Academic Year: 2024 - 25

Examination Term 1 Assessment Date 10/9/2024

Subject FLE Paper 1 Level A Paper Number 10

Grade 8 Duration 1 hour Maximum marks 40

Name of the
student

Invigilator’s
Signature

Instructions to Students:

● Refrain from opening this booklet until instructed.

● Adhere to all instructions with care.
● Avoid using paper clips, highlighters, glue, or correction fluid.
● Write your responses using a black or blue ballpoint pen in the Question paper itself.
● The number of marks for each question or part is indicated in brackets [] at the end.

Additional Instructions to Students:

• The Reading and Writing sections will each be worth 20 marks.

• You should pay attention to punctuation, spelling and handwriting.

For Examiner’s Use:

Question No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total

Marks
Examiner’s
Signature

This document consists of 10 printed pages.

1
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Text A

Honey for money

Honey, golden and sweet, has always been held in the highest regard. Almost every society on
earth has traditionally known and used it. One example of this is in the prehistoric cave
paintings near Valencia, in Spain, dating back 15,000 years which depict men gathering honey
for food.

Where honey comes from

Flowers need bees to visit them so that plants will be pollinated. To attract the bees, flowers 5
supply nectar, which is a solution of sugars that bees collect, and then concentrate into honey.
The aroma, taste and colour of honey are determined by the plants from which the bees have
gathered nectar. Sunflowers, for example, give a golden-yellow honey; clover gives a sweet,
white honey; agave species give honey a bitter taste that is popular in some societies. Dark
honey usually has a strong flavour and often has a high mineral content; pale honey has a more 10
delicate flavour.

How honey is made

Honey contains a wide range of sugars. It also contains small amounts of other substances
such as minerals, vitamins, proteins and amino acids. The temperature in a bees’ nest, where
honey is stored, is usually about 35°C. This temperature, and the ventilation produced by bees
fanning their wings, cause water to evaporate from the honey. When the water content is 15
reduced to about 20 per cent, the honey is ripe. Then, the bees seal the cell with a wax cap,
known as propolis, so the honey will not ferment. In this way, the bees prepare for themselves a
concentrated food source. This nourishment sustains them through periods when there are no
flowers.

When honey is harvested

Honey inside the sealed cell is regarded by beekeepers as ready for harvest. Honey at this 20
stage is pure and perfect: whether it is in a wild nest, a homemade hive or the most expensive
factory-made hive. The subsequent harvesting and processing of honey determine whether this
quality is retained. If the beekeepers are working far away from roads and industry, they can
command a premium price for the honey because it can be certified as organic.

The financial value of honey

Beekeeping has skyrocketed in popularity and profitability in recent years for both hobbyists and 25
professionals. While honey is the obvious source of income for beekeepers, there are many
other streams of revenue connected to beekeeping: selling the beeswax to use in products such
as candles and lip balms; selling the pollen granules as a superfood; selling propolis to use in
commercial products such as chewing gum.
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Text B

My life with bees

When we decided to get honeybees, I jumped right in with both feet. I ordered the bees. I cut,
ground and filed an old lawnmower blade into a hooked hive tool. I scavenged the local landfill
for cans to build a homemade smoker and built two complete hives plus most of the parts for
the other three, minus the frames. You have to be really organised and hardworking.

Bear in mind that everything didn’t come out perfectly. My boxes were a little too narrow and the 5
bees attached some extra comb to the sides. The spring I used for the smoker bellows was a
little weak, so it didn’t puff out clouds of smoke like the fancy store-bought model. That didn’t
matter. What mattered was that I made them with my own hands, and they worked. At the end
of the season I extracted 200 kilos of honey from those five hives! I will never forget it.

Why should you build your own beekeeping equipment? The sheer pleasure of doing it is 10
reason enough. Continuing the tradition of people working with their hands and solving their
own problems is another good one. By the time you are finished, you will have a better
understanding of the parts that make up the construction of the hive, how they are constructed,
and how they all work together as a unit. You can find and use sources of scrap wood that will
save you money and keep waste out of the landfill. I guess the harder question to answer would 15
be: Why not?
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Section A: Reading

Read Text A in the Insert, and answer questions 1–7.

1 What literary technique is the title an example of?

Tick (✓) one box.

onomatopoeia

rhyme

alliteration

personification

[1]

2 Give one word from the first paragraph (lines 1–4) that means ‘show’.

[1]
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

3 Look at the second paragraph (lines 5–11).

(a) In the second sentence, the words, To attract the bees... link the first and second sentences.
What kind of connective is this?
Tick (✓) one box.

a comparison

an example

an addition

an explanation

[1]
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(b) Why does the writer use semicolons ( ; )?

Tick (✓) one box.

to introduce a list

to separate items on a list

to show emphasis

to connect separate ideas

[1]

4 Look at the third paragraph (lines 12–19).

(a) Give one example of scientific language.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………… [1]

(b) Give one example of a passive verb form.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………… [1]

(c) Give one word that means ‘food’.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………… [1]

5 Give one word that means ‘increased’ (lines 25–29).

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. [1]

6 Beekeepers sell honey.

What other ways can they earn money from keeping bees? Give one way.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………… [1]
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7 Give two structural features of an information text that can be found in Text A.
• 

•  [2]

Read Text B in the Insert, and answer questions 8–11.

8 How do you think the writer feels about keeping bees?

Tick (✓) one box.

clumsy

enthusiastic

nervous

overwhelmed

[1]

9 Why does the writer use an exclamation mark ( ! ) in line 9?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… [1]

10 Give two structural features of a persuasive text that can be found in Text B.

• 

•  [2]
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11 (a) Your friend wants to start keeping bees. Write a list of the advantages
and disadvantages of making your own beekeeping equipment.

Advantages Disadvantages
Example: Satisfaction of doing it yourself

[3]

(b) Summarise the advantages and disadvantages of making beekeeping equipment for
your friend. Use up to 40 words.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

[2]
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Section B: Writing

12. Imagine you have recently returned from a journey to a destination rich in culture and history
that few people know about. Write a travel piece for your school magazine, describing your
experiences and encouraging others to visit this remarkable place.

You should consider:

• the use of vivid and sensory language to bring the place to life.
• the presentation of your experiences and observations to inspire a sense of curiosity.

Space for your plan:

Write your piece on the next page. [20 marks]

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