NCEA Level 3 English 91473 Visual Text free practice questions with answers

PRACTICE TEXT — DOCUMENTARY OPENING (VISUAL TEXT) Study the practice text, then choose one question The Tide Keepers: Opening Sequence An original description of a fictional documentary opening, written for this practice paper. Visual and sound details are described in square brackets; spoken words are in quotation marks. SHOT 1. [Black screen. The sound of waves, faint and slow, grows louder. A single gull cries.]

Narrator (a woman, quiet and unhurried): “Before there were names for this coast, there was the tide.” SHOT 2. [Extreme wide shot at dawn: a long, empty beach, the sky a wash of pale grey and rose. The camera is low, almost touching the wet sand. A tiny figure walks at the water’s edge.]

SHOT 3. [Slow tracking shot following the figure from behind. She is an elderly woman in a faded orange raincoat, carrying a plastic bucket. The camera stays at her shoulder height, and her footprints fill with water behind her.] Narrator: “Every morning for forty-one years, Aroha Pene has walked this beach.” SHOT 4. [Close-up of the woman’s hands as she lifts a small plastic bottle cap from the sand and drops it into the bucket. Her fingers are cracked and brown. The only sound is the wet clink of the plastic.]

SHOT 5. [Cut to a high aerial shot: the beach is a pale curve and the woman is a bright orange dot. The orchestral music begins, a single cello holding a long low note. The colour of the sea is steel blue, and cold.] Narrator: “The sea gives back what we give it. That is her only rule.” SHOT 6. [Rapid montage, each shot lasting less than a second: a tangle of fishing line, a child’s sandal, a broken toothbrush, a bottle, a net. The cello rises, and the sound of waves is replaced by the sharp, mechanical clicking of a camera shutter.]

SHOT 7. [Sudden silence. A close-up of Aroha’s face in warm, golden light. She looks directly into the camera, which does not move. Her eyes are wet. Behind her, the tide is coming in.] Aroha:

“People ask why I bother. The sea is so big. And I say: I am not here to save the sea. I am here so that the sea knows somebody is listening.” SHOT 8. [Slow zoom out until the woman is again a distant figure. The title appears in white letters across the sand: THE TIDE KEEPERS. The cello falls silent, and the sound of waves returns.]