Exam paper here: https://bpcenglish.wordpress.com/
TES resource: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource...
The story in the separate Resource Material is from the book, Normal People. Connell has been dating a fellow student in school, Marianne, in secret. He has asked another girl, Rachel, to the Debs (the prom). Marianne has refused to see Connell since.
Q1:After Marianne left school in April, Connell entered a period of low spirits. Teachers spoke to him about it. The guidance counsellor told Lorraine she was ‘concerned’. People in school were probably talking about it too, he didn’t know. He couldn’t summon up the energy to act normal. At lunch he sat in the same place as always, eating sad mouthfuls of food, not listening to his friends when they spoke. Sometimes he wouldn’t notice even when they called his name, and they would have to throw something at him or clip him on the head to get his attention.
Q2:He and Rachel started seeing each other in July. Everyone in school had known she liked him, and she seemed to view the attachment between them as a personal achievement on her part. As to the actual relationship, it mostly took place before nights out, when she would put make-up on and complain about her friends and Connell would sit around drinking cans. Sometimes he looked at his phone while she was talking and she would say: You’re not even listening. He hated the way he acted around her, because she was right, he really didn’t listen, but when he did, he didn’t like anything she actually said. He had thought that being with her would make him feel less lonely, but it only gave his loneliness a new tougher quality, impossible to kill.
Q3:He missed the way Marianne had made him feel, and he missed her company. He called her phone all the time, he sent her text messages every day, but she never replied. His mother said he was barred from visiting her house, though he didn’t think he would have tried that anyway.For a while he tried to get over it by drinking too much and having anxious, upsetting dates with other girls. At a house party in May he kissed Barry Kenny’s sister Sinead. Afterwards he felt so bad he threw up, and he had to tell Sinead he was drunk even though he wasn’t really. There was no one he could talk to about that. He was excruciatingly lonely. He had recurring dreams about being with Marianne again, holding her peacefully the way he used to when they were tired, and speaking with her in low voices. Then he’d remember what had happened, and wake up feeling so depressed he couldn’t move a single muscle in his body.One night in June he came home drunk and asked Lorraine if she saw Marianne much at work.“Sometimes,” said Lorraine. “Why?”“And is she alright, or what?”“I’ve already told you I think she’s upset.”“She won’t reply to any of my texts or anything,” he said. “When I call her, like if she sees it’s me, she won’t pick up.”“Because you hurt her feelings.”“Yeah, but it’s kind of overreacting, isn’t it?” Lorraine shrugged and looked back at the TV. Slowly she said: “You know, Marianne is a very vulnerable person. You did something very exploitative there and you hurt her.”
Q4:Eventually the night of the Debs came. Rachel wore an extravagantly expensive dress and Connell stood in her front garden while her mother took their photograph. Rachel kept mentioning that he was going to Trinity, and her father showed him some golf clubs. Then they went to the hotel and ate dinner. Everyone got very drunk and Lisa passed out before dessert. Under the table Rob showed Eric and Connell naked photographs of Lisa on his phone. Eric laughed and tapped parts of Lisa’s body on-screen with his fingers. Connell sat there looking at the phone and then said quietly: “Bit messed-up showing these to people, isn’t it?”With a loud sigh Rob locked the phone and put it back in his pocket. “You’ve gotten awfully gay about things lately,” he said.At midnight, Connell wandered out of the ballroom and down a corridor into the smoking garden. Eric gave a knowing laugh on seeing him, and then sat on an upturned flowerpot and lit a cigarette himself.“Shame Marianne didn’t come in the end,” Eric said.Connell nodded, hating to hear her name mentioned and unwilling to respond.“What was going on there with you and Marianne?” said Eric. “Were you dating her for a laugh?”Connell hardly recognised his own voice when he said: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”“Do you think we don’t know you were with her?” he said. “Sure, everyone knows.”Connell paused and took another drag on his cigarette. This was probably the most horrifying thing Eric could have said to him, not because it ended his life, but because it didn’t. He knew then that the secret for which he had sacrificed his own happiness and the happiness of another person had been trivial all along, and worthless.
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