Cambridge IGCSE™
WORLD LITERATURE 0408/33
Paper 3 Set Text October/November 2024
1 hour 30 minutes
You must answer on the enclosed answer booklet.
* 0 2 6 5 9 1 5 2 6 2 *
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 16 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.
DC (RCL (DF)) 336949/2
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SECTION A
Answer one question from this section.
Remember to support your ideas with details from the writing.
SAMANTA SCHWEBLIN: Fever Dream
1 Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it:
But the woman comes toward us dragging the girl patiently; she wipes her bald
head as if it were dusty, and she talks to her sweetly in her ear, saying something about
us that we can’t hear.
Do you know that girl, David?
Yes, I know her. 5
Is there part of you in her body?
Those are stories my mother tells. Neither you nor I have time for this. We’re looking
for worms, something very much like worms, and the exact moment when they touch
your body for the first time.
‘Who is she, Mommy?’ 10
There’s no more put-on nobility now. When they are close to us Nina takes a few
steps back; she wants us to move farther away. We make room for them by pressing up
against the ovens. The girl is Nina’s height but I couldn’t say how old she is. I think she’s
older, maybe your age.
Don’t waste time. 15
It’s just that your mother must know this girl, the girl and her mother and their whole
story. And I go on thinking about Carla as the woman leads the little girl around the
counter and the girl disappears from view because of her height. The woman presses
the button on the register and hands me the change with a sad smile. She does all of this
with both hands, one for the button, the other for my money, and just as I’d wondered a 20
moment before how she could take that child’s hand, now I wonder how it’s possible to
let go of it, and I accept the change thanking her many times, with guilt and remorse.
What else?
We go back home and Nina is sleepy. A nap so late is a bad business, later she has
trouble falling asleep at night. But we’re on vacation – that’s what we’re here for. I remind 25
myself of that so I’ll relax a little. As I put away the food we bought, Nina falls soundly
asleep on the living room sofa. I know her sleep. If nothing loud wakes her up, she could
be there for at least an hour or two. And then I think about the green house, and I wonder
how far away it is. The green house is the house where the woman took care of you.
Yes. 30
The one who saved you from the poison.
That is not important.
How can it not be? That’s the story we need to understand.
No, that’s not the story, it has nothing to do with the exact moment. Don’t get
distracted. 35
I need to measure the danger, otherwise it’s hard to calculate the rescue distance.
The same way I surveyed the house and its surroundings when we arrived, now I need
to see the green house, understand its gravity.
When did you start to measure this rescue distance?
It’s something I inherited from my mother. ‘I want you close,’ she’d say to me. ‘Let’s 40
stay within rescue distance.’
Your mother isn’t important. Go on.
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In what ways does Schweblin make this such a powerful and significant moment in the novel?
[25]
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AMA ATA AIDOO: Anowa
2 Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it:
Kofi Ako [Jumping up, furious]: Shut up, woman, shut up!
Content removed due to copyright restrictions.
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Content removed due to copyright restrictions.
[ANOWA’s answer is a hard grating laugh that goes on and on
even after the lights have gone out on them.]
How does Aidoo make this such a powerfully dramatic moment in 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:
Mr Wei was still singing his loud folk songs as we rode into the town square.
Content removed due to copyright restrictions.
‘I need to go help Mother and GaoLing,’ I said, then turned from her and walked
away.
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Explore how Tan makes this such a memorable moment in the novel. [25]
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NIKOLAI GOGOL: The Government Inspector
4 Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it:
Korobkin’s Wife: What a mess! What a frightful fiasco!
Judge: And the devil of it is, gentlemen, that I lent him three hundred
roubles.
Warden of Charities: So did I.
Postmaster [sighs]: So did I. 5
Bobchinsky: And Pyotr Ivanovich and I lent him sixty-five in notes, so we did.
Judge [spreading his hands in consternation]: But how did it happen,
gentlemen? That’s what I want to know. How did we make such
asses of ourselves?
Mayor [striking his forehead]: How could I be such an idiot? I’m starting 10
to dote, like an old mule! Thirty years I’ve been in the service
and there’s never been a shopkeeper or contractor could get the
better of me; I’ve outsmarted the sharpest crooks, I’ve cheated
sharks and foxes wily enough to rook the entire human race.
I’ve hoodwinked three governors! Governors! [In disgust.] And 15
that’s not the half of it …
Anna Andreevna: But this is impossible, Anton, he’s betrothed to our Masha.
Mayor [enraged]: ‘Betrothed’! A fig for your betrothal! Don’t give me that
betrothal nonsense now! [In desperation.] All right. Look at me.
Look, just look, all of you – the whole world, all Christendom – 20
look up and see the Mayor, see what a fool he’s made of himself!
Fool! Halfwit! Imbecile! [Shakes fist at himself.] Blockhead!
Taking that pup, that little squirt for a brass hat. Think of him
now, trumpeting it all down the highway! He’ll spread the story
to the four corners of the earth! I shall be the laughing stock of 25
the country. And as if that weren’t sufficient, some hack, some
penny-a-liner will come along and stick us all in a comedy. That’s
the worst of it! They’ll spare nothing! They’ll take no notice of
rank, or reputation; anything to raise a few cheap laughs and
to make the rabble clap. What are you laughing at? You’re 30
laughing at yourselves, that’s what! … You, eugh! [Stamps with
rage.] I’d like to get my hands on those scribblers! Penpushers!
Dirty liberals! Devil’s spawn! I’d trample the lot of you, grind you
to powder and scatter you to the four winds! [Swiping his fist and
pounding the floor with his heel. After a brief silence.] I still can’t 35
think straight. When God punishes someone it seems he takes
away his reason first. Was there anything about that guttersnipe
that remotely resembled a government inspector? Nothing!
Not even one little finger! And suddenly it’s all ‘the government
inspector’, ‘the government inspector’! So who first got it into his 40
head that he was a government inspector? Tell me that!
Warden of Charities [spreading his arms]: For the life of me I couldn’t say how it
happened. Some fog must have got into our minds.
Judge: I’ll tell you who started it! They started it, those two smart alecks!
[Pointing at DOBCHINSKY and BOBCHINSKY.] 45
Bobchinsky: No, it wasn’t me. I never dreamt of it.
Dobchinsky: I never said a thing!
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Warden of Charities: It was them! Of course it was them.
Inspector of Schools: So it was. They dashed in here from the inn like a pair of
lunatics, shouting: ‘He’s here, he’s here, and he’s not spending 50
any money!’ A prize rabbit you caught!
Mayor: It had to be you, didn’t it? The town gossips and scandalmongers!
Warden of Charities: Damn you both to hell! And your inspector with you!
Mayor: You do nothing but run around spreading panic, you blathering
magpies! 55
Judge: Gibbering monkeys!
Inspector of Schools: Fatheads!
Warden of Charities: Potbellied toadstools! [All crowd round.]
Bobchinsky: As God’s my witness it wasn’t me, it was Pyotr Ivanovich.
Dobchinsky: Oh no, Pyotr Ivanovich, it was you who started it … 60
Bobchinsky: Oh no, it wasn’t, it was you, you said it first …
In what ways does Gogol make this such a comical and significant moment in the play? [25]
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from SONGS OF OURSELVES Volume 2: from Part 2
5 Read this poem, and then answer the question that follows it:
You will Know When You Get There
Nobody comes up from the sea as late as this
in the day and the season, and nobody else goes down
the last steep kilometre, wet-metalled where
a shower passed shredding the light which keeps
pouring out of its tank in the sky, through summits, 5
trees, vapours thickening and thinning. Too
credibly by half celestial, the dammed
reservoir up there keeps emptying while the light lasts
over the sea, where it ‘gathers the gold against
it’. The light is bits of crushed rock randomly 10
glinting underfoot, wetted by the short
shower, and down you go and so in its way does
the sun which gets there first. Boys, two of them,
turn campfirelit faces, a hesitancy to speak
is a hesitancy of the earth rolling back and away 15
behind this man going down to the sea with a bag
to pick mussels, having an arrangement with the tide,
the ocean to be shallowed three point seven metres,
one hour’s light to be left, and there’s the excrescent
moon sponging off the last of it. A door 20
slams, a heavy wave, a door, the sea-floor shudders.
Down you go alone, so late, into the surge-black fissure.
(Allen Curnow)
How does Allen Curnow use words and images to striking effect in You will Know When You Get
There? [25]
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TURN OVER FOR QUESTION 6.
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from STORIES OF OURSELVES Volume 2
6 Read this extract from Mrs Sen’s (by Jhumpa Lahiri), and then answer the question that follows it:
One afternoon a few days later the phone rang. Some very tasty halibut had arrived
on the boats. Would Mrs Sen like to pick one up? She called Mr Sen, but he was not at
his desk. A second time she tried calling, then a third. Eventually she went to the kitchen
and returned to the living room with the blade, an eggplant, and some newspapers.
Without having to be told Eliot took his place on the sofa and watched as she sliced the 5
stems off the eggplant. She divided it into long, slender strips, then into small squares,
smaller and smaller, as small as sugar cubes.
‘I am going to put these in a very tasty stew with fish and green bananas,’ she
announced. ‘Only I will have to do without the green bananas.’
‘Are we going to get the fish?’ 10
‘We are going to get the fish.’
‘Is Mr Sen going to take us?’
‘Put on your shoes.’
They left the apartment without cleaning up. Outside it was so cold that Eliot could
feel the chill on his teeth. They got in the car, and Mrs Sen drove around the asphalt loop 15
several times. Each time she paused by the grove of pine trees to observe the traffic on
the main road. Eliot thought she was just practicing while they waited for Mr Sen. But
then she gave a signal and turned.
The accident occurred quickly. After about a mile Mrs Sen took a left before she
should have, and though the oncoming car managed to swerve out of her way, she was 20
so startled by the horn that she lost control of the wheel and hit a telephone pole on the
opposite corner. A policeman arrived and asked to see her license, but she did not have
one to show him. ‘Mr Sen teaches mathematics at the university’ was all she said by way
of explanation.
The damage was slight. Mrs Sen cut her lip, Eliot complained briefly of a pain in his 25
ribs, and the car’s fender would have to be straightened. The policeman thought Mrs
Sen had also cut her scalp, but it was only the vermilion. When Mr Sen arrived, driven by
one of his colleagues, he spoke at length with the policeman as he filled out some forms,
but he said nothing to Mrs Sen as he drove them back to the apartment. When they got
out of the car, Mr Sen patted Eliot’s head. ‘The policeman said you were lucky. Very 30
lucky to come out without a scratch.’
After taking off her slippers and putting them on the bookcase, Mrs Sen put away
the blade that was still on the living room floor and threw the eggplant pieces and the
newspapers into the garbage pail. She prepared a plate of crackers with peanut butter,
placed them on the coffee table, and turned on the television for Eliot’s benefit. ‘If he 35
is still hungry give him a Popsicle from the box in the freezer,’ she said to Mr Sen, who
sat at the Formica table sorting through the mail. Then she went into her bedroom and
shut the door. When Eliot’s mother arrived at quarter to six, Mr Sen told her the details
of the accident and offered a check reimbursing November’s payment. As he wrote out
the check he apologized on behalf of Mrs Sen. He said she was resting, though when 40
Eliot had gone to the bathroom he’d heard her crying. His mother was satisfied with
the arrangement, and in a sense, she confessed to Eliot as they drove home, she was
relieved. It was the last afternoon Eliot spent with Mrs Sen, or with any baby-sitter. From
then on his mother gave him a key, which he wore on a string around his neck. He was
to call the neighbors in case of an emergency, and to let himself into the beach house 45
after school. The first day, just as he was taking off his coat, the phone rang. It was his
mother calling from her office. ‘You’re a big boy now, Eliot,’ she told him. ‘You okay?’ Eliot
looked out the kitchen window, at gray waves receding from the shore, and said that he
was fine.
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To what extent does Jhumpa Lahiri make this a satisfying ending to 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.
SAMANTA SCHWEBLIN: Fever Dream
7 In what ways does Schweblin create disturbing impressions of rural Argentina in the novel? [25]
AMA ATA AIDOO: Anowa
8 Explore the ways in which Aidoo dramatically conveys attitudes towards wealth in 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 movingly convey what growing old is like for LuLing? [25]
NIKOLAI GOGOL: The Government Inspector
10 Explore the ways in which Gogol vividly presents deception in the play. [25]
from SONGS OF OURSELVES Volume 2: from Part 2
11 Explore how Robinson Jeffers makes The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean such a memorable
poem. [25]
from STORIES OF OURSELVES Volume 2
12 How does Ruth Prawer Jhabvala make Pritam such a fascinating character in In the Mountains?
[25]
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