Candidate Name Civics Group General Paper Tutor

MERIDIAN JUNIOR COLLEGE

Preliminary Examination
Higher 1

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H1 General Paper 8806/02

rd
Paper 2 3 September 2010

1 hour 30 minutes
Candidates answer on the Question Paper

Additional Materials: 1 Insert

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READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST

Write your full name, civics group and GP tutors name in the spaces at the top of this page.
Write in dark blue or black ink on both sides of the paper.

Answer all questions.

The Insert contains the passages for comprehension.
(Note that 15 marks out of 50 will be awarded for your use of language.)

At the end of the examination, submit your Question Paper. You do not need to submit the Insert.
The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.

For Examiners Use

Content
/35

Language
/15

TOTAL
/50

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This document consists of 7 printed pages and 1 blank page.
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PAPER 2 (50 Marks)

Read the passage in the insert and answer all the questions which follow below. Note that
up to fifteen marks will be given for the quality and accuracy of your use of English
throughout this Paper.

Note: When a question asks for an answer IN YOUR OWN WORDS AS FAR AS POSSIBLE
and you select the appropriate material from the passage for your answer, you must still use
your own words to express it. Little credit can be given to answers which only copy words or
phrases from the passage.

From Passage 1

1. Explain the authors argument in paragraph 1. Use your own words as far as possible.

[2]

2. Explain what the author implies about the Lie by calling it (a) a Virtue (line 2), and (b) a
refuge in time of need (lines 2-3).
(a)

(b)

[2]

3. Explain in your own words as far as possible why the author proposes that lying
should be taught in schools (line 10).

[3]
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4. What chance has the ignorant uncultivated liar against the educated expert? (lines 10-
11)
How does the author illustrate the concept of the educated expert?

[1]

5. Children and fools always speak the truth. (line 14)

What deduction can be made from this?

[1]

6. Explain what the author means by an injurious truth has no merit over an injurious lie
(lines 24-25). Use your own words as far as possible.

[2]

7. Explain in your own words as far as possible why the author believes that people who
speak no lie (line 30) are still lying.

[1]

From Passage 2

8. Why does the author say that the fear of cyberspace seemed justified (line 7)? Use
your own words as far as possible.

[1]
9. Even Microsoft was tripped up by old email messages, and you would figure its
employees would know better. (lines 17-18)
Explain the irony evident in this statement.

[1]
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10. Using material from paragraphs 2 to 5, summarise Clive Thompsons arguments for why
the Internet is driving people to tell the truth.
Write your summary in no more than 120 words, not counting the opening words which
are printed below. Use your own words as far as possible.

The Internet drives people to tell the truth as

[8]
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Questions on both passages

11. Give the meaning of the following words as they are used in the passages. You may
write your answer in one word or a short phrase.

From Passage 1

(a) prostituted (line 6)

(b) bemoan (line 23)

(c) eradicate (line 24)

From Passage 2

(d) titans (line 15)

(e) axiom (line 18)

[5]

12. Mark Twain believes that lying is an art which needs to be cultivated, while Clive
Thompson says that lying is now made more difficult by the Internet.
How far do you agree with the views of each author? Are these views applicable to
interactions in modern society? In your answer, develop some of the points made by the
authors, and give your own views and some account of the experiences which have
helped you to form them.
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[8]

End of Paper
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This Insert consists of 2 printed pages.

Passage 1: Mark Twain comments on the deterioration of the art of lying.

1 Observe, I do not mean to suggest that the custom of lying has suffered any
decay or interruption no, for the Lie, as a Virtue, a Principle, is eternal; the Lie,
as a recreation, a solace, a refuge in time of need, man's best and surest friend,
is immortal, and cannot perish from the earth. My complaint simply concerns the
decay of the art of lying. No high-minded man, no man of right feeling, can 5
contemplate the lumbering and slovenly lying of the present day without grieving
to see a noble art so prostituted.

2 No fact is more firmly established than that lying is a necessity of our

circumstances the deduction that it is then a Virtue goes without saying. No
virtue can reach its highest usefulness without careful and diligent cultivation;
therefore, it goes without saying that this one ought to be taught in schools, even 10
in the newspapers. What chance has the ignorant uncultivated liar against the
educated expert? What chance have I against a lawyer? Judicious lying is what
the world needs. I sometimes think it were even better and safer not to lie at all
than to lie injudiciously. An awkward, unscientific lie is often as ineffectual as the
truth.

3 Note that venerable proverb: Children and fools always speak the truth. The
deduction about adults and wise persons is plain. Francis Parkman, the historian, 15
says, "The principle of truth may itself be carried into an absurdity." It is strong
language, but true. None of us could live with a habitual truth-teller; but thank
goodness none of us has to. A habitual truth-teller is simply an impossible
creature; he does not exist; he never has existed. Of course there are people who
think they never lie, but it is not so, and this ignorance is one of the very things 20
that shame our so-called civilization. Everybody lies every day; every hour;
awake; asleep; in his dreams; in his joy; in his mourning; if he keeps his tongue
still, his hands, his feet, his eyes, his attitude, will convey deception and
purposely. Even in sermons, but that is a platitude.

4 I think that courteous lying is a sweet and loving art, and should be cultivated.
What I bemoan is the growing prevalence of the brutal truth. Let us do what we
can to eradicate it. An injurious truth has no merit over an injurious lie. Neither 25
should ever be uttered. An injurious lie is an uncommendable thing; and so, also,
and in the same degree, is an injurious truth a fact that is recognized by the law
of libel.

5 Among other common lies, we have the silent lie the deception which one
conveys by simply keeping still and concealing the truth. Many obstinate truth-
mongers indulge in this dissipation, imagining that if they speak no lie, they lie not 30
at all.

6 Lying is universal we all do it. Therefore, the wise thing is for us to diligently
train ourselves to lie thoughtfully, judiciously; to lie for others' advantage, and not
our own; to lie healingly, charitably, humanely, not cruelly, hurtfully, maliciously;
to lie gracefully and graciously, not awkwardly and clumsily; to lie firmly, frankly,
squarely, with head erect, not haltingly, tortuously, hesitatingly, as if ashamed of 35
our high calling.
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Passage 2: Clive Thompson points out why it is increasingly difficult to lie.

1 The Internet makes us more truthful. Wasnt cyberspace supposed to be the
scary zone where you could not trust anyone? Back when the Internet first came
about, pundits worried that the digital age would open the floodgates of
deception. Since anyone could hide behind an anonymous Hotmail address or
chat-room moniker, Net users, we were warned, would be free to lie with 5
impunity. Parents panicked and frantically cordoned off cyberspace from their
children, under the assumption that anyone lurking out there in the ether was a
creep until proven otherwise. And to a certain extent, the fear seemed justified.
According to Psych 101, we are more likely to lie to people when there is
distance between us and you cannot get much more distant than a cyber-chat
buddy in Siberia who calls himself 0minous-1.

2 Why were those fears unfounded? What is it about online life that makes us more 10
truthful? It is simple: We are worried about being caught. In ''real'' life, after all, it
is actually pretty easy to get away with spin. If you tell a lie to someone at a
cocktail party or on the phone, you can always backtrack later and claim you said
no such thing.

3 On the Internet, though, your words often come back to haunt you. The digital
age is tough on its liars, as a seemingly endless parade of executives are 15
learning to their chagrin. Today's titans of industry are laid low not by ruthless
competitors but by prosecutors gleefully waving transcripts of old e-mail, filled
with suggestions of subterfuge. Even Microsoft was tripped up by old e-mail
messages, and you would figure its employees would know better. Indeed, the
axiom that machines never forget is built into the very format of e-mail consider 20
that many e-mail programmes automatically ''quote'' your words when someone
replies to your message. Every time I finish an e-mail message, I pause for a few
seconds to reread it before I hit ''send''.

4 Still, it is not only the fear of electronic exposure that drives us to tell the truth.
There is something about the apparent harmlessness of the Internet that
encourages us to bare our souls, often in rather outrageous ways. Psychologists
have noticed for years that going online seems to have a catalytic effect on 25
people's personalities. The most quiet and reserved people may become
deranged loudmouths when they sit behind the keyboard, staying up until dawn
and conducting angry debates on discussion boards with total strangers. You can
usually spot the newbies in any discussion group because they are the ones
WRITING IN ALL CAPS they are tripped out on the Internet's heady
combination of geographic distance and pseudo-invisibility.

5 Heated arguments are far more common in online discussion boards than in 30
comparable face-to-face communication. When people communicate online with
invisible listeners, they are more likely to offer up personal details about
themselves without any prompting. The psychologically comforting effect of the
Net makes people willing to talk about anything disinhibited as the mental-
health profession would say. The Net was supposed to be a military tool. Instead, 35
it has become a vast arena for collective therapy for a mass outpouring of what
we are thinking and feeling. Stripped of our bodies, it seems, we become
creatures of pure opinion.

6 As more and more of our daily life moves online, we could find ourselves living in
an increasingly honest world, or at least one in which lies have ever more serious
consequences. With its unforgiving machine memory, the Internet might turn out
to be the unlikely conscience of the world. 40
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