NANYANG JUNIOR COLLEGE

JC2 PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION 2006

GENERAL PAPER
8005/2
PAPER 2: Wednesday 30 August 2006
INSERT
1 hour 30 minutes

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES

This insert contains the passages for Paper 2.

________________________________________________________________

This insert consists of 4 printed pages.

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PASSAGE 1: Anne Karpf writes ….

1 I first realised how much I demonise teenagers during a meal with Canadian relatives last
summer. When one of them bristled - a gentle, Canadian bristle - at my language, I began to
hear myself, and was shocked to discover that, quite unthinkingly, I had turned into someone
who never missed an opportunity to criticize teens. Now I am the first to balk at hormonal
explanations of the apparent differences between men and women, or genetic rationalisations 5
for purported differences between ethnic groups. But ever since I read a newspaper article that
said because teenagers' frontal lobes are not yet fully developed they cannot take responsibility
for their actions, each time mine, or any other adolescent I know, acts irresponsibly I
automatically pipe up with "frontal lobes".

2 Worse, my first impulse in any discussion of teens is to attribute to them venal motives - I only 10
ever talk about arms dealers, corporate polluters, and George Bush in similar terms. Yet I do
not personally know any teenagers who have peddled tanks, despoiled the environment, or
invaded another country - breaking curfews, leaving the lid off the peanut butter jar, and
listening to sub-punk music two decades too late just does not pass muster.

3 My prejudice against adolescents' sometimes demonic energy is not entirely baseless. All the 15
teenagers I know do demand to be treated like adults while insisting on the prerogatives of a
child. They lay claim to rights while often evading responsibilities. And they treat their parents
with the kind of contempt that we, the adults, can only regard with disbelief (and sneaking
envy?) since we, reared in more deferential times, could never have got away with it.

4 One thing that has helped me through these turbulent years is the comment of the British 20
psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott that "the adolescent boy or girl ... [does] not want to be
understood. Adults must hide among themselves what they come to understand of
adolescence." The best hiding place, I have found, is other parents. Just as teenagers meet
together in covens, so do we parents gather in cabals. One mother convulsed me, the last time
we got together, with her description of how she got so angry with her son that she went from 25
zero chastisement to nuclear threat in 10 seconds. The moment that the punitive penalty
started to leave her lips she realised it was excessive but - as humans, fatally, lack a rewind
button - she could see no way of hauling the words back in: she had to listen to herself
complete a punishment to which, by now, she was utterly uncommitted.

5 This stigmatisation of teens is shared by the wider society. They are commonly implicated in 30
every intractable current issue, such as crime and education. Philip Graham, a child and adult
psychiatrist, challenges many of the commonest myths and generalisations about "typical
teenagers", as does an inspiring project called Youth Act!, which has infused me with a real
sense of optimism about adolescents' potential as agents of social change. Teenagers as part
of the solution rather than the problem? That entails a real shift in thinking. 35

6 I reserve the right to retain some scepticism about teenagers - what with all the anxiety I surely
deserve it - but I am actively reviewing my own prejudice, and starting to see that teenagers can
be inspiring as well as maddening. If I can hold on to this thought throughout the next year, then
my own frontal lobes will clearly still be developing.

Adapted from ‘Adolescent Fantasies’, Guardian, 31 December 2005

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 PASSAGE 2: Barbara Ellen writes ….

1 We might be seeing a new breed of adolescent, a totally different kind of teenage tribe. A tribe
so different they probably should not even be called teenagers any more - a better term might
be Metrolescents, the defining characteristic of the Metrolescent being that, in the age of the
internet and the all-powerful teen media, they are united, bonded, on the same page like never
before. It used to be that kids in suburbia, or in villages or small towns, used to feel left out; you 5
had to make an effort to be part of the action, to fight and scrabble your way in.

2 In the era of the Metrolescent, it is possible to live in the crummiest, far-flung area and still feel
part of things. Fashions take seconds to filter through, the gossip super-highway is a mere log-
on away. Suddenly, the youth scene is everywhere, for everybody. Which might be the
problem. 10

3 For, in one hugely paradoxical way, the cliche is true - the parents really are to blame. I am sure
that, when today's teenagers were taught as toddlers to 'share', they did not realise that one
day this would mean sharing their culture (fashion, TV, music, everything) with people old
enough to be their parents; in many cases, the actual parents.

4 For while it may be true that Metrolescents have become weirdly adult, almost middle-aged (in 15
terms of spending power and expectation), correspondingly many adults have become
increasingly childish. In our parks, one cannot help but notice fortysomethings shamelessly
riding about on scooters and skateboards; middle-aged women in pigtails, and (God help us)
'Little Miss Naughty' T-shirts. Even worse, dark rumours abound of fiftysomething professionals
zooming up to pubs on Harley-Davidsons, the mid-life crisis chariots of choice, to play in 're- 20
formed' bands. It is as if a new mantra has taken hold among the middle aged of the nation:
'Youth is wasted on the young; so let's hang on to it.'

5 Madonna once complained about movie scripts she was sent, saying something along the lines
of: 'They keep sending me stuff for mothers of stroppy teenagers. But I'm still a stroppy
teenager'. People like me are just as bad, with our addictions to X Factor, Big Brother and Heat. 25
It says something that even the Harry Potter phenomenon became so partly because culturally
greedy adults just could not bear to leave a decent book to mere children.

6 For our own reasons (fear, paranoia, defiance), the parents of the Metrolescents are the first
generation to refuse to grow up, leaving an ever-shrinking space for genuine young people to
call their own. We have to be the worst - most self-absorbed, embarrassing - older generation 30
ever and our much maligned teenagers have every right to go quiet when we walk into a room.
To put it in context, how would you have felt if your parents had gone with you to see the
Stones in Hyde Park, the Sex Pistols at the 100 Club, or the Stone Roses at Spike Island? If
they just would not give it up? All things considered, our teenagers have been very patient with
us. 35

7 Maybe with the new tribe of Metrolescents, we have got the teenagers we deserve. If so, it
could have been worse. In recent years, it has become all too easy to criticize today's
teenagers without acknowledging that they are meant to be hideous - it is their job; their
inalienable right. After all, today's teenagers are really only hideous in a way we were all
hideous, maybe less so. I, for one, love the New Noise the young make, particularly the girls, 40
the way they stomp about the place without apology, without waiting for 'permission' to be alive;
the open-hearted generous way they look out for each other.

8 And more than that. Just as the Hogwarts teens know how to cast a spell, our own teenagers,
useless lumps though they often are, are not completely devoid of magic. On the last series of
Big Brother, the much-mocked 'brainless' teen audience responded to racism by decisively 45
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 voting off the perpetrators. After the tsunami and earthquake disasters, my doorstep was
clogged with 'loutish hoodies' and 'bovvered girls' from local schools earnestly wanting me to
sponsor them for swims and walks.

9 Only last week, the papers were full of the 17-year-old boy who passed up on college to look
after his 11-year-old sister after their mother died of cancer. The youth of today, eh – what is to 50
become of them? Maybe more than we think.

Adapted from ‘Meet the Metrolescents’, Observer, 6 November 2005

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 NANYANG JUNIOR COLLEGE
JC 2 PRELIMINARY EXAM 2006

Name: _______________________________ ST: _______ GP Tutor: ________

GENERAL PAPER 8005/2

PAPER 2: Wednesday 30 August 2006

1 hour 30 minutes

ANSWER BOOKLET

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES

Write your Name, ST, GP Tutor’s Name in the spaces at the top of the page.

Answer all questions.

INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES

The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.

EXAMINER’S USE

/15

Language

/35

Content

/50

Total
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This answer booklet consists of 8 printed pages.

PAPER 2 (50 Marks)
[Note that 15 marks out of 50 will be awarded for your use of language]

NOTE: When a question asks for an answer IN YOUR OWN WORDS AS FAR AS POSSIBLE and
you select the appropriate material from the passage for your answer, you must still use
your own words to express it. Little credit can be given to answers which only copy words
or phrases from the passage.

Read Passage 1 and then answer the following questions below.

For Examiner’s
Use Only
From Paragraph 1:

1(i) Quote one word which implies that the writer lacks awareness of her prejudice
against teenagers. [1]

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(ii) Explain the reason for the change in her opinion of teenagers. Use your own
words as far as possible. [2]

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2. What does the word “bristled” (line 2) reflect about the Canadian relatives’
reaction to what the writer had to say about teenagers? [1]

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From Paragraph 2: For Examiner’s
Use only

3. Why is the writer reluctant about attributing “venal motives” to teenagers

(line 10)? Use your own words as far as possible. [1]

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4. The writer uses the phrase “and sneaking envy?” (lines 18-19).

(i) What does she imply when she uses this phrase? [2]

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(ii) What does the writer intend you to understand by the use of the question mark
after the phrase (line 19)? [1]

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From Paragraph 4: For Examiner’s
use only

5. Why are the “other parents” (line 23) the best hiding place? Use your own
words as far as possible. [1]

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6. “Just as teenagers meet together in covens, so do we parents gather in

cabals.” (lines 23-24) What does this sentence suggest about the nature of
the meetings? Explain in your own words as far as possible. [1]

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From Paragraph 5:

7. Explain the meaning of the word “real” in each of these expressions:

(i) “real sense of optimism” (lines 33-34) [1]

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(ii) “real shift in thinking” (line 35) [1]

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Read Passage 2 and then answer the questions below. For Examiner’s
use only

8. Why does the writer feel that with Metrolescents, “we have got the teenagers we
deserve.” (line 36)? Using material from paragraphs 1 to 6, write your summary
in about 150 words, not counting the opening words which are printed below.
Use your own words as far as possible. [8]

The writer feels that Metrolescents are “the teenagers we deserve”

because .................................................................................................................

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9. In the last sentence, “Maybe more than we think” (line 51), what does the writer For Examiner’s
use only
imply about the youth of today? What does this phrase convey about the writer’s
attitude towards teenagers? [2]

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From both passages:

Give the meaning of each of the following words as they are used in
the passage. You may write the answer in a word or a short phrase. [5]

a. deferential (Passage 1, line 19) …………………………………………….

…………………………………………….

b. intractable (Passage 1, line 31) …………………………………………….

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c. entails (Passage 1, line 35) ………....................................................

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d. inalienable (Passage 2, line 39) ………....................................................

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e. devoid of (Passage 2, line 44) …………………………………………….

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11 The writer of Passage 1 regards the teenage years as being distinct from For Examiner’s
use only
adulthood, while the writer of Passage 2 thinks there is a blurring of the
boundaries between the teenage years and adulthood.

With reference to both passages, which of these two views is more

representative of your society? Justify with examples. How does your society
respond to individuals who do not act their age? [8]

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use only
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……………………… END OF PAPER ………………………………………..

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