Cambridge IGCSE™

WORLD LITERATURE 0408/31

Paper 3 Set Text May/June 2023

1 hour 30 minutes

You must answer on the enclosed answer booklet.

* 0 3 0 0 0 8 8 7 5 7 *

You will need: Answer booklet (enclosed)

INSTRUCTIONS
● Answer two questions in total:
Section A: answer one question.
Section B: answer one question.
● Your questions may be on one set text or on two set texts.
● Follow the instructions on the front cover of the answer booklet. If you need additional answer paper,
ask the invigilator for a continuation booklet.

INFORMATION
● The total mark for this paper is 50.
● The number of marks for each question or part question is shown in brackets [ ].

This document has 12 pages.

DC (RCL (DF)) 313282/1

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SECTION A

Answer one question from this section.

Remember to support your ideas with details from the writing.

YUKIO MISHIMA: The Sound of Waves

1 Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it:

Carrying the eight divers who had entered the contest, the boat pulled away from
the shore.

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And it was in this same fashion

that the politics of the island were always conducted.

In what ways does Mishima make this such a dramatic and significant moment in the novel? [25]

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FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA: Yerma

2 Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it:

Yerma: So that’s where you’ve been?

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The pilgrims’ chorus is heard.]

How does Lorca make this such a powerfully dramatic ending to the play? [25]

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AMY TAN: The Bonesetter’s Daughter

3 Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it:

For the journey to the wedding Precious Auntie changed her clothes to her
bridal costume, a red jacket and skirt, the fancy headdress with a scarf that she had
to drape over her head once she left her father’s home.

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She tipped the ladle
and swallowed.

Explore how Tan makes this moment in the novel so shocking. [25]

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NIKOLAI GOGOL: The Government Inspector

4 Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it:

Mayor: Well, Anna Andreevna, how about that, eh? Never imagined
anything like that, did you? A fine rich catch, dammit! You have to
admit: it’s beyond your wildest dreams, isn’t it? One moment you’re
just any old mayor’s wife, the next—damn it all!—you’re mother-in-
law to a fine young devil like that … 5
Anna Andreevna: On the contrary; I knew right from the start. It may seem incredible
to you, because you’re so uncouth. You’ve never mixed with genteel
people before.
Mayor: I’m a genteel person myself, I’ll have you know. No, but just think,
Anna Andreevna, we’re birds of quite a different feather now, 10
eh? Flying high we are now, damn it all! Oho, just you wait, I’m
going to make it sticky for those toads, those snakes in the grass
with their petitioning and informing. Hey, you out there! [Enter
CONSTABLE.] Ah, it’s you—Ivan Karpovich! Listen: get out there
and fetch those shopkeepers, there’s a good fellow. I’ve got them 15
now, the scum! How dare they complain about me! I’ll teach those
two-faced Jews! You wait, my little doves, I’ll give you something to
complain about. So far I’ve only had you by the whiskers: wait till
I get hold of your beards! I want the name of every single person
who came complaining about me, and every one of those scribbling 20
rats that wrote out their petitions. And make sure the people of this
town all know how God has chosen to honour their mayor, that I’m
giving my daughter in marriage not to some common squirt, but to
a man such as the world has never seen before, a man who can do
anything! Anything! Shout it from the rooftops, ring the bells till they 25
crack, this is your mayor’s great day! [Exit CONSTABLE.] So what
about it, Anna Andreevna? Where do you want to live then? Here or
in St P?
Anna Andreevna: In St Petersburg, of course! You don’t imagine one could stay on
here! 30
Mayor: If you say St P, St Ρ it shall be. Mind you, it wouldn’t be too bad
here, either. Expect I’d have to chuck in being mayor, eh, Anna
Andreevna?
Anna Andreevna: Naturellement! How could one be mayor now?
Mayor: I say, Anna Andreevna, do you think I might land a plum job in 35
St Petersburg? You never know, what with his being a crony of
all those ministers, and calling at the palace, he could pull a few
strings and in time I might end up a general. Eh, what about that,
Anna Andreevna? Do you think I’ll make it to general?
Anna Andreevna: I should certainly hope so! 40
Mayor: It’d be capital to be a general, damn it! Complete with sash and all.
What sash do you prefer, Anna Andreevna, the red or the blue?
Anna Andreevna: The blue, of course.
Mayor: Just listen to that! There’s nothing wrong with the red, either.
You know the great thing about being a general? Suppose you 45
want to travel somewhere: couriers and adjutants gallop on
ahead—‘Horses! Horses for the General!’ All those councillors,
captains and mayors just sit and wait and wait for horses and you
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don’t give a hoot. You’re off to dine with the governor and the mayor
can sit and stew—ha, ha, ha! [Doubles up with laughter.] That’s the 50
best thing about it, damn it!
Anna Andreevna: It’s always the coarse things that appeal to you. You’ll have to bear
in mind that our life is going to be completely different now. No
more riff-raff like this lot for your friends. No more dog-crazy judges
for you to go hunting with, or Zemlyanikas. You’re going to mix with 55
counts and society people, the crème de la crème. And to tell you
the truth, I’m not sure how you’ll manage: sometimes you come out
with the sort of words you’d never hear in the beau monde.
Mayor: So what? Words can do no harm.
Anna Andreevna: That may be true for some common-or-garden mayor—but life 60
there’s completely different.
Mayor: It certainly is! They have these two fish dishes there—a kind of eels
and smelts—it makes your mouth water just to look at them!
Anna Andreevna: Huh! Fish—that’s all he can think about! But I shall want to have
the best house in the capital, and when you come into my room 65
there’ll be such an exquisite aroma you’ll have to shut your eyes
tight. [Screws eyes shut and sniffs.] Ah, that’s wonderful!

How does Gogol strikingly portray the Mayor and his wife at this moment in the play? [25]

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SONGS OF OURSELVES Volume 2: from Part 2

5 Read this poem, and then answer the question that follows it:

The Darkling Thrush

I leant upon a coppice gate

When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky 5
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
The land’s sharp features seemed to be
The Century’s corpse outleant, 10
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth 15
Seemed fervourless as I.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited; 20
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings 25
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air 30
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.

(Thomas Hardy)

How does Thomas Hardy strikingly convey the speaker’s state of mind in The Darkling Thrush?
[25]

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From STORIES OF OURSELVES Volume 2

6 Read this extract from The Paper Menagerie (by Ken Liu), and then answer the question that
follows it:

“English,” I said. “Speak English.”

She tried. “What happen?”
I pushed the chopsticks and the bowl before me away: stir-fried green peppers with
five-spice beef. “We should eat American food.”
Dad tried to reason. “A lot of families cook Chinese sometimes.” 5
“We are not other families.” I looked at him. Other families don’t have moms who
don’t belong.
He looked away. And then he put a hand on Mom’s shoulder. “I’ll get you a
cookbook.”
Mom turned to me. “Bu haochi?” 10
“English,” I said, raising my voice. “Speak English.”
Mom reached out to touch my forehead, feeling for my temperature. “Fashao la?”
I brushed her hand away. “I’m fine. Speak English!” I was shouting.
“Speak English to him,” Dad said to Mom. “You knew this was going to happen
someday. What did you expect?” 15
Mom dropped her hands to her side. She sat, looking from Dad to me, and back to
Dad again. She tried to speak, stopped, and tried again, and stopped again.
“You have to,” Dad said. “I’ve been too easy on you. Jack needs to fit in.”
Mom looked at him. “If I say ‘love,’ I feel here.” She pointed to her lips. “If I say ‘ai,’ I
feel here.” She put her hand over her heart. 20
Dad shook his head. “You are in America.”
Mom hunched down in her seat, looking like the water buffalo when Laohu used to
pounce on him and squeeze the air of life out of him.
“And I want some real toys.”

Dad bought me a full set of Star Wars action figures. I gave the Obi-Wan Kenobi to Mark. 25
I packed the paper menagerie in a large shoe box and put it under the bed.
The next morning, the animals had escaped and took over their old favorite spots in
my room. I caught them all and put them back into the shoe box, taping the lid shut. But
the animals made so much noise in the box that I finally shoved it into the corner of the
attic as far away from my room as possible. 30
If Mom spoke to me in Chinese, I refused to answer her. After a while, she tried
to use more English. But her accent and broken sentences embarrassed me. I tried to
correct her. Eventually, she stopped speaking altogether if I was around.
Mom began to mime things if she needed to let me know something. She tried
to hug me the way she saw American mothers did on TV. I thought her movements 35
exaggerated, uncertain, ridiculous, graceless. She saw that I was annoyed, and stopped.
“You shouldn’t treat your mother that way,” Dad said. But he couldn’t look me in the
eyes as he said it. Deep in his heart, he must have realized that it was a mistake to have
tried to take a Chinese peasant girl and expect her to fit in the suburbs of Connecticut.
Mom learned to cook American style. I played video games and studied French. 40
Every once in a while, I would see her at the kitchen table studying the plain side
of a sheet of wrapping paper. Later a new paper animal would appear on my nightstand
and try to cuddle up to me. I caught them, squeezed them until the air went out of them,
and then stuffed them away in the box in the attic.

In what ways does Liu memorably portray the narrator and his parents at this moment in the
story? [25]

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SECTION B

Answer one question from this section.

Remember to support your ideas with details from the writing.

YUKIO MISHIMA: The Sound of Waves

7 Explore the ways in which Mishima vividly portrays the relationship between Shinji and his mother.
[25]

FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA: Yerma

8 How does Lorca’s portrayal of men contribute to the dramatic impact of the play?

Do not use the extract printed in Question 2 in answering this question. [25]

AMY TAN: The Bonesetter’s Daughter

9 In what ways does Tan memorably convey LuLing’s struggles in adapting to life in America? [25]

NIKOLAI GOGOL: The Government Inspector

10 How does Gogol make Khlestakov such an entertaining character? [25]

SONGS OF OURSELVES Volume 2: from Part 2

11 Explore how Peter Reading vividly depicts the experience of observing whales in Cetacean. [25]

From STORIES OF OURSELVES Volume 2

12 Explore the ways in which Jamaica Kincaid vividly conveys the narrator’s thoughts and feelings
about her parents in A Walk to the Jetty. [25]

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publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

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Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2023 0408/31/M/J/23