SECTION A: POETRY 
Prescribed Poetry: Answer ANY TWO questions.

QUESTION NO. 

QUESTION 

MARKS 

PAGE NO.

1. 'The Zulu Girl' 

Essay question 

10 

6

2. 'The Garden of Love' 

Contextual question 

10 

7

3. 'A Hard Frost' 

Contextual question 

10 

8

4. 'An African Thunderstorm' 

Contextual question 

10 

9

AND 
Unseen Poem: COMPULSORY QUESTION

5. 'The Face of Hunger' 

Contextual question 

10 

10

SECTION B: NOVEL 
Answer ONE question.*

6. The Picture of Dorian Gray 

Essay question 

25 

11

7. The Picture of Dorian Gray 

Contextual question 

25 

11

8. Life of Pi 

Essay question 

25 

14

9. Life of Pi 

Contextual question 

25 

14

SECTION C: DRAMA 
Answer ONE question.*

10. Hamlet 

Essay question 

25 

17

11. Hamlet 

Contextual question 

25 

17

12. Othello 

Essay question 

25 

21

13. Othello 

Contextual question 

25 

21

14. The Crucible 

Essay question 

25 

24

15. The Crucible 

Contextual question 

25 

24

SECTION 

QUESTION NUMBERS

NO. OF  QUESTIONS  ANSWERED

TICK 

(✔)

A: Poetry 

(Prescribed Poetry) 

1–4 

2

A: Poetry 

(Unseen Poem) 

5 

1

B: Novel  

(Essay OR Contextual) 

6–9 

1

C: Drama  

 (Essay OR Contextual) 

10–15 

1

THE ZULU GIRL – Roy Campbell 

1. When in the sun the hot red acres smoulder,  
2. Down where the sweating gang its labour plies,
3. A girl flings down her hoe, and from her shoulder 
4. Unslings her child tormented by the flies. 
5. She takes him to a ring of shadow pooled  
6. By thorn-trees: purpled with the blood of ticks, 
7. While her sharp nails, in slow caresses ruled, 
8. Prowl through his hair with sharp electric clicks. 
9. His sleepy mouth plugged by the heavy nipple, 
10. Tugs like a puppy, grunting as he feeds: 
11. Through his frail nerves her own deep languors ripple
12. Like a broad river sighing through its reeds.
13. Yet in that drowsy stream his flesh imbibes 
14. An old unquenched unsmotherable heat – 
15. The curbed ferocity of beaten tribes, 
16. The sullen dignity of their defeat. 
17. Her body looms above him like a hill 
18. Within whose shade a village lies at rest,
19. Or the first cloud so terrible and still
20. That bears the coming harvest in its breast.

THE GARDEN OF LOVE – William Blake 

1. I went to the Garden of Love, 
2. And saw what I never had seen: 
3. A Chapel was built in the midst, 
4. Where I used to play on the green. 
5. And the gates of this Chapel were shut, 
6. And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door; 
7. So I turn'd to the Garden of Love 
8. That so many sweet flowers bore; 
9. And I saw it was filled with graves,
10. And tomb-stones where flowers should be; 
11. And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
12. And binding with briars my joys and desires.

A HARD FROST – Cecil Day Lewis 

1. A frost came in the night and stole my world 
2. And left this changeling for it – a precocious 
3. Image of spring, too brilliant to be true: 
4. White lilac on the windowpane, each grass-blade
5. Furred like a catkin, maydrift loading the hedge. 
6. The elms behind the house are elms no longer 
7. But blossomers in crystal, stems of the mist 
8. That hangs yet in the valley below, amorphous 
9. As the blind tissue whence creation formed.
10. The sun looks out, and the fields blaze with diamonds.
11. Mockery spring, to lend this bridal gear
12. For a few hours to a raw country maid, 
13. Then leave her all disconsolate with old fairings
14. Of aconite and snowdrop! No, not here 
15. Amid this flounce and filigree of death 
16. Is the real transformation scene in progress
17. But deep below where frost
18. Worrying the stiff clods unclenches their
19. Grip on the seed and lets our future breathe.

AN AFRICAN THUNDERSTORM – David Rubadiri 

1. From the west 
2. Clouds come hurrying with the wind 
3. Turning
4. Sharply 
5. Here and there  
6. Like a plague of locusts 
7. Whirling
8. Tossing up things on its tail 
9. Like a madman chasing nothing. 
10. Pregnant clouds  
11. Ride stately on its back 
12. Gathering to perch on hills
13. Like dark sinister wings; 
14. The Wind whistles by
15. And trees bend to let it pass. 
16. In the village 
17. Screams of delighted children 
18. Toss and turn 
19. In the din of whirling wind, 
20. Women – 
21. Babies clinging on their backs – 
22. Dart about  
23. In and out 
24. Madly 
25. The Wind whistles by  
26. Whilst trees bend to let it pass. 
27. Clothes wave like tattered flags 
28. Flying off
29. To expose dangling breasts 
30. As jaggered blinding flashes  
31. Rumble, tremble, and crack 
32. Amidst the smell of fired smoke 
33. and the pelting march of the storm.

THE FACE OF HUNGER – Mbuyiseni Oswald Mtshali 

1. I counted ribs on his concertina chest: 
2. bones protruding as if chiselled 
3. by a sculptor's hand of Famine. 
4. He looked with glazed pupils 
5. seeing only a bun on some sky high shelf. 
6. The skin was pale and taut
7. like a glove on a doctor's hand. 
8. His tongue darted in and out
9. like a chameleon's 
10. snatching a confetti of flies.
11. O! child 
12. your stomach is a den of lions 
13. roaring day and night.

'Sibyl is the only thing I care about. What is it to me where she came from? From her  little head to her little feet, she is absolutely and entirely divine. Every night of my life  I go to see her act, and every night she is more marvellous.' 
'That is the reason, I suppose, that you never dine with me now. I thought you must  have some curious romance on hand. You have; but it is not quite what I expected.' 5 
'My dear Harry, we either lunch or sup together every day, and I have been to the  Opera with you several times,' said Dorian, opening his blue eyes in wonder. 
'You always come dreadfully late.' 
'Well, I can't help going to see Sibyl play,' he cried, 'even if it is only for a single act.  I get hungry for her presence; and when I think of the wonderful soul that is hidden  10 away in that little ivory body, I am filled with awe.' 
'You can dine with me to-night, Dorian, can't you?' 
He shook his head. 'To-night she is Imogen,' he answered, 'and to-morrow night she  will be Juliet.' 
'When is she Sibyl Vane?' 15 
'Never.' 
'I congratulate you.' 
'How horrid you are! She is all the great heroines of the world in one. She is more than  an individual. You laugh, but I tell you she has genius. I love her, and I must make her  love me. You, who know all the secrets of life, tell me how to charm Sibyl Vane to love  20 me!' 

[Chapter 4] 

'My dear Gladys!' cried Lord Henry.  
…  
'We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to  reproduce that experience as often as possible.' 
'Even when one has been wounded by it, Harry?' asked the Duchess, after a pause. 'Especially when one has been wounded by it,' answered Lord Henry. 5 
The Duchess turned and looked at Dorian Gray with a curious expression in her eyes.  'What do you say to that, Mr Gray?' she inquired. 
Dorian hesitated for a moment. Then he threw his head back and laughed. 'I always agree with Harry, Duchess.' 
'Even when he is wrong?' 10
'Harry is never wrong. Duchess.' 
'And does his philosophy make you happy?' 
I have never searched for happiness. Who wants happiness? I have searched for  pleasure.' 
'And found it, Mr Gray?' 15 
'Often. Too often.' 
The Duchess sighed. 'I am searching for peace,' she said, 'and if I don't go and dress,  I shall have none this evening.' 
'Let me get you some orchids, Duchess,' cried Dorian, starting to his feet, and walking  down the conservatory. 20
... 
He went to his room and dressed. There was a wild recklessness of gaiety in his  manner as he sat at table, but now and then a thrill of terror ran through him when he  remembered that, pressed against the window of the conservatory, like a white  handkerchief, he had seen the face of James Vane watching him. 

[Chapter 17] 

Then the elderly man said, 'I have a story that will make you believe in God.' … 
'It starts right here in Pondicherry just a few years back, and it ends, I am delighted to  tell you, in the very country you come from.' 
'And it will make me believe in God?' 
'Yes.' 5 
'That's a tall order.' 
'Not so tall that you can't reach.' 
My waiter appeared. I hesitated for a moment. I ordered two coffees. We introduced  ourselves. His name was Francis Adirubasamy.  
'Please tell me your story,' I said. 10 
'You must pay proper attention,' he replied. 
'I will.' I brought out pen and notepad. 
… 
Later, in Toronto, among nine columns of Patels in the phone book, I found him, the  main character. My heart pounded as I dialled his phone number. The voice that  answered had an Indian lilt to its Canadian accent, light but unmistakable, like a trace  15
of incense in the air. 'That was a very long time ago,' he said. Yet he agreed to meet.  
We met many times. He showed me the diary he kept during the events. He showed  me the yellowed newspaper clippings that made him briefly, obscurely famous. He told  me his story. All the while I took notes. Nearly a year later, after considerable  difficulties, I received a tape and a report from the Japanese Ministry of Transport.  20
It was as I listened to that tape that I agreed with Mr Adirubasamy that this was,  indeed, a story to make you believe in God.  

[Author's note] 

I wished for her anger. I wished for her to punish me. Only not this silence. I made to  arrange some life jackets for the sailor's comfort so that I could be next to her.  I whispered, 'I'm sorry, Mother, I'm sorry.' My eyes were brimming with tears. When I  brought them up, I saw that hers were too. But she didn't look at me. Her eyes were  gazing upon some memory in mid-air. 5 
'We're all alone, Piscine, all alone,' she said, in a tone that broke every hope in my  body. 
… 
He cut up everything, including the sailor's skin and every inch of his intestines. He  even prepared his genitals. When he had finished with his torso, he moved on to his  arms and shoulders and to his legs. Mother and I rocked with pain and horror. Mother  10 shrieked at the cook, 'How can you do this, you monster? Where is your humanity?  Have you no decency?' 
… 
We each had our end of the lifeboat. It's amazing how willpower can build walls. Whole  days went by as if he weren't there. 
But we couldn't ignore him entirely. He was a brute, but a practical brute. He was good  15 with his hands and he knew the sea. He was full of good ideas. He was the one who  thought of building a raft to help with the fishing. If we survived any time at all, it was  thanks to him. I helped him as best I could. 

[Chapter 99] 

HORATIO : Not I, my lord, by heaven. 
MARCELLUS : Nor I, my lord. 
HAMLET : How say you then, would heart of man once  think it? 
                  But you'll be secret?  5 
HORATIO AND MARCELLUS : Ay, by heaven, my lord. 
HAMLET : There's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark 
                 But he's an arrant knave. 
HORATIO : There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave 10 
                    To tell us this. 
HAMLET : Why, right, you are i'th' right, 
                      And so without more circumstance at all 
                    I hold it fit that we shake hands and part, 
                    You as your business and desires shall point you – 15
                    For every man has business and desire, 
                    Such as it is – and for mine own poor part,  
                    Look you, I'll go pray.  
                      ... 
HORATIO : O day and night, but this is wondrous strange! 
HAMLET : And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. 20 
                    There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
                   Than are dreamt of in our philosophy. But come, 
                    Here as before, never, so help you mercy, 
                    How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself – 
                    As I perchance hereafter shall think meet 25 
                    To put an antic disposition on – 
                    That you at such time seeing me never shall, 
                    With arms encumbered thus, or this headshake, 
                    Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase 
                    As 'Well, we know' or 'We could an if we would', 30 
                    Or 'If we list to speak', or 'There be, an if they might', 
                    Or such ambiguous giving out, to note 
                    That you know aught of me – this not to do, 
                    So grace and mercy at your most need help you, 
                    Swear. 35

[Act 1, Scene 5] 

Enter GERTRUDE and POLONIUS 

POLONIUS 
He will come straight. Look you lay home to him. 
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with, 
And that your grace hath screened and stood between 
Much heat and him. I'll silence me e'en here. 5 
Pray you be round with him. 

HAMLET 
(offstage) Mother, mother, mother! 

GERTRUDE 
I'll warrant you. Fear me not. Withdraw; I hear 
him coming. 

POLONIUS hides behind the arras. Enter HAMLET 10 

HAMLET 
Now, mother, what's the matter? 

GERTRUDE 
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. 

HAMLET 
Mother, you have my father much offended. 

GERTRUDE 
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. 

HAMLET 
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. 15 

GERTRUDE 
Why, how now, Hamlet? 

HAMLET 
 What's the matter now? 

GERTRUDE 
Have you forgot me? 

HAMLET 
 No, by the rood, not so. 
You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife. 20 
But – would you were not so – you are my mother. 

GERTRUDE 
Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak. 

HAMLET 
Come, come, and sit you down. You shall not 
 budge. 
You go not till I set you up a glass 25 
Where you may see the inmost part of you. 

GERTRUDE 
What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me? 
Help, help, ho! 

POLONIUS  
(behind the arras) What ho! Help, help, help! 

HAMLET 
How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead. 30
 He thrusts his sword through the arras 

POLONIUS 
O, I am slain! 

GERTRUDE (to HAMLET)  
O me, what hast thou done? 

HAMLET 
Nay, I know not. Is it the King? 

GERTRUDE 
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! 35

HAMLET 
A bloody deed – almost as bad, good mother, 
As kill a king and marry with his brother.  

[Act 3, Scene 4] 

EMILIA 
What handkerchief! 
Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona, 
That which so often you did bid me steal. 
IAGO 
Hast stole it from her? 
EMILIA  5 
No, faith, she let it drop by negligence,  
And to the advantage, I being here took't up.  
Look, here it is.  
IAGO  
A good wench! Give it me.  
EMILIA  
What will you do with it, that you have been  10 
So earnest to have me filch it?  
IAGO  
(Snatching it) Why, what is that to you?  
EMILIA  
If it be not for some purpose of import,  
Give't me again. Poor lady, she'll run mad  
When she shall lack it.  
IAGO  15 
Be not you known on't, I have use for it.  
Go, leave me.  
Emilia off  
I will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin, 
And let him find it. Trifles light as air 20
Are to the jealous confirmation strong 
As proofs of holy writ. This may do something. 
The Moor already changes with my poison.  
Dangerous conceits are in their natures poisons, 
Which at the first are scarce found to distaste,  25
But, with a little act upon the blood,  
Burn like the mines of sulphur. I did say so.  
Re-enter Othello  
Look where he comes! Not poppy, nor mandragora, 
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,  30
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep  
Which thou owedst yesterday.  
OTHELLO 
Ha, ha, false to me, to me? 

[Act 3, Scene 3] 

OTHELLO 
Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil 
Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body? 
IAGO 
Demand me nothing. What you know, you know.
From this time forth I never will speak word. 
LODOVICO 5 
What, not to pray? 
GRATIANO 
Torments will ope your lips. 
OTHELLO 
Well, thou dost best. 
LODOVICO  
Sir, you shall understand what hath befallen,  
Which, as I think, you know not. Here is a letter  10 
Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo,  
And here another. The one of them imports  
The death of Cassio, to be undertook  
By Roderigo. 
OTHELLO 
O villain! 
CASSIO 15
Most heathenish and most gross! 
LODOVICO 
Now here's another discontented paper 
Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems, 
Roderigo meant to have sent this damned villain, 
But that, belike, Iago in the nick 20 
Came in and satisfied him.  
… 
OTHELLO 
Soft you – a word or two before you go. 
I have done the State some service and they know't. 
No more of that. I pray you in your letters 
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate 25 
Speak of them as they are. Nothing extenuate, 
Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak 
Of one that loved not wisely, but too well; 
Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought, 
Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand, 30 
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away 
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes, 
Albeit unused to the melting mood, 
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees 
Their medicinal gum. Set you down this;  35 
And say besides that in Aleppo once 
Where a malignant and turbaned Turk 
Beat a Venetian and traduced the State, 
I took by the throat the circumcised dog – 
And smote him thus. 
Othello stabs himself  40

[Act 5, Scene 2] 

HALE 
Now, Betty, dear, will you sit up? (PUTNAM comes in closer,  ready-handed. HALE sits Betty up, but she hangs limp in his hands.) Hmmm.
(He observes her carefully. The others watch breathlessly.) Can you hear me? I am John Hale, minister of Beverly.
I have come  to help you, dear. Do you remember my two little girls in Beverly?  5 (She does not stir in his hands.) 
PARRIS 
(in fright): How can it be the Devil? Why would he choose my house  to strike? We have all manner of licentious people in the village! 
HALE 
What victory would the Devil have to win a soul already bad? It is the  best the Devil wants, and who is better than the minister? 10 
GILES 
That's deep, Mr Parris, deep, deep! 
PARRIS 
(with resolution now): Betty! Answer Mr Hale! Betty! 
… 
HALE 
(grasping Abigail): Abigail, it may be your cousin is dying. Did you  call the Devil last night? 
ABIGAIL 
I never called him! Tituba, Tituba … 15 
PARRIS 
(blanched): She called the Devil? 
HALE 
I should like to speak with Tituba. 
… 
HALE 
Did your cousin drink any of the brew in that kettle? 
ABIGAIL 
She never drank it! 
HALE 
Did you drink it? 20 
ABIGAIL 
No, Sir! 
HALE 
Did Tituba ask you to drink it? 
ABIGAIL 
She tried, but I refused. 
HALE 
Why are you concealing? Have you sold yourself to Lucifer? 
ABIGAIL 
I never sold myself! I'm a good girl! I'm a proper girl! 25

[Act 1] 

PARRIS Excellency, it profit nothing you should blame me. I cannot think they would run off except they fear to keep in Salem any more. (He is  pleading.)
… 
PARRIS I tell you true, sir, I fear there will be riot here. 
HATHORNE Riot! Why at every execution I have seen naught but high  5 satisfaction in the town. 
PARRIS Judge Hathorne – it were another sort that hanged till now. Rebecca  Nurse is no Bridget that lived three year with Bishop before she  married him. John Proctor is not Isaac Ward that drank his family to  ruin. (To Danforth.) I would to God it were not so, Excellency, but  10 these people have great weight yet in the town. Let Rebecca stand  upon the gibbet and send up some righteous prayer, and I fear she'll  wake a vengeance on you. 
HATHORNE Excellency, she is condemned a witch. The court have – 
DANFORTH (in deep concern, raising a hand to Hathorne): Pray you. (To Parris.)  15 How do you propose, then? 
PARRIS Excellency, I would postpone these hangin's for a time. 
DANFORTH There will be no postponement. 
PARRIS Now Mr Hale's returned, there is hope, I think – for if he bring even  one of these to God, that confession surely damns the others in the  20 public eye, and none may doubt more that they are all linked to Hell.  This way, unconfessed and claiming innocence, doubts are  multiplied, many honest people will weep for them, and our good  purpose is lost in their tears. 

[Act 4]