AQA Paper 2 LanguageWriters’ Viewpoints and

Perspectives

Year 10English Language

Name:_______________________________

Teacher:_____________________________

Paper 2: (8700): Writers’ viewpoints and perspectives (1 hour 45 minutes)

Two extracts: one 19th century non-fiction and one 21st century non-fiction

Section A: Reading (10 minutes reading time)

1. Listing question – e.g. “List four things from this part of the text about…” (4 marks) (AO1) (5 minutes)

2. Summarise the differences between… (8 marks) (AO1) (10 minutes)

3. How does the writer use language to…? (12 marks) (AO2) (15 minutes)

4. Compare how the two writers convey their different attitudes to… (16 marks) (AO3) (20 minutes)

Section B: Writing

Write an article / speech / letter about… (24 marks for content and organisation and 16 marks for SPaG) (AO5/6)

(5-7 minutes planning / 37-40 minutes writing)

For Section A (reading), you will be assessed using the following AOs:

AO1 Identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas; select and synthesise evidence from different texts.

AO2 Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language and structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support their views.

AO3 Compare writers' ideas and perspectives, as well as how these are conveyed, across two or more texts.

For Section B (writing), you will be assessed using the following AOs:

AO5 Communicate clearly, effectively, and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences; organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts.

AO6 Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

Contents of the booklet:

1837-1901 – The Victorian Timeline

Listing questions - M. Blondin’s feat at Niagra Falls / Nik Wallenda: the man crossing the Grand Canyon on a tightrope

Summary question - Extract from Fanny Fern’s recollection of her visit to an American ‘lunatic’ asylum / Extract from Nellie Bly’s article Ten Days in a Madhouse, (1887) recollecting her experience of visiting an asylum

Language question using 19th century text: Frederich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845)

Practising the language question - Grenfell Tower: Behind this disaster lies a brutal indifference to the lives of the poor. (The Guardian, 2017)

Baseline assessment – (lesson 5) PiXL Paper 2 - Extract from Remember When: Enduring Memories of Childhood Holidays by Tracey Emin / Extract from Our Watering Place by Charles Dickens (questions 1, 2 and 3)

Comparison question using both 19th and 21st century non-fiction texts – Extract from a letter written in 1839 by Charlotte Bronte (a famous 19th century author) who was working as a governess – a woman employed to teach and care for children in a household / Extract from an article written by a nanny, Monica Albelli, published in a broadsheet newspaper in 2013

Practice comparison question - Extract from an 1888 edition of the London Times, ‘Another Whitechapel Murder’ / Extract from The Guardian - Labour MP Jo Cox dies after being shot and stabbed

Language question - Extract from a relationship advice manual, How to be Happy Though Married written in 1849 by Reverend Edward John Hardy

Summary question and language question – Extract from The Guardian – Gender Equality: Why Women Are Still Held Back, 2013.

End of term reading assessment - PiXL Paper 2 - an extract from Rambles in Germany and Italy, in 1840, 1842 and 1843 by Mary Shelley / an extract from The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton (all questions)

1837 – 1901 – The Victorian Era

1837 – Alexandrina Victoria becomes the Queen of aged 18, after her uncle William IV dies.

1838 – London to Birmingham is linked by railway starting the railway boom.

1838 – The first ever photograph is taken in Britain by William Henry Fox-Talbot.

1838 – Charles Dickens publishes “Oliver Twist”.

1838 – Slavery is finally abolished over the British Empire.

1838 – Vaccination for the poor is provided for free.

1839 – 1842 – Britain defeats China in the Opium War and China signs the Treaty of Nanking. Britain is given Hong Kong.

1840 – Queen Victoria marries first cousin Prince Albert.

1840 – Britain claims New Zealand as a colony.

1841 – Bristol and London are linked by The Great Western Railway offers a journey in just 4 hours.

1842 – John Frances tried to assassinate Queen Victoria.

1842 – Children under 10 are no longer allowed to work in Mines (The Mines Act).

1843 – Britain claims the former Boer Republic of Natal as a British colony.

1843 – Dickens publishes “A Christmas Carol”.

1844 – Children aged 8 – 13 are no longer allowed to work over 6.5 hours a day (The Factory Act).

1845 – 1849 – Around 800,000 people die in the Irish Potato Famine. Irish survivors migrate to Britain, Australia, USA and Canada.

1844 – 1845 – Over 8,000km of railway is built across Britain.

1848 – Public health act introduced to try and combat death rates.

1850 – Workhouses are opened to try and help the poorest people. In return for work, they are given basics including food and a bed.

1850 – Britain introduces the post box.

1851 – London is Britain’s largest city with a population of around 2.4 million.

1851 – The First free public library opens in Winchester, Hampshire.

1851 – The Great Exhibition opens at Crystal Palace.

1851 – Roughly half of Britain’s population now live in cities.

1852 – Flushing public toilet opens in London.

1854 – Cholera epidemic leads to people demanding clean water and sewage systems in the cities.

1854 – 1856 – The Crimean War is fought by Britain and France against Russia.

1856 – Britain and France beat Russia in the Crimean War.

1856 – Police Established in all towns and cities.

1858 – India is now under British Rule.

1859 – Big Ben enters service next to Houses of Parliment.

1859 – Charles Darwin publishes “On the Origin of Species”.

1860 – Trams enter service in England.

1861 – Post office savings introduced for normal members of the public.

1861 – Death of Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert.

1863 – First underground railway is opened under London.

1863 – Foundation of the Football Association (FA).

1864 – Boys under 10 can no longer work as chimney sweeps.

1868 – The last public hanging.

1869 – Sainsbury’s opens in Dury Lane, London.

1870 – Schools open for 5 – 10 year olds.

1871 – The Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria.

1871 – Bank holidays are introduced allowing banks to close for a few days.

1872 – Secret ballot voting is introduced.

1872 – First FA Cup Final takes place.

1875 – First man swims the English Channels in 22 hours.

1876 – Alexander Bell invents the telephone.

1876 – Primary school is made compulsory.

1877 – First recording of a human’s voice is made.

1878 – Public electric lighting is first seen in London.

1879 – Thomas Edison invents the light bulb.

1880 – School is compulsory for 5 – 10 year olds (Education Act).

1883 – The first electric powered railway begins.

1887 – Britain creates colony of Nigeria in Africa.

1887 – Golden Jubilee celebrating 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s reign.

1887 – The Gramophone is invented.

1888 – Unsolved murders in London by “Jack the Ripper.”

1891 – Completion of New Scotland Yard.

1891 – Free education for children aged 5-13.

1896 – Speed limit for horseless carriages (early cars) is raised up to 14mph from 4mph.

1899 – The second Boer War starts in South Africa.

1901 – Population of Britain reaches 40million.

1901 – Queen Victoria passes away ending the Victorian Era.

Listing questions:

Extracts about tightrope-walking

AN EXCITING SCENE

M. Blondin’s feat at Niagara Falls

Yesterday was the day announced by Mr. Blondin for his daring attempt to cross the Niagara River, on a rope extended from bank to bank. Trained as an acrobat and tightrope walker, Mr Blondin has already undertaken numerous circus feats. At a few minutes before 5 o’clock, the 35 year old Mr Blondin could be seen standing on the American side, dressed in tights and covered with spangles, upon which the sun shone, making him appear as if clothed in light. He appeared scarcely the size of a year old infant at that distance, and the rope upon which he was standing a mere thread over an awful abyss.

At 5 o’clock precisely he started from the American side. Without hesitation he balanced his pole in his hands, and with a calmer and less fluttering heart than could be found in the audience, he commenced his terrible walk. The slightest misstep, the merest dizziness, the least uncertainty, would cast him at once into the perdition beneath, and crowd held their breaths in amazement as he went on and over the frightful chasm.

On his part, however, there was not the slightest irresoluteness. Calmly he tread the rope, which scarcely trembled or swayed with his weight, and, at about 550 feet from the shore, he coolly sat down on the rope, perched nearly 200 feet above the water and waved his hands to his friends. He then laid down on the rope full length with his balance pole across his chest with the same disregard and carelessness that a person would have reclined upon a lounge.

After some little time, Mr. Blondin rose to his feet with the same certainty that had marked all his previous operations, and continued his performance.He came slowly up the ascent on the Canadian side, amid the crash of Sweet Home from the brass bands, and the cheers upon cheers that went up from thousands of throats, celebrating the success of this most wonderful of all human feats, requiring the utmost skill, expertness, and clearheadedness, besides a miraculous courage and nerves of adamant.

From The Buffalo Republic, 1st July 1859

List four things about M. Blondin. (4 marks)

NIK WALLENDA: THE MAN CROSSING THE GRAND CANYON ON A TIGHTROPE

Nik Wallenda is a man prepared to die. On Sunday, in front of a global television audience of several million, the 34-year-old will step out on a 2 inch thick metal wire and attempt to enter the record books as the first person to walk across the Grand Canyon. Higher than the Empire State Building, highly, certainly, than Wallenda himself has ever attempted before, the wire will be suspended a stomach-lurching 1,500 feet above the Little Colorado River. Without a safety net or a harness, the only equipment Wallenda will use is a pole, which he will carry for balance.

“We’ve tried to prepare for the possibility that I could die,” he says with an admirable absence of drama. “My wife and kids would be looked after for the rest of their lives.”

But there’s a difference between preparing to die and expecting to die. If anyone can complete the 40 minute walk across the canyon, it’s Wallenda. “I’ve calculated it – it would take nine seconds to reach the bottom. That’s a lot of time for me to think,” he says. The daredevil already holds seven world records including the longest walk over a waterfall, which he achieved when he crossed Niagara Falls, and the highest bicycle tightrope (235 feet), completed live on breakfast television. Wallenda’s closest call was five years ago, during his bicycle tightrope, when his back wheel began to slip. “At that point, you go back to everything you have learned in training; what happens when this happened? How do I sort it out? Your mind reacts more quickly when you are up there, which is important,” he says. He pulled it back, to the relief of all those watching, and set a new world record. “It really shook me up though,” he admits. Does he ever get scared? “I don’t call it fear; I call it respect,” he asserts. “When I walk to the edge of a 15-storey building, my heart races, just like anyone else’s. But I turn that into respect and I think ‘I had better train well , so that I’m not just prepared, I am over-prepared.’”

The Telegraph Online

List four things about Nik Wallenda. (4 marks)

Summary question: Explain the differences between…

Extracts about Madness

Extract from Nellie Bly’s article Ten Days in a Madhouse, (1887) recollecting her experience of visiting an asylum – possibly the first piece of ‘stunt’ journalism by a woman.

The ambulance stopped with a sudden jerk and the doctor jumped out. “How many have you?” I heard someone inquire. “Only one, for the pavilion,” was the reply. A rough-looking man came forward and catching hold of me attempted to drag me out as if I had the strength of an elephant and would resist.I stood at the door and contemplated the scene before me. The long, uncarpeted hall was scrubbed to that peculiar whiteness seen only in public institutions. In the rear of the hall were large iron doors fastened by a padlock. Several still-looking benches and a number of willow chairs were the only articles of furniture. On either side of the hall were doors leading into what I supposed and what proved to be bedrooms. Hear the entrance door, on the right hand side, was a small sitting-room for the nurses, and opposite it was a room where dished was dished out.I went down to the rear of the room, and introduced myself to one of the women, and asked her all about myself. Her name, she said, was Miss Anne Neville, and she had been sick from overwork. She had been working as a chambermaid, and when her health gave way, she was sent to some Sisters’ Home to be treated. Her nephew, who was a waiter, was out of work, and being unable to pay her expenses at the home, had had her transferred to Bellevue.“Is there anything wrong with you mentally as well?” I asked her.“No,” she said. The doctors have been asking me many curious questions and confusing me as much as possible, but I have nothing wrong with my brain.”“Do you know that only insane people are sent to the pavilion?” I asked.“Yes, I know; but I am unable to do anything. The doctors refuse to listen to me, and it is useless to say anything to the nurses.’

1. Highlight quotations about the asylum.

2. What impression do you have of it?

Extract from Fanny Fern’s recollection of her visit to an American ‘lunatic’ asylum. (19th century)

My verdict after visiting a Lunatic Asylum is...what an immense improvement has modern humanity effected in the treatment of these unfortunates! What an advance upon the diabolical cruelty of blows, and stripes, and iron cages, and nothing to do, and no room to do it in! How, we have the elegant, spacious, well-ventilated and attractive building, surrounded with scenes of natural grandeur and beauty....One draws a long breath of relief to see them, under the eye of the watchful superintendent, raking hay in the sweet, fresh meadows, or walking about in a beautiful garden...How affecting, too, is the child-like confidence with which they approach a perfect stranger, to tell the sorrow that is eating their lives away! “Poor Laura’s dead!” said one of them to me, in mournful tones. “Poor Laura’s dead!” she repeated, without awaiting an answer, looking sorrowfully in my face. Another saw a window of a handsome room, watching with a smiling countenance the gravel-walk that led to the building. As I entered, she said, “I don’t know when he will come; if it is not this winter, it will be next summer; he said he would come and take me away, and I am going to sit here and wait for him;” and she turned again to the window and looked far off into the bright sunshine, and folded her hands in her lap in cheerful expectancy. As the key was turned in one of the wards a woman rushed to the door, and said fiercely to the doctor. “Let me out, I say!” He calmly barred the entrance with his arm, and laying one hand soothingly on her shoulder, replied, “By and by – wait a little – won’t you?” Her countenance grew placid; and she said coaxingly, “Well let me have one little peep out there then.” – “Yes,” said he, “you may got out so far,” pointing to a designated limit, but not accompanying her. She walked out delightedly, took a survey of the hall, and promptly returning said, “I wanted my father, but I see he is not there.” It seemed so humane to satisfy the poor creature, even though one knows she might be prey to some other fantasy the next minute. It is a very curious sight, these lunatics – men and women, preparing food in the perfectly-arranged kitchen.

1. Highlight quotations about the asylum.

2. What impression do you have of it?

Extracts about living conditions:

Frederich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845)

The town [of Manchester] is peculiarly built, so that a person may live in it for years, and go in and out daily without coming into contact with a working-people’s quarter or even with workers, that is, so long as he confines himself to his business or to pleasure walks. This arises chiefly from the fact [that] the working-people’s quarters are sharply separated from the sections of the city reserved for the middle-class, stretching like a girdle1, averaging a mile and a half in breadth, around the commercial district.

Outside, beyond this girdle, lives the upper and middle bourgeoisie2… the middle bourgeoisie in regularly laid out streets in the vicinity of the working quarters, the upper bourgeoisie in remoter villas with gardens […] in free, wholesome country air. And the finest part of the arrangement is this, that the members of this money aristocracy3 can take the shortest road through the middle of all the labouring districts to their places of business, without ever seeing that they are in the midst of the grimy misery that lurks to the right and the left.

Right and left a multitude of covered passages lead from the main street into numerous courts, and he who turns in thither gets into a filth and disgusting grime. In one of these courts there stands directly at the entrance, at the end of the covered passage, a privy4 without a door, so dirty that the inhabitants can pass into and out of the court only by passing through foul pools of stagnant urine and excrement. This is the first court on the Irk5 above Dulcie Bridge – should any one care to look into it. Below it on the river there are several tanneries6 which fill the whole neighbourhood with the stench of animal putrefaction.7

EXAM QUESTION:

How does the writer use language to convey the realities of life in Manchester during the mid-19th century? (12 marks)

1 a type of belt worn by women2 those who own most of society’s wealth3 people who rule4 toilet5 a river in North West England that flows through the northern suburbs of Manchester6 a place where leather is dyed.7 decay

Extract from The Guardian: Grenfell Tower: Behind this disaster lies a brutal indifference to the lives of the poor.

The horrific images of people signalling for help at the windows of a blazing Grenfell Tower will remain imprinted in our collective memory long after the demolition of its charred remains. They lived in one of the richest boroughs in one of the richest cities in the word. Yet the state utterly failed in its responsibility to provide them with the most basic of protections. It continues to fail to provide the survivors and relatives with the assistance they so desperately need. This grim insight into the society that we share with Grenfell Tower’s inhabitants should shake us all.

Official answers as to who and what was responsible will have to wait for the weeks, months and years of criminal investigation, inquest and inquiry to come. But it does not take a public inquiry to expose the shameful truth about Grenfell Tower. These were preventable deaths. We are a rich society that has created remedies for diseases once thought incurable and invented the world wide web. We know how to make housing decent, safe and fireproof and we have the money to do so. The negligence that led to dozens of men, women and children, many of them poor, many of them migrants, burning to death must forever be a stain on our conscience.

It falls to our national leaders to articulate this national sense of shame. Yet in interview after interview the prime minister has failed to demonstrate the compassion and empathy she surely feels in the face of the fury of desperate relatives still missing their loved ones. This matters. It is beyond belief that her response to this tragedy has been to evade even the most general questions about accountability by woodenly recounting lists of government actions. It is becoming increasingly untenable for her to claim she is in charge of the nation.

But the woeful response goes way beyond what Theresa May has left unsaid. Even more shocking is what has been left undone by the government and the local council. It took almost 72 hours just to announce the broad parameters of an aid package for the fire’s victims. There have been conflicting messages from the government and the council as to whether residents will be rehoused within the borough. Local relief efforts have been spearheaded by faith and community groups and members of the public have responded with generous donations. But there has been a complete lack of co-ordination by the council. Volunteers are struggling to organise donations and have no idea where to send them.

Residents have reported that there has been an almost total lack of an official presence to offer assistance around the estate. Displaced residents are still reportedly sleeping on the floors of friends and relatives; others have been put up in hotels with no access to money and not enough food.

Distraught relatives are being left to try to frantically track down their loved ones in hospitals, with little official assistance. The council’s response betrays

the same casual contempt for its residents living in its poorest estates that contributed to the catastrophe in the first place. The Cabinet Office should have immediately stepped in when it was apparent that the council was incapable of providing co-ordination and assistance.

The independent public inquiry into the fire should proceed as quickly as possible with the involvement of survivors and relatives. Its first task must be to produce an interim report with recommendations for what steps need to be taken to avoid this happening again in one of the hundreds of other tower blocks across the country. It should be chaired by a senior judge and be given broad terms of reference that include the shameful lack of official relief efforts. It must identify where blame should be apportioned and where the accountability for this tragedy should lie.

Why was a tower block wrapped in flammable cladding, when the non-flammable sort was only a fraction more expensive? Why were there no sprinkler systems installed? Was the tower subject to regular fire inspections by the council? Why were warnings from residents that the block was a catastrophe waiting to happen ignored by the management company and the council? Why were residents issued with advice to stay in flats that became death traps within minutes of the fire starting?

…It’s impossible to look at the shocking tragedy of Grenfell Tower and not conclude that the lives of those who lived in that tower block have been lost in an unimaginably cruel and unnecessary way. It is hard to escape the conclusion that they fell victim to a culture shaped by indifference to the less well-off; that extols the virtues of the market over the positive role of the state; that scorns expertise and regulation and cuts corners in the name of trimming budgets. It should shame us all.

Exam question:

How does the writer use language to portray the residents of Grenfell Tower? (12 marks)

*Work through the extract in chronological order

*Use language and structure techniques

*Briefly explain why techniques are being used and the impact they have

*Link quotations / ideas together

Comparison question

Extracts about nannies / childcare:

Extract from a letter written in 1839 by Charlotte Brontë (a famous 19th century author) who was working as a governess – a woman employed to teach and care for children in a household.

Charlotte wrote the letter to her sister, Emily Brontë (also a famous 19th century author).

Dearest Lavinia*,

I am most exceedingly obliged to you for the trouble you have taken in seeking up my things and sending them all right. The box and its contents were most acceptable.

I have striven hard to be pleased with my new situation The country, the house, and the beautiful grounds are, as I have said, divine. But, alack-a-day! There is such a thing as seeing all beautiful things around you – pleasant woods, winding white paths, green lawns, and blue sunshiny sky – and not having a free moment or a free thought left to enjoy them in. The children are constantly with me, and having more riotous, perverse, unmanageable cubs never grew. As for correcting them, I soon quickly found that was entirely out of the question: they are to do as they like. A complaint made to Mrs. Sidgwick brings only black looks upon oneself and unjust partial excuses to screen the children. I have tried that plan once. It succeeded so notably that I shall try it no more. I said in my last letter that Mrs. Sidgwick did not know me. I now begin to find that she does not intend to know me, that she cares nothing in the world about me except to contrive how the greatest possible quantity of labour may be squeezed out of me, and to that end she overwhelms me with oceans of needlework, yards of cambric to hem, muslin night-caps to make, and above all things, dolls to dress. I do not think that she likes me at all, because I can’t help being shy in such and entirely novel scene, surrounded as I have hitherto been by strange and constantly changing faces. I see now more clearly than I have ever done before that a private governess has no existence, is not considered as a living rational being except as connected with the wearisome duties she has to fulfill. While she is teaching the children, working for them, amusing them, it is all right. If she steals a moment for herself, she is a nuisance. Nevertheless, Mrs. Sidgwick is universally considered an amiable woman. Her manners are fussily affable. She talks a great deal, but as it seems to me not much to the purpose. Perhaps I may like her better after a while. At present I have no call to her. Mr. Sidgwickis in my opinion a hundred times better – less profession, less bustling condescension, but a far kinder heart.

As to Mrs. Collins’ report that Mrs. Sigdwick intended to keep me personally, I do not think that such was ever her design. Moreover, I would not stay without some alterations. For instance, this burden of sewing would have to be removed. It is too bad for anything. I never in my whole life had my time so fully taken up.

Don’t show this letter to Papa, or aunt, only to Branwell.* They will think I am never satisfied wherever I am. I complain to you because it is a relief, and really I have had some unexpected mortifications to put up with. However, things may mend, but Mrs. Sidgwick expects me to do things that I cannot do – to love her children and be entirely devoted to them. I am really very well. I am so sleepy that I can write no more. I must leave off. Love to all. – Good-bye.

C. Brontë

Comprehension questions to consider (to help with the overall comparison question):

1. How does Charlotte feel about the children of the household? Choose quotations.

2. What techniques does she use? (Language AND structure techniques)

Extract from an article written by a nanny, Monica Albelli, published in a broadsheet newspaper in 2013

Confessions of a Nanny

Being a nanny - whether you’re Mary a Poppins, a Nanny McPhee or a Mrs. Doubtfire – is a very tricky job. You have to be liked by two opposing “teams” to which a “perfect” nanny means completely different things. “You must be kind, you must be witty, very sweet and fairly pretty… If you don’t scold and dominate us, we will never give you cause to hate us.” – this is how the children in Mary Poppins - Michael and Jane - want the newspaper ad for their nanny to read. Their father, Mr. Banks, is keener on discipline. Mrs. Banks seems to believe perfection lies somewhere in between that and the children’s ideal.

I have always loved children and had a natural ability to connect with them with ease, no matter their gender, nationality or character. But when you’re a nanny, kids come with parents. And parents come with problems, opinions and expectations of their own, often in conflict with themselves.

Lesley, a successful publisher, and Brian, a dentist, were Scots in their mid-40s. They worked long hours but seemed to love Theresa, seven, Tom, nine and William, eleven. Their approach when it came to the kids’ upbringing though was completely different from each other. Confident and motivated, Lesley believed that her children’s time should be spent doing homework, reading books or playing educational games. Brian, cheerful and laid-back, anted us to “just have fun”. He asked me not to be strict with the kids, while Lesley kept pressuring me to turn them into responsible and hard-working individuals. I would arrive at their house to find a note from Brian, asking me to take them to the park, and then receive a texts from Lesley with a to-do list.

Lesley would often come home late to find the kids already asleep. “I’m not a good mum,” she once confessed. “I’m actually a bit jealous. I think they are starting to like you more than they like me.”

I reassured her that this was not true and that she was doing her best.

The kids and I had bonded. Once, as I was getting ready to leave, Tom curled around my leg, while Lesley tried to persuade him he had to let me go. They liked having me around so much that they started asking Brian if I could sleep over. Had we bonded too much?

The things changed. Lesley seemed upset about something, and Brian was more and more absent. One day they told me they wouldn’t be needing me any more as they had decided to get an au pair, who could also help with the house. I knew that wasn’t the real reason. They had, I realised, been asking me to become everything that they weren’t and, as soon as I started to achieve that, they felt threatened.

I tried to see it from his point of view. Being a nanny is difficult, but being a parent is even harder. Having a nanny is also hard.

I remembered what a friend used to say whenever I shared my frustrations with her: “You care too much. It’s just a job.”

Should a nanny be indifferent, see herself as a doctor and treat all the family members as her patients, being impartial and never getting emotionally involved? How can Mary Poppins be indifferent? She is cool and funny, strict at times, but always caring – the perfect nanny. But she is a fictional character, and so are Mr. and Mrs. Banks, and Michael and Jane.

Many dysfunctional families later, I have learned to care at the same time as keeping a distance, and that there is no such thing as the perfect family – or the perfect nanny.

Comprehension questions to consider (to help with the overall comparison question):

1. How does Monica feel about the children of the household? Choose quotations.

2. What techniques does she use? (both language and structure)

EXAM QUESTION:

Compare how the two writers convey their attitudes to looking after other people’s children.In your answer you should:

*compare their different attitudes*compare the methods they use to convey their attitudes*support your ideas with quotations from both texts

Extracts about murder:

Extract from an 1888 edition of the London Times

ANOTHER WHITECHAPEL MURDER

Another murder of the foulest kind was committed in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel in the early hours of yesterday morning, but by whom and with what motive, is at present a complete mystery.

At a quarter to 4 o’clock Police constable Neill, 97J, when in Buck’s Row, Whitechapel, came upon the body of a woman lying on a part of the footway, and on stooping to raise her up in the belief that she was drunk he discovered that her throat was cut almost from ear to ear. She was dead but still warm. He procured assistance and at once sent to the station and for a doctor. He inspected the body at the place where it was found and pronounced the woman dead. He made a hasty examination and the discovered that, besides the gash across the throat, the woman had terrible wounds in the abdomen. After the body was removed to the mortuary of the parish, in Old Montague Street, Whitechapel, steps were taken to secure, if possible, identification, but at first with little prospect of success. The clothing was of a common description, but the skirt of one petticoat and the band of another article bore the stencil stamp of Lambeth Workhouse. As the news of the murder spread, however, first one woman and then another came forward to view the body, and at length it was found that a woman answering the description of the murdered woman had lodged in a common-lodging house, 18, Thrawl-street, Spitalfields.

Women from that place were fetched and they identified the deceased as Polly, who had shared a room with three other women in the place on the usual terms of such houses – nightly payment of 4d, each, each woman having a separate bed.

It was gathered that the deceased had led a life of an “unfortunate” while lodging in the house, which was only for about three weeks past. Nothing more was known of her by them but that when she presented herself for her lodging on Thursday night she was turned away by the deputy because she had not the money.

Comprehension questions to consider (to help with the overall comparison question):

1. How does the writer feel about the victim of the murder? Choose quotations

2. What techniques does the writer use? (both language and structure)

Extract from The Guardian - Labour MP Jo Cox dies after being shot and stabbed.

The Labour MP Jo Cox has died after being shot and stabbed multiple times following a constituency meeting. Armed officers responded to the attack near

a library in Birstall, West Yorkshire, on Thursday afternoon. A 52-year-old man was arrested in the area, police confirmed. The suspect was named locally as Tommy Mair.

Police added that Cox, 41, the MP for Batley and Spen, had suffered serious injuries and was pronounced dead at 1.48pm on Thursday by a doctor with paramedics at the scene.

Police confirmed that a man in his late 40s to early 50s nearby suffered slight injuries in the incident. They are also investigating reports that the suspect shouted “Britain first”, a possible reference to the far-right political party of that name, as he launched the attack. Police are understood to be talking to at least one witness who claimed to have heard the attacker shout the words, and the motivation for the incident will form part of their inquiry.

Cox’s husband, Brendan, said after her death was announced: “Today is the beginning of a new chapter in our lives. More difficult, more painful, less joyful, less full of love. I and Jo’s friends and family are going to work every moment of our lives to love and nurture our kids and to fight against the hate that killed Jo.

“Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life with an energy and a zest for life that would exhaust most people. She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now – one, that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her. Hate doesn’t have a creed, race or religion, it is poisonous. Jo would have no regrets about her life, she lived every day of it to the full.”

Graeme Howard, 38, who lives in nearby Bond Street, told the Guardian he heard the man shout “Britain first” before the shooting and during the arrest.

“I heard the shot and I ran outside and saw some ladies from the cafe running out with towels,” he said. “There was loads of screaming and shouting and the police officers showed up.

“He was shouting ‘Britain first’ when he was doing it and being arrested. He was pinned down by two police officers and she was taken away in an ambulance.”

The shopkeeper in a greengrocer opposite Birstall library, Golden D’Licious, told the Guardian that he believed the attacker had been waiting for the MP outside the library.

“I was inside the shop and all I heard was a scream and then the gunshot,” he said, without giving his name. “I went out and everyone was dispersing. I couldn’t see because it happened behind a car.”

Clarke Rothwell, another witness, told BBC News there was a direct

altercation between Cox and a man carrying a gun, who “purposefully” targeted her.

“He shot this lady and then shot her again,” he said. “He leant down. Someone was wrestling with him and he was wielding a knife and lunging at her. Three times she was shot. People were trying to help her.

Cox was elected to parliament in 2015, having previously worked internationally as a head of policy and humanitarian campaigning for Oxfam.

She chaired the all-party parliamentary group for Friends of Syria, and was vocal in making the case for military action in the country last autumn, on humanitarian grounds. Her husband is a former Labour adviser who stepped down as a senior executive of the charity Save the Children last year.

Cox’s fellow Labour MP John Mann described her as “one of the real stars of the new intake”, and said her colleagues were “absolutely stunned” by the attack.

Comprehension questions to consider (to help with the overall comparison question):

1. How does the writer feel about the victim of the murder? Choose quotations

2. What techniques does the writer use? (both language and structure)

EXAM QUESTION:

Compare how the two writers convey their attitudes to the victims in the articles.In your answer you should:

*compare their different attitudes*compare the methods they use to convey their attitudes*support your ideas with quotations from both texts

Extract about women in relationships

Extract from a relationship advice manual, How to be Happy Though Married written in 1849 by Reverend Edward John Hardy

Men are often as easily caught as birds, but as difficult to keep. If the wife cannot make her home bright and happy, so that it shall be the cleanest, sweetest, cheerfullest place that her husband can find refuge in – a retreat

from the toils and troubles of the outer world – then God help the poor man, for he is virtually homeless!

In the home, more than anywhere else, order is Heaven’s first law. It is the duty of a wife to sweetly order her cage so that it may be clean, neat and free from muddle. Method is the oil that makes the wheels of the domestic machine run easily. The mistress of a home who desires order, and the tranquillity that comes of order, must insist on the application of method to every branch and department of the household work. She must rise and breakfast early and give her order early. Doing much before twelve o’clock gives her a command of the day. But a cage-making wife is much more than a good cook and a housekeeper. Indeed it is possible for a wife to be too careful and cumbered about these things.

When such is the case she becomes miserable and grumbles at a little dust or disorder which the ordinary mortal does not see, just as a fine musician is pained and made miserable at a slight discord that is not noticed by less-trained ears. Probably her husband wishes his house were less perfectly kept, but more peaceful. A woman should know when to change her role of housewife for that of the loving friend and companion of her husband. She should be able and willing to intelligently discuss with him the particular political or social problem that is to him of vital interest.

Women’s lives are often very dull; but it would help to make them otherwise if wives would sometimes think over, during the hours when parted from their husbands, a few little winning ways as surprises for them on their return, either in the way of conversation, or of some small change in dress, or any way their ingenuity would have suggested in courting days. How little the lives of men and women would be dull, if they thought of and acted towards each other after marriage as they did before it! Certainly, it does a wife good to go out of her cage occasionally for her amusement, although her deepest, truest happiness may be found at home.

Highlight quotations about the views of the woman from the perspective of the writer of the article.

What techniques does the writer use in your chosen quotations?

EXAM QUESTION: How does the writer use language to show their views about what women should do?

Extract about women in the workplace

Extract from The Guardian about the gender pay gap between men and women in the workplace, 2013.

Women have never been in a stronger position to lead, change and shape the economic, social and political landscape. The 21st century has seen a

dramatic shift in "traditional" family dynamics and greater recognition of gender in legislation has helped pull apart gender-role divisions. As a result women are far more economically independent and socially autonomous, representing 42% of the UK workforce and 55% of university graduates. Yet women are still less likely than men to be associated with leadership positions in the UK: they account for 22% of MPs and peers, 20% of university professors, 6.1% of FTSE 100 executive positions, and 3% of board chairpersons. This stark inequality is consistently reflected in pay gaps, despite the introduction of the Equal Pay Act in 1975. Income inequality has risen faster in the UK than any other OCED country and today women earn on average £140,000 less than men over their working careers. 

In recent reports 2.4 million unemployed women said that they want to find employment, and nine out of 10 people want to see men and women equally represented in leadership positions. If the intention to change is there, and basic social and political frameworks support women in the workforce, then we need to look beyond facts and figures to establish what other factors contribute to the gaping hole in gender equality. While statistics offer insights into current patterns and behaviours, they do not address why the skills and talents of women are not being fully utilized.

A relatively neglected factor is the role of stereotypes, reinforced by social and cultural norms, which underline certain expectations about gender. Decades of research has shown that stereotypes about men and women have a huge impact on our beliefs about how they should (or should not) behave. Consequently gender stereotypes reinforce social status and gender hierarchies: for example, surveys and experiments show that women are generally perceived as more "communal" and "loyal", whereas men are described more as "protectors" and "competent". Of course not everyone subscribes to these stereotypes, but there is evidence that men and women who behave in ways that contrast with these traditional stereotypes – such as career women or stay-at-home dads – are likely to be evaluated negatively by others. A lifetime of exposure to what women should be, how they should behave and who they should represent drives and reinforces unconscious and unseen biases.

Unconscious bias is particularly important as it arises from the implicit assumptions and unspoken attitudes, beliefs and expectations that we all have about others. Study after study has highlighted that both men and women have unconscious gender biases. For example, people view men as more capable leaders, men are rewarded more highly than women – just having a male name is more likely to get you the job. If you are a mother, your chances of getting the job are reduced by 70%. Overcoming stereotypes and unconscious bias can only be achieved if we are all willing to address our own immediate judgments and can put in place practices and procedures to mitigate their potential effects.

When we pair the psychological evidence with the economic facts, the argument for gender equality is overwhelming. Research consistently shows that groups perform to a higher standard if the gender balance is even, or

when women outnumber men. For example, Catalyst research found that companies with high-level female representation on boards significantly outperformed those with sustained low representation by 84% on return on sales, 60% on return on invested capital, and 46% on return on equity. The Women's Business Council predicts that we could add 10% (that is over £150bn) to our GDP by 2030 if all the women that wanted to work were employed.

In the long term encouraging women to participate in the labour market is vital to ensure economic growth at both micro and macro level. As we face an increasingly ageing population and the resulting shortage of skilled workers, it is fundamental that we also depend on high female employment and high wage returns in order to manage the skills deficit.

We are taking bigger and bigger steps towards providing more flexible workplaces, better parental leave policies and more chances for women to get back into the workplace. But these opportunities are wasted if our stereotypes and biases distort the way we evaluate others, and often to their disadvantage

Explain the differences in attitudes about women in How to Be Happy Though Married and Gender Equality: Why Women Are Still Held Back.(8 marks)

How does the writer use language to show her annoyance about the stereotype of women in the workplace? (12 marks)