Task developed by Karen Yager and Jill Brigden, Knox Grammar School, 2013

Northern NSW da Vinci Decathlon SAMPLE

An academic gala day for years 9 and 10

English

Session 1

‘Learn how to see. Realise that everything connects to everything else’ Leonardo da Vinci.

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Team Number _____________ Activity One: Spelling (10 marks) Ten words will be read out to you. Please write your answers on the spelling sheet provided. Activity Two: Word Origins (8 marks) Draw a line to match the correct origin of the following words that are connected to light and colour, and provide their meaning:

Word Origin Meaning effulgence Greek

photophobia Latin

aubergine Latin

ferruginous Greek

tenebrous Latin

lambent Latin

luciferous Latin

chromatic French/Arabic

Activity Three: Analysing the extract from the poem ‘Morte D'Arthur’ by Alfred Tennyson (10 marks) This is the final part of Tennyson’s epic poem. King Arthur is dying so he orders his knight Sir Bedivere to throw his sword Excalibur back into the lake. At first his knight does not follow orders but he does eventually return the sword to the Lady of the Lake. …Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran, And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged Among the bulrush-beds, and clutch'd the sword, And strongly wheel'd and threw it. The great brand Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon, And flashing round and round, and whirl'd in an arch, Shot like a streamer of the northern morn, Seen where the moving isles of winter shock By night, with noises of the northern sea. So flash'd and fell the brand Excalibur: But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful, And caught him by the hilt, and brandish'd him Three times, and drew him under in the mere.

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Questions

1. Describe three ways that the poet conveys haste? Use quotes as evidence. (3 marks)

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2. Why and how does the poet use light in the poem? Provide at least one example. (2 marks)

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3. Find an example of the following poetic techniques: (3 marks)

a. Alliteration: ___________________________________________________________

b. Accumulation: _________________________________________________________

c. Polysyndeton: _________________________________________________________

4. How does the poet make the sword seem to be so mystical and powerful? Provide two

quotes as supporting evidence. (2 marks) ________________________________________________________________________

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Activity Four: Analysing an Image –Midnight in Paris Film Poster (6 marks) The film poster for Midnight in Paris with its bright swirls of colour is designed to persuade viewers to come and watch it. The poster features the main character Gil, a writer who is transported to 1920 in Paris where he meets famous artists such as Degas. Identify three visual techniques that are used to convey the surreal and magical nature of his adventures. Explain the meaning conveyed by each visual technique.

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Visual Techniques Meaning

Activity Five: Responding to a travel article: Huff Post – ‘Alaska Travel: Chasing the Aurora Borealis with Kids’ 31st March 2013 (6 marks) You've heard of storm chasing. Up in Alaska, they have aurora chasing. That means hunting for the best views of the mystical aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights. Though the phenomenon takes its name from the Roman goddess of dawn (Aurora) and the Greek word for the north wind (Borealis), the term is actually a misnomer. It's the solar wind - not the north wind - that stirs up auroral storms. The aurora borealis happens when the earth's atmosphere comes in contact with particles from the sun, which are guided toward the earth's

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magnetic poles. Depending upon a storm's strength, activity can range from a greenish glow in the sky to whipping, whirling ribbons of neon scarlet and yellow that appear to dance off the horizon. For families, the most fantastic natural light show on Earth is worth the trip north. Here are some tips for experiencing Alaska's aurora borealis with kids: Aim for Mid-Winter. The optimal viewing season runs from October and March, thought the lights start showing up as soon as Alaska's daylight fades in early autumn. Experts predict that the 11-year solar cycle is due to peak during the winters of 2013 and 2014, promising more frequent and more spectacular displays. Get out of the City. Artificial light has a dampening effect. From Alaska's largest city of Anchorage, you might see occasional glimmers of green, but to truly appreciate the breathtaking beauty of the aurora borealis, you need to get away from light pollution and head into the countryside. Questions

1. Identify three ways that this travel article tries to persuade families to visit Alaska to see the phenomenal aurora borealis. (3 marks)

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2. Add one other tip for experiencing Alaska's aurora borealis with kids using similar

persuasive language techniques. Use no more than 50-words and have at least three persuasive techniques. (3 marks)

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Activity Six: Analysing an extract from Five Bells by Gail Jones (20 marks) Circular Quay: she loved even the sound of it. Before she saw the bowl of bright water, before she saw the blue, unprecedented, and the clear sky sloping upwards, she knew from the lilted words it would be a circle like no other, key to a new world. The train swung in a wide arc to emerge alongside sturdy buildings and there it was, the first glimpses through struts of ironwork, and those blurred partial visions were a quiet pleasure. Down the escalator, rumbling with its heavy body-cargo, through the electronic turnstile, which captured her bent ticket, then, caught in the crowd, she was carried outside. There was confusion at first, the shock of sudden light, all the signs, all the clamour. But the vista resolved and she saw before her the row of ferry ports, each looking like a primary-colour holiday pavilion, and the boats, bobbing, their green and yellow forms toy-like, arriving, absorbing slow lines of passengers, departing. With a trampoline heart she saw the Bridge to her left: its modern shape, its optimistic uparching. Familiar from postcards and television commercials, here now, here-now, was the very thing itself, neat and enthralling. There were tiny flags on top and the silhouetted ant forms of people arduously climbing the steep bow. It looked stamped against the sky, as if nothing could remove it. It looked indelible. A coathanger, guidebooks said, but it was so much grander than this implied. The coherence of it, the embrace, the span of frozen hard-labour. Those bold pylons at the ends, the multimillions of hidden rivets. …From somewhere drifted the sound of a busking didgeridoo with an electronic backbeat, boum-boum, boum-boum; boum-boum, boum-boum. The didgeridoo dissolved in the air, thick and newly ancient. For tourists, Ellie thought, with no disparagement. For me. For all of us. Boum-boum, boum-boum. In the democratic throng, in the pandemonium of the crowd, she saw sunlight on the heads of Americans and Japanese; she saw small children with ice-creams and tour groups with cameras. She heard how fine weather might liberate a kind of relaxed tinkling chatter. There was a newsstand, with tiers of papers in several languages trembling in a light breeze, and people in booths here and there, selling ferry tickets behind glass. There was a human statue in pale robes, resembling something-or-other classical, and before him a flattened hat in which shone a few coins. A fringe of bystanders stood around, considering the many forms of art. Janus, origin of January. Ellie turned, like someone remembering, in the other direction. She had yet to see it fully. Past the last pier and the last ferry, there was a wharf with a line of ugly buildings, and beyond that, yes, an unimpeded view.

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It was moon-white and seemed to hold within it a great, serious stillness. The fan of its chambers leant together, inclining to the water. An unfolding thing, shutters, a sequence of sorts. Ellie marvelled that it had ever been created at all, so singular a building, so potentially faddish, or odd. And that shape of supplication, like a body bending into the abstraction of a low bow or a theological gesture. Ellie could imagine music in there, but not people, somehow. It looked poised in a kind of alertness to acoustical meanings, concentrating on sound waves, opened to circuit and flow. Yes, there it was. Leaning into the pure morning sky. Ellie raised her camera and clicked. Most photographed building in Sydney… She began to stride. With her cotton sunhat, and her small backpack, and this unexpected quiver in her chest, Ellie walked out into the livelong Sydney day. Sunshine swept around her. The harbour almost glittered. She lifted her face to the sky and smiled to herself. She felt as if - yes, yes - she was breathing in light. Questions

1. Describe the tone of this extract. (1 mark) ___________________________________________________________________________

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2. Discuss how two language features convey this tone. (2 marks)

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3. Identify two ways that colour and light are used in this extract to capture the setting?

Use direct quotes from the extract. (2 marks) ___________________________________________________________________________

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4. The extract is full of colour, light and movement. You can easily imagine that you are the individual seeing Circular Quay for the first time. Choose any iconic object or place such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris or Uluru in Alice Springs, and in 200-words maximum use the interplay of colour and light to capture what you see. Imagine that you are seeing the iconic object or place for the first time. You must use the following ingredients: (15 marks)

Interplay of colour and light (2 marks)

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A metaphor (1 mark) Include this here: _____________________________________________

Onomatopoeia (1 mark) Include this here: _____________________________________________ Sibilance: (1 mark)

Include this here: _____________________________________________ Iconic Object or Place: _______________________ ___________________________________________________________________________

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Criteria Sound Effective Skilful Engaging imaginative writing 1-2 3-4 5 Control of language and structure that describes evocatively the iconic object or place

1-2 3-4 5

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TOTAL /10