END TERM EXAMINATIONS
ACADEMIC YEAR 2024/2025
TERM TWO (2)
GRADE SEVEN (7)
SUBJECT ENGLISH
EXAM DURATION 1 HOUR
STUDENT’S NAME
INSTRUCTIONS
▪ Answer ALL questions.
▪ Write your name in the box at the top of the page.
INFORMATION
▪ The total mark for this paper is 50.
▪ The number of marks for each question or part question is shown in brackets [ ]
2
My Octopus Teacher
The following text is a review of a film about a man named Craig Foster and the relationship he
develops with an octopus while on diving trips in the ocean.
My Octopus Teacher is a gorgeous wildlife documentary. It’s also a powerful tale of how a man
in crisis found joy and purpose through nature and a remarkable relationship with an octopus. 5
That man is South African documentary filmmaker Craig Foster. Some years back, Foster’s
health was suffering due to his high-stress lifestyle. He decided to seek solace in a shallow bay
he had explored as a child. During one dive, he unexpectedly came across a female octopus.
Over the next year, he devoted his life to befriending and learning all he could about her.
Despite the vast differences between their two species, they developed a special 10
understanding.
The first scene of the film shows the odd charm of their friendship. It opens with a slow aerial
camera shot of the ocean shore, beautifully lit with a delicate light. We’re immediately lulled by
the gentle background music, plus the sound of the waves breaking against rocks and the faint
calls of seagulls. The camera then tracks Foster as he explores the seafloor, wearing only 15
shorts, scuba fins and goggles. (In order to be closer to nature, he has gone without a wetsuit
and oxygen tanks.) In the next shot, we see him eye-level with the octopus, who timidly remains
half-hidden in her rocky den. Her body is considerably smaller than a cat’s, but she is not un-
catlike in her curiosity as she prods her tentacles at Foster’s bare arm.
Foster is both our main human subject and our narrator. Early on in the film, he describes two 20
experiences that prepared him for his time with the octopus. The first was growing up in a
wooden bungalow on the shore of the treacherous Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Foster
remembers fierce waves breaking down the bungalow’s doors and flooding the ground floor.
This is what partly inspired his passion for exploring the ocean. As he recounts this childhood
memory, the film makes superb use of dramatic flashbacks to keep the story visually interesting. 25
The other key experience for Foster was the time he and his brother spent filming their first
documentary, The Great Dance. This film follows the daily life of a bushman in the Kalahari
Desert in southern Africa. Foster recollects his amazement at how deeply connected the hunter
was to his surroundings. Years later, in his quest to learn about the octopus, Foster would draw
inspiration from the bushman’s legendary tracking skills. 30
We then flash forward to Foster’s decision, as a middle-aged man, to rediscover the undersea
world that had enchanted him as a boy. He tells us how hard it was for him to get into the water
at first, due to both the freezing temperatures and the rough swells1. Since he was free diving,
he also had to hold his breath while underwater. But he quickly overcame these challenges and
became fascinated by the strange sights in this underwater world – a world he calls ‘much more 35
extreme than our maddest science fiction.’
Equally astonishing is cinematographer2 Roger Horrocks’s filming technique. Horrocks shows
us the minutest details of air bubbles in ocean waves or the ghostly flashes of jellyfish. Many of
these shots are so perfectly composed that they seem to be painted rather than filmed.
Horrocks also beautifully captures the various colour and shape transformations of the octopus. 40
These include one in which she disguises herself as coral3.
The movie splendidly captures the wonder of Foster’s first meeting with the octopus. Foster
feels a sense of trust during their brief moment of eye contact. He makes a habit of visiting that
same area daily in hopes of finding her. He takes his time building a relationship with the
animal, for though she is fascinated by him, he can tell she is also nervous around him. The two 45
begin swimming together, and eventually the creature is hopping onto his arm, eager for
strokes.
© UCLES 2025 E/S7/INSERT/01
3
When not underwater with his new octopus companion, Foster is finding out everything he can
about her from scientific literature. We learn a lot about her species, the common octopus (or
octopus vulgaris), including the fact that most of her thinking occurs outside her central brain. 50
For her part, the octopus is busy studying Foster. She even cleverly incorporates him into her
hunting strategy.
There are some moments of genuine suspense involving the octopus’s attempts to escape
predators. Both the audience and Foster marvel at her great cunning when she escapes being
eaten by a pajama shark, first by camouflaging herself – and then, when that fails, by climbing 55
onto Foster’s back where the shark can’t reach her.
The movie’s title is completely appropriate. By the film’s end, we’re amazed at how much the
octopus truly has taught Foster – his passions for photography and the ocean, as well as his
determination to protect animals. Moreover, every aspect of his life, from his physical health to
his dealings with other people has improved. 60
The movie offers some ecological insights, but they don’t go deep. They’re pretty much limited
to a couple of brief comments by Foster on the diversity of life within the kelp4 forest. Still, the
atmosphere and the technical and storytelling skills that went into this film make it easily worthy
of its Best Documentary Feature win at a recent film awards ceremony.
Glossary
1
swells: regular movements of the sea
2
cinematographer: a person who operates the camera in film-making
3
coral: a hard substance in the sea made from shells of very small sea animals
4
kelp: seaweed
2
Section A: Reading
Spend 35 minutes on this section.
Read the text, a film review, in the insert, and answer Questions 1–14.
1 Look at the first paragraph (lines 4–11).
(a) Give two adjectives that tell the reader that the writer enjoyed watching the film.
•
[2]
(b) Look at the third sentence. Why does the writer begin this sentence with ‘That man’ instead
of his name?
[1]
(c) Give a two-word phrase that means ‘look for comfort’.
[1]
2 Look at the second paragraph (lines 12–19).
(a) How is the structure of the first sentence different from the other sentences in this
paragraph?
[1]
(b) Why are brackets ( ( ) ) used here?
[1]
3 Look at the third paragraph (lines 20–25).
Why is it surprising that Foster’s childhood memory inspired his love of the sea?
[1]
4 Look at the fourth paragraph (lines 26–30). How does Foster use the bushman’s skills to make
‘My Octopus Teacher’?
[1]
3
5 Look at the fifth paragraph (lines 31–36).
The writer uses But to introduce a contrasting idea in the fourth sentence. What is this contrasting
idea?
[1]
6 Look at the sixth paragraph (lines 37–41). Give one word that means ‘smaller than anything else’.
[1]
7 Look at the seventh paragraph (lines 42–47).
Give one idea from the first paragraph that is repeated in the seventh paragraph.
[1]
8 Look at the eighth paragraph (lines 48–52). What surprising thing does Foster discover about the
octopus in his research?
[1]
9 Look at the ninth paragraph. In lines 54–56, which sentence structure does the writer use to show
the sequence of action? Tick () one box.
simple
compound
complex
compound-complex
[1]
10 Look at the tenth paragraph (lines 57–60). Give one word that means ‘suitable’.
[1]
11 Look at the final paragraph (lines 61–64). The writer is not impressed with the environmental
aspect of the film. Give one phrase that shows the reader this.
[1]
[Turn over
4
12 Look at the whole text. How does the writer express his own opinion of the film?
Tick () one box.
powerful adverbs
use of scientific details
directly addressing the reader
use of personal pronouns
[1]
13 Do you think the octopus enjoys the attention from Craig Foster?
Tick () one box.
Yes
No
Give two reasons for your answer and support each reason with a quotation from the text.
First reason:
Quotation:
Second reason:
Quotation:
[4]
5
14 (a) Complete the fact file about the film, My Octopus Teacher, with information from the text.
My Octopus Teacher Information from text
Type of film
Narrator
Topic
Cinematographer
First scene
Award
[3]
(b) Summarise the film review, using information from the table. Use up to 50 words.
[2]
[Turn over
6
Section B: Writing
Spend 35 minutes on this section.
15 While cleaning an old house, you find a locked chest in the attic with your name carved on it.
Whenout:
you open it, what’s inside changes your life forever. Write a story about your discovery. Think
about:
• the setting
• the characters
• the plot
• your opinion.
Space for your plan:
Write your review on the next page. [25 marks]
7
[Turn over
8
t. d
