Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. 'The old woman sat at the threshold of her mud house, her eyes fixed on the distant hills as though searching for something the years had taken from her. Around her, the village stirred with the noise of children and the smell of evening soup, but she remained still, a monument to patience and grief. Her hands, gnarled and dark like the roots of an ancient iroko tree, lay folded in her lap. She had buried three sons and a husband in that same red earth she now surveyed, and yet she did not weep. The younger women whispered that she had forgotten how. But those who looked closely into her eyes saw not emptiness, but a deep, still lake — full, unfathomable, and dangerous to those who did not know its depth.' (a) What does the phrase 'a monument to patience and grief' suggest about the old woman's character? (3 marks) (b) Identify and comment on TWO figures of speech used in the passage. (6 marks) (c) What is the overall mood of the passage, and how does the writer create it? (6 marks)