A-level
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Paper 1 Telling Stories
Friday 24 May 2024 Morning Time allowed: 3 hours
7707/1
, 2
Section A
Remembered Places
Answer Question 1 in this section.
Read Text A and Text B printed below and on the Insert.
Text A is an extract from Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson.
Text B is an extract from ‘Inside Out and Upside Down’, (extract from NOT-FOR-PARENTS: PARIS
– Everything you ever wanted to know) by Klay Lamprell.
0 1 Compare and contrast how the writers of Text A and Text B express their ideas about
the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
You should refer to both texts in your answer.
[40 marks]
Text A
Bill Bryson is an American author who has written a number of travel memoirs, as well as
popular books on science and languages. Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe tells
the story of his journey through Europe in 1990.
With the Louvre packed I went instead to the new – new to me, at any rate – Musée
d’Orsay, on the Left Bank opposite the Tuileries. When I had last passed it, sixteen years
before, it had been a derelict hulk, the shell of the old Gare d’Orsay, but some person of
vision had decided to restore the old station as a museum and it is simply wonderful, both
5 as a building and as a collection of pictures. I spent two happy hours there, and
afterwards checked out the situation at the Louvre – still hopelessly crowded – and
instead went to the Pompidou Centre, which I was determined to try to like, but I
couldn’t. Everything about it seemed wrong. For one thing it was a bit weathered and
faded, like a child’s toy that has been left out over winter, which surprised me because it
10 is only a dozen years old and the government had just spent £40 million refurbishing it,
but I guess that’s what you get when you build with plastic. And it seemed much too
overbearing a structure for its cramped neighbourhood. It would be an altogether
different building in a park.
But what I really dislike about buildings like the Pompidou Centre, and Paris is choking
15 on them, is that they are just showing off. Here’s Richard Rogers saying to the world,
‘Look, I put all the pipes on the outside. Am I cute enough to kiss?’ I could excuse that if
some consideration were given to function. No one seems to have thought what the
Pompidou Centre should do – that it should be a gathering place, a haven, because
inside it’s just crowded and confusing. It has none of the sense of space and light and
20 majestic calm of the Musée d’Orsay. It’s like a department store on the first day of a big
sale. There’s hardly any place to sit and no focal point – no big clock or anything – at
which to meet someone. It has no heart.
, 3
Text B is printed on the Insert
Turn over for Section B
Turn over ►
, 4
Section B
Imagined Worlds
Answer one question in this section.
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Either
0 2 Read the extract printed below. This is from the section of the novel where Walton writes
to his sister about his planned voyage to the North Pole.
Explore the significance of characters’ ambitions in the novel. You should consider:
• the presentation of characters’ ambitions in the extract below and at different points in
the novel
• the use of fantasy elements in constructing a fictional world.
[35 marks]
Six years have passed since I resolved on my present undertaking. I can, even now,
remember the hour from which I dedicated myself to this great enterprise. I commenced
by inuring my body to hardship. I accompanied the whale-fishers on several expeditions
to the North Sea; I voluntarily endured cold, famine, thirst, and want of sleep; I often
5 worked harder than the common sailors during the day, and devoted my nights to the
study of mathematics, the theory of medicine, and those branches of physical science
from which a naval adventurer might derive the greatest practical advantage. Twice I
actually hired myself as an under-mate in a Greenland whaler, and acquitted myself to
admiration. I must own I felt a little proud, when my captain offered me the second
10 dignity in the vessel, and entreated me to remain with the greatest earnestness; so
valuable did he consider my services.
And now, dear Margaret, do I not deserve to accomplish some great purpose. My life
might have been passed in ease and luxury; but I preferred glory to every enticement that
wealth placed in my path. Oh, that some encouraging voice would answer in the
15 affirmative! My courage and my resolution is firm; but my hopes fluctuate, and my spirits
are often depressed. I am about to proceed on a long and difficult voyage; the
emergencies of which will demand all my fortitude: I am required not only to raise the
spirits of others, but sometimes to sustain my own, when theirs are failing.
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