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Read Text A, and then answer Questions 1(a)–1(e) on the question paper.

Text A: Chasing the Northern Lights

This text is an article about a night-time climb to witness the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis).

Night falling, calf muscles burning and a heavy pack pulling on my

shoulders were all good reasons to sit down and rest. To the west, a
crimson glow lit the inlet, and beyond this massive body of water, the
mountains were painted with fading light.

The aurora occurs when bursts of solar energy sweep past Earth and
energise magnetised particles in our upper atmosphere. In order to see this unusual
light show,

5
you need to consider the time of day and the presence of clouds. Just
picture a white crayon drawn on a piece of purely black paper compared
to on a piece of light blue and white paper. One picture is clearly more
dramatic and rewarding than the other.

The aurora forecast tonight was good, and news had spread fast among photographers,
outdoor enthusiasts, and sky-watchers. As watching an aurora requires a bit of
sacrifice, 10
we had all given up our sleep to find a good place for spectating.

After hiking for a few hours, we set up camp on a high ridge. Despite
having tents, we laid our sleeping-bags out on the ground for best viewing.
The show started at 23:00 and got progressively more brilliant and active
throughout the night. My arms ached
from holding my camera above my head. 15

I took a few photographs and then put my camera away. I’d realised I also
wanted to live in the moment. No camera can capture the huge spectacle
that dominates the heavens. At around 03:00. the entire sky filled with
freely-moving bands of colour, a cosmic neon light show zigzagging
erratically from horizon to horizon, streaming and
gyrating. 20

Words and images fail to describe such an experience, the essence of

which relates deeply to our perspective on life. When you’re looking up
into the night sky, seeing a 360-degree view of brilliant lights literally
changing by the second, it makes you realise how insignificant you are
and how immense the world is. And yet there’s a strange sort
of comfort in that realisation. Maybe that comes from knowing that you share your
awe 25
with your fellow humans out on this cold ridge. You are warmed and
embrace your place in humanity.

© UCLES 11_0500_13_2021_1
2021 .8
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Read Text B, and then answer Question 1(f) on the question paper.

Text B: The decorative artist

This text is an online article by a decorative artist.

I’m a self-taught artist – what’s called a ‘decorative’ artist as opposed to a

‘fine’ artist. Fine artists paint canvases to hang in galleries. I paint
canvases and then slide them in serving trays, or make table runners, or
whatever.

Basically, I paint to decorate stuff. Sometimes I paint stuff to hang on walls, or I might
just paint a mural on the wall itself. 5

I started painting after a 20-year self-imposed hiatus induced by a college

art teacher who didn’t like my work. I gave up painting, believing I had no
talent.

That was the one and only art class I’ve ever taken.

So, I do understand when people think they can’t paint. Years of painting and drawing
as a child were tossed aside because I let one person’s opinion destroy my confidence.
10

Other than helping my children with homework assignments, I hadn’t

painted for years. Then the toy shop where I worked needed a sign for
their teddy bear display. I painted some bears on poster board. When my
husband saw my teddy bears, he got angry. Seriously angry. ‘How dare
you have such talent and not be using it!’ Um okay. So
I started painting our walls at home. 15

Why paint our walls? I have no idea. It just seemed like the thing to do at the time.

Friends and neighbours saw our wall murals and wanted them in their
homes. Over time, I took advice and a small loan and started a mural
business, despite only having ‘on the job’ training. I made many mistakes
but the great thing about paint is you can
always start again and nobody is the wiser. 20

Being self-taught means I’ve spent much time experimenting and

discovering and trying something different. Talented? Perhaps. But mostly
my ‘talent’ comes from determination and a lot of hours spent holding a
paintbrush.

Here’s the way I look at it – everyone loves to express themselves through painting.
Or at least they did as children, before they started comparing their own paintings to
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those of their classmates. I love teaching others how to paint, especially
those who think they can’t. I love it when someone gives themselves the
chance to try a paint project and love witnessing their joy when they
succeed.
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Read Text C, and then answer Questions 2(a)–(d) and Question 3 on the question paper.

Text C: Night-time photography

This text is taken from a longer narrative. The writer, Alastair, is talking about taking photographs
at night.

My plan was to take photographs by the light of the harvest moon. The
harvest moon is the full moon that appears closest to the autumn equinox1
in September. All full moons make their appearance around the time of
sunset. But, unlike the rise of other full moons, there is no period of
darkness between sunset and the majestic ascension of the harvest
moon. This gigantic, orange globe, which sits contentedly on the horizon like a
celestial 5
pumpkin, earned its name because its glowing cast over the earth allowed
farmers to continue harvesting even after the sun had set.

You don’t need to be ambitious when heading out into the evening to take
photographs.
In fact, the simpler your idea, the more likely it is to succeed. I settled on an extremely
easy plan. I would follow a railway line out of town and use it to guide me as I weaved
10
my way across the countryside, and then I’d catch a late train home from
a village station when I’d had enough.

I wanted to begin in the town to document just how different the town is
from the open countryside at night. Streetlights suck the night and all its
raw beauty from the world.
However, even in the town I felt myself paying more attention to the world than I do
15
during the day. I was walking east, in the direction of the rising moon; I
could see its copper glow on the horizon, and my camera captured how it
silhouetted the rooftops and chimneys as it crept up into the sky.

Other senses take over after dark. I felt the warmth radiating from the engine of a
recently parked car. A man passed, walking a dog, and I caught the scent of soap. I
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turned into a quiet and deserted residential street, from which I could hear
the low hum of the distant main road. A train rushed past. I stopped to
listen to its receding sound, and then followed along in its wake, feeling
energised.

Taking photographs as I went slowed my progress and I began to feel the cool air
penetrate my clothing. Photography at night takes a long time because you have to
use 25
a camera that has a long exposure. Whenever I decided to take a picture, I
had to frame it, manually focus and then stand for 30 seconds waiting for
the exposure to finish. My tripod kept my camera in position, while I
enjoyed standing still and observing the world around me more carefully.
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A fellow enthusiast hurried past. He nodded quickly and smiled: ‘Just over there.
Amazing 30
colours behind the trees. I think you’ll catch them.’ He scurried ahead. I
could see he too was following the train-line. He seemed preoccupied. I
hoped I would catch up with him later.

The darkness at the edge of the town was distinct. The houses and the streetlights
came to a sharp halt and in front of me was the abrupt blackness of an empty field.
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Clouds drifted swiftly across the fat round moon, by now about a hand’s
breadth above the horizon.

I stepped into the field, crossing the boundary into a different world. I only
used my torch briefly to work out the terrain. The point of this walk was to
savour and record the
differences and uncertainties of the night. I didn’t want to artificially beam a thin shaft
40
of weak light across my adventure. It took some moments to adjust to the
darkness and the stillness, but, as I walked along the margins of the
ploughed field, my eyes began to adjust. Planes circled in the sky,
sweeping slowly across the constellations.
I set up my tripod to capture how the sky was much lighter than the land, and how the
trees at the edge of the field jutted, black, up into the rusty suburban sky. 45

1
equinox: the autumn equinox falls on a date between 21 and 24 September in the
northern hemisphere and marks the start of autumn.
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