Paper One (Prose&Poetry)

LITERATURE IN ENGLISH PAPER ONE (PROSE&POETRY) SECTION I

Boys and Girls, As you know very well, I am a policeman. I’m not sure how you react to the word “policeman” but I suspect that a lot of you have an immediate feeling of vague antagonism, of somehow being against the police. I don’t know where this feeling comes from. I imagine a lot stems from parents using the name “policeman” as a kind of bogeyman, to frighten you when you were very young. Anyway, I’m sure that some of you do have that feeling of antagonism. I think this is a pity, because really the police are on your side. It is your fathers and mothers who pay us, through the taxation system. And anyway, when all boils down, a policeman is just an ordinary chap with a blue uniform on. When I knock off work and go home to my wife and kids, I don’t beat them off the head with a truncheon or drill them full of bullets. When I go back home I do just the same sort of things your fathers do – I kiss my wife, have my tea, growl at the kids and sit down in front of the telly watching policemen beat people over the head with a truncheon or drill them full of bullets. I tell you these things, not to make you feel sorry for the pool old policemen, though I hope you do occasionally, but to try to convince you that I am really trying to help you. I’m here as many of you know, to talk about bicycles. I’m going to tell you a lot of things to do, and a lot of things not to do. But I’m not really telling them to you because I’m a policeman. I’m telling you because I happen to know a lot about the dangers of bicycles, and I’m telling you exactly the same things I tell my own son and daughter about their bicycles. It’s true that if you ride dangerously – dangerously to yourself and other people – a few of you are going to be in trouble with the police. Bur for everyone who breaks the law and is punished by the courts there’ll be fifty who punish themselves, much more seriously with broken wrists and arms and collarbones, and occasionally with death. And all this can be avoided with little common sense. You don’t really need me to tell you that you must keep your bicycles in good condition – yet how many of you really do? How many of you are quite sure that your tail-light works perfectly and that your brakes are in tip-top order and that your chain hasn’t slackened off? When did you last check on all those three simple things? Last month? Last year? How about checking them tonight and every weekend? Not because the police are going to get you, but because otherwise someday your luck will run out and you will get yourself in danger. About the most dangerous thing you can do with a bike is to ride it two up. There are tandem bicycles built for two, and they can be controlled with two people aboard. There are no others that can – none! If you don’t believe me, there are 134 children in the London area who have found out in the last two years and who will back me up. Some of you are good at trick riding. A good thing, too! Just one point, though. If you want to show off how you can ride without hands, or with the handle bars reversed or sitting empty field where everybody can watch you and applaud you. If you want to put an old lady in hospital for six weeks, try pointing a bone at her, or burning a wax image of her. Don’t do as an old lad from this area did last month, ride her down on the foot path. A bicycle on the pavement is so swift and silent as to behave like a bogeyman. And finally do learn your hand signals. There are only two that matter – a right turn signal, and a “stop” signal like this. If every cyclist would learn to use his sense and his right hand for them, there’d be a lot more cyclists who’d still have their senses and hands today. Questions:

a) (i) What is taking place in this passage? (ii) Suggest a suitable title for the passage.

b) Which audience is the police addressing?

c) Why does the policeman address this particular audience?

d) How does the policeman try to help the young boys and girls listening to him?

e) Explain the meaning and effectiveness of the following colloquial expressions:

I. … growl at the kids.

II. … drill them full of bullets

III. … put an old lady in hospital

SECTION II I MET A THIEF: A. S. Bukenya On the beach, on the coast, Under the idle, whispering coconut towers, Before the growling, foaming waves, I met a thief, who guessed I had an innocent heart for her to steal. She took my hand and led me under The intimate cashew boughs which shaded The downy grass and peeping weeds. She jumped and plucked the nuts for me to suck; She sang and laughed and pressed close.

I gaze: her hair was like the wool of a mountain sheep, Her eyes, a pair of brown-black beans floating in milk. Juicy and round as plantain shoots Her legs, arms and neck; And like wine gourds her pillowy breasts; Her throat uttered fresh banana juice: Matching her face- smooth and banana ripe.

I touched- but long before I even tasted, My heart had flowed from me into her breast; And then she went- high and south- And left my carcase roasting in the fire she'd lit.

QUESTIONS 1. Identify the speaker (3 marks) 2. What is the subject matter of the poem? (5 marks) 3. Comment on the setting of the poem (5 marks) 4. Comment on the appropriateness of the title (5 marks) 4. Identify the images used and the senses they appeal to and how effectively they have been used (15 marks)