Paper 1 HL Practice

Text 1

From 'Cranes'

Jennifer Ackerman 

National Geographic 

2004

From a blind overlooking the wetlands of central Wisconsin, I can see a long-legged bird in the distance, a stroke of white curled at the top, like a bright question mark against the emerald green grasses. Then up pops another from the screen of reeds. The birds are yearlings, five feet tall, with snow-white plumage and elegant black wing tips that spread like fingers when they fly. They’re quiet now, but from the long trachea coiled in their breastbones may come a wild, singing whoop, harsh and thrilling, that gives their tribe its name.

This would be a primordial scene – big sky, undulations of tall marsh grasses, wild whooping cranes – were it not for a penned area nearby, where several whooper chicks, well camouflaged in tawny feathers, forage in the shallows. In a whisper, crane biologist Richard Urbanek explains that these chicks have been raised in captivity but have never heard a human voice nor seen a human form, except in crane costume. As part of an experimental program to reintroduce a wild migratory population of whooping cranes to the eastern half of North America, these chicks have been fed and tended by crane-costumed people for two months. Now, before they are released to the wild, they are being taught the habits of their ancestors with modern techniques pioneered by Operation Migration, an organization devoted to helping endangered birds learn their traditional migratory routes. Near the pen is a long stretch of open grass, a runway, where the chicks are learning to fly behind an ultralight plane flown by a pilot in crane costume who will guide them from this refuge 1,200 miles south across seven states to wintering grounds in Florida.

Two cohorts have already made such trips – and returned on their own, the first whooping cranes in perhaps more than a century to fly freely over the eastern United States. After three years of ultralight-led migrations, the new eastern migratory population numbers 36 birds, including the yearlings and the chicks. The success of this effort is leading the way for a more ambitious project half a world away in the northern reaches of Russia. In the fall of next year an international migratory route, from Russia to Iran, will restore the birds’ knowledge of the ancient flyway – not with ultralights but with hang gliders that will soar a difficult path extending more than 3,000 miles over four different countries.

Hang glider pilot Angelo d’Arrigo leads a trio of young captive-bred Siberian cranes on a trial flight over the Arctic Circle in Siberia – part of an ambitious effort to teach the endangered birds the migration route of their ancestors from Russia to Iran.

Text 2

'To a Waterfowl' 

William Cullen Bryant 

1815

Whither, 'midst falling dew,

While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,

Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue

          Thy solitary way?

          Vainly the fowler’s eye

Might mark thy distant flight, to do thee wrong,

As, darkly seen against the crimson sky,

          Thy figure floats along.

          Seek’st thou the plashy brink

Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,

Or where the rocking billows rise and sink

          On the chaféd ocean side?

          There is a Power, whose care

Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,—

The desert and illimitable air

          Lone wandering, but not lost.

          All day thy wings have fanned,

At that far height, the cold thin atmosphere;

Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,

          Though the dark night is near.

          And soon that toil shall end,

Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,

And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend,

          Soon, o’er thy sheltered nest.

          Thou’rt gone, the abyss of heaven

Hath swallowed up thy form, yet, on my heart

Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given,

          And shall not soon depart.

          He, who, from zone to zone,

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,

In the long way that I must trace alone,

          Will lead my steps aright.

Text	Audience	Purpose
1	Text 1 is very characteristic of a journalistic article for National Geographic, which targets nature-minded readers.In the second paragraph she then moves on to inform the reader of the organization that the text is about. Her diction here suggests that the intended audience is a more than average educated audience. “As part of an experimental program to reintroduce a wild migratory population of whooping cranes…” The words such as “reintroduce” and “migratory population” are not colloquial words used in every day speech implying that the audience that is expected to read this must be highly educated and interested in birds as they are somewhat specific words to birds and their habits.	The article, however, is more centered on the idea of informing the reader. It’s starts off as very descriptive to catch the readers attention, “I can see a long-legged bird in the distance, a stroke of white curled at the top, like a bright question mark against the emerald green grasses”. Ackerman continues to describe this scene she sees with riveting detail to peak the interest of the reader. In the second paragraph she then moves on to inform the reader of the organization that the text is about.
2	Text 2, on the other hand is characteristic of Romantic poetry from the 19th century, read by literary enthusiasts. We know that it is an ode through the use of poetic language, the title ‘To a Waterfowl’, the use of rhyming quatrains and apostrophe, (when a poet asks an object a question). These qualities require readers to hear the spoken word, and therefore the audience is most likely interested in its literary qualities. The title of the poem suggests that the poet, Bryant, is talking to the bird in his poem rather than addressing his actual audience, “All day thy wings have fanned”. This is backed up by how the poem is written in second person, Bryant continues to directly talk to the bird addressing it as “you”.	Whereas birds learn from people in remarkable ways in Text 1, the poet, William Cullen Bryant learns a life ‘lesson’ (line 26) from one bird in Text 2. The poet has written an ode to this waterfowl, who has taught him about the importance of solitude and steadfastness.  The author expresses his feelings to the reader through the flight of a crane. This allegory supports the underlyng theme.
Compare & Contrast	Both texts are very different in their purpose, as they come from different centuries and target different audiences.

Text	Content	Theme
1	In the article the writer explains how they are teaching the cranes , “… they are being taught the habits of there ancestors with modern techniques pioneered by Operation Migration, an organization devoted to helping endangered birds learns their traditional migratory routes.” An organization is dedicated to teaching birds about their traditional habits as displayed in this article.	Text 1 is built on the assumption that nature and the whooping crane must be preserved. Lines 24-27 describe a plan to “restore the birds’ knowledge of the ancient flyway.” The extreme measures that are taken to help these birds migrate, including the costumes, the reserves and the gliders, are never questioned in this article.
2	In the poem, however, it is the poet who feels as though he is taught a lesson, ” Deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given,”. He expresses how he believes the waterfowl has taught him about God. He feels this way as the bird is following a migration route that it has never gone on before believing that it is a higher power showing the bird the way.	The message of Text 2 is also built on the premise that nature is important. The poet asks the crane why it pursues its solitary ways (line 4). Eventually he claims that the bird’s purpose is to guide him on his lonely path in life, as stated in the final stanza: “He who, from zone to zone, / Guides through the boundless sky they certain flight, / In the long way that I must tread alone, / Will lead my steps aright.” Its message is very characteristic of Romantic poetry: We can learn how to live through observing nature.
Compare & Contrast	Although the purposes and contexts of these texts are different, they comment on a similar theme: the importance of nature, the migration of birds and the lessons being taught to either the birds or the people on this subject. The article is about the people teaching the birds whereas the poem is about the bird teaching the person.

Text	Tone	Mood
1	As the whooping cranes in North America, it uses diction that is descriptive. The narrator seems to be hiding in the reeds or ‘emerald green grasses’ (line 3). This colorful choice of words indicates that she is enthralled by the natural elements around her. Words like ‘snow-white plumage’ and ‘elegant black wingtips that spread like fingertips’ are rather poetic. The effect of this descriptive language on the reader is both intriguing and sympathetic. As the interviewee whispers to the reporter, the reader becomes drawn in and concerned about the fate of the whooping crane.	The poetic language sketches an image in the reader’s mind that is quite romantic, rural and rustic. The journalistic nature of the article is almost sensationalist. There is something extraordinary about people wearing ‘crane costumes’ (line 11) who teach young cranes how to fly and migrate from an ‘ultralight plane’ (line 16). What’s more, the journalist explains that this practice is happening in Siberia as well.
2	Bryant makes use of descriptive language that engages the reader. Phrases like the ‘crimson sky’, the ‘abyss of heaven’ and the ‘chafed ocean side’,	The descriptive language paints an image in the reader’s mind and makes the text come to life.
Compare & Contrast	As the texts have a common theme, there are also similarities in their use of tone and mood.

Text	Style	Structure
1	Text 1 plays a clever trick on the reader. After a colorful attention grabber, in which the journalist describes the whooping crane in its habitat, the second paragraph explains that this ‘would be’ a primordial scene. She explains that the cranes are in fact in pens, which surprises the reader. Like the use of imagery, this structural device also has the effect of intriguing the reader. The reader wants to learn more about why the chicks have never heard a human voice (line10), why the humans wear crane costumes (line 11) and there is a runway for an ultralight plane (line 17). The facts follow, including the number of miles they fly, the number of birds that participate and the similar project in Siberia. This kind of structure is characteristic of a feature article. The stylistic devices in the article are not that broadly used, except for the beginning. This is quite common in scientific articles.
2	The structure of the poem is very different, but equally effective in its aim of creating sympathy for nature and birds. As mentioned the poem is an ode, where the poet praises the qualities of an object and finds inspiration in it. Furthermore there is a rhyming scheme and rhythm that are aesthetically appealing to the reader. The rhyming scheme in each quatrain is ABAB. For example the final word of line 1, ‘dew’, rhymes with the final word of line 3, ‘pursue’. Line 2, ‘day’, rhymes with line 4 ‘way’. This creates a sense of harmony and perfection that relates to the poet’s understanding of the waterfowl. Each line contains loose iambic feet, meaning there are unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables. There are three iambic feet in the first and last lines of each quatrain and five feet in the second and third lines of each quatrain, creating short-long-long-short pattern to each stanza. The effect of this pattern is that the reader feels a rocking sensation, which may relate to the steady flap of the bird’s wings or the poet’s pondering mood. This to adds to the aesthetic harmony and sense of perfection that the poet wants us to associate with nature.  The poem however starts off easy and slowly increases the dramatic flow as the hunter gets more and more dramatic until the crane’s death which then leads to this fade-out effect in the outro
Compare & Contrast	Both authors use structural devices to convince the reader of their cause.