Practise Diary Entry Extract: AQA Language Paper 2 Section
A: (Questions 1-3)
This document will take you through practise questions for AQA Language Paper 2,
Section A. It is not a full exam paper - in the real exam you will compare and contrast
one text with another, so the questions below are designed to help you get used to
the style of the exam without being overwhelmed with having to compare and
contrast two separate extracts or texts.
Question 1 and Question 3 are in a similar format to the exam itself; Question 2 and
Question 4 would be comparative in the real exam - although the questions below are
worded in the same way and provide similar tasks to what you would be expected to
do - without the comparative element.
TEXT A: Captain Scott’s Diary
Captain Robert Falcon Scott (1868–1912) was a famous Royal Navy officer and
explorer. He and his four companions went on Scott’s second expedition to the
Antarctic; they reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, just one month after
their rival Norwegian party, led by Roald Amundsen. They realised that they had
been beaten and tried to make it back to their base camp 700 miles away, but the
journey back was full of misfortunes and tragically all of the men died, the last two
(Scott himself and one other) being caught in a blizzard.
Tuesday, August 29th, 1911 I find that the card of the sunshine recorder showed an
hour and a half’s burn yesterday and was very faintly marked on Saturday; already,
therefore, the sun has given us warmth, even if it can only be measured
instrumentally.
Last night Meares told us of his adventures in and about Lolo land, a wild Central
Asian country … He had no pictures and very makeshift maps, yet he held us really
entranced for nearly two hours by the sheer interest of his adventures. The spirit of
, the wanderer is in Meares’ blood: he has no happiness but in the wild places of the
earth. I have never met so extreme type. Even now he is looking forward to getting
away by himself to Hut Point, tired already of our scant measure of civilisation.
[…]
We are all adventurers here, I suppose, and wild doings in wild countries appeal to
us as nothing else could do. It is good to know that there remain wild corners of this
dreadfully civilised world.
We have had a bright fine day.
Wednesday, January 17 1912— Camp 69. T. -22 degrees at start. Night -21
degrees. The Pole. Yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected.
We have had a horrible day — add to our disappointment a head wind 4 to 5, with a
temperature -22 degrees, and companions labouring on with cold feet and hands.
We started at 7.30, none of us having slept much after the shock of our discovery.
We followed the Norwegian sledge tracks for some way; as far as we make out there
are only two men. In about three miles we passed two small cairns. Then the
weather overcast, and the tracks being increasingly drifted up and obviously going
too far to the West, we decided to make straight for the Pole according to our
calculations. At 12.30 Evans had such cold hands we camped for lunch — an
excellent ‘week-end one.’ …To-night little Bowers is laying himself out to get sights
in terrible difficult circumstances; the wind is blowing hard, T. — 21 degrees, and
there is that curious damp, cold feeling in the air which chills one to the bone in no
time. We have been descending again, I think, but there looks to be a rise ahead;
otherwise there is very little that is different from the awful monotony of past days.
Great God! this is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it
without the reward of priority. Well, it is something to have got here, and the wind
may be our friend to-morrow. …Now for the run home and a desperate struggle. I
wonder if we can do it.
Friday, March 16 or Saturday 17 1912— Lost track of dates, but think the last
correct. Tragedy all along the line. At lunch, the day before yesterday, poor Titus
A: (Questions 1-3)
This document will take you through practise questions for AQA Language Paper 2,
Section A. It is not a full exam paper - in the real exam you will compare and contrast
one text with another, so the questions below are designed to help you get used to
the style of the exam without being overwhelmed with having to compare and
contrast two separate extracts or texts.
Question 1 and Question 3 are in a similar format to the exam itself; Question 2 and
Question 4 would be comparative in the real exam - although the questions below are
worded in the same way and provide similar tasks to what you would be expected to
do - without the comparative element.
TEXT A: Captain Scott’s Diary
Captain Robert Falcon Scott (1868–1912) was a famous Royal Navy officer and
explorer. He and his four companions went on Scott’s second expedition to the
Antarctic; they reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, just one month after
their rival Norwegian party, led by Roald Amundsen. They realised that they had
been beaten and tried to make it back to their base camp 700 miles away, but the
journey back was full of misfortunes and tragically all of the men died, the last two
(Scott himself and one other) being caught in a blizzard.
Tuesday, August 29th, 1911 I find that the card of the sunshine recorder showed an
hour and a half’s burn yesterday and was very faintly marked on Saturday; already,
therefore, the sun has given us warmth, even if it can only be measured
instrumentally.
Last night Meares told us of his adventures in and about Lolo land, a wild Central
Asian country … He had no pictures and very makeshift maps, yet he held us really
entranced for nearly two hours by the sheer interest of his adventures. The spirit of
, the wanderer is in Meares’ blood: he has no happiness but in the wild places of the
earth. I have never met so extreme type. Even now he is looking forward to getting
away by himself to Hut Point, tired already of our scant measure of civilisation.
[…]
We are all adventurers here, I suppose, and wild doings in wild countries appeal to
us as nothing else could do. It is good to know that there remain wild corners of this
dreadfully civilised world.
We have had a bright fine day.
Wednesday, January 17 1912— Camp 69. T. -22 degrees at start. Night -21
degrees. The Pole. Yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected.
We have had a horrible day — add to our disappointment a head wind 4 to 5, with a
temperature -22 degrees, and companions labouring on with cold feet and hands.
We started at 7.30, none of us having slept much after the shock of our discovery.
We followed the Norwegian sledge tracks for some way; as far as we make out there
are only two men. In about three miles we passed two small cairns. Then the
weather overcast, and the tracks being increasingly drifted up and obviously going
too far to the West, we decided to make straight for the Pole according to our
calculations. At 12.30 Evans had such cold hands we camped for lunch — an
excellent ‘week-end one.’ …To-night little Bowers is laying himself out to get sights
in terrible difficult circumstances; the wind is blowing hard, T. — 21 degrees, and
there is that curious damp, cold feeling in the air which chills one to the bone in no
time. We have been descending again, I think, but there looks to be a rise ahead;
otherwise there is very little that is different from the awful monotony of past days.
Great God! this is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it
without the reward of priority. Well, it is something to have got here, and the wind
may be our friend to-morrow. …Now for the run home and a desperate struggle. I
wonder if we can do it.
Friday, March 16 or Saturday 17 1912— Lost track of dates, but think the last
correct. Tragedy all along the line. At lunch, the day before yesterday, poor Titus
