‘Surname First Name Christ’s Hospital Entrance Tests 2014 Year 7 THE VIOLINIST There are two sections, section A and section B. In section A read the passage and answer the questions. In section B you will continue the story from the passage. First you have five minutes to read the passage. Take more time if you need it. Then spend about 30 minutes on each section. If you get time check your work carefully. FOR MARKER’S USE ONLY Section A Section B SPG Total Special notes:SECTIONA Read this passage carefully and answer the questions in the answer booklet. J often dream about the restaurant where | met Tian. Late at night the memory flickers up before me. | see the simple sign that reads ‘Vermilion Palace’. The drifting snow blows up against the scarlet double doors. | see myself walking towards these doors — a slight brown. «girl with hair fke an inkbrush. For my first few months in New York City | could not stay warm. | wore a heavy coat and wound myself in woollen scarves but the chill went beneath my skin and the wintry wind found every crevice as | walked to the restaurant on numb feet, my gaze fixed on the icy pavement for fear of falling. | had been in the city two months before I noticed the Music School. Walking past a basement window, | heard a violin melody. The sound shimmered through me, a wave of colour, blooming past the grey apartment buildings and towards the narrow sky. | drew one cold sweet breath of air and knew | had arrived in America. ‘A few days later | saw Tian. | was standing at the window when a man arrived at the doorway carrying a violin case. ‘One person,’ he said in confident English. Not many Chinese people in New York spoke English with such ease. He wore a brown felt hat and his overcoat seemed cut to fit his shoulders. Most of the other men seemed content to wear whatever would make do. ‘Come with me,’ | replied in Mandarin. | did not want him to hear my voice and its broken English words. | seated him and poured his tea, looking at the swirl of leaves in the water. | felt the heat of the steam in my face, the warm steel handle in my hands; | watched the tealeaves drift and slide against the blue white cup. He thanked me in Chinese. His dark eyes followed the line of my face, my throat. For the first time | felt warm. Before | left Taiwan my mother had said: ‘Beware abnormally pale men. Beware aman whose cheek-bones are too high or low. Watch out for one who smiles too much. And stay away from aman who gambles.’ She spoke these words as if | had a choice. But when | was a child she often talked about the Chinese myth that every man and woman was joined at birth to their mate by an invisible, enchanted thread. The strange man ordered beef noodle soup and drank it quickly. He had placed his violin case in the opposite chair, upright and facing him like a lover. He glanced at his watch, flung down a dollar, seized his coat and violin and walked out the door. Hooked twice to make sure it was true: he had forgotten his hat on the chair. To this day | do not know why | stole Tian’s hat.Section A: Read the passage on the sheet carefully, and answer the questions which follow. 4. Write down two words from the first paragraph that are the names of colours. Earn a bonus mark if you can find a third colour in the paragraph. (3 marks) 2. From the second paragraph find four separate words that you would associate with feeling cold. (4 marks) Mo). (i (wv), 3. Read paragraph four. Using only your own words, describe exactly two different reasons why the narrator feels attracted to Tian. (6 marks) @ «i4. In paragraph six the narrator remembers her mother’s advice about men. Write down the two physical types her mother tells her to avoid. (2 marks) @) ©). Write down the two habits men have that her mother told her to beware of. (2 marks) (a) (®). In your own words explain the ‘Chinese myth’ that she recalls. (2 marks) Can you suggest a reason why she mentions it at this point in the story? (2 marks)5. At various stages in the passage the descriptions give hints as to how characters might be feeling. Read each of the following quotations from the passage and say in your own words how the character is feeling at that moment in the passage. (9 mks) (i) !drew one cold sweet breath of air and knew | had arrived in America (paragraph 3). (li) His dark eyes followed the line of my face... for the first time | felt warm (paragraph 5). (iii) He glanced at his watch, flung down a dollar, seized his coat and violin and walked out the door (paragraph 7).6. The author uses a number of interesting images or comparisons in her writing. Reread each of the following images and answer the questions on them. (10 marks) (i)‘a slight, brown girl with hair like an inkbrush’ (paragraph 1). (a) Exactly what is the writer describing in this image? Use your own words to describe what picture the image puts in your mind. Say whether you think it is a good image, and why. (b) Using your imagination and trying to think of the best words you can, suggest another image that could have been used in exactly the same place in the passage. (ji) ‘He had placed his violin case in the opposite chair, upright and facing him like a lover.’ (paragraph 8). (a) Exactly what is the writer describing in this image? Use your own words to describe what picture the image puts in your mind. Say whether you think it is a good image, and why. (b) Using your imagination and trying to think of the best words you can, suggest another image that could have been used in exactly the same place in the passage.Now go on to section B. SECTION B ‘The passage ends with the following words: To this day I don’t know why I stole Tian’s hat... Imagine that you are the Chinese gir! who is the narrator of the story. Using your imagination, continue the story in whatever way you wish. Make sure your story fits in with what we know of the story and the characters so far First, make a quick plan with a beginning, a middle and an end in the space below. (The marker will read this plan.) Then write up your story using the liveliest language you can. Write between 1 and 2 sides if you can. Planning space