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NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION
NOVEMBER 2016
ENGLISH HOME LANGUAGE: PAPER I
Time: 3 hours 100 marks
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY
1. This question paper consists of 8 pages and an Insert of 6 pages (i–vi). Please check that
your question paper is complete. Detach the Insert from the centre of the question paper.
2. Read the questions carefully.
3. Number your answers exactly as the questions are numbered.
4. Do not write in the margin.
5. Answers must be written in the Answer Book.
6. It is in your own interest to write legibly and to present your work neatly.
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English HL Grade 12 IEB Paper 1 2016 Question Paper
IEB Grade 12 English HL Paper 1 question paper from the 2016, 8 pages. Read online or get the free PDF download, memo linked when available.
Publisher: IEB
English HL · Grade 12 · 2016. Question paper, 8 pages. Read online or download the PDF.
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- English HL
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- Grade 12
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- Question paper
- Year
- 2016
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- 1
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NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE: ENGLISH HOME LANGUAGE: PAPER I Page 2 of 8
QUESTION 1 COMPREHENSION
Refer to TEXT 1 on pages (i) and (ii) of the Insert, 'To build a future, South Africa must
construct a shared past', and answer the questions below.
1.1 According to paragraph 1, what evidence is there that post-apartheid South Africa
is not united? (2)
1.2 How reliable is the writer's opinion of the divisions in South Africa? Answer by
referring to the diction and tone in paragraph 2. (4)
1.3 Refer to paragraph 3, paying particular attention to the use of the words 'our' and
'we' throughout the paragraph.
1.3.1 How does the use of 'our' and 'we' in this paragraph shape the reader's
attitude towards the writers? (2)
1.3.2 Why is the use of these words ironic in view of the writers' message? (2)
1.4 In your own words, explain the similarities between South Africa and Rwanda that
are identified in paragraph 5. (2)
1.5 Refer to the extracts provided and answer the questions that follow:
Extract A: Definition of meta-narrative
Meta-narrative is sometimes called master- or grand narrative. Simply put, it is a
story about a story. It claims to explain various events in history and gives meaning
by connecting diverse events. It is an abstract idea that is supposed to be a
comprehensive explanation of historical, social and cultural events and
experiences, based upon the appeal to universal truth or universal values. In this
context, the narrative is a story that functions to legitimize power, authority, and
social customs.
Extract B: From the South African Tourism Website
South Africa's 'Rainbow Nation' title refers to the incredible diversity of its people,
from the original San inhabitants of the land to the people who migrated and settled
here over the years. There is hardly a nation on Earth that is not in some way
represented in this diverse country.
For nearly 350 years South African history was defined by clashes and racial
oppression. But that changed with the first democratic elections of 27 April 1994
when all truly became people of the Rainbow Nation.
[Source: <http://www.southafrica.net>]
Using the explanation of the Rwandan meta-narrative (paragraphs 5 and 6) to help
you, discuss whether you think the 'rainbow nation' image is a positive or negative
meta-narrative for post-apartheid South Africa. Quote from the EXTRACTS to
support your answer. (4)
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NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE: ENGLISH HOME LANGUAGE: PAPER I Page 3 of 8
1.6 In paragraph 6 the writers contrast Rwanda's effort to 'manufacture' a social
identity and collective history with South Africa's more 'organic' approach.
Contrast the connotations of these two words to explore the differences between
each country's process of reconciliation. (3)
1.7 Explain why a semi-colon is more effective than a full stop in expressing meaning
in paragraph 7. (2)
1.8 To what extent does teaching history in schools contribute to a shared national
identity? Refer to the passage to support your answer. (3)
1.9 Why are the words 'true' and 'objective' in paragraph 9 written in inverted commas? (1)
[25]
QUESTION 2 SUMMARY
Refer to TEXT 2 on page (iii) of the Insert.
Julia Anastasopoulos has been invited to your school to address Grade 12s on choosing a
successful career path. Write a summary of this text in the form of the welcome speech you
would give to introduce Julia to the Grade 12s.
Your welcome speech needs to make it clear WHY Julia Anastasopoulos has been chosen
as a suitable speaker to address your grade 12s on this topic.
• Your summary must be in the form of one paragraph, using no more than 90 words.
• Your language use must be accurate and in an appropriate register.
• Provide an accurate word count at the end of the summary.
• Use your own words. 'Cutting and pasting' of information is not acceptable.
[10]
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NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE: ENGLISH HOME LANGUAGE: PAPER I Page 4 of 8
QUESTION 3 SEEN POETRY
Refer to the poems Release, February 1990 by Lynne Bryer and Hadedah by Adam
Schwartzman and answer the questions that follow each poem.
Release, February 1990 by Lynne Bryer (1946–1994)
He emerged, walked free
looking like an ordinary, sweet grandfather
from the Eastern Cape:
those lovely old men we children knew
were wise and saintly, 5
walking down the streets
in ancient suits, greatcoats
from the First World War. We always greeted,
an exchange both courteous and right.
Grown older, we salute Mandela. 10
Not the bogeyman whose face
was a forbidden sight (abroad,
we looked in libraries); nor charismatic
warrior, giving tongue in blood and flame.
The heavens did not fall. 15
But then, for days before, the mountain
(struck by lightning) burned,
the dark alive with crimson snakes
writhing on air, black elevation of the night.
Confirmation came 20
less from our eyes, watching the images that flew
about the world, than from the way we felt:
elated, cool, not doubting this was true,
the destined time and place.
This is the way messiahs come— 25
when time can stand no more delay,
and people throng the streets, mill in the square,
climb trees to see.
Even the soldiers,
Nervous in the mob (since they alone are armed, 30
and so not free) are part of the convergence,
the dislocated, sudden calm of knowing:
This was the way it had to be.
[Source: Anthology Clusters, Gerald de Villiers]
3.1 What does a careful analysis of the imagery in lines 16–19 suggest about the 'we' in
the poem? (4)
3.2 How does the structure of lines 25–33 enhance the meaning of these lines? (3)
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NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE: ENGLISH HOME LANGUAGE: PAPER I Page 5 of 8
Hadedah by Adam Schwartzman (1973–)
The flower-bed predator sinks its picked beak like a piston,
spreads its legs like a suburban cowboy, places its weight
and levers out of the ground. The big bird is related to the ibis
and is exotic. It takes its place among things that we know,
though they came without being named or naming, 5
without references, the visible inhabitants in their own space
with ours in common. The most we have said
is that they were omens and make a very loud, uncivilized noise,
but they climb with imagination—above my house
they bank in flights and top the lopped horizon, 10
slice fat clouds and dip away into the trough,
cut through jacaranda and succulence smells,
wood fire and anthracite smells and swipe the light
from the East Rand gold towns. Mine heads wink
like nuggets in dumps and streams, like steel fly eyes, 15
wheels of fortune, the wheel, and they climb, over people singing
home in trains and other people talking softly
saying Next year in Jerusalem, London, Sydney,
over neon paradises, shebeen kingdoms
and corrugated churches on earth. They level out, 20
leave behind the thatch and bougainvillaea,
slasto, rosaries, private Edens that were not always good,
but always there, over dunes, rivers, mountains,
lakes, jungles, ancestral homes, the unmarked graves
of sleeping cultures, until, when no one can see, 25
they catch a warm thermal to ride on and upwards
and out of the world.
[Source: Anthology Clusters, Gerald de Villiers]
3.3 Do you consider the hadedah to be an image that unifies or divides South Africans?
Quote from the poem to illustrate your answer. (3)
3.4 Both of these South African poems, Release, February 1990 and Hadedah, were
published in the early 1990s. Evaluate each poem's importance in a contemporary
South African context and argue for which one of the poems you would include in a
new anthology for Grade 12s. (5)
[15]
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NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE: ENGLISH HOME LANGUAGE: PAPER I Page 6 of 8
QUESTION 4 UNSEEN POETRY
Refer to the poems Lasso by Philippa Yaa De Villiers and When I Heard the Learn'd
Astronomer by Walt Whitman and answer the questions that follow each poem.
Lasso1 by Philippa Yaa De Villiers (1966–)
Words become me.
They are the flowers in my hair,
jewels at my neck and ears.
Words adorn my being.
without them I am shorn, 5
grey as a corpse,
silent as the stinging rain,
beggared by forces too big to conquer,
too unnameable to tame.
Beyond the fence 10
wild words gallop free,
yet to be harnessed to my plough.
And those are the ones
most beautiful to me:
I want to be a cowgirl with a noose 15
lassoing wild words
and in my own field
setting them loose.
[Source: De Villiers, P. Y. 2010. The Everyday Wife,
Modjaji Books, Athlone]
Glossary
1
lasso: A long rope with a running noose at one end, used especially to catch horses
and cattle. The picture provided here shows the meaning of 'lasso' which can refer to
the rope, or to the action of catching with a lasso.
4.1 How do the metaphors in stanza 1 demonstrate the role of words in the speaker's
life? (1)
4.2 The speaker's attitude to words shifts from stanza 1 to stanza 3. By analysing the
metaphor in stanza 3, explain how the speaker's attitude has developed. (3)
4.3 What do lines 8 and 9 suggest about the role that poetry can play in times of social
and political turmoil? Refer to the following quotation from TEXT 1 paragraph 7
in your answer:
'we can only build together if we have experienced together; we can only
understand and empathise if we can truly relate.' (3)
4.4 Identify an example of rhyme and of alliteration and explain how the use of these
techniques conveys the poet's relationship with words. (3)
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NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE: ENGLISH HOME LANGUAGE: PAPER I Page 7 of 8
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer by Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
When I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide,
and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much 5
applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars. 10
[Source: Anthology Clusters, Gerald de Villiers]
4.5 The speaker in the poem When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer seems to have a
very different attitude to words when compared to the speaker in the poem Lasso
and yet, they appear to have similar intentions. Explore the truth of this statement
by referring to both poems and to the image provided. (5)
[15]
QUESTION 5
Refer to TEXTS 3, 4 and 5 on pages (iv) and (v) of the Insert as indicated in each
question. Examine all the texts before attempting to answer the questions.
5.1 Refer to TEXT 3.
5.1.1 Explain how the meaning of the slogan 'Equal education for all' has changed
from 1976 (frame 1) to today (frame 2). (2)
5.1.2 How is this shift captured in the visual details of each frame? Refer
specifically to facial expressions and two other visual aspects. (4)
5.2 The words 'No one is listening to us' are written without an exclamation mark. How
does this choice shape our understanding of the speaker's tone? (2)
5.3 Refer to TEXTS 4 and 5.
5.3.1 Which poster, in TEXT 4 or TEXT 5, is more visually effective? Refer to
the font and layout of the posters. (3)
5.3.2 By referring to diction and sentence type and/or structure, contrast the
protestors' intention in each of the three posters in TEXT 4 and TEXT 5. (5)
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NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE: ENGLISH HOME LANGUAGE: PAPER I Page 8 of 8
5.4 The caption for these pictures could be 'Protestors march against high fees'.
5.4.1 How does the word 'protestors' rather than 'students' position the reader
towards the participants and why? (3)
5.4.2 Alternatives for 'protestors' could be 'activists' and 'demonstrators'. Which of
these two words is more suited to this context and why? (2)
5.5 Each of these posters uses the word 'our'. How is its use in TEXT 4 different from
TEXT 5? (2)
5.6 Is the term R.I.P. (TEXT 5) an acronym or an abbreviation? Explain your answer. (1)
5.7 What is the grammatical function of the suffix –ing (TEXT 5)? (1)
[25]
QUESTION 6
Refer to TEXTS 6A, 6B and 6C on page (vi) of the Insert. Examine all the texts before
attempting to answer the questions.
6.1 Each text is an example of what is known as a 'humblebrag.' Explain why the term
'humblebrag' is an oxymoron. (1)
6.2 Write a dictionary definition for 'humblebrag.' Your answer should include the part
of speech, the definition and the origin of the word. Use the word 'neologism' in
your dictionary entry in a way that shows you know what it means. (3)
6.3 'Humble' is an adjective. Write a sentence in which you use the noun form of the
word (i.e. You need to change 'humble' into an abstract noun in your sentence). (1)
6.4 Read the two versions of the sentence below:
A I find it so hard to buy clothes that fit me because shops just don't stock
sizes for tall, thin figures like mine.
B Because shops just don't stock clothes for tall, thin figures like mine, I find
it so hard to buy clothes that fit me.
6.4.1 Identify the main clause in sentence A. (1)
6.4.2 Which version (sentence A or B) is more effective as an example of a
humblebrag and why? (2)
6.5 Rewrite Text 6A using the correct spelling and punctuation.
Graduating from 2 universitys means you get double the calls asking for money
they get really pushy too! (2)
[10]
Total: 100 marks
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