Unit 4 - Time

4.1 Moments in time

1 Your own reading.
2 You may note the following:
 the flowers dying / colours fading / the effect of the cold on the flowers /
colours changing
 the last two lines are ambiguous / connotations of winter – positive or
negative? / connotations of orange turning to gold may be positive /
connotation of citrons turning green – unripe but promise of future? /
cyclical pattern of nature and acceptance of that.
3 Your discussion should include considering of the following:
a. The narrator’s feelings about time passing: In ‘Autumn’ there may be some
sadness about winter approaching and the flowers dying, shown by the
phrase a solemn memory but also an acceptance of nature’s cyclical
pattern, whereas in ‘The Turning Year’ seasons are viewed as time passing
so the narrator thinks we should live in the present. The second poem is
more about time passing in terms of the narrator’s life whereas the first
poem is about the change of seasons and its impact on nature. In
‘Autumn’ the narrator’s feelings are less relevant
or obvious.
b. Words connected with disappearance and cold: In both poems the cold is
described using positive language, such as white with frost in ‘Autumn’ and
pure and cold in ‘The Turning Year’. ‘Autumn’ describes the water lilies as
gone and the chrysanthemums as fading to show the impact of autumn as
winter approaches. The phrase They are no more has a ring of sadness or
mourning to it. In ‘The Turning Year’ it talks about clouds which scatter and
vanish on a cold night but the emphasis seems to be more on the
narrator’s fear that he might vanish (die).

c. Images connected to the natural world: In ‘Autumn’ images are mostly

connected to disappearance, such as They are no more which makes the
dying of the lily flowers more dramatic. There is also a description of the
chrysanthemums fading and white with frost to show how the colour
ebbs away. In ‘The Turning Year’ the winter night is seen as pure which
makes it sound perfect and positive. The clouds scatter and vanish as
though making way for the perfection of a winter night with clear skies.
d. Use of the present tense alongside speculation about the future in the
last two lines: In ‘Autumn’ the last two lines seem to look forward to the
winter with orange turning to gold and citrons green. This appears to be
more positive, as although gold and green are less warm, they indicate
that nature is cyclical and new life is ready to come again. Whereas in
‘The Turning Year’ the focus of the final two lines looking at the future is
the poet considering his own existence and whether he will be there the
 following year. The message here seems to be to treat each day as
though it is your last because you do not know what the future may bring.
4 Your answers will vary.
5 Discussions may include consideration of the following:
a Is this an optimistic poem or not?
 The poem is not strongly optimistic but neither is it strongly
pessimistic.
 There is an acceptance that time passes and the past flows
behind us and we can’t get it back.
 It says that we leave the past without regret, which is reasonably
positive, but then it says will we leave so carelessly the years to
come recognising there are no guarantees, which is more
pessimistic.
b The last three lines seem to convey an acceptance but also a recognition
that we weaken as we get older.
c What similarities does this poem have with ‘Autumn’ and ‘The Turning
Year’?
 The acceptance of time passing and our helplessness to do anything
about it is similar to ‘Autumn’.
 It is less similar to ‘The Turning Years’, as it does not consider the
future as a time when we may not exist – instead it focuses on old
age and growing weaker.
 It does, however, raise the subject of regret, which touches on the
same theme as ‘The Turning Years’ in terms of the idea of living
without regrets, as we only get one life.
d What have you learnt about the themes and voice of this poet from the
three poems?
 This poet often looks at the theme of time passing and its impact
on nature and humans.
 The poems look at the past and future.
 The poet is mostly accepting that we can’t do anything to change the
past and have to look to the future.
 The poet has quite a gentle reflective tone.
6. Learners’ answers will vary.

4.2 Making the most of time

1 Discussions should include the following:
a The narrator is telling the reader to get as much out of life as they can
right now, as nothing stands still and things may change. It may be related
 to youth and age – telling the reader to take advantage of their youth
before it is too late. This could mean seizing opportunities for happiness
when they present themselves, as they may not always be there. Act today
before it is too late.
b Old Time is still a-flying sounds like a warning that time passes very
quickly. The sun is personified as being in a race to set, which also
emphasises the speed of time passing.
c The flower dies as time passes, so is a measurement of time. The sun’s
movement in the sky to setting is also a symbol of time passing. So they
are both used to show how time never stands still.
2 Your answers will vary. Example metaphors could include:
• a cake: mix the ingredients, bake it, the fresh sponge is delicious but
starts to dry out and go mouldy
• an oak tree: starts as a tiny acorn, is fed and watered, grows into its
prime until it grows old and gnarled and the rotten boughs begin to fall
• a toy: new in its box, adored and played with; then as it grows older,
other new and exciting toys replace it until it gets discarded, trodden on
and is eventually thrown out with the rubbish.
3 a The narrator suggests that we should make the most of our youth
because life gets harder and lonelier as we get older.
b The title links to the advice in the last stanza to use your time to make
relationships when you are young, as it is about ‘making much’ of your
time.
c The final line is saying that if you wait for things, you may wait
forever. This reinforces the message that you should seize
opportunities while you can.
d The title summarises the message effectively – use your time wisely and
take every opportunity while you can.
4 Notes will vary, but should consider the following ideas:
a The regular rhyme and rhythm links to the theme of time, as time is
regular and broken down into equal units of seconds, minutes, hours, etc.
b The writer gives the positive advice to use time wisely followed by a
negative reminder of why in each stanza. This balanced approach
makes the poem more convincing. It means that each stanza is
mirrored in design so it creates a regular pattern like time itself.
5 Learners should consider the following in their discussions:
• The ‘glass half full’ and ‘glass half-empty’ metaphor shows that different
people can look at the same situation in different ways. It connotes how our
attitudes (whether optimistic or pessimistic) can affect our approach to life.
Someone with a positive attitude is more likely to tackle challenges and look
for long-term solutions, whereas someone with a pessimistic attitude may
 give up too easily and accept less than they deserve. It is likely to have a
significant impact on a person’s well-being.
• Reactions to ‘To Make Much of Time’ will vary: some may think it focuses too
much on how quickly life passes by; others may think it has a powerful
message to live each day with meaning and not waste a second of life. Young
people may respond less positively as for them there is so much life left to
live and time seems to pass more slowly; older people may find the message
more meaningful, as they have less time left and are likely to think it is
important to make the most of it.
• For the final bullet point, learners discuss their own experiences/attitudes.
6 Your answers may vary.

4.3 The tribe that time forgot

1 Notes will vary, but may include reactions to the following information:
• the Baduy are secluded from the outside world despite living near a large
capital city
• they follow strict customs – some of them must make life hard, such as
not wearing shoes
• they do not believe in formal education
• they live in two zones – the inner zone is stricter and people can be expelled
to the outer zone for breaking rules
• the outer zone has some contact with the wider world; outsiders can stay
there for a short time
• some elements of the modern world are creeping in, despite
leaders’ attempts to stop them there is an awareness of money and
commercialism.
2 Learners should consider the following in their discussions:
• The writer mainly seems to focus on what the Baduy cannot do, such as
forbidden customs, lack of education and punishing people for breaking
rules. There is little written about the positive aspects of their isolation
and freedom from the expectations of modern society.
• The Baduy do not have a voice in the article. The writer quotes a
university lecturer who has studied them, but there is no evidence that
he has interviewed any members of the tribe to ask for their opinions on
their way of life.
• The final paragraph makes it sound as though the Baduy are quite
half-hearted about their traditions as they are eager to watch TV if
they are given the opportunity. It seems quite dismissive of their tribe
and way of life, and suggests it is all a sham.
3 Your answers may vary, but they may come up with ideas such as: cars,
planes, mobile phones, Barbie dolls/Action Man, high heels, bottled water,
 money, the Kindle, the internet, schools, open-plan offices.
4 Your answers may vary.
5 You deliver your speech, using appropriate gesture and voice techniques to
engage the audience.

4.4 The time tornado

1 Genre features mentioned in the audio:
• strange or magical events that are not scientifically possible
• set in faraway but recognisable worlds
• strange creatures
• end with a strong moral
• may have a superhero
• may be high fantasy (entirely new world/ creatures) or low fantasy (real
world with ordinary people, but also magic)
• a journey – literal and metaphorical
• playing with time
• conflict in opening central character challenge
• power struggle between good and evil
• good usually triumphs.
2 Genre features learners may note in the extract include:
• strange or magical events that are not scientifically possible
• strange creatures
• low fantasy (real world with ordinary people, but also magic)
• a journey – literal and metaphorical
• playing with time
3 a A ‘Time Tornado’ may take people from one time in history to a different
time.

b The chapter starts off quite calmly, describing children copying one
another’s homework on a bus. Then it adds a sense of mystery and
intrigue when they start to see strange things from the bus, around
Cleopatra’s Needle. There is then a moment where everything seems to slow
down before a sudden terrible crack where everything suddenly becomes
very dramatic, and the bus is taken up by the tornado before vanishing. The
final paragraph is back in the real world, where everything is calm again.
There are hints about what happened but the mystery remains. The structure
builds excitement in the reader then replaces it with intrigue about what has
happened.
 c Mysterious events and characters:
• the tip of Cleopatra’s needle is glowing red – mysterious
• chariots and horsemen riding down the river – adds drama and
excitement
• the Pharaoh appears – builds the drama more as he is powerful
• the slowing down of time – adds tension and intrigue
• the crack and the bus being lifted by a tidal wave – adds fear and
excitement and a sense of danger
• everything vanishes – sudden anti- climax adds mystery and makes
reader question what has happened
• police finding the book with hieroglyphics – adds to the mystery
and makes the reader intrigued
• bus and passengers never found – invites reader to want to find
out more and solve the mystery.
4 Your answers may vary, but paragraphs may mention the following verb
choices:
• At the beginning the verbs are calm (sitting, copying and looked).
• The verbs become stronger, as the children notice the strange events
(elbowed, pointing and glowing).
• As time slows down, it is shown in verbs such as hovering.
• The sudden dramatic action is shown in violent verbs such as
breaking, hit, knocking, shattering, crashed, whirled, swelled,
battering, torn, slammed and spun.
• The verb vanished has a dramatic impact as it implies suddenness.
• In the final paragraph, gentle verbs are used such as floating.
5 Your own story opening.

4.5 The visitor

1 References to time and their effects include:
• The extract starts with the time and the word precisely makes it clear
it is important – the reader wonders why.
• There is an emphasis on punctuality and the watch being correct.
• The theme of time is introduced in a mysterious way when the reader is
told Abel Darkwater had all the time in the world – we do not really
understand how he can have nearly all of it.
• There is further emphasis on punctuality when he drives up.
• The year 1588 when Tanglewreck was built – far in the past – adds
intrigue.
 • The Age-Gauge is mysterious but suggests time travelling to the reader.
• The notion of echoes of time and the idea that time is . . . buried layer by
layer adds suspense and is an interesting if implausible idea, typical of a
fantasy story.
• Now was Then and Then was Now continues the theme of time travelling.

• Looking at the pocket watch – builds suspense as we are expecting

something will happen at a certain time.
• the fourth hand, in red, like a warning, pointed towards eleven o’ clock and
what this means. A face then appears at the window.
2 Learners may note the following:
• The writer tells the reader very little about Abel Darkwater. The name
builds a sense of mystery, as it implies there is a great deal hidden under
the surface.
• He is only late when he intends to be, but we do not know why time is so
key to his existence.
• He can talk to people from the past but we do not know how.
• He is meeting someone at Tanglewreck, but we do not know who or why.
• We know that Tanglewreck is a great house with a long driveway.
• It was built in 1588.
• The house is going to tell Abel about its beginnings, but the reader knows
nothing about them.
• There is someone in the house but we do not know who.
• He has business at Tanglewreck.
3 Discussions will vary but may include the following:
• Repetition of never is emphatic.
• Repetition of unless he . . . deliberately contradicts the emphatic never. This
adds mystery to the character, as it seems odd.
• The use of a dash in each part of the sentence mirrors and adds balance.
• The whole balanced sentence makes him seem like an interesting
character who is an enigma. He seems very confident and as though you
can trust him.
4 Your answers may vary.
Example answer:
The name Abel Darkwater makes him sound like an enigma – as if there is
much more below the surface that you have to dig deep to find. He clearly
has special powers to go back in time and the implication is that he uses
 them for good, although that is not entirely certain yet. The Age-Gauge and
the pocket watch appear to contradict one another, as the former is not a
real machine but something imaginary that is linked to time travelling.

However, the pocket watch is an old watch from the past that still keeps
perfect time. It shows how he travels through time and has belongings from
different eras.
The writer uses language to add mystery, as he hints at things like time travel
but is quite vague: today lies on top of yesterday, and yesterday lies on top of
the day before. This challenges the reader, as it creates an image of time
where it is vertical rather than the horizontal line most timelines use. The
idea of the past having voices that are muffled is interesting as it makes it
sound as though it is always there rather than gone forever. There is a lot of
repetition in the text, with some deliberate contradictions to create intrigue,
such as Now was Then and Then was Now. The capitalisation of Then and
Now makes notions of past and present seem significant. In the final
paragraph, the short sentences counting down time build suspense. The
phrase Sure enough in the final sentence shows that Abel knew what was
going to happen the whole time, as he is in the past.
5 Your discussion should consider the following:
• There is a clue in it was the nearly that was the problem, and the reason
why he had come to Tanglewreck. The house seems to hold some
knowledge that he needs to have all the time in the world rather than
nearly all of it.
To visit, he has gone back to 1588 – this is when the house was built so
obviously holds some importance.
• The interior of the house would look like something built in 1588.
We are told it is a great house so it is likely to be an Elizabethan manor house
– possibly timber framed.
There are gates and a long drive so the house is set in its own grounds.
The house has windows high up, as the watch hand is pointing to 11
o’clock in the direction of the face at the window.
• Learners will have their own ideas about the face at the window and that
person’s relationship to Abel.
• There are no obvious indications of conflict, as Abel clearly needs to learn
something and that is why he is there. The meeting seems planned.
6 Your answers may vary.
7 Your answers may vary.

4.6 Into the future

1 a Learners may note the following differences:
• Use of ellipsis and dashes show that Ahmed pauses more in the first
transcript. This is because he is thinking as he speaks. The second
transcript is more fluent and he speaks in whole sentences because he is
addressing the class and has had time to organise his thoughts and ideas.

• He uses informal language such as yeah in the first transcript but he

says yes in the second transcript. This is because he has to adopt a
more formal tone when speaking to his teacher and the class.
• The ideas are ordered quite randomly in the first transcript, as he is
thinking, but in the second transcript, his ideas are organised logically.
• In the first transcript, he gives personal thoughts but in the second,
he makes them more general rather than personal.
b In the first transcript, he expresses preferences so it is more personal. In the
second transcript, he just summarises what they think so it is less personal.
It is possible that the first transcript sounds more sincere because his own
views are more obvious but the second one sounds more serious.
c The impact on the audiences is different. In the first transcript, he sounds
as though he is joking around a bit so the audience may not take what he
says as seriously as in the second transcript, where he sounds serious and
intelligent.
2 Learners may consider the following in their discussions:
• The main benefit of not having to go on holiday in order to remember one
is that it would be much easier with no risky travel. You could go to
amazing places like Mars. The main disadvantage is that it is not real and
you would know that.
The advantage of not going to school is that you can stay in bed all day.
The main disadvantage is that you might get lonely and unhealthy.
The main advantage of having no more diseases is that you could live
forever. The main disadvantage is that you could live forever. That’s a
‘double-edged sword’.
• It is unlikely that these changes would make the world a better place
as it looks as though humans would live forever so population size
would become a huge issue. It also looks as though people would
barely leave their homes, instead living inside their heads filled with
fake memories. If children do not go to school, humans would never
learn to socialise and work together so the world could be a very lonely
unpleasant place.
3 Your answers may vary.
4 Analyses should consider:
• use of contractions, question marks, exclamation marks, ellipsis
 • the personal nature of the article, its chatty/informal tone
• use of questions, exclamations, statements as sentences, short sentences,
one-word sentence repetition of you and you’ve, starting each numbered
section with No more . . .
5 Your answers may vary.

Check your progress

1 Check the glossary so you understand all the words fully. Make sure you
pronounce them correctly.
2 Carpe diem poetry is about seizing the day and making the most of the present
as the future is uncertain, because time moves quickly and everything can
change in an instant. Some people find this kind of poetry depressing because it
focuses on death and decay, but others find it uplifting and motivating because it
reminds you to live life to its fullest.
3 Tips could include establishing a relationship with the audience through
using pronouns, using rhetorical questions to draw listeners in and
exclamations for effect.
4 Writers can create mystery through a strong setting – possibly in a remote
place. They can also leave things unexplained so a character may not be fully
drawn. Leaving questions unanswered is a good way of creating mystery but
also giving enough information to spark the reader’s interest.
5 This means that the reader should not always understand things fully in
order to create intrigue and mystery. Things may be hinted at or left half
explained so the reader has to keep reading to get the full picture.
6 The factors that influence the way people speak are the audience they are
addressing as well as the purpose of the speaking. With a friend, a person is
likely to be less formal than when they are addressing someone or a crowd in
a formal situation.