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w w w e tr .X m eP e ap UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL EXAMINATIONS International General Certificate of Secondary Education .c rs om 0500/23 FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH Paper 2 Reading Passages (Extended) Additional Materials: *3559230415* October/November 2010 2 hours Answer Booklet/Paper READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST If you have been given an Answer Booklet, follow the instructions on the front cover of the Booklet. Write your Centre number, candidate number and name on all the work you hand in. Write in dark blue or black pen. Do not use staples, paper clips, highlighters, glue or correction fluid. Answer all questions. Dictionaries are not permitted. At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together. The†¦show more content†¦The children must not be told; no one must ever find out that their home harboured vermin. These were still superstitious times in a village whose oldest inhabitant could remember the plague, carried by vermin, which had wiped out three quarters of their population. If word got out, the parents knew that their family would be hounded from their happy home, without belongings, without a place to go, without mercy.  © UCLES 2010 0500/23/O/N/10 3 Eventually Henri returned, his knapsack full of certain death, but his pockets bulging with sweet things to silence the children and to get them out of the way. Tonight, Henri would save his family. He wasted no time in setting to work the minute the children were tucked up in bed that night. Granules of black powder were placed in every strategic position: in cupboards, under skirting, in the rafters, the cellar and even at the back of the stove. By the third night the results finally showed: silence. The couple slept for the first time in an exhausting week. Soon everything returned to normal. Relief washed over the couple when neighbours called by or the children’s friends came to play. However, all the anxiety of late had caused them not to notice just how quiet and secretive their children had recently become. If the parents had looked into Gabriel and Luca’s room they would have understood the reason. In a small box, lined with sheep wool and an old sock, lay a light grey