ANSWERS CSEC ENGLISH
English B.
1. 2.
The kite is paradoxically both victim and master; it respectfully calls you “master”, but mockingly calls you a fool. OR The kite flies freely like a wild, desperate bird of prey, yet it can be “tamed” and kept in a drawer. (3)
The words “already caught” tell us that the kite is on a string just like a fish that has taken the bait. The phrase “A pool where no fish come” tells us that the kite is alone in the sky. The words “play him carefully and long” show how the boy gets pleasure tugging at the kite string and then letting it out just as he would slowly wind in a fish he has caught. (3)
3. The kite is personified as a “victim” with a “master”. (1)
4. The personification is effective because the boy holding the string is in charge, so that the kite is not free, but has to obey him. (1)
5. The kite is compared to a poem you have written. When you write it, you let it fly (meaning that you let it bring its beauty and its message to the world), but you don’t let go of it at first (meaning that you want to know that you can change it or put it away in a drawer if you choose, and that you want to be sure people don’t misunderstand it). However, when you begin to focus on another project, you find you can let go of your poem, and allow people to enjoy it and find their own interpretations of it. (4) 6. 7. 8.
The boy must make a contract with the sun, and make friends with the field, the river and the wind. He wants it to be a sunny, windy day, and he doesn’t want his kite to end up broken in the field or soaked in the river—hence the contract. (6)
The words travelling and cordless are used because, like the kite, the moon moves in the sky, but unlike the kite, it has no cord. (2)
The words glory, pray, worthy, pure all suggest a sacredness about the activity. (3)
Build Your Vocabulary
1 alleviate, 2 accumulate, 3 adopt, 4 adapt, 5 adhere, 6 acquiesce, 7 acquit, 8 abscond, 9 abduct, 10 abandon.
Match the Opposites
Casual/formal; fatuous/serious; annihilate/create; gawky/graceful; selfish/altruistic; devious/honest; skeptical/gullible; effeminate/manly; heartfelt/insincere; cramped/spacious
Using the Passive
John’s leg was bitten by…The ribbon on the new building was cut…The renovations to Grandma’s house were paid for…The fence at the back of the yard was repaired…A lot of noise was made…Question five was not done well…Car parts are not sold…Hats are not worn by anyone…That letter was written…