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Written Test

At some stage while reading this anthology in class, you will have to do a written test. Depending on the Bundesland you are in, it may even be a part of your written Abitur exam. You might be asked to deal with a longer extract from one of the stories, or you may be asked to compare two extracts from different stories. Here, you are offered the latter type, with a selection of various different tasks.

Text 1

The first day they were very active, pottering about with hammers and nails and red calico, to put up curtains, make their house habitable and pretty; resolved to settle down comfortably to their new life. For them an impossible task. To grapple effectually with even purely material problems requires more serenity of mind and more lofty courage than people generally imagine. No two beings could have been more unfitted for such a struggle. […]At the end of two months Kayerts often would say, ‘If it was not for my Melie, you wouldn’t catch me here.’ Melie was his daughter. He had thrown up his post in the Administration of the Telegraphs, though he had been for seventeen years perfectly happy there, to earn a dowry for his girl. His wife was dead, and the child was being brought up by his sisters. He regretted the streets, the pavements, the cafes, his friends of many years; all the things he used to see, day after day; all the thoughts suggested by familiar things – the thoughts effortless, monotonous, and soothing of a Government clerk; he regretted all the gossip, the small enmities, the mild venom, and the little jokes of Government offices, ‘If I had had a decent brother-in-law,’ Carlier would remark, ‘a fellow with a heart, I would not be here,’ He had left the army and had made himself so obnoxious to his family by his laziness and impudence, that an exasperated brother-in-law had made superhuman efforts to procure him an appointment in the Company as a second-class agent. Having not a penny in the world he was compelled to accept this means of livelihood as soon as it became quite clear to him that there was nothing more to squeeze out of his relations. He, like Kayerts, regretted his old life. He regretted the clink of sabre

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and spurs on a fine afternoon, the barrack-room witticisms, the girls of garrison towns; but, besides, he had also a sense of grievance. He was evidently a much ill-used man. This made him moody, at times. But the two men got on well together in the fellowship of their stupidity and laziness. Together they did nothing, absolutely nothing, and enjoyed the sense of the idleness for which they were paid. And in time they came to feel something resembling affection for one another.(From: Joseph Conrad, ‘An Outpost of Progress’)

1 potterabout: do things without hurrying 2 calico:heavy cotton fabric 4 grapplewith: sich mit etwas herumschlagen 5 serenity: state of being calm and peaceful 5 lofty: erhaben11 dowry: Mitgift13 regret: miss16 soothing: beruhigend17 enmity: Feindseligkeit17 venom: sarcastic remarks20 obnoxious: extremely disliked21 impudence: behaviour showing disrespect22 procure: obtain 24 livelihood: means of earning money26 sabre: curved sword27 spurs: Sporen27 barrack-room: room in which soldiers live27 witticism: clever and amusing remark28 grievance: feeling of being treated unjustly29 ill-used: badly treated32 idleness: time spent doing nothing

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Text 2

Being a farmer (he had come to it late in life, in his forties) was the first test he had faced as an individual. Before he had always been supported, invisibly perhaps, but none the less strongly, by what his family expected of him. He had been a regular soldier, not an unsuccessful one, but his success had been at the cost of a continual straining against his own inclinations; and he did not know himself what his inclinations were. Something stubbornly unconforming kept him apart from his fellow officers. It was an inward difference: he did not think of himself as a soldier. Even in his appearance, square, close-bitten, disciplined, there had been a hint of softness, or of strain, showing itself in his smile, which was too quick, like the smile of a deaf person afraid of showing incomprehension, and in the anxious look of his eyes. After he left the army he quickly slackened into an almost slovenly carelessness of dress and carriage. Now, in his farm clothes there was nothing left to suggest the soldier. With a loose, stained felt hat on the back of his head, khaki shorts a little too long and too wide, sleeves flapping over spare brown arms, his wispy moustache hiding a strained, set mouth, Major Carruthers looked what he was, a gentleman farmer going to seed.The house had that brave, worn appearance of those struggling to keep up appearances. It was a four-roomed shack, its red roof dulling to streaky brown. It was the sort of house an apprentice farmer builds as a temporary shelter till he can afford better. Inside, good but battered furniture stood over worn places in the rugs; the piano was out of tune and the notes stuck; the silver tea things from the big narrow house in England where his brother (a lawyer) now lived were used a ornaments, and inside were bits of paper, accounts, rubber rings, old corks.The room where his wife lay, in a greenish sun-lanced gloom, was a place of seedy misery. The doctor said it was here heart; an Major Carruthers knew this was true: she had broken down through heart break over the conditions they lived in. She did not want to get better.(From: Doris Lessing, ‘The Second Hut’)

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  5 straining: fight, struggle  6 inclination: Neigung  7 stubborn: störrisch  7 unconforming: behaving or thinking differently from others  9 square: having a solid shape  9 close-bitten: having a mouth which reveals little emotion10 strain: worry, anxiety13 slacken: start to take less care of yourself13 slovenly: untidy, dirty14 carriage: the way a person stands and moves15 stained: covered with dirty marks15 felt: Filz17 spare: thin17 wispy: not thick19 gotoseed: become dirty or untidy because you no longer care21 keepupappearances: pretend that things are going well2 shack: badly-built hut24 battered: damaged24 worn: abgenützt25 outoftune: verstimmt29 sun-lanced: pierced by rays of sun30 seedy: dirty and unpleasant

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TasksComprehension1 Locate the extracts within each story and outline their

significance for the whole of the story.2 Compare the motives of Kayerts, Carlier and Major Carruthers

for going to Africa, and what has become of them.3 Examine the role of the narrator in each of the extracts and

how the reader is influenced.

Analysis (Choose one of the tasks)4 Using the given passage as a starting point, explain the

relevance of the title of Joseph Conrad’s story.5 Analyse what the description of the ‘shack’ reveals about daily

life in the colonies in general and the situation of Major Carruthers and his wife in particular.

Composition (Choose one of the tasks)6 Write the dialogue which takes place between the Director and

Henry Price when the boat returns.7 After their return to England, Mrs Carruthers writes a letter to a

friend explaining why she and her husband left Africa. Write her letter.

Dealing with the comprehension tasks

The following are not suggested answers, but hints and things for you to think about so that you can write your own answer.

1In Text 1 Kayerts and Carlier have just arrived at the outpost and are settling in. We learn of the laziness and incompetence of the two characters, which is responsible for the outcome of the story. Text 2 represents the exposition, in which Carruthers and his wife, their precarious financial situation and the effect it is having on Mrs Carruthers are introduced. It is this threat of failure which then leads

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Carruthers to employ the Afrikaner, who makes him aware of what real hardship is and that he himself is not cut out for this kind of life.Writing your answerThis kind of question aims at testing not only how well you know the stories, but whether you understand what the actual ‘message’ of each individual story is. When answering this question it is a good idea to state that both extracts are situated fairly close to the beginning of the stories. Then you can deal with each extract separately. As regards An Outpost of Progress it would be very convincing to state that, before we learn about how Kayerts and Carlier go about settling in and how they come to be on the outpost, the reader is given a general introduction to the setting. Then you should state that the two men are presented as being lazy and incompetent – the fact that apart from hanging up curtains they do absolutely nothing would be a good example – and it is this attitude which eventually leads to their downfall. You could then refer briefly to the slave deal and how they handle it, and then to the fact that they end up arguing over the last lumps of sugar. Some good expressions here would be ‘incapable’, ‘ill-equipped’, they become ‘morally corrupt’ and ‘deteriorate physically and mentally’. Then deal with Text 2 in a similar way, saying, very briefly, what we learn in the text and how it sets the scene for the the rest of the story. Whatever you do, you must keep in mind that you are not being asked to simply retell what happens in both the stories but to select the most important points.

2As regards motives, these two extracts reveal a number of similarities: Whereas Kayerts gave up his job as a government clerk because he wanted to earn a sufficient dowry for his daughter, both Carlier and Carruthers had been soldiers, but, having left the army, had no job to go to. Carlier had relied on his family to the point of living off them, and Carruthers also has a brother in England who now lives in the family home. Therefore, you could say that all three have gone to Africa in the hope of improving their financial situations. Both Kayerts and Carlier miss their former lives and seem to regret having come to the outpost. In one respect this is where they differ from Carruthers, who apparently had never really enjoyed being in the army, although

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he was not unsuccessful. However, what all three have in common is that they have not found the betterment they had hoped for.Writing your answerAs the operative word in this task is ‘compare’ you should take care to deal, as far as possible, with all three characters together and not one after the other. Avoid just listing their various motives, but instead either state what they have in common first, and then where they differ, or vice versa. In tasks like this, which are less straightforward than simply dealing with one passage, connectives and expressions like ‘in contrast’, ‘on the one hand, … on the other hand’, ‘whereas’, ‘similarly’, ‘have in common’ and ‘to differ’ are extremely important, as they will make your answer more coherent and easier to read.

3When dealing with prose fiction, tasks referring to forms of narration and narrative techniques are very frequent, so before tackling a written test you should familiarize yourself with the relevant terms (see ‘Glossary of Narrative Terms’, p. 175).In both stories events are narrated by third-person, omniscient narrators. However, Conrad uses an intrusive narrator who intersperses the narrative with auctorial remarks. Not only does this underline the ineffectualness and stupidity of the two main characters but it also places the story in the broader context of imperialism by making the reader aware of the exploitation and corruption involved in imperialism. On the other hand, the narrator in Lessing’s story focuses largely on Carruthers while seemingly remaining impartial. Nevertheless, the narrator concentrates on elements that reveal the failure of Carruthers both as a farmer and as a man in Africa. One example you might point out is: ‘It was the sort of house an apprentice farmer builds as a temporary shelter till he can afford better’ (ll. 22–23); obviously Carruthers is middle-aged and is no longer an apprentice farmer, yet he can not afford better, so he has made no money from the land.Writing your answerAlthough you are not expressly asked to compare, it is a good idea to establish similarities between the two narrative perspectives and then deal with the differences. As this task wants you to ‘examine’, you

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should look at both passages very closely and give relevant examples. You can do this by either quoting indirectly, e.g. ‘as becomes clear when the narrator refers to …’ and then put the line numbers in brackets, or by quoting directly from the text (remember to put the quotes in inverted commas). Expressions like ‘the reader becomes involved in the narrative due to …’ or ‘the reader is able to form his own opinion’ might be useful here.Again connectives like ‘in addition’, ‘moreover’, ‘besides’ will prevent your answer from being a simple list of examples. Answers like this tend to rely on words like ‘the narrator uses’ or ‘this shows’, so it is a good idea to use a number of synonymous expression (‘make use of’, ‘the frequent use of’, ‘demonstrate’, ‘reveal’, ‘underline’).

Dealing with the analysis tasks

As you can tell from the way the two tasks here are worded, analysis tasks always use the given text or aspects from it as a starting point and then require that you apply what is in the text to a broader context, so make sure you deal with both parts of the question. If you choose task 4 you can summarize what the text reveals and then refer to the title, but you will need to deal with Conrad’s view of civilization and progress within the framework of imperialism. Use expressions like ‘it is the author’s intention to / the author aims at …’.In task 5 you should concentrate on the last two paragraphs of the extract, picking up on details like the silver tea things and the piano. Then go on to say that the transportation of an English lifestyle to the colonies was quite normal, but in this case – considering the social isolation – rather pointless. Then you can go back to the particular situation of Major Carruthers and his wife. Expressions like ‘it was common among … to …’, ‘as was often the case with …’ ‘a regular feature of life … was …’ might be helpful.

Writing compositions

In contrast to analysis tasks, composition tasks enable you to deal with the given text in an indirect way. If the composition task is creative – as is the case with the two tasks here – it does not mean that you can let

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your imagination run wild. Instead, you must stay within the framework of the story. In task 6 it is important to ask yourself the following questions first: Will the Director be shocked by what he finds? What will he actually want to know? How honest will Henry Price be? Who will he blame for the catastrophe? When writing the dialogue make sure you capture Henry Price’s character and also that of the Director and think about what mode of diction they will use. You have enough information from the story to know how the two characters might deal with this conversation.The same applies to task 7, where you must concentrate on Mrs Carruthers’s point of view and express yourself as she would. You have gained enough information about Mrs Carruthers to know what she feels about Africa, about returning to England and about her husband to be able to write her letter, even though she hardly ever expresses herself in words in the story. Also remember that a letter has to fulfil certain formal criteria, even if it is to a friend, so use the appropriate address (‘Dear …’), begin with an opening sentence (a general one perhaps about arriving back in England) instead of going straight into Mrs Carruthers’s story, and use one or two closing phrases at the end as you might expect from a normal letter.

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