English B: Higher Level
Human ingenuity (HL) — Theme: Human ingenuity
- 1.
Read the text “Who owns a song made by a machine?”. An essay: [1] When a computer program produces a melody in seconds, the result can be pleasant, even moving. The harder question is not whether it is music but whose music it is. [2] One view holds that the person who wrote the prompt is the author, just as a photographer is the author of a picture taken with a camera. Another insists that the true authors are the thousands of human musicians whose recordings trained the system, often without their knowledge or payment. [3] Lawmakers are moving slowly, and the courts in different countries have reached different conclusions. Meanwhile, independent musicians worry less about philosophy than about rent. [4] Perhaps the debate will settle on a compromise: credit and payment shared between the people who guide the machine and those whose work made it possible. (a) According to paragraph 1, what is “the harder question”? (b) Explain the comparison with a photographer in paragraph 2. (c) Why do some people argue that human musicians are the true authors? (d) What does the sentence “independent musicians worry less about philosophy than about rent” suggest? (e) What compromise does the writer suggest?
[5 marks] · no calculator - 2.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “Read the text “Who owns a song made by a machine?”. An essay: [1] When a computer program produces a melody in seconds, the result can be pleasant, even moving. The harder question is not whether it is music but whose music it is. [2] One view holds that the person who wrote the prompt is the author, just as a photographer is the author of a picture taken with a camera. Another insists that the true authors are the thousands of human musicians whose recordings trained the system, often without their knowledge or payment. [3] Lawmakers are moving slowly, and the courts in different countries have reached different conclusions. Meanwhile, independent musicians worry less about philosophy than about rent. [4] Perhaps the debate will settle on a compromise: credit and payment shared between the people who guide the machine and those whose work made it possible. (a) According to paragraph 1, what is “the harder question”? (b) Explain the comparison with a photographer in paragraph 2. (c) Why do some people argue that human musicians are the true authors? (d) What does the sentence “independent musicians worry less about philosophy than about rent” suggest? (e) What compromise does the writer suggest?” Their response addresses only this point: “(a) Whose music it is (who is the author), rather than whether it counts as music.” Evaluate the response against the complete 5-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[5 marks] · no calculator - 3.
Read the text “The gallery attendant”. An extract from an original short story: For eleven years Mr Bassey had stood in Room 14, between a storm at sea and a portrait of a woman holding a lemon. Visitors rarely looked at him. They looked at the storm, nodded seriously, and moved on to the lemon. But Mr Bassey knew the paintings in a way the visitors never would. He knew that at four in the afternoon the light from the high window turned the woman’s lemon almost gold, and that a child had once stood in front of the storm for twenty minutes, perfectly still, as if waiting to be rescued. On his last day before retirement he did something he had never done: he sat on the bench in the middle of the room and looked. (a) What does the sentence “Visitors rarely looked at him” suggest about Mr Bassey’s position? (b) How is the visitors’ way of looking at art presented? Quote to support your answer. (c) Explain how Mr Bassey’s knowledge of the paintings differs from the visitors’. (d) What does the child’s reaction to the storm painting suggest about the power of art? (e) Explain the significance of the final action.
[5 marks] · no calculator - 4.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “Read the text “The gallery attendant”. An extract from an original short story: For eleven years Mr Bassey had stood in Room 14, between a storm at sea and a portrait of a woman holding a lemon. Visitors rarely looked at him. They looked at the storm, nodded seriously, and moved on to the lemon. But Mr Bassey knew the paintings in a way the visitors never would. He knew that at four in the afternoon the light from the high window turned the woman’s lemon almost gold, and that a child had once stood in front of the storm for twenty minutes, perfectly still, as if waiting to be rescued. On his last day before retirement he did something he had never done: he sat on the bench in the middle of the room and looked. (a) What does the sentence “Visitors rarely looked at him” suggest about Mr Bassey’s position? (b) How is the visitors’ way of looking at art presented? Quote to support your answer. (c) Explain how Mr Bassey’s knowledge of the paintings differs from the visitors’. (d) What does the child’s reaction to the storm painting suggest about the power of art? (e) Explain the significance of the final action.” Their response addresses only this point: “(a) He is invisible or overlooked; his job makes him part of the background.” Evaluate the response against the complete 5-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[5 marks] · no calculator - 5.
Your school is debating whether students should be allowed to use AI tools for homework. Write a text that evaluates the benefits and risks and proposes clear guidelines for fair use. Choose one of these text types: opinion article for the school magazine, speech for a school debate, proposal to the school leadership. Write 450–600 words.
[6 marks] · no calculator - 6.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “Your school is debating whether students should be allowed to use AI tools for homework. Write a text that evaluates the benefits and risks and proposes clear guidelines for fair use. Choose one of these text types: opinion article for the school magazine, speech for a school debate, proposal to the school leadership. Write 450–600 words.” Their response addresses only this point: “Content (criterion B): evaluates both benefits and risks with specific, convincing examples.” Evaluate the response against the complete 6-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[6 marks] · no calculator - 7.
Choose the word that best fits each gap: (A) unprecedented, (B) controversial, (C) widespread, (D) negligible. (1) The use of smartphones is now ___ even among very young children. (2) The cost of storing a single photo online is almost ___. (3) Gene editing remains ___, with experts deeply divided. (4) The speed of the vaccine’s development was ___; nothing similar had happened before.
[4 marks] · no calculator - 8.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “Choose the word that best fits each gap: (A) unprecedented, (B) controversial, (C) widespread, (D) negligible. (1) The use of smartphones is now ___ even among very young children. (2) The cost of storing a single photo online is almost ___. (3) Gene editing remains ___, with experts deeply divided. (4) The speed of the vaccine’s development was ___; nothing similar had happened before.” Their response addresses only this point: “(1) C widespread.” Evaluate the response against the complete 4-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[4 marks] · no calculator - 9.
Read the short text “Exhibition review”. “Light Machines, at the City Gallery until June, promises to ‘reinvent how we see’. It does not quite manage that, but it comes closer than most. The first room, a corridor of shifting coloured mirrors, is genuinely disorienting in the best sense. The later rooms are less confident, relying on screens that feel like a trade fair. Go for the mirrors; skip the gift shop.” (a) Identify the text type and two of its conventions in the sample. (b) Is the reviewer’s overall judgement positive, negative or mixed? Justify with two quotations. (c) Comment on the effect of the final sentence.
[3 marks] · no calculator - 10.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “Read the short text “Exhibition review”. “Light Machines, at the City Gallery until June, promises to ‘reinvent how we see’. It does not quite manage that, but it comes closer than most. The first room, a corridor of shifting coloured mirrors, is genuinely disorienting in the best sense. The later rooms are less confident, relying on screens that feel like a trade fair. Go for the mirrors; skip the gift shop.” (a) Identify the text type and two of its conventions in the sample. (b) Is the reviewer’s overall judgement positive, negative or mixed? Justify with two quotations. (c) Comment on the effect of the final sentence.” Their response addresses only this point: “(a) A review; any two conventions: the title, venue and dates; evaluation of specific parts; a recommendation to readers.” Evaluate the response against the complete 3-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[3 marks] · no calculator