GCE O’ LEVEL ENGLISH LANGUAGE

SYLLABUS CODE 1123PAPER 2

By Saima Abedi

PAPER 2: READING

1 hour 45 minutes

50 marks

This paper has two sections and

candidates answer on the

question paper.

ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES

R1 Understand explicit meanings, through literal, quotation and vocabulary questions. (Passage 2)

R2 Understand implicit meanings and nuances of language, through inferential, own words and questions on writer’s craft. (Passage 2)

R3 Scan and analyse text, by identifying and summarising required information, such as similarities and differences, or advantages and disadvantages, or problems and solutions, or causes and effects, or actions and consequences. (Passage 1)

R4 Identify and respond to main ideas of a text, such as follow a sequence or argument, identify conclusion, distinguish fact from opinion, and give a personal response to a theme in a text. (Passage 1)

SECTION 1: READING FOR IDEAS (25 MARKS)

• Candidates scan a factual communication (or communications) of approximately 700 words

• They identify and note down required information – e.g. similarities and differences, or causes and effects, or advantages and disadvantages, or problems and solutions, or actions and consequences.

• 15 marks are allocated for content points.

• Candidates use these notes to write a summary of 160 words (10 words will be already given). 5 marks are allocated for language and 5 for own words.

These will be short answer questions worth 5 marks.

Passage 1 (Factual/ Discursive)1a) Note Making

• Write at least 15 content points excluding the given examples.

• The student may write more than 15.

• Accept own words or lifting. However, own words are not

recommended as they may cause confusion while writing the

summary (which should in own words).

•Accept sentences or note form. However if they are sentences,

they should not be entirely verbatim lift. Details should be deleted.

If written in phrase than the point should be sensible

e.g. Extermination carried out. X

Extermination carried out for reward.

If point is made in the wrong box OR out of the box, do not

award the mark.

If more than one content point appears under a single bullet

point award each content point if correctly made.

If content point being made depends on information contained

in another bullet point, withhold the mark unless clear

contextual link is made between two adjacent points, for

example, because / so / etc.

Points should be in order but if not in sequence, they are

acceptable.

Spelling and grammatical errors are not penalised here.

1b) Summary Writing

Use notes to compose a piece of formal, continuous prose. Students may write the summary in one or two paragraphs.

Use of OWN WORDS is mandatory.

In USE OF ENGLISH, serious errors are penalized. At least 15 points should be used to compose the summary.

For example:Wrong verb forms.Serious tense errors.Serious errors of sentence structure, especially in setting up subordination.Omission or obvious misuse of prepositions.Wholesale misunderstanding over the meanings of words used.Serious errors of agreement.Ingrained weakness of punctuation, i.e. the habitual comma replacing the necessary full stop.Mis-spellings of a minor nature. Count as a serious error when the form of the word is severely mangled.Obvious slips of repetition or omission.Breakdown of sense.

Add the marks for OWN

WORDS and USE OF

ENGLISH together and

divide by two. Raise any

half marks to the nearest

whole number. Add this

mark to the

Content mark and show as

a total in the right-hand

margin.

Critical SkillsShort Question Answers:

• Write or distinguish Fact from Opinion

• Identify Conclusion (T/F or CT; Tick off the correct answer; write the conclusion)

• Give Personal Knowledge/ Experience (Do not quote any example from the passage)

• Candidates read a narrative passage (e.g. report, article, story) of approximately 700 words.

• They then answer short answer questions testing their ability to understand the language (both explicit and implicit meanings).

Section 2: Reading for Meaning (25 marks)

TYPES OF COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

Explicit Meaning Questions

Implicit Meaning Questions

Literal Inferential

Quotation

Vocabulary Writer’s craft

Own Words

Passage 2 (Narrative)Explicit Questions

•Literal: The answer of such question is quite obvious. Furthermore, the key word in the question directs you towards the answer.

•Quotation: A single word or phrase from the passage is to be extracted. However, following instruction is very important here. A single word means

single word.

•Own Words: The reader needs to look for the keywords in the passage and replace them using their synonyms. The number of marks tells the number

of key words to be found.

•Vocabulary: Eight words will be given; only five words’ meaning ought to be written. Here, a synonym or description of that word within seven words is

required. Yet the meaning should be according to the context.

Implicit Questions

Inferential: The reader is expected to think about the ideas given in the passage and drive a conclusion.

Writer’s Craft: Here the reader should mention the effect the writer wants to create through his words.

Underlined- necessary to mention e.g. Mothers / females

(Bracket) - not necessary to mention e.g. (They are hungry because)

/ single slash- Another word/s e.g. cleared for palm oil plantations /

trees

// double slash- Another option e.g. Their food (source) is destroyed //

they have no / less food

Marking Scheme Codes:

Question & Answer Session