These seven questions use invented Malay extracts. Write your own answer first, then compare your claim, quotation and effect with the explanation.
This page is part of the SPM subjects and learning resources section.
Questions
Q1. Summarise in one sentence: Adik menyapu halaman, walaupun daun-daun gugur semula sebelum dia selesai.
Answer
Adik sweeps the yard, but the leaves fall again before he finishes.
Q2. Interpret the same line. What might it suggest about Adik?
Answer
The detail gugur semula sebelum dia selesai suggests Adik is patient and keeps working even when the task cannot be finished. It shows persistence or a dutiful nature.
Q3. Kakak mengira wang simpanan itu sekali lagi, walaupun jumlahnya tidak berubah. What does the repeated counting suggest?
Answer
Mengira … sekali lagi, walaupun jumlahnya tidak berubah suggests anxiety about money. She hopes the total will change and cannot stop checking, which shows worry.
Q4. Name and explain the effect of the language: Angin berbisik di telinga daun.
Answer
Personification. Angin berbisik gives the wind a person’s action. The effect is a soft, secret and gentle mood, because a whisper suggests closeness and quiet, which the literal “the wind blew” does not.
Q5. Explain the effect of the simile: Harapannya setipis benang layang-layang.
Answer
The simile compares hope to the thread of a kite. A kite thread is thin and can snap, so the simile shows that her hope is fragile and may break easily. It makes the reader feel her uncertainty.
Q6. Improve this paragraph: “Dia sedih. Teks berkata dia memandang jalan kosong. Jalan itu panjang.”
Answer
The quotation is dropped in with no explanation, and the last sentence only describes the road.
Improved: “She is sad and lonely. The phrase memandang jalan kosong suggests she is waiting for someone who does not come, because the road is empty. Looking at it shows her longing.”
Q7. Plan a five-line response to: “Explain how the writer shows Kakak’s worry.” Use Q3 as a detail.
Answer
Question: explain, focus on worry.
Claim: the writer shows her worry through repeated actions and through the money she counts. Evidence: repeated counting (sekali lagi, walaupun jumlahnya tidak berubah); a second invented detail of your own. Effect: the repetition shows she cannot stop worrying. Order: actions first, then the detail that shows the cause.
If you got these wrong
- Q1 to Q3: read move from summary to interpretation.
- Q4, Q5: read explain the effect of a language choice.
- Q6: read support a claim with a textual detail.
- Q7: read plan an original response to a current text.
Build a timed set with the timed practice session builder and check your answers with the structured answer self-review. If you want a teacher to read your answers with you, see online one-to-one Malay Literature tuition.