Part 1
Read Passage A carefully, and then answer Questions 1 and 2 on the Question Paper.
Passage A: Stranded
In 1703, Selkirk, a pirate and buccaneer who was part of a crew sailing the South Seas looking for
gold and treasure, was
deliberately left marooned on a remote island and forced to remain there as a
castaway
In October, Stradling gave the orders to sail onwards. Selkirk advised the crew to refuse. In his view, in
this ship none of them would go anywhere but to the ocean floor. Worms had infested the bottom of the
ship and devoured its oak timbers and there was no point in continuing their voyage. Stradling mocked
his caution.
Selkirk responded with fists and rage and Stradling accused him of mutiny. He told him he
could stay on the island: it was better than he deserved.
Selkirk's concern about the ship was justified, but no one elected to stay with him, nor did the others
attempt to overrule Stradling's decision. They had waited long enough and although the ship leaked,
it was their one chance of achieving their dream. Stradling ordered Selkirk's sea-chest, clothes and
bedding to be put ashore. Selkirk watched from the beach as the men prepared to leave; he had not
wanted this. He begged Stradling to forgive him, to let him rejoin the ship. He promised he would
comply. Stradling told him he could be food for vultures for all he cared. He hoped his fate would be a
lesson to the other men.
Selkirk watched as the small boats prepared to leave the shore. He lumbered over the stones and tried
to get on board but was pushed back. He waded into the water pleading. He watched as the anchor
was drawn and the ship headed to the open sea. The sound of the oars dipping into the water, the
calling of orders, the little silhouettes of men as they unfurled the sails, were all imprinted on his mind.
The ship slipped behind the cliff face and from his view.
All courage left him when the ship was gone. The sea stretched out endlessly. The thinly-pencilled line
of the horizon was, he knew, only the limit of his sight. The sea that had once beckoned freedom and
fortune now locked him in. He stayed by the shore, scanning the ocean. Whatever their fate, he now
wanted to be with them. Without them the island was a prison and he was a mariner without a ship,
a man without a voice. The day grew cool, the wind ruffled the water and for a moment a rogue wave
or cloud looked like a billowing sail. He did not leave the shore. He clambered over the stones to the
western edge of the bay, wanting a wider view of the ocean, but he was trapped in the bay by sheer
cliffs.
The sun dipped down, the air cooled, the mountain darkened and the moon cut a path across the
ocean. All night the seals howled; they were the monsters of the deep. He fired
a bullet into the air. For
a minute the bay seemed quiet. Then it started again, a croak, a howl. This
island was a place of terror;
there was fear in the dancing shadows of night. A hostile presence sensed his every
move. The wind
surged through the valley; the wind, he was to learn, was strongest when
the moon was full. It uprooted
trees. They swished and crashed. The sound merged with the
breaking waves and the calling seals.
Days turned into weeks and months. Whatever the island had, he could use; whatever it lacked, he
must do without. Activity dispelled depression. He
kept busy. On a day when the sky was clear and the
valley still, his mood lifted. He felt vigorous, reconciled.
He grilled a fish in the embers of a fire, ate i
with pimentos and watercress and forgot to deplore the
lack of salt. Around him humming birds whirred
and probed. Mosses, lichens, fungi and tiny
fragile ferns covered the trunks of the fallen trees.
He resolved to build a dwelling and gather stores. He chose a glade in the mountains a mile from
the bay, reached after a steep climb.
Behind it rose wooded mountains. This glade had the shad
0500/21/ANSERT/O/N/16
OUCLES 2016