an easy passage

Question 1

‘What can she…

Answer 1

…know of the way the world admits us less and less the more we grow?’

Question 2

‘For now…

Answer 2

…both girls seem lit from within’

Question 3

‘Her tiny…

Answer 3

…breasts rest lightly on her thighs.’

Question 4

What is the AO2? ‘Her tiny breasts rest lightly on her thighs.’

Answer 4

The poem explores the psychical change of the girls. She is not burdened or ashamed by her body, there is an easiness about it, it is a source of strength.

Question 5

‘the long…

Answer 5

…grey eye of the street’

Question 6

What is the AO2? ‘the long, grey eye of the street’

Answer 6

Juxtaposing colour imagery suggest that the adult world is dull and monotonous, as well as personifying it as watchful and restrictive

Question 7

‘the workers…

Answer 7

…about their business in the drab electroplating factory’

Question 8

‘her head full of…

Answer 8

…the evening class she plans to take’

Question 9

What is the AO2? ‘her head full of the evening class she plans to take’, ‘the stirring omens of the astrology column’

Answer 9

The secretary (a symbol of adulthood) lives only in the hopes of a more exciting future, and is defined by intense negative emotion