GCSE English Language 2.0 – Love and War – Paper 2

Section A – Reading

Read Text 1 (fiction) below and then answer Questions 1–2.

This extract is from the novel One of Ours (1922) by Willa Cather. Claude Wheeler, a young farmer in Nebraska, has married Enid Royce. He is beginning to realise that the marriage is not what he had hoped for.

If his marriage disappointed him in some respects, he ought to be a man, he  told himself, and make the best of what was good in it. If his wife didn’t love him, it was because love meant one thing to him and quite another thing to her. She was proud of him, was glad to see him when he came in from the fields, and was solicitous¹ for his comfort. Everything about a man’s embrace was distasteful to Enid; something inflicted upon women, like the pain of childbirth — for Eve’s transgression, perhaps.

Sometimes now, when he went out into the fields on a bright summer morning, it seemed to him that Nature not only smiled, but broadly laughed at him. He suffered in his pride, but even more in his ideals, in his vague sense of what was beautiful. Enid could make his life hideous to him without ever knowing it. At such times he hated himself for accepting at all her grudging hospitality. He was wronging something in himself.

The timber claim was his refuge. In the open, grassy spots, shut in by the bushy walls of yellowing ash trees, he felt unmarried and free; free to smoke as much as he liked, and to read and dream. His thoughts, he told himself, were his own. He was no longer a boy. He went off into the timber claim² to meet a young man more experienced and interesting than himself, who had not tied himself up with compromises.

Glossary

solicitous¹ – showing care or concern for someone’s well-being

timber claim² – a plot of land set aside for growing trees

Read Text 2 (non‑fiction) below and answer Questions 3–4.

This is an edited extract from A Hilltop on the Marne (1915) by Mildred Aldrich, an American woman living alone in rural France. She writes in a letter to a friend about the moment war was declared in August 1914.

Well, dear, what looked impossible is evidently coming to pass. Early yesterday morning the garde champêtre¹ — who is the only thing in the way of a policeman that we have — marched up the road beating his drum. At every crossroad he stopped and read an order. I heard him at the foot of the hill, but I waited for him to pass. At the top of the hill he stopped to paste a bill on the door of the carriage-house on Père Abelard’s farm. You can imagine me — in my long studio apron, with my head tied up in a muslin cap — running up the hill to join the group of poor women of the hamlet, to read the proclamation to the armies of land and sea — the order for the mobilisation² of the French military and naval forces. It was the first experience in my life of a thing like that. I had a cold chill down my spine as I realised that it was not so easy as I had thought to separate myself from Life. We stood there together — a little group of women — and silently read it through — this command for the rising up of a Nation. No need for the men to read it. Each with his military papers in his pocket knew the moment he heard the drum what it meant, and knew equally well his place. I was a foreigner among them, but I forgot that, and if any of them remembered they made no sign. We did not say a word to one another. I silently returned to my garden and sat down. War again!

Glossary

garde champêtre¹ – a rural policeman in France

mobilisation² – the act of organising troops and resources for war

SECTION A – Reading

You should spend about 1 hour 10 minutes on this section.

Read Text 1 and answer Questions 1–2.

Q1. From paragraph 1, identify one word or phrase that shows Enid’s dislike of physical male touch. (1 mark)

Q2. Read this extract.

Sometimes now, when he went out into the fields on a bright summer morning, it seemed to him that Nature not only smiled, but broadly laughed at him. He suffered in his pride, but even more in his ideals, in his vague sense of what was beautiful. Enid could make his life hideous to him without ever knowing it. At such times he hated himself for accepting at all her grudging hospitality. He was wronging something in himself.

In the extract, how does the writer use language to show Claude’s disappointment and frustration? Use examples from the extract and relevant subject terminology. (6 marks)

Read Text 2 in the Source Booklet provided and answer Questions 3–4.

Q3. Read this extract.

I had a cold chill down my spine as I realised that it was not so easy as I had thought to separate myself from Life. We stood there together — a little group of women — and silently read it through — this command for the rising up of a Nation. No need for the men to read it. Each with his military papers in his pocket knew the moment he heard the drum what it meant, and knew equally well his place.

From the extract, identify one way that the civilians reacted to the mobilisation order. (1 mark)

Q4. The writer describes how war arrived in her small French village. How does the writer try to interest and engage the reader? You should include:

• the writer’s use of language
• the writer’s use of structure
• the effect on the reader.

Use examples from the whole text and relevant subject terminology. (10 marks)

Questions 5–6 are on both Text 1 and Text 2.

Remember to refer to both texts in your answers.

Q5. Text 1 and Text 2 both show people whose lives are affected by powerful forces beyond their control. The experiences are different, but they share similarities. Write a summary giving three separate ways the experiences are similar. Support each separate similarity with evidence from both texts. (6 marks)

Q6. Compare the writers’ ideas and perspectives about how love and belonging are disrupted. You should compare:

• the main ideas
• the points of view
• the presentation of these ideas and views.

Use examples from both texts to support your comparison. (16 marks)

SECTION B – Writing

Answer ONE question in this section. You should spend about 45 minutes on this section.

EITHER

Q7. Write an imaginative piece that starts with the line: ‘The letter had been sitting on the table for three days, and still nobody had dared to open it.’

*Your response will be marked for the accurate and appropriate use of vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and grammar. (40 marks)

OR

Q8. Write about a time when you, or someone you know, had to say goodbye to someone they cared about. Your response could be real or imagined.

*Your response will be marked for the accurate and appropriate use of vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and grammar. (40 marks)

Sources:

Text One: Willa Cather, One of Ours (Alfred A. Knopf, 1922). Public-domain text via Project Gutenberg.

Text Two: Mildred Aldrich, A Hilltop on the Marne (Houghton Mifflin, 1915). Public-domain text via Project Gutenberg.