Popular Posts

AQA Question 3 - an exam question a week.

Question 3 is another question mainly based on inference.
Your planning method should be as follows:
  1. Skim read
  2. Make inferences about thoughts and feelings - Higher Level should find a change of feeling. Put a star next to where you think this is in the text to remind yourself to find a quotation.
  3. Scan the text for supporting quotations.
  4. Write up embedding quotations.

You have 12 minutes to work in once you have read the text (skimming and scanning as you go along 5 minutes approximately). Make sure you are using quotations (at least 4).

Here is your question:

Explain some of the thoughts and feelings of Cal Flyn about her experience working on a Husky Farm.
December 17, Hetta
We are in the midst of a super-cold snap, with temperatures falling below -30C. I can’t go outside for more than a few moments without fully suiting up in cold-weather gear. The insides of my nostrils crackle with frost; any hair left uncovered picks up a grey sheen, as though I’ve aged 50 years in minutes. Occasionally my eyelashes freeze together. I learn that if any part of my body sticks to metal, I mustn’t panic and wrench away, or I risk ripping the skin clean off. One of the dogs, Monty, lost half of his tongue this way as a pup when he licked a metal post. It nearly killed him, and it took months of careful nursing and hand feeding in the house before he returned to work.
But while the temperatures drop, the tourist season is hotting up. Lapland’s economy depends almost entirely on a few short weeks before Christmas when visitors flood in from overseas. Suddenly it’s all go as we try to run as many safaris as possible, often working from 7am till past midnight.
We have to sprint as we make up the dog teams – usually eight-strong, with an obedient pair up front as leaders and two of the strongest dogs at the back in 'wheel’ position: the brains and the brawn respectively.
In a rush this morning, I sped with my team out of the gates and took the first corner far too quickly. The sled flipped, dragging me through the snow on my stomach until the bar slipped out of my grip. By the time I’d jumped to my feet my dogs had overtaken the team in front and started a fight; I had had to throw myself between the two teams and wrestle them apart, growling and yelling. No harm done, but my nerves are jangling and my confidence has taken a knock.
December 21, Hetta
While freeing two dogs that have become tangled in the lines, I stupidly remove my gloves in -38C, and later find the colour has drained away from the tips of my fingers. They also have an unpleasant needling sensation. 'Congratulations,’ Pasi says. 'Your first frostbite.’ I’m thrilled and show them off to everyone.
December 25, Hetta and Valimaa
This week has been hard. We seem to be working non-stop and I haven’t seen daylight in three weeks. This is the polar night. The sun will not rise above the horizon for a further 10 days. It is dark enough to use head torches for most of the day, but at noon the skies are incredible, streaked with magenta and crimson and orange.
To tell the truth, I’m running on empty. Every waking moment for weeks has been spent feeding or harnessing or sledding or shovelling snow or shovelling shit. When, on Christmas Eve, I’m sternly told off for not cleaning kennels properly, I’m so tired and it’s so unfair that I find myself in tears, sobbing into a bucket of frozen meat as I chop it into pieces.
'Oh dear,’ Dot, another of the guides, says when she finds me. 'Feeling fragile?’ I laugh. It is a bit ridiculous.
Christmas Day itself is just as dark and cold as all the other days but it feels like we’ve turned a corner: the hardest part is over. The tourists will soon return to wherever they came from, the daylight will return from wherever it went. After a Christmas feast, five of us return to the wilderness farm. I drive; others grab some sleep while they can. When we arrive, past midnight, it strikes me how lucky we are. The air is so still and the sky is so clear, the stars so incredibly bright.
Edited from an article by Cal Flyn in The Telegraph - Full article available here
Share this article :
 

+ comments + 6 comments

Anonymous
3 February 2014 at 19:23

Explain some of the thoughts and feelings of Cal Flyn about her experience working on a Husky Farm.

From the text we can learn that working on a Husky Farm can be quite a challenging task. Cal Flyn states that there was 'No harm done' after she ferociously entered the battlefield of huskies, but she points out her nerves were jangling and her 'confidence has taken a knock'. Looking at this, we can infer that she doesn't want to go through this experience again. This quotation subtly implies that she was, and probably still is, worried about this happening again.

Her feelings soon develop into positive ones. After helping out some Huskies she received her first scars from a dangerous task. Her stupidity lead the tips of her fingers to lose their colour - effectively the woman had gone through having frostbite for the first time, however it clearly didn't bother the girl as she decided to 'show them off to everyone'. This implies she was proud of what she did and she used the agonised hands to prove to everyone just how tough and hardy she was. She must have thought a lot of herself as it was clear a boost in her confidence was apparent after this experience.

The next couple of days must have been a struggle. She states that she hasn't 'seen daylight in three weeks'. Not seeing daylight could symbolise how worried she was, and could suggest that she feels hopeless and forlorn. We can understand from this that she hopes the difficult period ends soon, blatantly she wants to be able to have a break from all the strenuous work.

In the end, after the busy period of Christmas, the feelings of the woman develop and she feels relief as she states that they've '...turned a corner: the hardest part...' was now over. She has overcome the most difficult of challenges and it is obvious that she thinks everything will be done with much more ease after she returns home.

Oskar

7 February 2014 at 17:29

You've got all the right ideas here - I'd like to see you embedding your inferences e.g.

'confidence has taken a knock'. Looking at this, we can infer that she doesn't want to go through this experience again.

becomes

'confidence has taken a knock' implying that she doesn't want to go through the experience again and is worried about it happening again.

I'd give this 6/8 with you needing to develop fluency in your writing to access the top band

2 July 2014 at 09:10

I have read your blog very carefully. It,s really informative and enriched with important information.eyelashes, beauty

26 October 2015 at 23:02

can i do one sir

26 October 2015 at 23:02

can I have a go

26 October 2015 at 23:03

can i do one sir

Post a Comment

 
Support : Creating Website | Johny Template | Mas Template
Copyright © 2011. English Advice from an Accidental Teacher - All Rights Reserved
Template Created by Creating Website Published by Mas Template
Proudly powered by Blogger