Paper 1: Explorations in creative reading and writing (1)
Time allowed: 1 hour 45 minutes
Section A: Reading
Answer all questions in this section.
You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section.
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1. Read again the first part of the source, lines 1 to 13.
List four things from this part of the text about the sound the two men hear.
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2. Look in detail at this extract from lines 14 to 28 of the source:
“The hound!” cried Holmes. “Come, Watson, come! Great heavens, if we are too late!
He had started running swiftly over the moor, and I had followed at his heels. But now 15
from somewhere among the broken ground immediately in front of us there came one last
despairing yell, and then a dull, heavy thud. We halted and listened. Not another sound broke
the heavy silence of the windless night.
I saw Holmes put his hand to his forehead like a man distracted.1 He stamped his feet upon
the ground. 20
“He has beaten us, Watson. We are too late”
“No, no, surely not!”
“Fool that I was to hold my hand.2 And you, Watson, see what comes of abandoning your
charge! But, by Heaven, if the worst has happened we’ll avenge him!”
Blindly we ran through the gloom, blundering against boulders, forcing our way through 25
gorse bushes, panting up hills and rushing down slopes, heading always in the direction
whence those dreadful sounds had come. At every rise Holmes looked eagerly round him,
but the shadows were thick upon the moor, and nothing moved upon its dreary face.
How does the writer use language here to convey Holmes’s desperation?
You could include the writer’s choice of:
● words and phrases
● language features and techniques
● sentence forms
[8 marks]
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3. You now need to think about the whole of the source.
This text is taken from a chapter near the end of the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.
How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?
You could write about:
● what the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning of the source
● how and why the writer changes this focus as the source develops
● any other structural features that interest you.
[8 marks]
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4. Focus this part of your answer on the last part of the source, from line 29 to the end.
A student, having read this section of the text, said; “The writer makes the moment
when Holmes and Watson find the body very dramatic. I can feel the tension rising as I
read it”.
To what extent do you agree?
In your response, you could;
● write about your own impressions of the discovery of the body
● evaluate how the writer has created these impressions
● support your opinions with references to the text.
[20 marks]
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Section B: Writing
You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section.
Write in full sentences.
You are reminded of the need to plan your answer.
You should leave enough time to check your work at the end.
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5. You are going to enter a creative writing competition.
Your entry will be judged by a panel of people of your own age.
Either: Write a description suggested by this picture:
Image
Or:
Write the opening part of a story that begins with a desperate chase in a bleak
setting.
(24 marks for content and organisation
16 marks for technical accuracy)
[40 marks]
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Source A
This extract is taken from a Sherlock Holmes crime novel called The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle. This book was first published in serial form in 1901-2. In this extract Holmes and
Watson hear a terrible sound on the moors.
Holmes had sprung to his feet, and I saw his dark, athletic outline at the door of the hut, his
shoulders stooping, his head thrust forward, his face peering into the darkness.
“Hush!” he whispered. “Hush!”
The cry had been loud on account of its vehemence, but it had pealed out from somewhere
far off on the shadowy plain. Now it burst upon our ears, nearer, louder, more urgent than 5
before.
“Where is it?” Holmes whispered; and I knew from the thrill of his voice that he, the man of
iron, was shaken to the soul. “Where is it Watson?”
“There, I think” I pointed to the darkness.
“No, there!” 10
Again the agonised cry swept through the silent night, louder and much nearer than ever.
And a new sound mingled with it, a deep, muttered rumble, musical and yet menacing, rising
and falling like the low, constant murmur of the sea.
“The hound!” cried Holmes. “Come, Watson, come! Great heavens, if we are too late!
He had started running swiftly over the moor, and I had followed at his heels. But now 15
from somewhere among the broken ground immediately in front of us there came one last
despairing yell, and then a dull, heavy thud. We halted and listened. Not another sound broke
the heavy silence of the windless night.
I saw Holmes put his hand to his forehead like a man distracted.1 He stamped his feet upon
the ground. 20
“He has beaten us, Watson. We are too late”
“No, no, surely not!”
“Fool that I was to hold my hand.2 And you, Watson, see what comes of abandoning your
charge! But, by Heaven, if the worst has happened we’ll avenge him!”
Blindly we ran through the gloom, blundering against boulders, forcing our way through 25
gorse bushes, panting up hills and rushing down slopes, heading always in the direction
whence those dreadful sounds had come. At every rise Holmes looked eagerly round him,
but the shadows were thick upon the moor, and nothing moved upon its dreary face.
“Can you see anything?”
“Nothing.” 30
“But, hark, what is that?”
A low moan had fallen upon our ears. There it was again upon our left! On that side a ridge
of rocks ended in a sheer cliff which overlooked a stone-strewn slope. On its jagged face was
spread-eagled some dark, irregular object. As we ran towards it the vague outline hardened
into a definite shape. It was a prostrate man face downward upon the ground, the head 35
doubled under him at a horrible angle, the shoulders rounded and the body hunched together
as if in the act of throwing a somersault. So grotesque was the attitude that I could not for
the instant realise that that moan had been the passing of his soul. Not a whisper, not a
rustle, rose now from the dark figure over which we stooped. Holmes laid his hand upon
him and held it up again, with an exclamation of horror. The gleam of the match which he 40
struck shone upon his clotted fingers and upon the ghastly pool which widened slowly from
the crushed skull of the victim. And it shone upon something else which turned our hearts
sick and faint within us – the body of Sir Henry Baskerville!
There was no chance of either of us forgetting that peculiar ruddy tweed suit – the very one
which he had worn on the first morning that we had seen him in Baker Street. We caught 45
the one clear glimpse of it, and then the match flickered and went out, even as the hope had
gone out of our souls. Holmes groaned, and his face glimmered white through the darkness.
“The brute! The brute!” I cried with clenched hands. “Oh Holmes, I shall never forgive myself
for having left him to his fate.
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Glossary
Distracted1 – mentally confused or deeply troubled by grief and anxiety.
Hold my hand2 – wait without taking action.
End of paper
Tony B Harper.
