Answer in comments below for feedback.

Show how the writer uses imagery in this paragraph to support the points he is making about Twitter in general and the media in general. (4)

Twitter is the latest social networking craze to have conquered the ageing mainstream media, and using it is like sending out a universal text message to the whole planet. For many, this orgy of technology-enhanced wittering is simply something that we indulge in during our spare time, but it’s not without its uses. It’s coming of age is generally dated to the Mumbai terror attacks at the end of November, when minute-by-minute updates of the unfolding chaos zipped around the world from eye-witnesses armed with Twitter on their laptops and mobile phones. It was given another fillip on the geopolitical stage in January, when the Israeli Government use Twitter to snipe at the mainstream media and get across its reasons for invading Gaza.

TIP:
Imagery can be tricky…remind yourself how to answer using the ‘just as…so too’ method by reading the following worked example:

“He fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a paper bag filled with vegetable soup.”

Question:
How effective do you find this description of the falling man? (2A)
Answer:
1) Just as a paper bag filled with vegetable soup (= root image)
2) would hit the ground with a tremendous splat, leaving a terrible mess behind (=analysis),
3) so too would the man after falling 12 stories onto a pavement creating a visually disgusting but powerful image for the reader. (= answer to the question)

Answer in comments below for feedback 🙂

This passage is about reality TV singing contests.

How does the writer’s use of imagery help to convey what it is like inside that ‘reinforced concrete building’? (2)

Inside that reinforced-concrete building, men in black T-shirts and microphone headsets are swarming around like bees, ushering a constant stream of shrieking teenage girls to their seats, testing the sound levels and the auto-cue, ensuring that the audience is primed to clap and scream as loudly as possible once the lights go up. Because this is where, every weekend, the X Factor goes live.

As the theme music is pumped through the studio speakers, it is as though the entire crowd has been electrified by a giant cattle prod. We leap out of our seats as one, arms waving maniacally in the air as each contestant takes to the stage in a blaze of strobe lighting and sequinned backing dancers.