ENGLISH HOME LANGUAGE 2/3

GRADE 12

TASK 10.2

PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION 2021

INVIGILATOR INSTRUCTIONS

• The approved invigilator downloads the unique barcoded cover page from my.Impaq, signs it
and attaches it to the front of the answer sheet for marking purposes.

• The examination answer sheet and unique barcoded cover page must be submitted on my.Impaq
for marking purposes, with the exception of EGD, Dramatic/Visual Arts and CAT Practical*,
where the invigilator/courier must submit a hard copy at Impaq’s offices by hand. *Practical papers
must be submitted by CD/flash drive.

• A copy of the answer sheet must be kept for any hard copy submissions.

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ENGLISH HOME LANGUAGE

PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION 2021
PAPER 2/3
GRADE 12

EXAMINER: H. de Villiers TIME: 2½ hours

MODERATOR: W. Pepler TOTAL: 80

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Do NOT attempt to read the entire paper. Refer to the table of contents and mark the
numbers of the questions set on texts you have studied this year. Read ONLY
these questions and choose the ones you want to answer.
2. This paper consists of THREE sections and NINE questions:
2.1 Section A: Poetry (30 marks)
2.2 Section B: Novel (25 marks)
2.3 Section C: Drama (25 marks)
3. Follow the instructions at the beginning of each section carefully.
4. Answer FIVE questions in total: THREE in Section A, ONE in Section B and ONE in
Section C as follows:
SECTION A: POETRY
Prescribed poetry – Answer TWO questions.
Unseen poetry – COMPULSORY question.
SECTION B: NOVEL
Answer ONE question.
SECTION C: DRAMA
Answer ONE question.
5. CHOICE OF ANSWERS FOR SECTIONS B (NOVEL) AND C (DRAMA):
• ONLY answer questions on the novel and the drama you have studied.
• Answer ONE essay question and ONE set of contextual questions. If you
answer the essay question in Section B, you must answer the contextual
questions in Section C. If you answer the contextual questions in Section B, you
must answer the essay question in Section C.
• Use the checklist to assist you.
6. LENGTH OF ANSWERS
• The essay question on poetry should be answered in about 250–300 words.
• Essay questions on the novel and drama sections should be answered in 400–
450 words.
• The length of answers to contextual questions should be determined by the
mark allocation.
• Candidates should aim for conciseness and relevance.
7. Follow the instructions at the beginning of each section carefully.

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8. Number your answers correctly according to the numbering system used in this
question paper.
9. Start EACH section on a NEW page.
10. Suggested time management:
• Section A: Approximately 40 minutes
• Section B: Approximately 55 minutes
• Section C: Approximately 55 minutes
11. Write neatly and legibly.
12. Use a dark blue ballpoint pen only.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Read through the table of contents and choose the questions you want to answer. This
page will help you to choose the questions you want to answer without having to read
through the entire paper.

SECTION A: POETRY

PRESCRIBED POETRY
Answer any TWO of the following four questions:
Question 1: Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers Essay question 10 Page 5
Question 2: The Darkling Thrush Contextual questions 10 Page 6
Question 3: A Far Cry from Africa Contextual questions 10 Page 8
Question 4: Weather Eye Contextual questions 10 Page 10

AND

UNSEEN POEM: Compulsory

Question 5: Too Many Words Contextual questions 10 Page 12

SECTION B: NOVEL

Answer any ONE of the following two questions.

Question 6: Diamond Boy Essay question 25 Page 13
Question 7: Diamond Boy Contextual questions 25 Page 14

SECTION C: DRAMA

Answer any ONE of the following two questions.

Question 8: Pygmalion Essay question 25 Page 17
Question 9: Pygmalion Contextual questions 25 Page 17

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CHECKLIST
Use this checklist to ensure you have answered the correct number of questions.

Number of questions
Section Question numbers Tick
answered
A: Poetry
1–4 2
(Prescribed poetry)
A: Poetry
5 1
(Unseen poem)
B: Novel
6 and 7 1
(Essay or contextual)
C: Drama
8 and 9 1
(Essay or contextual)

NOTE:
In SECTIONS B and C, ONE of the questions answered must either be an ESSAY or a
CONTEXTUAL question. You may NOT answer TWO essay or TWO contextual questions.

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SECTION A: POETRY

PRESCRIBED POETRY

Answer any TWO of the following questions.

QUESTION 1: ESSAY QUESTION

Read the poem and answer the question.

Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012)

Aunt Jennifer’s tigers prance across a screen,

Bright Topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.

Aunt Jennifer’s fingers fluttering through the wool 5

Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand.

When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie

Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by. 10
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

In an essay of approximately 250–300 words, critically discuss how the poet has
portrayed the tigers in sharp contrast with her portrayal of Aunt Jennifer herself.

In your essay you should refer to the poet’s effective use of diction, imagery and any other
significant poetic devices (e.g. structure) in achieving this purpose. Conclude your essay
by commenting on any irony evident as a result of the contrast between Aunt Jennifer and
the tigers.
[10]

AND/OR

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QUESTION 2: CONTEXTUAL QUESTIONS

Read the poem and answer the questions.

The Darkling Thrush

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
(Written on 31 December 1900)

I leant upon a coppice gate

When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky 5
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seemed to be

The Century's corpse outleant, 10
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth 15
Seemed fervourless as I.

At once a voice arose among

The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited; 20
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings 25

Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air 30
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.

2.1 In your own words give an outline of the scene as perceived by the speaker in the
first stanza (lines 1–8). (2)

2.2 Identify the turning point where the mood and pace of the poem changes abruptly.
Explain what brings about this change. (2)

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2.3 Identify poetic devices such as diction and imagery in stanza 3 (lines 17–24) that
set up a contrast between life and hope as against the gloom of the death and
decay perceived by the speaker. (3)

2.4 Does the poem end on a note of hope, do you think? In justifying your answer, you
should make clear reference to the text. (3)
[10]

AND/OR

QUESTION 3: CONTEXTUAL QUESTIONS

Read the poem and answer the questions.

A Far Cry from Africa

Derek Walcott (1930–2017)

A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt

Of Africa. Kikuyu, quick as flies,
Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt.
Corpses are scattered through a paradise.
Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries: 5
"Waste no compassion on these separate dead!"
Statistics justify and scholars seize
The salients of colonial policy.
What is that to the white child hacked in bed?
To savages, expendable as Jews? 10

Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break

In a white dust of ibises whose cries
Have wheeled since civilization's dawn
From the parched river or beast-teeming plain.
The violence of beast on beast is read 15
As natural law, but upright man
Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain.
Delirious as these worried beasts, his wars
Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum,
While he calls courage still that native dread 20
Of the white peace contracted by the dead.

Again brutish necessity wipes its hands

Upon the napkin of a dirty cause, again
A waste of our compassion, as with Spain,
The gorilla wrestles with the superman. 25
I who am poisoned with the blood of both,
Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?
I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose

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Between this Africa and the English tongue I love? 30

Betray them both, or give back what they give?
How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
How can I turn from Africa and live?

3.1 Identify evidence in lines 1–4 of the violence that has occurred in Africa. (2)

3.2 Explain in general terms which two groups of people have been involved in
the conflict, citing evidence found in stanza 1. (2)

3.3 Critically discuss the comparison between the wild animal kingdom and
humans as set out in stanza 2 (lines 11–21), referring to one example of
diction from each that will support your answer. (3)

3.4 The speaker in the poem is the poet himself who was of mixed African and
British heritage. He describes his unsolved dilemma in the 3rd stanza (lines
22–33) as to which side to support, African or British.

In your opinion, after considering the poem as a whole, which of these

cultural groups does he appear to prefer: African or British? Justify your
answer using pertinent references to the poem. (3)
[10]

AND/OR

QUESTION 4: CONTEXTUAL QUESTIONS

Read the poem and answer the questions.

Weather Eye
Isobel Dixon (1612–1672)

In summer when the Christmas beetles

filled each day with thin brass shrilling,
heat would wake you, lapping at the sheet,
and drive you up and out into the glare
to find the mulberry’s sweet shade 5
or watch ants marching underneath the guava tree.

And in the house Mommy would start

the daily ritual, whipping curtains closed,
then shutters latched against the sun
and when you crept in, thirsty, from the garden, 10
the house would be a cool, dark cave,

an enclave barricaded against light

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and carpeted with shadow, still

except the kitchen where the door was open
to nasturtiums flaming at the steps 15
while on the stove the pressure cooker chugged
in tandem with the steamy day.

And in the evenings when the sun had settled

and crickets started silvering the night,
just home from school, smelling of chalk and sweat, 20
Daddy would do his part of it, the checking,
on the front verandah, of the scientific facts.

Then if the temperature had dropped enough

the stays were loosened and the house undressed
for night. Even the front door wide now 25
for the slightest breeze, a welcoming
of all the season’s scents, the jasmine,
someone else’s supper, and a neighbour’s voice –

out walking labradors, the only time of day

for it, this time of year. How well the world 30
was ordered then. These chill machines
don’t do it half as true, the loving regulation
of the burning days. Somehow my judgment isn’t quite
as sure when faced with weather-signs. Let me come home
to where you watch the skies and keep things right. 35

4.1 Refer to line 6 which describes a typical activity of young children at home. Find
further evidence in the poem that the speaker was a young child at the time that
she describes in the poem. (2)

4.2 Identify the overall tone of the poem which indicates how the speaker feels now,
as she thinks back to her regular summer routine in her childhood. (2)

4.3 Discuss the diction and/or imagery that creates a contrast between the kitchen and
the rest of the home on summer days. (3)

4.4 Refer to lines 30–35, as well as the title of the poem.

Consider the literal and idiomatic interpretation of the title. Bearing this in mind,
critically discuss what the speaker misses about her childhood home in her current
life. (3)
[10]

AND

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QUESTION 5: UNSEEN POETRY (Compulsory)

Read the poem and answer the questions.

Too many words

Bernard Levinson (1926–2021)

There are too many words.

Each day I drown in words.
Once I sat with a man
Each day for six months
And not a word passed between us 5
I’ve never forgotten
How moved I was
By what he said …
What I’m trying to say
Is that I have a need 10
Now and then
To shake the words out of my hair.
All the stale and used-up words –
the frantic panic words
that jump about my desk – 15
and the heavy meaningful words
that hang like curtains in the air.

5.1 Outline the speaker’s problem with ‘too many words’ as described in the poem. (2)

5.2 Quote a phrase that shows that the speaker is NOT advocating silence or a
complete lack of verbal communication as a way of life. Provide a reason for
your choice of phrase. (2)

5.3 Discuss how the diction of lines 14–15 effectively portrays the effect of ‘panic
words’ on the speaker. (3)

5.4 Refer to lines 3–8.

5.4.1 Suggest a realistic situation in which it would be possible for two men
to sit together ‘each day for six months’ without a word passing
between them. (1)

5.4.2 Do you believe it is possible for people to communicate so effectively

without words that one can be moved by what someone ‘said’?
Justify your response by providing a reason from your own
experience (which may be something that you experienced
personally, or that you read or viewed). (2)
[10]

TOTAL SECTION A: 30
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SECTION B: NOVEL

Diamond Boy – Michael Williams

Answer EITHER Question 6 (essay question) OR Question 7 (contextual questions). If you

answer Question 6, you MUST answer Question 9 in Section C.

QUESTION 6: ESSAY QUESTION

After performing emergency surgery on Patson’s blown-off foot, Arves’ grandmother tells
him, ‘All you need is within you, boy…’ (p. 168).

Although Patson takes little notice at the time of what she may mean, by the end of the
novel both the reader and Patson understand the literal and figurative meanings attached
to Gogo’s words.

In a well-reasoned essay of 400–450 words, critically discuss the literal and figurative
interpretations of the sentence ‘All you need is within you,’ as they apply to Patson during
the course of the novel.
[25]

OR

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QUESTION 7: CONTEXTUAL QUESTIONS

Read both extract below and answer the questions.

EXTRACT A: Adapted from PART 1, ‘Journey’, Chapter 4, p.31–32

A full moon rose above Elephant Skull and bathed us in a silvery glow.

I had lost all sense of time and space, the shimmering sky too bright to find the stars
to mark our progress. I remember the Wife weeping and my father putting his arm
around her, dragging her to her feet. I remember tripping over tangled roots in the dark,
5 and Boubacar lifting me off the ground, dusting me off, pushing me forward.

And then I glimpsed a shadow in human form staring at me. The ash-grey figure was
no taller than me and stood at the foot of a hulking mimosa tree , leaning on a pair of
crutches. I could not tell if it was a girl or a boy, alive or dead, or whether I was dreaming
or awake. But it stared at me with eyes that were real enough. The figure
10 lifted its dust-grey arm and pointed back to where we had come from, its lips moving with
words I could not hear. Moonlight spilled through the branches, forming a halo of silver
around its head. I was too tired to be afraid, but as I moved towards it, the figure turned
and disappeared into the mimosa’s low-hanging branches.

The forest was as silent as an empty church. I trudged on behind Boubacar. Grace
15 slept like a rag doll on his shoulder, protected by her armour of sleep.

7.1 Place Extract A in context in the novel. (2)

7.2 Comment on Patson’s use of the term ‘the Wife’ for Sylvia Moyo. (2)

7.3 Comment on the effectiveness of the metaphor in lines 14–15: ‘[Grace was]
… protected by her armour of sleep.’ (2)

7.4 The shadowy figure under the mimosa tree in lines 6–13 foreshadows
events that occur later in the novel. Basing your answer on the description
of the figure and your knowledge of the novel as a whole, discuss critically
who you think the figure represents and what is being foreshadowed,
providing a cogent argument for your point of view. You may wish to make
use of information contained in the footnote about mimosa trees found
below Passage A. (4)

AND


mimosa tree (line 7): There is positive and negative symbolism attached to mimosas.
Positively, mimosas represent the sun and gold, as well as triumphant life which involves victory over evil forces. The
mimosa is also used in Chinese medicine as a spiritual cleanser.
Negative symbolism relates to the fact that fast-growing mimosas have brittle wood and their branches break easily.

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EXTRACT B from Patson’s diary entry at the end of PART 4, ‘Patson’s Game’, p. 202.

1 Flying Tomato Farm

South Africa
16 April

2 I met Boubacar under a huge baobab tree in the middle of a forest. He was the ugliest
man I had ever seen, and Grace was afraid of him. He took us around Elephant Skull
Mountain, through a dangerous, dark forest and delivered us safely in Marange. He
helped me make a fortune with the Baron. He drove me into the mountains so that I
could heal. He taught me what it means to be a man. He hid me in a burrow, dragged
me across a river, carried me away from lions, and once we made it into South Africa,
he found a cow-doctor to take my fever away.

3 He is helping me find my sister.

4 Boubacar is no longer ugly to me. The scars on his cheeks are stripes of courage, his
broken nose a mark of determination and his blood-shot eyes are the kindest I have
ever known. But there is one thing I don’t understand.

5 Why is he doing this? Why does he help me?

Refer to paragraph 2.

7.5 Describe the circumstances in which Patson met Boubacar as indicated in

par. 2 of the extract. (2)

7.6 Patson summarises Boubacar’s help on that occasion in one sentence: ‘He took
us around … and delivered us safely in Marange.’ (Par. 2)
Describe one of the dangerous, violent incidents they encountered in the ‘dark
forest’ which is NOT described in Passage A. (2)

7.7 ‘He helped me make a fortune with the Baron.’

Justifying your answer in each case, briefly discuss the role played by each of
the following in Patson’s clinching the diamond deal with the Baron:

7.7.1 Boubacar (1)

7.7.2 Patson (2)

7.8 ‘He taught me what it means to be a man.’

Before leaving Zimbabwe for South Africa, Boubacar and Patson go to look for
Arves in the place that Patson knows Arves will have gone. It is here that
Boubacar challenges him to ‘stop being a boy’ and to become a man.

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Comment critically on how Patson successfully meets Boubacar’s challenge

and show that this fits in with Boubacar’s idea of what is involved in ‘becoming a
man’. (4)

Refer to paragraph 5.

7.9 Identify aspects of what you later learn of Boubacar’s history that ultimately
provides an answer to Patson’s question (2)

7.10 In terms of the novel as a whole, do you see any significance in the fact that
Patson met Boubacar for the first time ‘under a huge baobab tree’ (par. 2)?
It may help you to recall the significance of the baobab in terms of Patson’s
memories of stories told by his mother and father as well as dreams he relates
during the course of the novel. (2)
[25]

TOTAL SECTION B: 25

AND

SECTION C: DRAMA

Pygmalion – George Bernard Shaw

Answer EITHER Question 8 (essay question) OR Question 9 (contextual questions). If you

answer Question 8, you MUST answer Question 7 in Section B.

QUESTION 8: ESSAY QUESTION

Eliza’s social transformation from ‘gutter-snipe’ flower girl to ambassador’s party

sensation, a credit to Higgins and Pickering, is arguably equalled or even surpassed by
her personal development as an independent young woman who leaves her poor
beginnings behind her, marries Freddy and opens a flower shop.

Write an essay of 400–450 words in which you trace and critically discuss Eliza’s personal
development during the novel into a confident, independent woman who is likely to find
success in the social level in which she now finds herself.
[25]

OR

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QUESTION 9: CONTEXTUAL QUESTIONS

EXTRACT A: From ACT V (adapted)

LIZA. [to Colonel Pickering] It was from you that I learnt really nice manners; and
that is what makes one a lady, isn’t it? You see it was so very difficult for me
with the example of Professor Higgins always before me. I was brought up
to be just like him, unable to control myself, and using bad
5 language on the slightest provocation. And I should never have known that
ladies and gentlemen didn’t behave like that if you hadn’t been there.
HIGGINS. Well!!
PICKERING. Oh, that’s only his way, you know. He doesn’t mean it.
LIZA. Oh, I didn’t mean either, when I was a flower girl. It was only my way.
10 But I did it; and that’s what makes the difference after all.
PICKERING. No doubt. Still, he taught you to speak; I couldn’t have done that,
you know.
LIZA. [trivially] Of course: that is his profession.
HIGGINS. Damnation!
15 LIZA. [continuing] It was like learning to dance in the fashionable way: nothing
more than that. But do you know what began my real education?
PICKERING. What?
LIZA. You’re calling me Miss Doolittle that day when I first came to Wimpole
Street. That was the beginning of self-respect for me. And there were a
20 hundred little things you never noticed, because they came naturally to you
– like standing up and taking off your hat and opening doors –
PICKERING. Oh, that was nothing.
LIZA. They showed you thought about me as if I were something better than a
scullery-maid; though you would have been just the same to a scullery-
25 maid if she had been let into the drawing-room. You never took off your
boots in the dining room when I was there.
PICKERING. You mustn’t mind that. Higgins takes off his boots all over the
place.
LIZA. I know. I am not blaming him. It is his way, isn’t it? But it made such a
30 difference to me that you didn’t do it. You see, really and truly, apart from
the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of
speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not
how she behaves, but how she’s treated. I shall always be a flower girl to
Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as one; but I know I can
35 be a lady to you, because you treat me as one, and always will.
MRS HIGGINS. Please don’t grind your teeth, Henry.
PICKERING. Well, this is very nice of you, Miss Doolittle.
LIZA. I should like you to call me Eliza, now, if you would
PICKERING. Thank you. Eliza, of course.
40 LIZA. And I should like Professor Higgins to call me Miss Doolittle.
HIGGINS. I’ll see you damned first.
MRS HIGGINS. Henry! Henry!
PICKERING [laughing] Why don’t you slang back at him? Don’t stand it. It would
do him a lot of good.

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45 LIZA. I can’t. I could have done it once; but now I can’t go back to it. You told
me, you know, that when a child is brought to a foreign country and picks
up the language, it forgets its own. Well, I am a child in your country. I
have forgotten my own language and can speak nothing but yours. That’s
the real break-off with the corner of Tottenham Court Road. Leaving
50 Wimpole Street finishes it.

9.1 Place the extract in context in the drama, indicating where the conversation takes
place, and explaining the circumstances. (3)

9.2 Refer to lines 3–5. Provide instances of Higgins setting a poor example by
behaving poorly or using bad language from earlier in the play. (4)

9.3 Refer to lines 5–6. What do we learn of Eliza’s background (how she was ‘brought
up’) during the course of the play that would possibly have led to her lacking
control and using bad language? (3)

9.4 Refer to line 7. Imagine that you are playing the role of Henry Higgins in a stage
production of the play. Giving reasons for your answer, describe how you would
deliver his exclamation in the context of the scene. (2)

9.5 Note the italicised ‘I’ in line 10.

Explain why Eliza emphasises this word. (2)

9.6 Refer to line 16. Do you agree that Eliza’s ‘real education’ was something more
than learning to speak ‘proper’ English? Justify your answer by making critical
references to the play as a whole. (3)

9.7 Refer to Colonel Pickering’s advice to Eliza in lines 43–44. One may argue that in
this scene Eliza puts Higgins down far more effectively than if she simply traded
insults with him. Do you agree? Discuss critically, referring to specific examples
from the extract to support your view. (3)

9.8 Refer to lines 49–50.

9.8.1 Briefly explain what has led to Eliza’s decision to leave Wimpole Street. (3)

9.8.2 At the end of the extract Higgins and Pickering are quite taken aback to
hear that Eliza plans to leave Wimpole Street (line 50). Do you think she is
making the right decision? Explain your reasoning, based on your
knowledge of the play as a whole. (2)
[25]

TOTAL SECTION C: 25

GRAND TOTAL: 80
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