English B: Higher Level
Identities (HL) — Theme: Identities
- 1.
Read the text “The accent”. An extract from an original short story: My grandmother never lost her accent, and for most of my childhood I wished she would. At parents’ evenings she rolled her r’s like marbles across the classroom floor, and I would study my shoes as if they held the answers to every test. She noticed, of course. She noticed everything. One evening, walking home under the orange streetlights, she said, without looking at me, “Your voice is a house your parents built. Mine is a house I carried on my back.” I said nothing. I was fourteen and certain that silence was the cleverest answer. It took me ten years, and a move to a city where nobody could place my own voice, to understand that she had not been apologising. (a) What does the narrator’s behaviour at parents’ evenings suggest about how the narrator felt? (b) Identify the simile in the second sentence and explain its effect. (c) Explain the contrast in the grandmother’s statement about the two “houses”. (d) What does the narrator mean by “silence was the cleverest answer”, and how does the older narrator judge this belief? (e) What does the final sentence suggest the narrator eventually understood?
[5 marks] · no calculator - 2.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “Read the text “The accent”. An extract from an original short story: My grandmother never lost her accent, and for most of my childhood I wished she would. At parents’ evenings she rolled her r’s like marbles across the classroom floor, and I would study my shoes as if they held the answers to every test. She noticed, of course. She noticed everything. One evening, walking home under the orange streetlights, she said, without looking at me, “Your voice is a house your parents built. Mine is a house I carried on my back.” I said nothing. I was fourteen and certain that silence was the cleverest answer. It took me ten years, and a move to a city where nobody could place my own voice, to understand that she had not been apologising. (a) What does the narrator’s behaviour at parents’ evenings suggest about how the narrator felt? (b) Identify the simile in the second sentence and explain its effect. (c) Explain the contrast in the grandmother’s statement about the two “houses”. (d) What does the narrator mean by “silence was the cleverest answer”, and how does the older narrator judge this belief? (e) What does the final sentence suggest the narrator eventually understood?” Their response addresses only this point: “(a) Embarrassment: studying their shoes shows the narrator avoided attention and was ashamed of the grandmother’s accent.” 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 “Are we what we post?”. An opinion column: [1] We are often told that social media lets young people “express who they really are”. Yet anyone who has spent ten minutes choosing between two nearly identical photographs knows that expression and editing are not the same thing. [2] Psychologists have long argued that identity is performed: we behave differently with grandparents than with friends. What is new is not the performance but the permanent audience. A conversation fades; a post is archived, searchable and, in theory, eternal. [3] This need not be a tragedy. Curating a profile can help a teenager experiment with interests before committing to them. The danger arises when the curated self becomes a standard the offline self must constantly live up to. [4] Perhaps the healthiest stance is a light one: to treat our profiles as drafts rather than monuments. (a) In paragraph 1, what distinction does the writer draw? (b) According to paragraph 2, what is genuinely new about identity online? (c) Find a word in paragraph 2 that means “stored as a record”. (d) Explain one benefit and one risk of curating a profile mentioned in paragraph 3. (e) Explain the metaphor “drafts rather than monuments”.
[5 marks] · no calculator - 4.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “Read the text “Are we what we post?”. An opinion column: [1] We are often told that social media lets young people “express who they really are”. Yet anyone who has spent ten minutes choosing between two nearly identical photographs knows that expression and editing are not the same thing. [2] Psychologists have long argued that identity is performed: we behave differently with grandparents than with friends. What is new is not the performance but the permanent audience. A conversation fades; a post is archived, searchable and, in theory, eternal. [3] This need not be a tragedy. Curating a profile can help a teenager experiment with interests before committing to them. The danger arises when the curated self becomes a standard the offline self must constantly live up to. [4] Perhaps the healthiest stance is a light one: to treat our profiles as drafts rather than monuments. (a) In paragraph 1, what distinction does the writer draw? (b) According to paragraph 2, what is genuinely new about identity online? (c) Find a word in paragraph 2 that means “stored as a record”. (d) Explain one benefit and one risk of curating a profile mentioned in paragraph 3. (e) Explain the metaphor “drafts rather than monuments”.” Their response addresses only this point: “(a) Between expressing yourself and editing (presenting a selected version of) yourself.” 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.
A youth magazine has invited readers to respond to the statement “Your culture is something you inherit, not something you choose.” Write a text that responds to the statement, using examples, and reaches a clear conclusion. Choose one of these text types: opinion article, speech for a student conference, blog post. Write 450–600 words.
[6 marks] · no calculator - 6.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “A youth magazine has invited readers to respond to the statement “Your culture is something you inherit, not something you choose.” Write a text that responds to the statement, using examples, and reaches a clear conclusion. Choose one of these text types: opinion article, speech for a student conference, blog post. Write 450–600 words.” Their response addresses only this point: “Content (criterion B): engages directly with the statement, considering both inheritance and choice in a nuanced way.” 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.
Rewrite each sentence starting with the words given, keeping the meaning. (1) “I only realised how much I missed home when I moved abroad.” → Only when… (2) “She had never felt so certain about who she was.” → Never… (3) “People rarely admit how much they care about others’ opinions.” → Rarely…
[3 marks] · no calculator - 8.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “Rewrite each sentence starting with the words given, keeping the meaning. (1) “I only realised how much I missed home when I moved abroad.” → Only when… (2) “She had never felt so certain about who she was.” → Never… (3) “People rarely admit how much they care about others’ opinions.” → Rarely…” Their response addresses only this point: “(1) “Only when I moved abroad did I realise how much I missed home.”” 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 - 9.
Read the text “Morning ritual”. An original poem: Each morning my father folds the newspaper / into a perfect square he never reads, / sets it beside his cup the way his father did / in a kitchen two borders and forty years away. / I used to laugh. Who keeps a habit / without its reason? Now I watch him smooth / the creases with his thumb, slowly, / as though the paper held a map / and every fold were a road back. (a) What is unusual about the father’s habit? (b) Where does the habit come from? (c) What does the speaker’s question “Who keeps a habit / without its reason?” show about the speaker’s earlier attitude? (d) Explain the image in the final three lines. (e) How has the speaker’s attitude changed by the end of the poem?
[5 marks] · no calculator - 10.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “Read the text “Morning ritual”. An original poem: Each morning my father folds the newspaper / into a perfect square he never reads, / sets it beside his cup the way his father did / in a kitchen two borders and forty years away. / I used to laugh. Who keeps a habit / without its reason? Now I watch him smooth / the creases with his thumb, slowly, / as though the paper held a map / and every fold were a road back. (a) What is unusual about the father’s habit? (b) Where does the habit come from? (c) What does the speaker’s question “Who keeps a habit / without its reason?” show about the speaker’s earlier attitude? (d) Explain the image in the final three lines. (e) How has the speaker’s attitude changed by the end of the poem?” Their response addresses only this point: “(a) He folds the newspaper carefully but never reads it.” 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