Compare and contrast the ships in “The Cargo Hulks” and the Asian Tiger in “Breaking Ships.”

Paper details:

In an expository essay, compare and contrast the ships in “The Cargo Hulks” and the Asian Tiger in “Breaking Ships.” You must refer to both passages in your essay, including using appropriate quotes from both stories.

compare and contrast the ships in “The Cargo Hulks” and the Asian Tiger in “Breaking Ships.”

compare and contrast the ships in “The Cargo Hulks” and the Asian Tiger in “Breaking Ships.”In an expository essay, compare and contrast the ships in “The Cargo Hulks” and the Asian Tiger in “Breaking Ships.” You must refer to both passages in your essay, including using appropriate quotes from both stories.

English 12 – 1208 Form A Key
Page 1
English 12
2011/12 Released Exam
August 2012 — Form A
Provincial Examination — Answer Key
Cognitive Processes
W
= Retrieve Information
X
= Recognize Meaning
Y
= Interpret Texts
Z
= Analyze Texts
C
= Writing
Weightings
4%
7%
28%
32%
29%
Topics
1. Stand-Alone Text
2. Synthesis Texts 1 and 2
3. Analysis of Synthesis Texts 1 and 2
4. Composition
Question Types
23
= Multiple Choice (MC)
3
= Written Response (WR)
Question
Number
Keyed
Response
Cognitive
Process Mark Topic
PLO
Question
Type
1. C Y 1 1 – MC
2. D W 1 1 – MC
3. A Z 1 1 – MC
4. C Y 1 1 – MC
5. C X 1 1 – MC
6. D Y 1 1 – MC
7. C Y 1 1 – MC
8. D Y 1 2 – MC
9.
B X 1 2 – MC
10.
A W
1 2
– MC
11. D X 1 2 – MC
12. D X 1 2 – MC
13. C Y 1 2 – MC
14. D Y 1 2 – MC
15. C Y 1 2 – MC
16. D X 1 2 – MC
17. B W 1 2 – MC
18. B Z 1 2 – MC
19. A X 1 2 – MC
20. B Y 1 2 – MC
21. C Y 1 2 – MC
22. A Z 1 3 – MC
23. D Z 1 3 – MC
Question
Number
Keyed
Response
Cognitive
Process Mark Topic
PLO
Question
Type
1. – Y 12 1 – WR
2. – Z 24 3 – WR
3. – C 24 4 – WR
English 12 – 1208 Form A Scoring Guide
Page 1
English 12
2011/12 Released Exam
August 2012 — Form A
Provincial Examination — Scoring Guide
PART A: STAND-ALONE TEXT
This story takes place in the 1950s in a small community.
Head Cook at Weddings and Funerals
by Vi Plotnikoff
1
“The most wonderful day in a mother’s life is when her daughter marries into a good family,” I often
heard Aunt Florence say. “Because she knows her girl will be taken care of for the rest of her life.”
2
My mother would agree with her sister, then look around at her three daughters with a somewhat
worried expression.
3
Aunt Florence, predictably, had married well. Her husband’s relatives were all pillars of the
Doukhobor
1
community.
4
Aunt Florence and Uncle Fred had a son, Fred Junior, who’d married well to an agreeable and
pretty girl named Tina, from an upstanding Doukhobor family. They proceeded to move into the
apartment right across the courtyard from Fred’s parents and produce little Fred, much to the delight
of Aunt Florence.
5
Aunt Florence’s other child was a girl, my cousin Marusa, four years older than I. Her mother had
great expectations of Marusa, who was extraordinarily pretty with her dark curls, sparkling brown eyes
and tiny figure—a figure much enhanced by the fitted gabardine skirts she wore, the delicate nylon
blouses with little artificial bouquets of flowers at the throat, or the soft, fuzzy, pastel sweaters. I felt
awkward and plain next to her. I was a giraffe with straight blonde hair and blue eyes.
6
When I visited her house, Marusa could sometimes be pleasant, even fun. Not stuck-up like she was
at school. She let me try on her earrings and makeup, but only if she was in the mood.
7
“She can have her pick of all the nicest Doukhobor boys,” Aunt Florence would say. “You should see
Saturday morning at our place. The fancy cars and pickup trucks come in a stream, asking Marusa to go
to the movies that night. She’ll marry well.”
* * *
8
Marusa was almost seventeen by now and dating for nearly a year.
1
Doukhobors:
a group of people, primarily farmers, who migrated from Russia to Canada
English 12 – 1208 Form A Scoring Guide
Page 2
9
Peter was a tall, gawky young man with a too-short haircut and a pleasing persona
lity. He wasn’t
very good-looking except when he s
miled and showed his dimples. He was showing a lot of
dimples tonight.
10
Peter was considered an exceedingly good catch, especially by the mothers of marriageable daughters.
His parents had a small tidy farm, vast apple orchards, a large ranch house with many bedrooms to
accommodate their four sons. Mable Zarubin, Peter’s mother, was a hard-working opinionated woman
who kept a clean home and was a renowned cook. In fact her borsch b
ecame so famous, she’d
graduated to head cook at weddings and funerals.
11
Most of the women in the Doukhobor community helped out with cooking at these important events.
The huge wedding feast required several settings, depending on the number of friends and relatives
invited, as did the after-funeral meal serving the singers, gravediggers and family of the deceased.
12
Always at these occasions, in the place of honour at the dining table, there was the borsch. The special
soup, thick with vegetables, l
aced with rich cream. The dish every
young girl learned to cook at her
mother’s side.
13
Peter’s mother had impressed the older women with her knowledge as to the right amount of butter
and whipping cream, the correct pinch of dill, the quick and pretty way she shredded the cabbage,
diced potatoes. So it was at an early age that she became head c
ook, instructing the other cooks,
tasting, giving the final nod to the borsch before it was carried out to the tables by the serving women.
14
Marusa and Peter began going steady that spring and the following Christmas she received an
engagement ring with a tiny diamond.
15
On a hot evening, a few days after Marusa’s eighteenth birthday, just as we were finishing supper
dishes in the stifling kitchen, Peter’s new pink and white Pontiac with the chrome fins drove into our
yard. Peter had quit school and got on at the sawmill, making payments to the credit union on the car.
16
Through the screen door, we watched Marusa lift a big box from the back seat, give it to Peter and hand
in hand they walked up the steps.
17
“Come in, come in both of you,” mama bustled about, taking off her stained apron and shoving shoes
into a corner. “Have you had your supper? It won’t take me a minute to set the table, heat the soup.
I made it with fresh peas from the garden.”
18
I stared at mama. Now that Marusa was almost a wife, she’d suddenly acquired a dignified new
status. Above waitress or store clerk or even secretary. Only a t
eacher or nurse was superior to
a well-married woman.
19
“Thank you, tyota
2
, but we’ve already eaten at Peter’s place. His mother taught me to make galooptsi
3
.”
20
“Yours were even better than my mother’s,” Peter said.
21
Peter must be blind in love, I thought. Unless she’d improved vastly, Marusa was a careless cook. I’d
seen her vareniki come apart in boiling water, fillings
bubbling on top, pastry wrappers floating merrily.
2
tyota:
aunt
3
galooptsi:
cabbage rolls
English 12 – 1208 Form A Scoring Guide
Page 3
22
“I want to show you something,” Marusa said.
23
She untied string from the box, pushed aside tissue, lifted out lace and satin.
24
“Page 352, Eaton’s
4
catalogue,” I breathed.
25
“Marusa, what have you done?” Mother’s shocked voice.
26
“Isn’t it beautiful? And look at the veil.”
27
“But I saw your mother sewing your wedding clothes,” mama said.
28
“She doesn’t know. I borrowed the money from Peter.”
29
“You should tell your mother right away. I don’t think she’ll let you wear it.”
30
“It’s my wedding and I should wear whatever I want. But I want you to tell her. She won’t listen
to me.” Marusa had her stubborn look.
31
“Oh Marusa, you should wear it. It’s just beautiful.”
32
“Quiet, Ana, this is none of your business. Marusa,” she turned to her niece, “you must tell your
mother yourself.”
33
“She’s too worried about what Peter’s mother will say.” She looked at Peter, who was fidgeting with
his car keys. “Well? Don’t you think I should wear what I want for my own wedding?”
34
“Your mother and mine won’t like it,” he said in a mild, hesitant voice.
35
“Whose wedding is it anyway? I thought it was ours.”
36
She scooped up the gown, stuffed it into the box and marched outdoors, ponytail bobbing. Peter
followed, looking worried.
* * *
37
It was a clear and dewy summer morning. A beautiful day to be married. We were up early, rushed
through chores and breakfast, dressed in new clothes purchased at the co-op. Hurried to the bride’s
home to help with the cooking and the table setting.
38
Loud voices broke out directly overhead in Marusa’s bedroom. Aunt Florence’s sounded mad. I
dropped the pans in the sink, went through the living room, past guests who lolled on couches and
chairs which were pushed back against the walls to make room for the dining tables.
39
Upstairs I skimmed al
ong the corridor, past bedrooms with their tall narrow windows, spare
whitewashed walls, where Marusa’s grandparents and parents slept. And I thought it no wonder
Marusa often complained everyone knew when she came in on a Saturday night, for each squeaky
tiptoe, each cautious footstep could be heard on the creaking floorboards as she crept past all those
disapproving doors.
4
Eaton’s:
a department store
English 12 – 1208 Form A Scoring Guide
Page 4
40
The small commotion brewing around Marusa’s door consisted of the bride, her aunt and her mother.
Aunt Florence had her turkey look on. Face all red, neck long, saying in a loud voice that she was so
ashamed, and to change right away and maybe just maybe not too much harm was done even though it
would be all over town by Monday. Marusa was weeping, ruining her rouge, and my mother was
standing ineffectually between them, clasping and unclasping her hands.
41
Then Marusa, who’d looked right through me at school and kept on talking to her friends, who’d
ignored me during fa
mily visits unless she was bored and then taken me upstairs, told me
ghosts were
seen floating along the dim hallways, even told me I’d been a foundling abandoned by my real mother
near the cemetery, suddenly b
ecame Marusa my friend. She reached out and t
ook my hand.
42
In that instant, as we faced our mothers, I became her ally. Us against them. Cousins forever. I felt her
cool fingers, the pressure of the unfamiliar wedding band.
43
“Yes. Wear what you want, Marusa. It’s your marriage.”
44
Was that me sounding profound and grown up? Aunt Florence and my mother looked at me for the
first time, not
knowing what to make of this unexpected a
lliance.
45
“It’s your wedding, after all.”
46
“Ana,” my mother had recovered. “It’s none of your business, or mine either. I’m not going to take
sides, Florence,” she said, then turned to Marusa. “Although it will be easier on everyone if you give in
to your mother, dear.” Diplomatic. No one could ever get mad at my mother.
47
Marusa let go of my fingers, smiled at me as I said one last “do it,” shrugged her shoulders.
48
I went downstairs, thinking I’d do the same some day. When my turn came, I wouldn’t give in either.
For I’d felt Marusa’s strength. Through her I could reach my dreams, unformed as they were. Maybe
I’d take the university program at school, go on to college. I wouldn’t even marry before I was twenty.
I could do as I wanted and Marusa had shown me how. She’d opened the door a crack and I had
slipped through after her. And the best, most wonderful part of all was that she had turned to me.
49
“I am ready,” a voice said, and there she was, in her traditional outfit, as demure
5
as she’d looked at the
zapoy
6
. She searched the group of people around the steps, seeking approval, s
miling when she f
ound
it. She didn’t look at me.
50
I followed the crowd to the cars, my unformed dreams dying inside me.
51
It was fleeting, Marusa’s independence. Just those few hours in the wedding gown when she lived her
dream. And mine. For after the wedding, after the ceremonies and the feasting, she became a dutiful
wife. Within a year she bore a son. Within five years, she had three little
boys tugging at her while she
shopped at the co-op.
52
Under Mable’s tutelage, Marusa was becoming an expert cook, her pirahi pastry light, her borsch
renowned. It was rumoured, according to Aunt Florence, that Marusa would eventually take over her
mother-in-law’s position as head cook at weddings and funerals.
5
demure:
composed, modest
6
zapoy:
engagement ceremony
English 12 – 1208 Form A Scoring Guide
Page 5
PART A: STAND-ALONE TEXT
INSTRUCTIONS:
In
paragraph form
and in at least
150 words
, answer question 1 in the
Response
Booklet
. Write in
ink
. Use the
Organization and Planning
space to plan your
work. The mark for your answer will be based on the appropriateness of the examples
you use as well as the adequacy of your explanation and the qua
lity of
your wr
itten
expression.
1. Discuss the character of Marusa in “Head Cook at Weddings and Funerals.” Use paragraph form
and support your response with specific references to the text.
Suggestions Regarding Response:
C
HARACTERIST ICS
R
EFERENCE
• She is very attractive
paragraph 5
• She is “two-faced”: she ignores her cousin in some
situations, but treats her with respect and as a
friend/confidante in others
paragraphs 6 and 41
• She briefly seeks independence
paragraphs 16–36
• She seeks to avoid di
rect confrontation
paragraphs 30 and 49
• She is manipulative:
– she controls Peter
– she attempts to get her way by crying
– she uses her cousin as an ally
paragraphs 35 and 36, 40–42
• She becomes traditional: a wife, mother and
expert cook
– could be seen as either a positive or a
negative
paragraphs 51 and 52
• She is shallow and vain, primarily concerned with
her own image
various references
This list is not exhaustive.
The exemplars will provide sample responses.
Marks will be awarded for content and written expression.
Refer to the Holistic Scale on page 6 of this key.

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