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In the exam, you will have to complete two questions about Of Mice and Men: the first will ask you to write about an extract from the play.

For extract questions, you must read the text carefully more than once. You should pick out key words and phrases that are linked to the question and think about the effect of these. Make sure the quotations you choose are not too long.

For extract questions, you must read the text carefully more than once. You should pick out key words and phrases that are linked to the question and think about the effect of these. Make sure the quotations you choose are not too long.

Foundation tier question

Read the extract below. Then answer the following question:

What are your thoughts and feelings as you read this extract? Give reasons for what you say, and remember to support your answer with words and phrases from the extract.

Higher tier question

Read the extract below. Then answer the following question:

With close reference to the extract, show how John Steinbeck creates mood and atmosphere here.

The extract

He looked down at her, and carefully he removed his hand from over her mouth, and she lay still. I don’t want ta hurt you, he said, but George’ll be mad if you yell. When she didn’t answer nor move he bent closely over her. He lifted her arm and let it drop. For a moment he seemed bewildered. And then he whispered in fright, I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing. (1)

He pawed up the hay until it partly covered her.

From outside the barn came a cry of men and the double clang of shoes on metal. (2) For the first time Lennie became conscious of the outside. He crouched down in the hay and listened. I done a real bad thing, he said. I shouldn’t of did that. George’ll be mad. (3) An’... he said... an’ hide in the brush till he come. He’s gonna be mad. In the brush till he come. Tha’s what he said. Lennie went back and looked at the dead girl. The puppy lay close to her. Lennie picked it up. I’ll throw him away, he said. It’s bad enough like it is. He put the pup under his coat, and he crept to the barn wall and peered out between the cracks, toward the horseshoe game. And then he crept around the end of the last manger and disappeared.

The sun streaks were high on the wall by now, and the light was growing soft in the barn. Curley’s wife lay on her back, and she was half covered with hay.

It was very quiet in the barn, and the quiet of the afternoon was on the ranch. Even the clang of the pitched shoes, even the voices of the men in the game seemed to grow more quiet. The air in the barn was dusky in advance of the outside day. A pigeon flew in through the open hay door and circled and flew out again. Around the last stall came a shepherd bitch, lean and long, with heavy, hanging dugs. Halfway to the packing box where the puppies were she caught the dead scent of Curley’s wife, and the hair rose along her spine. (4) She whimpered and cringed to the packing box, and jumped in among the puppies.

Curley’s wife lay with a half-covering of yellow hay. And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face. (5) She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young. Now her rouged cheeks and her reddened lips made her seem alive and sleeping very lightly. The curls, tiny little sausages, were spread on the hay behind her head, and her lips were parted.

As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment. (6)

Making a start:

Read the extract and think about the following questions:

• Has the writer used words that give a particular feeling?
• Are there devices used that create a particular mood?
• What impression do you get of the characters in this extract?
• How does reading the extract make you feel?
• Is there anything important about the punctuation or sentence structures?