Direction: Read the passages on the following pages (a poem and an excerpt from a story) and answer the multiple-choice questions. Then write the essay described in "Your Task." You may use the margins to take notes as you read and scrape to plan your response.

• Use ideas from both passages to establish a controlling idea about how a person's home and/or upbringing can influence the way they see fate/destiny, and thus how they choose or choose not to defy it , as revealed in the passages
• Use specific and relevant evidence from both passages to develop your controlling idea
• Show how each author uses specific literary elements (for example, theme, characterization, structure, point of view) or techniques (for example, symbolism, irony, figurative language) to portray the effects of war on the soldiers who do the fighting.
• Organize your ideas in a logical and coherent manner
• Use language that communicates ideas effectively
• Follow the conventions of standard written English

 Direction: Answer the following questions. The question may help you think about the ideas you might want to use in your essay. You may return to these questions any time you wish.

Passage I (the poem)-Questions 1-7 refer to passage I.

Phillip Larkin, from "The Less Deceived," 1955, Marvel Press

Sometimes you hear fifth-hand
As epitaph:

"He chucked up everything
And just cleared off."
And always the voice will sound
Certain you approve
This audacious, purifying,
Elemental move.

And they are right, I think.
We all hate home
And having to be there:
I detest my room,
Its specially chosen junk,
The good books, the good bed,
And my life, in perfect order:
So to hear it said

"He walked out on the whole crowd"
Leaves me flushed and stirred,
Like "Then she undid her dress"
Or "Take that you bastard";
Surely I can, if he did?
And that helps me stay
Sober and industrious.
But I'd go today,

Yes, swagger the nut-strewn roads,
Crouch in the fo'c'sle
Stubbly with goodness, if
It weren't so artificial,
Such a deliberate step backwards
To create an object:
Books; china; a life
Reprehensibly perfect.

Passage II
Excerpt from World's End by T. Coraghesson Boyle, 1987, Penguin Books

"No matter what they tell you, I loved her. I did." The old man drained his cup, fling it aside and lifted the bottle
to his lips. He didn't offer Walter any. "Your mother, I mean," he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve. "She was something. You probably don't remember her much, but she was so - what do you call it? - earnest, you know? Idealistic." There was a single lamp burning, brass stand, paper shade, on the desk behind him; the shadows softened his
features. "I never met anyone like her." Walter sat there transfixed, the rasping voice and the everlasting night holding him as if by spell or incantation. His mother, of the soulful eyes, was right there before him "But you've been married, right? What was her name?" "Jessica," Walter said. The name was an ache. Jessica and his
mother. "Right," the old man said, his voice gravelly and deep, ruined by drink and nights that never end. "Well, you now how it is then -" "No," Walter snapped, suddenly belligerent, "How is it?" "I mean, once the first glow dies and all that -"Walter jumped on him. "You mean you screwed her over. From the beginning. You married her so you could destroy her." He tried to get up, but his feet were numb. "Sure, I remember her. I remember her dead too. And I remember the day you left her."The old man's voice was steady - he wasn't debating, he was narrating. The pain of it, the pain that made him hide out in the hind end of the world, was up on a shelf in a little bottle with a tight cap. Like smelling salts. "Don't give me that self-righteous look - you want to know hurt, you listen to me. I did it. Yes. I'm a fink, I'm a backstabber. I
murdered my wife, set up my friends. That's right, I'll tell you that right off. So don't argue with me. Just listen.""But your own wife - I mean, don't you have a conscience? How could you do it?" The old man was silent a moment, regarding him fixedly over the lip of the bottle. When he spoke, his voice was so soft Walter could barely hear him: "How could you?"
"What? What do you mean?" "Your wife - what's her name?" "Jessica." "Jessica. You lost it with her, didn't you? You screwed her over, didn't you? And for some reason you can't even name." The old man's voice came on again, caustic, harsh, a snarl that overrode the wind The old man's eyes were bright with malice. "Walter," he whispered, "Hey, Walter: you're already halfway thereYour mother was a saint, yeah. Selfless. Good. Righteous. Those eyes of hers. But maybe too good, too pure, you know what I mean? Maybe she made me feel little in comparison, made me feel like hurting her - just a little, maybe. Like your Jessica, right? Am I right? Goody-good? But you know, Walter, sometimes it feels good to feel like garbage, you know what I mean? It's a need, almost. Something in the
blood." "You're a son of a bitch," Walter said. The old man smiled. "So are you."

Multiple Choice Questions

Directions: Answer the following questions. The questions may help you think about the ideas you want to use in your essay. You may return to these questions any time you wish.
Passage I (the poem) - Questions 1 - 4 refer to Passage I

1. The first two lines of the poem suggest the following quote is
A. personal
B. angry
C. calming
D. distant

2. The mood conveyed by the third stanza ("And they are right") is best
described as
A. disdainful
B. hopeful
C. indifferent
D. reminiscent


3. How do the quotes contained in the poem (ex. "Then she undid her
dress.") make the narrator feel?
A. ashamed
B. self assured
C. unsure
D. powerful

4. By the end of the poem, what kind of life has the author concluded they
do not want?
A. dangerous
B. safe
C. fabricated
D. obnoxious

Passage II (the excerpt from a story) - Questions 5 - 8 refer to Passage II

1. What mood is invoked by the first two paragraphs?
A. anxious
B. hopeful
C. angry
D. remorseful

2. How does the Old Man reacts to being questioned by Walter?
A. with anger
B. with sadness
C. with calculation
D. with indifference

3. How does Walter react to comparisons between himself and the Old Man?
A. Walter is flattered
B. Walter is angry
C. Walter is bored
D. Walter is defensive

4. What does the Old Man mean by the line "Walter, you're halfway there" ?
A. Walter has almost found the truth
B. Walter is basically like the Old Man
C. Walter has almost remembered about his mother
D. Walter has almost reconciled with Jessica