GCSE English Language 2.0 – Sport – Paper 2
Section A – Reading
Read Text 1 (fiction) below and then answer Questions 1–2.
This extract is adapted from 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.”
Read Text 2 (non‑fiction) below and answer Questions 3–4.
This is an edited extract from a memoir in which a multiple Grand Slam champion explains the mental side of tennis match play.
Tennis psychology is nothing more than understanding the workings of your opponent’s mind, and gauging the effect of your own game on his mental viewpoint. You cannot be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding your own mental processes. You react differently in different moods and under different conditions. You must realize the effect on your game of the resulting irritation, pleasure, confusion, or whatever form your reaction takes.
Does it deprive you of concentration? If so, either remove the cause, or if that is not possible strive to ignore it.
Once you have judged accurately your own reaction to conditions, study your opponents, to decide their temperaments. A person who can control his own mental processes stands an excellent chance of reading those of another. One can only control one’s mental processes after carefully studying them.
A steady phlegmatic baseline player is seldom a keen thinker. The stolid, easy-going man, who usually advocates the baseline game, does so because he hates to stir up his torpid mind to think out a safe method of reaching the net. There is the other type of baseline player: a very dangerous player, and a deep, keen-thinking antagonist. The hard-hitting, erratic, net-rushing player is a creature of impulse. The dangerous man is the player who mixes his style from back to fore court at the direction of an ever-alert mind. This is the man to study and learn from. Second only to him is the man of dogged determination.
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 one, identify one way the description suggests Tom King’s body shows his years in the ring. (1 Mark)
Q2. Read this extract.
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.
In the extract, how does the writer use language to show Tom’s hunger before the fight? Use examples from the extract and relevant subject terminology. (6 marks)
Read Text 2 and answer Questions 3–4.
Q3. Read this extract.
You react differently in different moods and under different conditions. You must realize the effect on your game of the resulting irritation, pleasure, confusion, or whatever form your reaction takes.
From the extract, identify one emotional reaction tennis players may experience. (1 mark)
Q4. The writer presents tennis as a mental contest. 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 preparation and mindset in sport. 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 what decides success in sport. 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
*7 Write an imaginative piece that starts with the line: ‘The whistle went, and everything else fell away.’
*Your response will be marked for the accurate and appropriate use of vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and grammar. (40 marks)
OR
*8 Write about a time when you, or someone you know, took part in an activity despite feeling doubt or worry. 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: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2545/2545-h/2545-h.htm
Text Two: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1451/pg1451-images.html