Read both texts, and then answer Question 1 on the question paper.
Text A
The following passage is an article about food waste.
Food waste, which allows a third of the food supply across the globe to rot and is a major
contributor to climate change, seems like it should be easy to address. Waste less food,
advocates cry, and you can save money! You can save time! You can save farmland and fuel, and, since agriculture drives habitat loss, you can even help save the tiger!
In some countries, up to 80 per cent of food waste is attributable to ordinary households. So why is this problem so hard to solve? Because, researchers say, we’re only human and have busy lives that don’t always align with the moment the fruit in the kitchen ripens. There are often confusing labels on packaging so people throw away food that might be past its best but is still perfectly safe to eat.
In the US, there are efforts to cultivate individual awareness, but surveys in several cities found that most people think they throw away less food than the average American. Clearly that doesn’t add up and shows no one wants to see themselves as part of the problem.
Hotels are also notorious wasters, favouring towers of bread or heaps of fruit that look inviting but are rarely consumed. When food shopping, it can be easy to imagine a week of healthy, social media-worthy meals of colourful salads and inspiring feasts, but life often gets in the way!
There are restaurant outings, spontaneous invitations, late nights at work, not feeling like cooking after a day at work or college, and who’s got time to shop for fresh food every day to make sure nothing is wasted?
When it comes to mitigating climate change, only switching to wind power has more impact than reducing food waste. So, while we can’t all install wind turbines on our lunch breaks, we can make tweaks to our lunches and our lives to minimize waste.
Text B
The following passage is part of a blog by a university student.
Have you noticed that young people just can’t win? In my country, people between the ages of 18 and 24 are apparently the biggest food wasters. We’re made to feel guilty for the effect this has on world hunger, as well as for the environmental resources it takes to grow food that’s
never consumed. We’re told we shouldn’t buy junk food or packaged food that uses unnecessary plastic, but some of that food lasts longer when packaged and is less likely to be wasted. We’re told we should eat more sustainably, cut down on processed snacks and learn to cook. We must also be sure never to waste that last, unappetizing banana or that bit of cheese that’s gone hard
in the fridge. Young people just don’t live like that. Fruit and vegetables are cited as the most wasted food items but apart from the occasional apple, my college friends live on fast food picked up hurriedly between classes, studying and socializing. So, who’swasting all those vegetables?
Another thing that irritates me is that while ordinary consumers get the blame for wasting food, a third of the food grown never even finds its way into our cupboards. Storing food between farm and plate is a problem in some climates, as is extreme weather or a shortage of workers to harvest crops and in the rich world, consumers’ fixation with beautifully unblemished,
standard-shaped food means that tonnes of decent food are thrown away. Personally, I wouldn’t mind buying fruit that isn’t absolutely perfect, but you have to look hard for it on the bargain shelves of supermarkets here.
Restaurants, school and workplace canteens, as well as supermarkets, waste a lot of food and although there are some projects that offer leftover food to people in need, retailers are reluctant
to give away their profits and there’ssometimes a stigma attached to such recycling schemes.
Some establishments in my town offer boxes to take away any food you can’t eat but I often just end up wasting it later!
I’m sure I could shop more often and waste less, but it’s just not an easy adjustment to make, is it? And I don’t need any more‘awareness campaigns’ because we young people know a lot about the problems the world faces, but we’re not the only ones to blame for them or the only ones who need to find the solutions!
1. Write an article for your school or college newspaper about how young people should
communicate in their first jobs.
In your article you should:
• evaluate the ideas, attitudes and opinions in both texts
• advise young people on the factors they should consider when communicating with their work colleagues.
Base your article on what you have read in both texts, but be careful to use your own words.
Address both of the bullet points.
Write about 250 to 350 words.
Up to 15 marks are available for the content of your answer, and up to 25 marks for the
quality of your writing.
Section B: Composition
Answer one question from Section B.
Write about 350 to 450 words on one of the following questions. Answer on this question paper.
Up to 16 marks are available for the content and structure of your answer, and up to 24 marks
for the style and accuracy of your writing.
EITHER
Descriptive writing
2 Describe a place as you explore it for the first time.
OR
Descriptive writing
3 Describe an outfit before and after a messy activity.
OR
Narrative writing
4 Write a story which involves remembering something you’d forgotten.
OR
Narrative writing
5 Write a story with the title, ‘Home at last’.
May/June 2024.
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