GCSE English Language 2.0 – Living Well – Paper 1
Section A – Reading
Read Text 1 below and then answer Questions 1–3.
This extract is adapted from nurse Florence Nightingale’s notes for women on good nursing practices.
Notes On Nursing
Generally speaking, you may expect that weak patients will suffer cold much more in the morning than in the evening. The vital powers are much lower. If they are feverish at night, with burning hands and feet, they are almost sure to be chilly and shivering in the morning. But nurses are very fond of heating the foot-warmer at night, and of neglecting it in the morning, when they are busy. I should reverse the matter.
All these things require common sense and care. Yet perhaps in no one single thing is so little common sense shown, in all ranks, as in nursing.
The extraordinary confusion between cold and ventilation, in the minds of even well educated people, illustrates this. To make a room cold is by no means necessarily to ventilate it. Nor is it at all necessary, in order to ventilate a room, to chill it.
Yet, if a nurse finds a room close, she will let out the fire, thereby making it closer, or she will open the door into a cold room, without a fire, or an open window in it, by way of improving the ventilation. The safest atmosphere of all for a patient is a good fire and an open window, excepting in extremes of temperature (Yet no nurse can ever be made to understand this.) To ventilate a small room without draughts of course requires more care than to ventilate a large one.
Another extraordinary fallacy is the dread of night air. What air can we breathe at night but night air? The choice is between pure night air from without and foul night air from within. Most people prefer the latter. An unaccountable choice. What will they say if it is proved to be true that fully one-half of all the disease we suffer from is occasioned by people sleeping with their windows shut? An open window most nights in the year can never hurt any one.
This is not to say that light is not necessary for recovery. In great cities, night air is often the best and purest air to be had in the twenty-four hours. I could better understand in towns shutting the windows during the day than during the night, for the sake of the sick. The absence of smoke, the quiet, all tend to making night the best time for airing the patients.
Always air your room, then, from the outside air, if possible. Windows are made to open; doors are made to shut — a truth which seems extremely difficult of apprehension.
Read Text 2 below and then answer Questions 4-6.
This extract is adapted from a self-help book published by Samuel Smiles in 1859.
Self-Help
The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means, and the exercise of ordinary qualities. The common life of every day, with its cares, necessities, and duties, affords ample opportunity for acquiring experience of the best kind; and its most beaten paths provide the true worker with abundant scope for effort and room for self-improvement.
The road of human welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast well-doing; and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will usually be the most successful.
Fortune has often been blamed for her blindness; but fortune is not so blind as men are. Those who look into practical life will find that fortune is usually on the side of the industrious, as the winds and waves are on the side of the best navigators. In the pursuit of even the highest branches of human inquiry, the commoner qualities are found the most useful—such as common sense, attention, application, and perseverance.
Genius may not be necessary, though even genius of the highest sort does not disdain the use of these ordinary qualities. The very greatest men have been among the least believers in the power of genius, and as worldly wise and persevering as successful men of the commoner sort. Some have even defined genius to be only common sense intensified. A distinguished teacher and president of a college spoke of it as the power of making efforts. John Foster held it to be the power of lighting one’s own fire.
SECTION A – Reading
Read Text 1 and answer Questions 1–3.
Q1. Identify four ways that weak patients suffer. (4 marks)
Q2. In paragraphs three to five, the writer tries to evidence that opening windows is important for health and recovery. Evaluate how successfully this is achieved. Give three reasons for your opinion and use examples from paragraphs three to five. (6 marks)
Q3. How does the writer use language to interest and inform the reader? You should include:
- the writer’s use of language
- the effect on the reader.
Use examples from the whole text and relevant subject terminology. (8 marks)
Read Text 2 and answer Questions 4–6.
Q4(a). From paragraph one, identify two elements of common everyday life. (2 marks)
Q4(b). Read this extract.
Fortune has often been blamed for her blindness; but fortune is not so blind as men are. Those who look into practical life will find that fortune is usually on the side of the industrious, as the winds and waves are on the side of the best navigators. In the pursuit of even the highest branches of human inquiry, the commoner qualities are found the most useful—such as common sense, attention, application, and perseverance.
From the extract, identify two points that the writer makes about fortune. (2 marks)
Q5. Read this extract.
Genius may not be necessary, though even genius of the highest sort does not disdain the use of these ordinary qualities. The very greatest men have been among the least believers in the power of genius, and as worldly wise and persevering as successful men of the commoner sort. Some have even defined genius to be only common sense intensified. A distinguished teacher and president of a college spoke of it as the power of making efforts. John Foster held it to be the power of lighting one’s own fire.
In the extract, the writer tries to present genius as something achievable through effort and determination. Evaluate how successfully this is achieved. Give three reasons for your opinion and use examples from the extract. (6 marks)
Q6. For this question refer to the whole of Text 2.
‘In my view, this text shows that persistence matters more than natural talent.’
Based on your evaluation of the text, how far do you agree with this opinion? Use examples from the text to support your evaluation. (12 marks)
SECTION B – Writing
Answer ONE question. You should spend about 45 minutes on this section.
EITHER
Q7. Write a report for your school leadership team about improving the well-being of students during exam season.A student has started the response.
In recent years, students have reported increasing levels of stress during the exam period. While some pressure can motivate, too much can negatively affect performance and overall well-being. This report will outline practical, achievable strategies the school could introduce to support students more effectively.
Continue this report using your own ideas.
*Your response will be marked for the accurate and appropriate use of vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and grammar. (40 marks)
OR
Q8. Write a formal email to the Headteacher/Principal suggesting practical changes that would improve the learning environment. You should include:
- Areas where improvement are required
- Suggestions for ways to make these improvement
- Your recommendation with a practical plan
*Your response will be marked for the accurate and appropriate use of vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and grammar. (40 marks)
Sources:
Text One: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/17366/17366-h/17366-h.htm
Text Two: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/935/935-h/935-h.htm