2015 HL Paper 1 Text 2

 

Question A (i)

According to Briscoe, the modern writer of ghost stories faces many challenges.

Firstly, the writer must find a way to get the reader nervous in new and different ways. A modern audience is used to finding unease in the dark, familiar places of what is now a very well known genre. The writer's challenge is to find the ‘eerie’ in new, unexpected places. She references her own work as an example of this.

Another challenge to the ghost story writer is how to maintain tension throughout the novel, whilst still keeping it believable. Joanna Briscoe contends this is why there are so few long ghost novels.

 

A (ii)

Yes, I would agree that this article is both informative and engaging.

Briscoe’s article is very informative. She discusses the nature of a ghost story and its history. She quotes other writers such as Roald Dahl and Susan Hill to support her points. She also references other writers in order to prove her point that ghost stories tend to be short.

Briscoe often uses short topic sentences at the start of her paragraphs. She begins paragraph five with the assertion that ‘Form is an issue’ and paragraph seven with ‘Endings can be a problem’.

 

A (iii)

I thought both book covers perfectly illustrate what Joanna Briscoe has to say about ghost writing.

Cover 1 conveys what the author has sought to do with her own ghost writing. There are no ghosts or vampires on the cover. The girl in ‘Victorian’ clothes is there but the blurred background and unusual lighting suggests ‘real chaos’ is lurking.

Cover 2 illustrates what Briscoe had to say about ghost writing in general. The cover is instantly recognisable as a book about ghost stories because of the eerie figures on it.

 

 

B

Headline: 'Tips for the Travel Writer' by Joe Bloggs

 

Be Personal

Travel writing is always written in the first person. You are important here. It is your unique view on a place, so don't be afraid to develop your own voice and opinions. Forget about what the 'Lonely Planet' says – be honest about your personal experience. Imagine that you are writing to a good friend to tell them about your destination.


Appeal to the Senses

Good travel writing should always involve careful observation but give your reader more. What sights, sound, smells, tastes and touches do you associate with the place you have visited?

 

2015 HL Paper 1 Text 1

2015 LC Higher Paper 1 Text 1

 

Question A

(i)

Bono suggests that the students are leaving university with intellectual capital after four long years of study. He challenges them to spend their ‘moral capital’ in questioning the norms of their society and follow the example of the great leaders of civil and human rights before them.

Bono suggests that every generation is faced with ‘moral blind spots’ in their society that must be exposed and challenged, as slavery and segregation were by previous generations. He is challenging them not to accept the ‘phony moral certitudes’ of their age but instead to go forth and expose the blind spots to make the world a better place.

Finally, Bono challenges his student audience to put their own stamp on the future, to think about the fight they want to fight in society. It could be trying to do away with poverty in Africa like him or something else; the thing that matters is that they realise the future is in their hands and they have the opportunity to ‘hammer it into shape.’

 

(ii)

He makes the point that while not every problem such as corruption can be fixed, the developed world can help by easing the debt burden, sharing knowledge about lifesaving drugs and engaging in fair trade. These ideas had a profound effect on me as I was used to thinking about Africa as a lost cause where nothing really can be done to end the problems.

The second observation by Bono that had an impact on me was his ideas on how this generation have become so self-conscious  that idealism has almost become a dirty word. Idealism is not cool and is, therefore, given no air time in the media. People have become pre-occupied with themselves and by material things and this is reflected in the media. Bono’s suggestion that it’s time to do away with indifference and stand up and ‘get your boots dirty’ is something that I find intriguing.

 

(iii)

Bono is engaging and inspiring in his address to the graduating students.  He speaks with passion and intensity to the audience. He employs features of speech writing such as an attention-grabbing opening and rhetorical questions to great effect.  Bono uses a number of rhetorical questions, which, in my opinion, engage the audience. ‘What are you doing here?’ and ‘what’s your big idea?’ speak directly to the audience, forcing them to think about their own answers and inspiring them to think beyond their university degree.  

 

 

 

 

Question B

 

                                    Cill Bay Community School,
                                                                                                                                                                                                 

                                                    23^rd April 2015

The Principal,
Cill Bay Community School,
Morton Road,
Dublin 13.

Dear Mr. Morton,

As Chairperson of the Student Council, I am writing to you to urge you to reconsider your decision not to hold any graduation ceremony for the Leaving Certificate Class of 2015. We, the Student Council, feel that this is not the right course of action to pursue. Please allow us to set out our argument against this plan of action and urge you to make your decision having considered these points.

 

Prrescribed Poetry 2014 Higher

Poetry 2014 Higher

(Yeats)

 

1.    I would agree that Yeats uses evocative language to create poetry that includes both personal reflection and public commentary. One of the reasons I have loved studying his poetry is that he managed to give me a sense of himself and the time he was living in. His poetry elicited an emotional response through his interesting and varied themes and his brilliant use of language.
           
The first poem I studied, 'The lake Isle of Innisfree', is a perfect example of how Yeats used evocative language to create poetry that is personally reflective. This poem expresses Yeats' desire to leave the oppression and boredom of the city and his longing for the beauty and simplicity of the island of Innisfree. Even the name of the island evokes feelings of freedom and peace.

 

He paints a vivid picture of Innisfree. His images are clear and easily accessible. There is a “small cabin”, “a hive for the honey-bee” and “a purple glow”. As I read this poem, I felt a strong desire to visit the countryside.
              
These images are then contrasted with urban living. The colour and beauty of the island is juxtaposed with the mundane concrete jungle of the city where everything is “grey”.

 

 

 

(Dickinson)

 

2.    Without doubt, Dickinson is an original poet both in terms of theme and language. Her unique style is highly dramatic and I would strongly agree that it can both disturb and delight its readers. The idea of one's mind being trapped in one's body as you are being lowered or “dropped down” into your grave is highly disturbing. The alternative interpretation of the poem being about mental breakdown where “a Plank in Reason, broke” is equally upsetting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Larkin)

 

3.    I agree with this statement in the main; in several of Larkin’s poems, he is a detached but perceptive observer of the realities of ordinary life, and these realities are often illuminated by images of lyrical beauty. However, his subject matter is not limited to the ordinary or mundane in life. His poems also address the monumental events and issues of human experience – finding purpose and meaning in life, coming to terms with death, mortality and the passage of time.

 

The poem,‘Ambulances’, serves as an example of Larkin observing the ordinary realities of life. Ambulances, illness and hospitals are a feature of ordinary life but Larkin’s imagery confers lyrical beauty on them. His opening line "Closed like confessionals they thread" is mysterious and unsettling. "Confessional" implies sin and secrecy, and one wonders what is happening inside the ambulances as they speed through cities in emergencies. Larkin observes ordinary details, the colour and the crest on the ambulance, but as a perceptive and philosophical observer he comments on their universal significance:
"They come to rest at any kerb

 

 

(Plath)

 

4.    The above statement can be applied to some of Plath’s poems on the course. Plath makes effective use of language to capture the workings of a tortured mind, which perceives a cruel and barren universe.

 

‘Elm’ is a poem, which I found very haunting in its depiction of Plath’s personal experience of suffering. The opening statement, "I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root", suggests a journey into the depths of the unconscious. The "bottom" beneath the roots of the elm tree also suggests darkness and as the elm is associated with poison (the poison-elm) the tone is ominous and sinister.

Unseen poetry 2014 higher

2014 Unseen Poetry (Higher).

 

1(a)

Seamus Heaney recommends driving “all around the peninsula” for a number of reasons.
       
Firstly, he sees it as a good alternative to talking. “When you have nothing more to say” a long drive around this beautiful coastal area will act as words. Conversation will not be needed as you drive home because “now you will uncode all landscapes/By this..”
        
It is patently clear that the peninsula is an area of great natural beauty. Stanza three conveys a number of images that the poet feels one will “recall” after the journey. These images of birds and rugged landscape have much to recommend them.

 

 

1.    (b)

The first image that appeals to me is
   “At dusk, horizons drink down sea and hill,
    The ploughed field swallows the the whitewashed gable
     And you're in the dark again”.

I think this is a beautiful image of how nightfall happens in an area like this. The poet cleverly uses personification to convey the dramatic nature of how the darkness comes and “swallows” up the landscape. It is a vivid and clever image

Leaving Cert English Higher 2014 (Essay)

Essay: Write a discursive essay in which you discuss the importance of privacy in people's lives and the challenges to privacy in the modern age.

•                          Privacy and Technology? dangers of social media? cyber-bullying

• Cyberbullying differs from schoolyard bullying. Teachers can't intervene on the Internet. When it happens online, there's no one to filter it. Cyberbullies don't witness their victims' reactions.

Hints: use your own ideas
           draw up your own list of quotations
             always engage in pre-writing activities (brainstorming)
               essay should be a reasonable length- three or four pages of A4 is sufficient.


The goal of a discursive essay is to present a balanced and objective examination of a subject. Like an argumentative essay, the topic may be controversial, but the discursive essay attempts to present a much more balanced discussion of the issue.