Reading and Listening Audience and Purpose Homework

March 9, 2015 Ms Davidson Leave a comment

For each of the following articles tell me:
1) What is the purpose of the piece?
2) Who would be an appropriate audience?

A. Taken from (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/women-bosses-more-likely-to-be-called-bitchy–emotional-and-bossy-10090606.html)

Women bosses are more likely to be called ‘bitchy’, ‘emotional’ and ‘bossy’ than their male counterparts, according to a government study.
The survey of 1000 female and 500 male small business owners found that more than half of respondents had heard female bosses referred to as ‘bitchy’ and ‘emotional’ compared to just one in eight male counterparts. Less than a quarter of men had been described as ‘bossy’ compared to almost 40 per cent of women.
Women business owners perceive themselves differently too. Over 60 per cent of female respondents said they would describe themselves as being ‘supportive’ and ‘fair’. Men were more likely to choose qualities such as risk taking (36 per cent) and ruthlessness (26 per cent).

B. Taken from (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/video-reveals-appalling-dog-cull-as-azerbaijan-clears-streets-ahead-of-european-games-10090330.html)

A shocking video has emerged of abused stray dogs being rescued ahead of their execution in Azerbaijan as authorities
The footage, published by Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, was shot by animal rights campaigner Yelena Simakina on 27 February in the Azerbaijani town of Baku, which will host the European Games in less than 100 days.
The campaigner claims that authorities are shooting larger dogs on the streets of Baku and killing the smaller one – two of which are seen cowering under Ms Simakina’s hand – with shovels to save the bullets.

C. taken from (http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/the-big-fresh-food-con-alarming-truth-behind-the-chocolate-muffin-that-wont-decay-10089292.html?icn=puff-6)

More than a month ago, I bought a chocolate chip muffin from one of those would-be Italian chain coffee bars. In its homespun-looking paper wrapper, the muffin looked as though it had just come from the baker’s oven. It bore no ingredients list – that’s perfectly legal for food sold loose – but having a shrewd idea from my investigations into the processed food industry of the likely ingredients, I didn’t eat it.
Instead, this muffin has become an illuminating experiment. It’s still sitting on my desk, looking exactly as it did at the end of January: no mould, no dryness, no obvious signs of age.
Now that’s odd. I have on occasion baked chocolate chip muffins at home. Addictive when warm, even the next day they aren’t quite as good, and thereafter they become progressively more solid, stale and unrewarding to eat. So just yesterday, I was intrigued to sample a little piece of my experimental muffin. It seemed preternaturally fresh, if by that you mean still moist. Had I tasted it blind, I’m not convinced that I would have realised that it was meant to be a chocolate anything – sugar, with some residual bitterness, was the dominant taste – but I certainly wouldn’t have known that my muffin was weeks old.

Higher

The Kite Runner sample essays

March 3, 2015 Ms Davidson Leave a comment

These have been lifted from the prelim papers. All of them demonstrate the use of PEEL structure. Work your way through them and see if you can identify where they have made their point, presented evidence, analysed evidence and taken it back to the main question.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a novel in which an incident represents a turning point in the text. This essay will briefly explain what happens during the incident and will go on to discuss its importance to my understanding of the text as a whole. During the Kite Runner, Hassan is raped by Assed and Amir, his friend, stands back an doesn’t interfere. This creates dark undertones within the book creating a turning point.
After the win of the kite tournament for Amir and Hassan. Amir screams “we won! We won!” this shows that Amir thinks of Hassan as an equal with him. The two boys are ecstatic jumping about when Hassan decides to run the kite for Amir to keep as a reminder of the win. As he runs away he states “for you a thousand times over”, this shows us that Hassan would do anything for Amir, showing his love for him. Hassan is gone a long time when Amir goes to find him, however Amir finds him cornered by Assef and his bullies and overhears Assef demanding the kite from Hassan. Hassan puts a front up and refuses to hand over the kite. Assef states, “it’s only going to cost you that blue kite”. However, Hassan still refuses. This left Assef angry and he began to rape Hassan. Amir was scared and did not interfere; he just stood back and allowed Hassan to sacrifice himself for him. Amir described Hassan’s eyes as having “the look of the lamb” which represents the Eid sacrifice, an Islamic tradition in which a goat is sacrificially killed to prove a Muslim’s love for God. Hassan’s rape acts as a turning point as it proves Hassan’s love for Amir. However, Amir doesn’t interfere in the rape showing he is a coward. This helps my understanding of the text as I know that Hassan’s rape was allowed by Amir and that the rest of the novel will be about Amir’s redemption.
Shortly after the rape, Amir and Hassan go for a walk to the pomegranate tree. In the first instance of seeing the tree it is seen as a happy place for the two boys to go, where Amir reads to Hassan. At one point Amir had carved into the tree “Amir and Hassan, Sultans of Kabul”. This represents Amir’s love for Hassan. At this new stage in the novel, Amir takes pomegranates from the tree and throws them at Hassan as his guilt begins to consume him. Hassan does not react to Amir so he begins to throw pomegranates at Hassan from the tree yelling “Coward! Coward!” This demonstrates that Amir is feeling guilty about not interfering and wants Hassan to punish him for it. This helps my understanding of the text as a whole as the friendship between the two boys is now ruined due to the rape.
Amir’s guilt began to consume him and every time he saw Hassan he felt bad. Amir had enough of seeing him and wanted rid of him, believing this would rid him of the guilty feeling. He framed Hassan by putting some of his money and his birthday watch in Hassan’s room. Baba is told and asks Hassan if he stole the watch to which we are told “Hassan’s reply was delivered in a thin, raspy voice, ‘Yes’”. Amir was shocked as he knew that he had framed Hassan to get rid of him but he never thought Hassan would agree to take the watch when he hadn’t. Amir realised “that this was Hassan’s last sacrifice for him”. This helps my understanding of the text as a whole as Amir has now got his own way to get rid of Hassan to get rid of his own guilt.
Years later after the rape of Hassan and Amir framing him to get rid of him, Rahim Khan phones Amir to come back to Kabul. This is where Rahim Khan explains what’s been happening with the Taliban in Kabul. Hassan has died and Amir must return to look after Hassan’s son, Sohrab. Rahim Khan tells “there is a way to be good again”. This tells us that Rahim Khan knew about Hassan being raped and Amir’s guilt over it. He wishes to give Amir the opportunity to fix it. Hassan may be dead but there is still a way for Amir to mend the break by taking Sohrab in. This helps my understanding of the text as Amir has now lost his friend without being able to apologise for what he did but he has been given the opportunity to fix things he just needs to decide to stop being a coward.
Amir has a chance to redeem himself when he finds out about Sohrab and sets out to rescue him. He eventually tracks him down to a Taliban stronghold where Assef is keeping Sohrab as his toy. Assef is seriously beating up Amir and he has already broken several of his bones but Amir’s reaction is odd – “My body was broken…but I felt healed. I laughed.” Amir is obviously seriously injured at this point. The alliterative ‘body was broken’ emphasises this.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a novel in which there is an uneasy relationship between two characters. These two characters are Amir and Bab, who are father and son. Amir longs to be the son Baba wants as Baba is severely disappointed with the way he is until much later in life.
When Baba first talks to Rahim Khan about Amir, he describes how he believes Amir should be his ideal son. Rahim Khan tells him that “children are not colouring books, you don’t get to fill them in with your favourite colours.” This suggest that Baba does indeed want to change Amir into what his mind-set of what he should be like but as Rahim Khan says, his son will take his own path not the one Baba is trying to force him on. This creates a conflict between Amir and Baba as Baba does not give Amir the attention he wants. This helps the understanding of the novel because if Amir was a little bit more like his father, the rape of Hassan may have been prevented as Baba is presented as a man who will stand up for himself and everyone around him.
Baba tries to influence Amir later on in the novel to try and make Amir more like him,. He tells Amir two things: “A man who does not stand up for himself, cannot stand up for anything at all” and “there is only one sin, and that is theft…when you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.” The first quote summarises the novel, Amir did not stand up out of fear to help Hassan but later on does stand up to rescue Sohrab and right his wrong, so in fact Baba does influence Amir. But when Baba is alive he did not, it is only after Baba’s death that Amir changes. Maybe it was Baba’s death that gives Amir the push to take up Baba’s principles. However, the second quote more so affects Baba than Amir as Baba lied his whole life to Amir about Hassan being his son. Amir not finding this out until after his death created a conflict as Baba went against his own principles. These two quotes help further my understanding of the novel as it shows the differences between Amir and Baba, and what caused the conflict over the years.
When Amir and Baba leave Kabul there is a problem when the Russian soldier pulls them up and says he will allow the refugees to pass if he is allowed to rape one of the women on the truck. Baba exemplifies his principles by standing up and saying “tell him I’ll take a thousand of his bullets before I let this indecency take place” while the soldier had the gun pointed at Baba he was serious. He would die trying to save this woman. This causes a conflict Baba has no idea about as the event causes Amir to resent himself as he could not have done what his father did, a fact we know because he didn’t even stand up for Hassan. It creates a barrier between the two as Amir now knows he is not the same as his father, that he not what he wanted to be. This helps me further understand the novel as we are given a time of strength for Baba but a moment of weakness for Amir demonstrating to us his experience, thoughts and emotions.
As seen the relationship between Amir and Baba is uneasy and strained in the first half of the novel. However, a change comes about and the relationship is mended somewhat in the second half of the novel. Amir becomes a writer after receiving a degree, which his father is proud of. Amir marries Soraya, again making his father proud. There is a moment when a conflict is created again as Amir finds out Baba lied to him about Hassan but it is quickly resolved.
When Amir faces Assef (Hassan’s rapist) to save Sohrab he is beaten badly. He tells us “my body was broken…but I felt healed. Healed at last. While this mainly talks about Amir finally righting his wrong it, to me, has a double meaning as now he is like his father, he stands up for others. This helped further my understanding of the text as it now shifts the relationship from an uneasy one to a normal one.
To conclude, Amir and Baba did have an uneasy relationship. Amir was not who his Baba wanted him to be causing a conflict between the two. However, the conflict was resolved in the second half of the novel, restoring their relationship to a normal one.

The novel the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a novel in which a major incident happens which creates a turning point in the novel. The novel is about two boys, Amir and Hassan, who are best friends. During a kite tournament Hassan ran a kite for Amir and because he wouldn’t give it up, he got raped. Amir saw this rape happen and he did nothing about it. When the Russians invade Afghanistan, Amir and his father leave for America. Later on in the novel Amir has to go back to America to rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab.
Near the beginning of the novel, Amir and Hassan take part in a kite tournament. Later on after they had won the tournament, Hassan runs a kite for Amir and since he wouldn’t give it up, he for raped. The text says “it was the look of the lamb”. Here, Hassan has sacrificed himself for Amir because Amir really wanted the kite and Hassan saw it as a symbol of his love and friendship for Amir. During the Eid sacrifice a sheep would have its throat slit so that people could show their love to God. When Amir says that he saw the “look of the lamb”, he is describing the look of acceptance in Hassan’s eyes. Hassan was accepting the rape for Amir. This is important in the understanding of the text as a whole because this is what starts off the events of Amir’s life in trying to redeem himself for not helping Hassan.
After this incident Amir plants his very expensive watch in Hassan’s room because he feels horrible about what happened. When asked whether he stole the watch or not the text says “Hassan’s reply was delivered in a thin, raspy voice: yes”. Here, when Hassan is confronted, Amir is shocked that Hassan agreed that he took the watch when in actual fact he didn’t. Amir was expecting Hassan to say no so that Amir could feel a bit better. However, this shows that Hassan will always stand up for Amir. This is important to the understanding o f the text as a whole as Amir later realises that this was Hassan’s last sacrifice for him.
Later in the novel, Amir has moved to America and he now has a wife. He then gets a call from Rahim Khan asking him to return to Afghanistan as there is something he needs to do. The text says “there is a way to be good again”. This refers to the rape of Hasan. This was said because Rahim Khan, Amir’s friend, knows about the rape and he knows that Amir still feels bad about it. The text also says “Ali was sterile”. Ali was Hassan’s father but Baba, who is Amir’s dad, is actually Hassan’s biological father. When Amir realises this he is annoyed because his whole life has been a lie. At first he didn’t want to go and rescue Sohrab, who is Hassan’s son, but then he realises that he has to. This is important to the understanding of the text as a whole because Amir realises why he has to save Sohrab, and this is the start of him making up for his mistake.
When Amir goes to get Sohrab, he is confronted by Assef. Assef is the one who raped Hassan and now he is sexually abusing his son. The text says “my body was broken…but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed. “ to get Sohrab back, Assef made Amir fight him. During this fight Amir feels good for once, even though he could die, because he is getting the beating that he would have gotten if he stood up to Assef at the time that Hassan was raped. He feels ‘healed’ because he no longer has the burden of not helping Hassan on his shoulders because here, he is sacrificing himself for Hassan. This is important to the understanding of the text as a whole as Amir has finally done the right thing. He stood up to Assef and sacrificed himself for Hassan to save Sohrab.
At the end of the novel, we see Amir and Sohrab getting back to America safely. Whilst having dinner one night General Sahib, who is Amir’s father-in-law, made a comment about Sohrab being a Hazara. Amir responds by saying “you will never refer to him as a Hazara boy in my presence again. He has a name and it is Sohrab.” Here, Amir has finally found the courage to stand up to the General and to stand up for others. This shows that Amir has changed for the better. This is important to the understanding of the text as a whole because Amir is finally able to stand up for those that he loves, which is something he would never have done before.
In conclusion, The Kite Runner is a novel in which the rape of Hassan is important in the understanding of the text as a whole. The rape develops the text through Amir who saw it happen as he then has to make up for his mistake of not helping Hassan. Later on he does this by going to Afghanistan and saving Sohrab, Hassan’s son, from the Taliban. In doing this, he gets a beating and after everything that’s happened, he is finally able to stand up for those that he loves.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a novel where there is a troubled relationship between two characters. Amir and Hassan are best friends. Hassan is raped in the novel when he sacrifices himself for Amir. Amir watches the horrific incident take place and could have stopped it from happening but he didn’t. Amir’s guilt causes him to dislike Hassan and he cannot bear to be with him.
The first instance in the novel which causes the boys friendship to collapse is when Hassan is raped. Amir says he saw “the look of the lamb” as he gets a glimpse of Hassan’s face. Hassan was trying to collect Amir’s kite which they won in the kite tournament. On finding the kite Hassan is ambushed by three of the local bullies. He refuses to give up the kite to them because he knows how precious it is to Amir and the boys assault him. Amir watches. The “look of the lamb” symbolises the Eid sacrifice which is a Muslim tradition. It represents Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son for God. Hassan is sacrificing himself for Amir’s friendship. At this point in the novel this is when the boys friendship starts to decline.
Another instance where the boys’ friendship decreases is when Amir throws the pomegranate at Hassan. Amir shouts “Coward! Coward!”. Amir’s guilt is causing him to be angry with Hassan he is taking his anger out on him instead of the bullies. Hassan does nothing when Amir throws the pomegranates he doesn’t care. Through Amir’s anger and frustration for not stopping the rape he is jeopardising his friendship with Hassan. This relates back to the boys friendship because Amir should be helping Hassan, not shouting and throwing pomegranates at him.
Another example of where the boys’ relationship is uneasy is when Amir plants a watch under Hassan’s pillow. Amir got the watch for his birthday. Through his guilt, he cannot bare to look at Hassan anymore. He plants the watch so Baba will send Hassan away. When asked by Baba if he stole the watch “Hassan said with a thin, raspy voice: yes” Hassan understands Amir’s guilt and is sacrificing his home and his future for Amir. This shows how good a friend Hassan is. This relates back to the boys friendship because Hassan is giving up everything for Amir’s guilt.
The last instance where the boy’s friendship is starting to change is when Amir returns to Kabul in search of Sohrab who is Hassan’s orphaned son. Amir returns to Kabul after hearing of Hassan’s tragic death. On returning he finds Sohrab but meets Assef who was the one who raped Hassan and is now sexually abusing Sohrab. Amir gets a beating from Assef, “my body was broken…But I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed”. This is Amir’s guilt at Hassan’s rape disappearing, if he had just stepped in and taken a beating the first time he would have never have had the guilt shadowing his whole life. This refers back to the boys uneasy friendship because this is the end of it. Amir is cleansed from the guilt and he finally got the beating he deserved.
In conclusion, the boys’ friendship had been uneasy and broken because of the rape of Hassan. Then with Amir’s guilt he could not bare Hassan but if he had just taken the beating back then the friendship would never have been broken and Amir and Hassan might still have been friends.