Learn in your language
Skip to content
IGCSE · Cambridge (CIE) · 0408

Crocodiles · safety, useful time and the return to school

Distinguish material provision from freedom to build a future · Trace language learning through effort and relationships · Read the return to school alongside earlier exclusions without erasing difficulty

Cambridge IGCSE World Literature 0408 · 2025-P3-CROCODILES / 2025-P3-A / 2025-P3-B / SET-2025-3 / SET-2026-3 / SET-2027-3
Exam scope and assessment notes

0408 preparation for exam year(s) 2025, 2026, 2027. The assessment changes in 2028; follow the component and selected texts for your year. Original StudyForA teaching for the 2025–2027 Paper 3 option In the Sea There Are Crocodiles, by Fabio Geda, translated by Howard Curtis. Twenty-eight lessons teach the Author’s Note and all six country chapters, with passage, whole-book essay, voice and retrieval workshops. All three complete 2025–2027 selected-work entries link this whole-book teaching pathway. Reading completion, qualified teacher assessment and calibrated full papers are not certified by these self-review exercises. Read the entire unabridged centre-selected book; lessons and models do not replace it. The public reader is a reflowed 133-page version; its page numbers are locators, not certified centre-edition pagination. Use your copy for exact wording, typography and paragraph breaks. The protected book is linked, not reproduced here. Questions and models are original self-review and do not award Cambridge marks or grades. Other well-supported readings can be valid. Qualified literature-teacher review and calibrated full papers remain unfinished. In 2025–2027, Paper 3 is closed book: 90 minutes, one extract response and one whole-text essay, 25 marks each. This book is not a 2028–2030 Paper 3 option. It is excluded from 2025–2027 coursework because it is on those years’ Paper 3 lists; private candidates cannot enter 0408. The lessons analyse a narrative of past experience, not present-day travel, legal or personal-safety advice.

Before you begin

  • Read the Author’s Note and the named chapter scenes in the centre’s complete Howard Curtis translation. Use the linked reader’s text version if needed; its page numbering differs from print editions.
  • Distinguish the experiencing child, the later narrating Enaiat, Fabio’s conversational questions and the authorial/translation process. Reconstructed dialogue is not a certified recording.
  • Read all six country chapters before the whole-book workshops. Teaching availability does not certify individual reading, mastery or an official assessment result.

Work on paper. Try each question before revealing help, and explain why your method works.

Quick readiness check

What should support a claim about a literary text?

What you will learn

  • Distinguish material provision from freedom to build a future
  • Trace language learning through effort and relationships
  • Read the return to school alongside earlier exclusions without erasing difficulty

Crocodiles · being able to use the future

  • Read the named scenes in the complete centre-selected book or the linked public reading before answering. The protected book is not reproduced here.
  • Reader page numbers identify this web version only. Use chapter and scene locators when working with another edition.
  • Write your own developed response before opening the model. Use brief accurate evidence from your copy; paraphrase plainly when exact wording is uncertain.

Original whole-book teaching and self-review, not official Cambridge questions, marks, coursework or a calibrated full paper. The lessons and models do not replace reading the complete centre-selected book or qualified assessment.

More than a warm room

Read the hostel, youth group and fostering request, reader pp.124–126.

  1. 1. How does the hostel episode complicate the meaning of a safe arrival?

    Compare after trying

    Enaiat recognises food, warmth and cleanliness, so the criticism does not erase what is provided. Yet locked space and unused time frustrate the study, work and contact he wants. The glass-and-water image gives passing time an inaccessible quality.

    Speaking at the youth group allows him to explain those needs, and the later fostering request responds through a relationship and formal arrangements. I read safety as needing room for purposeful action, rather than only physical shelter.

    Why this response fits

    • Retain both provision and restriction.
    • Connect the image, expressed needs and subsequent response.

A desire returns in a changed form

Compare the Quetta school sounds with classes and school support in Italy, reader pp.26 and 126–128.

  1. 1. How does the later education sequence develop rather than simply repeat the earlier longing for school?

    Compare after trying

    In Quetta, sound brings Enaiat close to a school from which he remains excluded. In Italy, the delight in taking several courses gives that earlier desire an active form, sustained by intensive effort and help with language.

    Entry does not remove the mismatch in prior learning or difficulties with classmates. The patient teacher’s support makes continuation possible, and Fabio’s later address connects language with a whole life. I see a changed opportunity whose value is strengthened, rather than weakened, by the work it still requires.

    Why this response fits

    • Compare different forms of access.
    • Keep later difficulty, effort and support visible.

Food and warmth do not finish the meaning of care

The hostel offers cleanliness, meals and warmth, which Enaiat appreciates, but its locked doors, limited contact and inactivity make him compare it with a prison. Two months pass without the study or work he wants. The image of time moving beneath transparent glass makes the future visible but inaccessible. It echoes earlier disagreements about felt time without making all institutions identical. Sergio’s visits and the youth group restore contact, and Enaiat explains what provision is missing. Danila’s later invitation responds to that account; fostering begins after a request and paperwork, not simply through ignoring the placement.

A home creates conditions for work which still has to be done

The fostering arrangement is described as a first step, not the end of the new life. Language remains difficult, from the alphabet to pronunciation. Enaiat takes three courses and studies intensively for six months, while Payam continues interpreting when needed. These relationships make learning possible without replacing his effort. The remembered school sounds in Quetta give his delight a longer history. He is now able to seek the education he once heard from outside, but the connection does not mean every earlier deprivation has been instantly repaired or every subject is already understood.

Entering a classroom does not make support unnecessary

The examination and entry into upper school bring another mismatch between formal entry and prior knowledge. One teacher’s alarm creates fear of expulsion, while another proposes a gradual sequence and shared support. The story does not say Enaiat is actually expelled. Classmates initially mock his commitment before friendship develops. Fabio’s sustained address about living in another language broadens learning beyond vocabulary into study, friendship, rest and affection. It belongs to the listener’s intervention, not a speech the young student gives to the class. The new future includes changing perspective as well as acquiring qualifications.

Sources for this lesson

Pause and explain

Does the school episode end with Enaiat being expelled because of his gaps in prior learning?

Put the idea to work

Worked example

Qualify “The hostel gives him food, therefore he has everything he wants”.

Show the worked solution
  1. He appreciates the material provision.
  2. He explicitly wants study, work, contact and a usable future.

Answer Care must be judged through the person’s expressed needs as well as the available supplies.

Try a topic test

Choose Easy, Normal or Difficult. Save your answers and open worked review after finishing.

Test this topic →

From guided practice to a new situation

Write your answer and reasoning first. Use a hint only if you are stuck. The model solution is for self-checking; your written work is not automatically marked.

1 · Guided

Why compare hostel time with water under glass?

Give me a hint

Connect visible movement with blocked participation.

Compare my reasoning
  1. Time passes while he cannot pursue the activities he wants.
  2. Material comfort coexists with limited action and contact.

The image makes inactivity a loss of usable future rather than restful security.

Look for these in your work

  • Analyse the image
  • Retain the material provision
2 · Independent

Compare the school sounds in Quetta with study in Turin.

Give me a hint

Trace a recurring desire through changed access.

Compare my reasoning
  1. Earlier he listens to other children’s play from outside.
  2. Later he actively seeks several courses.

The return develops an old desire into participation while leaving the work and gaps visible.

Look for these in your work

  • Connect distant scenes
  • Avoid instant repair
3 · Transfer

How do the teachers offer different kinds of judgement?

Give me a hint

Distinguish alarm from an answer to a need.

Compare my reasoning
  1. One response exposes the mismatch in preparation.
  2. Another makes a sequence of support possible.

The contrast tests whether a learner’s difficulty produces exclusion or a practical route into learning.

Look for these in your work

  • Use the two responses
  • Keep fear separate from outcome

Common mistakes

  • Do not present six months of intensive language study as instantaneous fluency or a guaranteed timetable for every learner.
  • Do not attribute Fabio’s extended address about language to the child in the classroom.
Recall without your notes

What can you explain now?

Does the school episode end with Enaiat being expelled because of his gaps in prior learning?

Compare with the explanation

No; another teacher proposes gradual support and he continues studying.

His fear of exclusion must be distinguished from the actual response that follows.

After trying it yourself, choose your next review. This is your self-assessment.

Your review choice appears on Today. Sign in to sync it across devices.

Make it stick

Does the school episode end with Enaiat being expelled because of his gaps in prior learning?

If you needed the solution, close it and solve the problem again from a blank page. A correct answer is stronger when you can explain the reason for each step.

Keep learning World Literature

Course scope and assessment

238 original lessons provide 714 guided, independent and transfer tasks, plus 431 reading-tracker and long-response prompts. Twenty skill and route entries, three year-specific Cherry Orchard entries, two Anowa entries, three Crocodiles entries, one 2027 Little Foxes entry, two year-specific Volume 1 poetry entries, one historical 2025 Volume 2 poetry entry and three year-specific Volume 2 story entries link teaching. Anowa has ten lessons through the Prologue and all three phases, with thirty staged tasks and ten original developed responses. Complete primary reading locators support analysis of the contested community frame, partnership, enslavement, the children, remembered dream, separation and ending. The protected play is linked rather than reproduced; editorial BECE material is not reused. Both eligible 2025–2026 Anowa rows link the whole-play pathway. Twenty-eight lessons teach the Author’s Note and all six country chapters of In the Sea There Are Crocodiles, with eighty-four staged tasks and sixty original developed responses. Four workshops teach passage analysis, whole-book argument, layered voice and retrieval/revision. All three complete 2025–2027 book entries link the whole-book pathway; the existing supplemental route remains available without adding another counted requirement. The public reflowed reading is linked rather than reproduced, with edition limits explicit. Twenty-two Little Foxes lessons teach all three acts for 2027, with sixty-six staged tasks and forty-eight original developed responses. Hospitality, silenced voices, the mill, financial negotiation, the proposed marriage, Horace’s return and refusal, the bonds, Birdie’s disclosure, withheld help, the final bargain and Alexandra’s decision are taught through actual stage directions and dialogue locators. Four workshops develop passage analysis, whole-play argument, stagecraft and corrective retrieval. SET-2027-2 links the full sequence; the existing supplemental route remains available without inflating counted requirements. The protected acting script is linked rather than reproduced; exact centre-edition wording and revisions must be checked. The Cherry Orchard has an 18-lesson whole-text sequence with five actual Julius West excerpts and three argument models. The 2026–2027 poetry option has teaching for all fourteen members, three complete public-domain poems and close-reading, comparison and retrieval workshops. Twenty-four lessons teach all ten 2026–2028 Stories of Ourselves Volume 2 members, with named reading and writing sequences and evidence, passage-context, essay and ten-member retrieval workshops. Two complete public-domain narratives, nineteen actual prose extracts and Katie’s complete twenty-line poem within Besant’s prose story support close reading and whole-story writing. The Shrinking Shoe follows the original 1895 prose and its five sections; the embedded poem is not a Paper 2 set poem. All three eligible ten-story selection rows link the complete pathway. Wodehouse and Woolf use brief quotations and original commentary with complete reading sources; their full texts are not reproduced here. Twelve lessons teach twelve compulsory 2028–2030 Volume 3 poems, with thirty-six staged tasks and twenty-four developed-response prompts. The Dutt and Kingsley excerpts and Cissoko’s exact translation still need verified reading and teaching; full-selection workshops remain unfinished, so all three complete poetry rows remain unlinked. Fourteen lessons teach seven 2029–2030 Volume 3 stories with thirty-five developed-response prompts. Twelve actual older primary excerpts support four stories; Achebe, Desai and Danticat use original commentary with complete primary reading links rather than reproducing their protected texts. A separate partial-member pathway supports The Necklace, The Model Millionaire, Sultana’s Dream, The Interlopers, The Sacrificial Egg, Sale and New York Day Women without linking either complete ten-story row. The three other members and full-selection workshops remain unfinished. Read the full centre-selected works and protected anthology; check edition differences, including Weissenhorn’s older Necklace translation. The historical 2025 poetry pathway teaches all fourteen members through eighteen lessons, fifty-four staged tasks and fifty-one developed-response models. Three complete public-domain poems remain printed with line breaks; eleven protected poems use complete primary reading links and original commentary. Four workshops teach close analysis, whole-poem argument, preparation comparisons and specific retrieval of all fourteen members. The complete SET-2025-5 option links this sequence; the historical supplemental route remains without increasing counted requirements. Archival Cambridge and WJEC papers supply primary poems, not reused questions or later-year assessment rules. Centre-edition differences remain explicit. Forty-six lessons provide original teaching and practice for nine historical 2025 story members: The Doll’s House, The Gold Watch, A Visit, A Walk to the Jetty, In the Mountains, Mrs. Sen’s, Promenade, The Plantation and The Paper Menagerie. Together they provide one hundred and thirty-eight staged tasks and one hundred and one developed-response models. A Visit uses complete primary reading visually checked across printed pages 306–310. Promenade follows the complete seven-page narrative on printed pages 416–422; its four lessons trace bodily control, wordless meetings, the interrupted circuit and changed final walk. Mrs. Sen’s has six lessons through the complete story, with eighteen staged tasks and thirteen developed-response models. Teaching follows the collection scan from its unnumbered opening through printed p.135, with food, letters, recordings, separate journeys and the changed final care arrangement. The Plantation has five lessons, fifteen staged tasks and eleven developed-response models through all four numbered sections, visually checked against printed pages 423–429 through the final dawn bird-call. In the Mountains has seven lessons, twenty-one staged tasks and fifteen developed-response models through the final invitation to eat. The complete publisher transcription supports scene-based reading; automated-text errors and subscription access remain explicit, and original printed pages were not visually verified. A Walk to the Jetty has seven lessons, twenty-one staged tasks and fifteen developed-response models through the complete six-page retype’s final berth. Reader annotations and the appended question are separate; the complete publisher version has wording differences, so exact quotations require the approved edition. The centre edition remains required for exact quotations. The protected stories are linked, not reproduced. The partial member pathway is supplemental; Words and full-selection workshops remain unfinished, so SET-2025-6 stays unlinked. Fifteen year-specific prescribed-work entries remain unfinished; complete centre-selected coursework reading also needs substantive text-specific teaching. The 51-entry map is a StudyForA preparation map, not official numbered syllabus sections or a percentage of student mastery. Written practice is self-checked and is not officially marked. Full timed papers and qualified literature-teacher assessment remain unfinished. Fictional exercises are labelled separately from actual excerpts; alternative well-supported readings can be valid. Centre-authenticated coursework and Cambridge moderation are separate from self-check practice.

StudyForA · Learn with understanding

Original teaching content and links to official sources. Check your exam year and qualification before using a resource.