HSC-style English Examination (Paper 1)

Online Test: HSC-style English Examination

(Paper 1)
N.B. While every attempt has been made by the author to compose an authentic version of Paper 1 of
the HSC English Examination (Area of Study: The Journey), students should note that the format of
this examination is subject to variation from year to year and they should consult their teachers and the
Board of Studies website to find the latest relevant information.

ENGLISH (STANDARD)
AND ENGLISH (ADVANCED)

Paper 1 Area of Study:

The Journey

Total Marks 45
Section 1
15 marks
Attempt Question 1
Allow about 40 minutes for this
section
General Instructions
Reading time -10 minutes
Working time -2 hours
Write using black or blue pen

Section 2
15 marks
Attempt Question 2
Allow about 40 minutes for this
section
Section 3
15 marks
Attempt ONE question from
Questions 3-5
Allow about 40 minutes for this
section

Copyright Michael Murray 2005

Published by Macmillan Education Australia

HSC-style English Examination (Paper 1)

Section 1
15 marks
Attempt Question 1
Allow about 40 minutes for this section

In your answer you will be assessed on how well you:

demonstrate understanding of the way perceptions of journeys are shaped
in and through texts
describe, explain and analyse the relationship between language, text and
context.

Question 1 (15 marks)

Examine Texts one, two and three carefully and then answer the questions that
follow.
Text one Cartoon
Untitled cartoon, from The Stick by Michael Leunig

Copyright Michael Murray 2005

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HSC-style English Examination (Paper 1)

Text two Poem

(from Sometimes Gladness by Bruce Dawe)

Drifters
One day soon hell tell her its time to start packing,
and the kids will yell Truly? and get wildly excited for no reason,
and the brown kelpie pup will start dashing about, tripping
everyone up,
and shell go out to the vegetable-patch and pick all the green
tomatoes from the vines,
and notice how the oldest girl is close to tears because she was
happy here,
and how the youngest girl is beaming because she wasnt.
And the first thing shell put on the trailer will be the bottling-set
she never unpacked from Grovedale,
and when the loaded ute bumps down the drive past the blackberrycanes with their last shrivelled fruit,
she wont even ask why theyre leaving this time, or where
theyre headed for
shell only remember how, when they came here,
she held out her hands bright with berries,
the first of the season, and said:
Make a wish, Tom, make a wish.

Text three Reflective Recount

(extract from Cats, Cradles and Chamomile Tea by Anna Maria Delloso)
Every few weeks for several years, I drove over 600 kilometres from
Sydney to Armidale. I made the journey for love: my dearest person was at the
University of New England. Up the Pacific Highway, through the Hunter Valley,
on to the hard, flat mining towns in recession, climbing steadily upwards past
Tamworth, where country guitars would complain on the radio, to the chill of the
New England plateau, the high country where the temperature would drop and
the wind nip through the window.
Through seven hours of solitary driving, the weary cafes, road-houses,
town halls and pubs become totems. There you get out of your capsule to be
plunged into a different reality. This is the lonely sweet romance of the road.
Late one rainy night, tired to my bones, I stopped in a mining town. The only
vacant room was at a miners hotel. Down in the bar the blokes bought me a nip
of rum as I dried out. They collected twenty cent pieces to ring the boyfriend,
love hell be worried about ya. Theirs was a hard labouring life but their
gentlemanly warmth made it a six-star hotel for me.
There is a human spirit, weirdly Australian, on the highways. There is
also an inhuman one. I have driven heart-in-mouth as the fog descends, the car
splutters and simple bends rear up too fast. Tall gums reach out, their leaves hiss
and mutter. You cling to the reality of the painted lines. But something is singing
for you. Its a wild old, old country beyond the highway markers.

Copyright Michael Murray 2005

Published by Macmillan Education Australia

HSC-style English Examination (Paper 1)

Examine Texts one, two and three carefully and then answer the following questions:

Text one Cartoon

(a)

(i)

(ii)

In the cartoon, what comment is being made about mans

journey into modern living?

Explain how two visual features are used to support this

comment.

Text two Poem

(b)

How does the poem show us the consequences of embarking on the

journey?

Text three Reflective recount

(c)

Discuss how the writer uses two techniques to show her attitude to her
journey.

Texts one, two and three

(d)

Identify the tone of each of the three texts.

Compare how the tone of each text is created and how it reflects the
composers view of the journey.

Copyright Michael Murray 2005

Published by Macmillan Education Australia

HSC-style English Examination (Paper 1)

Section 2
15 marks
Attempt Question 2
Allow about 40 minutes for this section

In your answer you will assessed on how well you:

express understanding of the journey in the context of your studies
use language appropriate to audience, purpose and context.

Question 2 (15 marks)

Imagine you are a person who has reached a significant point on a journey.
Write an article for Directions, a magazine for young people, in which you reflect on
your experiences and pass on some of the valuable insights you have derived from
your journey.
In your article you might consider the motivations, obstacles, milestones, destination
and consequences of your journey.

Copyright Michael Murray 2005

Published by Macmillan Education Australia

HSC-style English Examination (Paper 1)

Section 3
15 marks
Attempt ONE question from Questions 3-5

In your answer you will be assessed on how well you:

demonstrate understanding of the concept of the journey in the context of
your study
analyse, explain and assess the ways journeys are represented in a variety
of texts
organise, develop and express ideas using language appropriate to
audience, purpose and context.

Question 3 (15 marks)

Focus Physical Journeys
Imagine that the composer of your prescribed text, the composer of a text from the
Stimulus Booklet Journeys and the composer of a text of your own choosing are
participating in a radio forum. They are discussing their texts about physical journeys.
The topic for discussion is: How do texts about physical journeys transport their
audiences on these journeys?
Write the transcript of their discussion.
The prescribed texts are:
Prose Fiction
Drama
Poetry

Nonfiction
Film

- Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

- Michael Gow, Away
- Peter Skrzynecki, Immigrant Chronicle
Immigrants at Central Station, 1951
Feliks Skrzynecki
Crossing the Red Sea
Leaving home
Migrant hostel
A drive in the country
Post card
- Jesse Martin, Lionheart
- Phillip Noyce, Rabbit-Proof Fence

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HSC-style English Examination (Paper 1)

Question 4 (15 marks)

Focus Imaginative Journeys
Imagine that the composer of your prescribed text, the composer of a text from the
Stimulus Booklet Journeys and the composer of a text of your own choosing are
participating in a radio forum. They are discussing their texts about imaginative
journeys.
The topic for discussion is: How do texts about imaginative journeys transport their
audiences on these journeys?
Write the transcript of their discussion.
The prescribed texts are:
Prose Fiction
- Orson Scott Card, Enders Game
Drama/Shakespeare - William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Poetry
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Complete Poems
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1834)
This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison
Frost at Midnight
Kubla Khan
Nonfiction
- Melvyn Bragg, On Giants Shoulders
Film
- Robert Zemeckis, Contact
Question 5 (15 marks)
Focus Inner Journeys
Imagine that the composer of your prescribed text, the composer of a text from the
Stimulus Booklet Journeys and the composer of a text of your own choosing are
participating in a radio forum. They are discussing their texts about inner journeys.
The topic for discussion is: How do texts about inner journeys transport their
audiences on these journeys?
Write the transcript of their discussion.
The prescribed texts are:
Prose Fiction
Drama
Poetry

Nonfiction
Film

- J G Ballard, Empire of the Sun

- Louis Nowra, Cosi
- Ken Watson (ed.), Imagined Corners
Sujata Bhatt, The One Who Goes Away
Ivan Lalic, Of Eurydice
Gwyneth Lewis, Fax X
Mudrooroo, A Righteous Day
Janos Pilinszky, The French Prisoner
Vittorio Sereni, A Dream
Xuan Quynh, Worried Over the Days Past
- Sally Morgan, My Place
- Roberto Benigni, Life is Beautiful
Copyright Michael Murray 2005
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HSC-style English Examination (Paper 1)

Suggestions for your answers:

Section 1
(a)

(i)

(ii)

(b)

The cartoon is commenting on the mock-heroic nature of the journey

into modern living. We like to think of this journey in heroic terms (i.e.
the space exploration concept) but in fact it is a very modest journey of
meagre significance.
The mock-heroic nature of the journey is supported by these visual
features:

The humorously exaggerated depiction of the mans house

landing on earth like the first landing on the moon (in the first
two frames): satirises our attempts to view our journey into
modern living in heroic terms.

The reluctance of the mans steps and his forlorn expression

(from the fourth to the eighth frame): suggest the timid and
unheroic attitude to the journey.

The smallness of the human figure, overwhelmed by the city

skyline (in the last frame): suggests the insignificance (and lack
of heroism) of an individuals journey when he is just one of so
many.
(Note: you only need to identify and explain two visual techniques to
gain the two marks for this question).

Techniques used to show the consequences of embarking on the journey:

Flat, depressed tone (emphasised by the use of prosaic language)

suggests the unhappiness experienced by the mother/wife (the she
in the poem) when faced with the prospect of leaving.

Contrast between the reactions of the two daughters shows how

people react differently to the prospect of leaving and moving
elsewhere.

The frustration of never becoming long enough established in one

place to live a productive and fulfilling existence is emphasised by
the symbolism of the green tomatoes.

Contrast between the hopefulness when the family first arrived (she
held out hands bright with berries, / the first of the season and said: /
Make a wish, Tom, make a wish.) with the sense of wasted hopes
at their sudden departure (symbolised by the shrivelled fruit).

Lack of punctuation (the whole poem is just two sentences) and the
repetitious use of and not only heighten the flat, depressed tone but
also suggest the monotonous pattern of arriving then leaving in the
drifters existence.
(Note: you only need to identify and explain three techniques to gain the three
marks for this question).

Copyright Michael Murray 2005

Published by Macmillan Education Australia

HSC-style English Examination (Paper 1)

(c)

The writer shows her mixed attitude to the journey by using a variety of
techniques:

Mostly the writer registers a negative attitude ranging from boredom

to fear. The long sentence in the first paragraph, listing a series of
images (e.g. the hard, flat mining towns), shows the difficulty of
this journey, as if only love could have motivated her to undertake it.

The strangeness of the journey is suggested by the metaphor of space

or time travel (There you get out of your capsule to be plunged into
a different reality).

The fear of travelling in foggy conditions is conveyed effectively by

the personification of the gum trees (Tall gums reach out, their
leaves hiss and mutter) emphasising the threatening nature of this
alien landscape.

The writer shows her positive attitude to the journey by the anecdote
of the hospitable miners, using exaggeration (their gentlemanly
warmth made it a six-star hotel for me) to emphasise her gratitude.

The writers mixed feelings about the journey are most succinctly
conveyed by the oxymoron: the lonely, sweet romance of the road.
This paradoxical description of her journey suggests that it is both
joyous adventure (after all, it is accomplished for love) and yet also a
somewhat intimidating and alienating experience.
(Note: you only need to identify, explain and discuss two techniques used by
the writer to gain the four marks, yet the discussion needs to be in more detail
than that required for the previous two questions).

(d)

The three texts depict three very different journeys, yet a common aspect is the
apparent reluctance (or at least mixed feelings) of the central figure in each
text to undertake the journey.

The tone of the cartoon is ironic, as it gently ridicules the character

(representative of all mankind perhaps) who sees his journey into
modern living as a heroic journey. This tone is emphasised mostly by
the humorously exaggerated comparison of this journey to the first
landing on the moon. The facial expression of the character (ranging
from anxiety to depression) is a visual feature that adds to the irony
because his reaction seems so extreme given the ordinary and
unimportant nature of the journey.

Initially there seems to be a tone of excitement in the poem about the

prospect of moving, but this tone is not sustained (the kids get
wildly excited for no reason). The main tone of the poem is
depressed and fatalistic, reflecting the negative attitude towards
moving felt by the mother/wife, whose perspective is given most
prominence in the poem. This tone is achieved by the use of long
sentences; dull, prosaic language; and the sense of wasted hope
conveyed by the symbolic image of shrivelled fruit.

In the final text the writer expresses mixed feelings about her
journey, so the tone varies. A positive view of the journey is
suggested when she tells us I made the journey for love and by the
anecdote of the hospitable miners. More characteristically, however,
she registers a negative tone created by the long sentence in the first
Copyright Michael Murray 2005
Published by Macmillan Education Australia

HSC-style English Examination (Paper 1)

paragraph listing mostly unpleasant impressions along the trip; the

metaphor of space or time travel in the second paragraph showing
her sense of alienation in this unfamiliar landscape; and the
personification of the gum trees in the third paragraph indicating the
menacing nature of the landscape she is forced to traverse and
thereby suggesting her fear. Overall the writers view of the journey
is best conveyed by the oxymoron (the lonely, sweet romance of the
road) that suggests the paradoxical mix of positive and negative
feelings.
(Note: write this response in the form of a mini-essay, with a short
introduction and a short conclusion. Dont worry if you find yourself repeating
points raised in earlier answers provided that the points are still relevant you
will get good marks for them all over again!).
Section 2

Consider the context, audience and purpose (CAP) of the writing

situation:
1) Context: print media (magazine)
2) Audience: young people
3) Purpose:
- to relate journey experiences
- to reflect on meaning/significance of experiences
- to engage the interest/attention of audience

You will be required to write using less formal language than that used in
essays. In fact, magazine articles tend to be lively and colourful in style.
You will need to make special appeals to your young audience, but do not
underestimate their intelligence or receptiveness to challenging ideas.

You are not required to format your article authentically, i.e. writing in
columns, including graphics. However, an engaging title (possibly using a
pun, alliteration or rhyme) would be most appropriate.

If you have previously prepared an effective narrative on the theme of

journeys, you can almost certainly adapt it to suit this writing task. Make
sure you write from the perspective of the journeyer (i.e. first person, not
third person).

Always take the time to plan your work before you start writing. However,
in an exam situation use no more than about five minutes for planning of
the forty minutes allocated to this section.

Copyright Michael Murray 2005

Published by Macmillan Education Australia

HSC-style English Examination (Paper 1)

Section 3

This question is a reminder that we cannot always expect to get an essay

question for this section of the exam. Although you are writing the
transcript of a discussion in a radio forum, you are still required to
demonstrate the same sophisticated grasp of the concept of the journey as
you would show in an essay. The language might be a little less formal
than in an essay, but the nature of the discussion will still demand the use
of appropriate terminology.

You might consider having a host or convener of the radio forum who
might ask questions of the three composers. Plan your response by making
a list of the questions that might be asked, then decide which composers
will answer each question. If you decide not to have a convener, identify
the specific points to be raised in the discussion and the order in which the
composers might logically move through these points in addressing the
overall topic.

Notice the how in the topic for discussion: How do texts about
physical/imaginative/inner journeys transport their audiences on these
journeys? Clearly there is a strong focus on the techniques used by
composers to engage their audiences. Whenever you are discussing
techniques, remember to TIE:
1) Identify the technique.
2) Illustrate the technique with an example.
3) Explain the effectiveness of the technique (in this case, in
transporting the audience on the journey).

Set out your transcript in the form of a play script, with the names of the
speakers clearly indicated on the left hand side of the page and the words
spoken following after a colon, e.g.
GOW:
Of course, any effective play needs to use dramatic
techniques to engage the theatre audience.
Can you tell us about the dramatic techniques you used?
HOST:
Dont bother to use direct speech with inverted commas unless you are
told to do so.

Copyright Michael Murray 2005

Published by Macmillan Education Australia

HSC-style English Examination (Paper 1)

Acknowledgments
The publishers would like to gratefully credit or acknowledge the following for
permission to reproduce copyright material:
Cartoon from The Stick by Michael Leunig, published by Penguin Books Australia
2002, copyright Michael Leunig; Poem Drifters by Bruce Dawe, from Sometimes
Gladness: Selected Poems 1954-1997, published by Longman, 1997; Extract from
Cats, Cradles and Chamomile Tea by Anna Maria Delloso, Random House, 1989.
While every care has been taken to trace and acknowledge copyright, the publishers
tender their apologies for accidental infringement where copyright has proved
untraceable. They would be pleased to come to a suitable arrangement with the
rightful owner in each case.

Copyright Michael Murray 2005

Published by Macmillan Education Australia