2
Christine
In this passage a girl called Christine has a condition called dyslexia. This means that she has difficulty
with reading because she is unable to identify and focus clearly on the shapes of letters which make up
words.
Every day Christine laboured up the stairs premeditatedly of her apartment block, she was aware of
the secret she was hiding from others. She never took the elevator. The sign next to where she stood 5
leaning on the handrail would have said ‘Sixth Floor’, but Christine turned her head away, avoiding it.
The printed word was dangerous and not to be trusted. One minute the sign might say ‘Sixth Floor’,
the next minute the letters would have shifted with sickening suddenness into ‘Gut Flour’. She could
not read. That was her own private truth. Because of it, she had to lead a double life, but nobody knew.
Not her friends, not her colleagues and certainly not her family. She had kept it from all of them, feeling 10
herself brimming with the secret of it her whole life.
She had, over the years, perfected a number of implausible excuses to cover up her problem. She said
it was short-sighted or had forgotten her glasses or even that her eyes were tired. In restaurants she
would shut her menu-never too fast- and ask her companion or anyone accompanying her to order for
her. She had a casual way of passing a page to someone next to her and asking for it to be read to her. 15
With a cunning way which came out of necessity, she spotted the kind of people who were only too
happy for a chance to show off how well they could read. Then she listened carefully and with great
concentration. She appeared to the world, she knew, as slightly eccentric, a little detached as she
opened up the part of her mind that remembered things so that, if anyone were to question her about
the content of the text, she could repeat it back to them flawlessly. 20
Christine worked in an art store and one day she saw through the shop window the famous
photographer Evelyn Nemetov, standing on the pavement as if she were just another member of the
human race. Christine willed her to come into the store, and she did. While Christine sold her what she
needed, they stuck up a conversation and she found herself with a job as Evelyn’s assistant. She would
be going on photography shoots with her; there was no mention of dealing with contracts or answering 25
letters. Christine could not believe her luck.
However, on the fifth day at work, Evelyn handed her a contract and asked her to fill it in. Christine
took it and laid it on the table and, when Evelyn had left the room, it was difficult for Christine to draw
breath into her lungs. She scanned the undulating string of letters that made up the words. The white
page on the table was crammed with text, impossibly small text, letters which looked like lines of ants 30
crawling over the page. They clustered and rearranged themselves before her. Seconds later, in
Christine’s eyes the text appeared to change: the letters began moving from horizontal lines going from
left to right, until they gradually regrouped themselves into long vertical columns going from top to
bottom, like grasses swaying in the wind. Suffocating panic crammed Christine’s throat. She was
fighting back tears, knowing that it was over, that this job was doomed like so many other jobs before 35
it, and she was weighing up the pros and cons of just walking out when she heard Evelyn coming back
along the corridor. As she came into the room, she said, ‘All finished with the contract?’
Christine lifted the contract with only the tips of her fingers. She wasn’t aware of the moment in which
she made the decision but it felt to her as if the contract radiated toxic material. She slid it into a blue
paper folder into a box on top of the filing cabinet. Because she wanted this job so badly, she turned 40
around, smiled her confidential half-smile, and said, ‘Yes, the work’s all done’. Since that day, over
the many months she has worked for Evelyn, the blue folder in the box on top of the filing cabinet had
swelled and grown. Every bit of paper she was handed, every letter she opened, every request or contact
or application that came through the door, she put it there. Any day now, she thought, she would get
down the folder, which was bulging, sides straining, and deal with it. 45
3
Read the text, Christine and answer Question 1 and Question 2.
Question 1
a) In what ways Christine was different from other girls? (lines 1-3)
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b) Using your own words, explain what the text means by ‘laboured up the stairs premeditatedly’ (line 4)
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c) Why would Christine turn her ‘head away’ from the printed words? (lines 5-7)
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d) Mention two secrets of Christine that she maintained her entire life. (lines 8-11)
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e) (i) To avoid her limitations, what strategy did she adopt in selecting a person to read out a page given
to her? (ii) What helped her to cover up her strategy? (lines 15-20)
(i) _____________________________________________________________________________
(ii) _____________________________________________________________________________
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f) How did Christine feel hearing that she was going ‘on photography shoots’ with Evelyn Nemetov? Give
two details from the text to support your answer? (lines 21-26)
(i) _____________________________________________________________________________
(ii) _____________________________________________________________________________
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g) Explain using your own words Christine’s different feelings as she moved on with her disease- dyslexia.
Give three details from anywhere in the text to support your answer.
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Question 2
a) Read the extract from the text.
‘Evelyn handed her a contract and asked her to fill it in. Christine took it and laid it on the table and,
when Evelyn had left the room, it was difficult for Christine to draw breath into her lungs. ’ (lines 27-29)
What does the writer want to suggest to us about the situation of Christine at this point of the story?
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b) Read this sentence from the text:
‘Suffocating panic crammed Christine’s throat’ (line 34)
What effect does the writer suggest about Christine by using the word ‘suffocating’ to describe her?
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c) What two impressions does the writer want to convey to the reader in the statement:
‘She was weighing up the pros and cons of just walking out when she heard Evelyn coming back along
the corridor’? (lines 36-37)
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d) Explain why the writer uses the word ‘tips’ in the expression ‘with only the tips of her fingers.’ (line 38)
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e) Choose one example from the text below of how the writer uses language effectively to convey
Christine’s strategy of managing her job under Evelyn:
“She wasn’t aware of the moment in which she made the decision but it felt to her as if the contract
radiated toxic material. She slid it into a blue paper folder into a box on top of the filing cabinet.
Because she wanted this job so badly, she turned around, smiled her confidential half-smile, and said,
‘Yes, the work’s all done’. Since that day, over the many months she has worked for Evelyn, the blue
folder in the box on top of the filing cabinet had swelled and grown.” (lines 38-43)
Explain the impression the writer creates in the example you have identified.
example _______________________________________________________________________
explanation _____________________________________________________________________
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