Ms Goh's GP blog

Hi

I hope you have spent some time trying out the papers. Here's the answers!

2001 Promos
From Paragraph 5
3a. Explain what the writer means by “ours is not a story of a lone hero species’ linear struggle to succeed, but one of repeated evolutionary experiments” (line 37). [2]
From the passage Suggested paraphrase
• ours is not a story of a lone hero species’ linear struggle to succeed (line 37)


• but one of repeated evolutionary experiments (line 38). • The writer means that the history of mankind is not about a single type of people [1/2] trying hard to survive / going through tribulations to survive [1/2]
• but that there were several species undergoing a continuous / on-going / recurrent [1/2] trial and error / natural selection process [1/2]

Comments
- "Evolution" is different from "mutation" / "mutilation", and the concept of "change" is too simplistic to adequately explain it.
- There is no such word as "evoluting". The correct form is "evolving".
- Students discussed the process of tool making and basically paraphrased the whole paragraph without checking if it answered the question!
- Some students stated that "only the fittest will survive". While this is not wrong, it does not explain the meaning of the quote in the context of the paragraph, ie. simply, there were other species around.

Student’s answer:
“Human evolutionary history encompasses the birth of new species, competition and cohabitation among existing ones who are constantly adapting to new surroundings and conditions. It does not merely tell of a particular species’ fight for survival.” (modified answer) (Fong Wei Li, 20/01)



From Paragraph 1
6. Explain the "twist" mentioned in line 9. [2]
From the passage Suggested paraphrase
• The owners … are suing to get their chimp back (line 7)
• The chimpanzee… is the subject of a bitter wrangle between Los Angeles city officials…The former seized the animal and put him in an ape sanctuary to stop him escaping and biting citizens (line 2 – 6)
• lawyers for the U.S. Animal Legal Defence Fund have applied to be made Moe’s guardian (line 9)
• There was a legal tussle [1/2]

• However a turn of events happened when the U.S. Animal Legal Defence Fund filed for its custody, further complicating the issue. [1/2]

• What started as a two-party dispute over a pet has become a three-way [1/2]
• contention involving issues of animal rights. [1/2]

Comments:
a. Very few good answers. Few could not tell with any certainty what the ”twist” was.
b. Many half-answered responses.
c. Altogether, very disappointing.

Model answer: Cai Lingfen (02/01):
There was originally a two –party court tussle, between Moe’s owners and Los Angeles city officials. This was further exacerbated by the entry of the Animal Legal Defence Fund to petition on behalf of the chimpanzee. By entering into the fray as the third party, they highlighted the need to have a set of rights for animals as well as humans.



From Paragraph 3
7. What does the writer mean by “ throw their intellectual weight behind a bid” (lines 23 - 24)? [2]
From the passage Suggested paraphrase
• Authors, scientists and philosophers are combining to throw their intellectual weight behind a bid to establish an animals’ Bill of Rights for all sentient creatures (lines 23 – 25) • The phrase means to lend support to the cause [1/2], with the intellectual elite [1/2] using the academic influence / authority and the reputation they have earned in their respective fields of expertise [1/2] to push the Bill through. [1/2]
Comments
i. Students should already know by now that a point is worth 1/2 a mark, thus this question would require them to provide 4 points.
ii. Students then should decide where these 4 points would come from. These points are paraphrases of the following:
• authors, scientists and philosophers
• throw their weight
• their intellectual weight
• behind a bid to establish an animal's Bill of Rights
iii. Many students are not able to paraphrase 'intellectual weight' and they made no attempt whatsoever to give a generic term for 'authors, scientists and philosophers'. Thus there was rampant lifting. This is such a shame because the paraphrases for the latter point are very manageable.

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