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IGCSE Paper 1 Reading Core

The passage describes the writer's visit to ancient sites along the Nile River in Egypt, including the Karnak temple complex and the Valley of the Kings. At Karnak, the writer is impressed by the massive scale of the ruins and prefers exploring the crumbling structures alone over how they would have appeared newly constructed. In the Valley of the Kings, the writer is astonished by the stark desert landscape and imagines how the pharaohs believed their elaborate tombs would provide eternal rest.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)

332 views

IGCSE Paper 1 Reading Core

Uploaded by

Soe Sandar

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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

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2

Read the following passage carefully and then answer all the questions on the Question
Paper.

Isabel Esterman, the writer, describes a visit to the ancient sites of the Nile Valley in Egypt.

Up the Nile in Style

As the sun dips low across the Nile and the Sahara desert beyond, the sandstone columns
around me blush pink and orange. Lengthening shadows sharpen the lines of the murals
carved into their stone.

More than 3,000 years ago, when the Karnak temple complex stood newly built above the city
of Thebes, it must have been truly breathtaking. The 134 columns of the Great Hall, their tops 5
shaped like lotus blooms and papyrus buds, supported a vaulting roof that allowed shafts of
light to stream onto the gleaming marble floor and reflect on the faces of the statues lining the
chamber. The pharaoh and his priests would enter the sanctuary to pray to the god Amun-Ra,
while ordinary citizens worshipped in the courtyard outside.

Standing in the Great Hall today, its roof long since collapsed, I can’t help thinking I prefer the 10
temple as it is now: crumbling, evocative, silent. A thin stream of visitors trickles through the
site, but every time I leave the main walkway, I find myself alone, free to wander in solitude
among the ruins and search for hidden places where faint traces of the original colours have
managed to cling to millennia-old plaster.

Karnak is the first major site on a week’s cruise through Upper Egypt, and its emotional power 15
catches me by surprise. Egypt is like this, I’ve learned. Over-saturated by Hollywood images
of pyramids and temples, I had expected these ancient monuments to be underwhelming.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. As with my visit to see the Sphinx, which proved awe-
inspiring despite the fast-food restaurant across the road, here in Karnak I found the temples
magnificent and mysterious. Nothing I had seen or read about them prepared me for the 20
wonder of actually setting foot on these stones.

The following morning, after crossing to the Nile’s west bank on an excursion to the Valley of
the Kings, I was astonished yet again. As we drove along an empty desert road I felt keenly
the starkness and the desolation that led the ancient pharaohs to believe that their mummified
bodies would find eternal rest in these rocky heights. 25

In the Valley of the Kings, pharaohs could arrange to be buried so deeply that modern
archaeologists, with all the latest technology, have still not located the tombs of at least five
major rulers who are believed to rest in the hillsides.

A pharaoh would begin work on his tomb from the moment he became ruler, enlarging and
decorating it until his death. Thus, the tomb of the valley’s most celebrated occupant, the boy 30
king Tutankhamen, is in fact one of the smallest. Tutankhamen was just 18 when he died,
and his mummy, still on view within, seems almost impossibly slight. The wall paintings are
beautiful and detailed, depicting in vibrant colours scenes from the Ancient Egyptian Book
of the Dead. But they are just that: paintings. Typically, the walls would have been carved in
meticulous detail before being painted. 35

© UCLES 2014 0500/13/INSERT/M/J/14

King Tutankhamen’s coffin alone was made from more than 110 kilograms of pure gold, and
more than 7,000 statues, ritual objects, household items and jewels were discovered. If this
was the grave of a minor king, on the throne for a mere decade, it is staggering to imagine
what a tomb like that of Ramses IV, cut 70 metres into the heart of the rock, must have
contained. Or that of Ramses III, who ruled for 55 years. 40

Stripped bare some 3,000 years ago, they are still splendid. Every inch of the walls is
decorated with scenes from Egyptian mythology: gods standing in judgement, beheaded
enemies, three-headed snakes and other dangers the pharaoh would encounter on his
journey to the underworld.

© UCLES 2014 0500/13/INSERT/M/J/14

Read carefully the passage Up the Nile in Style in the Reading Booklet Insert and then answer
all the questions on this Question Paper.

Question 1

(a) (i) What time of day is being described in paragraph one (As the sun…)?

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) Which phrase tells us the time of day?

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

(b) By referring to details from paragraph three (Standing in the Great Hall today…), using your
own words, explain what the writer likes about the temple as it is in the present day.

...................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................. [3]

...................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................. [2]

(d) What does the use of the word ‘despite’ suggest about the writer’s response to the existence
of a fast-food restaurant (line 19)?

...................................................................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................[2]

© UCLES 2014 0500/13/M/J/14

(e) Using your own words, explain what the writer means by saying ‘But they are just that:
paintings’ (line 34).

...................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................. [2]

(f) Using your own words, explain what the writer means by the words in italics in the following
phrases:

(i) ‘thin stream of visitors trickles’ (line 11)

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

(ii) ‘I felt keenly the starkness’ (lines 23–24)

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [2]

(iii) ‘almost impossibly slight ’ (line 32)

...........................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................[2]

© UCLES 2014 0500/13/M/J/14 [Turn over

(g) Re-read paragraph three (Standing…millennia-old plaster) and paragraph five (l couldn’t…
these stones).

The writer uses the following phrases to describe the atmosphere of the ancient ruins.

Choose three of the following phrases and then explain how each one of them helps you to
gain an impression of this atmosphere:

• ‘crumbling, evocative, silent’ (line 11)

• ‘I find myself alone, free to wander in solitude’ (line 12)

• ‘traces of the original colours have managed to cling to millennia-old plaster’ (lines
13–14)

• ‘I found the temples magnificent and mysterious’ (lines 19–20).

Phrase: .............................................................................................

Explanation: ..............................................................................................................................