Section C

[25 marks]

Question 26 - 31 are based on the following passage.

Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.

A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital
room of Diana Blessing. She was still groggy from surgery.
Her husband, David, held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March
10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Caesarean to
deliver the couple’s new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing. At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound nine
ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor’s soft words dropped like a
bombshell. “I don’t think she’s going to make it,” he said, as kindly as he could. “There’s only a 10-percent
chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future
could be a very cruel one.”
Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Dana
would likely face if she survived. She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be blind,
and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental
retardation.
“No! No!” was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of
the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was
slipping away. However, as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. As Dana’s
underdeveloped nervous system was essentially ‘raw’, the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her
discomfort, so they could not even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chest to offer the strength of their
love. All they could do, as Dana struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires,
was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.
There was never a moment when Dana suddenly grew stronger. However, as the weeks went by, she did
slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there. At last, when Dana turned two months
old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. Two months later, though doctors
continued to gently but grimly warn them that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal
life, were next to zero. Dana went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted. Five years later,
Dana was a petite but feisty young girl with glittering grey eyes and unquenchable zest for life. She showed no
signs whatsoever of any mental or physical disability. She was everything a little girl can be and more. But
that happy ending is far from the end of her story.
One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Dana was sitting in her
mother’s lap in a local park where her brother, Dustin’s baseball team was practising. As always, Dana was
chattering non-stop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent.
Hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked, “Do you smell that?” Smelling the air and detecting the
approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, “Yes, it smells like rain.” Dana closed her eyes and again asked,
“Do you smell that?” Once again, her mother replied, “Yes, I think we’re about to get wet. It smells like rain.”
Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly
announced, “No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest.” Tears blurred
Diana’s eyes as Dana happily hopped down to play with the other children. Before it rains, her daughter’s
words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their
hearts, all along. During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life, when her nerves were
too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Dana on His chest and it was His loving scent that she
remembered so well.
26) From paragraph 1, why was Diana still groggy?

(1 mark)

27) From paragraph 2,

a) What kind of surgery had Diana gone through?

(1 mark)

b) Which word conveys the meaning of ‘very early’?

(1 mark)

28) (a) From paragraph 3, how did the couple feel as they listened to the doctor?

(1 mark)

(b) From paragraph 4, how did David and Diana deal with their new agony?

(1 mark)

29) (a) From paragraph 5, state two characteristics of Dana that showed that she was normal.

i._____________________________________________________________________
(1 mark)

ii._____________________________________________________________________
(1mark)

(b) From paragraph 7, ‘her daughter’s words confirmed what Diana ….’
What had been Diana’s thoughts?

(1 mark)

30) In your own words, explain how you deal with life when you have a problem. Support your answer
with a reason.

(2 marks)
31) Based on the passage given, write a summary of:
 the problems Dana would face and
 the little steps she took in her road to recovery until 1996

Credit will be given for use of own words but care must be taken not to change the original meaning.

Your summary must:

 be in continuous writing form (not in note form)
 use material from lines 10 to 42
 not be longer than 130 words, including the 10 words given below

Begin your summary as follows:

Shocked David and Diana heard that their daughter would never…….
(15 marks)

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 SECTION D

( 5 marks )

32) Read the following stanza of He Had Such Quiet Eyes and answer the questions that follow.

If only she’d been wise

And had listened to the advice

Never to compromise

With pleasure-seeking guys

She’d be free from “the hows and whys”

Bibsy Soenharjo

a) What is the emotion expressed in the first line of the stanza above?

(1 mark)

b) How was she able to avoid that feeling?

___________________________________________________________________________
(1 mark)

c) What does the phrase “the hows and whys” refer to?

(1 mark)

d) If you were the woman in this poem, would you have forgiven the man? Using your own
words, give a reason to support your answer.

___________________________________________________________________________

(2 marks)
ANSWER SCHEME

ENGLISH FORM 4 – MID YEAR EXAMINATION 2013 (PAPER 2)

No. of
Answer No. of
Question Answer
Question
1 C
9 B
2 C
10 C
3 B
11 A
4 C
12 B
5 A
13 B
6 A
14 A
7 C
15 A
8 B

16 Grammar for Kiddies

17 Road to Success
18 The Black Belt Club
19 Mom’s Best Soup
20 Riddles
21 Pre-U Chemistry
22 The Black Belt Club
23 Grammar for Kiddies
24 Road to Success
25 Riddles
26 She had just undergone surgery.
27 a) She had an emergency Caesarean to deliver her baby daughter.
b) The word is ‘premature’.
28 a) They were numb with disbelief.
b) They prayed that God would stay close to their little girl.
29 a) i. She was a feisty girl with an unquenchable zest for life.
ii. She showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or physical disability.
b) She knew that God had looked after her daughter when she had been very frail and
ill.
30 I try my best to deal with it and ask for help from my parents and good friends. I also pray
to God for help so that I can handle it the best way I can. (Accept any suitable answer)
31 (Suggested answer)
Shocked David and Diana heard that their daughter would never be normal and would fall
ill. They realised that they could never do normal things with her and thus decided to pray
to God to guard her. Dana grew strong slowly and after two months, her parents were able
to hold her. Two months later, she was discharged from hospital and by age five she was a
normal, active child with enthusiasm for life. One day at the park she asked her mother if
she could smell something in the air and when her mother couldn’t she told her that it
reminded her of God when you rest on His chest. Amazed, her mother realised that God
must have held Dana close when she had been sick earlier in her life.
(132 words)
32 a) Regret / Remorse
b) She should not have trusted irresponsible man.
c) The woman’s self-dignity is being questioned by the society or public. / A difficult
situation where numerous questions could not be answered.
d) No, he had betrayed my trust in him. (Accept any suitable answer)