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MID YEAR EXAMINATIONS 2006
MARKER’S REPORT

Paper: Secondary Three [Express] EL Paper 2, Comprehension

Marker: Rachel Ng


General Comments:

By and large, students are unable to express themselves succinctly. Sentences tend to ramble, and lack clarity. Often, in their haste to cover the question, they miss the point entirely. For example, in Question 5a, many spend quite some time describing the activities of a housewife [do household chores, tend to children etc], and fail to link the aforesaid activities to boredom. As such, while most students may think they have answered the question, they in fact have not. This was observed for a large part of the paper.

Question1: What do you think the author hopes the reader to understand by comparing the management of radio stations and TV screen to that of “blacksmiths confronted by a horseless carriage”?

This question was one of the most badly answered. A vast majority of the students did not understand the requirements of such questions. Instead of explaining the metaphor and then drawing the link, most merely stated their own opinions. Even of those who did attempt to explain the metaphor, misinterpretations abounded. Students also need to understand that they have to answer the question from the radio’s point of view, as it were. That it is outdated, as opposed to TV being advanced.

Question 2a: Was the management of radio stations in 1956 successful? In your own words, provide evidence in the passage that supports your answer.

Quite a few neglected the phrase “in your own words”. As such, the words “large” [or its derivatives] and “profits” or the phrase itself were frequently seen. Some replaced “profits” with “income”, not realizing the subtle difference. Others used “economically” as a substitute for “profits”, without knowing just how to use the word. Economics does not equal profits.

Question2b: How has technological breakthrough contributed to ‘this apparent paradox’?

Most understood the questions, but answered ambiguously, using words like “anywhere”. That however, was not sufficient as “anywhere” might mean any place that has signal coverage. The key word was “portable”.

Question3: [quote line 8-9] Give another word that has the same meaning as “revolutionized”.

Only accept words in answer scheme.

Question4: How did the radio audience differ from the TV audience in terms of loyalty?

Since the question did not require students to answer in their own words, lifting would have been sufficient. However, more than a few lifted incorrectly. Most understood that radio audiences were contented with the “same” DJ, but bungled up the phrase “TV consumes personalities and concepts voraciously”. It appears that they do not understand the phrase, and so their resulting answer does not make sense. An example of students’ answers would be “TV eats up personalities and concepts”. Another mistake many students made was to answer indirectly, i.e, they got the idea but phrased it incorrectly. Other things to take note of are that the difference between the TV and radio audience must be made clear, and that the answer needs to be elaborated.

Question5a: Why do you think the author describes the housewives as “a lonely, alienated group, yearning for some form of social involvement”?

Refer to general comments. Many think that staying at home equates to boredom, but the link is not direct. Some housewives actually find a sense of fulfillment in what they do! So students essentially need to make it clear that these housewives are bored.

Question 5b: Find another term or phrase the author uses in the passage to refer to “housewives”.

Answer scheme.

Question 6: Why is the radio considered “a greater wasteland than television has ever been”?

Another case of vague-gitis. Many students ended up merely describing the radio shows. They failed to conclude that since the radio did this this this and that that that, whereas the TV had so on and so forth, therefore it was less substantial than TV shows. The other half mark went to the fact that there are no signs of modifications made to improve radio shows, which some got by lifting.

Question 7: ‘Given the flexibility of audio tape, radio production costs are ________ ” Replace the word “negligible” so that it bears the same meaning as above.

Students need to realize that this calls for context, and extent. The phrase “inexpensive costs” is improper, and for that reason students were not awarded marks if they wrote “inexpensive” to replace “negligible”. Extent comes in when considering the key word. Therefore “small” was given half a mark, and “very small” was completely correct.

Question 8: What type of mission do you think the narrator and his companions were on? Explain.

Most got this correct.

Question 9: Pick out the phrase that indicates that the author was traveling in an aircraft.

Take note that phrases with the word “aircraft” in them are disallowed.

Question 10: What type of aircraft do you think the author was traveling in? Support your answer with evidence from the text.

The majority of the students correctly identified the aircraft as a helicopter. Quite a few, however, stopped after quoting from the passage, without linking the two. So the answer ended up looking like “Helicopter. “hovering about 20 feet over the ground”.

Question 11: Explain why the aircraft “shook itself to pieces”?

Answers were rather confused, perhaps reflecting students’ grasp of passage.

Question 12: What did the narrator mean when he thought, “I am caught, I’m going to be the next one”

About 65% got what the narrator meant. Some of them however, phrased it in such a way that it was unclear if the narrator had been caught by the enemies, or the safety harness. The others thought that the narrator had been caught by the enemies.

Question 13: Give one possible reason why the rescue helicopter came in at dusk.

As long as it was educated speculation, most got it correct. The accepted answers [in varying forms] were that of urgency, and undercover.

Question 14: Why do you think the Army personnel “quickly snatched off” the narrator’s pistol?

There had to be, in students’ answers, an indication of his disorientation. Only a few, however, did.

Question 15: Refer to answer scheme.