Delta Module One, Paper 1, Task 5 : features of a text (1)
You will be given an authentic text (such as an article from a
magazine, website or brochure etc.) and asked to identify typical
features of the genre. You are also asked to explain the
form, meaning, use and phonological features of three different
language items.
Areas of the text will be highlighted for identification
purposes.
This question carries 50% of the possible marks so spend 45
minutes on it.
Here's the text for this practice task.
 |
Can you hear me?! Muzak is one of the great curses of modern life. No matter where you go, what you are doing it seems that we must always be accompanied by mindless, computer-generated muzak. Think for a minute: when were you last in any kind of public area where there was NO muzak? A pub, a shopping mall, a department store, a supermarket, a hotel lift, a café? I'm guessing that you've found it hard to think of a single place which wasn't invaded by somebody else's choice of 'musical' background noise. |
| Why should this
be? Partly, it is the mass production of music. In former days, music was something people made together. It was a social event of great importance. Now it is a packaged consumer product like soap or chocolate. You can get it everywhere with no effort at all and at almost no cost. Additionally, the law has failed to protect us. There is no law to stop businesses inflicting this awful noise on their customers and there should be. Muzak damages people. It reduces the amount they care about good music and reduces everything to the empty and banal. That is bad for people and bad for society. What can be done? Probably very little, but we can individually make a stand. The next time you find you have to shout over this dreadful racket to hold a conversation with someone, tell the manager of wherever you are to turn the damn stuff off. And ignore the silly "But our customers like it" nonsense – they don't. The 'music' is entirely for the sake of the staff and to stop you thinking about the awful service you are receiving. If we all make a stand, sooner or later the message will get through and we can go back to having real conversations about things that matter to us. |
|
Now try to figure out your responses to the following and then click
on
when you have an answer.
In the examination, you will be asked for a lot less than what follows
but here we are concerned to make the most of the text.
| What genre is
this? |
This is an EXPOSITION. It cannot be anything
else. It is not a DISCUSSION because all points
are on one side of the argument.
|
| What is the
role of: Muzak is one of the
great curses of modern life.? |
In line with the genre, this is the opening statement of the
writer's view or position. Conventionally, in
EXPOSITION texts, this comes at the beginning to alert
the reader. It is followed by a preview of the
arguments and that, too, is conventional.
|
| There are
three question forms highlighted in the text. Explain
their form and function. |
These are all wh-questions which refer to
the writer's three main concerns: where and when, why
and what can be done.
The first is in the present simple because the writer is concerned with the immediate problem. The second contains the modal auxiliary verb 'should' which introduces a reason. Instead of 'Why is this?' the writer has selected 'should' for greater emphasis on the fact that it needn't be the case. The third contains the modal auxiliary verb 'can' and is passive. The modal verb refers to ability (of all of us) and the passive is used to emphasise the problem rather than the people who do something. They are rhetorical questions (this is a written text so no answer can be expected) designed to stimulate the reader to think (and agree with the author) and to signal the staging of the text. The first sets the scene (where and when the problem occurs). The second explains the writer's view of the reasons for the problem. The third, introduces the writer's suggested (partial) solution. |
| Explain the
form and function of
Partly
and
Additionally |
In this text, these two focusing adjuncts
are both adverbs. The first ('Partly') is a
limiting adjunct; the second ('Additionally') is an
additive adjunct.
They function to connect two reasons for the ubiquity of muzak: ready availability and the lack of regulation by law. An alternative analysis is to call the second of these and additive conjunct. |
| Explain the
form and function of
Probably very little, but we can
individually make a stand. |
This refers anaphorically as an answer to the
rhetorical question 'What can be done'. The writer
has chosen, in line with the generally persuasive and
informal, almost spoken style of the text, to ellipt the
clause 'can be done'.
Such ellipses of shared knowledge are common in spoken language, less so in written texts. The adjunct 'probably' expresses the writer's feelings of despair. |
| Three verbs
are highlighted in blue in the
text. Comment on their form and function. |
The first and third verbs ('invaded', 'inflicting') are
transitive and all negative in connotation.
The second verb ('failed') is also negative in connotation but in this case it is an intransitive verb in a catenative structure with 'to protect'. The verb 'invade' almost always collocates with negative subjects (enemies, pests etc.) and 'inflict' most generally collocates with negative object nouns (pain, injury, damage etc.). The verb 'fail' carries its own negative meaning and is often used critically (in, e.g., 'You failed to tell me' etc.). Their function in this text is to express the writer's disapproval of being 'invaded' by the unwelcome, of businesses 'inflicting' unwelcome things on their customers and of the authorities 'failing' in their duty to the public. They are in keeping with the tenor of the text. The verbs work together to provide the text some lexical cohesion because they all express disapproval – the main theme of the text. In the first two bi-syllabic examples the stress falls on the second syllable (the general rule for two-syllable verbs): /ɪn.ˈveɪd/ and /ɪn.ˈflɪkt/. |
| Four
adjectives are highlighted in the
text in blue. Comment on their form and
function |
'mindless' is a very negative term (formed from the
noun with the suffix '-less') to mean absence of thought
and consideration. The writer sets out his view
early on with this term.
'packaged' is a participle adjective and is also negative, implying a lack of individuality (cf. 'packaged holiday'). 'dreadful' and 'awful' are both formed from noun stems with the addition of '-ful' to form the adjective. In this text, they are synonyms and both imply strong disapproval. The four adjectives also provide lexical cohesion in the text as they are all used to express the writer's disapproval. In all four cases, the suffix is unstressed and there is no stress movement when forming the adjective. |
| Three modal
auxiliary verbs are employed: 'should' (twice), 'must' and 'can'
(three times). Explain the meaning and function of
modal auxiliary verbs in the text |
'should' is used to form the question 'Why should
this be?' which implies that it 'should not' be.
It is more emphatic than the neutral alternative 'Why is
this?'
'should' is also used in 'there should be' to state the writer's view that something is strongly advisable although he is not in the authority position to use 'must'. 'must' in the opening paragraph means 'it is inevitable that' so is epistemic but also implies some perverse stubbornness on the part of muzak users (cf. 'If you must be stupid' etc.). 'can' is used throughout to mean future ability and refers to the outcomes of the writer's suggestions which are all positive: doing something, making a stand and having conversations without the need to shout. |
| Explain the
writer's use of punctuation and conjunction |
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| Paper 1 revision test index |