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MODERN AND MEDIEVAL LANGUAGES TRIPOS Part IA
Option B: post A-level
MODERN AND MEDIEVAL LANGUAGES TRIPOS Part IB
Option A (those candidates who took Option A (ab initio))
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SPECIMEN EXAM PAPER FROM TRIPOS 2013
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Paper Pg. 1
INTRODUCTION TO THE LANGUAGE, LITERATURES
CULTURES OF PORTUGUESE SPEAKING COUNTRIES
AND
Answer THREE questions, no more than ONE from any section.
Do NOT draw substantially on the same material for more than ONE
answer.
Answers to Section D must be completed in a separate Answer Book.
STATIONERY REQUIREMENTS
20 Page Answer Book x 2
Rough work pad
Tags
You may not start to read the questions
printed on the subsequent pages of this
question paper until instructed that you
may do so by the Invigilator
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SECTION A
1
‘PS — A criança morreu também, já se enterrou.’ Discuss the
significance of Amaro’s reference to the death of his son in the light of Eça de
Queirós’s comment on the moral and social impact of the Catholic church in
Portugal in the second half of the nineteenth century.
2
EITHER (a) ‘Eu sou aquilo que perdi.’ Discuss the centrality of the
idea of Empire to Portugal’s understanding of itself as nation in Mensagem.
OR (b) ‘Nunca sabemos quando somos sinceros. Talvez nunca o
sejamos. E mesmo que sejamos sinceros hoje, amanhã podemos sê-lo por
coisa contrária.’ Discuss with reference to the idea of heteronymity in
Fernando Pessoa.
3
‘If I have offended you, I have probably made you think, so say thank
you.’ Discuss with reference to any aspect of the art of Paula Rego.
4
‘The devil is not as ugly as he is painted.’ Discuss the question of
moral ambiguity in Alexandre Herculano’s ‘A Dama Pé de Cabra’ and Hélia
Correia’s ‘Fascinação’.
SECTION B
5
EITHER (a) ‘Manuel Bandeira’s poetry is a continuous attempt to
express the maximum with the minimum.’ Discuss.
OR (b) Write a commentary on the following poem by Manuel
Bandeira:
Teresa
A primeira vez que vi Teresa
Achei que ela tinha pernas estúpidas
Achei também que a cara parecia uma perna
Quando vi Teresa de novo
Achei que os olhos eram muito mais velhos que o resto do corpo
5
(Os olhos nasceram e ficaram dez anos esperando que o resto
do corpo nascesse)
Da terceira vez não vi mais nada
Os céus se misturaram com a terra
E o espírito de Deus voltou a se mover sobre a face das águas.
9
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6
‘In which society and in which world do men have to turn themselves
into bugs, dogs or monkeys in order to have their real shape adequately
expressed?’ Discuss in relation to Graciliano Ramos’s Vidas secas.
SECTION C
7
‘Each generation must discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it, in
relative opacity.’ Discuss with reference to the worldview of Luís Bernardo
Honwana in Nós Matámos o Cão Tinhoso.
8
‘And letters will always be a genre of love.’ Discuss the use of the love
letter as a metaphor for identitarian negotiation and hybridity in the
Lusophone colonial context by drawing on Agualusa’s Nação Crioula: a
Correspondência Secreta de Fradique Mendes.
9
EITHER (a) ‘The past is always a rebuke to the present.’ Discuss with
reference to TWO OR MORE texts that you have studied for this paper.
OR (b) ‘History teaches everything including the future.’ Discuss with
reference to TWO OR MORE texts that you have studied for this paper.
10
‘If politics is an art, art (or literature) is pure politics.’ Discuss with
reference to TWO OR MORE of the authors/artists that you have studied from
Sections A, B OR C.
11
‘Who do you think loves you?’ Discuss with reference to TWO OR
MORE of the authors/artists that you have studied from Sections A, B or C.
SECTION D
12
Give a phonetic transcription of the following passage, and a
phonological transcription of the first 5 lines. Phrasing and word-stress should
be indicated, but NOT intonation.
Não é verdade, não pode ser verdade que isto esteja a
acontecer: continuo na casa da fazenda com o meu marido e
os meus filhos, os bailundos pregam espantalhos para afastar
os pássaros do arroz, a minha mãe no quarto do primeiro
andar chama a Josélia aos gritos, não trago um pano do
Congo amarrado à cintura, trago um vestido, nunca morei em
palhota nenhuma sobretudo na Chiquita, a aldeia onde
passávamos de visita ao meu padrinho, o comércio deserto,
as colunas do chefe de posto reduzidas a vigas de metal,
duas ou três árvores, um círculo de cubatas que a poeira do
jipe dissolvia no susto das galinhas.
5
10
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13
‘English is more economical than Portuguese in the way it expresses
its inflectional morphology.’
Discuss the above claim comparing the
morphological systems of English and Portuguese.
14
Illustrate and discuss the subcategorization frame of the following
words:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
comer;
protestar;
florescer;
angústia;
criação.
15
‘Brazilian Portuguese is nothing more than European Portuguese badly
spoken.’ Discuss.
16
Describe ANY ONE or MORE Portuguese-based creoles and contrast
them with European Portuguese in relation to the following linguistic
characteristics:
(i) verbal agreement;
(ii) pronominal system;
(iii) vocalic system;
(iv)
consonantal system
END OF PAPER