2024 HSC English Standard Short Answer Solutions

HSC English Standard Short Answer Solutions by Dymocks Tutoring

Congratulations on acing the 2024 HSC English Standard exams! Your hard work and dedication have truly paid off, and we are thrilled to see your success. Now that you’re finished, let’s compare notes and see how you did. 

We have provided sample answers to English Standard short response questions so you can get a head start for next year. These examples are designed to help you identify areas where you can further improve and excel.

Question 1 (4 MARKS)

Text 1 – Poem

This question asks students to explain how the author conveys ideas about connection.

The question has asked you to: explain how the author explores the multifaceted notion of connection

Your response should:

  • Explore the persona’s connections, and lack thereof, in relation to the experience of travelling
  • Address the persona’s internal conflict, and how a type of connection influences it.

Number of examples: 3 examples.

SAMPLE ANSWER: 

Brazil’s poem “of glass and wood and water” conveys the multifaceted connections one creates when travelling to a new country, and the restorative effect this has on an individual. Brazil uses a direct address, “I am trying to tell you… I want to tell you,” as a motif, establishing a confessional tone that creates a connection between the persona and reader, allowing us to understand their emotions arising from the human experience of travel. The complexity of travelling is exhibited in the irony, “books in languages I couldn’t read/ and the bath that didn’t work, how happy I was,” conveying how the persona finds a sense of connection to Venice despite their unfamiliarity, finding joy in the experience. The recount of their travels conveys how connections can be created through storytelling and the sharing of experiences. The poem concludes by suggesting the persona’s internal conflict over the absence of a loved one, “You weren’t there, so the mist kissed the back of my neck/ where you would have.” The personification emphasises the power of the persona’s experience in Venice, and by extension, the experience of travelling, to help one overcome loss. Thus, Brazil conveys how the human experience of travel can be restorative by allowing individuals to build connections with new surroundings.

Module vocab that can link: Emotions arising from human experience, Individual experience

Alternative answers could include: 

  • How the persona connects with the natural environment as a source of healing
  • How the world appears more beautiful when travelling, the complexity of travelling in solitude

Question 2 (4 MARKS)

Text 2 – Prose Fiction Extract

This question asks students how the author represents the experience of change.

Your response should include:

  • A detailed exploration of the narrator’s emotions surrounding leaving her home, and her observations at the airport.
  • Ensure you include the moment of retrospect at the end of the piece, as this conveys the progression in her attitude towards travelling away from home.

Number of examples: 3 examples.

SAMPLE ANSWER: 

Morton’s prose fiction extract Homecoming explores the way an individual’s attitude towards leaving home changes as they grow older. The narrator details her current experience, demonstrating her preparedness for flying out of home, “the train ride had been smooth… setting herself up in [a cafe] near security… before going through the rigmarole.” The slang conveys the narrator’s familiarity with the processes at the airport, and her resulting lack of enthusiasm towards them. Her detailed observation of other travellers further emphasises this, as the listing of actions and contrast, “She gave her parents (presumably) a quick wave, flashed them with a bright smile, and didn’t look back again,” highlights the narrator’s understanding of the experience she sees before her. This objective narration is followed by reflection provoked by the moment, “Jess had been that young girl once…the thrilling sense of being, at last, in control of one’s destiny.” The narrator reminisces over the excitement she once associated with travelling away from home, associating it with individual freedom. The audience understands that in the ‘twenty years’ that have passed, the narrator undergoes an inherent change where travelling away from home becomes ordinary, losing the ability to incite exhilaration as it did when younger. Thus, Morton explores how the emotions arising from, and attitudes associated with travelling away from home inevitably change as one grows older.

Module vocab that can link: Individual and collective experiences, emotions arising from experience, behaviours

Alternative answers could include:

  • The narrator’s complex feelings about her home, her over-preparedness for the airport
  • The sense that the narrator prefers it on ‘this side’ indicating a sense of loss of family connection
  • The narrator living vicariously through the young girl at the airport

Question 3 (3 MARKS)

Text 3 – Nonfiction Extract

This question asks how the author invites the reader to consider the aspects of the human sense of smell.

This question has asked you to: consider the complexity of the human sense of smell and explore the different aspects that bring this about.

Your response should:

  • Consider how the sense of smell is inherently human, and hence, complex.
  • Relate this to the emergence of technologies like virtual reality or artificial intelligence, and how they fail to recreate the authentic experiences of smells. 

Number of examples: Succinctly analyse 2 examples.

SAMPLE ANSWER:

Green’s nonfiction extract invites the reader to consider the complexity of the sense of smell, displaying how aspects of the human experience remain inimitable even with the advancement of technology. The extract begins by identifying smell as a unique, irreproducible sense, “Smell is one of the last realms where virtual reality still feels deeply virtual.” The repetition of ‘virtual’ contrasts the notion of ‘reality’, emphasising the inability of technology to recreate the authentic experience of smells. Green also explores the paradoxical role humans play in enhancing the complexity of smell, as ‘we go to extraordinary lengths to conceal’ the ‘human scent’. The high modality is continued in, “If you had an artificial intelligence… guess the human odor, the AI would be spectacularly wrong,” introducing human perception and manipulation of smell as a contributor to the inability of technology to recreate it. Thus, Green conveys the complexity of the human experience, exemplified through the various aspects that make the sense of smell authentic.

Module vocab that can link: Paradox – smell makes humans unique, yet, we ‘go to extraordinary lengths’ to conceal it, Complexity of human experiences, Collective experiences.

Alternative answers could include:

  • The centrality of smell to immersion in experiences
  • Paradoxical human tendency to obfuscate aspects of the human experience that set us apart
  • Complexity of perception and how it clashes with reality

Question 4 (3 MARKS)

Text 4 – Nonfiction Extract

This question asks students to analyse how the author connects the significance of measurement to the human experience.

This question has asked you to: examine what makes measurement important, and how this is representative of the human experience

Your response should:

  • Consider the multifaceted importance of measurement as established by the author, and define its place within, or relationship to the human experience.
  • You should draw parallels between measurement and its paradigms to specific aspects of the human condition.

Number of examples: Succinctly explore 3 examples.

SAMPLE ANSWER

Vincent’s nonfiction extract explores the history of measurement as a foundation of society, connecting its significance to the historical and scientific development of the human experience. The use of collective language, “If we could not measure, then we could not observe the world around us; could not experiment and learn,” establishes the practical significance of measurement in human lives as it facilitates a collective understanding of the world around us, which ‘set(s) us apart from the other animals of the plain’, while unifying human society. Vincent summarises its many applications in the hyperbolic metaphor, “Measurement has not only made the world we live in, it has made us too,” conveys a distinct connection between the human experience as we define it and the constancy of measurement. Furthermore, Vincent explores the history of the kilogram, the high modality, “Every weight in the world… could be traced back to this single standard, to the kilogram,” highlighting the origin of measurement and the way in which its integrity has been preserved over time. The italicised ‘the’ augments the author’s incredulous tone, conveying the wonder he feels upon witnessing the significance of this preservation of measurement as a foundation of the human experience. This is summated by the listing, “what an intellectual feast measurement truly is, what a banquet of historical, scientific, and sociological wonder,” as the positive connotations convey the power of measurement and its bearing upon the various facets of the human experience, unifying them and society in its consistency across time. Thus, Vincent explores the significance of measurement and its endurance across time and place, connecting it to the development of the human experience.

Module vocab that can link: Collective experience.

Alternative answers could include:

  • Establish the various things that ‘make us human’
  • Explore how aspects of society stay constant while others change, existential questioning of the origin of measurement

Question 5 & 6 (5 MARKS)

Text 5 & 6 – Prose Fiction Extract & Photograph

This question asks you to assess how the author’s use of language illuminates the dynamics within the family.

This question has asked you to: compare and contrast how the two texts present perspectives on an individual’s perception of their surroundings.

Your response should:

  • Present each text’s distinct perspective on the relationship between individuals and their surroundings.
  • Ensure you have a clear structure where you can engage in comparison to highlight key similarities and differences.

Number of examples: 4 total – 2 per text.

SAMPLE ANSWER:

Texts 5 and 6 explore the varied ways in which individuals perceive their surroundings, conveying humanity’s complex connection with the natural world. While text 5 portrays human appreciation for the sublime beauty of the natural world, text 6 delves into how technology can become a barrier for humans to engage with their natural surroundings.

The prose fiction extract in Text 5 highlights the wonder and amazement evoked by natural phenomena, evident in the vivid imagery, “sky in front becoming pink and soft, then slightly blue again… sky lingering, lingering, then finally dark.” The run-on sentence as the narrator describes the setting of a sun as it occurs conveys their detailed perception of their surroundings, and their immersion within the natural world. The sense of tranquillity and wonder is underlined by the metaphor, “As though the soul can be quiet for those moments,” as the author conveys how immersing oneself within natural surroundings can be restorative, heightening the appreciation for life.

In stark contrast, the image in Text 6 depicts a chaotic workspace, the foreground consisting of multiple devices and associated wires, which symbolise modern reliance on such technology. The image portrays two distinct surroundings, with the foreground in focus, while the natural setting in the background is blurred. This implies the subject’s obscured perception, as they remain focused on the technology in front of them, hence inhibiting their ability to perceive the finer details and beauty of the natural surroundings. In conjunction with the point-of-view shot, this positions the viewer to consider their own limited perception of their natural surroundings, encouraging critical reflection upon the way reliance on technology impedes our ability to maintain a connection with nature.

Hence, Texts 5 and 6 portray divergent perspectives on an individual’s perception of their surroundings.

Alternative answers could include: 

  • In Text 5, you could also explore the narrator’s inability to capture the beauty of the sunset even with the amount of detail they have. You can also choose to focus on how the perception of your surroundings can influence your outlook on life
  • In Text 6, you can explore how the tangled cables and multiple screens represent the overbearing influence of technology on human life, and how this leads to a more chaotic mindset (symbolically)

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