Vurderte eksamenssvar i SPR3012 Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur, eksamen vår 2015 Eksamenssvara er frå eksamen våren 2015.
På http://www.udir.no/Vurdering/Eksamen-videregaende/ finn du • eksamensrettleiing med kjenneteikn på måloppnåing *• førebuing til eksamen• eksamensoppgåver
* Karakterane er grunngjevne ut frå kjenneteikn på måloppnåing ieksamensrettleiinga.
Elevsvar med vurdering og grunngjeving for karakter (Klikk for å få fram ei einskild vurdering eller eit einskilt elevsvar)
Eksempel på karakter 2 Grunngjeving for karakter s. 2 Eksamenssvaret s. 4
Eksempel på karakter 3 Grunngjeving for karakter s. 9 Eksamenssvaret s. 14
Eksempel på karakter 4 Grunngjeving for karakter s. 18 Eksamenssvaret s. 23
Eksempel på karakter 5 Grunngjeving for karakter s. 27 Eksamenssvaret s. 32
Eksempel på karakter 6 Grunngjeving for karakter s. 38Eksamenssvaret s. 43
Task 1
Short answer
Answer both 1a and 1b.
1a
Read the text from Night Film by Marisha Pessel in the box below.
Explain how the author uses language features and literary devices to describe the narrator’s feelings about his ex-wife. Use examples from the text.
Night Film
She was still beautiful. It was awful. I'd been waiting for Cynthia to venture deeper into her forties so she'd wake up to wrinkles like a maze of molehills screwing up a legendary lawn. But no, her green eyes, those cheekbones, the expressive little mouth that broadcast her every mood with the diligence of a UN translator, were still youthful and bright. Now Bruce woke up every morning to that face. I still couldn't believe that man—fifty-eight, with a paunch, hairy wrists, and a yacht in Lyford Cay named Dominion II—was allowed to live daily with such beauty. He had a knack for spotting deals in the marketplace, I'd give him that. When Cynthia sold him a Damien Hirst* called, rather aptly, Beautiful Bleeding Wound Over the Materialism of Money Painting, Bruce noticed she, too, was a work of art to look at for a lifetime. That she allowed herself to be bought along with the painting—that I didn't see coming.
When I met Cynthia our sophomore year at the University of Michigan, she was flighty and poor, a French studies major who quoted Simone de Beauvoir. She wiped her runny nose on her coat sleeve when it was snowing, stuck her head out of car windows the way dogs do, the wind fireworking her hair. That woman was gone now. Not that it was her fault. Vast fortunes did that to people. It took them to the cleaners, cruelly starched and steam-pressed them so all their raw edges, all the dirt and hunger and guileless laughter, were ironed out. Few survived real money.
Marisha Pessel
*A painting by Damien Hirst, an internationally famous English artist and art collector, reportedly the richestliving artist in the U.K.
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SPR3012 Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur, eksamen vår 2015Eksempel på karakter 2
1b
It has been a century since the outbreak of WWI. The painting in the box below is an artist’s reaction to this time.
Comment briefly on what the artist expresses about this period in history.
We Are Making a New World
Paul Nash, We Are Making a New World (1918)
Task 2
Long answer
Choose one of the alternatives a), b), c) or d) below.
2c
Using the text in the box below as your point of departure, discuss what you have learned about interaction and communication between people in some of the literature and/or films you have studied in your course this year.
Have you seen the world lately, McGrath? The cruelty, the lack of connection? If you're an artist, I'm sure you can't help but wonder what it's all for. We're living longer, we social network alone with our screens, and our depth of feeling gets shallower. Soon it'll be nothing but a tide pool, then a thimble of water, then a micro drop. They say in the next twenty years we're going to merge with computer chips to cure aging and become immortal. Who wants an eternity of being a machine"?
Night Film by Marisha Pessel
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Beskrivelser av vist kompetanse
Innhold 1a. Oppgavesvaret viser liten kjennskap til språklige virkemidler. Svaret peker ut noen språklige virkemidler, men disse er mindre relevante for teksten.
1b. Innholdet i oppgavesvaret består av en enkel beskrivelse av det vedlagte bildet og gir en enkel tolkning av dette.
2c. Oppgavesvaret er noe på siden av oppgaveordlyden. Det er en vag tilknytning til den vedlagte teksten, og de litterære tekstene som eleven har valgt å skrive om, belyser i liten grad problemstillingen i oppgaven.
Tekststruktur 1a, 1b og 2c. Tekststrukturen i svarene er enkel og preget av gjentakelser.
Språk Språket i svarene har en del formelle feil og et begrenset ordforråd, men er i stor grad forståelig.
Beskrivelser av karakterer i forskrift til opplæringsloven
• Karakteren 6 uttrykkjer at eleven har framifrå kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 5 uttrykkjer at eleven har mykje god kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 4 uttrykkjer at eleven har god kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 3 uttrykkjer at eleven har nokså god kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 2 uttrykkjer at eleven har låg kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 1 uttrykkjer at eleven har svært låg kompetanse i faget.
Oppsummering av samlet kompetanse og karakter
Tekstene i eksamenssvaret viser relativt liten faglig innsikt. Innholdet er noe på siden av oppgaven, og det er en del svakheter i språkføringen og tekststrukturen.
Eksamenssvaret viser lav kompetanse og er samlet vurdert til karakter 2.
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 4 av 47
Task 1
Short Answer
a) In the text ‘’Night Film’’ The author decides to use Foreshadowing from the start. The author
starts off by giving us hints of what is about to come, we immediately know that the author is
speaking about a woman because of the way the text starts, ‘’She was still beautiful’’ and
using her name in the text. The text also contains repetition of the words ‘’She and her’’.
You can also see that this is an informal text, by the language of the text and structure. The
author writes words in the text like ‘’I’d, didn’t and couldn’t’’ it is more like a letter you
would send to a friend, than a text. The author also tries to persuade the reader by playing
on the readers emotions, going from that the narrator describes his ex-wife in a good way
and at the end describes her in a bad way. Maybe the author tries to tell us that real love
cannot be bought.
I think that the author also used a mood of anger and confusion into the narrator’s feelings
about his ex-wife. The mood of the story plays a big part in this text, because after reading
this you feel sorry for the narrator, because of how he describes her with all that love and
she leaves him for a man that is fifty-eight and has a lot of money. I think that the author
wrote this because it surely has happen before.
Task 1
b) Paul Nash who painted this picture tries to illustrate the world during the WW1. You can see
that he tries to prove a point. The trees are destroyed and it is mud and dirt all over the
place, exactly as the world was during the war. He paints a mountain and a sun that is very
bright, I think he means that even if the world was suffering after the world we still had a
bright future, that’s maybe what the bright sun symbolizes and if we wanted the peace
between us, we had to meet each other at the top of the mountain.
Eksempel på karakter 2
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 5 av 47
Task 2c
Long answer
The text below
In the text ‘’Night Film’’ by Marisha Pessel, she actually proves a point by how we people
are letting technology taking over the world. We do not interact or communicate as we
did before without this increasing power of technology.
We live in a society where the technology has been developed to a higher level for the
youth. They do not interact as they did, meaning meeting each other outside to play or
just to talk about how their weekend have been. Now days they just pick up their phone
or computer to talk.
She is worried about this developing of technology would destroy the world and the
people living in it. Technology contains development and the direction it could go
towards is only forward.
Task 2c
This year I learned a lot about how important communication and interaction is; specially
when it comes to communicate. In the short story Desiree’s Baby written by Kate Chopin,
it back fires at the man who thinks that the ‘’black blood’’ to his baby comes from the
mother of the child and in the end we he figures out that the ‘’black blood’’ comes his
side. You may think that this has nothing to do with communication, but you are wrong.
Think about if he had spoken to the mother or someone in his family about it, maybe he
would have avoided this situation.
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 6 av 47
Not speaking to people about the problems you have in life, could maybe damage you
for life, not physically but, mentally. Communicating is important whether is about
something good or bad. Just speak to people and help you and others to avoid
misunderstandings, everybody in this world have been in a situation where it has been a
misunderstanding. I am not saying that you have to speak about your personal life but
just talk with people. As we see in many short stories, we see interaction and
communication. A short story would have never been exciting as it is without interaction
and communication between people in it. It makes it more fun and enjoyable to read;
when you see people interact and make a dramatic scene or a fun scene. We see it in
real life, short stories, movies, also between animals too.
Communication is not always about talking with each other; but body language too; how
you behave and address yourself towards the other person. In The Rocking Horse
Winner, written by D.H.Lawrence. We see that communication is the main thing in the
short story. The boy who loves his mother tries and tries to communicate with her to tell
her that he loves her deeply. He even tries to make some money off betting on horses to
secure her. By speaking and communicating with her he finds, out that she is unhappy
with her life.
Communication and interaction with other people would make you mental stabile
because you are being around human beings; you could actually touch them and see
their body language. Sometimes communicating with computers could be dangerous;
because sometimes a friend would make a joke of; not meaning it bad; but you won’t
understand that. So, what I mean is interact and communicate with people while being
together in same room or outside; drop the computer and the phone and be outside
playing. Do not the technology ruin your teenage life.
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 7 av 47
I think the whole main thing in this course I had this year is to communicate and
interact with people. Sometimes we have role plays; sometimes we read a story together
or sing a song. Communicating and interacting has been the key to a successful year I
think and made the course much better. All the short stories and novels have some kind
of communicating or interacting in it; it must have it or it would not have as fun or
interesting as it is. We have discussed themes going around the world; the whole year
we have been communicating and interacting with each other and it has taught me that
it makes a difference. You can say what mean whether the other person likes or not, he
respects your opinion.
Sources: Access To English Literature Vg3, authors: John Anthony, Richard Burgess,
Robert Mikkelsen and Theresa Bowles Sørhus. Websit: (access.cappelen.no)
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Task 1
Short answer
Answer both 1a and 1b.
1a
Read the text from Night Film by Marisha Pessel in the box below.
Explain how the author uses language features and literary devices to describe the narrator’s feelings about his ex-wife. Use examples from the text.
Night Film
She was still beautiful. It was awful. I'd been waiting for Cynthia to venture deeper into her forties so she'd wake up to wrinkles like a maze of molehills screwing up a legendary lawn. But no, her green eyes, those cheekbones, the expressive little mouth that broadcast her every mood with the diligence of a UN translator, were still youthful and bright. Now Bruce woke up every morning to that face. I still couldn't believe that man—fifty-eight, with a paunch, hairy wrists, and a yacht in Lyford Cay named Dominion II—was allowed to live daily with such beauty. He had a knack for spotting deals in the marketplace, I'd give him that. When Cynthia sold him a Damien Hirst* called, rather aptly, Beautiful Bleeding Wound Over the Materialism of Money Painting, Bruce noticed she, too, was a work of art to look at for a lifetime. That she allowed herself to be bought along with the painting—that I didn't see coming.
When I met Cynthia our sophomore year at the University of Michigan, she was flighty and poor, a French studies major who quoted Simone de Beauvoir. She wiped her runny nose on her coat sleeve when it was snowing, stuck her head out of car windows the way dogs do, the wind fireworking her hair. That woman was gone now. Not that it was her fault. Vast fortunes did that to people. It took them to the cleaners, cruelly starched and steam-pressed them so all their raw edges, all the dirt and hunger and guileless laughter, were ironed out. Few survived real money.
Marisha Pessel
*A painting by Damien Hirst, an internationally famous English artist and art collector, reportedly the richestliving artist in the U.K.
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 9 av 47
SPR3012 Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur, eksamen vår 2015Eksempel på karakter 3
1b
It has been a century since the outbreak of WWI. The painting in the box below is an artist’s reaction to this time.
Comment briefly on what the artist expresses about this period in history.
We Are Making a New World
Paul Nash, We Are Making a New World (1918)
2b
One of the most important functions of the first pages of a book is to “hook” readers so they will want to read on.
Read the three openings in Appendix 2.
Discusss some of the literary techniques the writers use to draw the reader into the story, for example, setting, structure, point of view, characterization, figurative language. Use examples from the openings.
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 10 av 47
SPR 3012 V15 Appendix 2 Page 1 of 2
Text 1
On this day, which is the Ninth day of November in the year 1683, a most singular thing has occurred.
I was taking my habitual midday dinner (of boiled chicken with carrots and small ale) when my Manservant, Will, came into my Dining Room at Bidnold Manor, bearing in his gnarled old hands a package, wrapped in torn paper and bound with faded ribbon. He placed this object at my right hand, thus causing a cloud of dust to puff onto my plate of food.
‘Take care, Will,’ said I, feeling all my breath drawn in and then expelled in such an almighty sneeze that it flecked the tablecloth with tiny morsels of carrot. ‘What is this Relic?’
‘I do not know, Sir Robert,’ said Will, attempting a dispersal of the dust, by waving his misshapen fingers back and forth.
‘You do not know? But how has it arrived in the house?’ ‘Chambermaid, Sir.’ ’You got it from one of the maids?’ ’Found under your mattress.’ I wiped my mouth and blew my nose (with a striped, very faded dinner napkin once
given to me by the King) and laid my hands upon the parcel, which, in truth, appeared like a thing purloined from some Pharaoh's Tomb, far down in the dry earth. I would have questioned Will further about its unlikely provenance and the reason of its sudden discovery on this particular day, but Will had already turned and was embarked on his slow and limping return journey from the dining table to the door, and to have called him back might well have occasioned some physical Catastrophe, which I had no heart to risk.
Rose Tremain: Merivel A Man of His Time
SPR 3012 V15 Appendix 2
Page 2 of 2
Text 2
My Cordova tale began for the second time on a rainy October night, when I was just another man running in circles, going nowhere as fast as I could. I was jogging around Central Park's Reservoir after two A.M.—a risky habit I'd adopted during the past year when I was too strung out to sleep, hounded by an inertia I couldn't explain, except for the vague understanding that the best part of my life was behind me, and the sense of possibility I'd once had so innately as a young man was now gone.
It was cold and I was soaked. The gravel track was rutted with puddles, the black waters of the Reservoir cloaked in mist. It clogged the reeds along the bank and erased the outskirts of the park as if it were nothing but paper, the edges torn away. All I could see of the grand buildings along Fifth Avenue were a few gold lights burning through the gloom, reflecting on the water's edge like dull coins tossed in. Every time I sprinted past
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one of the iron lampposts, my shadow surged past me, quickly grew faint, and then peeled off—as if it didn't have the nerve to stay.
I was bypassing the South Gatehouse, starting my sixth lap, when I glanced over my shoulder and saw someone was behind me.
A woman was standing in front of a lamppost, her face in shadow, her red coat catching the light behind her, making a vivid red slice in the night.
A young woman out here alone? Was she crazy?
Marisha Pessel: Night Film
Text 3
“All he could see, in every direction, was water. It was June 23, 1943.Somewhere on the endless expanse of the Pacific Ocean, Army Air Forces bombardier and Olympic runner Louie Zamperini lay across a small raft, drifting westward. Slumped alongside him was a sergeant, one of his plane’s gunners. On a separate raft, tethered to the first, lay another crewman, a gash zigzagging across his forehead. Their bodies, burned by the sun and stained yellow from the raft dye, had winnowed down to skeletons. Sharks glided in lazy loops around them, dragging their backs along the rafts, waiting.”
The men had been adrift for twenty-seven days. Borne by an equatorial current, they had floated at least one thousand miles, deep into Japanese-controlled waters. The rats were beginning to deteriorate into jelly, and gave off a sour, burning odor. The men’s bodies were pocked with salt sores, and their lips were so swollen that they pressed into their nostrils and chins. They spent their days with their eyes fixed on the sky, singing “White Christmas,” muttering about food. No one was even looking for them anymore. They were alone on sixty-four million square miles of ocean.
A month earlier, twenty six-year old Zamperini had been one of the greatest runners in the world, expected by many to be the first to break the four-minute mile, one of the most celebrated barriers in sport. Now his Olympian’s body had wasted to less than one hundred pounds and his famous legs could no longer lift him. Almost everyone outside of his family had given him up for dead.
Laura Hillenbrand: Unbroken
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Beskrivelser av vist kompetanse
Innhold 1a. Oppgavesvaret viser kompetanse i å peke ut noen språklige og litterære virkemidler. Svaret inneholder noen eksempler og forklaringer.
1b. Innholdet i oppgavesvaret viser noe kompetanse i å analysere kunst gjennom beskrivelser. Analyse av detaljene mangler.
2b. Oppgavesvaret viser noe innsikt og refleksjon. Svaret består av en enkel og generalisert analyse av de vedlagte litterære tekstene.
Tekststruktur 1a, 1b og 2b. Tekststrukturen i svarene er god, og alle tekstene har rimelig god indre sammenheng, men det forekommer en del gjentakelser i svaret 2b. Svaret på oppgave 2b har god innledning og avslutning.
Språk Språket kommuniserer godt og er til en viss grad idiomatisk, men det forekommer en del formelle feil. Ordforrådet er lite variert.
Beskrivelser av karakterer i forskrift til opplæringsloven
• Karakteren 6 uttrykkjer at eleven har framifrå kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 5 uttrykkjer at eleven har mykje god kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 4 uttrykkjer at eleven har god kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 3 uttrykkjer at eleven har nokså god kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 2 uttrykkjer at eleven har låg kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 1 uttrykkjer at eleven har svært låg kompetanse i faget.
Oppsummering av samlet kompetanse og karakter
Tekstene i eksamenssvaret viser noe forståelse, innsikt og refleksjon. Svarene er relativt enkle, noe som samlet sett gjør at de er nærmere «nokså god» kompetanse enn «god».
Eksamenssvaret viser nokså god kompetanse og er samlet vurdert til karakter 3.
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 13 av 47
Engelskprå klig litteråtur og kultur
Task 1
Short answer
1a
Night Film is a text written by Marisha Pessel. In the text the author uses language features
and literary devices to describe the narrator’s feelings towards his ex-wife. The text “Night
Film” starts off with the narrator describing his ex-wife Cynthia. He still adores Cynthia’s
beauty, and the fact that Cynthia has aged well makes him mad.
The text start off with comparison, where the author explains throughout the narrator what
she thinks an old face looks like. An old face is compared with a lawn, a lawn that used to be
flawless but one day it would be like a maze of molehills. The author writes “I’d been waiting
for Cynthia to venture deeper into her forties so she’d wake up to wrinkles like a maze of
molehills screwing up a legendary lawn.” Throughout the whole text, the reader knows what
the narrator feels about his ex-wife Cynthia. Cynthia is described beautifully, and like a work
of art, “... She, too, was a work of art”.
Even though Cynthia is described beautifully, the text has a turning point. The narrator
begins to describe Cynthia as a sophomore at college. Cynthia hasn’t always been the
beautiful, attractive, well-mannered girl. She used to wipe her runny nose on her coat
sleeve, and she was flighty and poor. This was the woman the narrator had fell in love with,
but it was all far gone. The narrator compares the end of the relationship with Cynthia with
leaving something to the cleaners. Everything that had made Cynthia to be who she was,
was all taken away, all the dirt and the raw edges was no longer there.
1b
The painting “We Are Making a New World” by Paul Nash was painted in 1918. The painting
is a typical painting belonging to the Modernism. During the Modernism, people focused on
making something new. Modernism was a reaction to what had gone before. Beauty was no
longer the goal, and neither were the happy endings. The destruction of World War One
contributed to a growing sense of desolation.
Eksempel på karakter 3
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 14 av 47
World War One ended in 1918, at the same time as the painting was painted. Paul Nash had
painted this new world; everything in the painting is dark, the trees are no longer green, and
the landscape is deserted.
The artist tells a story through the painting. The First World War had ruined everything that
once was beautiful, and instead of building the world up, we are breaking it down with wars.
SOURCES:
Anthony, J., Burgess, R., Mikkelsen, R. and Sørhus, B. T. (2008) Access literature Vg3. Oslo:
Cappelen
Pessel, M. 2013. Night Film. Hutchinson London: s. 190-191
Nash, P. We Are Making a New World (1918)
Task 2
Long answer
2b
The opening of a book is very important. In the first few pages the author has to catch the
reader’s attention, and make the reader want to read more. The first pages of the book
determent in the case that the reader either wants to read more, or put the book down. In
order to make a book interesting and catchy, there are a few factors that have to play its
part.
First of all, structure is an important factor. When writing a text, a good structure is
important. A good structure gives a great first impression, whereas bad structure does the
opposite. However, the first impression of the text might be wrong. The text might look well-
structured, but as the reader start to read, the content of the text might be messy and
chaotic. Therefore, it’s just as important that the content is good. An example of structure
can be seen in “Text 1” and “Text 3”. The first impression of “Text 1” is that the structure
works, but it can look a bit chaotic. On the other hand there is “Text 3”. “Text 3” seems to
have a good structure, and it looks easy to read. If I was to choose to read either “Text 1” or
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 15 av 47
“Text 3”, I would choose “Text 3” because the first impression of the text is good, and I
would rather read a well-structures text than a chaotic text.
The setting of the story plays an important matter. The setting says something about where
and when the story takes place. All the three openings in Appendix 2 mention when the
story takes place. In “Text 1” a lot of information about when the story takes place is given.
The story takes place on the ninth day of November in 1683. Likewise with “Text 3”, the
reader gets the information that the story takes place on June 23, 1943. When the reader
knows the year the story takes place in, it makes it easier for the reader to understand what
is happening and why things are happening. In “Text 2” however, the reader only knows the
month the story takes place in, which in this case is October. It could be October 1960, or it
could be October 2014. The reader will have to read more to get to the information about
what year the story takes place in.
When the writer writes the story, it is important that he or she writes something about
where the story takes place. A story can take place inside or outside a house, in different
countries or continents. Where the story takes place is usually relatively easy to state. The
author often starts by explaining the setting of the story so it becomes easier for the reader
to put him or her in the given situation and place.
Content is another important factor. It doesn’t matter how well-structured a text is if the
content of the text isn’t just as good. The reader won’t read the whole text just because the
first impression of the structure was good. The only way to keep the reader going is if the
content of the text is good and well written. First of all the content has to be interesting, and
the writer has to write about something that catches various group of people.
Writer tries to make the character as much interesting as they possibly can. An interesting
character will catch the reader’s attention, and the reader is going to want to know how the
story ends for a certain character. The writer can create everything from a troubled
character that seems to be out of place and doesn’t know what to do, or where to go, to a
wealthy and educated person who wants more out of their lives. For instance, in “Text 3”
we meet the Army Air Forces bombardier and Olympic runner Louise Zamperini. In
comparison, in “Text 2” the reader meet an ordinary man who’s running around in Central
Park.
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The point of view says something about who tells the story, or from what perspective the
story is told. The point of view determents how close the reader can get to the character.
For an example; if the story is told directly from the character’s perspective, first person
perspective, the reader will automatically get close to the character. This way the writer
creates an emotional connection between the character and the reader. Another great
example is “Text 3”. “Text 3” is told from the third person point of view. The story is told
from another person’s point of view. The reader doesn’t get to know the characters
innermost thoughts or feelings. When an author makes this type of characters he or she
knows that the reader won’t get as close to the character, but the character remains
interesting and fresh.
To summarize, it takes a lot of different factors to keep a story interesting. Even so, it takes a
lot of effort from the author to make the first pages interesting and catchy. One wrong step
could be the deal breaker. The setting, structure, content, the point of view etc. has to work
together. The author has to write a unique story that makes the reader want to read more.
But it is important that the reader don’t feel “trapped” in the story, but that it’s easy flowing
and natural. So, it takes a lot from the author to catch the reader, and even so, it takes more
to catch a reader without the reader realizing how “hooked” they get.
Sources:
Anthony, J., Burgess, R., Mikkelsen, R. and Sørhus, B. T. (2008) Access literature Vg3. Oslo:
Cappelen
Appendix 2: «Text 1»: Tremain, R. 2013. A Man of His Time. Vintage Books, London: s.3
Appendix 2: «Text 2»: Pessel, M. 2013. Night Film. Hutchinson London: s. 1
Appendix 2: «Text 3»: Hillenbrand, L. 2010. Unbroken. Random House. P. xvii
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 17 av 47
Task 1
Short answer
Answer both 1a and 1b.
1a
Read the text from Night Film by Marisha Pessel in the box below.
Explain how the author uses language features and literary devices to describe the narrator’s feelings about his ex-wife. Use examples from the text.
Night Film
She was still beautiful. It was awful. I'd been waiting for Cynthia to venture deeper into her forties so she'd wake up to wrinkles like a maze of molehills screwing up a legendary lawn. But no, her green eyes, those cheekbones, the expressive little mouth that broadcast her every mood with the diligence of a UN translator, were still youthful and bright. Now Bruce woke up every morning to that face. I still couldn't believe that man—fifty-eight, with a paunch, hairy wrists, and a yacht in Lyford Cay named Dominion II—was allowed to live daily with such beauty. He had a knack for spotting deals in the marketplace, I'd give him that. When Cynthia sold him a Damien Hirst* called, rather aptly, Beautiful Bleeding Wound Over the Materialism of Money Painting, Bruce noticed she, too, was a work of art to look at for a lifetime. That she allowed herself to be bought along with the painting—that I didn't see coming.
When I met Cynthia our sophomore year at the University of Michigan, she was flighty and poor, a French studies major who quoted Simone de Beauvoir. She wiped her runny nose on her coat sleeve when it was snowing, stuck her head out of car windows the way dogs do, the wind fireworking her hair. That woman was gone now. Not that it was her fault. Vast fortunes did that to people. It took them to the cleaners, cruelly starched and steam-pressed them so all their raw edges, all the dirt and hunger and guileless laughter, were ironed out. Few survived real money.
Marisha Pessel
*A painting by Damien Hirst, an internationally famous English artist and art collector, reportedly the richestliving artist in the U.K.
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 18 av 47
SPR3012 Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur, eksamen vår 2015Eksempel på karakter 4
1b
It has been a century since the outbreak of WWI. The painting in the box below is an artist’s reaction to this time.
Comment briefly on what the artist expresses about this period in history.
We Are Making a New World
Paul Nash, We Are Making a New World (1918)
2b
One of the most important functions of the first pages of a book is to “hook” readers so they will want to read on.
Read the three openings in Appendix 2.
Discusss some of the literary techniques the writers use to draw the reader into the story, for example, setting, structure, point of view, characterization, figurative language. Use examples from the openings.
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 19 av 47
SPR 3012 V15 Appendix 2 Page 1 of 2
Text 1
On this day, which is the Ninth day of November in the year 1683, a most singular thing has occurred.
I was taking my habitual midday dinner (of boiled chicken with carrots and small ale) when my Manservant, Will, came into my Dining Room at Bidnold Manor, bearing in his gnarled old hands a package, wrapped in torn paper and bound with faded ribbon. He placed this object at my right hand, thus causing a cloud of dust to puff onto my plate of food.
‘Take care, Will,’ said I, feeling all my breath drawn in and then expelled in such an almighty sneeze that it flecked the tablecloth with tiny morsels of carrot. ‘What is this Relic?’
‘I do not know, Sir Robert,’ said Will, attempting a dispersal of the dust, by waving his misshapen fingers back and forth.
‘You do not know? But how has it arrived in the house?’ ‘Chambermaid, Sir.’ ’You got it from one of the maids?’ ’Found under your mattress.’ I wiped my mouth and blew my nose (with a striped, very faded dinner napkin once
given to me by the King) and laid my hands upon the parcel, which, in truth, appeared like a thing purloined from some Pharaoh's Tomb, far down in the dry earth. I would have questioned Will further about its unlikely provenance and the reason of its sudden discovery on this particular day, but Will had already turned and was embarked on his slow and limping return journey from the dining table to the door, and to have called him back might well have occasioned some physical Catastrophe, which I had no heart to risk.
Rose Tremain: Merivel A Man of His Time
SPR 3012 V15 Appendix 2 Page 2 of 2
Text 2
My Cordova tale began for the second time on a rainy October night, when I was just another man running in circles, going nowhere as fast as I could. I was jogging around Central Park's Reservoir after two A.M.—a risky habit I'd adopted during the past year when I was too strung out to sleep, hounded by an inertia I couldn't explain, except for the vague understanding that the best part of my life was behind me, and the sense of possibility I'd once had so innately as a young man was now gone.
It was cold and I was soaked. The gravel track was rutted with puddles, the black waters of the Reservoir cloaked in mist. It clogged the reeds along the bank and erased the outskirts of the park as if it were nothing but paper, the edges torn away. All I could see of the grand buildings along Fifth Avenue were a few gold lights burning through the gloom, reflecting on the water's edge like dull coins tossed in. Every time I sprinted past
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 20 av 47
one of the iron lampposts, my shadow surged past me, quickly grew faint, and then peeled off—as if it didn't have the nerve to stay.
I was bypassing the South Gatehouse, starting my sixth lap, when I glanced over my shoulder and saw someone was behind me.
A woman was standing in front of a lamppost, her face in shadow, her red coat catching the light behind her, making a vivid red slice in the night.
A young woman out here alone? Was she crazy?
Marisha Pessel: Night Film
Text 3
“All he could see, in every direction, was water. It was June 23, 1943.Somewhere on the endless expanse of the Pacific Ocean, Army Air Forces bombardier and Olympic runner Louie Zamperini lay across a small raft, drifting westward. Slumped alongside him was a sergeant, one of his plane’s gunners. On a separate raft, tethered to the first, lay another crewman, a gash zigzagging across his forehead. Their bodies, burned by the sun and stained yellow from the raft dye, had winnowed down to skeletons. Sharks glided in lazy loops around them, dragging their backs along the rafts, waiting.”
The men had been adrift for twenty-seven days. Borne by an equatorial current, they had floated at least one thousand miles, deep into Japanese-controlled waters. The rats were beginning to deteriorate into jelly, and gave off a sour, burning odor. The men’s bodies were pocked with salt sores, and their lips were so swollen that they pressed into their nostrils and chins. They spent their days with their eyes fixed on the sky, singing “White Christmas,” muttering about food. No one was even looking for them anymore. They were alone on sixty-four million square miles of ocean.
A month earlier, twenty six-year old Zamperini had been one of the greatest runners in the world, expected by many to be the first to break the four-minute mile, one of the most celebrated barriers in sport. Now his Olympian’s body had wasted to less than one hundred pounds and his famous legs could no longer lift him. Almost everyone outside of his family had given him up for dead.
Laura Hillenbrand: Unbroken
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 21 av 47
Beskrivelser av vist kompetanse
Innhold 1a. Oppgavesvaret viser en del rimelig god kompetanse i å analysere språklige og litterære virkemidler gjennom noen eksempler og forklaringer. Noe fagterminologi er også brukt.
1b. Innholdet i oppgavesvaret gir en god beskrivelse og enkel analyse av det vedlagte bildet.
2b. Oppgavesvaret viser en del innsikt og refleksjon. Svaret gir en rimelig god analyse av de vedlagte litterære tekstene og inkluderer selvstendige observasjoner og kommentarer, til tross for noe oppramsing og gjentakelser.
Tekststruktur 1a, 1b og 2b. Tekststrukturen i svarene er god, og alle tekstene har god indre sammenheng. Svaret på oppgave 2b har en god innledning og avslutning.
Språk Språket kommuniserer godt og er til en viss grad idiomatisk, men det forekommer noen formelle feil. Svarene viser at eleven behersker relevant terminologi for litterær analyse til en viss grad.
Beskrivelser av karakterer i forskrift til opplæringsloven
• Karakteren 6 uttrykkjer at eleven har framifrå kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 5 uttrykkjer at eleven har mykje god kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 4 uttrykkjer at eleven har god kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 3 uttrykkjer at eleven har nokså god kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 2 uttrykkjer at eleven har låg kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 1 uttrykkjer at eleven har svært låg kompetanse i faget.
Oppsummering av samlet kompetanse og karakter
Tekstene i eksamenssvaret viser rimelig god refleksjon, selvstendighet og faglig innsikt. Svarene er i samsvar med oppgaveordlyden.
Eksamenssvaret viser god kompetanse og er samlet vurdert til karakter 4.
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 22 av 47
EXAM ENGLISH LITERATURE
Task 1 – Short answer
1a
There are several language features and literary devices that the author uses to describe the
narrator’s feelings about his ex-wife. The easiest one to notice is the use of adjectives.
Throughout the text the narrator describes his ex-wife as youthful and bright, as well as
complimenting her throughout the text by describing her as “a work of art to look at”. This
gives a positive impression of her; however, his feelings are slightly negative, because of the
way that he also tells that she allowed herself to be bought along with the painting. In
addition to the use of adjectives, the author also uses contrasts to enhance the narrator’s
feelings for her. The first contrast lies in the comparison between her age and her looks. She
looks young and youthful for her age, thus creating a contrast. She is also compared to
Bruce, which looks old and hairy. Both of these contrasts enhances the positive feelings that
he shows.
Paragraph 2 is a fine example of a literary device. This is a flashback from when they were
students together, and again, describing the features that was unique for her. By doing this,
he shows a side of her that normally not everyone would talk about. Additionally he talks
about the past in a positive way, but concludes with money being superior to love at times.
1b
The artist expresses different kind of emotions in this portrait. The most dominant part of
the painting is the destroyed land. The trees looks burned up and there seem to be no life
there whatsoever. At the time this was painted, the war was over. This is reflected well with
the ground being destroyed, all the trees being dead and the dark colours. People felt
desolation and fear during the war.
Eksempel på karakter 4
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 23 av 47
Since this is a post-war painting, it also shows the hope of a better life after the war. This is
shown with sun rising over the mountain peak, which symbolises a new life and brighter
tomorrow. This is true as the U.S. had prosperity after the war after winning.
Task 2 – Long answer
2b
Curiousity, the key?
The first pages of a book is supposed to make the readers interested so they will carry on
reading the book. In the three texts in Appendix 2 there are used several literary techniques
to draw the reader into the story. What is it that makes you captured by a book, and makes
you want you to keep reading?
In Text 1, the author has focused on provoking the reader’s curiosity by using the unknown
to maintain the interest in the story. Here we get to know about Sir Robert being handed a
package from his Manservant, Will. We do not know whom this Sir Robert or Will is, and
neither do we know what this package is all about, which definitely provokes curiosity.
Additionally, the author starts the novel with action, which makes it more exciting from the
beginning. This skips characterisation and familiarisation with the characters, which can be
added later in the book to clarify obscureness. Secondly, the author describes the situations
well, making the reader able to relate to the scenarios in the text. This can be seen when he
is wiping his mouth: “I wiped my mouth and blew my nose (with a striped, very faded dinner
napkin once given to me by the King) (…)” Starting the novel with a date calls attention to the
setting of the novel, making it more relatable. In the last sentence, “(…) but Will had already
turned and was embarked on his slow and limping return journey from the dining table to the
door, and to have called him back might well have occasioned some physical Catastrophe,
which I had no heart to risk.”, humour is being used. By doing this, the author achieves
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 24 av 47
entertainment, something that increases the chances of the reader being drawn into the
story.
Text 2 is not too different from Text 1, and many of the same literary techniques are being
used. Trying to create resemblance and making the readers relate to what is happening, is a
technique that is widely used. This is shown in the descriptions of the character’s feelings as
well as the scenery around him. We also get to know when this scene is happening, again
making it easier to relate to. The three last sentences is where the author creates tension.
“(…) I glanced over my shoulder and saw someone behind me. A woman was standing in
front of a lamppost, her face in shadow, her red oat catching the light behind her, making a
vivid red slice in the night. A young woman out here alone? Was she crazy?” The main
character sees a woman, unknown due to the shadow in her face. This catches the reader by
making them interested in what is going to happen, and whom this woman is. Here, as in
Text 1, we are not being familiarised with the characters except getting to know some of the
man’s mindset.
Text 3 is slightly different from the other ones. Here we have a third person point of view,
where we get the story in in medias res. This text appeals to our emotions in a completely
different way than the others, since it is being started in the middle of the story. This also
appeals to our curiosity because we do not know what is happening; neither do we know
why this situation has happened. As we keep reading, we get to know more and more about
the situation. By giving more and more information, the curiosity is still kept, without losing
the obscureness that is being tried to achieve. The last sentence, “Almost everyone outside
of his family had given him up for dead.” makes the reader feel sorry for him and makes
them want to carry on reading to find out what is happening further.
All three texts have many of the same features that “hooks” the readers so they want to
carry on reading. The most important one is to create resemblance for the readers. By giving
good descriptions, having an informative language and using elements that the reader can
relate to, is very important to achieve this. The start of a book should not be boring either,
so starting with a scene where something is happening is not too bad. It does not necessarily
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 25 av 47
have to start in the middle of the story, but with some action at least. Lastly, it is important
to appeal to the reader’s emotions at some point. By using humour, tension or fear, for
instance, will appeal to the reader’s emotions. Although this is important, it is safe to say
that curiosity is the key to make readers more interested and want to read more.
Sources
‘Task 1a’: Pessel, M. 2013. Night Film. Hutchinson London: s. 190-191.
‘Task 2a’: Nash, P. We Are Making a New World (1918):
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~kjg/378/mod_image_b.htm
29.01.2015
‘Task 2b’/’Appendix2’: ‘Text 1’: Tremain, R. 2013. A Man of His Time. Vintage Books, London:
s. 3
‘Task 2b’/’Appendix2’: ‘Text 2’: Pessel, M. 2013. Night Film. Hutchinson London: s. 1
‘Task 2b’/’Appendix2’: ‘Text 3’: Hillenbrand, L. 2010. Unbroken. Random House. p. xvii.
Mikkelsen, R. & Sørhus, T. 2008. Access to English: Literature. CAPPELEN DAMM AS, Oslo: s.
266-267.
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 26 av 47
Task 1
Short answer
Answer both 1a and 1b.
1a
Read the text from Night Film by Marisha Pessel in the box below.
Explain how the author uses language features and literary devices to describe the narrator’s feelings about his ex-wife. Use examples from the text.
Night Film
She was still beautiful. It was awful. I'd been waiting for Cynthia to venture deeper into her forties so she'd wake up to wrinkles like a maze of molehills screwing up a legendary lawn. But no, her green eyes, those cheekbones, the expressive little mouth that broadcast her every mood with the diligence of a UN translator, were still youthful and bright. Now Bruce woke up every morning to that face. I still couldn't believe that man—fifty-eight, with a paunch, hairy wrists, and a yacht in Lyford Cay named Dominion II—was allowed to live daily with such beauty. He had a knack for spotting deals in the marketplace, I'd give him that. When Cynthia sold him a Damien Hirst* called, rather aptly, Beautiful Bleeding Wound Over the Materialism of Money Painting, Bruce noticed she, too, was a work of art to look at for a lifetime. That she allowed herself to be bought along with the painting—that I didn't see coming.
When I met Cynthia our sophomore year at the University of Michigan, she was flighty and poor, a French studies major who quoted Simone de Beauvoir. She wiped her runny nose on her coat sleeve when it was snowing, stuck her head out of car windows the way dogs do, the wind fireworking her hair. That woman was gone now. Not that it was her fault. Vast fortunes did that to people. It took them to the cleaners, cruelly starched and steam-pressed them so all their raw edges, all the dirt and hunger and guileless laughter, were ironed out. Few survived real money.
Marisha Pessel
*A painting by Damien Hirst, an internationally famous English artist and art collector, reportedly the richestliving artist in the U.K.
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 27 av 47
SPR3012 Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur, eksamen vår 2015Eksempel på karakter 5
1b
It has been a century since the outbreak of WWI. The painting in the box below is an artist’s reaction to this time.
Comment briefly on what the artist expresses about this period in history.
We Are Making a New World
Paul Nash, We Are Making a New World (1918)
2b
One of the most important functions of the first pages of a book is to “hook” readers so they will want to read on.
Read the three openings in Appendix 2.
Discusss some of the literary techniques the writers use to draw the reader into the story, for example, setting, structure, point of view, characterization, figurative language. Use examples from the openings.
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 28 av 47
SPR 3012 V15 Appendix 2 Page 1 of 2
Text 1
On this day, which is the Ninth day of November in the year 1683, a most singular thing has occurred.
I was taking my habitual midday dinner (of boiled chicken with carrots and small ale) when my Manservant, Will, came into my Dining Room at Bidnold Manor, bearing in his gnarled old hands a package, wrapped in torn paper and bound with faded ribbon. He placed this object at my right hand, thus causing a cloud of dust to puff onto my plate of food.
‘Take care, Will,’ said I, feeling all my breath drawn in and then expelled in such an almighty sneeze that it flecked the tablecloth with tiny morsels of carrot. ‘What is this Relic?’
‘I do not know, Sir Robert,’ said Will, attempting a dispersal of the dust, by waving his misshapen fingers back and forth.
‘You do not know? But how has it arrived in the house?’ ‘Chambermaid, Sir.’ ’You got it from one of the maids?’ ’Found under your mattress.’ I wiped my mouth and blew my nose (with a striped, very faded dinner napkin once
given to me by the King) and laid my hands upon the parcel, which, in truth, appeared like a thing purloined from some Pharaoh's Tomb, far down in the dry earth. I would have questioned Will further about its unlikely provenance and the reason of its sudden discovery on this particular day, but Will had already turned and was embarked on his slow and limping return journey from the dining table to the door, and to have called him back might well have occasioned some physical Catastrophe, which I had no heart to risk.
Rose Tremain: Merivel A Man of His Time
SPR 3012 V15 Appendix 2
Page 2 of 2
Text 2
My Cordova tale began for the second time on a rainy October night, when I was just another man running in circles, going nowhere as fast as I could. I was jogging around Central Park's Reservoir after two A.M.—a risky habit I'd adopted during the past year when I was too strung out to sleep, hounded by an inertia I couldn't explain, except for the vague understanding that the best part of my life was behind me, and the sense of possibility I'd once had so innately as a young man was now gone.
It was cold and I was soaked. The gravel track was rutted with puddles, the black waters of the Reservoir cloaked in mist. It clogged the reeds along the bank and erased the outskirts of the park as if it were nothing but paper, the edges torn away. All I could see of the grand buildings along Fifth Avenue were a few gold lights burning through the gloom, reflecting on the water's edge like dull coins tossed in. Every time I sprinted past
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 29 av 47
one of the iron lampposts, my shadow surged past me, quickly grew faint, and then peeled off—as if it didn't have the nerve to stay.
I was bypassing the South Gatehouse, starting my sixth lap, when I glanced over my shoulder and saw someone was behind me.
A woman was standing in front of a lamppost, her face in shadow, her red coat catching the light behind her, making a vivid red slice in the night.
A young woman out here alone? Was she crazy?
Marisha Pessel: Night Film
Text 3
“All he could see, in every direction, was water. It was June 23, 1943.Somewhere on the endless expanse of the Pacific Ocean, Army Air Forces bombardier and Olympic runner Louie Zamperini lay across a small raft, drifting westward. Slumped alongside him was a sergeant, one of his plane’s gunners. On a separate raft, tethered to the first, lay another crewman, a gash zigzagging across his forehead. Their bodies, burned by the sun and stained yellow from the raft dye, had winnowed down to skeletons. Sharks glided in lazy loops around them, dragging their backs along the rafts, waiting.”
The men had been adrift for twenty-seven days. Borne by an equatorial current, they had floated at least one thousand miles, deep into Japanese-controlled waters. The rats were beginning to deteriorate into jelly, and gave off a sour, burning odor. The men’s bodies were pocked with salt sores, and their lips were so swollen that they pressed into their nostrils and chins. They spent their days with their eyes fixed on the sky, singing “White Christmas,” muttering about food. No one was even looking for them anymore. They were alone on sixty-four million square miles of ocean.
A month earlier, twenty six-year old Zamperini had been one of the greatest runners in the world, expected by many to be the first to break the four-minute mile, one of the most celebrated barriers in sport. Now his Olympian’s body had wasted to less than one hundred pounds and his famous legs could no longer lift him. Almost everyone outside of his family had given him up for dead.
Laura Hillenbrand: Unbroken
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 30 av 47
Beskrivelser av vist kompetanse
Innhold 1a. Oppgavesvaret viser god kompetanse i å analysere språklige og litterære virkemidler ved å gi gode eksempler og forklaringer, men bruken av fagterminologi er begrenset.
1b. Innholdet i oppgavesvaret viser god kompetanse i å analysere kunst. Svaret viser rimelig god innsikt og selvstendig refleksjon.
2b. Oppgavesvaret fremstår som modent og reflektert. Svaret gir en god analyse av de vedlagte litterære tekstene og inkluderer selvstendige observasjoner og kommentarer. Enkelte steder forekommer noe handlingsreferat som ikke er relevant.
Tekststruktur 1a, 1b og 2b. Tekststrukturen i svarene er god, og alle tekstene har god indre sammenheng. Svaret på oppgave 2b har en god innledning og avslutning.
Språk Språket svarene er godt, idiomatisk og variert til tross for enkelte unøyaktigheter. Svarene viser at eleven behersker relevant terminologi for litterær analyse godt.
Beskrivelser av karakterer i forskrift til opplæringsloven
• Karakteren 6 uttrykkjer at eleven har framifrå kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 5 uttrykkjer at eleven har mykje god kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 4 uttrykkjer at eleven har god kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 3 uttrykkjer at eleven har nokså god kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 2 uttrykkjer at eleven har låg kompetanse i faget. • Karakteren 1 uttrykkjer at eleven har svært låg kompetanse i faget.
Oppsummering av samlet kompetanse og karakter
Tekstene i eksamenssvaret viser refleksjon, selvstendighet og god faglig innsikt. Svarene fremstår som modne, reflekterte og relevante. De viser et variert ordforråd.
Eksamenssvaret viser meget god kompetanse og er samlet vurdert til karakter 5.
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 31 av 47
Task 1
1a
The text from “Night Film” by Marisha Pessel, expresses one man’s feelings towards his ex-
wife Cynthia. Cynthia was rather down to earth when they first met, however money changed
her. Even though their relationship is now over, and Cynthia lives with a rich man named
Bruce, the narrator still thinks the world of her.
The extract opens up with two contrasting sentences: “She was still beautiful. It was awful”.
Even though we do not yet know who the narrator is talking about, we get the idea that the
woman is no longer in his life. The narrator talks about how he hoped she would one day
wake up old, comparing wrinkles to “a maze of molehills screwing up a legendary lawn”. We
understand that the man is still in love with his ex-wife when he starts describing her features
as “youthful and bright”. When Bruce is introduced in the text, the author changes the tone of
her writing. The language used is now negatively charged with words such as paunch and
hairy. Even though his wife was swept away by another man, he narrator does not seem to
hold any grudge towards his ex-wife because she “was a work of art to look at for a life time”
and Bruce “had a knack for spotting deals in the marketplace”.
In the second paragraph, the narrator thinks back to when he first met Cynthia in University.
The sharp contrast to the woman she was back then: “she was flighty and poor”, and who she
is now, tells us that the narrator did not fall in love with her for her money or her looks. He
talks about her personality and how she “stuck her head out of the car windows the way dogs
do”. The author chooses to make money into the factor which killed the woman he once
knew: “Few survived real money”.
Eksempel på karakter 5
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 32 av 47
1b
The painting “We Are Making a New World” was painted by Paul Nash in 1918, by the end
of World War 1. The First World War sparked the already beginning Modernist revolution.
The artists felt that they could no longer paint beautiful, happy paintings, because the war had
changed the world. The artists now took it up on themselves to show the “true” world, and
they did this by focusing on horror and destruction.
The modernist view on the world shines through in Paul Nash’s painting. He has created a
landscape which is torn up and destructed. Dirt surrounds the dead trees instead of grass, and
the sky is grey instead of blue. The painting also expresses a sense of loneliness by not
including any living things such as humans, animals or plants. The dirty ground is uneven and
rough, symbolising the wearing effects the terrible was had on the both the land and the
people. There a sun shining from behind the red dusty mountains in the background. Usually
you associate the sun with life and growth, however, in this case the sun is there to shine a
light upon how society had been destructed and left desolate. Through his painting, Paul Nash
has managed to capture the deeply pessimistic, but yet true view of the world after WW1.
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 33 av 47
Task 2
2b
The first page
The first page of a book is crucial to whether someone will continue reading a book or not. If
an author fails to lure the reader into the story during the first paragraphs it becomes difficult
to make them continue on with the story. Therefore, in this essay I will explain how the first
page of “Merivel A Man of His time”, “Night film” and “Unbroken” manages to capture the
reader’s attention in just a few paragraphs.
The first text “Merivel A Man of his Time” is written by Rose Tremain. The story is set in
November 1683, and it revolves around a man living in Bidnold Manor. One day the man is
presented with an old, dusty package found under his mattress by one of the chambermaids.
The story starts off with the curious line “On this day […] a most singular thing has
occurred.” The author is vague, which is a simple way to attract someone’s attention.
However, to keep the reader’s curiosity up, the author jumps back in time to give the “most
singular thing” some backstory. The story is written in a first person perspective, therefore we
learn everything trough the main character. The clever effect this point of view gives us is that
we never know more than the main character, and everything we learn we learn alongside this
person.
Once the narrator is presented with the package by his Manservant Will, the reader only wants
to know what the package contains, and how it even ended up in someone’s bedchamber.
Consequently, the author drags the story out by focusing on the dust left in the air by the
package. This is done to keep the reader interested, because as soon as we know what the
package contains parts of the suspense will be gone. To build up under the suspense, the
narrator begins inspecting the package form the outside saying that it “appeared like a thing
purloined from some Pharaoh’s Tomb”. Here one starts to think that the story might develop
into a grand adventure. To not let our thoughts wander off too far, the author brings us back
into the mansion by focusing on Will the Manservant. The narrator has a slight suspicion that
Will has something to do with the sudden discovery, thus making the readers suspect the same
thing.
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The language in the story is fairly simple, not using any complicated sentences or phrasings.
Still, there are parts where the stories old fashioned setting seeps through the words: an
example of this is “a most singular thing” or “boiled chicken with carrots and small ale”. The
story also contains a lot of adjectives to give the reader a better picture in his or her head of
the events taking place, and things such as his servant’s hands or the dinner napkin are
described in detail. Furthermore, the author has kept the dialogue between the narrator and
Will short and to the point. This does not only move the story along faster, but it also gives us
an insight into their relationship. Everything is said in a professional tone, therefore one can
say that their relationship is strictly master and servant.
The second text, “Night Film” by Marisha Pessel, continues with the same suspense as the
first text. This story is also set in fall and told through the point of view of the main character.
“Night Film” is about a man who is jogging though New York after midnight. He has a
feeling that his best days are behind him, and he continues to run through the cold October
night. He is running around Central Park for the sixth time when he sees something curious. A
young lady dressed in a red coat in standing alone under a lamppost.
Picking up the trend from the previous text, this story is also introduced by a vague but
interesting sentence: “My Cordova tale began for the second time on a rainy October night,
when I was just another man running in circles”. First of all you have to ask yourself what
happened during his first “Cordova tale”, and then you ask yourself what kind of man he is
now if he was “just another man” before. The character has a strange vibe surrounding him,
making him appear as an unreliable narrator. To underline the eerie vibe from the main
character, the story is also set during a rainy, cold night.
The language used gives off the feeling that something is about to happen at any moment: His
jogging is a risky habit, the puddles are black and the Reservoir is cloaked in mist. The
language keeps us at the edge of our seat. The author also makes a number of similes to help
the reader visualise the exact situations, for example: “gold lights burning through the gloom,
reflecting on the water’s edge like dull coins tossed in”. Similes are used as another way to
help the reader see the world in the same way as the narrator. For some people the gold light
might appear beautiful, but for our narrator they are nothing more than dull coins. This way
the language brings us closer to the narrator, and we can read about his troubles between the
lines.
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“Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand is the third and final extract. Unlike the two other texts,
this story does not maintain the same form of suspense and mystery. This story is set during
WW2, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Louie Zamperini is an Army Air Forces bombardier
and Olympic runner. However, he is currently lying on a small raft floating in the ocean
together with two crewmen. They have been adrift for twenty-seven days.
The author does not tell us exactly what happened before Louie ended up in the water, but
through the WW2 setting and his Air Forces job we can easily guess that this accident
involved a plane crash. Due to this information, we are not met with the same type of
suspense we got from the two previous texts. Still, there is a slower form of excitement
presented to us. As soon as the reader understands the situation, he or she will wonder if these
men will ever be found. The men have been on the sea for almost a month which gives off the
feeling that they do not have a lot of time left: “Their bodies, burned by the sun and stained
yellow from the raft dye, had winnowed down to skeletons”.
The third paragraph is written in retrospect. Here we get to know more about the main
character Louie form before the accident. Once we read more about his Olympic past and how
he was “expected to break the four-minute mile” we grow a stronger sense of sympathy
towards him, and we want to know that he will be alright. Once the author has connected the
reader to the main character she plays on their feelings saying “Almost everyone outside of
his family had given him up for dead.” Through both these words and the vast ocean setting
we can feel the loneliness.
Altogether, these three texts are great examples on how to capture the reader’s attention, and
how to make them want to continue on with the book. Even though the texts are different
stories, they all share the common bond of suspense. If you can get the reader exited for what
the books resolution will be they will not be able to put the book down. The stories have also
managed to use the right language and settings to underline the theme of the books, there are
few things which work better than having a thriller play out during an October night, or
express lost dreams and loneliness on an open ocean.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Anthony, J., Burgess R., Mikkelsen, R., & Sørhus, T. B. (2008). Access to English: Literature
Vg3. Oslo: CAPPELEN DAMM AS.
Jansson, B. K., Kristoffersen K. E., Krogh, J. & Michelsen P. R. (2008). Tema vg3: Norsk
språk og litteratur. Det norske samlaget.
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Task 1
Short answer
Answer both 1a and 1b.
1a
Read the text from Night Film by Marisha Pessel in the box below.
Explain how the author uses language features and literary devices to describe the narrator’s feelings about his ex-wife. Use examples from the text.
Night Film
She was still beautiful. It was awful. I'd been waiting for Cynthia to venture deeper into her forties so she'd wake up to wrinkles like a maze of molehills screwing up a legendary lawn. But no, her green eyes, those cheekbones, the expressive little mouth that broadcast her every mood with the diligence of a UN translator, were still youthful and bright. Now Bruce woke up every morning to that face. I still couldn't believe that man—fifty-eight, with a paunch, hairy wrists, and a yacht in Lyford Cay named Dominion II—was allowed to live daily with such beauty. He had a knack for spotting deals in the marketplace, I'd give him that. When Cynthia sold him a Damien Hirst* called, rather aptly, Beautiful Bleeding Wound Over the Materialism of Money Painting, Bruce noticed she, too, was a work of art to look at for a lifetime. That she allowed herself to be bought along with the painting—that I didn't see coming.
When I met Cynthia our sophomore year at the University of Michigan, she was flighty and poor, a French studies major who quoted Simone de Beauvoir. She wiped her runny nose on her coat sleeve when it was snowing, stuck her head out of car windows the way dogs do, the wind fireworking her hair. That woman was gone now. Not that it was her fault. Vast fortunes did that to people. It took them to the cleaners, cruelly starched and steam-pressed them so all their raw edges, all the dirt and hunger and guileless laughter, were ironed out. Few survived real money.
Marisha Pessel
*A painting by Damien Hirst, an internationally famous English artist and art collector, reportedly the richestliving artist in the U.K.
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SPR3012 Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur, eksamen vår 2015Eksempel på karakter 6
1b
It has been a century since the outbreak of WWI. The painting in the box below is an artist’s reaction to this time.
Comment briefly on what the artist expresses about this period in history.
We Are Making a New World
Paul Nash, We Are Making a New World (1918)
2b
One of the most important functions of the first pages of a book is to “hook” readers so they will want to read on.
Read the three openings in Appendix 2.
Discusss some of the literary techniques the writers use to draw the reader into the story, for example, setting, structure, point of view, characterization, figurative language. Use examples from the openings.
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SPR 3012 V15 Appendix 2 Page 1 of 2
Text 1
On this day, which is the Ninth day of November in the year 1683, a most singular thing has occurred.
I was taking my habitual midday dinner (of boiled chicken with carrots and small ale) when my Manservant, Will, came into my Dining Room at Bidnold Manor, bearing in his gnarled old hands a package, wrapped in torn paper and bound with faded ribbon. He placed this object at my right hand, thus causing a cloud of dust to puff onto my plate of food.
‘Take care, Will,’ said I, feeling all my breath drawn in and then expelled in such an almighty sneeze that it flecked the tablecloth with tiny morsels of carrot. ‘What is this Relic?’
‘I do not know, Sir Robert,’ said Will, attempting a dispersal of the dust, by waving his misshapen fingers back and forth.
‘You do not know? But how has it arrived in the house?’ ‘Chambermaid, Sir.’ ’You got it from one of the maids?’ ’Found under your mattress.’ I wiped my mouth and blew my nose (with a striped, very faded dinner napkin once
given to me by the King) and laid my hands upon the parcel, which, in truth, appeared like a thing purloined from some Pharaoh's Tomb, far down in the dry earth. I would have questioned Will further about its unlikely provenance and the reason of its sudden discovery on this particular day, but Will had already turned and was embarked on his slow and limping return journey from the dining table to the door, and to have called him back might well have occasioned some physical Catastrophe, which I had no heart to risk.
Rose Tremain: Merivel A Man of His Time
SPR 3012 V15 Appendix 2
Page 2 of 2
Text 2
My Cordova tale began for the second time on a rainy October night, when I was just another man running in circles, going nowhere as fast as I could. I was jogging around Central Park's Reservoir after two A.M.—a risky habit I'd adopted during the past year when I was too strung out to sleep, hounded by an inertia I couldn't explain, except for the vague understanding that the best part of my life was behind me, and the sense of possibility I'd once had so innately as a young man was now gone.
It was cold and I was soaked. The gravel track was rutted with puddles, the black waters of the Reservoir cloaked in mist. It clogged the reeds along the bank and erased the outskirts of the park as if it were nothing but paper, the edges torn away. All I could see of the grand buildings along Fifth Avenue were a few gold lights burning through the gloom, reflecting on the water's edge like dull coins tossed in. Every time I sprinted past
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one of the iron lampposts, my shadow surged past me, quickly grew faint, and then peeled off—as if it didn't have the nerve to stay.
I was bypassing the South Gatehouse, starting my sixth lap, when I glanced over my shoulder and saw someone was behind me.
A woman was standing in front of a lamppost, her face in shadow, her red coat catching the light behind her, making a vivid red slice in the night.
A young woman out here alone? Was she crazy?
Marisha Pessel: Night Film
Text 3
“All he could see, in every direction, was water. It was June 23, 1943.Somewhere on the endless expanse of the Pacific Ocean, Army Air Forces bombardier and Olympic runner Louie Zamperini lay across a small raft, drifting westward. Slumped alongside him was a sergeant, one of his plane’s gunners. On a separate raft, tethered to the first, lay another crewman, a gash zigzagging across his forehead. Their bodies, burned by the sun and stained yellow from the raft dye, had winnowed down to skeletons. Sharks glided in lazy loops around them, dragging their backs along the rafts, waiting.”
The men had been adrift for twenty-seven days. Borne by an equatorial current, they had floated at least one thousand miles, deep into Japanese-controlled waters. The rats were beginning to deteriorate into jelly, and gave off a sour, burning odor. The men’s bodies were pocked with salt sores, and their lips were so swollen that they pressed into their nostrils and chins. They spent their days with their eyes fixed on the sky, singing “White Christmas,” muttering about food. No one was even looking for them anymore. They were alone on sixty-four million square miles of ocean.
A month earlier, twenty six-year old Zamperini had been one of the greatest runners in the world, expected by many to be the first to break the four-minute mile, one of the most celebrated barriers in sport. Now his Olympian’s body had wasted to less than one hundred pounds and his famous legs could no longer lift him. Almost everyone outside of his family had given him up for dead.
Laura Hillenbrand: Unbroken
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Beskrivelser av vist kompetanse
Innhold 1a. Oppgavesvaret viser god kompetanse i å analysere språklige og litterære virkemidler ved å gi gode eksempler og forklaringer.
1b. Innholdet i oppgavesvaret viser meget god kompetanse i å analysere kunst. Svaret viser meget god innsikt og selvstendig refleksjon.
2b. Oppgavesvaret fremstår som modent og reflektert. Svaret gir en meget god analyse av de vedlagte litterære tekstene og inkluderer selvstendige observasjoner og kommentarer.
Tekststruktur 1a, 1b og 2b. Tekststrukturen i svarene er gjennomgående god, og alle tekstene har god indre sammenheng. Svaret på oppgave 2b har en god innledning og avslutning.
Språk Språket i svarene er godt, idiomatisk og variert til tross for enkelte unøyaktigheter. Svarene viser at eleven behersker relevant terminologi for litterær analyse.
Beskrivelser av karakterer i forskrift til opplæringsloven
• Karakteren 6 uttrykkjer at eleven har framifrå kompetanse i faget.• Karakteren 5 uttrykkjer at eleven har mykje god kompetanse i faget.• Karakteren 4 uttrykkjer at eleven har god kompetanse i faget.• Karakteren 3 uttrykkjer at eleven har nokså god kompetanse i faget.• Karakteren 2 uttrykkjer at eleven har låg kompetanse i faget.• Karakteren 1 uttrykkjer at eleven har svært låg kompetanse i faget.
Oppsummering av samlet kompetanse og karakter
Tekstene i eksamenssvaret viser høy grad av refleksjon, selvstendighet og meget god faglig innsikt. Innholdet i svarene kompenserer for de språklige unøyaktighetene.
Eksamenssvaret viser fremragende kompetanse og er samlet vurdert til karakter 6.
Vurderte eksamenssvar i Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur 42 av 47
Task 1a In the extract from Marisha Pessel’s “Night Film”, the narrator expresses his feelings about
his ex-wife. In order to do this, he uses a variety of language features and literary devices.
Firstly, he uses simile and metaphors to describe the ex-wife’s appearance, as well what he
wishes she would look like. He describes how he wants her to “wake up to wrinkles like a
maze of molehills screwing up a legendary lawn”- (Night Film, Marisha Pessel), and how she
“was a work of art.” (Night Film, Marisha Pessel). Both the simile maze of molehills, and the
metaphor work of art, are statements which makes it easy for the reader to interpret the
feelings of the narrator about his ex-wife. The negative feelings attached to the simile “Maze
of molehills” does create a stronger sense of disgust than most adjectives would create alone,
in the same way that the metaphor “Work of art”, really makes the reader see how much the
narrator adores his ex-wife.
Secondly, there are several contrasts in the text. The contrast between the work of art the
narrator sees his ex-wife as, and the old and wrinkly woman he wishes she would become,
gives the reader understanding of how the narrator truly wants to stop loving her. The contrast
of the description of the ex-wife’s new husband, who is portrayed in a rather negative way,
and the description of the ex-wife which the narrator adores, establishes an impression that the
narrator is not pleased with the ex-wife’s new relationship.
Towards the end of the extract, the texts does in many ways seem like a stream of mind. The
sentences become shorter and the language less formal, as the narrator pours his thoughts on
how things were when he and his wife met, out on paper. This nostalgic ending leaves the
reader with a sense of longing, and a clear impression that the narrator truly misses his ex-
wife.
Eksempel på karakter 6
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Task 1b The painting “We Are Making a New World”, beautifully describes the artist, Paul Nash’s
reaction to World War I.
If the top of the picture had been chopped off, this paining would portray nothing but misery.
This part of the painting, covering about two thirds of it, consists of an abandoned field,
covered in burned trees, as well as what appears to be trenches and pieces of steel wire.
Considering the time the painting was made, it is fair to assume the field portrayed is the
remains of a WWI battlefield. Through the dark and hostile colours, as well as the depressing
look of the shattered field, the artist strongly expresses negative feelings towards this war. In
addition to that, he portrays the horrifying darkness of this piece of history.
In spite of the tragic motive covering big parts of the painting, the remaining third portrays
something very different; mountains with a sun rising between them, sunlight shining
through, spreading a bit of light out on the otherwise dark field. With the sun as a symbol of
hope, the artist expresses the hope that bloomed after WWI. Hope that things would get better
and the misery would end. With glimmers of light reaching down to even the dark parts of the
burnt trees, he portrays how even those who had lost everything were left with a tiny bit of
hope. Hope that as the title “We Are Making a New World”, states; a new and better would be
built.
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Task 2b
Techniques of drawing the reader into the story
Most people have at least a few times in their life opened a book only to put it away after
reading the first page. No matter how entertaining a book is, a boring opening will be off
putting to those who are not extremely patient. If one has several books to choose from, why
bother wasting time on something that does not immediately catch ones attention? This is why
drawing the reader into the story from the very beginning of it, is essential if one as a writer
wants people to bother reading more than just the first few pages. In this text, I will take a
closer look on the opening of three books, and the literary techniques the writers have used to
catch the reader’s attention.
The book “Merivel A Man of His Time”, written by Rose Tremain, takes place in 1683, and
starts with a man receiving a mysterious parcel from his servant as he is enjoying his dinner.
The book is written from a first person point of view, which lets the reader know the thoughts
of the main character, as he is also the narrator. By knowing the thoughts of the main
character, it is easier to get involved in the story.
Another thing that contributes to this being an opening that easily catches the reader’s
attention, is how the setting is well described. This makes it is easier to get an overview of the
situation. When being provided information like the main character owning a napkin handed
to him by the king, as well as having both a servant and a chambermaid, the reader is
informed of the wealth of the main character, even though it is not mentioned directly. Other
details of the setting, for example the food on the main characters plate, also contributes to the
reader forming a mental picture of the situation. Having already formed this mental picture
makes the reader more likely to keep reading, than if one has not been provided enough
information to do so, and is only given a vague idea of what is going. Another important
factor in getting the readers attention, is the mysterious parcel involved in the story. The
curiosity of wanting to find out where it is from and what is in it, will contribute to the reader
wanting to keep reading.
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Opposed to many other books, the structure being boringly monotonous is not the case with
“Merivel A Man of His Time”. As the opening consists of a mixture of dialogue, the thoughts
of the main character, and general facts about the setting, one does not lose interest of the
story due to there being too little variation in structure. In other words, there is variety in the
text, which makes it more fun to read.
Moving on to Night Film by Marisha Pessel, the means used to catch the reader’s attention are
different from the ones used in Rose Tremain’s book. In Night Film, it is the mood and
tension built up in the opening that makes the reader eager to keep reading. Here, the narrator
is a man jogging in Central Park at two A.M, who stumps upon a young woman standing
alone in front of a lamppost.
A fair amount of time is spent setting the mood, which is so important for the opening of this
book. By describing the cold rainy night, puddles along the path and the shadow of the
narrator which when he runs past certain objects, moves in a rather unsettling way, a creepy
mood is set. One does not yet know what will happened, but this strange mood combined by
the tension that slowly builds up as the reader is being fed details that makes the situation
even creepier, leaves no doubt that something unusual and frightening is going to happen. For
example, already in the second sentence, the narrator describes running late at night is “(…) a
risky habit I’d adopted (…)” – (Night Film – Marisha Pessel).
And last but not least, the narrator unexpectedly sees the young woman, standing alone in the
park late at night, which sparks the curiosity of the reader. Suddenly one just has to know
what happens next; hence, one wants to keep reading.
In the last book, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, the opening presents a situation where three
men from the army, among them one who is also an Olympic runner, are laying on a small
raft drifting around the Pacific Ocean. The year is 1943, and they have ben adrift for twenty-
seven days. In this opening, the reader is presented a series of revolting details of the
situation. Grotesque and graphic descriptions like “Their bodies burned by the sun and
stained yellow from the draft rye, had winnowed down to skeletons” – (Unbroken, Laura
Hillenbrand), and “The rats were beginning to deteriorate into jelly (…)” – (Unbroken,
Laura Hillenbrand), might so disgusting it stops some from reading. However, for many it
will also wake a bit of morbid curiosity. Though these statements might be rather repulsive,
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they will also be what catches the attention of many. As it stands out and makes the opening
everything but plain, it might be what makes them want to keep reading.
Naturally, when being presented the hopeless situation of these men, the reader will feel sorry
for them. This feeling of sympathy will make the reader wish for the men to be saved, which
again will spike the feeling of curiosity. Will the men be saved or will they not? To find out,
one has to keep reading.
As seen in the openings of these three texts, several techniques can be used to make the reader
stick with the book after reading the opening. To sum up, some are using a point of view fit
for the situation, detailed descriptions, variation in style, as well as setting a mood and
building up tension. However, a key factor in all three openings I have looked at is making the
reader curios. Nothing will motivate a person to keep reading, like the excitement caused by
strong curiosity.
Sources 1a:
Pessel, M. 2013. Night Film. Hutchinson London: s. 190-192
Sources 1b:
Nash, P. We Are Making a New World (1918):
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~kjg/378/mod_image_n.htm (29.01.2015)
Sourced 2b:
Appendix 2: Pessel, M. 2013. Night Film. Hutchinson London: s.1
Appendix 2: Tremain, R. 2013. A Man of His Time. Vintage Books, London: s.3
Appendix 2: Hillenbrand, L. 2010. Unbroken. Random House. P. xvii
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