CSEC ENGLISH

Hello there! This has been a year of disruptions, hasn’t it? But life goes on, and at some point, you will be writing your CSEC exams. We understand that for English B, you will write only Paper 1. Today we take a break from looking at dramatic techniques, and focus on the requirements for Paper 1. As we do so, you will see there is absolutely no need to panic! Read on now and enjoy your CSEC English page. Stay safe!

ENGLISH B—Paper 1

In the “unseen” exam, you will have a piece of prose, a poem and a piece of drama to answer questions on. The questions are ‘multiple choice’ type, so that makes it much easier. Although you haven’t seen the pieces before, you have already learnt all the analytical skills you need by studying the set texts. We don’t have space here for multiple choice questions, but we will take you through the poem to see the type of things the Examiner will expect you to know.

Read this poem carefully two or three times. What is happening to the boy? How do you feel as the weapons are described? Why is line 9 so disturbing? Where would you normally find claws, talons and antlers? Why does the speaker mention them in connection with the boy?

Arms and the Boy

Let the boy try along this bayonet blade

How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood; Blue with all malice, like a madman’s flash.

And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh.

Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-heads Which long to nuzzle in the heart of lads,

Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth,

Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death.

For his teeth seem for laughing round an apple. There lurk no claws behind his fingers supple; And god will grow no talons at his heels,

Nor antlers through the thickness of his curls.

Here are the questions that were set in the days before the English B exam switched to multiple choice questions. The exam format is different now, but the Examiner is looking for exactly the same skills in you candidates. We give you the answers in italics.

1. Give two examples of “arms” in the poem. (2 marks) weapons: the bayonet, the bullet heads and the cartridges.

Arms are

2. Consider the first two stanzas of the poem. In your own words, what is the speaker suggesting the boy should do? (3 marks) He is saying that the boy needs to learn how cruel war is, how horrible the violence of killing is. He has to understand that the weapons he must use will cause grief and death.

3. Identify ONE example of personification in the first six lines of the poem and comment on its effectiveness. (4 marks) The blade is “keen with hunger of blood” and “famishing for flesh”. By making the blade sound like a hungry monster, the poet creates a feeling of terror—as if the blade has a mind of its own. The bullets are “blind” and they “long to nuzzle”. Both “blind” and “nuzzle” make us think of a person. A blind bullet will not know where it is going and will blunder into killing someone; a bullet is like a girlfriend, wanting to “nuzzle” up to the boy. Again, the personification makes us feel that the bullets have a mind of their own.

4. Stanza 3 mentions things that the boy does NOT have. Identify the things the boy lacks and state why his lacking them is significant. (4 marks) The boy lacks claws, talons and antlers—and his teeth are made for eating apples, not for attacking enemies. Nature gives these natural weapons to animals and birds so that they can fight and protect themselves, but the boy does not have them. This tells us that he was not made to fight, and that is why he will have to learn to handle man-made weapons if he is to become a killer. The poem is suggesting that we ought not to be engaging in war because we were made for other things.

5. Quote TWO phrases from the poem that make us feel that the boy should be doing something other than what is suggested in the first two stanzas. (2 marks) From the words “his teeth seem for laughing around an apple”, we see that he should be enjoying all that life offers, and making the most of his youth. From the words “nuzzle in the heart of lads”, we sense that the boy should have a girlfriend or a pet nuzzling up to him—not bullets. From the reference to his “fingers supple”, we sense that the boy is capable of being creative, but the war is asking him only to be destructive. The reference to the “thickness of his curls” suggests a beauty and innocence about the boy: he is not a man yet, and should not be engaging in war.

WORDS, WORDS, WORDS.

Are there any words in this poem that you are not familiar with? Maybe Arms, bayonet, malice, famishing, nuzzle, lurk? Check any new words in the dictionary or online so that you are constantly expanding your vocabulary.

STORY WRITING—DIALOGUE

It’s a good idea to include a short piece of dialogue in any short story you write. You will find that adverbs and well-chosen verbs make that dialogue come alive. Compare the following:

A. “I’m late,” said Mike, getting out of bed.

B. “I’m late,” groaned Mike, scrambling out of bed hurriedly.

C. “It’s your fault,” said Samantha, looking at her friend.

D. “It’s your fault,” whined Samantha childishly, scowling at her

friend.

Can you see that the sentences marked A are not very interesting, but the sentences marked B give you a sense of the mood of the person and tell you something about the personality?

YOUR TURN NOW

Working on your own, or with a partner, make up some sentences like the A examples. Now see how well you can change them by using more interesting verbs (groaned, scrambling, whined, scowling) and adverbs (hurriedly, childishly). Find as many different mood words as you can.

SPELLING

Here are 15 words that are a bit tricky to spell. Ask someone to test you, write down any that you get wrong, and learn them. Make sure you know how to use them too!!!

Prism, chasm, chaos, chaotic, myth, rhythm, rhyme, metaphor, simile, glimpse, crispy, privilege, acknowledge, impulse, pursuit

BUILDING YOUR VOCABULARY

In List A you will find an antonym (word of opposite meaning) for each of the words in List B. Using your dictionary if necessary, put the antonyms in pairs. Then use the pairs of words to fill in the blanks in the sentences.

List A:innate, stupid, demolish, convenient, suitable, cautious, ingenuous, demented, mindful, irrational.