Oxford Cambridge and RSA
Wednesday 21 May 2025 – Afternoon
A Level English Language and Literature (EMC)
H474/01 Exploring non-fiction and spoken texts
Time allowed: 1 hour
* 1 4 2 6 4 7 7 0 6 1 *
You must have:
• the OCR 12-page Answer Booklet
INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink.
• Write your answer to the question in the Answer Booklet.
• Fill in the boxes on the front of the Answer Booklet.
• Answer the question.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 32.
• The marks for the question are shown in brackets [ ].
• This document has 8 pages.
ADVICE
• Read the question carefully before you start your answer.
© OCR 2025 [601/4704/0] OCR is an exempt Charity
DC (ST/CB) 333238/4 Turn over
for more: tyrionpapers.com
, 2
Read the two text extracts and answer the question.
Text A from the anthology is an extract from George Saunders’ speech given to graduates at
Syracuse University in 2013.
Text B is a fact sheet produced by a British company called 52 Lives: The School of Kindness in
2022. They are a charity who aim to create a culture of kindness. They work in primary schools and
offer ‘Kindness Workshops’ which teach children how to spread kindness. This fact sheet is one
resource they have produced to explain the science of kindness on physical and mental health.
1 Carefully read the two texts and compare the ways in which the speaker in Text A and the
writers of Text B use language to convey meaning.
In your answer you should analyse the impact that the different contexts have on language use,
including for example, mode, purpose and audience. [32]
© OCR 2025 H474/01 Ju n25
for more: tyrionpapers.com
, 3
Text A
So here’s something I know to be true, although it’s a little corny, and I don’t quite know what to do
with it:
What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.
Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded ...
sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.
Or, to look at it from the other end of the telescope: Who, in your life, do you remember most fondly,
with the most undeniable feelings of warmth?
Those who were kindest to you, I bet.
It’s a little facile, maybe, and certainly hard to implement, but I’d say, as a goal in life, you could do
worse than: Try to be kinder.
Now, the million-dollar question: What’s our problem? Why aren’t we kinder?
Here’s what I think:
Each of us is born with a series of built-in confusions that are probably somehow Darwinian. These
are: (1) we’re central to the universe (that is, our personal story is the main and most interesting story,
the only story, really); (2) we’re separate from the universe (there’s US and then, out there, all that
other junk – dogs and swing-sets, and the State of Nebraska and low-hanging clouds and, you know,
other people), and (3) we’re permanent (death is real, o.k., sure – for you, but not for me).
Now, we don’t really believe these things – intellectually we know better – but we believe them
viscerally, and live by them, and they cause us to prioritize our own needs over the needs of others,
even though what we really want, in our hearts, is to be less selfish, more aware of what’s actually
happening in the present moment, more open, and more loving.
So, the second million-dollar question: How might we DO this? How might we become more loving,
more open, less selfish, more present, less delusional, etc., etc?
Well, yes, good question.
Unfortunately, I only have three minutes left.
So let me just say this. There are ways. You already know that because, in your life, there have been
High Kindness periods and Low Kindness periods, and you know what inclined you toward the former
and away from the latter. Education is good; immersing ourselves in a work of art: good; prayer is
good; meditation’s good; a frank talk with a dear friend; establishing ourselves in some kind of spiritual
tradition – recognizing that there have been countless really smart people before us who have asked
these same questions and left behind answers for us.
Because kindness, it turns out, is hard – it starts out all rainbows and puppy dogs, and expands to
include ... well, everything.
One thing in our favor: some of this “becoming kinder” happens naturally, with age. It might be a
simple matter of attrition: as we get older, we come to see how useless it is to be selfish – how
illogical, really. We come to love other people and are thereby counterinstructed in our own centrality.
We get our butts kicked by real life, and people come to our defense, and help us, and we learn that
we’re not separate, and don’t want to be. We see people near and dear to us dropping away, and are
gradually convinced that maybe we too will drop away (someday, a long time from now). Most people,
as they age, become less selfish and more loving. I think this is true. The great Syracuse poet,
Hayden Carruth, said, in a poem written near the end of his life, that he was “mostly Love, now.”
© OCR 2025 H474/01 Ju n25 Turn over
for more: tyrionpapers.com
Wednesday 21 May 2025 – Afternoon
A Level English Language and Literature (EMC)
H474/01 Exploring non-fiction and spoken texts
Time allowed: 1 hour
* 1 4 2 6 4 7 7 0 6 1 *
You must have:
• the OCR 12-page Answer Booklet
INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink.
• Write your answer to the question in the Answer Booklet.
• Fill in the boxes on the front of the Answer Booklet.
• Answer the question.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 32.
• The marks for the question are shown in brackets [ ].
• This document has 8 pages.
ADVICE
• Read the question carefully before you start your answer.
© OCR 2025 [601/4704/0] OCR is an exempt Charity
DC (ST/CB) 333238/4 Turn over
for more: tyrionpapers.com
, 2
Read the two text extracts and answer the question.
Text A from the anthology is an extract from George Saunders’ speech given to graduates at
Syracuse University in 2013.
Text B is a fact sheet produced by a British company called 52 Lives: The School of Kindness in
2022. They are a charity who aim to create a culture of kindness. They work in primary schools and
offer ‘Kindness Workshops’ which teach children how to spread kindness. This fact sheet is one
resource they have produced to explain the science of kindness on physical and mental health.
1 Carefully read the two texts and compare the ways in which the speaker in Text A and the
writers of Text B use language to convey meaning.
In your answer you should analyse the impact that the different contexts have on language use,
including for example, mode, purpose and audience. [32]
© OCR 2025 H474/01 Ju n25
for more: tyrionpapers.com
, 3
Text A
So here’s something I know to be true, although it’s a little corny, and I don’t quite know what to do
with it:
What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.
Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded ...
sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.
Or, to look at it from the other end of the telescope: Who, in your life, do you remember most fondly,
with the most undeniable feelings of warmth?
Those who were kindest to you, I bet.
It’s a little facile, maybe, and certainly hard to implement, but I’d say, as a goal in life, you could do
worse than: Try to be kinder.
Now, the million-dollar question: What’s our problem? Why aren’t we kinder?
Here’s what I think:
Each of us is born with a series of built-in confusions that are probably somehow Darwinian. These
are: (1) we’re central to the universe (that is, our personal story is the main and most interesting story,
the only story, really); (2) we’re separate from the universe (there’s US and then, out there, all that
other junk – dogs and swing-sets, and the State of Nebraska and low-hanging clouds and, you know,
other people), and (3) we’re permanent (death is real, o.k., sure – for you, but not for me).
Now, we don’t really believe these things – intellectually we know better – but we believe them
viscerally, and live by them, and they cause us to prioritize our own needs over the needs of others,
even though what we really want, in our hearts, is to be less selfish, more aware of what’s actually
happening in the present moment, more open, and more loving.
So, the second million-dollar question: How might we DO this? How might we become more loving,
more open, less selfish, more present, less delusional, etc., etc?
Well, yes, good question.
Unfortunately, I only have three minutes left.
So let me just say this. There are ways. You already know that because, in your life, there have been
High Kindness periods and Low Kindness periods, and you know what inclined you toward the former
and away from the latter. Education is good; immersing ourselves in a work of art: good; prayer is
good; meditation’s good; a frank talk with a dear friend; establishing ourselves in some kind of spiritual
tradition – recognizing that there have been countless really smart people before us who have asked
these same questions and left behind answers for us.
Because kindness, it turns out, is hard – it starts out all rainbows and puppy dogs, and expands to
include ... well, everything.
One thing in our favor: some of this “becoming kinder” happens naturally, with age. It might be a
simple matter of attrition: as we get older, we come to see how useless it is to be selfish – how
illogical, really. We come to love other people and are thereby counterinstructed in our own centrality.
We get our butts kicked by real life, and people come to our defense, and help us, and we learn that
we’re not separate, and don’t want to be. We see people near and dear to us dropping away, and are
gradually convinced that maybe we too will drop away (someday, a long time from now). Most people,
as they age, become less selfish and more loving. I think this is true. The great Syracuse poet,
Hayden Carruth, said, in a poem written near the end of his life, that he was “mostly Love, now.”
© OCR 2025 H474/01 Ju n25 Turn over
for more: tyrionpapers.com
