Cambridge International AS Level

ENGLISH GENERAL PAPER 8021/23

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Material for Section A

Background

Chiara (16) and Bastien (14), on their walk home from Perila Town High School, are discussing what to
buy Matilde, their mother, for her fortieth birthday in two weeks’ time on 3 June.

Bastien: (enthusiastically) Mum’s birthday’s coming up soon, isn’t it? I’ve been saving up for a while
now. What are you thinking of getting her?

Chiara: (busy texting Beka, her best friend)
Er, sorry
What were you saying? Oh yes, Mum’s
birthday. Not thought about it really. What are you getting then?

Bastien: Not sure. Beginning to panic, actually.

Chiara: (spotting a stand of flyers* in Perila Town Tourist Information Office as they are passing by)
Look! Let’s get some details about events, workshops, concerts – you know what I mean.

Bastien: (looking relieved) Good idea, sis.

Chiara: (after the briefest of glances at the stand) Ah, perfect. A concert by her favourite band, Eduk8.
Come on, Bastien. Meeting Beka in a minute. Do hurry up!

Bastien: (looking carefully at everything on the stand) Haven’t seen anything yet. Right, you go on and
I’ll see you at home.

Bastien: (ten minutes later, smiling to himself) Yes, I’m sure Mum would love this – Remi’s Art Workshops.

*a small piece of paper advertising a product or event, which is given to a lot of people

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The two flyers

Mad4Musik Events
Remi’s Art Workshops
proudly presents the legendary
‘Discover your creativity’
Eduk8
on the latest leg of their worldwide Each week I introduce attendees to a different
kind of art medium (watercolour, acrylic, oil,
Comeback Tour etc.) and art movement (abstract, pop art,
with a support act (except Perila Town) hyperrealism, etc.).

Venues open 19.00h Free car parking I provide both tuition and advice in a non-
judgemental way, so that, by the time you
Dates:
leave my workshops, you will have produced
Wednesday 2 June Perila Town Stadium
your own piece of art worthy of being framed.
Friday 4 June Nova City Arena
Saturday 5 June Nova City Arena Times: every Tuesday 18.00–20.30h
Thursday 10 June Benex City Arena Venue: ArtzHub, Perila Town
Friday 11 June Benex City Arena Book online: remisartworkshops.ff
Saturday 12 June Benex City Arena For any further information, email:
Tickets on sale now – mad4musikevents.ff
remis@artworkshops.ff or call 012398764
includes tracks from the new album

Some online reviews

Eduk8’s Comeback Tour

‘Saw them in Paris last night. Loved, loved, loved them! Played all their classic hits, so everyone sang
along at the top of their voices and danced the whole time. Great atmosphere.’

‘Went to the Vancouver concert on Saturday. So disappointing after flying across the country to see
them. They came on stage really late and only played an hour. Hours of my life I’ll never get back!

Remi’s Art Workshops

‘Went to the watercolour workshop last week. First time ever, so felt a bit nervous, but shouldn’t have!
So relaxing to just paint. Really proud of my painting.’

‘Tried the acrylic workshop this morning. The room was full to bursting, so I was squeezed in a corner.
Could hardly move. Not going again!’

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Extract from a conversation between Matilde and Rocco, her husband

Rocco: (in a cautious tone) Sweetheart, have you thought about what you’d like for your birthday? It’s
a special one, so I want to get it right this time.

Matilde (looking surprised) Gosh, let me think. Well, I know that Eduk8 are on tour here close to my
birthday.

Rocco: (brightly) Thanks, love. Something to think about.

Matilde: (dreamily) Would love to relive my youth a bit!

Rocco: Any more hints about what you might want from the kids and me?

Matilde: (in a flat voice) Well, certainly no more flowers and chocolates. (Cheering up) I’d like something
that will be an unforgettable reminder of my special day.

Rocco: (looking anxious) Oh, will pass that on straightaway.

Additional Information

1. Matilde loved art classes at school, until a new art teacher arrived and laughed at one of her drawings.
2. The support band on Eduk8’s Comeback Tour is one that Rocco likes: City Dreamerz.
3. The cost of attending one of Remi’s art workshops is $50 per session, with all the necessary
equipment and materials provided.
4. Unfortunately, Matilde has been under a great deal of pressure at work recently.
5. Eduk8’s drummer was taken ill just before their concert in Vancouver. Their manager only found a
replacement at the last minute.
6. Remi limits his watercolour workshops to six attendees as watercolour painting requires more tuition
and advice from him than other media.
7. Matilde loves Phoenix, Eduk8’s new album, listening to it constantly on her headphones at work.
8. Bastien has $30 in his bank deposit account.
9. Matilde runs a Literacy Club on Mondays and Wednesdays (18.00–20.00h) in the Perila Town
Library.
10. The cost of tickets for Eduk8’s Comeback Tour varies: general admission – $100; VIP package
(premium seating, and an exclusive meet-and-greet with Eduk8) – $500; reserved seat – $125, and
early bird discount (available up to one month before the concert) – $75.
11. Research has found that painting and drawing can be very therapeutic activities, promoting good
mental health.
12. Every Saturday, his parents give Bastien an allowance of $5.
13. As a teenager, Matilde wanted to go and see Eduk8 in concert, but her parents said that she was
too young. All her friends went.
14. Bastien has leafleted his local streets, offering to wash cars for $5 per car.
15. Remi allows up to 15 attendees at all his other workshops.
16. When available, Chiara earns money by working shifts as a waitress in her local café.

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Material for Section B

An article by Matthew Tucker

Repairing broken gadgets for a greener future

The January sales is a time when many shoppers look to replace faulty electrical items.
However, instead of buying new gadgets, a movement of volunteers wants people to repair
their old ones to save them from landfill*. Repair centres, where people can learn repairing
skills, have been springing up across the UK and include the Fixing Factory in Camden,
north London. In the backroom of the Fixing Factory there are shelves of faulty items awaiting 5
attention. Broken toasters, lamps, laptops, kettles and heaters adorn the shelves.

‘Many of us are feeling pretty powerless in the face of the climate crisis,’ Dermot Jones,
project manager for the Fixing Factory, says. ‘Throwaway consumerism and the escalating
cost of living just compounds that powerlessness.’ Enabling people to get ‘hands-on’ with
repairing their own stuff hands them back some of this lost power. 10

Dermot has been fixing things his whole life. On a Tuesday evening in November, Dermot
helps Harry, a volunteer, with a broken portable speaker as part of a weekly repair club.
Harry was a volunteer at a repair café when he lived in the USA during the pandemic. There,
he specialised in repairing laptops for the public. After Harry examines the speaker’s electrical
innards with fellow volunteers Stephania and Tony, they identify the problem: the rechargeable 15
battery can no longer hold an electrical charge. A replacement is fitted and the room fills
with the sound of Caliban’s Dream by Underworld – one of Harry’s favourite tunes.

The Fixing Factory estimates that 80% of all broken electrical items could be repaired at
community events. This year, 5.3 billion mobile phones will be thrown away, according to
an international expert group dedicated to tackling the problem of waste electrical and 20
electronic equipment (WEEE). The WEEE forum says the ‘mountain’ of electrical and
electronic waste will grow to 74 million tonnes a year by 2030.

At the repair club, Tony works on a fan. The retired former BBC radio engineer, 79, has seen
a lot of technological changes in his lifetime. ‘Things were once designed to last,’ explains
Tony. But changes in engineering methods have led to some products ‘only lasting to the 25
end of their guarantee,’ he says. He opens up the base of the fan and cleans out the dust
inside. ‘The thing that annoys me is bits of plastic inadequately engineered, so an item has
to be thrown away when it breaks,’ he says. He puts the fan back together and turns it on.
Cold air blows out, but when the dial is turned to warm air, the temperature stays stubbornly
cool. ‘It’s promising progress,’ he says. 30

David, another volunteer, joined the group after the Fixing Factory rescued his faulty laptop.
He almost lost precious photos of his late mother on his computer, along with important
documents. ‘There’s a lot of fear in fixing things,’ he says. ‘Messing with a laptop you know
nothing about is like putting your hand into an alligator’s mouth. The repair trainer showed
me that the alligator’s mouth won’t bite. They helped demystify the process for me.’ David 35
designed a poster encouraging people to confront their fear of the ‘alligator’.

‘There needs to be huge changes in the way our stuff is made,’ says Dermot. He believes
manufacturers could make a big difference to their customers and the climate if they worked
with projects like Fixing Factory. Change in the industry may indeed be coming. In December,
Apple rolled out its self-repair service to the UK and seven other European countries. iPhone 40
12 and 13 users, and some MacBook owners, will be able to fix their own devices by buying
parts and tools, and watching online tutorials.

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Noor, 27, walks in during the evening. She says she was intrigued by all the colourful signage
outside and lively activity inside. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it around here,’ she says. ‘It’s
very useful, especially in the economic crisis. It’s good to learn.’ She promises to return the 45
following week with her brother. But, just 20 minutes later, she’s back in the Fixing Factory.
‘I’ve brought the family,’ she says, with her brother and another member in tow.

On Thursday afternoons, the Fixing Factory invites the public to bring along their broken
items for the team to look at – and hopefully repair – at no charge. Marilyn brings along a
broken kettle. Working with Dermot, they discover that a copper connection has become 50
coated with a layer of carbon from a spark each time the kettle is turned on, causing the
switch to no longer work. They scrape away at the corroded contact with a paperclip. They
put it back together and turn it on in tense anticipation. The low rumble of boiling water can
soon be heard, and then the ding of a small bell as the water boils, followed by cheers from
those looking on. 55

‘Personally, I love what I like to call the “cup of tea” fixes; a repair that takes the same time
as drinking a cup of tea and the parts cost less than a cup of tea,’ says Dermot. ‘These bust
the myth that it’s simply not cost-effective to fix things nowadays, and that it takes too much
time and effort.’

‘In 2023, we’re aiming for a proliferation of similar projects to the Fixing Factory,’ says Dermot. 60
‘I want a new generation of repair technicians, and a culture and ethos in the public of wanting
to get their things fixed.’

* sites for the disposal of waste materials by burial in the ground

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