language paper 1 Flashcards
what do you need to do for paper 1 question 2 (writer’s use of language)?
- highlight the key words in the questions which tell you what to look for
- highlight the margin of the part of the text you are told to look at
- find quotations as you read
- start with the sentence “(the writer’s name) employs many incisive literary devices to vividly depict the (what the question asks, e.g. feelings of the characters)”
- describe one of the techniques as “the main technique” (show the examiner you are analysing)
- don’t forget to talk about any alternative interpretations
- name a descriptive or narrative technique for each quotation you use
- repeat this 2 or 3 times
- refer to individual words in the quotation
- name their parts of speech - verb, adverb, noun, adjective
- describe the effect on the reader (could use sentence “this elicits sympathy from the reader”)
- find a long complex sentence, especially one with listed descriptions
- comment on the effect of contrast or juxtaposition, which will be in any description
- relate these quotations to the writer’s purpose, to discuss their effects
- use tentative language, like ‘perhaps’ to suggest your interpretation of the effect or purpose
what is the (plan for) the third & fourth paragraphs of the old man story? (cue: deep grooves of love and war and pain and laughter line my cheeks. The map of my life spread over my body.)
Sometimes find myself looking at my granddaughter’s face and wondering what I might see written there in 70 years, when she is as old as I am now. I wonder how different it will be to the lines on my own face: people live such different lives now. I was working by the time I was 16 and a soldier at the age of 20, when WW2 broke out. By the time I was 27, at the end of it all, I had seen more bloodshed than anyone should ever have to. My children barely even knew what rationing was. Whatever they wanted to eat, they could just go out and buy. This morning my granddaughter had eaten three slices of bread and jam for breakfast. Even I had almost forgotten what a treat that had once been to me.
Would a life without hunger, war, and hardship leave different marks on a person? Perhaps not – psychological hardship was just as dangerous, just as serious, and the world today was certainly not free of that. And besides, everyone faces challenges. Have you really lived if you’ve only known happiness?
what do you need to do for language paper 1 question 3? (how has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?)
- highlight the key words in the question
- identify structural techniques as you read
- start with either “the writer begins and ends the extract by focusing on…” (if it has a cyclical structure) or “the opening gives us a detailed view…” if it doesn’t
- keep repeating the word “structure”
- you could use the sentence “(the writer’s name) immerses the reader into (the world of the book)”
- talk about:
- > always write about beginnings and endings
- > shifts of perspective or focus
- > paragraphing and topic change
- > how sentences contribute to the whole text’s structure
- > contrast and juxtaposition (but don’t repeat anything you said in question 2
- > repetition
- > the order in which information is revealed, or hidden
- > clues about the context which may be important
- > how a climax is built up
- > how the reader is invited to make predictions - which may be deliberately misleading
- relate all of these that you find to the effect on the reader
what do you need to do for paper 1 question 4? (student said…how far do you agree?)
- highlight the key words in the question which tell you what to look for
- highlight in the margin of the part of the text you are told to look at
- start with “strongly/partially agree/disagree that (quote a bit of the statement). Overall, the predominant register and tone of the extract is one of …”
- find quotations relevant to the first bullet point
- write about these and relate them to the key word in the opinion of the question
- identify what technique is being used and name it
- develop an argument by moving chronologically through the text, explaining how each new quotation adds to the impression you are discussing
- if you can see moments where the stated opinion is wrong, explain these. This will show you are being evaluative.
- use tentative language, like ‘perhaps’, ‘it appears’, ‘might’, etc.
- use evaluative words such as:
1. effectively
2. successfully
3. creatively
4. impressively - see the characters as ‘constructs’ and/or ‘embodiments’ (symbols to put forward one of the main ideas)
- refer to society
- look for these 6 methods that help portray the writer’s perspective:
1. contrast
2. formality
3. emotive language
4. words and phrases
5. language devices
6. structural devices
what are the first 2 paragraphs of the old man story (about time)?
Time is a funny thing. Its quirks and idiosyncrasies are familiar to us, but we can never truly understand them. It tricks us and teases us, leading us in the convoluted dance towards our demise. When I was a schoolboy, whole galaxies were formed and thrived and died waiting for the school bell to ring; now it seems like only yesterday that I was back there, the hard chair back digging into my shoulder blades, watching the sky out of that iron-gabled window. As young and bright-eyed as my granddaughter is now.
I sometimes forget that it’s been so long since I sat in that hard wooden chair, daydreaming as English and French and algebra were stuffed inside my brain. It’s not until I walk past a mirror that I remember again, discovering anew each time the way that the hands of time have changed me. Age lines my face. Deep grooves of love and war and pain and laughter line my cheeks. The map of my life spread over my body.
what is the ending of the old man story? (cue: And besides, everyone faces challenges. Have you really lived if you’ve only known happiness?)
I don’t begrudge my offspring the apparent ease of their lives; I am proud of having been part of building such a wonderful life for them. And I know that the fiercest battles are often waged deep inside, out of sight.
My only regret is that I won’t live to see age line my granddaughter’s face myself. Every day I mourn that fact that I will never get to know her story. Because I know that death will prove stronger than love, when the time comes. It is inevitable. I will die. And then my children will. And then my grandchildren, and their children, and so on until the end of time. Everyone is born, and then they die. It’s inevitable.
In the end, I guess that is the most curious thing about time. It swells and shrinks, tricks us and changes us. In fact, it changes everything. Everything apart from the one thing you most wish it would change.
Everything ends, eventually.
what is the opening paragraph of the Hiroshima story?
Anticipation. It hung thick in the air, stifling us like a shroud. This was it. Years of hard work and late nights and frustration, culminating in this moment, right now. If this worked, the war was won.
It had been four long years of heartache and suffering and grief since America joined the war in 1941. We had the power to stop all that death and suffering. Or at least, we hoped we did. We would know in a few minutes.
what are the 2nd, 3rd & 4th paragraphs of the Hiroshima story? (cue: It had been four long years of heartache and suffering and grief since America joined the war in 1941. We had the power to stop all that death and suffering. Or at least, we hoped we did. We would know in a few minutes.)
For me though, although it shames me to say it, in that moment it wasn’t the end of the war that I was excited about. I wasn’t thinking about the end to death and suffering, I was thinking about the achievement of a personal goal. For me, this moment was finally solving a puzzle, after hours of dead ends. It was finally catching a fish after hours in the freezing cold, refusing to give in. It was that wonderful moment of finally finishing your last sentence, with seconds left until the end of the exam.
I realised that, this whole time, that was what I had been chasing. That wonderful tingly feeling when you finally achieve something you once thought to be impossible.
It was that jubilation that I was anticipating when the bomb detonated. Success was so close I could almost taste it.
what are the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th paragraphs of the Hiroshima story (cue: It was that jubilation that I was anticipating when the bomb detonated. Success was so close I could almost taste it.)
Looking back, that was my mistake. The minute I started seeing it as a puzzle to be solved, I lost sight of the abomination I was actually creating. A bomb, capable of slaughtering millions of people with one blast. A weapon that would change the face of humanity forever. I knew, as I watched the mushroom cloud rise above the desert, that this creation of mine would be the death of humanity.
The ground shook, and so did my faith. In the government, in God, in humanity.
A few of us in the bunker laughed, a few cried. Most of us were silent. We all knew, there and then, that nothing would ever be the same again.
Unbidden, the words from the Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita rose to my mind: “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
What had we done?
This would destroy worlds alright. The baby, our baby, that we had nurtured and grown for the past two years had grown ugly and savage and bitten us in the face.
what are the 11th & 12th paragraphs of the hiroshima story? (cue: The baby, our baby, that we had nurtured and grown for the past two years had grown ugly and savage and bitten us in the face.)
“we can’t let them use that,” someone next to me whispered, dread thickening their voice, “we can’t!”.
Horror had tied my vocal cords, but this man didn’t need an answer. He knew, we all knew, that there was no going back now. The genie was out the bottle. There was no stuffing it back in.
what is the 13th Paragraph of the Hiroshima story? (cue: Horror had tied my vocal cords, but this man didn’t need an answer. He knew, we all knew, that there was no going back now. The genie was out the bottle. There was no stuffing it back in.)
After the dust settled, we left the bunker and wandered dazed out into the desert. It could not have looked more different to how we first saw it: the heat had fused the sand into a seemingly endless sea of green glass. Walking back to the coach, something caught my eye. The shadow of a mouse, trapped beneath the glass. The mouse itself, I realised, must have been incinerated by the heat from the blast. In my mind, I saw the shadow of the mouse transform itself into the shadow of a human. The countless lives that would be lost in Japan in a matter of days rose unbidden to my brain. Their screams rose in my brain, each one clamouring for attention. Each one a life that had been lost. Because of me.
what is the ending of the Hiroshima story? (cue: Their screams rose in my brain, each one clamouring for attention. Each one a life that had been lost. Because of me.)
What had I done?
It was all I could do not to fall to my knees right there, in the middle of all this glass.
“I am become death,”, the words echoed in my mind, “the destroyer of worlds…”
what are the first 2 paragraphs of the daydream story?
The girl with the crimson hair laughing in the street. The reflection of the sunlight dancing on the waves. The side character that featured once in the book I just read.
Who knows what will take my fancy and when? All I know is that, when it does, it will inevitably and inexplicably become a part of my life forever. It will be sewn into the patchwork of my inner realm, forever a part of the world of my daydreams.
what are the 3rd and 4th paragraphs of the daydream story? (cue: it will inevitably and inexplicably become a part of my life forever. It will be sewn into the patchwork of my inner realm, forever a part of the world of my daydreams)
The girl with the crimson hair morphs in my childhood brain into a heroine second only to Katniss Everdeen. At some point she acquires a twin, and together they live the life of my dreams, fighting dragons and saving the world several times over. They grow up with me, their major developments always just a few months before mine: as I get older they fall in love, lose their virginities in the most perfect way I could think of, and have delightfully messy love lives. But they always find their way back to the right person in the end, each reconciliation more touching than the last.
The original girl’s boyfriend originated from a throwaway line in a book I once read. A passing mention of someone’s son, or nephew. I forget.
what are the 5th, 6th & 7th paragraphs of the daydream story? (cue: The original girl’s boyfriend originated from a throwaway line in a book I once read. A passing mention of someone’s son, or nephew. I forget.)
But that boy, never meant to be anything more than an afterthought, grew in my head to a man with a personality more vibrant than my own. He was there for all of the adventures, deeply invested but not very adept, constantly being saved by one of the twins.
I wonder if I would recognise him if I happened to read that book again, without realising. Probably not.
Equally, it’s funny to think of the original crimson-haired girl, laughing with her friends in the street. Never guessing the effect it would have on me, or the character she would morph to become.
