Unseen Poetry & Prose Sample Answers for CIE IGCSE: June 2020 (41)

This resource contains two sample answers for IGCSE Literature in English Paper 4 (Unseen Poetry and Prose). The poem is For Julia in the Deep Water by John N. Morris, and the prose is The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

Due to copyright reasons, a copy of the exam paper has not been provided. However, the paper can be found both on the Cambridge School Support Hub website, and online.

Course: IGCSE Literature in English 0475
Series: May/June 2020
Paper: 41

Excerpt from the poetry sample answer:
It is clear that the speaker’s lasting memory of this experience is that of powerlessness. The poet uses phrases such as “She is doing nothing”, “We are waiting” to show that the speaker and his wife are unable to act in the face of their daughter’s “screaming”, either because they are frozen by their fear or because the understand that they cannot interfere with the lesson if their want their daughter to learn and survive. Moreover, the use of the present continuous tense creates the image of the speaker and his wife trapped in this moment of powerlessness, seemingly without end. [623 words total]

Excerpt from the prose sample answer:
Furthermore, the writer creates a sense that the narrator’s acceptance to the college is the start of new chapter in his life. The writer uses the setting of “the morning” with the sun “rising over mountains” to convey a sense of a new beginning for Richard, implying that the experience of the college will be a positive one. This image is reinforced by the narrator’s description of his surroundings as “like a country from a dream” with “impossibly green meadows”; this imagery presents the setting as vibrant yet calm and peaceful. The comparison to something from “a dream” gives the impression that the setting is incredibly beautiful, if a little difficult to comprehend or believe. [730 words total]