Monday 20 May 2024 – Morning
AS Level English Language
H070/02 Exploring contexts
Resource Booklet
Time allowed: 1 hour 30 minutes
Turn over
, 2
Section B
Exploring language in context
Text A
Text A is an article about powerful people from The Gentleman’s Journal, an online magazine. It
was published in May 2014.
The most powerful people you’ve never heard of.
We live in the era of the demagogue1, from Gates and Getty to Buffett and Bloomberg, nation states
no longer rule the game. Now, above the bravura2 of mainstream politics, a new generation of global
giants are emerging – but you’ve probably never heard of them.
We’ve trawled through the corridors of power and factories of industry to come up with our definitive
list of 4 unknown gods among men who really rule the world.
Ali Al-Naimi
Did you fill up your car this morning? Chances are, somewhere along the chain, His Excellency Ali
Al-Naimi was involved. The Saudi Petroleum Minister and former Chair of Aramco has been the key
figure in the global oil industry for the past twenty years. He was instrumental in maintaining Saudi oil
production amidst regional instability in the early 2000’s and with the dependence on Saudi production
set to deepen as regional instability grows, His Excellency will become more important than ever.
Alexy Miller
Europe has nothing left in the tank. With coal and oil reserves at an all time low, our dependence
on energy imports looks set to increase as renewable energy technologies gain pace. Alexy Miller,
Vice-Chair of the world’s largest natural gas extract, Gazprom, looks like he’s going to become a
whole lot more important. With direct control over exploitation rates and piping, Mr Miller has, as was
shown most recently in Ukraine, the power to quite literally turn our lights off.
It may be a cliché, but as Francis Bacon remarked, “knowledge is power”. As Chief Economist of the
World Bank and a former Director for Analytic Economics at Cornell University, Mr Basu certainly
has no end of both. Although he spent the majority of his career as an academic, Mr Basu’s analysis
and interpretations of market data are now a touch-stone for most of the world’s financial ministries
and heavily influence national economic policies. A fun fact: Mr Basu is such a highly skilled Sudoku3
player that he’s even invented a two player form of the game, Dui-Doku.
Amid the lager and disappointment of England’s world cup flop, you probably failed to notice an ever
present figure sat in the stands. Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil has used the tournament not only
as a vehicle to showcase her country to the rest of the world, but also to show just how important
it has now become. With the decrease in global energy reserves, Brazil has become an economic
goldmine. With around 13.2bn barrels of oil in reserve and a further 364.2bn cubic metres of natural
gas in reserve, Brazil will see a meteoric rise in diplomatic influence and Mrs. Rousseff will rise with
her.
1Demagogue — a leader who wins support by rousing the emotions and prejudices of the people
2Bravura— a dazzling display of skill
3Sudoku — a logic-based number puzzle
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