A Passage to Africa

Question 1

‘hungry, lean, scared’

Answer 1

Triplet of emotive adjectives - creates pity in the reader

Question 2

‘thousand’

Answer 2

Use of number - shows the impact of war on people

Question 3

‘I will never forget’

Answer 3

Creates suspense - makes the reader wasn’t to read more and figure out why

Question 4

‘like a ghost village’

Answer 4

Simile - ironic - inhabitants are in a state of half-death/dying

Question 5

‘appalled’ ‘impressed’

Answer 5

Contrast in verbs- shows how journalists become desensitised to suffering

Question 6

‘ghoulish’

Answer 6

Adjective - negative connotations, implies morbid interest in death + suffering

Question 7

‘sounds callous, but it is just a fact of life’

Answer 7

Declarative sentence - seems emotionally cold but needed to survive as a journalist

Question 8

‘like the craving for a drug’

Answer 8

Addictive + journalist seek more + more extreme circumstances/stories to gain satisfaction

Question 9

‘Amina’ ‘Habiba’ ‘Ayaan’

Answer 9

Structure - Use of names - emphasise the people as individuals + increases reader’s ability to emphasise with them - Personalises the story

Question 10

Paragraph 4

Answer 10

Structure - narrowing focus to mother + her children

Question 11

‘simple’ ‘frictionless’ ‘motionless’

Answer 11

Adjectives - passive acceptance - no resistance

Question 12

‘abandoned’

Answer 12

Creates Pathos - heartbreaking decision to leave the vulnerable behind to have a chance yourself

Question 13

‘Habiba had died.’

Answer 13

Short sentence - emphasises how quickly death occurs

Question 14

‘ten’

Answer 14

Reference to age - too young to die

Question 15

‘rotting’
‘rotting’

Answer 15

Parallel sentences for emphasis - Structure

Question 16

‘sick,yellow eyes’
‘putrid’
‘struggling breath’

Answer 16

Disgust/revulsion - sensory semantic field of decay

Question 17

‘And then there was face I’ll never forget.’

Answer 17

Single sentence paragraph- pivotal sentence and turning point - narrows the focus to one person - makes the reader intrigued

Question 18

‘To be in a feeding centre’
‘To be in a feeding centre‘

Answer 18

Repetition - Structure - encourages reader to imagine themselves in that scenario

Question 19

‘Yes, revulsion.’

Answer 19

Short sentence - directly addressing readers and writer is being honest about his response

Question 20

‘hunger’
‘disease’

Answer 20

Imagery - represented as monstrous forces, entities sucking life from people

Question 21

‘brief’

Answer 21

Adjective - didn’t last long but had a lasting impact on the writer

Question 22

‘smile’
‘smile‘

Answer 22

Repetition - writer doesn’t comprehend it

Question 23

‘how could it be?’

Answer 23

Rhetorical question- man has no reason to smile

Question 24

‘And then it clicked.’

Answer 24

Short sentence - Structure - to emphasise his moment of understanding

Question 25

‘journalist is active’ ‘subject is passive’

Answer 25

Contrasting clauses

Question 26

‘rich’ ‘poor’ ‘us’ ‘them’ ‘me’ ‘him’

Answer 26

Contrasting pronouns - but smile has broken down a divide - formed an emotional connection between men