Text One: Survive the Savage Sea

Paper 1 1. From lines 1-6, select two words or phrases that show that
initially Alvarenga is not bothered by the storm.

– Do it 1
:
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now
Read the following passage carefully. 2
:
The writer tells the story of two poor fishermen, Alvarenga and his
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inexperienced young assistant, Cordoba.
Survive the Savage Sea
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2. Look again at lines 7-18

respons In your own words, explain how Alvarenga and Cordoba
deal with the arrival of the storm.

es ____________________________________________________
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1 Alvarenga knew the danger of the storms better than most, but he was on a streak - he
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2 had just caught half a ton of fish and there were plenty more to be taken. He expected
3 storms this time of year – November was always rowdy. The key, he explained to
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4 Cordoba, was to read the wind, waves and clouds. Today’s gusts had teeth – he could feel
5 them as the cloud bank built over the mountaintops to the east. But Alvarenga accepted
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6 the challenge and refused to change his plans.
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7 Around one am Alvarenga felt a deep warning. The voice of the storm had picked
8 up and Alvarenga took note. The swells gathered strength and the boat began to tilt
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9 sideways like a ride at an amusement park.
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1 Cordoba was terrified and losing control. “Get us out of here. Let’s go back,” he screamed
0
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1 at Alvarenga. “We are going to die.”
1
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1 “Shut up,” Alvarenga ordered. But as the winds and waves jacked up, the boat began
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2
1 to fill with water. Alvarenga told Cordoba to start bailing; he began furiously dumping
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3
1 seawater back into the ocean. Despite Cordoba’s frantic bailing, the crashing waves filled
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4
1 their boat with water faster than they could empty it.
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5
 Paper 1 Text One: Moving to the Boat House
1. From lines 2-8, select two words or phrases that show their

– Do it 1
new home is remote.

:
now ________________________________________________

Read the following passage carefully. 2

Short
The writer shares her childhood memories of moving to a remote house
beside a river near the town of Laugharne, in Wales, with her mother and
:
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respons
father. Her father is Dylan Thomas, a famous poet.
Moving to the Boat House
2. Look again at lines 9-17
In your own words, explain how the writer feels about her

es new home.
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1 We were met at the station by Billy Williams. My father, Dylan, my mother, Caitlin, and I piled
2 in to his family taxi with our suitcases and belongings. The taxi took us to the path that led to ____________________________________________________
3 the Boat House. At the top of the path, by an old iron gate, a clump of daises radiated their
4 whiteness and, although we were driving past, time seemed to stop. The pathway was too ____________________________________________________
5 narrow for a car so we carried our bags over the uneven surface while we looked over the
6 low cliff wall at the sand and the water beyond. The overhanging bushes and hanging plants ____________________________________________________
7 clung to the cliff-face like flags waving a greeting. We walked, laden with bags and books,
8 along the last stretch of the path to our new home, called the Boat House. ____________________________________________________
9 It looked heavenly: a place to explore, to run around, where we would be living forever. It ____________________________________________________
1 had balconies, stepped gardens, a large boat shed and a wall protecting us from the wilds
0 ____________________________________________________
1 of the friendly estuary beyond. We had fallen upon paradise. As we were settling in, my
1 ____________________________________________________
1 father wrote to Margaret Taylor, who had arranged for the place, that, “this is it; the place,
2 ____________________________________________________
1 the house, the workroom, the time,” and that he could never thank her enough. “I shall
3 ____________________________________________________
1 write in this water and tree room on the cliff, every word will be my thanks to you…”
4 ____________________________________________________

1 In my memory it hardly ever rained that season. From the balcony that ran around the
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5
1 cottage Like a midriff, on two sides of the house, I looked at the river and beyond the
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6
 Text One: Why did Daddy always have to be late?
Paper 1 1. From lines 2-8, select two words or phrases that show the
water melons were difficult to clear away.

– Do it 1
:
Read the following passage carefully.
now
The writer, Ashley, is a young girl living in Iran. Her father is driving Ashley
2
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and her brother, Cameron, to pick up their mother at Tehran airport. Their
:
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journey begins on a dangerous mountain road.
Why did Daddy always have to be late?
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respons 2. Look again at lines 14.21

In your own words, explain what difficulties the family faced
as they travelled to the airport.
es ____________________________________________________

1 “Get a move on, you donkeys!” my father yelled, leaning on the car’s horn. ____________________________________________________

2 All over the road lay watermelons that had fallen out of the back of a van. The driver struggled ____________________________________________________
3 to gather them up as the sound of horns grew louder. Behind us, I could see cars and trucks
4 strung like colourful beads around the mountain. Realising it was futile, the driver stuck his ____________________________________________________
5 head in the window of each car, urging us to take some of the melons. Cameron and I
6 scampered out and each lugged one back. People stopped to stretch and gossip as they ____________________________________________________
7 picked up their melons, laughing and joking, glad to take a break from driving.
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8 But my father screamed from the window and waved his fist. “Let’s go!”
9 ____________________________________________________
1 With a scowl, the driver hurled the remaining melons down the slope where they burst in
0 ____________________________________________________
1 a ragged explosion of scarlet. Cameron and I were happy because we both had a melon
1 ____________________________________________________
1 rolling around under our feet, and after weeks of not knowing when or if we would see
2 ____________________________________________________
1 our mother again, we were on our way to pick her up at the airport.
3 ____________________________________________________
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1 My father wrestled our old grey Rover car around one hairpin bend after another, trying to
4 ____________________________________________________
1 make up for lost time. Even without the delay of the melons we were hard pressed. We
5 ____________________________________________________
1 were on the dangerous Chaloos road, making our way to the airport at Tehran. Cameron
6 ____________________________________________________
 Paper 1 Text One: Running Away
1. From lines 2-6, select two words or phrases that show the
narrator is afraid.
– Do it 1
:

now
Read the following passage carefully.
2
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Waris is a young girl, living with her family in the desert in Somalia, in Africa.
Short
She decides to run away because her father arranges a marriage for her
with a very old man.
:
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respons Running Away

2. Look again at lines 9-22
In your own words, explain why the narrator thinks the lion
is a powerful creature.
es ____________________________________________________
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1 A slight sound awoke me, and when I opened my eyes, I was staring into the face of a
2 lion. Riveted awake, my eyes stretched wide – very wide – as if to expand enough to ____________________________________________________
3 contain the animal in front of me. I tried to stand up, but I hadn’t eaten for several days,
4 so my weak legs wobbled and folded beneath me. Collapsing, I slumped back against ____________________________________________________
5 the tree where I had been resting, sheltered from the African desert sun that becomes so
6 merciless at noon. I quietly leaned my head back, closed my eyes, and felt the rough bark ____________________________________________________
7 of the tree pressing into my skull. The lion was so near I could smell his musty scent in the
8 hot air. I spoke to God: “It’s the end for me, my God. Please take me now.” ____________________________________________________
9 My long journey across the desert had come to an end. I had no protection, no weapon. ____________________________________________________
1 Nor the strength to run. I knew I couldn’t beat the lion up the tree, because with their
0 ____________________________________________________
1 strong claws, lions are excellent climbers. By the time I got half way up – BOOM – one
1 ____________________________________________________
1 swipe and I’d be gone. Without any fear, I opened my eyes again and said to the lion,
2 ____________________________________________________
1 “Come and get me. I’m ready for you.”
3 ____________________________________________________
1 He was a beautiful male with a mane of golden hair and a long tail switching back and ____________________________________________________
4
1 forth to flick the flies away. He was five or six years old, young and healthy. I knew he ____________________________________________________
5
1 could crush me instantly; he was the king. All my life I’d watched those paws take down ____________________________________________________
6
1 wildebeest and zebras weighing hundreds of pounds more than me. ____________________________________________________
7
 Paper 1 Text One: Ice Swimming in Tromso
1. From lines 10-13, select two words or phrases that show
the situation the men are in, is dangerous.
– Do it 1
:
Read the following passage carefully.
now
In this passage, the writer describes an experience he had in Tromso, north of the
Arctic Circle. 2
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Short Ice Swimming in Tromso

:
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respons 2. Look again at lines 8-27.

In your own words, explain how the writer feels in the build
up to Ice Swimming.
1
2
es
By the time we’ve found the right beach, the fire is already lit and it’s burning beautifully.
There’s no clubhouse, as it turns out, just a circle of stones on the beach with this glorious ____________________________________________________
3 blaze in the middle and gathered around it are a small group of hearty Tromso Ice Swimmers.
4 There were two men and two women, all in late middle age, all in enviably good condition to ____________________________________________________
5 be honest (is this down to the Ice Swimming?), and all hilarious. ‘Welcome!’ they shout
6 mirthfully. ____________________________________________________
7 I feel like our son Rex looks before he’s got an important line in a school assembly: all ____________________________________________________
8 puffy-faced and grey (he’s a pupil not a headmaster). I do quite a lot of laughing rather
9 too loudly. Then, suddenly all of the things that have stood between me and the Ice ____________________________________________________
1 Swimming (the morning, the journey here, the walk to the beach, the banter) seem to
0 ____________________________________________________
1 have disappeared with shocking speed. Gone, all gone, and now the moment is cruelly
1 ____________________________________________________
1 upon us. The professional Ice Swimmers have all come in their swimwear under their
2 ____________________________________________________
1 outer clothes (which bear impressive national credential like ‘Norwegian Ice Swimming
3 ____________________________________________________
1 Team 2012’), so they are all ready in seconds, but I have to change right here on the snowy
4 ____________________________________________________
1 beach.
5 ____________________________________________________
1 ‘What do I stand on while I’m getting ready?’ I ask poignantly (does it really matter? I’m ____________________________________________________
6
1 going Ice Swimming, after all). Someone takes pity on me and produces a small square ____________________________________________________
7
1 of neoprene that is actually a godsend; there is just room to perch on one foot at a time ____________________________________________________
8
1 while I hop out of trousers, thermals, socks etc. Then I’m ready. If I’m going to do this, ____________________________________________________
9
 Paper 1 Text One: What Happened to Mallory and Irvine?
1. From lines 10-13, select two words or phrases that show
the situation the men are in, is dangerous.
– Do it 1
:
Read the following passage carefully.
now
Mallory and Irvine were mountaineers who died whilst climbing Mount Everest. For
2
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a long time their bodies were never found and what had happened to them

Short
remained a mystery for many years.

What Happened to Mallory and Irvine?

:
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respons 2. Look again at lines 14-22.

In your own words, explain the importance of this
expedition to the men.
es ____________________________________________________
1 On 6th June 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine attempted to make history by ____________________________________________________
2 Setting out to reach the summit of Everest and be the first men ever to stand on the peak
3 Of the world’s highest mountain. When last seen they seemed to be within 800 feet of the ____________________________________________________
4 Summit. They were never seen again. Their story is one of the great romantic tragedies of
5 Everest. But what really happened in the cold, thin air at 28,000 feet? ____________________________________________________
6 For three-quarters of a century, this is all that has been known with any certainty. ____________________________________________________
7 Just after dawn on the morning of June 6th 1924, Mallory and Irvine crawled out of their ____________________________________________________
8 simple canvas tent on a wind-ravaged saddle of snow, ice and rock and took the first
9 steps in what would become a climb into history. ____________________________________________________
1 The men said little to each other. There was little need. They knew the situation was ____________________________________________________
0
1 critical. They were running out of supplies and support. In a matter of days, perhaps even ____________________________________________________
1
1 hours, the monsoon would sweep up from the south and bury the mountain under wave ____________________________________________________
2
1 upon wave of snow. ____________________________________________________
3
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1 Now on, this promising June morning, Mallory and Irvine struggled into their primitive,
4 ____________________________________________________
1 unreliable, and brutally heavy oxygen equipment. Irvine, a strapping young man only
5 ____________________________________________________
1 twenty-two years old, stands calmly with his hands in his pockets, his head twisted slightly
6 ____________________________________________________
1 as he watches Mallory fuss with his oxygen mask. Mallory, while certainly the finest
 Text One: Blizzard!
Paper 1 1. From lines 3-7, select two words or phrases that show how
the family try to keep warm.

– Do it 1
:
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now 2
:
Short
Read the following passage carefully.
As a child the writer lived with his mother, named Jenny, and Alexander his brother,
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on an isolated hilltop sheep farm. In this passage he describes a dramatic snow

storm.
respons Blizzard!
2. Look again at lines 12-19.
In your own words, explain the effect of the snow storm.
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es ____________________________________________________
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1 That evening Jenny turned away from the radio and towards the supper she was making,
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2 frowning. The forecast was not good. We ate, played and built one of our great fires. We
3 filled the grate with branches over crumpled newspaper and twigs, lit it, and basked in
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4 the heat of a roaring fire, which sent sparks popping and swirling up the chimney and
5 flung ruddy light into the cold sitting room. We perched as close to it as we could, until
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6 our clothes were almost too hot to touch and our clammy backs felt feverish, as though
7 they too were glowing red. The crackling branches spat sparks on to the rug, and we
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8 stamped them out, barely noticing the little black holes that remained. When the blaze
9 had burned down to its embers we went to bed and the next day the storm arrived.
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1 As Alexander and I retreated to the living room, arming ourselves with toy guns, Jenny
0 ____________________________________________________
1 set out to feed the sheep.
1 ____________________________________________________
1 Snow was already drifting in the lanes, forming waves against every wall, hedge and ____________________________________________________
2
1 bank. The world was changing shape. The cold soon drained the strength out of Jenny’s ____________________________________________________
3
1 arms and legs, but she did what she could, dragging out bales of hay. The wind spun ____________________________________________________
4
1 armfuls of hay away into the white, swirling it off like so much dust. She made it as far
5
 Paper 1 Text One: A Visit to the Docks
1. From lines 2-5, select two words or phrases that show that
the writer is intimidated by the men.
– Do it 1
:
Read the following passage carefully.
now
As a small boy, the writer went to the docks with his friend Robert.
2
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Short A Visit to the Docks :

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respons 2. Look again at lines 17-27.

In your own words, explain why the writer finds the horse
so impressive.
1
2
3
es
I found myself in a great shed big enough to swallow up half a dozen of the houses from the
street I lived in. The place was full of men and only a few kids. There was an air of
viciousness about them like dogs waiting to attack. I was dreading having to walk past them,
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4 but my school chum strode past like he owned the place. Sheepishly I followed. Everyone ____________________________________________________
5 seemed to be shouting or laughing in a loud way. Boxes were banged about, handcarts
6 collided as their owners cursed and threatened one another. One carter in a hurry to ____________________________________________________
7 pass us called out, “Are you two frozen or what? Move, come on!” The violence of this
8 command petrified me, but McCartney was having none of it. “Move yourself, you old ____________________________________________________
9 fool!” I was stunned. I had never heard such brazen bravado in my friend before. At school
1 he was quiet and shy: here he was altogether a different creature. The little boy who sat ____________________________________________________
0
1 beside me at school was suddenly ten feet tall, growling and snarling back at anyone ____________________________________________________
1
1 who gave us offence. ____________________________________________________
2
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1 “See that big brown horse there – that was my granda’s when it was a foal,” Robert said.
3 ____________________________________________________
1 The brown horse looked nothing like a horse to me. More like a status of a horse. It was
4 ____________________________________________________
1 immense. We both walked over to the great beast. “You stay here while I go off and get
5 ____________________________________________________
1 you a stick,” my pal ordered.
6 ____________________________________________________
1 The massive beast held me hypnotized. It was everything a horse shouldn’t be. It was ____________________________________________________
7
1 bulky and still. The big black collar around its neck must have weighed more than I did. ____________________________________________________
8
1 Its eye was as big as a cricket ball and its coarse eyelashes looked like the bristles on a ____________________________________________________
9
2 yard brush. The size of its head stunned me. I thought it was three times the size of any
 Text One: Istanbul – City of Dreams
Paper 1 3. From lines 1-4, select two words or phrases that show that
the writer’s arrival in Istanbul was disappointing.

– Do it 1
:
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now
Read the following passage carefully.
The writer, with his partner Wanda, is driving across Europe. They have arranged 2
to meet their friend Hugh in order to go on an adventure together. :
Short Istanbul – City of Dreams
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respons 4. Look again at lines 13-21.

In your own words, explain what we learn about the writer’s
hotel room.

1
2
es
I arrived with Wanda in Istanbul. As we drove along the last long stretch of road, the Sea
of Marmara appeared before us, green and windswept, deserted except for a solitary
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3 boat. Our spirits rose at the thought of seeing Istanbul when the sun was setting, but
4 when we reached the outskirts it was already quite dark. We had planned to enter the ____________________________________________________
5 city by the Golden Gate, for it sounded romantic and appropriate and we had been
6 looking forward to it all the way across Europe, not knowing that for several hundred ____________________________________________________
7 years the gate had been sealed up. Instead we found ourselves on an interminable
8 bypass lined with luminous advertisements for banks and razor blades. It was a fitting ____________________________________________________
9 end to an uncomfortable journey.
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1 We let the car in the courtyard of the old Embassy and changed our money with one
0 ____________________________________________________
1 of the gatekeepers. We asked him where we should stay.
1 ____________________________________________________
1 ‘Star Hotel, clean hotel, cheap hotel, good hotel, hotel of my brother.’ ____________________________________________________
2
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1 ‘Room with bed for two,’ said the proprietor, flinging open a door at the extreme end. ____________________________________________________
3
1 It was a nightmare room, the room of a drug fiend or a miscreant or perhaps both. ____________________________________________________
4
1 It was illuminated by a forty-watt bulb and looked out on a black wall with something ____________________________________________________
5
1 slimy growing on it. The bed was a fearful thing, almost perfectly concave. Underneath ____________________________________________________
6
1 it was a pair of old boots. The sheets were almost clean but on them there was the ____________________________________________________
7