Busy Parents

Passage A: Fishing with Royer The narrator and his friend Royer are going on their first fishing trip together in years. The two men have not seen each other since university, and have both married and had families in the meantime. Their proposed destination is White Cap River – the setting of Royer’s favourite childhood adventure story and somewhere neither has visited before.   People spend hours packing to go fishing, engaged in a kind of military manoeuvre, gear piled strategically and checklists in hand. On the eve of our campaign, I just made sure I’d packed a rod and reel, confident that comrade Royer would have invested heavily in a car‑boot full of flashy state‑of‑the‑ art equipment as always. On the morning of our departure, Royer, a little rounder than I remembered, pulled up at my house in a bottom-of-the-range soft-top sports car he’d borrowed for our trip. Surprised to find ample space for my gear, I unearthed a faded atlas from the car boot, innocently imagining the ...

  Text Paragraph 5 At the canteen, workers, already packed in like sardines, formed an overall sea of blue. Dad navigated our way to the brown foodstuffs on offer. What would be my ‘something’ to accompany my chips? Wittily, I requested salad. Dad’s shoulders sank. The canteen staff chuckled. Baked beans were duly slopped onto my plate.   Paragraph 7 After only 20 minutes, Dad said, ‘Andrew, we’d better get your card.’ Nodding dumbly, I trailed blindly after him through a maze of corridors. Finally, we reached the holiest place in the entire company, the Accounts Department, occupied by The One with Absolute Power (the clerk who put together the pay packets). Sufficiently important in the company, Dad was granted an audience. I was told to not say anything stupid as we entered the sanctum. The One issued my number, chiding me for not visiting her immediately after I’d arrived and warning of perilous doom awaiting mortals who failed to clock in on time.  __________________...

  Text My First Job   The narrator is reflecting on his experiences as a 16-year-old student used to spending his school holidays watching cricket on television. Instead, he is about to begin six weeks of work experience in different sections of an electrical company.   Waking at 7:00 am was unpleasant. On the car journey, I was feeling too sorry for myself for conversation.   The first few days I’d be working with the ‘grunts’ (officially called ‘apprentices’). Most were just months older than me, but judged immediately I’d no skill of any use to them. It turned out the factory owner had only agreed as a favour to Dad. Other guys who’d asked for their kids to work there during school holidays had been refused.   Dad ensured I was kitted out in fetching, lightest-blue overalls. Escorting me, he skirted the factory floor to avoid dirtying his suit, but chatted and seemed to get on with everyone from the grunts to the surliest darkest-blue-overall-clad supervisor....

  Question 1   The headteacher of your child’s school is considering setting up a repair café run by volunteers in the school; the headteacher has asked for opinions from parents.   Write a letter  to the headteacher giving your views as a parent.   In your letter you should:   •  evaluate the ideas, attitudes and opinions given in the two texts •  give your views about whether or not a repair café is a good idea for students, staff and the wider community.   Base your article on what you have read in Address both of the bullet points.   Write about 250 to 350 words. both  texts, but be careful to use your own words.   Up to 15 marks are available for the content of your answer, and up to 25 marks for the quality of your writing. _________________________________________________________________________ Texts   Text   A:   Permission   to   play:   let’s   make   fixing   things ...