk. They were all more

or less touched with the frost, and the faces of two of them had been

10so often frozen that they had become very painful and much swollen, and

their feet being constantly cold, I was fearful of some serious

accident if we did not speedily seek safety at a lower level. The men

complained bitterly, and could not sleep. One of them seemed likely to

give up altogether, and I was compelled to send him into the open air

15to save himself from perishing by a vigorous walk.

The storm steadily increased in force, and, the temperature falling

lower and lower, we were all at length forced to quit the tent, and in

active exercise strive to prevent ourselves from freezing. To face the

wind was not possible, and shelter was nowhere to be found upon the

20unbroken plain. There was but one direction in which we could move, and

that was with our backs to the gale. Much as I should have liked to

continue the journey one day more, it was clear to me that longer delay

would not alone endanger the lives of one or two members of my party,

but would wholly defeat the purposes of the expedition by the

25destruction of all of us.

Our situation at this camp was as sublime as it was dangerous. We had

attained an altitude of five thousand feet above the level of the sea,

and we were seventy miles from the coast, in the midst of a vast frozen

sahara, immeasurable to the human eye. There was neither hill,

30mountain, nor gorge anywhere in view. We had completely sunk the strip

of land which lies between the mer de glace and the sea; and no object

met the eye but our feeble tent, which bent to the storm. Fitful clouds

swept over the face of the full-orbed moon, which, descending toward

the horizon, glimmered through the drifting snow that whirled out of

35the illimitable distance, and scudded over the icy plain;—to the eye,

in undulating lines of downy softness; to the flesh, in showers of

piercing darts.

Our only safety was in flight; and like a ship driven before a tempest

which she cannot withstand, and which has threatened her ruin, we

40turned our backs to the gale; and, hastening down the slope, we ran to

save our lives.

The latter part of the journey was made wholly by moonlight. Sheets of

drifting snow swept over the white-crested hills like insubstantial

spirits flitting wildly through the night. These told that the gale yet

45howled above; but in our lowly shelter the air was still as a cave in

the midst of winds. No cloud obscured the broad archway of the skies.

The gentle stars, robed in the drapery of night, rejoiced to behold

their forms in the smooth mirror of the lake. The glacier threw back

the chilly moonbeams.

From The Open Polar Sea by Isaac Israel Hayes (1867).

Glossary

30° below zero: thirty degrees below zero Fahrenheit, about -34°C
principal: main
inured: hardened by experience
touched with the frost: suffering from frostbite
speedily: quickly
perishing: dying
quit: leave
sublime: so vast or grand that it fills you with awe
attained an altitude: reached a height
sahara: desert (from the Sahara Desert)
sunk: travelled so far that something has dropped out of sight below the horizon
mer de glace: "sea of ice" (French): the ice sheet
Fitful: coming and going irregularly
full-orbed: full and round
illimitable: endless
scudded: raced along
undulating: rising and falling like waves
tempest: violent storm
insubstantial: without a solid body, ghostly
archway of the skies: the curved dome of the sky
drapery: loose, flowing cloth

For this question, you need to refer to the whole of Source A, together with the whole of Source B.

Compare how the writers convey their different attitudes to facing danger in extreme cold.

In your answer, you could:

compare their different attitudes
comment on the methods the writers use to convey their different attitudes
support your response with references to both texts.

/ 16

Question 5

16 marks

Source A

In 1916, after their ship had been crushed by the Antarctic ice, the explorer Ernest Shackleton and five of his men set out in a lifeboat less than seven metres long, the James Caird, to sail about 800 miles across the Southern Ocean and fetch help for the rest of their crew. In this extract from his account of the expedition, Shackleton describes the voyage.

1The tale of the next sixteen days is one of supreme strife amid heaving

waters. The sub-Antarctic Ocean lived up to its evil winter reputation.

I decided to run north for at least two days while the wind held and so

get into warmer weather before turning to the east and laying a course

5for South Georgia. We took two-hourly spells at the tiller. The men who

were not on watch crawled into the sodden sleeping-bags and tried to

forget their troubles for a period; but there was no comfort in the

boat. The bags and cases seemed to be alive in the unfailing knack of

presenting their most uncomfortable angles to our rest-seeking bodies.

10The first night aboard the boat was one of acute discomfort for us all,

and we were heartily glad when the dawn came and we could set about the

preparation of a hot breakfast.

Cramped in our narrow quarters and continually wet by the spray, we

suffered severely from cold throughout the journey. We fought the seas

15and the winds and at the same time had a daily struggle to keep

ourselves alive. At times we were in dire peril. Generally we were

upheld by the knowledge that we were making progress towards the land

where we would be, but there were days and nights when we lay hove to,

drifting across the storm-whitened seas and watching with eyes

20interested rather than apprehensive the uprearing masses of water, flung

to and fro by Nature in the pride of her strength. So small was our boat

and so great were the seas that often our sail flapped idly in the calm

between the crests of two waves. Then we would climb the next slope and

catch the full fury of the gale where the wool-like whiteness of the

25breaking water surged around us.

Much baling was necessary, and nothing that we could do prevented our

gear from becoming sodden. There were no dry places in the boat, and at

last we simply covered our heads with our Burberrys and endured the

all-pervading water. Real rest we had none. The perpetual motion of the

30boat made repose impossible; we were cold, sore, and anxious.

At midnight I was at the tiller and suddenly noticed a line of clear sky

between the south and south-west. I called to the other men that the sky

was clearing, and then a moment later I realized that what I had seen

was not a rift in the clouds but the white crest of an enormous wave.

35During twenty-six years’ experience of the ocean in all its moods I had

not encountered a wave so gigantic. It was a mighty upheaval of the

ocean, a thing quite apart from the big white-capped seas that had been

our tireless enemies for many days. I shouted, “For God’s sake, hold on!

It’s got us!” Then came a moment of suspense that seemed drawn out into

40hours. White surged the foam of the breaking sea around us. We felt our

boat lifted and flung forward like a cork in breaking surf. We were in a

seething chaos of tortured water; but somehow the boat lived through it,

half-full of water, sagging to the dead weight and shuddering under the

blow. We baled with the energy of men fighting for life, flinging the

45water over the sides with every receptacle that came to our hands, and

after ten minutes of uncertainty we felt the boat renew her life beneath

us. She floated again and ceased to lurch drunkenly as though dazed by

the attack of the sea. Earnestly we hoped that never again would we

encounter such a wave.

From "The Boat Journey", a chapter of South by Ernest Shackleton (1919).

Glossary

sub-Antarctic Ocean: the cold, stormy ocean that surrounds Antarctica
South Georgia: a remote island in the South Atlantic, where there was a whaling station
tiller: the handle used to steer a small boat
on watch: on duty, sailing the boat while the others rest
hove to: stopped, with the boat held steady facing into the wind, waiting for the weather to improve
apprehensive: worried, fearful
uprearing: rising up high
baling: scooping water out of the boat
Burberrys: waterproof coats
all-pervading: getting in everywhere
repose: rest
upheaval: violent heaving upwards
receptacle: container

Source B

In January 1842 the novelist Charles Dickens and his wife sailed from Liverpool to America on a steamship carrying passengers and mail. In this extract from his book about his travels, he describes the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in winter.

1It is the third morning. I am awakened out of my sleep by a dismal

shriek from my wife, who demands to know whether there’s any danger. I

rouse myself, and look out of bed. The water-jug is plunging and leaping

like a lively dolphin; all the smaller articles are afloat, except my

5shoes, which are stranded on a carpet-bag, high and dry, like a couple

of coal-barges. Suddenly I see them spring into the air, and behold the

looking-glass, which is nailed to the wall, sticking fast upon the

ceiling. At the same time the door entirely disappears, and a new one is

opened in the floor. Then I begin to comprehend that the state-room is

10standing on its head.

Before it is possible to make any arrangement at all compatible with

this novel state of things, the ship rights. Before one can say ‘Thank

Heaven!’ she wrongs again. Before one can cry she is wrong, she seems to

have started forward, and to be a creature actually running of its own

15accord, with broken knees and failing legs, through every variety of

hole and pitfall, and stumbling constantly. Before one can so much as

wonder, she takes a high leap into the air. Before she has well done

that, she takes a deep dive into the water. Before she has gained the

surface, she throws a summerset. The instant she is on her legs, she

20rushes backward. And so she goes on staggering, heaving, wrestling,

leaping, diving, jumping, pitching, throbbing, rolling, and rocking: and

going through all these movements, sometimes by turns, and sometimes

altogether: until one feels disposed to roar for mercy.

A steward passes. ‘Steward!’ ‘Sir?’ ‘What is the matter? what do you

25call this?’ ‘Rather a heavy sea on, sir, and a head-wind.’

A head-wind! Imagine a human face upon the vessel’s prow, with fifteen

thousand Samsons in one bent upon driving her back, and hitting her

exactly between the eyes whenever she attempts to advance an inch.

Imagine the ship herself, with every pulse and artery of her huge body

30swollen and bursting under this maltreatment, sworn to go on or die.

Imagine the wind howling, the sea roaring, the rain beating: all in

furious array against her. Picture the sky both dark and wild, and the

clouds, in fearful sympathy with the waves, making another ocean in the

air. Add to all this, the clattering on deck and down below; the tread

35of hurried feet; the loud hoarse shouts of seamen; the gurgling in and

out of water through the scuppers; with, every now and then, the

striking of a heavy sea upon the planks above, with the deep, dead,

heavy sound of thunder heard within a vault;—and there is the head-wind

of that January morning.

40I say nothing of what may be called the domestic noises of the ship:

such as the breaking of glass and crockery, the tumbling down of

stewards, the gambols, overhead, of loose casks and truant dozens of

bottled porter, and the very remarkable and far from exhilarating sounds

raised in their various state-rooms by the seventy passengers who were

45too ill to get up to breakfast. I say nothing of them: for although I

lay listening to this concert for three or four days, I don’t think I

heard it for more than a quarter of a minute, at the expiration of which

term, I lay down again, excessively sea-sick.

From "The Passage Out", a chapter of American Notes by Charles Dickens (1842).

Glossary

carpet-bag: a travelling bag made of carpet-like cloth
coal-barges: flat-bottomed boats that carry coal along rivers and canals
looking-glass: mirror
state-room: a private cabin on a ship
compatible with: suited to
summerset: somersault
disposed to: inclined to, ready to
head-wind: a wind blowing straight against the direction a ship is travelling
prow: the pointed front of a ship
Samsons: Samson is a man of enormous strength in the Bible
array: battle formation
scuppers: openings in the side of a ship that let water drain off the deck
vault: an underground room or tomb with an arched roof
gambols: playful leaps and skips
truant: escaped, wandering where they should not be
porter: a dark beer
at the expiration of which term: at the end of which time

For this question, you need to refer to the whole of Source A, together with the whole of Source B.

Compare how the writers convey their different attitudes to being caught in a storm at sea.

In your answer, you could:

compare their different attitudes
comment on the methods the writers use to convey their different attitudes
support your response with references to both texts.

/ 16

Question 6

16 marks

Source A

In 1913 the British campaigner Emmeline Pankhurst toured the United States to win support, and raise money, for the fight to give women the vote in Britain. Members of her organisation, the suffragettes, had broken windows and damaged property to force the government to act. This extract is from a speech she gave to an audience in Hartford, Connecticut, on 13 November 1913.

1Many people come to Hartford to address meetings as advocates of some

reform. Tonight it is not to advocate a reform that I address a meeting

in Hartford. I do not come here as an advocate, because whatever

position the suffrage movement may occupy in the United States of

5America, in England it has passed beyond the realm of advocacy and it

has entered into the sphere of practical politics. It has become the

subject of revolution and civil war, and so tonight I am not here to

advocate woman suffrage. American suffragists can do that very well for

themselves.

10I am here as a soldier who has temporarily left the field of battle in

order to explain—it seems strange it should have to be explained—what

civil war is like when civil war is waged by women. I am not only here

as a soldier temporarily absent from the field at battle; I am here—and

that, I think, is the strangest part of my coming—I am here as a person

15who, according to the law courts of my country, it has been decided, is

of no value to the community at all: and I am adjudged because of my

life to be a dangerous person, under sentence of penal servitude in a

convict prison. I dare say, in the minds of many of you—you will perhaps

forgive me this personal touch—that I do not look either very like a

20soldier or very like a convict, and yet I am both.

They have said to us government rests upon force, the women haven’t

force so they must submit. Well, we are showing them that government

does not rest upon force at all: it rests upon consent. As long as women

consent to be unjustly governed, they can be, but directly women say:

25“We withhold our consent, we will not be governed any longer so long as

that government is unjust.” Not by the forces of civil war can you

govern the very weakest woman. You can kill that woman, but she escapes

you then; you cannot govern her.

Well, they little know what women are. Women are very slow to rouse, but

30once they are aroused, once they are determined, nothing on earth and

nothing in heaven will make women give way; it is impossible. There are

women who are being carried from their sick beds on stretchers into

meetings. They are too weak to speak, but they go amongst their fellow

workers just to show that their spirits are unquenched, and that their

35spirit is alive, and they mean to go on as long as life lasts.

Human life for us is sacred, but we say if any life is to be sacrificed

it shall be ours; we won’t do it ourselves, but we will put the enemy in

the position where they will have to choose between giving us freedom or

giving us death.

40In England, if you could understand it, there is the most pathetic and

the most courageous fight going on, because you find the people whom you

have been accustomed to look upon as weak and reliant, the people you

have always thought leaned upon other people for protection, have stood

up and are fighting for themselves. Women have found a new kind of

45self-respect, a new kind of energy, a new kind of strength: and I think

that of all oppressed peoples who might claim your sympathy and support,

women who are fighting this fight unknown in the history of humanity

before, fighting this fight in the twentieth century for greater powers

of self-development, self-expression and self-government, might very

50well attract the sympathy and the practical help of American people.

From "Freedom or Death", a speech by Emmeline Pankhurst (1913).

Glossary

advocates: people who speak publicly in support of a cause
reform: a change to the law to improve society
suffrage: the right to vote in elections
the realm of advocacy: the stage of simply arguing for something
practical politics: real political action, rather than talk
adjudged: officially judged
penal servitude: imprisonment with hard labour
convict prison: a prison for people found guilty of serious crimes
submit: give in, obey
consent: agreement, permission
rouse: stir into action
unquenched: not put out, still burning
pathetic: deeply moving (it does not mean "useless" here)
reliant: dependent on other people
oppressed: treated cruelly or unjustly by those in power
self-government: the right of people to govern themselves

Source B

In 1874, while Parliament was considering a bill to give some women the vote, the historian Goldwin Smith wrote a magazine article arguing against it. It was reprinted as a pamphlet the following year, at the request of some Members of Parliament. In this extract he sets out some of his views.

1The Bill for removing the Electoral Disabilities of Women has received

less attention than the subject deserves. A good deal of personal

pressure has been applied in favour of the Bill, and there are probably

not a few among its pledged supporters who are far from seeing clearly

5all the consequences of their vote. The very foundations of society are

touched when change is proposed in the relations of the sexes.

The main factors of the relation between the sexes have hitherto been,

and probably still are, natural affection; the man’s need of a helpmate,

the woman’s need of a protector and provider, especially when she

10becomes a mother; and the common interest of parents in their children.

If the woman has had her sorrows at home, the man has had his wars and

his rough struggles with nature abroad, and with the sweat of his brow

he has reclaimed the earth, and made it a habitation for his partner as

well as for himself. If the woman has had her disabilities, she has also

15had her privileges.

But law, after all, though the fact may be rough and unwelcome, rests at

bottom on the force of the community, and the force of the community is

male. Force, as civilization advances, is more guided by reason and open

recourse to it becomes less frequent; but the general consciousness that

20the force is there, in the last resort, is still the foundation of

government, representative as well as other kinds. No woman can imagine

that her sex can execute, or in case of rebellion re-assert the law; for

that they must look entirely to the men.

It is alleged that female influence would mitigate the violence of party

25politics. But what ground have we, in reason or experience, for

believing that women, if introduced into the political arena, would be

less violent than men? Hitherto they have been free from political

vices, because they have generally taken no part in politics, just as

home has been an asylum from political rancour because political

30division has not been introduced between man and wife. But the chances

are that, being more excitable, and having, with more warmth and

generosity of temperament, less power of self-control, women would, when

once engaged in party struggles, be not less, but more violent than men.

That party politics require mitigation, and perhaps something more, may

35be readily admitted; but we are not likely to make the cauldron boil

less fiercely by flinging into it female character and Home.

That Home would escape disturbance it is surely difficult to believe. A

man and his wife taking opposite sides in politics would be brought into

direct and public collision, especially if they happened to be active

40politicians, about a subject of the most exciting kind. Would the

harmony of most households bear the strain? Would not a husband who

cared for his own happiness be apt to say that if his wife wanted it she

might have the vote, but that there should be only one vote between

them?

45Nothing, however, to the writer, could seem clearer than that the Female

Suffrage movement, both in England and in the United States was not the

spontaneous uprising of the sex against wrong, but an artificial

agitation, the chief authors of which were ladies anxious to take part

in public life.

From "Female Suffrage" by Goldwin Smith, first published in Macmillan's Magazine (1874) and reprinted as a pamphlet (1875).

Glossary

Bill for removing the Electoral Disabilities of Women: a proposed law to let some women vote in elections for Parliament
pledged supporters: Members of Parliament who had promised to vote for it
the relations of the sexes: the way men and women live alongside each other
hitherto: until now
helpmate: a helpful partner, usually meaning a wife
reclaimed the earth: made wild land fit to farm and live on
habitation: a home, a place to live
disabilities: here, things the law did not allow her to do
at bottom: fundamentally, in the end
the general consciousness: everyone's awareness
in the last resort: if everything else fails
execute: here, enforce, carry out
re-assert: restore, by force if necessary
alleged: claimed
mitigate: make less severe
party politics: the contest between political parties
arena: a place where fights or contests are held
vices: bad habits, moral faults
asylum: a place of safety
rancour: bitter, lasting resentment
temperament: nature, character
cauldron: a large pot for boiling things over a fire
collision: clash
apt: likely
Female Suffrage: votes for women
spontaneous: natural, not planned
agitation: a campaign to stir up public feeling

For this question, you need to refer to the whole of Source A, together with the whole of Source B.

Compare how the writers convey their different attitudes to women winning the right to vote.

In your answer, you could:

compare their different attitudes
comment on the methods the writers use to convey their different attitudes
support your response with references to both texts.

/ 16

Question 7

16 marks

Source A

In January 1946, a few months after the end of the Second World War, when tea was still rationed in Britain, the writer George Orwell published this article in a London evening newspaper. In it he sets out some of his rules for making tea.

1If you look up ‘tea’ in the first cookery book that comes to hand you

will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a

few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the

most important points. This is curious, not only because tea is one of

5the mainstays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire,

Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is

the subject of violent disputes.

When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no

fewer than 11 outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be

10pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely

controversial. Here are my own 11 rules, every one of which I regard as

golden:

First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has

virtues which are not to be despised nowadays—it is economical, and one

15can drink it without milk—but there is not much stimulation in it. One

does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone

who has used that comforting phrase ‘a nice cup of tea’ invariably means

Indian tea.

Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by

20placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with

hot water.

Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you

are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be

about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be

25realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of

tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like

their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that

passes—a fact which is recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age

pensioners.

30Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way

about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact,

which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours.

Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most

controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are

35probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school

can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my

own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first

and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk

whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other

40way round.

Lastly, tea—unless one is drinking it in the Russian style—should be

drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But

still, how can you call yourself a true tea-lover if you destroy the

flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally

45reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as

beer is meant to be bitter.

It is worth paying attention to such details as warming the pot and

using water that is really boiling, so as to make quite sure of wringing

out of one’s ration the 20 good, strong cups that two ounces, properly

50handled, ought to represent.

From "A Nice Cup of Tea" by George Orwell, first published in the Evening Standard (1946).

Glossary

mainstays: main supports, the things most relied on
Eire: Ireland
acutely controversial: causing strong disagreement
Ceylonese: from Ceylon, the island now called Sri Lanka
stimulation: the effect of making you feel more awake and lively
hob: a flat metal shelf beside a fire, or the top of a cooker, where pans are kept hot
swilling it out: rinsing it
quart: two pints, a little over a litre
rationing: during and after the war, each person was only allowed a small, fixed amount of tea
realized: carried out
schools of thought: groups of people who share an opinion
regulate: control
in the Russian style: served without milk, often sweetened with sugar or jam
wringing out of: squeezing out of, getting the most from
two ounces: about 57 grams of tea leaves, roughly one person's weekly ration at the time

Source B

In 1861 Isabella Beeton published a very large book of advice on running a household, full of recipes and instructions for Victorian housewives. In these passages she writes about tea: its history, how to buy it and how to make it.

1The beverage called tea has now become almost a necessary of life.

Previous to the middle of the 17th century it was not used in England,

and it was wholly unknown to the Greeks and Romans. Pepys says, in his

Diary,—“September 25th, 1661.—I sent for a cup of tea (a China drink),

5of which I had never drunk before.” Two years later it was so rare a

commodity in England, that the English East-India Company bought 2 lbs.

2 oz. of it, as a present for his majesty. In 1666 it was sold in London

for sixty shillings a pound. From that date the consumption has gone on

increasing from 5,000 lbs. to 50,000,000 lbs.

10The cultivation of the plant requires great care. Teas of the finest

flavour consist of the youngest leaves; and as these are gathered at

four different periods of the year, the younger the leaves the higher

flavoured the tea, and the scarcer, and consequently the dearer, the

article.

15In the purchase of tea, that should be chosen which possesses an

agreeable odour and is as whole as possible, in order that the leaf may

be easily examined. The greatest care should be taken that it has not

been exposed to the air, which destroys its flavour.

There is very little art in making good tea; if the water is boiling,

20and there is no sparing of the fragrant leaf, the beverage will almost

invariably be good. The old-fashioned plan of allowing a teaspoonful to

each person, and one over, is still practised. Warm the teapot with

boiling water; let it remain for two or three minutes for the vessel to

become thoroughly hot, then pour it away. Put in the tea, pour in from

251/2 to 3/4 pint of boiling water, close the lid, and let it stand for

the tea to draw from 5 to 10 minutes; then fill up the pot with water.

The tea will be quite spoiled unless made with water that is actually

‘boiling’, as the leaves will not open, and the flavour not be extracted

from them; the beverage will consequently be colourless and

30tasteless,—in fact, nothing but tepid water. Where there is a very large

party to make tea for, it is a good plan to have two teapots instead of

putting a large quantity of tea into one pot; the tea, besides, will go

farther. When the infusion has been once completed, the addition of

fresh tea adds very little to the strength; so, when more is required,

35have the pot emptied of the old leaves, scalded, and fresh tea made in

the usual manner. Economists say that a few grains of carbonate of soda,

added before the boiling water is poured on the tea, assist to draw out

the goodness: if the water is very hard, perhaps it is a good plan, as

the soda softens it; but care must be taken to use this ingredient

40sparingly, as it is liable to give the tea a soapy taste if added in too

large a quantity. For mixed tea, the usual proportion is four spoonfuls

of black to one of green; more of the latter when the flavour is very

much liked; but strong green tea is highly pernicious, and should never

be partaken of too freely.

From The Book of Household Management by Isabella Beeton (1861), often known as "Mrs Beeton".

Glossary

beverage: drink
a necessary of life: something people cannot do without
Pepys: Samuel Pepys, a man who kept a famous diary in the 1660s
commodity: product that is bought and sold
East-India Company: a powerful British trading company that brought goods, including tea, from Asia
his majesty: the king, Charles II
sixty shillings: three pounds, a very large sum of money at the time
lbs.: pounds in weight (one pound is about 450 grams)
cultivation: growing
the article: the product
odour: smell
invariably: always
one over: one extra
draw: brew, so that the flavour comes out of the leaves
tepid: lukewarm
infusion: brewing
scalded: rinsed with boiling water
Economists: here, people who are careful to run a household cheaply
carbonate of soda: a chemical powder that softens water
pernicious: harmful
partaken of: drunk

For this question, you need to refer to the whole of Source A, together with the whole of Source B.

Compare how the writers convey their different attitudes to making tea.

In your answer, you could:

compare their different attitudes
comment on the methods the writers use to convey their different attitudes
support your response with references to both texts.

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Question 8

16 marks

Source A

In the 1890s, as a teenager, the American writer Jack London spent months as a "hobo", travelling across the United States without paying by hiding on trains, and begging for his meals. In this book, published in 1907, he looks back on that life and remembers one day in the town of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

1Perhaps the greatest charm of tramp-life is the absence of monotony. In

Hobo Land the face of life is protean—an ever changing phantasmagoria,

where the impossible happens and the unexpected jumps out of the bushes

at every turn of the road. The hobo never knows what is going to happen

5the next moment; hence, he lives only in the present moment.

Often I think over my tramp days, and ever I marvel at the swift

succession of pictures that flash up in my memory. For instance, I

remember a sunny summer morning in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and

immediately comes to my mind the auspicious beginning of the day—a

10“set-down” with two maiden ladies, and not in their kitchen, but in

their dining room, with them beside me at the table. We ate eggs, out of

egg-cups! It was the first time I had ever seen egg-cups, or heard of

egg-cups! I was a bit awkward at first, I’ll confess; but I was hungry

and unabashed. I mastered the egg-cup, and I mastered the eggs in a way

15that made those two maiden ladies sit up.

Why, they ate like a couple of canaries, dabbling with the one egg each

they took, and nibbling at tiny wafers of toast. Life was low in their

bodies; their blood ran thin; and they had slept warm all night. I had

been out all night, consuming much fuel of my body to keep warm, beating

20my way down from a place called Emporium, in the northern part of the

state. Wafers of toast! Out of sight! But each wafer was no more than a

mouthful to me—nay, no more than a bite.

I swept it bare. I didn’t break anything, but I cleaned out the eggs and

the toast and the coffee. The servant brought more, but I kept her busy,

25and ever she brought more and more. The coffee was delicious, but it

needn’t have been served in such tiny cups.

Those two maiden ladies, with their pink-and-white complexions and gray

curls, had never looked upon the bright face of adventure. As the

“Tramp-Royal” would have it, they had worked all their lives “on one

30same shift.” Into the sweet scents and narrow confines of their

uneventful existence I brought the large airs of the world, freighted

with the lusty smells of sweat and strife, and with the tangs and odors

of strange lands and soils.

Well, well, and what of it? It was fair exchange. For their many cups of

35coffee, and eggs, and bites of toast, I gave full value. Right royally I

gave them entertainment. My coming to sit at their table was their

adventure, and adventure is beyond price anyway.

It was a warm afternoon, and part way across the bridge I came to a lot

of fellows who were in swimming off one of the piers. Off went my

40clothes and in went I. The water was fine; but when I came out and

dressed, I found I had been robbed. Some one had gone through my

clothes. Now I leave it to you if being robbed isn’t in itself adventure

enough for one day. True, the thief that went through my clothes didn’t

get much—some thirty or forty cents in nickels and pennies, and my

45tobacco and cigarette papers; but it was all I had, which is more than

most men can be robbed of, for they have something left at home, while I

had no home.

From "Pictures", a chapter of The Road by Jack London (1907).

Glossary

Hobo Land: the world of hoboes, homeless men who travelled from place to place looking for work or food
protean: always changing its shape
phantasmagoria: a dream-like series of shifting pictures
auspicious: promising, lucky
“set-down”: tramps' slang for a meal given to a beggar to eat sitting down at a table
maiden ladies: unmarried women, here older ones
unabashed: not embarrassed
beating my way: travelling without paying, by hiding on trains
Emporium: a small town in Pennsylvania
Out of sight!: an exclamation: unbelievable!
nay: no, indeed
“Tramp-Royal”: the proud tramp who speaks in a poem by Rudyard Kipling
“on one same shift”: at the same job, in the same place, all their lives
freighted: loaded
lusty: strong and lively
tangs: sharp smells and tastes
Right royally: generously, like a king
nickels: five-cent coins

Source B

In the middle of the nineteenth century the journalist Henry Mayhew investigated the lives of London's poor. Here he describes a night at the Asylum for the Houseless Poor, a charity shelter in the City of London that opened its doors to homeless people in freezing weather.

1The Asylum for the Houseless Poor of London is opened only when the

thermometer reaches freezing-point, and offers nothing but dry bread and

warm shelter to such as avail themselves of its charity.

To this place swarm, as the bitter winter’s night comes on, some

5half-thousand penniless and homeless wanderers.

The Asylum for the Houseless is at once the beggar’s hotel, the tramp’s

town-house, the outcast’s haven of refuge—the last dwelling, indeed, on

the road to ruin.

It is a terrible thing, indeed, to look down upon that squalid crowd

10from one of the upper windows of the institution. There they stand

shivering in the snow, with their thin, cobwebby garments hanging in

tatters about them. Many are without shirts; with their bare skin

showing through the rents and gaps of their clothes, like the hide of a

dog with the mange. Some have their greasy coats and trousers tied round

15their wrists and ankles with string, to prevent the piercing wind from

blowing up them. A few are without shoes; and these keep one foot only

to the ground, while the bare flesh that has had to tramp through the

snow is blue and livid-looking as half-cooked meat.

It is a sullenly silent crowd, without any of the riot and rude frolic

20which generally ensue upon any gathering in the London streets; for the

only sounds heard are the squealing of the beggar infants, or the

wrangling of the vagrant boys for the front ranks, together with a

continued succession of hoarse coughs, that seem to answer each other

like the bleating of a flock of sheep.

25To each person is given half-a-pound of the best bread on coming in at

night, and a like quantity on going out in the morning; and children,

even if they be at the breast, have the same, which goes to swell the

mother’s allowance.

Around the fierce stove, in the centre of the ward, there is generally

30gathered a group of the houseless wanderers, the crimson rays tinting

the cluster of haggard faces with a bright lurid light that colours the

skin as red as wine. One and all are stretching forth their hands, as if

to let the delicious heat soak into their half-numbed limbs. They seem

positively greedy of the warmth, drawing up their sleeves and trousers

35so that their naked legs and arms may present a larger surface to the

fire.

It is a marvellously pathetic scene. Here is a herd of the most wretched

and friendless people in the world, lying down close to the earth as

sheep; here are some two centuries of outcasts, whose days are an

40unvarying round of suffering, enjoying the only moments when they are

free from pain and care—life being to them but one long painful

operation as it were, and sleep the chloroform which, for the time

being, renders them insensible.

It is hard for smug-faced respectability to acknowledge these

45dirt-caked, erring wretches as brothers, and yet, if from those to whom

little is given little is expected, surely, after the atonement of their

long suffering, they will make as good angels as the best of us.

From London Labour and the London Poor, Volume 3, by Henry Mayhew (1861).

Glossary

avail themselves of: make use of
half-thousand: five hundred
outcast: a person rejected by society
haven: safe place
squalid: filthy and wretched
institution: the shelter
cobwebby: thin and full of holes, like a cobweb
rents: rips
mange: a skin disease that makes an animal's fur fall out in patches
livid: bluish, the colour of a bruise
sullenly: gloomily
rude frolic: rough fun
ensue upon: follow
the front ranks: the front rows of the queue
at the breast: still being breastfed
lurid: glaring, unnaturally bright
haggard: worn out and thin-faced
two centuries: two hundred
chloroform: a drug once used to put patients to sleep during operations
insensible: unable to feel anything
smug-faced respectability: comfortable, self-satisfied, respectable people
erring: who have done wrong
if from those to whom little is given little is expected: an echo of the Bible: people who have been given little in life should not be judged harshly
atonement: making up for wrongdoing

For this question, you need to refer to the whole of Source A, together with the whole of Source B.

Compare how the writers convey their different attitudes to living without a home.

In your answer, you could:

compare their different attitudes
comment on the methods the writers use to convey their different attitudes
support your response with references to both texts.

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Paper 1

Paper 2

Question 4: Comparing Viewpoints Practice Questions

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Question 6

Question 7

Question 8