Year 12 ATAR English

Practice Questions SECTION ONE: COMPREHENDING

The following are a number of examples of the types of unseen texts you may
encounter in this section.
Some of the questions will apply to just the text they are supplied with; others
will ask you to compare and/or contrast one unseen text with another unseen
text. You can expect both types of questions in the exam.
Also be prepared to discuss multimodal texts.

A poster released by the Australian Department of Immigration in 2014. The poster was
translated into several languages and placed on billboards in places such as Afghanistan
and Iraq.

Question 1: Identify two visual conventions used in the image above and explain how
they construct a particular representation of Australia.
Question 2: Explain how a difference in the readers context could influence their
interpretation of this text.

This is an extract from a feature article in The West Australian May 10 2016 by Gemma
Tognini
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Gen-Ys need a reality check
I want to share with you my first millennial experience. Actually, it was more like a blooding. It
left me feeling kind of like you do after the death of your first pet (mine was a budgie called the
Incredible Hulk, but I digress). Your world is changed for ever.
So I had an intern who had been with us just over a year. From memory they were part way
through their second year at university, and their work had been slipping. I sensed a 20-
somethings version of professional malaise, the likes of which confused and intimidated me. It
was malaise with flawless style and absolutely crushing self-confidence.
Is everything OK, I ventured gently. The smile I got in return was almost pitying, closely followed
by a patient explanation. Imagine trying to explain to a young child why theyre not allowed to
play on the road and thats what it was like. I think its time I leave, they said. You see, Ive
learnt everything there is to learn here and I can feel myself getting stale.
These are not isolated incidents. Deloitte recently released its 2016 millennial survey Winning
over the Next Generation of Leaders. Its the fifth annual survey of its kind, canvassing the views
of more than 7000 millennials in 29 countries.
This is one comprehensive piece of work and a very interesting read, especially for those of us
who are fascinated by this demographic and the way theyve managed to get our knickers in a
collective twist when it comes to engaging them. Or is it pandering to them? Im leaning towards
the latter and a big chunk of this reports findings back me up.
The executive summary says that in general, millennials have little in the way of loyalty to their
employers with close to half planning a near-term exit.
It says there is a remarkable absence of allegiance, calling it a loyalty challenge.
Other findings of this report paint a similar picture.
Millennials cite a (perceived) lack of leadership development and other opportunities, feelings
of being overlooked and failing to stay at one job for more than a couple of years.
It cautions that a lack of loyalty may be a sign of neglect.
You know what I reckon it is?
I reckon its a sign of a generation that struggles to function in the real world because in the
real world nobody gives you a merit award just for showing up to work.
Nobody gives you a medal, a hug and a pat on the head just for doing the work you are paid a
fair wage to do. Pardon my gentle sarcasm but this is a cohort of people that demands complete
loyalty from an employer before they take the gig, and while theyre planning their early exit. Its
entitlement.
I also reckon its a sign of a generation that hasnt known real economic hardship. Havent had
parents worrying about 18 per cent interest rates on their mortgage. Blessedly, theyve never
known a real recession nor what it is to go without. Sure, 2008 was pretty tough. It was an
aggressive correction but it was not the Recession We Had to Have.
The expectation is that want equals get and our generation is, in part at least, to blame. Weve
pandered to it, and were getting what were prepared to tolerate and enable
But the age of entitlement will never truly end if employers continue to be enablers of that
entitlement, sometimes at the point of a gun.
Whats my point? Its tremendously hard to articulate with words the feeling of satisfaction
that comes from persevering and then achieving. Knowing youve built credibility and internal
muscle by doing the hard yards to achieve an outcome.
We need to show by word and more importantly by deed, how playing the long game is worth
it. How progress is its own reward. How respect, trust and seniority are earned. Not bought like a
drive-through burger. How the real world doesnt deliver positive re-enforcement every five
minutes. There are winners and there are losers and if you want to win (whatever that looks like)
you must work for the privilege.

Question 1: Analyse the use of voice in this text and the impact on the reader.
Question 2: Evaluate how language features generate empathy or controversy in this
text.

This is a short story written in the 1970's by Alice Walker, an African-American novelist.

The Flowers

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It seemed to Myop as she skipped lightly from hen house to pigpen to smokehouse that the days had never been
as beautiful as these. The air held a keenness that made her nose twitch. The harvesting of the corn and cotton,
peanuts and squash, made each day a golden surprise that caused excited little tremors to run up her jaws.

Myop carried a short, knobby stick. She struck out at random at chickens she liked, and worked out the beat of a
song on the fence around the pigpen. She felt light and good in the warm sun. She was ten, and nothing existed
for her but her song, the stick clutched in her dark brown hand, and the tat-de-ta-ta-ta of accompaniment.

Turning her back on the rusty boards of her family's sharecropper cabin, Myop walked along the fence till it ran
into the stream made by the spring. Around the spring, where the family got drinking water, silver ferns and
wildflowers grew. Along the shallow banks pigs rooted. Myop watched the tiny white bubbles disrupt the thin
black scale of soil and the water that silently rose and slid away down the stream.

She had explored the woods behind the house many times. Often, in late autumn, her mother took her to gather
nuts among the fallen leaves. Today she made her own path, bouncing this way and that way, vaguely keeping an
eye out for snakes. She found, in addition to various common but pretty ferns and leaves, an armful of strange
blue flowers with velvety ridges and a sweet suds bush full of the brown, fragrant buds.

By twelve o'clock, her arms laden with sprigs of her findings, she was a mile or more from home. She had often
been as far before, but the strangeness of the land made it not as pleasant as her usual haunts. It seemed gloomy
in the little cove in which she found herself. The air was damp, the silence close and deep.

Myop began to circle back to the house, back to the peacefulness of the morning. It was then she stepped smack
into his eyes. Her heel became lodged in the broken ridge between brow and nose, and she reached down quickly,
unafraid, to free herself. It was only when she saw his naked grin that she gave a little yelp of surprise.

He had been a tall man. From feet to neck covered a long space. His head lay beside him. When she pushed back
the leaves and layers of earth and debris Myop saw that he'd had large white teeth, all of them cracked or broken,
long fingers, and very big bones. All his clothes had rotted away except some threads of blue denim from his
overalls. The buckles of the overall had turned green.

Myop gazed around the spot with interest. Very near where she'd stepped into the head was a wild pink rose. As
she picked it to add to her bundle she noticed a raised mound, a ring, around the rose's root. It was the rotted
remains of a noose, a bit of shredding plowline, now blending benignly into the soil. Around an overhanging limb
of a great spreading oak clung another piece. Frayed, rotted, bleached, and frazzled--barely there--but spinning
restlessly in the breeze. Myop laid down her flowers.

And the summer was over.

Question 1: How does this text utilise three language features to shape an audiences
response?
Question 2: Identify the extent to which this text meets the expectations of genre.

This is a French magazine advertisement.

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Question 1: Discuss how this text conveys a particular perspective on the ideas
presented.
Question 2: Explain how the values of this text are represented through the use of
visual language.

Some comparison questions:

1. Compare how the context of Text __ and Text __ influence the perspectives
presented.
2. Compare the way two of the texts represent gender.
3. Compare the impact of symbolism in two texts.
4. Compare how generic conventions are utilised in Text __ and Text __ to comment
on young people of today.
5. Compare how two texts present a similar idea in different ways.

This is the cover of Seventeen magazine Dec 15/Jan 16

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Question 1: Explain how the choice of language in this text is used for a specific
purpose.
Question 2: How does this text present particular values?

Full practice set of texts and questions:

Question One:
Identify two techniques used in Text One to construct a strong opinion about an issue or
idea.
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__________________________________________________________________________

Text One:
Text One is an edited extract from the article Women at Work: Were Doing All the Office
Housework, Too written by Tracy More. It was published on Jezebel on 10/02/2015. Jezebel
is a current affairs website that focuses on issues of feminism. It was referenced in the
article Why Is Everybody Suddenly Using the F Word?
__________________________________________________________________________

Women at Work: Were Doing All the Office Housework, Too

Question: Who brings the cupcakes at your office, is more likely to toss the moldy
leftovers from the communal fridge, or gets stuck organizing the office b-day shindig?

In a New York Times opinion piece, ever forward Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg and
Wharton School professor Adam Grant co-author a look at what anyone who's ever held
an office job can tell you, summed up in one sober sentence you'll want to just linger over
with a sad haunted look. They write: The sad reality in workplaces around the world:
Women help more and benefit less from it.

Help more, benefit less. Do more stuff; get less money and maybe less respect. Cool
reality, guys. Here is and example of how it plays out: Late one Friday afternoon at a
leading consulting firm, a last-minute request came in from a client. A female manager
was the first to volunteer her time. She had already spent the entire day meeting with
junior colleagues who were seeking career advice, even though they weren't on her team.
Earlier in the week, she had trained several new hires, helped a colleague improve a
presentation and agreed to plan the office holiday party. When it came time for her review
for partner, her clear track record as a team player combined with her excellent
performance should have made her a shoo-in. Instead, her promotion was delayed for six
months, and then a year.

In keeping with deeply held gender stereotypes, we expect men to be ambitious and
results-oriented, and women to be nurturing and communal. When a man offers to help,
we shower him with praise and rewards. But when a woman helps, we feel less indebted.
She's communal, right? She wants to be a team player. The reverse is also true. When a
woman declines to help a colleague, people like her less and her career suffers. But when
a man says no, he faces no backlash. A man who doesn't help is "busy"; a woman is
"selfish."

This whole she-wants-to-be-a-team-player thing really strikes me, because when I think
back over the sorts of things women handle around the offices I've worked in, from
remembering to bring the napkins for the potluck to organizing a better system for
delivering the inter-office mail, the recurring attitude is exactly that: Hey, don't women
like doing this stuff more, anyway? Aren't they naturally better at it? Why not let them
make these office events nicer, since it's such a breeze for them. We'll just muck it up
anyway.

Because they aren't "naturally better," they're conditioned. And they're quite literally
penalized for it, which is a lot like being set up to fail. NYU psychologist Madeline Heilman
recently conducted a study that asked participants to rate men and women employees
who did or did not stay late to prep with colleagues for a big meeting the next day. When
both agreed to stay late, the man was still rated 14 percent more favorably than the
woman for no good reason.

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This rings true to a maddening degree, and it clearly has to do with the same thing that
happens to women on the domestic frontwhatever work women are doing is simply
valued less, so doing it can never count for much. It's necessary; things can't run well
without the administrative systems working smoothly. No one thinks it takes much
brainpower to get the cake right.

But I gotta say: Even if a woman isn't bogged down with pointless administrative tasks
and manages to make that killer point in the meeting, it's just as likely that point will be
repeated by the guy sitting next to her and then he'll be praisedor that later, and when
it really counts, it will be credited to another man anyway.

And I think what we're talking about is also no different than how women are conditioned
to perform femininity in the first place: To put a lot of invisible work into something but
make it look effortless. This old dress, that five-minute makeup, that spotless house and
those marvelously well-behaved children? I did it in no time and still made it to hot yoga.
It's ridiculous to think this expectation of women to be everything, and poised and
charming to boot, would magically disappear at the office.

Men, on the other hand, are allowed to be career driven and are expected to know better
than to waste their time doing dumb shit stuff won't get them noticed. And if they step on
a few toes or come off as domineering or arrogant in the process? Well, you can't just slap
a bridle on that kind of ambition. Everybody knows this because it's telegraphed from day
onegirls learn to tone it down; boys learn that rambunctious show-offy aggression is just
being a boy. We make space for them to realize their full boyness. We condition women to
minimize everything.

Where on a resume do you put how often your colleagues have asked you to read their
work, help brainstorm ideas, or give them feedback in your downtime with no credit
whatsoever?

(See over page for Text Two and Questions Two and Three)

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Question Two:
Identify two visual conventions/techniques used in Text Two that reinforce the dominant
ideology of a particular time period.
__________________________________________________________________________

Text Two:
Text two is an advertisement for Hoover vacuum cleaners released in 1954.

Question Three:
Compare how Text 1 and Text 2 construct an attitude towards the expectations of
women.