Eduqas – English Language – Sport – Component 1
20th Century Literature Reading and Creative Prose Writing
1 hour 45 minutes
SECTION A: 40 marks
Read carefully the passage, then answer all the questions below.
0 1 Read paragraph 1
List five things you learn about Tom King’s physical condition in these lines. [5]
0 2 Read paragraphs 1 and 2
What impressions does the writer create of Tom King’s situation before the fight? [5]
You must refer to the language used in the text to support your answer, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.
0 3 Read paragraphs 3 and 4
What impressions does the writer create of Tom King’s preparation for the fight? How does the writer create these impressions? [10]
You must refer to the language used in the text to support your answer, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.
0 4 Read paragraphs 5 and 6
How does the writer present Tom King’s relationship with his wife in these lines? [10]
You must refer to the language and structure used in the text to support your answer, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.
0 5 To answer this question, read paragraph 6 and consider the whole passage.
A teacher describes Tom King’s situation as “determined but desperate”.
To what extent do you agree with this view of Tom King? [10]
You should write about:
- your thoughts and feelings about how Tom King is presented in lines 30–31 and in the passage as a whole
- how the writer has created these thoughts and feelings.
You must refer to the text to support your answer.
SECTION B: 40 marks
In this section you will be assessed for the quality of your creative prose writing skills.
24 marks are awarded for communication and organisation; 16 marks are awarded for vocabulary, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation.
You should aim to write about 450–600 words.
Choose one of the following titles for your writing: [40]
Either,
1 1 a) Write a story which begins:
The whistle went, and everything else fell away.
Or,
1 1 b) The Final Round.
Or,
1 1 c) Write about a time when you, or someone you know, faced a physical challenge.
Or,
1 1 d) Against the Odds.
RESOURCE MATERIAL FOR USE WITH SECTION A
This extract is adapted from a short story in which an ageing boxer, Tom King, goes to fight a younger opponent.
Tom King had never been a talker, and he sat by the window, morosely silent, staring at his hands. The veins stood out on the backs of the hands, large and swollen; and the knuckles, smashed and battered and malformed, testified to the use to which they had been put. He had never heard that a man’s life was the life of his arteries, but well he knew the meaning of those big upstanding veins. His heart had pumped too much blood through them at top pressure. They no longer did the work. He had stretched the elasticity out of them, and with their distension had passed his endurance. He tired easily now. The impression of his hunger came back on him.
“Blimey, but couldn’t I go a piece of steak!” he muttered aloud…
“I tried both Burke’s an’ Sawley’s,” his wife said half apologetically.
“An’ they wouldn’t?” he demanded.
“Not a ha’penny… as how ‘e was thinkin’ Sandel ud do ye to-night.”
He had not had a fair training for this fight. It was a drought year in Australia, times were hard, and even the most irregular work was difficult to find. He had had no sparring partner, and his food had not been of the best nor always sufficient. The secretary of the Gayety Club had advanced him three pounds—the loser’s end of the purse—and beyond that had refused to go.
“Truth is, Lizzie, I ain’t had proper trainin’.”
He reached for his hat and started for the door. He did not offer to kiss her—he never did on going out—but on this night she dared to kiss him, throwing her arms around him and compelling him to bend down to her face. She looked quite small against the massive bulk of the man.
“Good luck, Tom,” she said. “You gotter do ‘im.”
“Ay, I gotter do ‘im,” he repeated. “That’s all there is to it.”
Source: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2545/2545-h/2545-h.htm