Insert
The source that follows is:
- Source A: 19th-century prose fiction
- Adam Bede by George Eliot
An extract from a work first published in 1859.
This extract is from George Eliot’s Adam Bede and describes the Poysers’ cool, fragrant dairy, where the distractingly pretty Hetty Sorrel works as Captain Donnithorne visits. The narrator dwells on Hetty’s kitten-like, springtime beauty and its effect on observers, mixing vivid imagery with social observation.
Source A
1 The dairy was certainly worth looking at: it was a scene to sicken for with a sort of calenture in hot and dusty streets—such coolness, such purity, such fresh fragrance of new-pressed cheese, of firm butter, of wooden vessels perpetually bathed in pure water; such soft colouring of red earthenware and creamy surfaces, brown wood and polished tin, grey limestone and rich orange-
6 red rust on the iron weights and hooks and hinges. But one gets only a confused notion of these details when they surround a distractingly pretty girl of seventeen, standing on little pattens and rounding her dimpled arm to lift a pound of butter out of the scale.
11 Hetty blushed a deep rose-colour when Captain Donnithorne entered the dairy and spoke to her; but it was not at all a distressed blush, for it was inwreathed with smiles and dimples, and with sparkles from under long, curled, dark eyelashes; and while her aunt was discoursing to him about the limited amount of milk that was to be spared for butter and cheese so long as the
16 calves were not all weaned, and a large quantity but inferior quality of milk yielded by the shorthorn, which had been bought on experiment, together with other matters which must be interesting to a young gentleman who would one day be a landlord, Hetty tossed and patted her pound of butter with quite a self- possessed, coquettish air, slyly conscious that no turn of her head was lost.
21 There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles, from the desperate to the sheepish; but there is one order of beauty which seems made to turn the heads not only of men, but of all intelligent mammals, even of women. It is a beauty like that of kittens, or
26 very small downy ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or babies just beginning to toddle and to engage in conscious mischief—a beauty with which you can never be angry, but that you feel ready to crush for inability to comprehend the state of mind into which it throws you. Hetty Sorrel’s was that sort of beauty. Her aunt, Mrs. Poyser, who professed to
31 despise all personal attractions and intended to be the severest of mentors, continually gazed at Hetty’s charms by the sly, fascinated in spite of herself; and after administering such a scolding as naturally flowed from her anxiety to do well by her husband’s niece—who had no mother of her own to scold her, poor thing!—she would often confess to her husband, when they were
36 safe out of hearing, that she firmly believed, “the naughtier the little huzzy behaved, the prettier she looked.” It is of little use for me to tell you that Hetty’s cheek was like a rose- petal, that dimples played about her pouting lips, that her large dark eyes
41 hid a soft roguishness under their long lashes, and that her curly hair, though all pushed back under her round cap while she was at work, stole back in dark delicate rings on her forehead, and about her white shell-like ears; it is of little use for me to say how lovely was the contour of her pink-and- white neckerchief, tucked into her low plum-coloured stuff bodice, or how the
46 linen butter-making apron, with its bib, seemed a thing to be imitated in silk by duchesses, since it fell in such charming lines, or how her brown stockings and thick-soled buckled shoes lost all that clumsiness which they must certainly have had when empty of her foot and ankle—of little use, unless you have seen a woman who affected you as Hetty affected her beholders, for
51 otherwise, though you might conjure up the image of a lovely woman, she would not in the least resemble that distracting kittenlike maiden. I might mention all the divine charms of a bright spring day, but if you had never in your life utterly forgotten yourself in straining your eyes after the mounting lark, or in wandering through the still lanes when the fresh-opened blossoms
56 fill them with a sacred silent beauty like that of fretted aisles, where would be the use of my descriptive catalogue? I could never make you know what I meant by a bright spring day. Hetty’s was a spring-tide beauty; it was the beauty of young frisking things, round-limbed, gambolling, circumventing you by a false air of innocence—the innocence of a young star-browed calf, for
61 example, that, being inclined for a promenade out of bounds, leads you a severe steeplechase over hedge and ditch, and only comes to a stand in the middle of a bog.
Questions
Instructions
- Answer all questions.
- Use black ink or black ball point pen.
- Fill in the boxes on this page.
- You must answer the questions in the spaces provided.
- Do not write outside the box around each page or on blank pages.
- Do all rough work in this book. Cross through any work you do not want to be marked.
- You must refer to the insert booklet provided.
- You must not use a dictionary.
Information
- The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
- Time allowed: 1 hour 45 minutes
- The maximum mark for this paper is 80.
- There are 40 marks for Section A and 40 marks for Section B.
- You are reminded of the need for good English and clear presentation in your answers.
- You will be assessed on the quality of your reading in Section A.
- You will be assessed on the quality of your writing in Section B.
Advice
- You are advised to spend about 15 minutes reading through the source and all five questions you have to answer.
- You should make sure you leave sufficient time to check your answers.
Section A: Reading
Answer all questions in this section. You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section.
Question 1
Read again the first part of the source, from lines 1 to 5.
Answer all parts of this question.
Choose one answer for each question.
1.1 What was certainly worth looking at?
- Grey limestone
- The dairy
- Brown wood
[1 mark]
1.2 Which combination of materials does the narrator include when describing the dairy's soft colouring?
- Red earthenware, polished tin, and grey limestone
- White marble, blue tiles, and copper pans
- Red brick, pewter jugs, and chalk walls
[1 mark]
1.3 According to the narrator, which objects are kept constantly in pure water?
- The wooden containers
- The polished tin
- The red earthenware
[1 mark]
1.4 Which material is specifically mentioned by the narrator as part of the dairy's description?
- Polished tin
- Blue porcelain
- Black slate
[1 mark]
Question 2
Look in detail at this extract, from lines 21 to 30 of the source:
21 There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles, from the desperate to the sheepish; but there is one order of beauty which seems made to turn the heads not only of men, but of all intelligent mammals, even of women. It is a beauty like that of kittens, or
26 very small downy ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or babies just beginning to toddle and to engage in conscious mischief—a beauty with which you can never be angry, but that you feel ready to crush for inability to comprehend the state of mind into which it throws you. Hetty Sorrel’s was that sort of beauty. Her aunt, Mrs. Poyser, who professed to
How does the writer use language here to describe Hetty’s beauty? You could include the writer’s choice of:
- words and phrases
- language features and techniques
- sentence forms.
[8 marks]
Question 3
You now need to think about the structure of the source as a whole. This text is from the start of a novel.
How has the writer structured the text to create a sense of fascination?
You could write about:
- how fascination intensifies from beginning to end
- how the writer uses structure to create an effect
- the writer's use of any other structural features, such as changes in mood, tone or perspective.
[8 marks]
Question 4
For this question focus on the second part of the source, from line 36 to the end.
In this part of the source, where Hetty is compared to kittens and babies, she appears sweet and innocent. The writer suggests that there is something sly and mischievous hidden underneath her charm.
To what extent do you agree and/or disagree with this statement?
In your response, you could:
- consider your impressions of Hetty's sweet and mischievous nature
- comment on the methods the writer uses to suggest her sly charm
- support your response with references to the text.
[20 marks]
Question 5
For the end-of-term assembly, your geography department will showcase short creative writing about scorching weather.
Choose one of the options below for your entry.
-
Option A: Describe a heat-struck roadside from your imagination. You may choose to use the picture provided for ideas:
-
Option B: Write the opening of a story about a conflict during a heatwave.
(24 marks for content and organisation, 16 marks for technical accuracy)
[40 marks]