POEMS

Read the poems and answer the questions that follow.

Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summers day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summers lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmd;
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance, or natures changing course, untrimmd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owst;
Nor shall Death brag thou wandrest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growst.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
William Shakespeare
1 (a) What is the poet comparing his beloved to?

(1m)

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(b) Why does the poet consider his beloved more lovely than summer?

(2m)

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(c) Nor shall death brag thou wandrest in his shade. Why is this so?

(2m)

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2 (a) Explain the line Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.

(1m)

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(b) What does his in line 6 refer to and why is his gold complexion dimmd? (2m)
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(c) Do you think that someones beauty can last forever? Give a reason why. (2m)
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si tenggangs homecoming
i
the physical journey that i traverse
is a journey of the soul,
transport of the self from a fatherland
to a country collected by sight and mind,
the knowledge that sweats from it
is a strangers knowledge,
from one who has learnt to see, think
and choose between
the changing realities.
ii
its true I have growled at my mother and grandmother
but only after having told of my predicament
that they have never brought to reason.
the wife that I began to love in my loneliness,
in the country that alienated me,
they took to their predecisions.
i have not entirely returned, i know,
having been changed by time and place,
coarsened by problems
estranged by absence.
iii
but look,
i have brought myself home,
seasoned by confidence,
broadened by land and languages,
i am no longer afraid of the oceans
or the differences between people,
not easily fooled
by words or ideas.
the journey was a loyal teacher
who was never tardy
in explaining cultures or variousness.
look, i am just like you,
still malay,
sensitive to what
i believe is good,
and more ready to understand
than my brothers.
the contents of these boats are yours too
because i have returned.
iv
travels made me
a seeker who does not take
what is given without sincerity
or that which demands payments from beliefs.
the years at sea and coastal states
have taught me to choose,
to accept only those tested by comparison,
or that which matches the words of my ancestors,

which returns me to my village

and its perfection.
v
ive learnt
the ways of the rude
to hold reality in a new logic,
debate with hard and loud facts.
but i too am humble, respecting
man and life.
vi
i am not a new man,
not very different
from you;
the people and cities
of coastal ports
taught me not to brood
over a foreign world,
suffer difficulties
or fear possibilities.
i am you,
freed from the village,
its soils and ways
independent, because
i have found myself.
Muhammad Haji Salleh
1 (a) Explain the lines the physical journey that i traverse is a journey of the soul.
(2m)
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(b) Why does the poet use the word sweats to describe knowledge?

(1m)

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(c) What are the changing realities that the writer had to choose?

(2m)

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2 (a) Why did the persona growl at his mother and grandmother?

(2m)

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(b) Who was the only person who stood by him?

(1m)

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(c) How can a person be changed by time and place?

(2m)

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3 (a) What has the journey taught the persona?

(2m)

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(b) Why does the poet use a small i to describe the persona instead of the usual I?
(1m)
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(c) What does the persona want to do for his brothers? Why?

(2m)

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Theres Been a Death in the Opposite House

Theres been a death in the opposite house
As lately as today.
I know it by the numb look
Such houses have always.
The neighbors rustle in and out,
The doctor drives away.
A window opens like a pod,
Abrupt, mechanically;
Somebody flings a mattress out, The children hurry by;
They wonder if It died on that, I used to when a boy.
The minister goes stiffly in
As if the house were his,
And he owned all the mourners now,
And little boys besides;
And then the milliner, and the man
Of the appalling trade,
To take the measure of the house.
Therell be that dark parade
Of tassels and of coaches soon;
Its easy as a sign, The intuition of the news
In just a country town.
Emily Dickinson
1 (a) Explain the numb look of the house.

(1m)

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(b) Why are the neighbours rustling in and out? Why does the poet use the phrase
rustle?
(2m)
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(c) Name one other person who comes to the house. What is the role of this person?
(2m)
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2 (a) Describe in your own words how the window opens.

(1m)

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(b) What happens as soon as the window is open?

(2m)

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(c) Would you have reacted in the same manner towards the mattress? Give a reason
for your answer.
(2m)
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3 (a) What is the role of the minister?

(1m)

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(b) Explain the lines
The minister goes stiffly in
As if the house were his

(2m)

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(c) Do you think it is right for the minister to act as if the house were his? Give a reason
for your answer.
(2m)
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The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
1 (a) What do you think the two roads represent?

(1m)

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(b) Which road did the persona choose? Why?

(2m)

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(c) If you were given a choice, which road would you choose?

(2m)

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2 (a) Which line suggests that the persona is alone on this journey?

(1m)

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(b) The persona saw undergrowth on the first road. What does it mean literally? What
does the word undergrowth represent?
(2m)
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(c) If you encounter a lot of undergrowth in your life, what effect would it have on you?
(2m)
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3 (a) Why do you think the persona will be telling this with a sigh?

(2m)

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(b) Which line is stanza 4 affirms that he has taken the right road?

(1m)

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(c) What difference do you think his decision has made to the persona?

(2m)

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Monsoon History
The air is wet, soaks
Into the mattresses, and curls
In apparitions of smoke.
Like fat while slugs furled
Among the timber,
Or silver fish tunneling
The damp linen covers
Of schoolbooks, or walking
Quietly like centipedes,
The air walking everywhere
On its hundred feet
Is filled with the glare
Of tropical water.
Again we are taken over
By clouds and rolling darkness.
Small snails appear
Clashing their timid horns
Among the morning glory
Vines.
Drinking milo,
Nyonya and baba sit at home.
This was forty years ago.
Sarong-wrapped they counted
Silver paper for the dead.
Portraits of grandfathers
Hung always in the parlour.
Reading Tennyson, at six
p.m. in pajamas,
Listening to down-pouring
rain: the air ticks
with gnats, black spiders fly,
moths sweep out of our rooms
where termites built
their hills of eggs and queens zoom
in heat. We wash our feet
for bed, watch mother uncoil
her snake hair, unbuckle
the silver mesh around her waist,
waiting for father pacing
the sand as fishers pull
from the Straits after monsoon.
The air is still, silent
Like sleepers rocked in the pantun,
Sheltered by Malacca.
This was forty years ago,
When nyonya married baba.
Shirley Geok-lin Lim

1 (a) Name two things that the poet compares the air with.

(1m)

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(b) Explain why the poet uses the word walking to describe the air.

(2m)

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(c) Why does the poet use these creatures to describe the air?

(2m)

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2 (a) What does Drinking milo tell us about the atmosphere in the house? Explain.
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(b) Why are there portraits of grandfathers in the parlour?

(1m)

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(c) Do you believe in having portraits of your ancestors in your house? Give a reason for
your answer.
(2m)
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3 (a) Why did the poet state the fact that the persona was reading Tennyson?

(1m)

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(b) What does the father work as and what was he probably doing?

(2m)

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(c) Do you believe that one should be exposed to different cultures?

(2m)

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If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about dont deal in lies,
Or being hated dont give way to hating,
And yet dont look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream and not make dreams your master;
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth youve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: Hold on!
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything thats in it,
And which is more youll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling
1(a) Explain the following line:
If you can dream and not make dreams your master

(2m)

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(b) What are the two impostors mentioned in the poem?

(1m)

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(c) What would you do if you see the things you gave your life to, broken? (2m)
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2 (a) Explain the following line:
And never breathe a word about your loss

(2m)

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(b) What does your heart and nerve and sinew represent?

(1m)

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(c) Would you risk everything you have on one turn of pitch-and-toss?

(2m)

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3 (a) What do crowds and Kings represent n the poem?

(1m)

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(b) Why is the minute considered unforgiving? What must we do with our time then?
(2m)
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(c) Who is the persona in the poem and what is his intention?

(2m)

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SHORT STORIES
Read the extracts of the short stories and answer the questions that follow.
The Lotus Eater
Wilson did not look very interesting, but I wanted to meet him. I thought
he would bean interesting man to talk to. He had made a decision that very few
people make. Most people live simple lives. They do not make big decisions
which change their lives completely. And very few people decide when they are
going to die.
A few days later, I had a chance to have a long talk with Wilson. My
friend had invited him to come and have dinner with us. But that evening, my
friend was not feeling very well. So Wilson and I had dinner by ourselves. After
dinner, we sat in the garden and looked at the beautiful Bay of Naples in the
moonlight.
1 (a) Why did the narrator want to meet Wilson?

(1m)

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(b) What exactly was the decision that Wilson had made?

(2m)

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(c) Would you make a decision like Wilsons? Give the reason for your answer.

(2m)

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The first night I was here, I sat on the hillside and looked across the
bay. I could see the red smoke coming from the top of Vesuvius.
Next morning, I went swimming in the bright, clear water. After a swim,
I went walking round the island. That day was the Feast of the Assumption.
There was a procession going through the streets. The crowd of people
following the procession were laughing, dancing and singing. Everyone was
happy.
2 (a) Why was red smoke coming from the top of Vesuvius?

(1m)

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(b) What was happening on that island that day? What attracted Wilson to the people?
(2m)
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(c) Do you think what Wilson saw that morning had something to do with his reason for
moving to the island? Give a reason for your answer.
(2m)
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None at all, he replied. I thought about it very carefully during that
year. If I stayed working at the bank, I would go on doing the same thing day
after day, year after year. I would be manager of the same small bank until I
retired.
I kept thinking about Capri about the sun and the sea and the
moonlight. I would die one day like everyone else. I decided I was going to live
a happy life before I died.
But what about money? Did you have enough money to leave work
and come here?
I had some money, replied Wilson. I had some savings and I sold my
house in London. With this money, I bought an annuity for twenty-five years.
Each year, I get enough money to live a simple life. But the money will come to
an end after twenty-five years. So, when I am sixty, I will have no more money.
That will be the end.
3 (a) I thought about it very carefully during that year.
What was it that Wilson thought about?

(1m)

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(b) I decided I was going to live a happy life before I died.
What did Wilson consider a happy life?

(2m)

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(c) If you were a friend of Wilsons, what you advise him to do?

(2m)

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The Necklace
She was one of those pretty and charming young girls who sometimes are
born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no
expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, and wedded by any rich
and distinguished man; so she let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry
of Public Instruction.
She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was as
unhappy as if she had really fallen from a higher station; since with women there
is neither caste nor rank, for beauty, grace and charm take the place of birth and
breeding. Natural ingenuity, instinct for what is elegant, a supple mind are their
sole hierarchy, and often make of women of the people the equals of the very
greatest ladies.
1 (a) What does the phrase so she let herself be married... tell you about Mathildes
feelings about her marriage?
(2m)
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(b) How can women of the people be the equals of the very greatest ladies? (1m)
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(c) Do you think a person should be concerned about their class or rank in life? Give a
reason for your answer.
(2m)
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Good day, Jeanne.
The other, astonished to be familiarly addressed by this plain goodwife,
did not recognize her at all and stammered, But madame! I do not know
You must be mistaken.
No. I am Mathilde Loisel.
Her friend uttered a cry. Oh, my poor Mathilde! How you are changed!
Yes, I have had a very hard life, since I last saw you and great poverty
and that because of you!
Of me! How so?
Do you remember that diamond necklace you lent me to wear at the
ministerial ball?
Yes. Well?
Well, I lost it.
What do you mean? You brought it back.
I brought you back another exactly like it. And it has taken us ten years to
pay for it. You can understand that it was not easy for us, for us who had nothing.
At last, it is ended and I am very glad.
Madame Forestier had stopped.
You say that you bought a necklace of diamonds to replace mine?

Yes. You never noticed it, then! They were very similar.
And she smiled with a joy that was at once proud and ingenuous.
Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took her hands.
Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why my necklace was paste! It was worth at most
only five hundred francs!
2 (a) Why did Jeanne not recognise Mathilde?

(1m)

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(b) Why did Mathilde have to go through great poverty?

(2m)

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(c) What would you have done if you were Jeanne? Would you have returned the
necklace to Mathilde once you found out the truth?
(2m)
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By a violent effort she conquered her grief and replied in a calm voice,
while she wiped away her tears, Nothing. Only I have no gown and, therefore, I
cant go to this ball. Give your card to some colleague whose wife is better
equipped than I am.
He was in despair. He resumed, Come, let us see, Mathilde. How much
would it cost, a suitable gown, which you could use on other occasions
something very simple?
She reflected several seconds, making her calculations and wondering
also what sum she could ask without drawing on herself an immediate refusal
and a frightened exclamation from the economical clerk.
Finally, she replied hesitatingly, I dont know exactly, but I think I could
manage it with four hundred francs.
3 (a) Why did Mathilde feel she could not go to the ball without a gown?

(2m)

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(b) Which word in the text shows that Mathildes husband is careful with his money?
(1m)
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(c) If you were Mathildes husband, what would you have done when your wife refused
to go to the ball without a gown?
(2m)
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The Drovers Wife

Bush all round bush with no horizon, for the country is flat. No ranges in
the distance. The bush consists of stunted, rotten, native apple-trees. No
undergrowth. Nothing to relieve the eye save the darker green of a few sheoaks
which are sighing above the narrow, almost waterless, creek. Nineteen miles to
the nearest house.
The drover, an ex-squatter, is away with sheep. His wife and children are
left here alone.
1 (a) Where is the drovers house located?

(1m)

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(b) Where is the drover? How has his absence affected the family?

(2m)

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(c) Do you think it is right to leave ones family to work? Give a reason for your answer.
(2m)
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The youngster comes reluctantly, carrying a stick bigger than himself.
Then he yells triumphantly, There it goes under the house! and darts away
with club uplifted. At the same time, the big, black, yellow-eyed dog-of-all-breeds,
who has shown the wildest interest in the proceedings, breaks his chain and his
nose reaches the crack in the slabs just as the end of its tail disappears. Almost
at the same moment, the boys club comes down and skins the aforesaid nose.
Alligator takes small notice of this and proceeds to undermine the building; but he
is subdued, after a struggle and chained up. They cannot afford to lose him.
The drovers wife makes the children stand together near the dog-house
while she watches for the snake. She gets two small dishes of milk and sets them
down near the wall to tempt it to come out; but an hour goes by, and it does not
show itself.
2 (a) Who is Alligator and why is he so important to the family?

(2m)

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(b) Why does the drovers wife set out two small dishes of milk?

(1m)

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(c) In the bush, a dog is very important to protect the family. In your opinion, does the
dog play the same role in town and cities?
(2m)
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She is not a coward, but recent events have shattered her nerves. A little
son of her brother-in-law was lately bitten by a snake and died. Besides, she has
not heard from her husband for six months and is anxious about him.
He was a drover and started squatting here when they were married. The
drought ruined him. He had to sacrifice the remnant of his flock and go droving
again. He intends to move his family into the nearest town when he comes back;
and in the meantime his brother, who lives along the main road, comes over
about once a month with provisions. The wife has still a couple of cows, one
horse and a few sheep. The brother-in-law kills one of the latter occasionally,
gives her what she needs of it and takes the rest in return for other provisions.
3 (a) Give two reasons why the drovers wife is a little afraid and nervous these days.
(2m)
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(b) What does the brother-in-law ask for as payment in return for the provisions he buys
for her?
(1m)
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(c) Do you think it is the responsibility of the brother-in-law to look after the drovers
family in his absence?
(2m)
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The Sound Machine

It was a warm summer evening and Klausner walked quickly through the
front gate and around the side of the house and into the garden at the back. He
went on down the garden until he came to a wooden shed and he unlocked the
door, went inside and closed the door behind him.
The interior of the shed was an unpainted room. Against one wall, on the
left, there was a long wooden workbench and on it, among a littering of wires and
batteries and small sharp tools, there stood a black box about three feet long, the
shape of a childs coffin.
Klausner moved across the room to the box. The top of the box was open
and he bent down and began to poke and peer inside it among a mass of
different-coloured wires and silver tubes. He picked up a piece of paper that lay
beside the box, studied it carefully, put it down, peered inside the box and started
running his fingers along the wires, tugging gently at them to test the connections,
glancing back at the paper, then into the box, then at the paper again, checking
each wire. He did this for perhaps an hour.
1 (a) Why do you think Klausner kept the wooden shed locked?

(1m)

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(b) What was Klausner working on in the shed? What did it look like?

(2m)

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(c)

He did this for perhaps an hour.

What was this that Klausner was doing? What does this tell you about Klausners
character?
(2m)

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Now that Im here I might as well have a look at it.
Please dont trouble. Im quite cured. Im fine.
The doctor began to feel the tension in the room. He looked at the black
box on the bench; then he looked at the man. Youve got your hat on, he said.
Oh, have I? Klausner reached up, removed the hat and put it on the
bench.
The doctor came up closer and bent down to look into the box. Whats
this? he said. Making a radio?
No, just fooling around.
Its got rather complicated-looking innards.
Yes. Klausner seemed tense and distracted.
What is it? the doctor asked. Its rather a frightening-looking thing, isnt
it?
Its just an idea.
Yes?
It has to do with sound, thats all.

2 (a) What was it that the docotr wanted to look at?

(1m)

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(b) Why did Klausner reject the Doctors offer to look at it?

(2m)

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(c) What does the extract above tell you about Klausners character?

(2m)

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The little needle crept slowly across the dial and suddenly, he heard a
shriek, a frightful piercing shriek and he jumped and dropped his hands, catching
hold of the table. He stared around him as if expecting to see the person who had
shrieked. There was no one in sight except the woman in the garden next door
and it was certainly not she. She was bending down, cutting yellow roses and
putting them in her basket.
Again it came a throatless, inhuman shriek, sharp and short, very clear
and cold. The note itself possessed a minor, metallic quality that he had never
heard before. Klausner looked around him, searching instinctively for the source
of the noise. The woman next door was the only living thing in sight. He saw her
reach down, take a rose stem in the fingers of one hand and snip the stem with a
pair of scissors. Again he heard the scream.
It came at the exact moment when the rose stem was cut.
At this point, the woman straightened up, put the scissors in the basket
with the roses and turned to walk away.
Mrs Saunders! Klausner shouted, his voice shrill with excitement. Oh,
Mrs Saunders!
And looking round, the woman saw her neighbour standing on his lawn
a fantastic, arm-waving little person with a pair of earphones on his head calling
to her in a voice so high and loud that she became alarmed.
3 (a) What made the frightful piercing shriek?

(1m)

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(b) Why did Mrs Saunders become alarmed?

(2m)

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(c) How would you have reacted if you were Mrs Saunders? Give a reason for your
answer.
(2m)
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Looking for a Rain God

At the beginning of that summer, a number of men just went out of their homes
and hung themselves to death from trees. The majority of the people had lived off
crops, but for two years past they had all returned from the lands with only their
rolled-up skin blankets and cooking utensils. Only the charlatans, incanters, and
witch-doctors made a pile of money during this time because people were always
turning to them in desperation for little talismans and herbs to rub on the plough
for the crops to grow and the rain to fall.
1 (a) How did the charlatans, incanters and witch-doctors make a lot of money? (2m)
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(b) What did the people believe these charlatans and witch-doctors could do for them?
(1m)
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(c) Would you resort to these people if you were desperate?

(2m)

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The family of the old man, Mokgobja, were among those who left early for
the lands. They had a donkey cart and piled everything onto it, Mokgobja who
was over seventy years old; two little girls, Neo and Boseyong; their mother Tiro
and an unmarried sister, Nesta; and the father and supporter of the family,
Ramadi, who drove the donkey cart. In the rush of the first hope of rain, the man,
Ramadi, and the two women cleared the land of thorn-bush and then hedged
their vast ploughing area with this same thorn-bush to protect the future crop from
the goats they had brought along for milk. They cleared out and deepened the old
well with its pool of muddy water and still in this light, misty rain, Ramadi
inspanned two oxen and turned the earth over with a hand plough.
The land was ready and ploughed, waiting for the crops. At night, the
earth was alive with insects singing and rustling about in search of food. But
suddenly, by mid-November, the rain fled away; the rain-clouds fled away and left
the sky bare. The sun danced dizzily in the sky, with a strange cruelty. Each day
the land was covered in a haze of mist as the sun sucked up the last drop of
moisture out of the earth. The family sat down in despair, waiting and waiting.
2 (a) What had prompted Ramadi to plough the land? What did this represent for the
family?
(2m)
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(b) What did Ramadi do with the thorn-bush?

(1m)

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(c) Did Ramadi manage to grow his crops? Why?

(2m)

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The adults paid no attention to this; they did not even hear the funny
chatter; they sat waiting for rain; their nerves were stretched to breaking-point
willing the rain to fall out of the sky. Nothing was important, beyond that. All their
animals had been sold during the bad years to purchase food, and of all their
herd only two goats were left. It was the women of the family who finally broke
down under the strain of waiting for rain. It was really the two women who caused
the death of the little girls. Each night they started a weird, high-pitched wailing
that began on a low mournful note and whipped up to a frenzy. Then they would
stamp their feet and shout as though they had lost their heads. The men sat quiet
and self-controlled; it was important for men to maintain their self-control at all
times but their nerve was breaking too. They knew the women were haunted by
the starvation of the coming year.
Finally, an ancient memory stirred in the old man, Mokgobja.
3 (a) What does this refer to in line 1?

(2m)

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(b)

Nothing was important, beyond that.

What was it that was so important to them?

(1m)

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(c) What ancient memory stirred in Mokgobja?

(2m)

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NOVELS
The following are the novels studied in the literature component in English Language.
Novels :
Jungle of Hope Keris Mas
The Pearl John Steinbeck
The Return K.S. Maniam
Answer the following questions.
1. Write about a character you like in the novel. Give evidence from the text to
support your answer.
2. Write about a character you disapprove of in the novel. Give evidence from the
text to support your answer.
3. Describe an event that you cannot forget. Give evidence from the text to support
your answer.
4. What are the themes highlighted by the author in the novel? Support your answer
with close reference to the text.
5. Write about the setting of the novel you have studied. Support your answer with
close reference to the text.
6. Did you enjoy reading the novel? Give reasons to support your answer.
7. What are some of the things you have learnt from the main character of the novel?
Give evidence from the text to support your answer.
8. What moral values or life lessons have you learnt from the novel? Give evidence
from the text to support your answer.
9. Briefly write the synopsis of the novel you have studied. Support your answer with
close reference to the text.
10. Are you satisfied with the ending of the novel? Give reasons to support your
answer.