GCSE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Paper 2 Writers’ viewpoints and perspectives
Insert
The two sources that follow are:
Source A: 21st Century non-fiction
All cyclists fear bad drivers
An article published in The Guardian newspaper in 2016
Source B: 19th Century literary non-fiction
ON A BICYCLE IN THE STREETS OF LONDON
An article published in a magazine in 1896
Please turn the page over to see the sources
IB/G/Nov18/E7
8700/2
, 2
Source A
Source A was published in The Guardian newspaper in 2016. In this article, the writer, Peter
Walker, explores how people who cycle in the city are at risk from other road users.
All cyclists fear bad drivers
1 Ask most people who ride a bike regularly in the UK and they’ll happily recount a list of
terrifying or alarming incidents caused by the deliberate actions of another road user,
usually someone in a motor vehicle.
My last such incident happened just under a week ago, when a driver decided to overtake
5 my bike very closely and at speed on a narrow residential street near my home in south-east
London. I was unharmed, but the driver was gambling on the assumption that I would not,
for example, hit a sudden pothole and swerve or wobble.
Inevitably the congested traffic meant I caught up with the driver at the next junction. His
relatively minor, but nonetheless very real, roll of the dice with my chances of making it
10 home safely that evening had all been for nothing. That’s appallingly common.
A couple of things must be noted. First, however distressing such incidents can be – and
there is evidence they help keep levels of cycling in Britain as pathetically low as they are –
riding a bike is still safer than many people think. The average Briton would ride 2 million
miles before they suffered a serious injury.
15 Secondly, while some are tempted to characterise such events as part of a ‘war on the
roads’ it’s nothing of the sort, not least as the majority of cyclists also drive, and would thus
be somehow waging war on themselves.
The thing to grasp is that it’s about the person, not the mode of transport they happen to be
using at that particular time. As well as cycling, I walk, use buses and trains, sometimes
20 drive, occasionally get planes. My personality is not changed, or defined, by any of those. I
get the sense that all these forms of transport are populated by roughly similar proportions
of idiots. They might push on to a train, barge past you on an escalator at an Underground
station, recline their plane seat just as the meals are being served.
Driving is, however, different in one way. It is the sole event in most people’s everyday lives
25 where there is a plausible chance they could kill another human being. It’s not about morals,
it’s simple physics. If I hit someone at 12mph even on my solid, heavy everyday bike it
would impart something like 1,200 joules of kinetic energy. If I were in the last car I owned, a
relatively tiny Nissan Micra, doing 30mph, you’re suddenly at 100,000 joules. It’s a very
different impact.
30 It’s why police should take incidents more seriously than they generally do. It’s why the
driving tuition and testing system should be revamped to place far more stress on drivers’
vast, overriding responsibility to look out for and protect vulnerable road users, those not
cocooned within a tonne of metal.
Next time you’re in a car and you think a cyclist in front is holding you up, I’d urge you to
35 hold two very clear thoughts in your mind.
IB/G/Nov18/8700/2
, 3
The first is this: despite the apparent belief of many drivers, cyclists are not obliged or even
advised to ride in the gutter. If a rider is in the middle of the lane it could be to stay clear of
opened doors on parked cars; it could be because the edge of the road is rutted and
potholed; it might even be to stop drivers squeezing past when it would be clearly unsafe to
40 do so.
Also bear this in mind: even if you’re absolutely convinced the cyclist is in the wrong, hold
back and be cautious anyway. In the majority of urban traffic situations, your overtake will be
a very brief victory – they’ll pedal past again in the queue for the next red light or junction.
But most of all, remember that these are human beings, unprotected flesh and bone seeking
45 to get to work, to see their friends, to return to their loved ones. However much of a rush you
think you’re in, it never, ever, justifies putting them at risk.
Turn over for Source B
IB/G/Nov18/8700/2 Turn over ►
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Paper 2 Writers’ viewpoints and perspectives
Insert
The two sources that follow are:
Source A: 21st Century non-fiction
All cyclists fear bad drivers
An article published in The Guardian newspaper in 2016
Source B: 19th Century literary non-fiction
ON A BICYCLE IN THE STREETS OF LONDON
An article published in a magazine in 1896
Please turn the page over to see the sources
IB/G/Nov18/E7
8700/2
, 2
Source A
Source A was published in The Guardian newspaper in 2016. In this article, the writer, Peter
Walker, explores how people who cycle in the city are at risk from other road users.
All cyclists fear bad drivers
1 Ask most people who ride a bike regularly in the UK and they’ll happily recount a list of
terrifying or alarming incidents caused by the deliberate actions of another road user,
usually someone in a motor vehicle.
My last such incident happened just under a week ago, when a driver decided to overtake
5 my bike very closely and at speed on a narrow residential street near my home in south-east
London. I was unharmed, but the driver was gambling on the assumption that I would not,
for example, hit a sudden pothole and swerve or wobble.
Inevitably the congested traffic meant I caught up with the driver at the next junction. His
relatively minor, but nonetheless very real, roll of the dice with my chances of making it
10 home safely that evening had all been for nothing. That’s appallingly common.
A couple of things must be noted. First, however distressing such incidents can be – and
there is evidence they help keep levels of cycling in Britain as pathetically low as they are –
riding a bike is still safer than many people think. The average Briton would ride 2 million
miles before they suffered a serious injury.
15 Secondly, while some are tempted to characterise such events as part of a ‘war on the
roads’ it’s nothing of the sort, not least as the majority of cyclists also drive, and would thus
be somehow waging war on themselves.
The thing to grasp is that it’s about the person, not the mode of transport they happen to be
using at that particular time. As well as cycling, I walk, use buses and trains, sometimes
20 drive, occasionally get planes. My personality is not changed, or defined, by any of those. I
get the sense that all these forms of transport are populated by roughly similar proportions
of idiots. They might push on to a train, barge past you on an escalator at an Underground
station, recline their plane seat just as the meals are being served.
Driving is, however, different in one way. It is the sole event in most people’s everyday lives
25 where there is a plausible chance they could kill another human being. It’s not about morals,
it’s simple physics. If I hit someone at 12mph even on my solid, heavy everyday bike it
would impart something like 1,200 joules of kinetic energy. If I were in the last car I owned, a
relatively tiny Nissan Micra, doing 30mph, you’re suddenly at 100,000 joules. It’s a very
different impact.
30 It’s why police should take incidents more seriously than they generally do. It’s why the
driving tuition and testing system should be revamped to place far more stress on drivers’
vast, overriding responsibility to look out for and protect vulnerable road users, those not
cocooned within a tonne of metal.
Next time you’re in a car and you think a cyclist in front is holding you up, I’d urge you to
35 hold two very clear thoughts in your mind.
IB/G/Nov18/8700/2
, 3
The first is this: despite the apparent belief of many drivers, cyclists are not obliged or even
advised to ride in the gutter. If a rider is in the middle of the lane it could be to stay clear of
opened doors on parked cars; it could be because the edge of the road is rutted and
potholed; it might even be to stop drivers squeezing past when it would be clearly unsafe to
40 do so.
Also bear this in mind: even if you’re absolutely convinced the cyclist is in the wrong, hold
back and be cautious anyway. In the majority of urban traffic situations, your overtake will be
a very brief victory – they’ll pedal past again in the queue for the next red light or junction.
But most of all, remember that these are human beings, unprotected flesh and bone seeking
45 to get to work, to see their friends, to return to their loved ones. However much of a rush you
think you’re in, it never, ever, justifies putting them at risk.
Turn over for Source B
IB/G/Nov18/8700/2 Turn over ►
