™

Cambridge IGCSE

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH 0500/11

Paper 1 Reading October/November 2024
INSERT 2 hours

INFORMATION
• This insert contains the reading texts.
*2804044874-I*

• You may annotate this insert and use the blank spaces for planning. Do not write your answers on the
insert.

This document has 8 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

11_0500_11_2024_1.13
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 2

Read Text A, and then answer Questions 1(a)–(e) on the question paper.

Text A: Bees

A bee colony is populated by a queen, about 200 male drones and thousands of
underdeveloped female workers. The queen is the largest member of the colony due to the
workers having fed her a special diet.

The queen is the mother of all the workers and also the male drones in the hive. She remains
inside, attended by the workers who groom and feed her. The sole purpose of the drone is 5
to mate with her so that the hive continues.

Bees have different characteristics that make them suited to pollinating certain plants. For
example, the early bumblebee’s small size and agility allow it to enter plants with drooping
flowers. The larger garden bumblebee is better at pollinating the deep flowers because its
longer tongue can reach deep inside them. 10

Plants can only grow because of pollination. Bees’ transference of pollen between flowering
plants enables a plant to reproduce and produce food. The cycle of a plant’s life keeps turning
in this way.

So thanks to these small creatures, we enjoy a range of foods from orchard fruits to coffee
and vanilla. And if you are wearing cotton, that’s because a cotton plant was pollinated. 15
Maybe in your lessons at school you have come across bees too. This would be because
many poets, artists, authors and scientists have found them a fascinating subject to study.

But bees are in trouble. Nowadays, many of us are aware of how human decisions impact
on bee populations. A few organisations try to educate the public on how the pesticides we
use on crops to make our food safer and more prolific are toxic to bees, damaging their 20
mental capacities and ability to reproduce. Bee habitats, such as ponds, trees and flowers,
are wiped out by our need to urbanise and build houses and by intensive farming methods.
We really need to ask ourselves how much our thoughtlessness and selfishness might be
costing us all.

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Read Text B, and then answer Question 1(f) on the question paper.

Text B: Beekeeping

This text is advice given by a practising beekeeper to other people considering keeping bees.

Why be a beekeeper? Is it because you like honey? Want to help with local pollination? Aid
the global honeybee crisis? Beekeeping is hard work and a considerable responsibility, so
needs a lot of thought.

Actually, you may have no choice in the matter if beekeeping is forbidden in your area. My
town requires hive registrations. You might just live somewhere where there are no restrictions 5
on beekeeping, but that would be lucky.

Okay, so you are allowed to keep bees. It took me a while to receive a reply to my request
for help from the online beekeeping organisation I contacted, presumably because the
beekeepers were all out and about pursuing their hobby. In the end I discovered that there
was a lot of advice out there, which I sifted through, finding some of it anecdotal and specific 10
to certain circumstances rather than of use to me.

Naturally, I assumed that my spacesuit-like body and head protection would shield me from
stings. Choosing clothing that is effective in keeping an angry swarm at bay is important,
but bear in mind there is always the occasional unavoidable sting. Yes, it’s happened to me
even in a full beekeeping suit with gloves. 15

My bees fly up to eight kilometres when out foraging for nectar and pollen, and that’s fine
as I live in a rural area. Your urban neighbours may not be so happy about you keeping
beehives in your back garden while they are out enjoying the sun.

And that brings me onto another matter. I have a field for my hives. They should be placed
on a level site, receive sun during the day and be sheltered from strong winds, as well as 20
being easily accessible for you and their stripy occupants.

In the beginning, I bought a heavy hive, intending to give my bees a robust and safe home.
By harvest time, when the hives were full of honey, my aching back taught me I needed to
purchase a lighter construction. Still now, I need a trusted friend (a fellow beekeeper) to help
me shift those hives around. 25

The same friend and I have a reciprocal arrangement to look after our bees when either of
us goes away. Bees can’t be left for long periods. Hiring someone else to look after your
bees can be costly and you need to be sure that person knows what they’re doing.

I spent a lot of money getting started and I made a few expensive purchasing errors, from
heavy hives to beekeeping accessories that I never actually used. 30

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Read Text C, and then answer Questions 2(a)–(d) and Question 3 on the question paper.

Text C: The business venture

Damian and Abdul were school friends. As adults, they have gone into business together.

Tuesday evening, driving the van home, Damian laughs in pleasure.

‘Sold out in one morning. Brilliant work for our very first day at the market! I’ll try some new
ranges and we can take double to sell next week.’

Abdul does not share Damian’s optimism. ‘We don’t want to go too quickly, and the van
freezer isn’t very big,’ he cautions. 5

***

A few months earlier, Damian and Abdul had been relaxing in Damian’s field, near his
beehives. It had been the first mild morning for many months and the two men were sipping
Damian’s home-made acacia honey and berry smoothies.

The delicate tracery of acacia leaves cast a dancing dappled shade over the beehives. A
worker bee, one of the first to venture uncertainly out of the hive that morning, drew dizzy 10
spirals in the air, as it orientated itself, sensing the nectar in the newly budding flowers.
Damian could faintly hear the drones inside the hive humming in reverential attendance on
their queen. He looked up. Any day now those acacia trees would burst into flower and
cascades of clustered white blossom would turn the trees silver. Then this solitary worker
would be accompanied by hundreds of other labourers, all intent on drinking their fill of nectar. 15

‘I agree with that little bee,’ announced Damian, smacking his lips in pleasure at the taste
of honey and berries. ‘We should venture out of our own hives and taste the sweet nectar
of life. Get ahead of the crowd. Nice big shop in the middle of town.’

‘All the online advice is that small businesses should start slowly. No risk-taking. Trying it
out just once a week in the local market is best,’ replied Abdul. 20

‘There isn’t another smoothie store in town, and no one who makes smoothies like I do!’
Damian protested.

A few weeks later, Damian conceded defeat when Abdul showed him his painstaking work.
‘My survey suggests that people in the town like smoothies, but they are not prepared to
pay too high a price for them. We need to encourage them to try ours.’ 25

Facts and figures didn’t interest Damian. He wandered into the house to continue working
on his smoothie ranges. All his creations were conventionally sweet: cherries, pineapples
and strawberries blended with the bees’ acacia honey, lumps of ice and different milks. He
wanted to diversify.

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A worker bee swung through the kitchen window and settled momentarily by the honey jar. 30
It started to carefully probe droplets of honey that had puddled on the work top, smiling to
itself in self-congratulatory glee. ‘What shall I turn my talents to next?’ Damian asked the
bee. The bee’s segmented antennae rotated through a full 90 degrees, and then folded
outwards, as if in a quizzical hand gesture. Its gossamer wings reclined, and a contemplative
silence consumed the kitchen. ‘You’re no help!’ reprimanded Damian playfully. 35

Damian returned to Abdul. ‘How about a savoury range?’ he suggested. ‘I was thinking of
pizza ’

Abdul didn’t answer. He was looking thoughtful. ‘We could put a few of those cherry ones
on special offer to attract buyers. I’ve also been looking at the amount of packaging we plan
to use and whether it is eco-friendly. And we need a portable freezer and a big van.’ 40

***

Damian smiles, remembering back to that conversation. He parks the van and observes the
beehives. A huge swarm of bees flies over the top and up towards the acacia tree.

Abdul watches too. ‘I guess we could have rivals if other people realise how successful our
business is.’

‘Then we should think bigger and get ahead. A shop that is open every day of the week. I 45
could live there.’

‘But then who would look after your bees?’ asks Abdul, as the two men contemplate the
crowds of tiny golden bodies intent on pursuing their own businesses in the white blossom.

© UCLES 2024 11_0500_11_2024_1.13

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Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2024 11_0500_11_2024_1.13

 ™
Cambridge IGCSE

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH 0500/12

Paper 1 Reading October/November 2024
INSERT 2 hours

INFORMATION
• This insert contains the reading texts.
*5863596625-I*

• You may annotate this insert and use the blank spaces for planning. Do not write your answers on the
insert.

This document has 8 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

11_0500_12_2024_1.13
© UCLES 2024 [Turn over
 2

Read Text A, and then answer Questions 1(a)–(e) on the question paper.

Text A: The forest elephant

Many children can identify the savannah elephant as an inhabitant of Africa just by looking
at a picture of it. However, most people are unaware that there are two different kinds of
elephant living on the same continent.

Very little is known about the other African elephant: the magnificent, intelligent and highly
elusive forest elephant. 5

In March 2021, after their population had suddenly declined by a staggering 86%, the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) set the status of the forest elephant
to ‘critically endangered’. At the time, most people had never heard of them, let alone taken
steps to aid their preservation.

Genetic analysis has demonstrated to scientists that forest and savannah elephants diverged 10
from their common ancestor around 5.5 million years ago. It can also be observed that the
two elephant types live separate existences and are as genetically distinct as lions and tigers.

In common with other rainforest-dwelling mammals of Central Africa, the forequarters of the
forest elephant are lower than the hindquarters. The resulting compact shape, along with its
dark colouring, allows the forest elephant to melt quietly into the rainforest, maybe explaining 15
why the species has been less studied than its savannah counterpart, which occupies more
open spaces. Compared to the larger lighter-coloured savannah elephant, the forest elephant
has smaller, more rounded ears, while the savannah elephant boasts thicker and more
curved tusks.

If we care about the future of our rainforests, we should care about the conservation of the 20
forest elephant. Known as the ‘mega-gardener of the forest’, the forest elephant eats mainly
fruit then disperses the seeds while it moves around, meaning that a range of fruit trees are
spread about the rainforest and kept plentiful. They also eat small trees, thereby thinning
out space for larger ones to flourish. Large trees have high carbon absorption levels and are
very much associated with combatting climate change. Large trees also support the existence 25
of primates and many other animals.

© UCLES 2024 11_0500_12_2024_1.13

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Read Text B, and then answer Question 1(f) on the question paper.

Text B: Volunteering with elephants

Text B is a young person’s account of their experience volunteering in an elephant park.

For someone like me, volunteer tourism can be an ideal first way to travel solo into a safe
and structured environment. Dedicated social media sites offered me an opportunity to learn
about the elephant park and make friends with other volunteers in advance.

Before I started volunteering, I already knew that some elephant species were endangered,
but I naively believed that all wild animals should be free. That’s a sweet sentiment, but it’s 5
just not that simple. Due to poachers and loss of wildland, it is generally better for an elephant
to be in captivity than to be in the wild.

Unfortunately, some projects are unethical and frankly damaging to the well-being of
elephants. I dismissed working for one elephant orphanage, as it was clearly focused on
lucrative tourism rather than actual conservation. Pictures on their website showed smiling 10
child visitors poking at baby elephants and perching on their backs. I had no intention of
supporting such blatant exploitation. Fortunately, I found another elephant park that gave
conservation a better image.

My first week there was mostly training, not actively helping, enabling me to realise that short
programmes are not particularly useful. The money that you pay to volunteer will help the 15
animals, but you, the animals and the programme will get a greater benefit the longer you
stay. I met one girl who was just finishing up ten weeks’ volunteering with elephants. In my
first week, we newcomers stood round unsure about instructions, while she confidently
examined a daily rota before putting herself straight to work.

I volunteered with elephants for one month straight and it was exhilarating. We saw how our 20
elephants had such very different personalities. For example, when tourists came to the
elephant park, they could buy fruit and vegetables to feed the elephants. Often, one particular
elephant would amble across to the humans for food. Others in the herd were too shy to
make contact, though cheekily expected the brave member of the herd to bring back any
exciting goodies to share. 25

As time passed, we volunteers collaborated well over the daily rota and my self-confidence
soared. You get to spend so much time with these animals. I cleaned elephant enclosures,
prepared their food, observed and took notes on their behaviour, picked up elephant dung
for research (seriously!) and input elephant data into the computer.

Our evenings and weekends were free. Fridays were a half-day. I found this a good balance. 30
I used my free time to visit nearby towns and soak up the culture.

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Read Text C, and then answer Questions 2(a)–(d) and Question 3 on the question paper.

Text C: River Game Reserve

The narrator, Frances, and her husband, Lawrence, own River Game Reserve. This text is about a herd
of elephants coming to live at the reserve.

Whenever Celia, the lead elephant, and her herd visit, their trunks immediately curl up like
periscopes to scan our house. They start to wonder: ‘Are they at home? Is that appetising
whiff coming from their bountiful fruit trees? Would a daring fruit-raid be within the realms of
possibility?’ Our cat finds his blissful slumbers on the patio rudely disturbed, then the
exuberant elephant babies gleefully charge after him along the length of the wire fence that 5
borders our garden, their bodies a gangling bundle of floppy ears and tiny swinging trunks.

Celia has a soft spot for Lawrence. It has been a long-term comfortable friendship which, to
this day, still requires regular opportunities for a gossipy catch-up. Lawrence parks his jeep
a kilometre away from the herd and waits. Celia, catching human scent in the air, quietly
separates from the others and ambles towards him through the dense scrubland, trunk high 10
in delighted greeting. He tells her about his day and she tells him about hers with soft throaty
rumbles and gentle trunk-tip touches.

But I need to go back a few years to when we bought River Game Reserve, a beautiful mix
of river, savannah and forest sprawled over rolling hills with an abundance of animals.

Almost immediately, an animal welfare representative asked us to adopt a herd of elephants. 15

We knew nothing about keeping elephants, nor had we anticipated the significant monetary
outlay required for a secure enclosure within the reserve where elephants could stay until
they adjusted to their surroundings.

But there was no one else to accommodate the herd safely, so, two weeks later in the middle
of a night of torrential rain, three huge articulated trucks brought the elephants to us. When 20
I saw the size of the trucks, I was hit by the full impact of what was arriving: two adult females
and three little ones under the age of ten.

Just as the trucks pulled into the game reserve, a tyre exploded, and the vehicle tilted
dangerously in the mud. My heart froze at the elephants’ terrified trumpeting and screeching.
It wasn’t until dawn that we managed to get them into the secure enclosure. 25

They weren’t there for long.

By the next day, they’d figured out a way to get past the electric fence’s brutal 8000 volts by
pushing a large tree onto it. The wires shorted and off went the elephants, pounding
northwards in the direction of their previous home. Many villages dot the hills and valleys
around our game reserve, so this was a serious concern. 30

You’d think it would be easy to find a herd of elephants, but it isn’t. Animals, big and small,
instinctively know how to make themselves disappear in the bush, and disappear they did.
At first, people on foot, in cars and helicopters couldn’t find them.

It was ten days before the herd was returned. Ten exhausting days. We survived on adrenalin,
coffee and very little sleep. The pressure to settle them and avoid a repeat incident was 35
immense. Night after night, Lawrence stayed as close to the secure enclosure as he dared,
singing to those angry elephants, talking to them and telling them stories until he was hoarse.

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With tender determination and no shortage of foolhardiness, Lawrence breached Celia’s

terror of humans and gained her trust.

One afternoon he came home and literally bounced up the steps to me. ‘You won’t believe 40
what happened,’ he said. ‘Celia put her trunk through the fence and touched my hand.’

I was shocked. Celia could have slung her trunk around his body and yanked him through
the wires.

‘How did you know she wouldn’t hurt you?’

‘I could sense her mood. She isn’t angry or frightened anymore. In fact, she was telling me 45
that they’re ready to leave the secure enclosure. Tomorrow, I’m going to open it and let them
explore the rest of the reserve.’

© UCLES 2024 11_0500_12_2024_1.13

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BLANK PAGE

Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2024 11_0500_12_2024_1.13

 ™
Cambridge IGCSE

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH 0500/13

Paper 1 Reading October/November 2024
INSERT 2 hours

INFORMATION
• This insert contains the reading texts.
*7538253065-I*

• You may annotate this insert and use the blank spaces for planning. Do not write your answers on the
insert.

This document has 8 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

11_0500_13_2024_1.2
© UCLES 2024 [Turn over
 2

Read Text A, and then answer Questions 1(a)–(e) on the question paper.

Text A: What are earthscrapers?

While ‘skyscraper’ is a well-known term for a very tall building that reaches up to the skies
from the ground, there is another term that is less well-known: ‘earthscraper’. Earthscrapers
are best described as inverted skyscrapers. They start at ground level and then extend
downwards an impressive distance from the surface.

Countless structures, such as car parks, arenas and laboratories, are buried underground, 5
but their shallow setting means that these are not earthscrapers. As far as we are aware,
no actual earthscrapers have been built yet. To date, these wondrous multifunctional
subterranean designs excite our imaginations only in fiction and architectural plans.

One proposal for an earthscraper was an entry to a Skyscraper Competition in 2012 by a

team of Mexican architects. The competition required entrants to design practical solutions 10
to the problems caused by restricted space and growing populations in cities. The ambitious
Mexican proposal imagined a ‘65-storey deep’ earthscraper placed beneath Mexico City’s
central square, with living, office and retail spaces as well as a 10-floor museum. This would
also conserve the city’s threatened historic buildings.

Building underground is no easy task, especially the deeper you go, where engineering 15
problems are potentially significant. Mexico has a hot climate and the immense glass top of
the earthscraper could well act as a greenhouse, so the provision of adequate ventilation
throughout the structure would need to be considered. The best in human ingenuity would
be demanded in teams both overseeing and implementing the project.

There are mixed feelings about constructing such earthscrapers in the world’s biggest cities. 20
Some experts speculate that they would be environmentally friendly and require very little
energy for heating and cooling, but this is not a commonly held view. Meanwhile governments,
who must weigh up spending priorities and the management of the inevitable increases in
traffic congestion and pollution above ground, have a lot to consider too.

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Read Text B, and then answer Question 1(f) on the question paper.

Text B: Buying an underground house

In this text the narrator describes her family’s experiences when buying and living in an underground
home.

We learnt quickly that a positive mindset was required when considering living underground.
Important things like researching locations and finding companies who offered home insurance
were challenging. We also soon realised that this was going to be much more expensive
than conventional above-land living. It wasn’t a scheme for the faint-hearted or those who
couldn’t invest a substantial amount of cash. 5

We were advised not to build our home in some splendidly remote hillside, but to find a
pre-built home in an underground community. This saddened us as we had indulged in a
romantic notion of complete independence and freedom, cut off from the hustle and bustle
of human life. It would have been a dream to design the house ourselves then oversee its
construction. But after reading online stories of people who’d thought like us and their house’s 10
subsequent leaks, mould and constant repairs, we sadly concluded that this was not a good
idea. After all, we reasoned, being part of a community would be more practical: advice and
a potential support network in case of problems were definite advantages.

So, when a couple living in an underground home needed to return to life above land for
family reasons, we jumped at the opportunity to buy their 2-year-old dwelling on the edge 15
of a smallish community of 20 similar homes. Being peripheral to the community rather than
at its heart seemed like a good compromise to my ideals. Not only that, but the homes in
the community also enjoyed an efficient drainage system, keeping them all soundly
water-proofed, while potential condensation issues had been resolved by effective insulation.
We could cross those concerns off our list. 20

We were so excited to move in! It was lovely. The huge dome-shaped glass entrance gave
us considerable natural light. People imagine that an underground home must be dark and
gloomy, but a good architect will ensure that this is not the case. There was also an open
area at the centre of the house, where we sat on warm evenings to watch the sky darken
above us. It was our own slice of the natural world, inaccessible to anyone else but us. How 25
thrilling!

We love wildlife. This is just as well, as taking up residence underground means you often
have these uninvited guests. To manage the situation, we installed a small pond for turtles
and the several varieties of frogs and toads that are found locally. Two king snakes - one of
which actually allows me to pet him - roam freely in one of the bedrooms and sometimes 30
burrow in a laundry basket.

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Read Text C, and then answer Questions 2(a)–(d) and Question 3 on the question paper.

Text C: Visiting Underground City

The narrator is called Simon. He, Jodie and their 8-year-old son, Ben, are on holiday in a region called
Tassos.

We descend the stairway into a dark labyrinth unfurling below us. The passage allows just
two visitors abreast, so we jostle shoulders and unforgiving walls. Lighting is muted: just a
few gentle torches discreetly hidden in unexpected crevices project alluring shades of tan,
gold and red onto the exposed stone walls. Now we are under the surface, the heat has also
dissipated: cold air pushes past us, a desperate thief escaping the scene of its crime. 5

‘You may find the descent a bit difficult,’ our guide, Milo, says, ‘but think how much more
difficult it was without light and without someone like me showing you the way.’

Ben nods in silent agreement. He is impressed; I am glad we came.

This visit had been my idea earlier today. Ben had been lonely and, feeling guilty about
choosing a hotel without children’s activities, I’d googled ‘family-friendly trips’ on my phone. 10
Jodie had sniffed uncertainly when ‘Tassos’s thirteenth century Underground City’ showed.
‘Oh, Simon, it’ll be stuffy in this heat,’ she’d complained.

Jodie was right about the heat outside. The sun had been unrelenting since our arrival, but
fortunately, most of Tassos is within a short distance of the coast. On our morning beach
visits, fresh breezes whipped the heaviness out of the air, while fun in the sea energised us. 15
But now, sitting in the still courtyard of our hotel, everywhere was parched and begged for
hydration. In front of me a dying tree had collapsed, its trunk riven at the base. Oddly, its
spindly uppermost branches still stretched skyward, while its lower boughs wept dry tears
into the cracked earth.

Jodie and I studied the Underground City website together. ‘Eight floors over 100 metres. 20
Friendly tour guide. Amazing!’ I said. ‘Let’s book it.’

The coach journey took an hour, and we were grateful that we’d paid the extra for an
air-conditioned vehicle.

Underground, the chill is pleasant. Jodie holds Ben’s hand firmly as we negotiate some
narrow twists and turns. Ahead, Milo warns us about a low roof, so we stoop slightly. 25

Then we enter a large chamber. Milo is waiting for us to gather round him. He smiles
expansively and beckons us closer. His eyes pick out Ben and a young girl, the only two
children present. ‘Do you know what this room was for?’ asks Milo.

Ben and the girl shake their heads, mouths open.

‘It’s a school classroom,’ announces Milo. ‘The teacher probably stood where I am and the 30
children would sit on the floor. No desks, no whiteboards, definitely no computers or phones.’

Milo now addresses us all: ‘This was a sophisticated society. For safety reasons we can
only visit this area. You can see one of the many ventilation shafts above our heads and
there are wells like this one here to store fresh water. Families had their own living quarters –
a bit like modern day apartments. There were communal areas and shops.’ 35

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 5

Half an hour later we resurface into the heat and board our coach back. Milo provides us
with refreshments, while Ben, sitting next to the girl he met in Underground City, is talking
animatedly. She’s called Anna. Anna and her mother are staying in a hotel that is not far
from ours and Jodie has already exchanged phone numbers with them. I notice how the
volcanic rock and soil that had made burrowing underground so easy once means that this 40
is not a land of fertile forests. A handful of lonely broken trees wither in the dry flat land as
far as the eye can see. An evening walk to see this open landscape under a vast sky is a
tempting idea. My camera would capture some spectacular panoramic vistas. Meanwhile,
Milo is telling us about a must-visit outdoor market selling local crafts. Not my favourite thing
to do, but Jodie looks excited. She and Anna’s mother exchange conspiratorial glances. 45

© UCLES 2024 11_0500_13_2024_1.2

 8

BLANK PAGE

Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2024 11_0500_13_2024_1.2

 ™
Cambridge IGCSE

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH 0500/11

Paper 1 Reading May/June 2024
INSERT 2 hours

INFORMATION
• This insert contains the reading texts.
*3662771179-I*

• You may annotate this insert and use the blank spaces for planning. Do not write your answers on the
insert.

This document has 8 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

06_0500_11_2024_1.19
© UCLES 2024 [Turn over
 2

Read Text A, and then answer Questions 1(a)–(e) on the question paper.

Text A: Unusual modes of travel

Travelling the world can be thrilling – search online and you’ll find lots more interesting ways
to get around than cars, buses or planes. From trains made of bamboo to wicker toboggans,
or even sleds pulled by trained dogs, these unusual types of transport offer an unforgettable
experience.

Here are some more you might not have heard about ... 5

Coco Taxi – Havana, Cuba: these tricycles, worked by pedal power, have a back seat for
two people behind the driver. Some have a tiny motor that helps the driver when going up
a slope. These cute yellow taxis shaped like hollow coconuts can be seen in Havana and
in Varadero. Though prone to accidents, they are faster at negotiating traffic than regular
taxis. The black taxis are used by locals, while the yellow ones are used by tourists. 10

Monte Toboggan – Madeira, Portugal: originally a fast means of transport down to Funchal
for people living in Monte, these toboggan sledges appeared around 1850. Still in use by
locals today, they attract thousands of tourists every year who want to enjoy this exciting
ride, sliding at high speed on narrow, winding streets down to Funchal. These two-seater
wicker sledges glide on wooden runners and are pushed and steered by men dressed in 15
white cotton clothes and straw hats, according to custom, using their rubber-soled boots as
brakes. The downhill journey lasts about 10 minutes on a total course of 2 kilometres, reaching
speeds of 48 kilometres per hour! Simple, yet effective. It’s the perfect contrast to the
high-technology cable car going slowly up to Monte.

DUKW – London, UK: these amphibious trucks (known as DUKW – pronounced ‘duck’) 20
though originally designed as military vehicles to run over both land and water, now offer
friendlier rides past famous London landmarks before launching into the River Thames to
get views from the water.

Remember, it’s not only the place that attracts tourists but also the unusual modes of transport
found there – usually just as safe and often more reliable than regular options (though do 25
your research beforehand). Prices can vary and so we recommend you agree on one before
beginning any journey, booking your tickets or driver in advance wherever possible to avoid
long queues or disappointment.

© UCLES 2024 06_0500_11_2024_1.19

 3

Read Text B, and then answer Question 1(f) on the question paper.

Text B: The Hyperloop high-speed transport system

This online article, written in 2021, gives the writer’s opinion of a proposed new transportation system.

I presume you’ve all heard of the Hyperloop concept – a supposedly less-polluting transport
service carrying passengers inside giant low-pressure tubes in convoys of small pods at
insane speeds. The ‘train’, powered along by magnets, floats on an air-cushion. No? Well
don’t worry, you can forget it: it’s never going to happen.

Having read all the publicly available documents promoting its cost-effectiveness to run, it’s 5
quite clear that there’s a huge gap between the exciting theory of this futuristic transportation,
and it actually existing. Too many unknowns need to be discovered gradually, at great
expense, before the technology can be applied to the design of a reliable transportation
mode.

The science behind Hyperloop appears sound enough, but we know that in reality things 10
can go wrong. Multiple things could go wrong with Hyperloops (below, or even way above,
ground since they can climb and simply go straight over obstacles apparently). A big question
is the air-cushion, whose flow could be stopped by any sort of disturbance external to the
tube. For example, oil pipelines fail, and it sure isn’t the oil inside that’s breaking them.

Another enormous fault with the concept is that nobody nowadays needs to save one hour 15
to get from one city to another. Mobile wi-fi means there’s no such thing as unproductive
time anymore. This has clearly escaped ‘Hyperloopers’, dazzled by the elegant design. That
isn’t to say that suction-tube transport can’t work, but rather that we don’t know enough to
agree that it will work reliably and efficiently. Travelling in a tube might also not be the
comfortable experience imagined, due to nausea-inducing acceleration. 20

Hyperloop companies won’t be the first to try transporting people in a sealed tube, they point
out reassuringly. In 1867, the inventor Alfred Ely Beach wanted to build an underground
train system that relied on pneumatic tubes. But Beach abandoned his passenger system,
instead focusing on the easier task of moving mail. More sensible investors in Hyperloop
projects argue its potential as a cargo transportation system between countries, perhaps 25
beneath water. Think about it, if a pod full of cereals ever broke, would it even make the
news?

© UCLES 2024 06_0500_11_2024_1.19 [Turn over

 4

Read Text C, and then answer Questions 2(a)–(d) and Question 3 on the question paper.

Text C: Riding the rails: learning how to drive a dog-sled

In this article, journalist Lyn Marshall looks back at her adventure holiday in Alaska.

As the sky gradually turned indigo in the fading light, the scraping of ice and frantic unheeded
commands to my sled dog-team broke the stillness. Thundering down the frozen waterway,
I snatched anxious glimpses over my shoulder. Where was Mike, my guide? Would his
tracker still pick up my signal with the gap between us increasing by the minute?

Out exploring that Friday evening, an irresistible scent had wafted by my lead dog’s keen 5
nose. Following primal instincts over my feeble instructions, he’d wheeled around, leading
his obliging pack in the opposite direction at full speed! Applying all my weight to the hook
brake saved me from fishtailing wildly from side to side but did nothing to slow the dogs’
enthusiastic charge.

From my evening chats with Mike over the last few days, I knew that if we lost each other 10
entirely, I was in trouble. I had nothing – no extra clothing, no shelter, but more importantly,
nothing to start a fire. We’d seen wolf tracks regularly, so fire seemed particularly important
to me at that moment.

***

It was March, the tail end of the long, cold winter. Roads were closed, rivers were frozen, 15
and access into the region was limited.

Still spellbound from gazing at the enormity of the Alaskan wilderness, I’d stepped down
from the mail-plane into the miniature perfection of Eagle, a fascinating, history-packed
hamlet of timber dwellings, home to just 85 residents. I was immediately wrapped in the
customary bear hug by Mike’s wife, Scarlett, and cocooned in layers of Arctic-grade outerwear. 20

Mike and Scarlett live sustainably, hunting, fishing and gathering, consciously leaving a
minimal carbon footprint. They’ve enjoyed many years of wilderness expeditions using
traditional dog-sleds and now provide opportunities for adventurous souls to experience their
eco-lifestyle first hand.

Driving a dog-sled is harder than it looks. As Mike’s passenger, I realised it involved constant 25
corrective manoeuvres anticipating the dog-team’s next move (they only ever do what they
want to) and possible camber (tilt in the trail).

In theory lessons, Mike’s diagrams emphasised that the ‘ice highway’ can be anything from
porcelain smooth to oversized ice cubes (slam into one of those and you’d need your
emergency messaging device), but winding through spruce forests tracing soft, snow-covered 30
lines is a precious delight. Criss-crossing a small lake’s glassy surface, I looked down to see
exquisite designs – crystal bubbles of all shapes and sizes suspended in time, cascading
into the dark depths.

There were, of course, many thrills and spills. Losing control on one adrenalin-charged
downhill run, I tipped sideways onto the snow. My happy, yappy team continued on, their 35
inept operator hanging on single-handedly, thankful for the padded trousers provided.

© UCLES 2024 06_0500_11_2024_1.19

 5

Each evening, we settled in at a different location, often an old miner’s cabin, where our
teams were secured and cared for. The teams are your lifeline, your escape route, so their
health and wellbeing are paramount. Only after this did we collect snow for our water and
cut firewood. 40

The most memorable night? Using only nature’s materials, we shovelled and hacked, creating
a shelter against the sub-zero temperature. A reflective wall of logs threw the pit-fire’s heat
under our makeshift roof as Mike spoke with passion about life out here, the joy of relative
freedom and the Aurora Borealis in the night skies that were nature’s artwork: a ceiling of
stars on dark nights, or flooded with rippling, emerald green curtains. As I burrowed down 45
for the night, fire crackling in the stillness, the howling of wolves drifted to us. It was a moment
of complete and utter contentment.

***

Exactly how far I travelled through the twilight with my errant team, I’ll never know. Our detour
didn’t have a dramatic end in the fangs of a wolf pack. Only when fatigued did the team slow, 50
gliding to a halt with Mike rounding the bend sometime later to locate me.

© UCLES 2024 06_0500_11_2024_1.19

 8

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Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2024 06_0500_11_2024_1.19

 ™
Cambridge IGCSE

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH 0500/12

Paper 1 Reading May/June 2024
INSERT 2 hours

INFORMATION
• This insert contains the reading texts.
*9971646583-I*

• You may annotate this insert and use the blank spaces for planning. Do not write your answers on the
insert.

This document has 8 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

06_0500_12_2024_1.15
© UCLES 2024 [Turn over
 2

Read Text A, and then answer Questions 1(a)–(e) on the question paper.

Text A: Bring your child to work day

This online article has been written to introduce employers in large companies to the idea of a ‘Bring
your child to work day’ (BYCTWD).

When you were a kid, did you ever wish to visit your parents’ workplace with them? ‘Bring
your child to work day’ is designed to give youngsters a glimpse into the working world’s
opportunities and challenges.

The initiative first started in Canada as part of an educational programme during which
parents could take their offspring to work for one day. It’s now hugely successful, with many 5
similar schemes globally. Rather than being on any set international date, a day is usually
chosen that is mutually convenient for participating companies with crucial deadlines and
their staff with school-age children.

Why not share the work you do at your workplace with your kids, so they can gain an insight
into the atmosphere of your workplace? If your company is following a work-from-home 10
policy, you can devise typical activities that you might do at your workplace and participants
can complete these with their child. Your employees also love having their children involved
in the business for a day and often work harder to impress them.

The scheme engages staff with children during tours of the building, reminding staff of
company rules and procedures as they answer youngsters’ questions, and encouraging 15
them to talk positively about the role they play at work – teaching communication skills that
might help children in the future. Young visitors see the different roles that are carried out
by people to run a business and might even find their interest in one of the fields.

Of course, you’ll need to plan schedules carefully. Will children be attending any work
meetings? If yes, you’ll need to ensure you keep enough time free in between for fun activities. 20
Will they only be attending family-friendly team activities? Your company may decide to
organise a single activity for the children, rather than having them at work for the entire day
– ensuring health and safety is important. Alternatively, a family-friendly activity may be part
of a longer day of events. Whatever you decide, include virtual activities that both in-office
and remote teams can participate in. For a memorable day, we suggest organising some 25
special BYCTWD activities – perhaps crafting or a magic show.

© UCLES 2024 06_0500_12_2024_1.15

 3

Read Text B, and then answer Question 1(f) on the question paper.

Text B: A change of direction

The writer of this article has gone back to university to study for another degree at 50 years old.

When I first applied to university at 18, I was interested in psychology. My parents felt law
was more suitable. In 2016, after 25 years as a lawyer, I returned to university to study
psychology!

Classes initially were both terrifying and exciting – because of the career change and
uncertainty, knowing I was likely to be the oldest person in class, and the new journey. It 5
wasn’t easy meeting new people, learning new theories, but not as difficult as I’d expected,
and was very rewarding.

Learning new technology is hard as a 50-year-old. There were various online tools to
communicate with professors and other students. Most students today use technology and
find it easy. However, once I’d mustered the nerve to ask, help was always there. Younger 10
students found that explaining to me strengthened their understanding too.

As an ‘older student’, forget about ‘not fitting in’. Embrace your mature perspective as an
asset you bring to class. Speak up, ask questions, make comments – being at university
isn’t just about learning from books and professors, but learning from each other.

Admittedly, memorising new information was harder than I’d remembered, though the skills 15
and abilities required for study felt familiar. Being a parent at the same time, I had honed my
time-management skills during my legal career – invaluable when dealing with multiple
assignments and exams.

Sometimes it felt weird being taught by professors younger than my son, but they treated
me no differently from other students. Ironically, because I was more comfortable than my 20
peers seeking clarifications from professors, I was often sought out by the other students
when they were nervous about speaking up. For example, after one exam some students
felt one question was too hard. They asked me to voice their concerns. After I’d successfully
argued on the class’s behalf, the professor smiled good-naturedly saying, ‘Aren’t you all
lucky to have a lawyer as your representative?’ 25

To capitalise on your university experience, resist the urge to just leave when class is over.
If you’re asked to socialise with your classmates, say yes! Make time to sit and study with
other students. As I continue my education in psychology, informal chats with classmates –
who I now consider friends – give me invaluable insights into younger generations, teaching
me greater empathy for the different world that they have grown up in. 30

© UCLES 2024 06_0500_12_2024_1.15 [Turn over

 4

Read Text C, and then answer Questions 2(a)–(d) and Question 3 on the question paper.

Text C: Changing places

Sonja, a teacher who has been working in a school in England for several years, has volunteered for a
work exchange. She is going to live and work for a few weeks in the village of Siurung, Nepal.

10 January

Today’s my birthday. I don’t know anyone well enough to say. There’ll be messages for me
online, but there’s no internet here. I hope no one back home is worried.

When I first arrived, I was enthusiastic about my decision and the work I am going to do, but
I’ve mixed feelings now: is it presumptuous and arrogant of me to imagine I have anything 5
to offer here? Ramesh assures me colleagues at his school are looking forward to meeting
me.

I’ve already learned how to say thank you and ‘malai bhaiyo’ (which signifies politely that I
have eaten enough), a phrase that will prove useful with such generous hosts and delicious
food. 10

12 January

First day at school.

Huddled under three blankets, I wake up early. Texts home still aren’t getting through.

I want to tell them about the narrow and snaking drive up the mountainside; the deeply
moving traditional welcome of exquisite flower garlands awaiting me in the village; the lanes 15
paved with impossible jigsaw puzzles of metamorphic rock and my accommodation – a
homestay room. Homestays are small huts less sturdy than the main houses. They offer
adequate, affordable accommodation to trekkers and extra income for local families. They’re
designed optimistically to be used in tourist season, not the middle of winter.

29 January 20

Ramesh also teaches Class 8. I’d told him how I loved their enthusiasm. He reassured me
they enjoy my lessons too: they like my ‘unusual’ teaching style and gain confidence from
being able to understand everything I say in English.

3 February

The weather’s definitely getting better – less cold. Ramesh proposes another hike after 25
school. Since arriving, I’ve been grateful for his kindness. He’s become like a brother. When
we’re in a group and everyone’s talking, he makes sure I’m not left out, translating for me
what’s going on.

Next week, there’s a wedding in Ramesh’s family!

9 February 30

With festivities starting tomorrow, priorities seem to be cleaning the house and washing
bedding. I feel immensely privileged to be part of this happy family occasion, but problems

© UCLES 2024 06_0500_12_2024_1.15

 5

of communication mean I’m not sure what to expect. Fortunately, Ramesh explains: this
wedding’s particularly important for the family, the final celebration of its kind, as his brother
Tulshi is the last of his siblings to get married. Some relatives have travelled far for the 35
festivities. The bride, Dipha, works in the capital city Kathmandu. She’ll arrive tomorrow
along with her own family and friends who will all stay here until the wedding celebrations
are over. I guess that explains why so much bedding was washed this morning!

My Northern European mind wonders what would have happened if it had rained today.
Ramesh looks confused, then amused, explaining that this isn’t the rainy season. Simple! 40

10 February

There’s a buffet: mini mountains of curried vegetables, accompanied by copious amounts

of rice! The village square teems and fizzes with people eating, drinking, laughing and children
of all ages running. Weddings always provide an opportunity for people who live far apart
to see each other, catch up, remark on how the children have grown. Everything here’s so 45
similar and so different from the world I’ve left behind.

12 February

A family trek is planned to a local beauty spot perched higher up the mountains. I am thrilled
to be invited. The sun is pouring out of the uninterrupted Himalayan sky. On the way up
Ramesh tells everyone that tigers sometimes roam this area – information I could happily 50
do without. I know Nepal is home to the Bengal tiger but was not expecting to meet one
lurking here. As I express concern, he giggles, reassuring me solemnly in English that these
tigers are ‘not so big’. Then I realise and giggle too. The valley and river below stretch
shimmering into the distance. I already know that leaving this place isn’t going to be easy.

© UCLES 2024 06_0500_12_2024_1.15

 8

BLANK PAGE

Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2024 06_0500_12_2024_1.15

 ™
Cambridge IGCSE

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH 0500/13

Paper 1 Reading May/June 2024
INSERT 2 hours

INFORMATION
• This insert contains the reading texts.
*1939720976-I*

• You may annotate this insert and use the blank spaces for planning. Do not write your answers on the
insert.

This document has 8 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

06_0500_13_2024_1.16
© UCLES 2024 [Turn over
 2

Read Text A, and then answer Questions 1(a)–(e) on the question paper.

Text A: Jaguars (Panthera onca)

Jaguars are large wild cats, with lean muscles and powerful jaws, known for their distinctive
spotty tan-coloured fur. The species roamed freely in the central mountain ranges of Arizona
and New Mexico as recently as the 1960s but have now disappeared.

Some scientists and wildlife protection groups say now is the time to bring back jaguars. In
a recent study, the scientists provided a prospective framework for the big cats’ reintroduction 5
to the mountainous southwestern stretches of the U.S. where they had lived for hundreds
of years.

The scientists describe reintroduction as ‘righting a wrong done to America’s Great Cat over
50 years ago’. They believe that restoring jaguars to this area could provide a much-needed
refuge for the troubled species in the future. 10

Comprising approximately 82 000 square kilometres, the proposed area could support up
to 150 adult jaguars, a population that could be viable for at least 100 years. The study
indicates that this area, not originally considered by the scientists, could be jaguar habitat
due to the availability of water and prey such as fish and turtles. It is also relatively free from
human disturbance. About 1.1 per cent has been developed for urban uses, crops or pasture, 15
according to the study.

The primary justification for jaguar reintroduction rests on the idea that these cats used to
live in the proposed recovery area before eradication by humans. Extensive research did
discover a handful of independent jaguar observations locally between 1890 and 1964, and
a female cat with cubs was trapped in mountains nearby in 1910. These observations, it was 20
claimed, indicated that jaguars occupied the territory continually and had established a
breeding population. The question, of course, is whether this proves the species was ‘native’
to the area and not just visiting as sceptics suggest. Historically, jaguars don’t feature in
local legends or stories. If a species must exist somewhere for a more extended period to
be considered native, the jaguar might not qualify because evidence of sightings only goes 25
back as far as 1890.

Danger to humans is low, scientists claim. Pointing to evidence provided to them by wildlife
protection groups, the scientists concluded there were no historical reports of anyone being
killed by a jaguar. Furthermore, they suggested, unprovoked attacks were extremely rare
despite the media telling a more sensational story. 30

© UCLES 2024 06_0500_13_2024_1.16

 3

Read Text B, and then answer Question 1(f) on the question paper.

Text B: Rewilding

Aiming to restore what humans have destroyed over centuries, ‘rewilding’ is still a relatively
new area of conservation biology. Rewilding is largely based on theories where the top
predator in a food chain has a cascading effect on those organisms beneath it, thus effectively
regulating the ecosystem.

There are different types of rewilding, perhaps the most controversial being the reintroduction 5
of species from the Ice Age back into ecosystems. Since the Ice Age was thousands of years
ago, and many of its larger animals are extinct, this form of rewilding involves introducing
nearest modern equivalents into an area where they have never lived. Meanwhile, other
forms of rewilding simply reduce human intervention in ecosystems, letting nature develop
on its own, or reintroduce species more recently lost from ecosystems. 10

One great success story of a rewilding project is the reintroduction of beavers in Scotland.
Beavers were excessively hunted to extinction in Great Britain. Conservationists wanted to
reintroduce the beaver to help other wildlife prosper.

Another iconic rewilding project is the reintroduction of the grey wolf at Yellowstone National
Park, USA. This project gained world-wide attention when environmental journalist George 15
Monbiot gave a talk on the incredible effects of reintroducing the wolves. Beyond an
exponential rise in biodiversity, there were beneficial geographical changes; for example,
the reduction in grazing by elk allowed trees to grow, helping to stabilise river banks. Similar
to the beavers, the wolves had a huge economic impact locally as increased awareness of
these creatures attracted visitors from around the world. 20

No matter how much research has been done in other areas, however, the outcome’s never
certain for a new rewilding site, and, when introducing predatory animals like wolves, risks
remain. Initially, landowners in Scotland also feared that beavers would devastate their wild
salmon population (of huge commercial importance locally) but were relieved that this wasn’t
the case. Analysis of another rewilding project showed that despite all the work it involved 25
the survival rate of reintroduced plants was extremely low.

Conversely, introduction of an organism may be too successful if it’s an invasive species

(one that out-competes the resident species, causing biodiversity to reduce). This can cost
billions to control, far outweighing any other benefits.

© UCLES 2024 06_0500_13_2024_1.16 [Turn over

 4

Read Text C, and then answer Questions 2(a)–(d) and Question 3 on the question paper.

Text C: The beavers of Lily Pond

The writer, Hanna, and her husband, John, are both interested in wildlife. Hanna is a research scientist
studying beavers in the wild.

For months I’d been looking for a pond. Not just any one would do. Planning to spend several
hundred nights there without human companionship, weathering all seasons, I wasn’t going
to settle for the first pond (or ten) that looked promising.

Then I saw Lily Pond, an artist’s vision of what a pond ought to look like. Fragrant aquatic
flowers of pristine perfection blanketed this fresh water in such matted profusion that the 5
slight breeze caused their overlapping pads to tip on edge, seizing my attention again and
again. On their round green leaves sat bug-eyed frogs, and fat bumblebees buried their
heads in the plants’ floating blossoms. It was morning and the place was busy – a complex
tangle of life. I climbed onto the mud-and-stick dam sheering up this enchanting pool, hoping
that the beavers who’d created it were still in residence, maintaining their engineering feat. 10

‘There’s not enough food here for beavers,’ John warned gently.

I’d hoped that the big stick-lodge nearby might house sleeping beavers.

‘Drive back to the park office. Get that permit to stay,’ I answered. ‘This definitely is the one.
I can’t explain why.’

John stared at me with an expression of incredulity, started to speak, then changed his mind. 15

***

‘It’s no good,’ John sighed, delivering supplies days later. ‘Those lilies are too thick to see
anything – even if there are beavers.’ But there were tempting breaks in the floral mats,
cheeky narrow bands of open water arranged in satisfyingly geometric patterns. Secretly,
this kept my hope alight. 20

To have built this impressive lodge, trees had to be felled, cut into manageable sections and
towed to position. Towing twiggy limbs across shallow water, through a solid cover of lilies,
isn’t easy, so remarkably, beavers dredge deep swimming-channels on the pond bottom
and float their materials over them. I focused on the gaps.

Just then a furry face peered out of one. Next, slowly surfaced one long, brown body. The 25
creature seemed unaware of us frozen in position. Twice the animal paddled the length of
the dam, inspecting it, allowing close-ups of him. The third time, he dived and covered the
course again, underwater, trailing bubbles.

‘Have you got a name yet?’ John whispered.

‘Beaver Number One,’ I insisted. 30

We watched Beaver One surface then dive again at the far end of the dam – presumably
entering an underwater door to his living quarters. That meant the lodge was occupied!

© UCLES 2024 06_0500_13_2024_1.16

 5

Judging by his size, this fine-looking specimen groomed to perfection was of breeding age:
were there beaver kits in the lodge? Was this a colony?

That month I remained at the pond, eventually identifying beavers Two to Four (by keeping 35
them all in sight simultaneously since I couldn’t tell them apart). John needn’t have worried
– clearly these beavers ate lilies. Munching sounds betrayed them. The species was even
more adaptable than we’d realised.

Under cover of darkness, our beavers were a silent, invisible squad, capable of transforming
their surroundings overnight. Their quietness was especially amazing given my suspicion 40
that beavers were not naturally nocturnal, so ill-equipped for night vision. There’s a mysterious,
magical quality about these mammals. Their odd, lumpy shape resembles some mythical
beast created from a grab bag of parts belonging to other creatures: five-fingered front paws,
webbed hind feet, a flat tail beautifully etched as if by skilled craftsmen. If Beaver One picked
up a whiff of my odour or I carelessly made noise, he’d draw up his tail and bring it down on 45
the pond’s surface in that trademark beaver tail-slap with such force that his hind legs recoiled
right out of the water.

One night my camera’s flashlight cover fell off, bathing the beavers in its white beam. To my
surprise they didn’t seem disturbed. John speculated they’d probably become habituated to
passing headlights, making me thankful for modern laws protecting them. 50

© UCLES 2024 06_0500_13_2024_1.16

 8

BLANK PAGE

Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2024 06_0500_13_2024_1.16

 ™
Cambridge IGCSE

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH 0500/12

Paper 1 Reading February/March 2024
INSERT 2 hours

INFORMATION
• This insert contains the reading texts.
*9911806247-I*

• You may annotate this insert and use the blank spaces for planning. Do not write your answers on the
insert.

This document has 8 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

03_0500_12_2024_1.15
© UCLES 2024 [Turn over
 2

Read Text A, and then answer Questions 1(a)–(e) on the question paper.

Text A: Could a wolf ever adopt a human?

A new ‘Jungle Book’ movie is in cinemas. Originally inspired by ancient Indian fable texts,
the tale of Mowgli, an orphaned boy raised by the jungle’s animal inhabitants, is once again
delighting audiences.

The movie’s story never fails to win viewers over thanks to its fantastic take on a human
living among animals in the wild, leaving cinema-goers wondering if there’s any truth behind 5
a boy being raised by wolves. There are various mythological whisperings about babies
being reared in this way, including Tarzan – looked after by great apes – and Romulus and
Remus, the supposed founders of Rome, who were also said to have been nurtured by
wolves. So is there any evidence or science behind such tales?

Of other similar stories drifting around, perhaps the most intriguing is that of a boy named 10
Ramu found in a forest in 1976, who, just like Mowgli, was raised by Indian wolves – or so
it seemed. He even had claw-like nails. But Ramu’s story soon began to unravel, with people
spotting parallels to other published stories. Ultimately, Ramu’s tale could not be confirmed.

But the key here is not whether children can survive in the wild – they can – but whether
animals of a different species would want to protect someone who isn’t one of their own. 15
Chimpanzees, with their remarkable social traits, are seen as the closest living evolutionary
cousins to humans, though this doesn’t necessarily mean they’d adopt a human child. They
certainly show empathy and kindness, but they’re also documented as engaging in violence
to defend their territory. Nevertheless, chimpanzees do adopt orphaned chimps, both in
captivity and in the wild. 20

And there are plenty of cases of animals befriending members of other animal species –
cats nursing baby squirrels, even a pod of sperm whales caring for a bottlenose dolphin.
Researchers note that ‘instinctive adoption’ (when a creature adopts a member of its own
species) happens most often, ensuring DNA that’s similar is passed on to the next generation.

There’s a little less scepticism floating around the Internet than usual when it comes to tall 25
tales like Mowgli’s – people like to believe that an animal might adopt an alien-looking,
resource-swilling human infant. Perhaps a young human could be adopted by a wild animal
if they contributed something useful. We just haven’t seen verifiable documented evidence
of it just yet.

© UCLES 2024 03_0500_12_2024_1.15

 3

Read Text B, and then answer Question 1(f) on the question paper.

Text B: How is the wolf perceived?

The writer of this article has been living alongside a pack of wolves for a number of years, studying and
protecting them.

For many people, their understanding of wolves is a mixture of fact, fiction and half-truths.

Ridiculous tales told to children (such as a ‘big bad wolf’ who eats a grandmother whole)
have corrupted the imagination of generation after generation. In folklore, the wolf’s native
pack-hunting talents – social planning, coordination and surprise – have been interpreted
as undesirable human characteristics such as deception and trickery. 5

Classic horror films portray werewolves fanged and bloodthirsty by the light of the full moon.
Oh dear! Misleading stereotypes still resurface in popular culture and music today, with
wolves constantly portrayed as dangerous threats. People are taught to fear the wolf, so
many still believe that wolves pose a perpetual threat to human life, ignoring evidence to the
contrary. 10

For some cultures the wolf is an animal of great wisdom, revered as a spiritual guide; this
is often distorted by modern wolf enthusiasts to make wolves seem otherworldly and unreal.
Their view holds the wolf in great esteem, but often does so at the expense of recognition
of its place in our ecosystem.

Scientists, such as biologists, ecologists and zoologists, study how humans affect wolves 15
and vice versa, which is very important for the conservation of this species. But scientists
can’t get too close to the wild animals without dramatically influencing and altering natural
pack behaviour. Much research is therefore conducted remotely with the use of technology
such as camera traps, ‘howl boxes’ and tracking devices such as radio collars. The body of
knowledge produced by scientists continues to expand and enrich our understanding of 20
wolves. But studying wild wolves remotely or from a great distance has limitations in what
can be observed, making it very difficult to develop an understanding of the nuances of the
wolf’s character, individuality, devotion to its family, and capacity for communicating emotion
and needs. For example, pups ask adults for regurgitated food by licking their muzzles. If
there is food around, an adult may growl at pack members to keep them away until they 25
have finished eating. Mistakenly, people often interpret this language as being vicious and
evil.

© UCLES 2024 03_0500_12_2024_1.15 [Turn over

 4

Read Text C, and then answer Questions 2(a)–(d) and Question 3 on the question paper.

Text C: In the company of wolves

The writer is a journalist who is reviewing an unusual stay at Aurora Park in the north of Norway.

I drive past piled-up snow and stop by the darkened log cabin. No one comes out of
‘Reception’. I check the park’s website on my phone: ‘Experience Arctic nature up close.
Live amongst our rare semi-wild wolves at the ultra-exclusive Wolf Lodge. Revel in the unique
feeling of being watched by curious amber eyes; be part of a new story for these marvellous,
mythical, misunderstood creatures ’ 5

I extinguish the car lights and step out into the freezing air just as a snowplough comes up
the road, driven by my ‘devoted host’ and ‘wildlife expert’, Head Keeper, Stig Hansen.

‘Follow me in your car,’ Stig says softly. ‘At the top, when we get out, don’t make sudden
movements or noises.’

The snowploughed track leads us between two reassuringly high fences trimmed with electric 10
wire. I leave the car by a gate in the fence, beyond which a tunnel leads up to a brightly lit
lodge on a small snowy hill. The purpose of that tunnel, I know, is to access the lodge without
the inhabitants of the enclosure accessing me.

Then the howling starts: a long primeval cry that reaches deep into the mind, evoking shivers
of excitement. An answering howl draws Stig’s attention, ‘Sometimes I think there are not 15
just ours out there.’

From the edge of extinction wolves are making a comeback in Europe, bringing with them
a cascade of biodiversity and environmental health. Stig’s team monitors wolves living in
some of the largest enclosures among animal parks in the world. His wolf visits were
established to ensure better welfare for wolves in captivity, and to offer humans a unique, 20
life-changing experience. Many wolves in captivity, unfamiliar with people, are fearful, and
live in stressful conditions. Many people fear wolves. The wolves at Aurora Park are
accustomed to human contact and enjoy human company as part of their natural environment.

Dedicated animal keepers guide you into the enclosure, where you will meet these
extraordinary creatures of fairy tales face to face. That’s why I am here: to join a group 25
staying the night inside the wolf enclosure in this secluded valley and, hopefully, make
contact. I say hopefully as no matter the eye-watering expense of the experience, wolves,
it seems, are not to be relied upon.

‘Be very slow and steady,’ Stig reminds us, lighting the fire to prepare supper. ‘Wolves can
get excited. We don’t allow under-18s to meet them. If the wolves knock you over, keep calm 30
and wait for the keepers to move them away.’

From inside the plush mountain lodge, I’ve been promised a view of the Northern Lights. I
peer out of the large viewing windows. As my eyes adjust to the night, I see a green glow:
at first just smudges that grow, forming a cosmic phantom that flutters, swirls and moves
mysteriously across the vast sky. Surfacing from the depths of the darkness we hear a 35
sudden, vicious wolf-fight. ‘Siblings working out their hierarchy,’ says Stig casually. ‘We don’t
interfere.’ We finish dinner in eerie silence, gazing at a shimmering white moon – silhouetted
against it are the swift shadows of running wolves.

© UCLES 2024 03_0500_12_2024_1.15

 5

Next morning, emboldened by a hearty breakfast, Stig and I venture out and immediately
spot the wolf pack loping eagerly towards us. They jump up excitedly, licking our faces. Two 40
of them have a snarling stand-off over who should lick me first but then agree to lick my
camera instead. Apart from that one moment, it’s all remarkably non-threatening. We stroll
to a low snow-covered hill where they do a bit of a howl and hold a wrestling contest. Only
when I drop my phone is there a sudden intimation of what can happen. They are instantly
curious and pushy, flooded with predatory instincts and the power of the pack. Moving slowly, 45
I retrieve my phone and retreat to a respectful distance. Cute they may be, but cuddly toys
they are not.

© UCLES 2024 03_0500_12_2024_1.15

 8

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Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2024 03_0500_12_2024_1.15

 Cambridge IGCSE™

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH 0500/21

Paper 2 Directed Writing and Composition October/November 2024

INSERT 2 hours

INFORMATION
*9917787433-I*

● This insert contains the reading texts.

● You may annotate this insert and use the blank spaces for planning. Do not write your answers on the
insert.

This document has 4 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

DC (JP) 336963/2
© UCLES 2024 [Turn over
 2

Read both texts and then answer Question 1 on the question paper.

Text A: My musical history

My mother’s a talented pianist. She loves to play classical music. One of my earliest memories
involves sitting by her piano while she played. It gave her joy and personal pride. I think she
wanted the same for me. When I was just six years old, she enrolled me in piano lessons.

I hated them. I was nervous and hated the songs I was being forced to learn. I was a kid and
wanted to do other things instead. Learning to read music and play scales didn’t interest me. 5
No amount of begging from my mother could get me to enjoy practising. ‘One day, when you’re
older,’ she’d plead, ‘you’ll cherish the ability to sit down and play.’ Nevertheless, after a couple of
expensive years of once-a-week misery, she finally allowed me to quit.

At 11 years old, I switched schools, got a new best friend, Kim, and got interested in music. This
was a critical turning point. Kim loved the band Weave. Listening to them unlocked a whole new 10
sonic world for me. I fell in love, completely and totally, with rock music.

Kim taught me to play a power chord on her acoustic guitar. If you know that, you can play, or at
least convincingly fake, pretty much every rock song in the world. I was hooked. This was music
– my kind of music.

I spent hours practising. More hours ‘playing’ along with my favourite songs in front of the mirror, 15
pretending I was famous. I’d unlocked a talent within me that had sadly gone untapped when I
was younger and battling that piano. I discovered I didn’t need to read music – I could play my
guitar ‘by ear’.

Today, I work as a music therapist, helping clients use music to work through their issues,
face challenging situations and improve their overall quality of life. My own kids are growing 20
up surrounded by just about every instrument imaginable. They’re encouraged to explore them,
bang around, pretend and feel good. Maybe they’ll be interested in learning how to play one, or
maybe they won’t. Either is absolutely fine by me.

© UCLES 2024 0500/21/INSERT/O/N/24

 3

Text B

The following passage is a talk to parents given by a headteacher.

Music is invaluable to our children in many ways – not just the obvious benefits for brain
development – and it will change your child’s life now and for the future.

Music teaches perseverance and the value of hard work, demanding that we focus on details,
paying attention to the sound of even a single note until we get it exactly right. Music requires
precision. Music shows us that we can practise and prepare, but when performing in a concert 5
(as in life) we must keep going no matter what mistakes happen. Music teaches children to
manage failure. That failure can be small – in a practice room. Or, it can be really big – on stage
in front of an audience of their peers and parents. What better education for our young future
entrepreneurs?

Whether a budding scientist or professional hockey player, your child will have a more enriched 10
and creative life if they have experience of performing music in their youth. Music will make your
child’s life happier, bringing depth and awareness. It will teach them to create connections and to
be innovative and unique thinkers.

Modern children spend too much time alone on the internet. They no longer interact face-to-face
or creatively invent things to do with their spare time. Our school’s new music programme will 15
provide that missing interaction: alongside twice-weekly instrument lessons on a designated
instrument, every one of our children will join one of our new school orchestras.

We may all aim to enrich our family lives with travel, museums and galleries, but for anyone
who wishes their children to experience sensations that are beyond the realm of their everyday
existence, music is a journey into a world that can’t be found anywhere else.
20
Our school music programme will start that journey. Our children will learn the fundamentals of
classical music, its history and its practice, through a series of inspiring talks from the celebrated
orchestral conductor (and former student of our school) Simon Chi. They will be exposed to, and
learn to love, our rich musical heritage through their weekly public performances of opera and
music from ballet, demonstrating their newly acquired skills to a wider audience. They may even 25
take part in tours further afield to publicise our wonderful school. This experience will remain a
part of the fabric of their lives and colour their experience of music for ever after.

© UCLES 2024 0500/21/INSERT/O/N/24

 4

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reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2024 0500/21/INSERT/O/N/24

 Cambridge IGCSE™

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH 0500/22

Paper 2 Directed Writing and Composition October/November 2024

INSERT 2 hours

INFORMATION
*5062933035-I*

● This insert contains the reading texts.

● You may annotate this insert and use the blank spaces for planning. Do not write your answers on the
insert.

This document has 4 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

DC (WW) 336136/1
© UCLES 2024 [Turn over
 2

Read both texts, and then answer Question 1 on the question paper.

Text A: Teenage cooks: a minority?

The following passage is an article by a well-known restaurant critic.

‘Within a generation we’ll have forgotten how to cook,’ warns celebrity chef, Jimmy Marron. His
solution? His website offers 30 recipes, encouraging the youth of today to learn these ‘basic
cooking skills’.

‘Cooking’s fun and rewarding,’ says Marron, who knows a bit about the rewards from cooking,
having bought himself a collection of classic cars on the proceeds. ‘You just need to get started.’ 5

Is he right? About the forgetting how to cook I mean – and his additional claim that no one under
25 cooks anymore. Have our attitudes to cooking changed that much? Well, obviously in my time
every teenager cooked wholesome broths to take to their sick grannies and absolutely nobody
ate instant noodles or takeaway pizza!

Admittedly, I was encouraged to cook when I was a kid. We had ‘domestic science’ lessons at 10
school, so from time to time I tortured my family with imaginative, if undercooked, concoctions
warmed in a microwave, but these weren’t real cooking skills. At university, living away from
home, I was still mangling ingredients. I remember trying unsuccessfully to cook a fancy meal to
impress a girlfriend. In my late 20s, I set up home with my wife and really started to learn how to
cook. I bought books. I slaved away in the kitchen, in the way you do when you want to create a 15
sense of domestic bliss.

Nowadays, in our house, our 13-year-old son must do chores each week – it gets him off the
internet. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given what I do for a living, the one he chooses most regularly is
preparing the family meal, under guidance from one of us. He’s surprisingly good.

So, what have we learned? Well, not very much really. A study of 80 000 cookery book buyers 20
recently reported that nearly half of them cooked once a week or more. Statistically, some of
them must be young? And anecdotally I can say that all people ever want to talk to me about is
cooking. So, the appetite is there for it.

Perhaps technology can be blamed (it usually can). Kids are spending too much time online
to be interested in cooking. Though my suspicion is that people are heading back towards the 25
kitchen because it’s cheaper than the alternatives.

© UCLES 2024 0500/22/INSERT/O/N/24

 3

Text B: I don’t want to cook for my family, and I’m tired of feeling guilty about it

In the passage below, the writer describes visiting a friend’s house for a meal.

‘Try this,’ Lawrence said, offering me one of his creations – an artisan cracker stacked with goat
cheese, topped with fresh herbs picked from his garden.

Content removed due to copyright restrictions.

I’m
excellent at that.

© UCLES 2024 0500/22/INSERT/O/N/24

 4

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reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2024 0500/22/INSERT/O/N/24

 Cambridge IGCSE™

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH 0500/23

Paper 2 Directed Writing and Composition October/November 2024

INSERT 2 hours

INFORMATION
*1554760394-I*

● This insert contains the reading texts.

● You may annotate this insert and use the blank spaces for planning. Do not write your answers on the
insert.

This document has 4 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

DC (LK) 336967/1
© UCLES 2024 [Turn over
 2

Read both texts and then answer Question 1 on the question paper.

Text A: Paying digitally – will paying by cash soon be a thing of the past?

As more retail outlets, festivals and transport networks adapt to contactless cards and tap-and-go
digital technology, fewer people are paying by cash. In some UK cities, buses and cafés simply
refuse to handle notes or coins. Many shops worldwide, from health-food stores to local bakers,
already only accept payment by cards and other digital technology, with retailers describing going
cash-free as ‘cleaner’ or ‘safer’. From Seattle to Singapore, cities are spearheading a global 5
drive to go digital. Cash is a dinosaur, it seems.

Many people are happy to tap cards or phones to hop on a bus, buy a coffee or pay for groceries
and no longer need to carry cash at all. But what might the rise of the cashless city mean for
street vendors and market traders, street performers, waiters or any charity relying on people
donating their spare change? 10

People on the lowest incomes often can’t get a bank account and may become excluded from
mainstream commercial life by their dependence on traditional forms of currency. There’s also
little enthusiasm for abandoning cash, mostly along demographic lines: older people in rural
areas are the least tech-savvy and resent the emergence of entirely cash-free urban zones. ‘The
beauty of cash is that it’s a simple, direct transaction between all kinds of different people – rich, 15
poor, old or young,’ explains financial writer Damien Geales. ‘If society goes cash-free, there’s a
real danger of exclusion.’

Big businesses, equipped with the latest online technology, increasingly insist that bills are paid
electronically. Some offer discounts for services purchased digitally, like train tickets. Some banks
offer training on payment technology for independent traders, though considerable running costs 20
remain for small businesses that need to accept payment from customers keen to do everything
digitally.

The defence for pushing everyone into using digital payments is that a clear trail can be followed
whenever a payment for goods or services is made, but some cultures are deeply reluctant to
give up cash. In some countries, according to recent surveys, most consumers believe that using 25
cash gives them better control over their spending.

‘It’s senseless to try to make everyone go cash-free,’ argues Geales. ‘But big stores see younger
customers using payment apps on their phones to buy everything. The ease of electronic
payments is simply too attractive.’

© UCLES 2024 0500/23/INSERT/O/N/24

 3

Text B: Do you still use cash?

This passage is a blog about the writer’s spending habits.

Scrolling through my online bank statements recently, I was surprised to find that I hadn’t removed
cash from a cash machine for months. Had I not been spending? I wish. No, it just seems that
thanks to technology, it’s become increasingly easy to glide around restaurants, shops and cafés
dispensing my personal wealth.

Driving my son back from school yesterday, I realised another consequence of my pay-by-card 5
habit. I needed to buy fuel from the garage and as ever the pressure was on me to add that
tempting bag of his favourite sweets to my bill. Negotiations complete, we decided he could use
his pocket money for the purchase. I like my son to develop a responsible attitude to spending;
going up to the counter himself to pay and check his change is an important way to reinforce
both maths skills and the value of hard-earned cash. However, further examination revealed I’d 10
no cash in my wallet to give him his allowance. Once back home, I could find only the crumpled
bank note I keep in my running shorts, a safety precaution when heading out for a run. Eventually,
I raided my ‘emergency’ fund, a bottle in my kitchen where I save small change, to pay my debts.

Today, tucking my bank card firmly away, I decide to see how far real cash will get me. Not far.
Any high-priced items it seems are strictly cashless affairs: my rent and telephone bill among 15
them. I meet with baffled expressions and some resistance from the assistant at the agency I rent
my apartment from. ‘I can’t remember the last time we received a cash payment,’ she says. ‘We
don’t like keeping cash in the office, we don’t have a safe, and banks charge you for depositing
cash.’ I see her point. Later, as my daughter cracks open her money box and counts out her
small stash of coins, I realise that the cost of depositing her savings into her bank account this 20
month will wipe them out.

© UCLES 2024 0500/23/INSERT/O/N/24

 4

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reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2024 0500/23/INSERT/O/N/24

 Cambridge IGCSE™

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH 0500/21

Paper 2 Directed Writing and Composition May/June 2024

INSERT 2 hours

INFORMATION
*1518786944-I*

● This insert contains the reading texts.

● You may annotate this insert and use the blank spaces for planning. Do not write your answers on the
insert.

This document has 4 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

DC (DE) 328973/1
© UCLES 2024 [Turn over
 2

Read both texts, and then answer Question 1 on the question paper.

Text A

The following passage is an article about food waste.

Food waste, which allows a third of the food supply across the globe to rot and is a major
contributor to climate change, seems like it should be easy to address. Waste less food,
advocates cry, and you can save money! You can save time! You can save farmland and fuel,
and, since agriculture drives habitat loss, you can even help save the tiger!

In some countries, up to 80 per cent of food waste is attributable to ordinary households. So 5

why is this problem so hard to solve? Because, researchers say, we’re only human and have
busy lives that don’t always align with the moment the fruit in the kitchen ripens. There are often
confusing labels on packaging so people throw away food that might be past its best but is still
perfectly safe to eat.

In the US, there are efforts to cultivate individual awareness, but surveys in several cities found 10
that most people think they throw away less food than the average American. Clearly that doesn’t
add up and shows no one wants to see themselves as part of the problem.

Hotels are also notorious wasters, favouring towers of bread or heaps of fruit that look inviting
but are rarely consumed. When food shopping, it can be easy to imagine a week of healthy,
social media-worthy meals of colourful salads and inspiring feasts, but life often gets in the way! 15
There are restaurant outings, spontaneous invitations, late nights at work, not feeling like cooking
after a day at work or college, and who’s got time to shop for fresh food every day to make sure
nothing is wasted?

When it comes to mitigating climate change, only switching to wind power has more impact than
reducing food waste. So, while we can’t all install wind turbines on our lunch breaks, we can 20
make tweaks to our lunches and our lives to minimise waste.

© UCLES 2024 0500/21/INSERT/M/J/24

 3

Text B

The following passage is part of a blog by a university student.

Have you noticed that young people just can’t win? In my country, people between the ages of
18 and 24 are apparently the biggest food wasters. We’re made to feel guilty for the effect this
has on world hunger, as well as for the environmental resources it takes to grow food that’s
never consumed. We’re told we shouldn’t buy junk food or packaged food that uses unnecessary
plastic, but some of that food lasts longer when packaged and is less likely to be wasted. We’re 5
told we should eat more sustainably, cut down on processed snacks and learn to cook. We must
also be sure never to waste that last, unappetising banana or that bit of cheese that’s gone hard
in the fridge. Young people just don’t live like that. Fruit and vegetables are cited as the most
wasted food items but apart from the occasional apple, my college friends live on fast food picked
up hurriedly between classes, studying and socialising. So, who’s wasting all those vegetables? 10

Another thing that irritates me is that while ordinary consumers get the blame for wasting food,
a third of the food grown never even finds its way into our cupboards. Storing food between
farm and plate is a problem in some climates, as is extreme weather or a shortage of workers
to harvest crops and in the rich world, consumers’ fixation with beautifully unblemished,
standard-shaped food means that tonnes of decent food are thrown away. Personally, I wouldn’t 15
mind buying fruit that isn’t absolutely perfect, but you have to look hard for it on the bargain
shelves of supermarkets here.

Restaurants, school and workplace canteens, as well as supermarkets, waste a lot of food and
although there are some projects that offer leftover food to people in need, retailers are reluctant
to give away their profits and there’s sometimes a stigma attached to such recycling schemes. 20
Some establishments in my town offer boxes to take away any food you can’t eat but I often just
end up wasting it later!

I’m sure I could shop more often and waste less, but it’s just not an easy adjustment to make,
is it? And I don’t need any more ‘awareness campaigns’ because we young people know a lot
about the problems the world faces, but we’re not the only ones to blame for them or the only 25
ones who need to find the solutions!

© UCLES 2024 0500/21/INSERT/M/J/24

 4

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Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2024 0500/21/INSERT/M/J/24

 Cambridge IGCSE™

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH 0500/22

Paper 2 Directed Writing and Composition February/March 2024

INSERT 2 hours

INFORMATION
*9151957827-I*

● This insert contains the reading texts.

● You may annotate this insert and use the blank spaces for planning. Do not write your answers on the
insert.

This document has 4 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

DC (KS) 327913/2
© UCLES 2024 [Turn over
 2

Read both texts, and then answer Question 1 on the question paper.

Text A

The following passage is part of a magazine article about overthinking.

It’s not at all uncommon for my friends to tell me, ‘Don’t overthink it, just go with it.’

‘Just going with it’ is not something I do. I must really understand what I’m doing and then I think
through almost every possibility and eventuality. And I plan. When people say things like: ‘Who
could have imagined that would happen?’ about some entirely predictable outcome, my most
common response is ‘I could’. I have realised that for most people I am an overthinker, but for 5
me, it is others who underthink – I just think.

I’ve always been a natural observer, able to take the emotional temperature of a room, able
to watch people’s micro-movements, listen to their language, their tone. Sometimes, today, my
children think I’m a mind reader, but of course I’m not. I’ve just noticed what’s been said, what’s
gone on, and I’ve overthought what they might do or say. So sometimes I answer a question 10
before they ask it and they think I have a superpower.

Straight out of school, I joined the military, where you had to think not once but several times
about the simplest task because everything was a potential trap or some otherwise-overlooked
detail might later become vital. Check everything, always. During one lecture, someone came in
to give a message to the lecturer and afterwards we were told to describe that person who had 15
just flitted in while we were concentrating on something else.

Of course, overthinking can be exhausting. I must be careful to have boundaries and to give
myself time off because burnout is never far away; I also have to be careful not to end up doing
people’s thinking or memory storage for them. Because, like all emotions and ways of working,
there’s a plus and a minus side. Other people get used to you doing all their planning and thinking 20
for them.

On the whole, I love being an overthinker. It’s enormously enriching and brings me a very
rewarding mental world. I go with it now rather than fight it. Examining every aspect of everything
can bring with it the most amazing insights.

© UCLES 2024 0500/22/INSERT/F/M/24

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Text B

The following passage is an extract from an article.

Thinking about something in endless circles is exhausting. While everyone overthinks

occasionally, chronic overthinkers spend most of their waking time ruminating, putting pressure
on themselves, making them less able to change.

Overthinking can take many forms, but endlessly deliberating when making a decision and then
questioning that decision is common. While hours might be spent deciding, the actual decision 5
is often never made. ‘People confuse overthinking with problem-solving,’ says one psychologist.
‘But what ends up happening is we just sort of go in a loop. We’re not really solving the problem.’

In attempting to read what’s in other people’s minds, overthinkers can create difficulties for
themselves and others. People who overthink consistently run commentaries in their heads about
what they say and do, and fret anxiously about how others think of them. They find it difficult to 10
make an objective choice or arrange things in the best way because they constantly worry about
how their actions will be perceived. Straightforward communication proves impossible because
overthinkers are consumed by self-doubt. ‘What ifs’ and ‘shoulds’ dominate their thinking, as if
an invisible jury is sitting in judgement on their lives. Trying to predict the future by reading into
the smallest details to avoid potentially bad outcomes can debilitate them. Overthinking can keep 15
you stuck in the past, unable to make important decisions and pre-occupied with trying to avoid
annoying others.

Over time, most people learn to harness and control their overthinking habit. They might always
plan and even worry, but they gradually realise that it could be an advantage. Getting to that
point, however, can be a difficult journey. 20

© UCLES 2024 0500/22/INSERT/F/M/24

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Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2024 0500/22/INSERT/F/M/24

 Cambridge IGCSE™

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH 0500/23

Paper 2 Directed Writing and Composition May/June 2024

INSERT 2 hours

INFORMATION
*7063019503-I*

● This insert contains the reading texts.

● You may annotate this insert and use the blank spaces for planning. Do not write your answers on the
insert.

This document has 4 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

DC (DE) 328977/2
© UCLES 2024 [Turn over
 2

Read both texts, and then answer Question 1 on the question paper.

Text A

This passage is an article about how language in the workplace is changing.

If you’ve ever tried to explain a meme, you know how big the cultural divide between generations
can be. And while ‘yelling’ in capital letters and misunderstood emojis are harmless in an online
family group chat, workplace communication is much more fraught.

Workplace harmony depends on successful communication. Language gaps between senior

leadership and newer employees are usually bridged by a shared grasp of ‘business speak’, 5
the jargon that applies in specific areas of work. But now, the first truly digital generation of
young people is entering the workplace, often a virtual one, and workplace communication is
undergoing a major shift.

Miscommunication is common. To younger workers, formal business communication seems cold

and harsh, while younger people are ‘too casual’ for others. Traditionally, the responsibility has 10
been on younger workers to assimilate into office culture, but things are changing.

Every generation has their own youth slang and pop-culture code that they use in social
situations. Older generations tended to adapt their ways of speaking and writing to the more
formal expectations of the workplace, but staff in their twenties are keeping things much more
casual. They’re starting to pull down the barriers between work and personal or social life, 15
naturally creating a more relaxed workplace. These are people who consider both meeting on a
laptop and in an actual office to be ‘face-to-face’ working, after all.

New workers who are digitally fluent now have far more influence over communication and
culture. It goes beyond slang and internet-speak abbreviations. A generation used to informal,
near-constant contact rejects accepted ways of doing things, spurning the prim email in favour of 20
a quick message, emojis included. But that can be tough for older generations, who are used to
defining the professional rules of communication.

Newer employees can be encouraged to maintain decorum and formality (and maybe go easy
on the emojis in emails) or perhaps we should run training on emojis for older managers. Who
knows how people will talk and write to their colleagues and bosses when today’s school students 25
get their first jobs?

© UCLES 2024 0500/23/INSERT/M/J/24

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Text B

The following passage is taken from a letter from a reader written to a newspaper letters page.

My eldest grandson, a smart, courteous, recent graduate and something of a high-flyer, secured
a good job straight out of university in one of the country’s new, up-and-coming tech companies.
We celebrated his tremendous success, and his parents, having struggled in their ordinary jobs
to give him the best education, breathed a sigh of relief.

So far, so good. After a month though, I’m seriously worried that his expensive education has 5
not equipped him to deal with working life. I’m older, I know, but the way he speaks about, and
even to, his colleagues and his superiors is going to land him in trouble and he doesn’t even
seem to realise it. For example, in his induction course, a very senior staff member told the new
recruits, ‘I’m always open to new ideas’, something I doubt she meant literally, but my hapless
grandson promptly sent her an email outlining all his bright ideas for the company. I shuddered 10
even more when he proudly showed me the email. It began, ‘Hi Megan’, ending with one of those
incomprehensible symbols and a suggestion that they might ‘do a face-to-face’ to discuss his
ideas.

Of course, I know offices aren’t the stuffy, over-formal settings they were when I got my first job,
and a good thing too. I never even referred to colleagues I’d worked with for years by their first 15
names and that seems ridiculous now. We had silly business jargon then too but my grandson’s
over-familiar slang, abbreviated words and the constant messaging rather than a measured email
can’t be going down well, can it? How will he ever be taken seriously in his career if he doesn’t
learn to adapt to proper workplace behaviour in the way he communicates? Why would a young
man who had the highest English grades not punctuate properly? He writes as if he’s sitting in a 20
café with his peers, not in a professional working environment.

© UCLES 2024 0500/23/INSERT/M/J/24

 4

BLANK PAGE

Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2024 0500/23/INSERT/M/J/24

 Cambridge IGCSE™

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH 0500/22

Paper 2 Directed Writing and Composition May/June 2024

INSERT 2 hours

INFORMATION
*6332237943-I*

● This insert contains the reading texts.

● You may annotate this insert and use the blank spaces for planning. Do not write your answers on the
insert.

This document has 4 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

DC (DE) 328975
© UCLES 2024 [Turn over
 2

Read both texts, and then answer Question 1 on the question paper.

Text A

The following passage is part of a magazine article about telling the truth.

Fibs, exaggerations, embellishments – there are many words we use to disguise the fact we
often tell lies to smooth social conversation or deflect minor conflict. For example, if you are
late to a meeting, or you’ve missed a deadline, it is often tempting to manufacture a face-saving
excuse which you, and sometimes the person to whom you offer the excuse, know to be untrue.
You don’t want to talk to someone, so you ask a colleague to tell the person that you’re out of the 5
office or in a meeting. We all do it: ‘You look lovely’ (when they don’t) or ‘I’ll call you’ (when you
have no intention of calling).

It is difficult to criticise such lies that seem so harmless. However, there is usually a way to
manage these cases without lying and still stay out of awkward situations. If you are late, you can
simply admit it and apologise. The people with whom you are meeting don’t need to know what 10
delayed you, and the ambiguity is better than deceit. Similarly, when you want to be unavailable,
you can simply say, ‘I can’t talk about this now, but would be glad to get back to you later.’
Leaving it vague is not the same thing as telling a lie.

In some situations, we ought to be truthful, though often aren’t. For example, when someone
asks for your evaluation of a presentation made at work or college, it’s easy to say, ‘It was great, 15
I liked it.’ But that may be missing an opportunity to give helpful, constructive feedback if the
presentation wasn’t good. You can praise the parts that were genuinely praiseworthy, but also
point out what might be improved for the next presentation.

We may try to convince ourselves that some types of lies are acceptable because they are minor.
This includes making an elaborate excuse for why you haven’t completed a task or inventing 20
some fictitious prior appointment when you just don’t want to attend an event but don’t want
to offend. We may be especially susceptible to this kind of deceit if we can convince ourselves
that it’s common practice, that nobody meets deadlines or wants to waste their time at boring
events. We may rationalise our behaviour as compensation for a perceived injustice against us.
‘I deserve better because I work harder than others for the same salary.’ These are deceits which 25
have no other object than to gain something that we know we can only get by lying.

© UCLES 2024 0500/22/INSERT/M/J/24

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Text B

The following passage is an article about children’s development.

Do we teach children to lie?

How many of us tell our kids (or students) that everything is fine when, in fact, everything is
totally wrong, so as not to worry them? Are you always honest about how you feel about things?
Do you praise children’s efforts at school when you really think they’re terrible?

We don’t just lie to protect our kids from hard truths, either. We actually coach them to lie, such 5
as when we ask them to express delight at underwhelming gifts or how tasty a meal was. These
are what scientists call ‘prosocial lies’ – falsehoods told for someone else’s benefit.

We develop the ability to lie very early. By age five, almost all children can (and will) lie to avoid
punishment and a minority will sporadically tell prosocial lies. From ages 7 to 11, they begin to
reliably lie to protect other people or to make others feel better and they’ll start to consider these 10
lies to be necessary and good. Current research suggests that children are motivated by feelings
of empathy and compassion. Sometimes, lying can reveal the good in people.

It’s a feeling of empathy that drives children to tell such lies. In fact, they are trying to resolve a
conflict between honesty and kindness, and they start coming down on the side of kindness. This
involves moral and emotional reasoning and, far from reflecting laziness, seems to entail a great 15
deal more sophistication than truth-telling.

A lot of scientific research has gone into the impact of lying. The conclusion of all this research?
Not all lies are the same, a fact we seem to recognise deep in our minds and bodies. We may
indeed teach children to lie, both implicitly with our behaviour and explicitly with our words; but
some of those lies help to bind our families and friends together and to create feelings of trust. 20
Other kinds of lies destroy those bonds.

This all might seem overly complex, more so than the simple prescription to not tell a lie. The
trouble with do-not-lie prohibitions is that we can all plainly see that lying is everywhere.

© UCLES 2024 0500/22/INSERT/M/J/24

 4

BLANK PAGE

Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2024 0500/22/INSERT/M/J/24