Insert
The source that follows is:
- Source A: 20th-century prose fiction
- The Trial by Franz Kafka
An extract from a work first published in 1925.
This extract is from Franz Kafka's The Trial (1925). K. wanders a maze-like tenement seeking an investigating committee, using 'Lanz the joiner' as a pretext, and is swept into a cramped, stifling gathering that captures the confusion and pressure of faceless authority.
Source A
1 On the first floor, his search began for real. He still felt unable to ask for the investigating committee, and so he invented a joiner called Lanz--that name occurred to him because the captain, Mrs. Grubach's nephew, was called Lanz--so that he could ask at every flat whether Lanz the joiner lived there and thus obtain a chance to look into the rooms. It turned out, though, that
6 that was mostly possible without further ado, as almost all the doors were left open and the children ran in and out. Most of them were small, one- windowed rooms where they also did the cooking. Many women held babies in one arm and worked at the stove with the other. Half grown girls, who seemed to be dressed in just their pinafores worked hardest running to and fro. In every
11 room, the beds were still in use by people who were ill, or still asleep, or people stretched out on them in their clothes. K. knocked at the flats where the doors were closed and asked whether Lanz the joiner lived there. It was usually a woman who opened the door, heard the enquiry and turned to somebody in the room who would raise himself from the bed. "The gentleman's asking if a
16 joiner called Lanz, lives here." "A joiner, called Lanz?" he would ask from the bed." "That's right," K. would say, although it was clear that the investigating committee was not to be found there, and so his task was at an end. There were many who thought it must be very important for K. to find Lanz the joiner and thought long about it, naming a joiner who was not called Lanz
21 or giving a name that had some vague similarity with Lanz, or they asked neighbours or accompanied K. to a door a long way away where they thought someone of that sort might live in the back part of the building or where someone would be who could advise K. better than they could themselves. K. eventually had to give up asking if he did not want to be led all round from
26 floor to floor in this way. He regretted his initial plan, which had at first seemed so practical to him. As he reached the fifth floor, he decided to give up the search, took his leave of a friendly, young worker who wanted to lead him on still further and went down the stairs. But then the thought of how much time he was wasting made him cross, he went back again and knocked at the
31 first door on the fifth floor. The first thing he saw in the small room was a large clock on the wall which already showed ten o'clock. "Is there a joiner called Lanz who lives here?" he asked. "Pardon?" said a young woman with black, shining eyes who was, at that moment, washing children's underclothes in a bucket. She pointed her wet hand towards the open door of the adjoining
36 room. K. thought he had stepped into a meeting. A medium sized, two windowed room was filled with the most diverse crowd of people--nobody paid any attention to the person who had just entered. Close under its ceiling it was surrounded by
41 a gallery which was also fully occupied and where the people could only stand bent down with their heads and their backs touching the ceiling. K., who found the air too stuffy, stepped out again and said to the young woman, who had probably misunderstood what he had said, "I asked for a joiner, someone by the name of Lanz." "Yes," said the woman, "please go on in." K. would probably not
46 have followed her if the woman had not gone up to him, taken hold of the door handle and said, "I'll have to close the door after you, no-one else will be allowed in." "Very sensible," said K., "but it's too full already." But then he went back in anyway. He passed through between two men who were talking beside the door--one of them held both hands far out in front of himself
51 making the movements of counting out money, the other looked him closely in the eyes--and someone took him by the hand. It was a small, red-faced youth. "Come in, come in," he said. K. let himself be led by him, and it turned out that there was--surprisingly in a densely packed crowd of people moving to and fro--a narrow passage which may have been the division between two factions;
56 this idea was reinforced by the fact that in the first few rows to the left and the right of him there was hardly any face looking in his direction, he saw nothing but the backs of people directing their speech and their movements only towards members of their own side. Most of them were dressed in black, in old, long, formal frock coats that hung down loosely around them. These
61 clothes were the only thing that puzzled K., as he would otherwise have taken the whole assembly for a local political meeting.
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 Where did K.'s search begin for real?
- On the first floor
- At every flat
- In the rooms
[1 mark]
1.2 What was K. still unable to ask for?
- the investigating committee
- a joiner called Lanz
- the captain, Mrs. Grubach's nephew
[1 mark]
1.3 Why did the name 'Lanz' occur to K.?
- Because the captain, Mrs. Grubach's nephew, was called Lanz
- Because K. invented a joiner called Lanz to ask at every flat
- Because K. wanted to obtain a chance to look into the rooms
[1 mark]
1.4 What chance did K. obtain by asking whether Lanz the joiner lived there?
- A chance to look into the rooms
- A chance to ask for the investigating committee
- A chance to ask for the captain, Mrs. Grubach's nephew
[1 mark]
Question 2
Look in detail at this extract, from lines 1 to 15 of the source:
1 On the first floor, his search began for real. He still felt unable to ask for the investigating committee, and so he invented a joiner called Lanz--that name occurred to him because the captain, Mrs. Grubach's nephew, was called Lanz--so that he could ask at every flat whether Lanz the joiner lived there and thus obtain a chance to look into the rooms. It turned out, though, that
6 that was mostly possible without further ado, as almost all the doors were left open and the children ran in and out. Most of them were small, one- windowed rooms where they also did the cooking. Many women held babies in one arm and worked at the stove with the other. Half grown girls, who seemed to be dressed in just their pinafores worked hardest running to and fro. In every
11 room, the beds were still in use by people who were ill, or still asleep, or people stretched out on them in their clothes. K. knocked at the flats where the doors were closed and asked whether Lanz the joiner lived there. It was usually a woman who opened the door, heard the enquiry and turned to somebody in the room who would raise himself from the bed. "The gentleman's asking if a
How does the writer use language here to present the rooms and the people K. sees? 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 beginning of a story.
How has the writer structured the text to create a sense of claustrophobia?
You could write about:
- how claustrophobia intensifies by the end of the source
- 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, the discovery of the strange meeting makes the scene feel confusing and overwhelming. The writer suggests that K. has stumbled into a powerful world that operates by its own rules, but one where he is an outsider.
To what extent do you agree and/or disagree with this statement?
In your response, you could:
- consider your impressions of the strange assembly on the fifth floor
- comment on the methods the writer uses to portray the strange assembly on the fifth floor
- support your response with references to the text.
[20 marks]
Question 5
During your town’s Living History Day, short creative pieces will be performed between craft and skills displays.
Choose one of the options below for your entry.
-
Option A: Write a description of a medieval falconry display from your imagination. You may choose to use the picture provided for ideas:
-
Option B: Write the opening of a story about a bond between a person and an animal.
(24 marks for content and organisation, 16 marks for technical accuracy)
[40 marks]