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Contents

Contents

Introduction ................................................................................ 4Do Not Say We Have Nothing ....................................................... 5

Extract ................................................................................ 5Student workbook ............................................................... 7Teacher notes and suggested answers .................................. 14Exam style questions ........................................................... 19

Tess of the d’Urbervilles............................................................... 29

Extract ................................................................................ 29Student workbook ............................................................... 31Teacher notes and suggested answers ....................................... 42Exam style questions ........................................................... 49

All the Light We Cannot See ......................................................... 59

Extract ................................................................................ 59Student workbook ............................................................... 62Teacher notes and suggested answers ....................................... 74Exam style questions .............................................................. 83

Rebecca ...................................................................................... 96

Extract ................................................................................ 96Student workbook ............................................................... 98Teacher notes and suggested answers ....................................... 107

© www.teachitenglish.co.uk 2018 of 494

Exam style questions .............................................................. 113

‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’........................................... 134

Extract ................................................................................ 134Student workbook .................................................................. 136Teacher notes and suggested answers ....................................... 143Exam style questions ........................................................... 149

The Book Thief ............................................................................ 161

Extract ................................................................................ 161Student workbook .................................................................. 164Teacher notes and suggested answers ....................................... 176Exam style questions .............................................................. 184

Everything I Never Told You.......................................................... 197


The Handmaid’s Tale ................................................................... 225


Top tips ...................................................................................... 269Acknowledgements ...................................................................... 271


About the author .................................................................... 271Extracts................................................................................ 271

Introduction


Introduction

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This GCSE pack has been designed to support students with the reading fiction elements of GCSE English Language. It has been devised for use with the AQA, Edexcel and WJEC Eduqas specifications. The activities will help students to consolidate and practise skills in:• comprehension and inference • selecting and synthesising information• analysing language and structure• evaluating texts critically. The activities target the relevant assessment objectives: AO1, AO2 and AO4. The pack contains eight fiction text excerpts from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. There are teaching notes for each extract that provide suggested answers and discussion points. Two of the extracts (Rebecca and The Handmaid’s Tale) have detailed support for teachers marking the practice exam content.The texts are organised as follows:Text 1:

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien (2016)

Text 2:

Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (1891)

Text 3:

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (2014)

Text 4:

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938)

Text 5:

‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’ by Arthur Conan Doyle (1892)

Text 6:

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2005)

Text 7:

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (2014)


Text 8:

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)

Our thanks go to our contributor Lyndsey Chand who has written this teaching pack.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing



This is the opening chapter to the novel. In this section the narrator, Marie, tells us about her father and his death. Although written in 2016, the novel begins in 1989 – the same year in which hundreds of Chinese citizens were killed for protesting in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

In a single year, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life. That year, 1989, my mother flew to Hong Kong and laid my father to rest in a cemetery near the Chinese border. Afterwards, distraught, she rushed home to Vancouver where I had been alone. I was ten years old.

Here is what I remember:

My father has a handsome, ageless face; he is a kind but melancholy man. He wears glasses that have no frames and the lenses give the impression of hovering just before him, the thinnest of curtains. His eyes, dark brown, are guarded and unsure; he is only 39 years old. My father’s name was Jiang Kai and he was born in a small village outside of Changsha. Later on, when I learned my father had been a renowned concert pianist in China, I thought of the way his fingers tapped the kitchen table, how they pattered across countertops and along my mother’s soft arms all the way to her fingertips, driving her crazy and me into fits of glee. He

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gave me my Chinese name, Jiang Li-ling, and my English one, Marie Jiang. When he died, I was only a child, and the few memories I possessed, however fractional, however inaccurate, were all I had of him. I’ve never let them go.

In my twenties, in the difficult years after both my parents had passed away, I gave my life wholeheartedly to numbers – observation, conjecture, logic and proof, the tools we mathematicians have not only to interpret, but simply to describe the world. For the last decade I have been a professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada. Numbers have allowed me to move between the unimaginably large and the magnificently small; to live an existence away from my parents, their affairs and unrequited dreams and, I used to think, my own.

Some years ago, in 2010, while walking in Vancouver’s Chinatown, I passed a store selling DVDs. I remember that it was pouring rain and the

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sidewalks were empty. Concert music rang from two enormous speakers outside the shop. I knew the music, Bach’s Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 4, and I was drawn towards it as keenly as if someone were pulling me by the hand.

Dizzy, I leaned against the glass.

And suddenly I was in the car with my father. I heard rain splashing up over the tires and my father, humming. He was so alive, so beloved, that the incomprehensibility of his suicide grieved me all over again. By then, my father had been dead for two decades, and such a pure memory of him had never come back to me. I was thirty-one years old.

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Changsha – A city in central ChinaConjecture – Forming an opinion based on incomplete informationChinatown – A district of a non-Chinese city in which the

population is mostly ChineseBach – A famous composer

Student workbook



The novel begins with the following sentence:

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In a single year, my father left us twice.

1 Do you think this is a powerful opening sentence? Why, or why not?

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2 How do you think the narrator feels about her father leaving? Try to support your answer with reference to the extract.

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Here is the first paragraph:


3 In the second sentence, ‘The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life.’, the writer uses a list format to tell the reader about two increasingly traumatic events. What effect does the use of the list have? How does it make the narrator seem?

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Here is the next part of the extract:


My father has a handsome, ageless face; he is a kind but melancholy man. He wears glasses that have no frames and the lenses give the impression of hovering just before him, the thinnest of curtains. His eyes, dark brown, are guarded and unsure; he is only 39 years old. My father’s name was Jiang Kai and he was born in a small village outside of Changsha. Later on, when I learned my father had been a renowned concert pianist in China, I thought of the way his fingers tapped the kitchen table, how they pattered across countertops and along my mother’s soft arms all the way to her fingertips, driving her crazy and me into fits of glee. He gave me my Chinese name, Jiang Li-ling, and my English one, Marie Jiang. When he died, I was only a child, and the few memories I possessed, however


fractional, however inaccurate, were all I had of him. I’ve never let them go.

Student workbook


4 List four things you learn about the narrator’s father in this extract:1.

2.

3.

4.

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Now read the extract again and answer the questions around it. These will help you to think about the writer’s use of language, and the effects this has on our understanding of this character:


My father has a handsome, ageless face; he is a kind but melancholy man. He wears glasses that have no frames and the lenses give the impression of hovering just before him, the thinnest of curtains.


2. What does this metaphor suggest about the narrator's father?

1. What does this phrase make you think about the narrator's memories?

His eyes, dark brown, are guarded and unsure; he is only 39 years old. My father’s name was Jiang Kai and he was born in a small village outside of Changsha. Later on, when I learned my father had been a renowned concert pianist in China, I thought of the way his fingers tapped the kitchen table, how they pattered across countertops and along my mother’s soft arms all the way to her fingertips, driving her crazy and me into fits of glee. He gave me my Chinese name, Jiang Li-ling, and my English one, Marie Jiang. When he died, I was only a child, and the few memories I possessed, however fractional, however inaccurate, were all I had of him. I’ve never let them go.


3. What do these adjective choices suggest about the narrator's father?

4. What does this part of the description suggest about the narrator's father? Does this surprise you? Why?

Challenge question:What could this symbolise?

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5 Look again at the final part of this paragraph, ‘... the few memories I possessed, however fractional, however inaccurate, were all I had of him. I’ve never let them go.’ Based on these sentences, how would you describe the narrator’s feelings towards her father? Explain your answer, with reference to the extract.

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6 In this paragraph, the writer moves between past and present tense.Give two examples of present tense verbs and two examples of past tense verbs from the paragraph:

Present Past

Why do you think the writer chooses to mix the tenses here? What effect does this have?

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7 Earlier parts of the extract have moved backwards and forwards in time, but this section is chronological (meaning that events are described in the order they happened). What effect does this have? What does it make you think about the narrator?

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Here is the final part of the extract:

Some years ago, in 2010, while walking in Vancouver’s Chinatown, I passed a store selling DVDs. I remember that it was pouring rain and the sidewalks were empty. Concert music rang out from two enormous speakers outside the shop. I knew the music, Bach’s Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 4, and I was drawn towards it as keenly as if someone were pulling me by the hand.


And suddenly I was in the car with my father. I heard rain splashing up over the tires and my father, humming. He was so alive, so beloved, that the incomprehensibility of his suicide


grieved me all over again. By then, my father had been dead for two decades, and such a pure memory of him had never come back to me. I was thirty-one years old.

Student workbook


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8 Which phrase in the extract above shows that the narrator’s feeling of ‘being in the car with my father’ is a memory?

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9 What is the effect of this sudden movement from the present reality into memory?

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The writer uses a cyclical structure here, linking the end of the extract to the beginning by referring again to her father’s suicide, and to her age. What effect does this have?

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Teacher notes and answers


Do Not Say We Have NothingTeacher notes and suggested answersThe novel begins with the following sentence:

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In a single year, my father left us twice.

1 Do you think this is a powerful opening sentence? Why, or why not?

Any answer is acceptable here as long as it is supported, but students are likely to pick up on the in media res opening and the fact that information is withheld, prompting questions.

2 How do you think the narrator feels about her father leaving? Try to support your answer with reference to the extract.

Answers are likely to focus on the negativity of ‘left us’, which suggests a sense of rejection, and the surprise/incredulity suggested by ‘in a single year’. Students may also comment on the possessiveness suggested by ‘my father’.

3 In the second sentence, ‘ The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life’, the writer uses a list format to tell the reader about two increasingly traumatic events. What effect does the use of the list have? How does it make the narrator seem?

It suggests that the narrator is desperately trying to control these events and to remain calm. The list suggests an attempt to order and marshal her thoughts.



Teacher notes and suggested answers


My father has a handsome, ageless face; he is a kind but melancholy man. He wears glasses that have no frames and the lenses give the impression of hovering just before him, the thinnest of curtains. His eyes, dark brown, are guarded and unsure; he is only 39 years old. My father’s name was Jiang Kai and he was born in a small village outside of Changsha. Later on, when I learned my father had been a renowned concert pianist in China, I thought of the way his fingers tapped the kitchen table, how they pattered across countertops and along my mother’s soft arms all the way to her


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fingertips,driving her crazy and me into fits of glee. He gave me my Chinese name, Jiang Li-ling, and my English one, Marie Jiang. When he died, I was only a child, and the few memories I possessed, however fractional, however inaccurate, were all I had of him. I’ve never let them go.

4 List four things you learn about the narrator’s father in this extract:

Answers are likely to include:

he is handsome it is hard to tell how old he is / he is ageless he is kind he is melancholy he wears glasses his eyes are dark brown he is 39 he is a renowned concert pianist.

Now read the extract again and answer the questions around it. These will help you to think about the writer’s use of language, and the effects this has on our understanding of this character:


My father has a handsome, ageless face; he is a kind but melancholy man. He wears glasses that have no frames and the lenses give the impression of hovering just before him, the thinnest of curtains. His eyes, dark brown, are guarded and unsure; he is only 39 years old. My father’s name was


1.What does this phrase make you think about the narrator's memories?

2. What does this metaphor suggest about the narrator's father?

3. What do these adjective choices suggest about the narrator's father?

That they may not be reliable – they are just what she remembers, and may not be the full story.

He is hiding something or holding something back.

Reinforces the impression he is hiding something but also creates a sense of insecurity or even fear.

Jiang Kai and he was born in a small village outside of Changsha.



Later on, when I learned my father had been a renowned concert pianist in China, I thought of the way his fingers tapped the kitchen table, how they pattered across countertops and along my mother’s soft arms all the way to her fingertips, driving her crazy and me into fits of glee. He gave me my Chinese name, Jiang Li-ling, and my English one, Marie Jiang. When he died, I was only a child, and the few memories I possessed, however fractional, however inaccurate, were all I had of him. I’ve never let them go.

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6 Look again at the final part of this paragraph, ‘... the few memories I possessed, however fractional, however inaccurate, were all I had of him. I’ve never let them go.’ Based on these sentences, how would you describe the narrator’s feelings towards her father? Explain your answer, with reference to the extract.

Answers are likely to suggest that she misses her father and is clinging onto her memories of him, clear in the sentence ‘I’ve never let them go’.

7 In this paragraph, the writer moves between past and present tense.Give two examples of present tense verb phrases and two examples of past tense verb phrases from the paragraph:

Present Past


has a kind, handsome faceis a kind ... manwears glasses that have no frameshis eyes ... are guardedhe is only 39 years old

my father's name was ...I learned ...his fingers tapped ...he gave me ...

Challenge question:What could this symbolise?

4. What does this part of the description suggest about the narrator's father? Does this surprise you? Why?He sounds playful, which is surprising as the description has previously made him sound serious and important.

He has given the narrator her identity/ made her who she is.


Why do you think the writer chooses to mix the tenses here? What effect does this have?

Answers may explore the narrator’s inability to move on from her father’s death, that his death has preserved his memory at this particular age, the immediacy and strength of these memories.

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8 Earlier parts of the extract have moved backward and forwards in time, but this section is chronological. What effect does this have? What does it make you think about the narrator?

It makes her seem like she is attempting to carry on with her life – linking to the matter of fact nature of the list in the second sentence of the whole extract.



9 Which sentence in the extract above shows that the narrator’s feeling of ‘being in the car with my father’ is a memory?

‘By then, my father had been dead for two decades, and such a pure memory of him had never come back to me.’

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What is the effect of this sudden movement from the present reality into memory?

It suggests that the memory attacks/overwhelms her – that she can’t control or escape from it.

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The writer uses a cyclical structure here, linking the end of the extract to the beginning by referring again to her father’s suicide, and to her age. What effect does this have?

It creates the impression that her father’s suicide haunts her – that she can’t move on from it.


Exam questions


Exam style questionsAQA

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This is the opening chapter to the novel. In this section the narrator, Marie, tells us about her father and his death. Although written in 2016, the novel begins in 1989 – the same year in which hundreds of Chinese citizens were killed for protesting in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.Do Not Say We Have Nothing



My father has a handsome, ageless face; he is a kind but melancholy man. He wears glasses that have no frames and the lenses give the impression of hovering just before him, the thinnest of curtains. His eyes, dark brown, are guarded and unsure; he is only 39 years old. My father’s name was Jiang Kai and he was born in a small village outside of Changsha. Later on, when I learned my father had been a renowned concert pianist in China, I thought of the way his fingers tapped the kitchen table, how they pattered across countertops and along my mother’s soft arms all the way to her fingertips, driving her crazy and me into fits of glee. He gave me my Chinese name, Jiang Li-ling, and my English one, Marie Jiang. When he died, I was only a child, and the few memories I possessed, however fractional, however inaccurate, were all I had of him. I’ve never let them go.

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In my twenties, in the difficult years after both my parents had passed away, I gave my life wholeheartedly to numbers – observation, conjecture, logic and proof, the tools we mathematicians have not only to interpret, but simply to describe the world. For the last decade I have been a professor

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at Simon Fraser University in Canada. Numbers have allowed me to move between the unimaginably large and the magnificently small; to live an existence away from my parents, their affairs and unrequited dreams and, I used to think, my own.




I went inside the store. The pianist, Glenn Gould, appeared on a flatscreen: he and Yehudi Menuhin were performing the Bach sonata I had recognised. There was Glenn Gould hunched over the piano, wearing a dark suit, hearing patterns far beyond the range of what most of us are given to perceive, and he was...so familiar to me, like an entire language, a world, I had forgotten.

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Section A: ReadingAnswer all questions in this section.

You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section.

1 Read again the first part of the Source from lines 1 to 6.List four things from this part of the text which happened in 1989.

[4 marks]


2 Look in detail at this extract from lines 7 to 22 of the Source:




How does the writer use language here to describe the narrator’s father, Jiang Kai?You could include the writer’s choice of: words and phrases language features and techniques sentence forms.

[8 marks]

3 You now need to think about the whole of the Source.This text is from the opening of a novel.How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?You could write about: what the writer focuses your attention on at the

beginning how the writer changes this focus as the Source

develops any other structural features that interest you.

[8 marks]

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4 Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source, from line 19 to the end.A student, having read this section of the text, said: “The writer describes the narrator and her grief very vividly. It makes you sympathise with the narrator.”To what extent do you agree?In your response, you could:

write about your own impressions of the narrator evaluate how the writer creates these impressions support your opinions with references to the text.

[20 marks]

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Edexcel

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Read the text below and answer the questions that follow.

This is the opening chapter to the novel. In this section the narrator, Marie, tells us about her father and his death. The novel begins in 1989 – the same year in which hundreds of Chinese citizens were killed for protesting in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

Do not Say We Have Nothing: Madeleine Thien




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In my twenties, in the difficult years after both my parents had passed away, I gave my life wholeheartedly to numbers - observation, conjecture, logic and proof, the tools we mathematicians have not only to interpret, but simply to describe the world. For the last decade I have been a professor

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at Simon Fraser University in Canada. Numbers have allowed me to move between the unimaginably large and the magnificently small; to live an existence away from my parents, their affairs and unrequited dreams and, I used to think, my own.





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SECTION A – Reading

1 From lines 1 to 4, identify the word which shows that the narrator’s mother was upset by her ex-husband’s death.

(Total for Question 1 = 1 mark)


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2 From lines 8–12, give two ways the description of the narrator’s father suggests that he may be a secretive character.

You may use your own words or quotation from the text. (Total for Question 2 = 2 marks)

3 In lines 8–22, how does the writer use language and structure to show the narrator’s feelings towards her father?

Support your views with reference to the text. (Total for Question 3 = 6 marks )

4 In this extract, there is an attempt to show the narrator’s grief.

Evaluate how successfully this is achieved.

Support your views with detailed reference to the text. (Total for Question 4 = 15 marks )


WJEC Eduqas

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SECTION A: 40 marksRead carefully the passage below. Then answer all the questions which follow it.

This is the opening chapter to the novel. In this section the narrator, Marie, tells us about her father and his death.




In my twenties, in the difficult years after both my parents had passed away, I gave my life wholeheartedly to numbers – observation, conjecture, logic and proof, the tools we

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mathematicians have not only to interpret, but simply to describe the world. For the last decade I have been a professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada. Numbers have allowed me to move between the unimaginably large and the


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magnificently small; to live an existence away from my parents, their affairs and unrequited dreams and, I used to think, my own.





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Read lines 1–4.A1. List five things you learn about the narrator’s father. [5]

Read lines 7–19.A2. How does the writer present the narrator’s father? [5]

You must refer to the language used in the text to support your answer.


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Read lines 8-32.A3. What impressions do you get of the narrator’s feelings

towards her father from these lines?

You must refer to the text to support your answer. [10]

Read lines 33-40.A4. How does the writer make these lines tense and dramatic? [10]

You should write about: what happens to build tension and drama; the writer’s use of language to create tension and

drama; the effects on the reader.

Read lines 36 to the end.A5. ‘In the last seven lines of this passage, the writer’s

description of the narrator’s memory creates a really vivid sense of her grief.’ [10]To what extent do you agree with this view?You should write about: your own impressions of the narrator’s grief as it is

presented here and in the passage as a whole; how the writer has created these impressions.

You must refer to the text to support your answer.

Tess of the d’Urbervilles


Tess of the d’UrbervillesThis extract is from the opening of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, a novel by Thomas Hardy. It was published in 1891. In the extract, Tess and her younger brother are taking a wagon full of beehives to the market, because their father was too drunk to make the journey himself. The journey is long, and at the start of this extract, Tess and her brother have both fallen asleep.

A sudden jerk shook her in her seat, and Tess awoke from the sleep into which she, too, had fallen.

They were a long way further on than when she had lost consciousness, and the wagon had stopped. A hollow groan, unlike anything she had ever heard in her life, came from the front, followed by a shout of "Hoi there!"

The lantern hanging at her wagon had gone out, but another was shining in her face–much brighter than her own had been. Something terrible had happened. The harness was entangled with an object which blocked the way.

In consternation Tess jumped down, and discovered the dreadful truth. The groan had proceeded from her father’s poor horse Prince. The morning mail-cart, with its two noiseless wheels, speeding along these lanes like an arrow, as it always did, had driven into her slow and unlighted equipage. The pointed shaft of the cart had entered the breast of the unhappy Prince like a sword, and from the

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wound his life’s blood was spouting in a stream, and falling with a hiss into the road.

In her despair Tess sprang forward and put her hand upon the hole, with the only result that she became splashed from face to skirt with the crimson drops. Then she stood helplessly looking on. Prince also stood firm and motionless as long as he could; till he suddenly sank down in a heap.

By this time the mail-cart man had joined her, and began dragging and unharnessing the hot form of Prince. But he was already dead, and, seeing that nothing more could be done immediately, the mail-cart man returned to his own animal, which was uninjured.

"You was on the wrong side," he said. "I am bound to go on with the

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mail-bags, so that the best thing for you to do is bide here with your load.I’ll send somebody to help you as soon as I can. It is getting daylight, and you have nothing to fear."

He mounted and sped on his way; while Tess stood and waited. The atmosphere turned pale, the birds shook themselves in the hedges, arose, and twittered; the lane showed all its white features, and Tess showed hers, still whiter. The huge pool of blood in front of her was already assuming the iridescence of coagulation; and when the sun rose a hundred prismatic hues were reflected from it. Prince lay alongside still and stark; his eyes half open, the hole in his chest looking scarcely large enough to have let out all that had animated him.

"‘Tis all my doing--all mine!" the girl cried, gazing at the spectacle. "No excuse for me–none. What will mother and father live on now? Aby, Aby!" She shook the child, who had slept soundly through the whole disaster. "We can’t go on with our load–Prince is killed!"

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Student workbook


Tess of the d’Urbervilles

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1 Read the first part of the extract, below:



The lantern hanging at her wagon had gone out, but another was shining in her face – much brighter than her own had been. Something terrible had happened. The harness was entangled with an object which blocked the way.

In this first part of the extract, the writer withholds information from the reader – for example, he chooses not to reveal what ‘object’ is blocking the way. List three other pieces of information which are withheld.


Student workbook

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2.

3.

2 Why do you think the writer has chosen to withhold this information? What effect does this have?

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3 Read back through the extract.Which word or phrase tells you that something or someone is in pain?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 Now read the next part of the extract, below:

In consternation Tess jumped down, and discovered the dreadful truth. The groan had proceeded from her father’s poor horse Prince. The morning mail-cart, with its two noiseless wheels, speeding along these lanes like an arrow, as it always did, had driven into her slow and unlighted equipage. The pointed shaft of the cart had entered the breast of the unhappy Prince like a sword, and from the wound his life’s blood was spouting in a stream, and falling with a hiss into the road.

Here, the writer uses imagery to describe both the mail-cart and the horse. For each example in the table below, identify the technique used and the effect it has:

Example

Technique (Metaphor / simile / onomatopoeia)

Effect

‘The morning mail-cart ... speeding along these lanes like an arrow ... had driven into her slow and unlighted equipage’

It shows the speed the mail cart is moving at and makes it sound deadly – like a weapon. It also suggests that the mail cart is destined to run into the horse, just as an arrow is


destined to hit its target.

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Technique (Metaphor / simile / onomatopoeia)

Effect

‘The pointed shaft of the cart had entered the breast of the unhappy Prince like a sword ...’

Simile

‘... from the wound his life’s blood was spouting in a stream ...’

‘and falling with a hiss into the road.’


5 Now read the next part of the source:

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"You was on the wrong side," he said. "I am bound to go on with the mail-bags so that the best thing for you to do is bide here with your load. I’ll send somebody to help you as soon as I can. It is getting daylight, and you have nothing to fear."

He mounted and sped on his way; while Tess stood and waited.

What impression of the mail-cart man does Hardy create here? Underline the answer you agree with:

a. He is worried about Tess.b. He is selfish and cares only about himself.c. He is practical.

Explain your choice. Use quotations and terminology to support your ideas.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


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Now read the same extract again. What impression of Tess does Hardy create here? Again, use quotations and terminology to support your ideas.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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The atmosphere turned pale, the birds shook themselves in the hedges, arose, and twittered; the lane showed all its white features, and Tess showed hers, still whiter. The huge pool of blood in front of her was already assuming the iridescence of coagulation; and when the sun rose a hundred prismatic hues were reflected from it. Prince lay alongside still and stark; his eyes half open, the hole in his chest looking scarcely large enough to have let out all that had animated him.

List three things you learn about Prince in this section:

1.


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2.

3.

7 In this section, the writer contrasts the nightmarish description of the horse’s death with the liveliness of the birds. Choose two quotations which illustrate this contrast:

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What effect does this contrast have on the reader?

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8 Now read the final part of the extract:

"‘Tis all my doing – all mine!" the girl cried, gazing at the spectacle. "No excuse for me – none. What will mother and


1.2.

father live on now? Aby, Aby!" She shook the child, who had slept soundly through the whole disaster. "We can’t go on with our load – Prince is killed!"

Student workbook

Think about the effects of the writer’s language choices. For each of the words below, identify the word class and explain the effect it has in the extract:


Quotation

Word class Effect

girlIt makes Tess sound very young, and so the reader feels sorry for her.

cried verb

gazing

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9 Now look again at the final part of the extract (reprinted below). This time, think about the effects of the writer’s punctuation choices. Answer the questions which surround the extract.

"‘Tis all my doing – all mine!" the girl cried, gazing at the spectacle. "No excuse for me –none. What will mother and father live on now? Aby, Aby!" She shook the child, who had slept soundly through the whole disaster. "We can’t go on with our load –Prince is killed!"


In Tess's speech, the writer often uses dashes to create fragmented sentences. What does this suggest about Tess?

2. What is the effect of the exclamation mark in this sentence?

5. This is the first time Tess has spoken since the accident. Why do you think Hardy has chosen to include her speech here?

3. What is the effect of the dash in this sentence?

4. What is the effect of the question mark in this sentence?

Student workbook


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Finally, think about the whole extract.

A student who read this extract said, ‘I think the writer makes the reader feel really sorry for Tess.’Do you agree? Use the table below to plan your answer. Spend no more than five minutes on this. You don’t have to fill in both sides – it’s fine if all your points support one side of the argument:

Yes NoBecause: Quote which proves

this:Because: Quote which proves

this:

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Yes NoBecause: Quote which proves

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Use your plan to help you write your answer. Remember to use quotes to back up each of your ideas, and talk about the effects of the writer’s language choices in each quote.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Tess of the d’UrbervillesTeacher notes and suggested answers

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The lantern hanging at her wagon had gone out, but another was shining in her face—much brighter than her own had been. Something terrible had happened. The harness was entangled with an object which blocked the way.

In this first part of the extract, the writer withholds information from the reader – for example, he chooses not to reveal what ‘object’ is blocking the way. List three other pieces of information which are withheld.

Answers may include:

• what is making the groaning noise• what has made her lantern go out• who is shining a brighter lantern in her face• what terrible thing has happened.

2 Why do you think the writer has chosen to withhold this information? What effect does this have?


• creation of intrigue and suspense• acts as a narrative hook.



3 Read back through the extract. Which word or phrase tells you that something or someone is in pain?

‘A hollow groan’ (‘groan’ can also be rewarded).


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4 Now read the next part of the extract, below:Here, the writer uses imagery to describe both the mail-cart and the horse. For each example in the table below, identify the technique used and the effect it has:

Example

Technique (Metaphor /

simile / onomatopoeia

)

Effect

‘The morning mail-cart ... speeding along these lanes like an arrow ... had driven into her slow and unlighted equipage’

Simile It shows the speed the mail-cart is moving at and makes it sound deadly – like a weapon. It also suggests that the mail cart is destined to run into the horse, just as an arrow is destined to hit its target.

‘The pointed shaft of the cart had entered the breast of the unhappy Prince like a sword ...’

Simile This simile reinforces the idea of the cart being deadly and weapon-like. It suggests that Prince will not survive.

‘... from the wound his life’s blood was spouting in a stream ...’

Metaphor It suggests that there is a huge amount of blood, and that the bleeding is fast and unstoppable.

‘and falling with a hiss into the road.’

Onomatopoeia

This reinforces the idea of the volume and speed of the bleeding.


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"You was on the wrong side," he said. "I am bound to go on with the mail-bags, so that the best thing for you to do is bide here with your load. I’ll send somebody to help you as soon as I can. It is getting daylight, and you have nothing to fear."

He mounted and sped on his way; while Tess stood and waited.

What impression of the mail-cart man does Hardy create here? Circle the answer you agree with:

a. He is worried about Tess.b. He is selfish and cares only about himself.c. He is practical.



Explain your choice. Use quotations and terminology to support your ideas.

Answers are likely to include the following points:

He tries to help her by seeing to Prince (the verb ‘dragging’ suggests a great deal of effort) and only stops when he sees that ‘nothing more could be done immediately’.

He leaves because he is ‘bound to go on with the mail bags’ and has no choice.

He promises to ‘send someone to help you as soon as I can’.

He assesses the situation and decides that it is safe to leave Tess as ‘It is getting daylight, and you have nothing to fear.’


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Now read the same extract again. What impression of Tess does Hardy create here?

Answers are likely to explore Tess’s helplessness and include the following points:

She tries to help Prince, but this is ineffective and only results in her getting ‘splashed’ with blood.

She doesn’t speak and her actions are passive - she ‘stood helplessly looking on’ and later ‘stood and waited’ – the repetition of ‘stood’ reinforces her passivity, whilst the adverb ‘helplessly’ reinforces her helplessness.

6 Next, read the next part of the source, below:

The atmosphere turned pale, the birds shook themselves in the hedges, arose, and twittered; the lane showed all its white features, and Tess showed hers, still whiter. The huge pool of blood in front of her was already assuming the iridescence of coagulation; and when the sun rose a hundred prismatic hues were reflected from it. Prince lay alongside still and stark; his eyes half open, the hole in his chest looking scarcely large enough to have let out all that had animated him.

List three things you learn about Prince in this section:


he is lying down he is still his eyes are half open he has a hole in his chest the hole in his chest doesn’t look big enough to have

killed him.

7 In this section, the writer contrasts the nightmarish description of the horse’s death with the liveliness of the birds. Choose two quotations which illustrate this contrast:


'The huge pool of blood' OR 'already assuming the iridescence of coagulation' OR 'still and stark'

2. 'the birds shook themselves in the hedges, arose, and twittered' of

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What effect does this contrast have on the reader?


• it makes the horse’s death seem even more tragic / brutal

• it reminds the reader that even when tragic events occur, life goes on.


"‘Tis all my doing – all mine!" the girl cried, gazing at the spectacle. "No excuse for me – none. What will mother and father live on now? Aby, Aby!" She shook the child, who had slept soundly through the whole disaster. "We can’t go on with our load – Prince is killed!"

Think about the effects of the writer’s language choices. For each of the words below, identify the word class and explain the effect it has in the extract:

Quotation

Word class Effect

girl nounIt makes Tess sound very young, and so makes the reader feel sorry for her.

cried verb It shows the depth of Tess’s despair and anguish.

gazing verb It suggests that Tess is unable to look away from the scene

disaster nounIt reinforces the fact that this is a terrible event, and suggests that it will be life changing.

killed verbIt suggests that Tess doesn’t see this event as an accident – she thinks she is to blame.


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9 Now look again at the extract (reprinted below). This time, think about the effects of the writer’s punctuation choices. Answer the questions which surround the extract.

1. In Tess’s speech, the writer often uses dashes to create fragmented sentences. What does this suggest about Tess?



3. What is the effect of the dash in this sentence?

This is the first time Tess has spoken since the accident. Why do you think Hardy has chosen to include her speech here?

4. What is the effect of the question mark in this sentence?

2. What is the effect of the exclamation mark in this sentence?

It shows the depth of Tess's anguish and feeling.

It suggests that she is frantic with worry, and is unable to think clearly.

It emphasises the final word – 'none' – and the fact that she feels the incident is her fault.

It shows her worry about the consequences of the incident.

It allows him to explore her thoughts and feelings about the incident in more detail, and reveals that she blames herself, which creates sympathy.

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A student who read this extract said, ‘I think the writer makes the reader feel really sorry for Tess.’

Do you agree? Use the table below to plan your answer. Spend no more than five minutes on this.

Students are likely to agree. They may include some of the following ideas:

• Tess’s speech at the end of the extract shows that she blames herself (‘Tis all my doing – all mine’). The fragmented sentences, exclamations and questions show how upset she is, and create sympathy.

• Tess initially tries to help Prince (‘Tess sprang forward’) but is unable to.

• Tess’s subsequent passivity (‘stood helplessly looking on’) makes her seem vulnerable, and the situation out of her control.

• We are reminded of Tess’s youth when she is described as a ‘girl’.

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Use your plan to help you write your answer. Remember to use quotes to back up each of your ideas, and talk about the effects of the writer’s language choices in each quote.

See above.


Exam questions



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This extract is from the opening of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, a novel by Thomas Hardy. It was published in 1891. In the extract, Tess and her younger brother are taking a wagon full of beehives to the market, because their father was too drunk to make the journey himself. Tess of the d’Urbervilles





In her despair Tess sprang forward and put her hand upon the hole, with the only result that she became splashed from face to skirt with the crimson drops.

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Then she stood helplessly looking on. Prince also stood firm and motionless as long as he could; till he suddenly sank down in a heap.

By this time the mail-cart man had joined her, and began dragging and unharnessing the hot form of Prince. But he was already dead, and, seeing that nothing more could be done

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immediately, the mail-cart man returned to his own animal, which was uninjured.




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Bide – WaitIridescence – Shimmering with different coloursCoagulation – Starting to thicken or clotPrismatic – Having lots of colours


Section A: Reading

Answer all questions in this section.


1 Read again the first part of the Source from lines 1 to 10.List four things which happen in this part of the text.

[4 marks]


How does the writer use language here to describe Prince’s injuries?You could include the writer’s choice of: words and phrases language techniques sentence forms.

[8 marks]

3 You now need to think about the whole of the Source.This text is from Chapter 4 of a novel.How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?You could write about: what the writer focuses your attention on at the

beginning how the writer changes this focus as the source

develops any other structural features which interest you.

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4 Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source,

from line 20 to the end.A student, having read this section of the text said: “The writer creates a great deal of sympathy for Tess in this part of the extract.”To what extent do you agree?In your response, you could: write about your own impressions of setting evaluate how the writer has created these

impressions support your opinions with references to the text.

[20 marks]

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Edexcel

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This extract is from the opening of a novel by Thomas Hardy. Tess and her younger brother are taking a wagon to market. Tess of the d’Urbervilles: Thomas Hardy






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"‘Tis all my doing--all mine!" the girl cried, gazing at the spectacle. "No excuse for me – none. What will mother and father live on now? Aby, Aby!" She shook the child, who had slept soundly through the whole disaster. "We can’t go on with our load – Prince is killed!"

When Abraham realized all, the furrows of fifty years were extemporized on his young face.

"Why, I danced and laughed only yesterday!" she went on to herself. "To think that I was such a fool!"

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Read the text and answer ALL questions.You should spend about 1 hour on this section.

1 From lines 1 to 6, identify the phrase which explains what caused Tess to wake up


2 From lines 11–18, give two ways the description of Prince’s injuries shows that they are horrific.

You may use your own words or quotation from the text. (Total for Question 2 = 2 marks)

3 In lines 15–23, how does the writer use language and structure to show Tess’s helplessness?

Support your views with reference to the text. (Total for Question 3 = 6)

4 In this extract, there is an attempt to build tension.


Support your views with detailed reference to the text. (Total for Question 4 = 15 marks )

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WJEC Eduqas

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Section A: 40 marks

Read carefully the passage below. Then answer all the questions which follow it.

This extract is from the opening of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, a novel by Thomas Hardy. In the extract, Tess and her younger brother are taking a wagon full of beehives to the market.





In her despair Tess sprang forward and put her hand upon the hole, with the only result that she became splashed from face to skirt with the crimson drops.

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Then she stood helplessly looking on. Prince also stood firm and motionless as long as he could; till he suddenly sank down in a heap.

By this time the mail-cart man had joined her, and began dragging and unharnessing the hot form of Prince. But he was

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already dead, and, seeing that nothing more could be done immediately, the mail-cart man returned to his own animal, which was uninjured.



"‘Tis all my doing – all mine!" the girl cried, gazing at the spectacle. "No excuse for me--none. What will mother and father live on now? Aby, Aby!" She shook the child, who had slept soundly through the whole disaster. "We can’t go on with our load – Prince is killed!"

When Abraham realized all, the furrows of fifty years were extemporized on his young face.

"Why, I danced and laughed only yesterday!" she went on to herself. "To think that I was such a fool!"

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Read lines 1-6.A1. List five things that happen in this part of the text. [5]

Read lines 12-18.A2. How does the writer show that Prince’s injuries are horrific? [5]


Read lines 12-19.A3. What impressions do you get of Tess from these lines?


Read lines 33-47.A4. How does the writer make these lines dramatic and disturbing? [10]

You should write about: what happens to build drama and make the scene

disturbing; the writer’s use of language to create drama and

make the scene disturbing; the effects on the reader.

Read lines 43 to the end.A5. “In the last eight lines of this passage, the writer’s use of

dialogue creates sympathy for Tess.” [10]To what extent do you agree with this view?You should write about: your own impressions of Tess as she is presented here

and in the passage as a whole; how the writer has created these impressions.


All The Light We Cannot See


All The Light We Cannot SeeThis extract is from the beginning of a novel by Anthony Doerr. It is set in France in 1944. In this extract, English and American forces are preparing to bomb the French city of Saint-Malo, which has been captured by German forces. They begin by dropping leaflets which warn French citizens to leave so that they are not hurt. Marie-Laure, a young French girl, is blind and cannot read these warnings.

LeafletsAt dusk they pour from the sky. They blow across the ramparts, turn cartwheels over rooftops, flutter into the ravines between houses. Entire streets swirl with them, flashing white against the cobbles. Urgent message to the inhabitants of this town, they say. Depart immediately to open country.

The tide climbs. The moon hangs small and yellow and gibbous. On the rooftops of beachfront hotels to the east, and in the gardens behind them, a half-dozen American artillery units drop incendiary rounds into the mouths of mortars.

Bombers They cross the channel at midnight. There are twelve and they are named for songs: Stardust and Stormy Weather and In the Mood and Pistol-Packin’ Mama. The sea glides along far below, spattered with the countless chevrons of whitecaps. Soon enough, the navigators can discern the low moonlit lumps of islands ranged along the horizons.

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France.Intercoms crackle. Deliberately, almost lazily, the bombers shed altitude. Threads of red light ascend from anti-air emplacements up and down the coast. Dark, ruined ships appear, scuttled or destroyed, one with its bow shorn away, a second flickering as it burns. On an outermost island, panicked sheep run zigzagging between rocks.

Inside each airplane, a bombardier peers through an aiming window and counts to twenty. Four five six seven. To the bombardiers, the walled city on its granite headland, drawing ever closer, looks like an unholy tooth, something black and dangerous, a final abscess to be lanced away.

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All The Light We Cannot See by Antho


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In a corner of the city, inside a tall, narrow house at Number 4 rue Vauborel, on the sixth and highest floor, a sightless sixteen-year-old named Marie-Laure LeBlanc kneels over a low table covered entirely with a model. The model is a miniature of the city she kneels within, and contains scale replicas of the hundreds of houses and shops and hotels within its walls. There’s the cathedral with its perforated spire, and the bulky old Château de Saint-Malo, and row after row of seaside mansions studded with chimneys. A slender wooden jetty arcs out from a beach called the Plage du Môle; a delicate, reticulated atrium vaults over the seafood market; minute benches, the smallest no larger than apple seeds, dot the tiny public squares.

Marie-Laure runs her fingertips along the centimeter-wide parapet crowning the ramparts, drawing an uneven star shape around the entire model. She finds the opening atop the walls where four ceremonial cannons point to sea. “Bastion de la Hollande,” she whispers, and her fingers walk down a little staircase. “Rue des Cordiers . Rue Jacques Cartier.”

In a corner of the room stand two galvanised buckets filled to the rim with water. Fill them up, her great-uncle has taught her, whenever you can. The bathtub on the third floor too. Who knows when the water will go out again.

Her fingers travel back to the cathedral spire. South to the Gate of Dinan. All evening she has been marching her fingers around the model, waiting for her great-uncle Etienne, who owns this house, who went out the previous night while she slept, and who has not returned.

And now it is night again, another revolution of the clock, and the whole block is quiet, and she cannot sleep.

She can hear the bombers when they are three miles away. A mounting static. The hum inside a seashell.

When she opens the bedroom window, the noise of the airplanes becomes louder. Otherwise, the night is dreadfully silent: no engines, no voices, no clatter. No sirens. No footfalls on the cobbles. Not even gulls. Just a high tide, one block away and six stories below, lapping at the base of the city walls.

And something else.

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Something rattling softly, very close. She eases open the left-hand shutter and runs her fingers up the slats of the right. A sheet of paper has lodged there.

She holds it to her nose. It smells of fresh ink. Gasoline, maybe. The paper is crisp; it has not been outside long.

Marie-Laure hesitates at the window in her stocking feet, her bedroom behind her, seashells arranged along the top of the armoire, pebbles along the baseboards. Her cane stands in the corner; her big Braille novel waits facedown on the bed. The drone of the airplanes grows.

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All The Light We Cannot See

Read the first part of the novel, below:

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1 What image does the writer focus on at the start of the novel? What effect does this have?

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2 In this part of the novel, the writer makes use of carefully chosen verbs. For each of the examples below, explain the effect of the underlined verb choice. Make sure you think about it in the context of the sentence.Verb choice Effect

‘The tide climbs.’

‘The moon hangs ...’

‘American artillery units drop incendiary rounds into the mouths of mortars.’

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The writer also makes other interesting language choices in this extract. Explore these by answering the questions below:



3. What two things does the writer contrast in this sentence? What effect does this have?

4. What technique does the writer use here? What effect does it have?

1. The writer uses short sentences here. What effect does this have?

2. The writer uses three adjectives to describe the moon. What effects do these have?

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Now read the next part of the novel, below:

Bombers

They cross the channel at midnight. There are twelve and they are named for songs: Stardust and Stormy Weather and In the Mood and Pistol-Packin’ Mama. The sea glides along far below, spattered with the countless chevrons of whitecaps. Soon enough, the navigators can discern the low moonlit lumps of islands ranged along the horizons.

France.

4 Rather than referring to the planes as ‘bombers’ or ‘the planes’, the writer repeatedly uses the pronoun ‘they’. What effect does this have?

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5 The writer chooses to put the word ‘France’ in its own paragraph here. What effect does this have?

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Here is the next part of the source:

Intercoms crackle. Deliberately, almost lazily, the bombers shed altitude. Threads of red light ascend from anti-air emplacements up and down the coast. Dark, ruined ships appear, scuttled or destroyed, one with its bow shorn away, a second flickering as it burns. On an outermost island, panicked sheep run zigzagging between rocks.


6 List four things which can be seen from the planes:


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7 Foreshadowing is when a writer drops hints about things that will happen later in a piece of writing. How does the writer foreshadow the destruction the bombers will cause? Use quotations to support your answer.

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8 In the final lines of this section, the writer uses imagery. Explain the effect of each image:

Quote Technique Effect

‘The walled city ... looks like an unholy tooth.’

‘A final abscess to be lanced away.’

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The GirlIn a corner of the city, inside a tall, narrow house at Number 4 rue Vauborel, on the sixth and highest floor, a sightless sixteen-year-old named Marie-Laure LeBlanc kneels over a low table covered entirely with a model. The model is a miniature of the city she kneels within, and contains scale replicas of the hundreds of houses and shops and hotels within its walls. There’s the cathedral with its perforated spire, and the bulky old Château de Saint-Malo, and row after row of seaside mansions studded with chimneys. A slender wooden jetty arcs out from a beach called the Plage du Môle; a delicate, reticulated atrium vaults over the seafood market; minute benches, the smallest no larger than apple seeds, dot the tiny public squares.






Student workbook


9 A student read this part of the novel and said, ‘The writer makes Marie-Laure sound vulnerable.’ Do you agree? Use the table below to help you plan your ideas:

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Yes / No … because …: Quotation from the text which supports this:

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Now use your work from question 9 (The writer makes Marie-Laure sound vulnerable.’) to write up your answer. Make sure you analyse each of your quotes, thinking about how the writer’s use of language and structure impacts on your impression of Marie-Laure.

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And something else.




11

In this part of the extract, the writer uses a lot of aural, tactile and olfactory imagery, describing the things Marie-Laure can hear, feel and smell. Why do you think the writer does this? What does it remind the reader?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

12

Look again at this part of the extract:

When she opens the bedroom window, the noise of the airplanes becomes louder. Otherwise, the night is dreadfully silent: no engines, no voices, no clatter. No sirens. No footfalls on the cobbles. Not even gulls. Just a high tide, one block away and six


stories below, lapping at the base of the city walls. Student workbook


How does the writer use aural imagery and other language techniques to create an ominous atmosphere here?

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Look again at the final part of the extract (printed after question 10). The writer keeps referring to the sound of the airplanes in this part of the extract. Find three examples and write them below:

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1.

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Why do you think the writer includes these repeated references to the planes? What effect does this have?

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15

The writer creates a circular structure here by referring to the leaflets which were described at the very start of the extract. What effect does this have?

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16

Now look back at the whole of the extract you have read in this section.In this extract, the writer uses three short chapters. What does each chapter focus on?

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Focus of Chapter 1

Focus of Chapter 2

Focus of Chapter 3

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Think about your answer to question 15. Why do you think the writer has chosen to keep changing his focus so drastically? What effect does this have?

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All The Light We Cannot SeeTeacher notes and suggested answersRead the first part of the novel, below:

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1 What image does the writer focus on at the start of the novel? What effect does this have?

Students should identify the focus on the leaflets and comment on the sense of danger created by the message they contain.


2 In this part of the novel, the writer makes use of carefully chosen verbs. For each of the examples below, explain the effect of the underlined verb choice. Make sure you think about it in the context of the sentence.



Verb choice Effect

‘The tide climbs.’

Suggests it is slowly building up to a climax. Sounds ominous.

‘The moon hangs ...’

Sounds like it is waiting for something to happen, building tension. Students may also comment on the sinister connotations of death.


Verb choice Effect

‘American artillery units drop incendiary rounds into the mouths of mortars.’

Creates a sense of carelessness which is worrying considering the context.

3.

The writer also makes other interesting language choices in this extract. Explore these by answering the questions below:

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1. The writer uses two short sentences here. What effect does this have?

2. The writer uses three adjectives to describe the moon. What effect do these have?

3. What two things does the writer contrast in this sentence? What effect does this have?

4. What technique does the writer use here? What effect does it have?

It slows the pace and thus amplifies the sense that the natural world is waiting for something, creating tension.

They create the sense that there is something unnatural about the moon.

The 'normal', usually happy locations of the beach and the garden are contrasted with the preparations for war, creating a sense of vulnerability and suggesting normal life will be destroyed.

Personification suggests the guns are hungrily waiting for the ammunition.

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Now read the next part of the extract, below:

Bombers

They cross the channel at midnight. There are twelve and they are named for songs: Stardust and Stormy Weather and In the Mood and Pistol-Packin’ Mama. The sea glides along far below, spattered with the countless chevrons of whitecaps. Soon enough, the navigators can discern the low moonlit lumps of islands ranged along the horizons.

France.

4 Rather than referring to the planes as ‘bombers’ or ‘the planes’, the writer repeatedly uses the pronoun ‘they’. What effect does this have?

Students are likely to suggest that it reminds the reader that there are many bombers and that they are like a pack, moving as one.

5 The writer chooses to put the word ‘France’ in its own paragraph here. What effect does this have?

Students are likely to suggest that it draws attention to the location, suggesting that this is what the bombers have been looking for and is their target.

Here is the next part of the source:

Intercoms crackle. Deliberately, almost lazily, the bombers shed altitude. Threads of red light ascend from anti-air emplacements up and down the coast. Dark, ruined ships appear, scuttled or destroyed, one with its bow shorn away, a second flickering as it burns. On an outermost island, panicked sheep run zigzagging between rocks.



6 List four things which can be seen from the planes:

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Answers may include the following:

threads of red light anti-air emplacements the coast dark, ruined ships a ship with its bow shorn away a ship which is on fire panicked sheep the walled city.

7 Foreshadowing is when a writer drops hints about things that will happen later in a piece of writing. How does the writer foreshadow the destruction the bombers will cause? Use quotations to support your answer.

Students are likely to include some of the following points:

The ‘ruined ships’ foreshadow the destruction of the city, especially as one of them ‘burns’ and the planes carry incendiary bombs.

The ‘panicked sheep’ foreshadow the panicked reaction of the people who live in the city.

8 In the final lines of this section, the writer uses imagery. Explain the effect of each image:

Quote Technique Effect

‘The walled city ... looks like an unholy tooth.’

Simile It suggests that the bombardiers see the city as sinful or immoral. The reference to the ‘tooth’ may suggest that it is well protected, linking to a tooth’s enamel.

‘A final abscess to be lanced away.’

Metaphor It suggests the bombardiers see the city as something rotten and disgusting, which needs to be destroyed in order to save it.


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The GirlIn a corner of the city, inside a tall, narrow house at Number 4 rue Vauborel, on the sixth and highest floor, a sightless sixteen-year-old named Marie-Laure LeBlanc kneels over a low table covered entirely with a model. The model is a miniature of the city she kneels within, and contains scale replicas of the hundreds of houses and shops and hotels within its walls. There’s the cathedral with its perforated spire, and the bulky old Château de Saint-Malo, and row after row of seaside mansions studded with chimneys. A slender wooden jetty arcs out from a beach called the Plage du Môle; a delicate, reticulated atrium vaults over the seafood market; minute benches, the smallest no larger than apple seeds, dot the tiny public squares.






9 A student read this part of the novel and said, ‘The writer makes Marie-Laure sound vulnerable.’ Do you agree? Use the table below to help you plan your ideas:

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Yes / No … because …: Quotation from the text which supports this:

Yes, because she cannot see.

‘Sightless’

Yes, because she is quite young.

‘Sixteen year old’

Yes, because she is alone. ‘Waiting for her great-uncle Etienne, who owns this house, who went out the previous night while she slept, and who has not returned.’

Yes, because she is clearly anxious.

‘All evening she has been marching her fingers around the model ... she cannot sleep.’

No, because the writer suggests she is smart and can fend for herself.

‘ In a corner of the room stand two galvanised buckets filled to the rim with water.’

Students can agree or disagree with the statement, as long as they support their argument. Answers may include:

10

Now use your work from question 9 (The writer makes Marie-Laure sound vulnerable.’) to write up your answer. Make sure you analyse each of your quotes, thinking about how the writer’s use of language and structure impacts on your impression of Marie-Laure.



See notes above.


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And something else.




11

In this part of the extract, the writer uses a lot of aural, tactile and olfactory imagery, describing the things Marie-Laure can hear, feel and smell. Why do you think the writer does this? What does it remind the reader?

It reminds the reader that Marie-Laure cannot see and therefore depends on her other senses. Students may also suggest that this makes her seem more vulnerable.

12

Look again at this part of the extract:



How does the writer use aural imagery and other language techniques to create an ominous atmosphere here?

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Answers may include some of the following:

Aural imagery is used to describe the noise of the airplanes becoming ‘louder’, which reminds us of the danger Marie-Laure is in.

This contrasts with the silence of the city itself, which seems unnatural. It suggests the fear of the citizens, who have left or are sheltering inside. It also makes Marie-Laure seem very isolated.

This silence is emphasised by the repetition of ‘no’ and the listing of all the things she cannot hear.

The final description of the sea ‘lapping at the base of the city walls’ creates that sense that something is approaching and that danger is close by.

13

Look again at the final part of the extract, printed after question 10. The writer keeps referring to the sound of the airplanes in this part of the extract. Find three examples and write them below:1. She can hear the bombers when they are three

miles away. A mounting static. The hum inside a seashell.

2. When she opens the bedroom window, the noise of the airplanes becomes louder.

3. The drone of the airplanes grows.

14

Why do you think the writer includes these repeated references to the planes? What effect does this have?

It reminds us that the planes are getting nearer and nearer and that Marie-Laure is in danger.

15

The writer creates a circular structure here by referring to the leaflets which were described at the very start of the extract. What effect does this have?



It reminds us of the danger which these leaflets warned of, as it ordered citizens to leave the city. This again reminds us that Marie-Laure is in danger, especially as she cannot read the leaflets.


16

Now look back at the whole of the extract you have read in this section.In this extract, the writer uses three short chapters. What does each chapter focus on?

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Think about your answer to question 15. Why do you think the writer has chosen to keep changing his focus so drastically? What effect does this have?

Answers are likely to comment on the building tension as the bombers move towards their target. Students may also note that this structure allows us to see one of the people who are in danger from the bombs the planes will drop, creating greater tension as we see her vulnerability.


Focus of Chapter 1

The leaflets Focus of

Chapter 2

The bombers

Focus of Chapter 3

Marie-Laure

Exam questions



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This extract is from the beginning of a novel by Anthony Doerr. In this extract, English and American forces are preparing to bomb the French city of Saint-Malo, which has been captured by German forces. They begin by dropping leaflets which warn French citizens to leave so that they are not hurt. Marie-Laure, a young French girl, is blind and cannot read these warnings.All The Light We Cannot See




France.Intercoms crackle. Deliberately, almost lazily, the bombers shed altitude. Threads of red light ascend

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from anti-air emplacements up and down the coast. Dark, ruined ships appear, scuttled or destroyed, one with its bow shorn away, a second flickering as it burns. On an outermost island, panicked sheep run zigzagging between rocks.


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Her fingers travel back to the cathedral spire. South to the Gate of Dinan. All evening she has been marching her fingers around the model, waiting for her great-uncle Etienne, who owns this house, who

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went out the previous night while she slept, and who has not returned.


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And something else.




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1 Read again the first part of the source, lines 1 to 4.List four things from this part of the text about the leaflets.

[4 marks]

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France.Intercoms crackle. Deliberately, almost lazily, the bombers shed altitude. Threads of red light ascend from anti-air emplacements up and down the coast. Dark, ruined ships appear, scuttled or destroyed, one with its bow shorn away, a second flickering as it burns. On an outermost island, panicked sheep run zigzagging between rocks.

Inside each airplane, a bombardier peers through an aiming window and counts to twenty. Four five six seven. To the bombardiers, the walled city on its granite headland, drawing ever closer, looks like an unholy tooth, something black and dangerous, a final abscess to be lanced away. Al

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How does the writer use language here to describe the bombardier’s journey?You could include the writer’s choice of: words and phrases language techniques sentence forms.

[8 marks]





[8 marks]

4 Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source, from lines 30 to 78.A student, having read this section of the text, said: “The writer uses his description of character and setting to create the impression that Marie-Laure is in great danger."To what extent do you agree?In your response, you could:

write about your own impressions of Marie-Laure evaluate how the writer has created these

impressions support your opinions with references to the text.

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Edexcel

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Read the text below and answer the questions that follow. This extract is from a novel set in France in 1944. English and American forces are preparing to bomb the French city of Saint-Malo, which has been captured by German forces. They begin by dropping leaflets which warn French citizens to leave. Marie-Laure, a young French girl, is blind and cannot read these warnings.

All The Light We Cannot See: Anthony Doerr




France.Intercoms crackle. Deliberately, almost lazily, the bombers shed altitude. Threads of red light ascend from anti-air emplacements up and down the coast.

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Dark, ruined ships appear, scuttled or destroyed, one with its bow shorn away, a second flickering as it burns. On an outermost island, panicked sheep run zigzagging between rocks.


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The Girl





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Read the text and answer ALL questions.You should spend about 1 hour on this section.

1 From lines 1 to 6, identify the phrase which explains why the citizens who live in the town are in danger and have been ordered to leave.


2 From lines 19–29, give two ways the description of the landscape and animals shows the destruction that has already been caused.

You may use your own words or quotation from the text.

(Total for Question 2 = 2 marks)


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3 In lines 29–76, how does the writer use language and structure to show Marie-Laure’s vulnerability?

Support your views with reference to the text.

(Total for Question 3 = 6 marks )



Support your views with detailed reference to the text.



WJEC Eduqas

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SECTION A: 40 marksRead carefully the passage below. Then answer all the questions which follow it.This extract is from the beginning of a novel by Anthony Doerr. It is set in France in 1944. In this extract, English and American forces are preparing to bomb the French city of Saint-Malo, which has been captured by German forces. They begin by dropping leaflets which warn French citizens to leave so that they are not hurt. Marie-Laure, a young French girl, is blind and cannot read these warnings.




France.Intercoms crackle. Deliberately, almost lazily, the bombers shed altitude. Threads of red light ascend from anti-air emplacements up and down the coast. Dark, ruined ships appear, scuttled or destroyed,

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one with its bow shorn away, a second flickering as it burns. On an outermost island, panicked sheep run zigzagging between rocks


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Read lines 1-6.

A1. List five things you learn about the leaflets. [5]

Read lines 18-24.

A2. How does the writer suggest that the bombs will cause great destruction? [5]


Read lines 30-58.

A3. What impressions do you get of Marie-Laure from these lines?


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Read lines 59-67.A4. How does the writer make these lines tense and dramatic? [10]

You should write about:

what happens to build tension and drama; the writer’s use of language to create tension and


Read lines 68 to the end.

A5. ‘In the last nine lines of this passage, the writer’s description of setting and character creates the impression that Marie-Laure is in great danger.” [10]

To what extent do you agree with this view?

You should write about: your own impressions of Marie-Laure as it is presented

here and in the passage as a whole; how the writer has created these impressions.


Rebecca


RebeccaThis extract is from the opening of a novel by Daphne du Maurier, which was written in 1938. In this section, the narrator describes a dream she has had about Manderley, a house she used to live in.

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading up to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me. There was a padlock and a chain upon the gate. I called in my dream to the lodge-keeper, and had no answer, and peering closer through the rusted spokes of the gate I saw that the lodge was uninhabited.No smoke came from the chimneys, and the little lattice windows gaped forlorn. Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden with supernatural powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me. The drive wound away in front of me, twisting and turning as it had always done, but as I advanced I was aware that a change had come upon it; it was narrow and unkept, not the drive that we had known. At first I was puzzled and did not understand, and it was only when I bent my head to avoid the low swinging branch of a tree that I realised what had happened. Nature

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had come into her own again and, little by little, in her stealthy, insidious way had encroached upon the drive with long, tenacious fingers. The woods, always a menace even in the past, had triumphed in the end. They crowded, dark and uncontrolled, to the borders of the drive. The beeches with white, naked limbs leant close to one another, their branches intermingled in a strange embrace, making a vault above my head like the archway of a church. And there were other trees as well, trees that I did not recognise, squat oaks and tortured elms that straggled cheek by jowl with the beeches, and had thrust themselves out of the quiet earth, along with monster shrubs and plants, none of which I remembered.The drive was a ribbon now, a thread of its former self, with gravel surface gone, and choked with grass and moss. The trees had thrown out low branches and the gnarled roots looked like skeleton claws. Scattered here and again amongst this jungle growth I would recognise shrubs that had been landmarks in our time, things of culture and grace, hydrangeas whose blue heads had been famous. No hand had checked their progress, and they had gone native now, rearing to monster height without a bloom, black and ugly as the nameless parasites that grew beside them.

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Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier


On and on, now east now west, wound the poor thread that once had been our drive. Sometimes I thought it lost, but it appeared again, beneath a fallen tree perhaps, or struggling on the other side of a muddied ditch created by the winter rains. I had not thought the way so long. Surely the miles had multiplied, even as the trees had done, and this path led but to a labyrinth, some choked wilderness, and not to the house at all. I came upon it suddenly; the approach masked by the unnatural growth of a vast shrub that spread in all directions, and I stood, my heart thumping in my breast, the strange prick of tears behind my eyes.There was Manderley, our Manderley, secretive and silent as it had always been, the grey stone shining in the moonlight of my dream, the mullioned windows reflecting the green lawns and the terrace. Time could not wreck the perfect symmetry of those walls, nor the site itself, a jewel in the hollow of a hand.The terrace sloped to the lawns, and the lawns stretched to the sea, and turning I could see the sheet of placid silver under the moon, like a lake undisturbed by wind or storm. No waves would come to ruffle this dream water, and no bulk of cloud, wind-driven from the west, obscure the clarity of this pale sky.

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Student workbook


Rebecca

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1 Write down a definition for each of these common word classes (you can use a dictionary to help if you need to):

Word class Definition

verb

adjective

adverb

concrete noun

abstract noun

pronoun

2 Read through this section of the extract:

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading up to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me. There was a padlock and a chain upon the gate. I called in my dream to the lodge-keeper, and had no answer, and peering closer through the rusted spokes of the gate I saw that the lodge was uninhabited.


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For each of the words in the table below, identify the word class. Then write down what effect the word has within the extract.

seemed barred iron

_______________ ______________ _______________

rusted peeringuninhabited

_______________ ______________ ______________

3 Based on the extract you have read, how does the setting of Rebecca sound? Explain your answer, and support it with at least three quotations.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Student workbook


Rebe

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________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 Now read through the next part of the novel opening:

No smoke came from the chimneys, and the little lattice windows gaped forlorn. Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden with supernatural powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me. The drive wound away in front of me, twisting and turning as it had always done, but as I advanced I was aware that a change had come upon it; it was narrow and unkept, not the drive that we had known. At first I was puzzled and did not understand, and it was only when I bent my head to avoid the low swinging branch of a tree that I realised what had happened. Nature had come into her own again and, little by little, in her stealthy, insidious way had encroached upon the drive with long, tenacious fingers. The woods, always a menace even in the past, had triumphed in the end. They crowded, dark and uncontrolled, to the borders of the drive. The beeches with white, naked limbs leant close to one another, their branches intermingled in a strange embrace, making a vault above my head like the archway of a church. And there were other trees as well, trees that I did not recognise, squat oaks and tortured elms that straggled cheek by jowl with the beeches, and had thrust themselves out of the quiet earth, along with monster shrubs and plants, none of which I remembered.


Student workbook

Select three words from the extract which you think are particularly effective. Write them down below. Then, for each one, write down the word class and the effect it has within the passage:

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Word: ___________________________Word class: ___________________________

Effect: ________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________

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Word: ____________________________Word class: ____________________________

Effect: ________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Word: ____________________________Word class: ____________________________

Effect: __________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________© www.teachitenglish.co.uk 2018 of 494

Student workbook

_________________________________________________

5 Look again at the passage above. Identify one example of personification and write it down below:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What effect does this use of personification have?

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The drive was a ribbon now, a thread of its former self, with gravel surface gone, and choked with grass and moss. The trees had thrown out low branches and the gnarled roots looked like skeleton claws. Scattered here and again amongst this jungle growth I would recognise shrubs that had been landmarks in our time, things of culture and grace, hydrangeas whose blue heads had been famous. No hand had checked their progress, and they had gone native now, rearing to monster height without a bloom, black and ugly as the nameless parasites that grew beside them.

Do you agree with the opinion that ‘the writer makes the plants and trees sound really unnatural here’? Use extracts from the text to support your answer.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________


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7

On and on, now east now west, wound the poor thread that once had been our drive. Sometimes I thought it lost, but it appeared again, beneath a fallen tree perhaps, or struggling on the other side of a muddied ditch created by the winter rains. I had not thought the way so long. Surely the miles had multiplied, even as the trees had done, and this path led but to a labyrinth, some choked wilderness, and not to the house at all. I came upon it suddenly; the approach masked by the unnatural growth of a vast shrub that spread in all directions, and I stood, my heart thumping in my breast, the strange prick of tears behind my eyes.

In the last two sentences of this paragraph, the writer contrasts the narrator’s feeling of being lost with her coming across the house. What is the effect of this contrast?


Student workbook

______________________________________________________________

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8Are you surprised by the narrator’s reaction to seeing the house? Why, or why not? Use quotes or references to the text to support your answer.

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9 What does the narrator’s reaction suggest about the house?

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10

Now read the final part of the source, below:

There was Manderley, our Manderley, secretive and silent as it had always been, the grey stone shining in the moonlight of my dream, the mullioned windows reflecting the green lawns and the terrace. Time could not wreck the perfect symmetry of those walls, nor the site itself, a jewel in the hollow of a hand.

The terrace sloped to the lawns, and the lawns stretched to the sea, and turning I could see the sheet of placid silver under the moon, like a lake undisturbed by wind or storm. No waves would come to ruffle this dream water, and no bulk of cloud, wind-driven from the west, obscure the clarity of this pale sky.


A semantic field is a group of words with related meanings. In this extract, the writer uses a semantic field of beauty and calm. In the diamonds below, write down as many examples as you can:

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Beauty Calm

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What effect does this semantic field have? Link your answer to the rest of the extract, which you have read in earlier tasks.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Throughout the extract, the writer uses a first person narrator. What effect does this have?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


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Finally, the writer uses a cyclical structure, which means that the end of the extract, where the narrator arrives at the house, links to the beginning of the extract, where she tells us that she dreamt she went to the house. What effect does this have? Choose the statement you most agree with and explain why:

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1 It shows that the narrator is preoccupied with the house and can’t stop thinking about it. This shows the reader that the house is really important to the story.

2 It provides a sense of closure.

3 It intrigues the reader, because it reveals some details about the house – that it is ‘secretive’ and ‘silent’ – but it leaves many questions unanswered. For example, it doesn’t explain why the narrator has dreamt about Manderley.

I have chosen statement __ because______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


RebeccaTeacher notes and suggested answers

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1 Write down a definition for each of these common word classes:

Word class Definitionverb a ‘doing’ word

adjective a word which describes a noun

adverb a word which describes a verb, noun or other adverb

concrete noun a thing you can touch

abstract noun a thing you cannot touch - for example, emotions

pronoun a word which takes the place of a noun, for example ‘she’, ‘they’, ‘me’

2 For each of the words in the table below, identify the word class. Then write down what effect the word has within the extract.

seemed barred iron

verb verb noun

rusted peeringuninhabited

adjective verb adjective


It suggests that the narrator is uncertain about what is happening, and is questioning herself.

It makes the setting sound uninviting and suggests that the narrator should not be there.

This adds to the sense that the house is uninviting – it sounds stern and functional.


It suggests that the gate is not cared for and may be old. It makes the setting sound neglected and run down.

It makes the house seem uninviting and difficult to see.

This makes the setting sound lonely and isolated – perhaps a little scary, too!

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3 Based on the extract you have read, how does the setting of Rebecca sound? Explain your answer, and support it with at least three quotations.

Students may explore some of the ideas noted above – overall, the setting sounds neglected and uninviting.

4 Now read through the next part of the novel opening. Select three word choices which you think are particularly effective. Write them down below. Then, for each one, write down the word class and the effect it has within the passage:

There are many possible answers here – a few are listed below, but this is not comprehensive:

Forlorn

adjective

imbues the scene with a sense of sadness and regret

Crowded

verb makes the trees sound human and unstoppable –quite sinister

Tortured

adjective

creates a sense of pain and suffering

Menace

noun makes the woods sound dangerous and threatening

Thrust verb makes the trees sound very active and powerful, creating a sense of human vulnerability

Monster

adjective

makes the shrubs sound nightmarish and unnatural

5 Look again at the passage. Identify one example of personification and write it down below:

Nature had come into her own again and, little by little, in her stealthy, insidious way had encroached upon the drive with long, tenacious fingers.

OR

They crowded, dark and uncontrolled, to the borders of the drive. The beeches with white, naked limbs leant close to one another, their branches intermingled in a strange embrace, making a vault above my head like the archway of a church.


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What effect does this use of personification have?

In both examples, the personification makes the natural world sound active and uncontrollable. It suggests that it is slowly but surely taking over, making the human world sound vulnerable – ‘stealthy’, ‘insidious’, ‘tenacious’, ‘uncontrolled’.

Both examples also make the natural world sound grotesque and unnatural – ‘long, tenacious fingers’, ‘white, naked limbs’.

6 Now read the next part of the source.A student who read this paragraph said, ‘I think the writer makes the plants and trees sound really unnatural here’. Do you agree? Use quotations and terminology to support your answer.

Students are likely to agree. Some points they may explore are:

The way the ‘gnarled roots look ... like skeleton claws’, making them sound dead and sinister.

The description of the plants as grown to ‘monster height’, which makes them sound nightmarish and unnaturally large.

The contrast used in the idea that the ‘hydrangeas’ are ‘without a bloom, black and ugly’.

7 In the last two sentences of this paragraph, the writer contrasts the narrator’s feeling of being lost with her coming across the house. What effect does this contrast have?

Answers may include the following points: it mirrors the narrator’s thoughts and feelings it builds tension it means that we are surprised and startled when she

comes across the house.

8 Are you surprised by the narrator’s reaction to seeing the house? Why, or why not? Use quotes or references to the text to support your answer.

Answers may include the following points:

yes, because the narrator appears relatively calm until this point – although they think they may have lost the path, ‘it appeared again’


yes, because it is sudden – the narrator is following the path for a long time and when she comes across the house, you are not expecting it (or her reaction)



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yes, because the rest of the narrative hasn’t been emotional

yes, because there is a contrast between what she sees (‘I came upon it suddenly’ and her reaction, which makes her sound upset and perhaps even afraid (‘my heart thumping in my breast, the strange prick of tears behind my eyes’).

9 What does the narrator’s reaction suggest about the house?

Answers may include the following points: it is important to her and to the story it holds memories for her, which the story may explore something upsetting or frightening has happened

there.

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Now read the final part of the source.

A semantic field is a group of words with related meanings. In this extract, the writer uses a semantic field of beauty and calm. In the table below, write down as many examples as you can:

Beauty Calm

11

What effect does this semantic field have? Link your answer to the rest of the extract, which you have read in earlier tasks.


shining perfectgreen jewelsilver claritysymmetry

undisturbedsilentreflectingplacidclarity



it makes the house sound like a peaceful and beautiful place

it reminds the reader that the speaker is dreaming


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the contrast with the rest of the extract, which has a much darker semantic field, is sinister and ominous, suggesting that the house may not be as peaceful and idyllic as it initially appears

the semantic field of beauty and calm is also undermined within this passage, with word choices such as ‘secretive’ and ‘hollow’.

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Throughout the extract, the writer uses a first person narrator. What effect does this have?

Answers may include: it helps the reader to identify with the narrator it allows the reader to experience the journey

alongside the narrator, experiencing her thoughts and emotions

it restricts the reader’s experience, limiting them to the narrator’s thoughts and emotions and withholding information from the reader.

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Finally, the writer uses a cyclical structure, which means that the end of the extract, where the narrator arrives at the house, links to the beginning of the extract, where she tells us that she dreamt she went to the house. What effect does this have? Choose the statement you most agree with and explain why:

1 It shows that the narrator is preoccupied with the house and can’t stop thinking about it. This shows the reader that the house is really important to the story.

2 It provides a sense of closure.

3 It intrigues the reader, because it reveals some details about the house but it leaves many questions unanswered.

Both statements 1) and 3) are valid. Students may explore some of the following points:

a The fact that the narrator has dreamt about the house immediately suggests that she can’t stop thinking about it.The speaker makes many references to the fact that


Manderley is (or was) very familiar to her – ‘went to Manderley again’, ‘In our time’, ‘our Manderley’ – which suggests it was important in her past.



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c The way in which Manderley is described at the end – ‘shining’, ‘secretive’ – contrasts with the rest of the extract, provoking intrigue and questions.The ending reminds us that Manderley is important, but doesn’t explain why.


Exam questions



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This extract is from the opening of a novel by Daphne du Maurier, which was written in 1938. In this section, the narrator describes a dream she has had about Manderley, a house she used to live in.

Rebecca


No smoke came from the chimneys, and the little lattice windows gaped forlorn. Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden with supernatural powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me. The drive wound away in front of me, twisting and turning as it had always done, but as I advanced I was aware that a change had come upon it; it was narrow and unkept, not the drive that we had known. At first I was puzzled and did not understand, and it was only when I bent my head to avoid the low swinging branch of a tree that I realised what had happened. Nature had come into her own again and, little by little, in her stealthy, insidious way had encroached upon the drive with long, tenacious fingers. The woods, always a menace even in the past, had triumphed in the end. They crowded, dark and uncontrolled, to the borders of the drive. The beeches with white, naked limbs leant close to one another, their branches intermingled in a strange embrace, making a vault above my head

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like the archway of a church. And there were other trees as well, trees that I did not recognise, squat oaks and tortured elms that straggled cheek by jowl with the beeches, and had thrust themselves out of the quiet earth, along with monster shrubs and plants, none of which I remembered.


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1 Read again the first part of the Source from lines 1 to 7.List four things from this part of the text about setting.

[4 marks]


Nature had come into her own again and, little by little, in her stealthy, insidious way had encroached upon the drive with long, tenacious fingers. The woods, always a menace even in the past, had triumphed in the end. They crowded, dark and uncontrolled, to the borders of the drive. The beeches with white, naked limbs leant close to one another, their branches intermingled in a strange embrace, making a vault above my head like the archway of a church. And there were other trees as well, trees that I did not recognise, squat oaks and tortured elms that straggled cheek by jowl with the beeches, and had thrust themselves out of the quiet earth, along with monster shrubs and plants, none of which I remembered.


How does the writer use language here to describe the trees and plants? You could include the writer’s choice of: words and phrases language techniques sentence forms.

[8 marks]



develops any other structural features that interest you.

[8 marks]

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4 Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source, from line 45 to the end.A student, having read this section of the text, said: "The writer uses the description of setting to create a very sinister atmosphere."To what extent do you agree?In your response, you could: write about your own impressions of setting evaluate how the writer has created these impressions support your opinions with references to the text.

[20 marks]

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Mark scheme

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1 Read again the first part of the Source, lines 1 to 7.

List four things from this part of the text about setting.[4 marks]

Marks can be awarded for the following:

Indicative content; students may include:

There is an iron gate. There is a padlock and chain on the gate / the gate is

locked. The gate is rusty. The lodge at the gate is empty. No smoke comes from the chimneys of the lodge. The drive twists and turns. The drive is narrow and unkept.

Or any other valid responses that you are able to verify by checking the source.

2 Look in detail at this extract from the source:

How does the writer use language here to describe the trees and plants? You could include the writer’s choice of: words and phrases language techniques sentence forms.

[8 marks]

Exemplar answers

1 The final sentence is long and has many clauses, emphasising the sense of the narrator being lost and overwhelmed and suggesting that the narrator is surrounded by never ending trees and plants. The adjectives ‘squat’ and ‘tortured’, evoke the impression that the plants and trees are unnatural and foreshadow pain and suffering. This is emphasised by the noun phrase ‘monster shrubs’, which gives the ominous impression that the plants are unnaturally proportioned and out of control.


2 The final, complex sentence is long and so gives the effect that the narrator is surrounded by never ending trees and plants. The adjective ‘monster’ is used to show the reader how frightening and unnatural the shrubs are. This is emphasised by the writer’s use of verbs like ‘encroached’ and ‘thrust’, The word ‘thrust’ makes it sound as if the shrubs are almost unstoppable.

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3 The writer says, ‘along with monster shrubs and plants’. The word ‘monster’ emphasises that the shrubs are terrifying, like something out of a nightmare. The phrase, ‘monster shrubs’, has the effect of making us feel frightened for the narrator because monsters are usually dangerous.

4 The writer says ‘had thrust themselves out of the ground, along with monster shrubs.’ The word ‘monster’ emphasises that the shrubs are terrifying.

3 You now need to think about the whole of the Source.

This text is from the opening of a novel.How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?You could write about: what the writer focuses your attention on at the



[8 marks]

Exemplar answers

1 The text, about a journey, is structured to also take the reader on a journey: we are told at the start of the extract that the narrator ‘dreamt I went to Manderley again’, but the house isn’t actually revealed to us until the final lines of the extract, creating a slow reveal which builds tension.There is also a constant reminder of the ways in which the driveway leading up to the house has changed - it is ‘unkept, not the drive we had known’ – so the reader is constantly wondering what has happened to cause these


changes, and what other surprises await the narrator. The text narrows down to take the reader from the bewildering overgrowth of the drive – the trees with ‘white, naked limbs’ which


‘leant close to one another’, to the house itself, ‘shining in the moonlight’. This links back to the narrator’s preoccupation with Manderley at the start of the extract, which begins ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’. However, the extract is structured in such a way that the reason for this preoccupation is left unexplained, creating intrigue for the reader.

2 The main structure of the story, which begins with the description of the lodge at the end of the drive, follows the narrator as they walk down the driveway towards the house, helping us to understand that the house is highly significant to the narrator and to the story.As the extract develops it changes the focus from the lodge to the drive, then to the plants which are growing around and over the drive. It then move to the narrator and finally to the house itself. The reader’s focus narrows down to house, which links back to the narrator’s preoccupation with Manderley – ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley’ – at the start of the extract.

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3 The writer writes about the drive and how overgrown it is at the start of the extract, making the reader feel uncomfortable as they are afraid the narrator will get lost. Then it focuses on the narrator’s reaction to seeing the house, so we can understand how she feels. Finally, it focuses on the house so we can imagine we are standing with the narrator, looking at it. So overall the writer changes the focus from the setting to the narrator and then back to the setting.

4 The text is written in paragraphs which makes it easy to read. It tells us about the driveway first which sets the scene and then moves on to tell us about the house and sea.

4 Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the source, from lines 45 to the end.

A student, having read this section of the text, said: "The writer uses the description of setting to create a very sinister atmosphere."To what extent do you agree?In your response, you could:

write about your own impressions of setting


evaluate how the writer has created these impressions

support your opinions with references to the text. [20 marks]


Exemplar answers

1 We might think that the setting is not intended to be sinister at the end of this extract because the vocabulary used to describe the house and sea are far less active and violent than the vocabulary used earlier to describe the driveway and plants. Whereas the drive was swamped by ‘parasites’ and ‘choked wilderness’, the sea is a ‘sheet of placid silver ... undisturbed by wind and storm.’ However, this is ominous in itself, as it makes the sea sound just as unnatural as the ‘monster’ shrubs surrounding the drive, if not more so. This is emphasised by the personification used to describe the house as ‘secretive and silent’, which suggests that the house is withholding a dark and sinister past.

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2 The writer makes the setting sound sinister by describing how the driveway is long and winding, and has become overgrown. The ‘poor thread that had once been our drive’ keeps disappearing and seems to lead ‘but to a labyrinth ... and not to the house at all.’ This concerns the reader because it seems almost like a nightmare, suggesting the narrator might become lost and unable to find her way out. It also suggests that the natural world is more powerful than humans. The writer makes the natural world seem powerful by the use of active, almost violent words like ‘rearing’ and ‘choked’.

3 The setting is sinister because the writer includes detail to make it seem out of control.The ‘poor thread that had once been our drive’ is sinister because it seems to keep getting longer – ‘surely the miles had multiplied’. The writer makes us understand that this is frightening by suggesting that it ‘led but to a labyrinth ... and not to the house at all’.

4 The setting is sinister because you can see what it is like. The plants are scary because they are big. Also the writer makes us understand that they are overgrown by saying ‘rearing to monster height’.


Edexcel

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Read the text below and answer the questions that follow.This is an extract from the opening of a novel. In this section, the narrator describes a dream she has had about Manderley, a house she used to live in.

Rebecca: Daphne Du Maurier


No smoke came from the chimneys, and the little lattice windows gaped forlorn. Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden with supernatural powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me. The drive wound away in front of me, twisting and turning as it had always done, but as I advanced I was aware that a change had come upon it; it was narrow and unkept, not the drive that we had known. At first I was puzzled and did not understand, and it was only when I bent my head to avoid the low swinging branch of a tree that I realised what had happened. Nature had come into her own again and, little by little, in her stealthy, insidious way had encroached upon the drive with long, tenacious fingers. The woods, always a menace even in the past, had triumphed in the end. They crowded, dark and uncontrolled, to the borders of the drive. The beeches with white, naked limbs leant close to one another, their branches intermingled in a strange embrace, making a vault above my head like the archway of a church. And there were other trees as well, trees that I did not recognise, squat oaks and tortured elms that straggled cheek by jowl

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with the beeches, and had thrust themselves out of the quiet earth, along with monster shrubs and plants, none of which I remembered.


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Insidious – Doing something slowly, but with harmful effectsEncroached – Intruded or slowly went beyond what is acceptable.Tenacious – Persistent, not giving up.Mullioned – Windows which are split by wood or stone (you usually see this in older buildings, like castles or stately homes)


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Labyrinth – MazeCheek by jowl – Close together

SECTION A – ReadingYou should spend about 1 hour on this section.

1 From lines 1 to 7, identify the phrase which explains why the gatekeeper did not answer the narrator’s call.


2 From lines 19–29, give two ways the description of the trees and plants shows that they are overgrown and out of control.



3 In lines 40–50, how does the writer use language and structure to show the change in the narrator’s mood?








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Section A – Reading

Question number

Mark

1 ‘The lodge was uninhabited’ (1)

Question number

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2 Answers could include: they crowded uncontrolled leant close to one another, their

branches intermingled in a strange embrace

elms that straggled cheek by jowl with the beeches

monster shrubs and plants.

(2)

Question number

3 Reward responses that explain how the writer uses language and structure to show the narrator’s mood changing in lines 29 to 36.Responses may include the following points about the language of the text: at first the narrator is following the drive, which

seems long and winding the narrator initially appears mildly surprised

rather than worried by this – ‘Sometimes I thought it lost but it appeared again’, ‘I had not thought the way so long’

the narrator appears to become more concerned as the paragraph progresses, with


nightmarish imagery ‘Surely ... the path led but to a labyrinth’.


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3 The narrator’s reaction to seeing the house is unexpectedly emotional and suggests a sense of panic and sadness – ‘my heart thumping in my breast, the strange prick of tears behind my eyes.’

Responses may include the following points about the structure of the text: references to the long and winding nature of the

drive are repeated to emphasis the length of the walk and highlight the narrator’s growing confusion and concern – ‘on and on’, ‘surely the miles had multiplied’, ‘winding’, ‘labyrinth’.

there is a contrast between the narrator’s assertion that the path did not lead ‘to the house at all’ and the opening clause of the next sentence, ‘I came across the house suddenly’.

the final long, many claused sentence reflects the narrator’s uncontrollable emotions on seeing the house and mirrors the rapid beating of her heart.

Question number

4 Reward responses that evaluate how successfully


the purpose of conveying tension is achieved. Responses may include: The narrator’s thought process is evident

throughout the extract which allows the reader to feel closer to her and experience the tension with her.

The setting sounds nightmarish and unnatural, suggesting that something terrible might happen.

the fact that the narrator is dreaming also suggests something out of the ordinary might happen.

It is frequently suggested that the setting, which is familiar, has changed drastically. It is also suggested that the narrator might become lost.

The narrator’s emotional reaction to seeing the house is surprising and suggests that something terrible has happened in the past.

Structure is manipulated in the extract and in the last but one paragraph the narrator’s loss of control chills the reader.

There is contrast in the final section, where the house and sea appear surprisingly calm. This seems unnatural and ominous, given the buildup of tension and the narrator’s reaction.


WJEC Eduqas

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SECTION A: 40 marksRead carefully the passage below. Then answer all the questions which follow it.This extract is from the opening of Rebecca a novel by Daphne du Maurier, which was written in 1938. In this section, the narrator describes a dream she has had about Manderley, a house she used to live in.


No smoke came from the chimneys, and the little lattice windows gaped forlorn. Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden with supernatural powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me. The drive wound away in front of me, twisting and turning as it had always done, but as I advanced I was aware that a change had come upon it; it was narrow and unkept, not the drive that we had known. At first I was puzzled and did not understand, and it was only when I bent my head to avoid the low swinging branch of a tree that I realised what had happened. Nature had come into her own again and, little by little, in her stealthy, insidious way had encroached upon the drive with long, tenacious fingers. The woods, always a menace even in the past, had triumphed in the end. They crowded, dark and uncontrolled, to the borders of the drive. The beeches with white, naked limbs leant close to one another, their branches intermingled in a strange embrace, making a vault above my head like the archway of a church. And there were other trees as well, trees that I did not recognise, squat oaks and tortured elms that straggled cheek by jowl

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with the beeches, and had thrust themselves out of the quiet earth, along with monster shrubs and plants, none of which I remembered.


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Insidious – doing something slowly, but with harmful effects.Encroached – intruded or slowly went beyond what is acceptable.Tenacious – persistent, not giving up.Mullioned –windows which are split by wood or stone (you usually see this in older buildings, like castles or stately homes).


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Labyrinth – mazeCheek by jowl – close together

Read lines 1-14.

A1. List five things you learn about the house, gate and driveway. [5]

Read lines 17-22.

A2. How does the writer show how the driveway has changed? [5]


Read lines 22-39.

A3. What impressions do you get of the house and driveway from these lines?


Read lines 40-50.

A4. How does the writer make these lines tense and dramatic? [10]





A5. “In the last passage, the writer’s description of the setting makes the scene sound peaceful and beautiful.” [10]


You should write about: your own impressions of the setting as it is presented


here and in the passage as a whole; how the writer has created these impressions. You must refer to the text to support your answer.


Mark scheme

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Read lines 1-14.

A1. List five things you learn about the house, gate and driveway. [5]

Award one mark for each separate point, to a maximum of five:

there is an iron gate there is a padlock and chain on the gate / the gate is

locked the gate is rusty the lodge at the gate is empty no smoke comes from the chimneys of the lodge the drive twists and turns the drive is narrow and unkept.

Read lines 17-22.

A2. How does the writer show how the driveway has changed? [5]


This question tests the ability to explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language to achieve effect, using subject terminology to support their views.

Give 0 marks for responses where there is nothing worthy of credit.Give 1 mark to those who identify and begin to comment on how the driveway has changed.Give 2 marks to those who identify and give straightforward comments on how the driveway has changed. These responses will simply identify language for effect and some subject terminology.Give 3 marks to those who explain how the driveway has changed and how language is used to achieve effects and influence the reader and begin to show some understanding of language, e.g. There is a list of ways the driveway has


changed. Give 4 marks to those who make accurate comments about how the driveway has changed and begin to analyse how language and tone are used to achieve effects, e.g. Nature seems unstoppable highlighted in the personification ‘long, tenacious fingers’.


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Give 5 marks to those who make accurate and perceptive comments about how the driveway has changed and analyse how language and tone are used to achieve effects, e.g. personification reflects the unstoppable and intentionally destructive nature of the natural world.

In addition to the examples given above, other details candidates may explore or comment on could be:

the effects of verb and adjective choices – ‘stealthy’, ‘encroached’, ‘insidious’, ‘tenacious’ – and/or semantic fieldsthe description of the woods – ‘triumphed in the end’; ‘crowded’, ‘dark’ and ‘uncontrolled’

Read lines 22-39.

A3. What impressions do you get of the house and driveway from these lines?


This question tests the ability to explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language to achieve effect and influence readers, using subject terminology to support their views.

Give 0 marks for responses where there is nothing worthy of credit.Give 1-2 marks to those who identify and begin to comment on some aspects of the house and driveway, e.g. the driveway is wild.Give 3-4 marks to those who identify and give straightforward comments on the house and driveway, e.g. ‘squat oaks and tortured elms’ to show it was a scary and unpleasant place. Give 5-6 marks to those who explain how the house and driveway are presented and begin to show some understanding of how language is used to achieve effects and influence the reader, e.g. ‘the monster shrubs’ make the setting sound nightmarish. Give 7-8 marks to those who make accurate comments about how the house and driveway are presented and begin to analyse how language and tone are used to achieve effects and influence the reader, e.g. the repetition of ‘monster’ suggests that the natural world is behaving in an unnatural way.


Give 9-10 marks to those who make accurate and perceptive comments on a wide range of examples about how the house and driveway are presented and provide detailed analysis of how language and tone are


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used to achieve effects and influence the reader, e.g. in the sentence ‘thrust themselves out of the quiet earth’ the trees and shrubs are made active, implying that they are powerful. This is emphasised by the contrast with the ‘quiet earth’, suggesting that the trees are disrupting the natural order of things.


the trees and plants sound out of control it is frightening and unnerving it is very different to how the narrator remembers it.

Read lines 40-50.







Give 0 marks for responses where there is nothing worthy of credit.Give 1-2 marks to those who identify and begin to comment on some examples of tension or drama in this part of the text, e.g. the narrator suddenly sees the houseGive 3-4 marks to those who identify and give straightforward comments on some examples of tension or drama, e.g. the narrator keeps losing the path so she could be scared. Give 5-6 marks to those who explain how a number of different examples create tension and drama, and begin to show some understanding of how language and the organisation of events are used to achieve effects and influence the reader, e.g. the short clause, ‘I came across it suddenly.’ emphasises the speed at which the narrator comes across the house. Give 7-8 marks to those who make accurate comments about how a range of different examples create tension and drama, and begin to analyse how language and the organisation of events are used to achieve


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effects and influence the reader, e.g. the writer’s language highlights the long and winding nature of the drive and builds tension, ‘on and on’, ‘surely the miles had multiplied’, ‘labyrinth’. Give 9-10 marks to those who make accurate and perceptive comments about how a wide range of different examples create tension and drama, and provide detailed analysis of how language and the organisation of events are used to achieve effects and influence the reader, e.g. the writer builds tension by using contrast in the sentence ‘Surely the path led but to a labyrinth ... and not to the house at all. I came across it suddenly.’


the narrator’s reaction to seeing the house This is not a checklist and the question must be

marked in levels of response. Look for and reward valid alternatives.


A5. ‘In the last passage, the writer’s description of the setting makes the scene sound peaceful and beautiful.’ [10]



your own impressions of the setting as it is presented here and in the passage as a whole;

how the writer has created these impressions. You must refer to the text to support your answer.

This question tests the ability to evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual references.


0 marks for responses where there is nothing worthy of credit.

Give 1-2 marks to those who express a simple personal opinion with linked basic textual reference, e.g. It does sound calm because it is silent.

Give 3-4 marks to those who give a personal opinion supported by straightforward textual references. These responses will show limited interaction with the text e.g. I thought it did sound beautiful as the text makes the house sound like it looked nice, ‘shining’.


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Give 5-6 marks to those who give an evaluation of the text and its effects, supported by appropriate textual references. These responses will show some critical awareness of the text, e.g. even though the house sounds beautiful, I think the setting sounds quite sinister, ‘no wind would come to ruffle this dream water’.Give 7-8 marks to those who give a critical evaluation of the text and its effects, supported by well-selected textual references. They will show critical awareness and clear engagement with the text, e.g. the setting sounds beautiful and almost valuable, when the sea is described as a ‘sheet of placid silver’. However, the stillness of the sea seems almost unnatural. Give 9-10 marks to those who give a persuasive evaluation of the text and its effects, supported by convincing, well selected examples and purposeful textual references. These responses will show engagement and involvement, where candidates take an overview to make accurate and perceptive comments on the text, e.g. the writer makes the setting sound calm by using a number of peaceful-sounding verbs, such as ‘stretched’, ‘shining’ and ‘reflecting’. However, the writer also lists negative events, as in ‘ No waves would come to ruffle this dream water’. Even though it is stated that this will not happen, it seems to foreshadow danger in the future, or in the narrator’s past.

Areas for possible evaluation:

the impression of the house and the sea as something valuable

the personification of the house as ‘secretive and silent’.


The Adventure of the Speckled Band


‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’This extract is from the opening of a novel by Arthur Conan Doyle. Earlier in the novel, a young lady, Helen Stoner, visits Sherlock Holmes. She tells him about her stepfather’s violent temper, and asks Holmes to investigate the death of her sister, who died recently under strange circumstances. In this extract, immediately after Helen Stoner’s visit, her stepfather appears in Sherlock Holmes’ rooms.

"But what in the name of the devil!"

The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey.

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"Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition.

"My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my companion quietly.

"I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran."

"Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat."

"I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I have traced her. What has she been saying to you?"

"It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes.

"What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man furiously.

"But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my companion imperturbably.

"Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step forward

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‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’


by Arthur Conan Doyle


and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler."

My friend smiled.

"Holmes, the busybody!"

His smile broadened.

"Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!"

Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for there is a decided draught."

"I will go when I have said my say. Don’t you dare to meddle with my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with his huge brown hands.

"See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the room.

"He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, straightened it out again.

"Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk down to Doctors’ Commons, where I hope to get some data which may help us in this matter."

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"What in the name of the devil!"



List four things you learn about the man who enters the room:

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2.

3.

4.


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2 Look back at the extract above. Choose three verbs which suggest the man’s violent nature, and write them down below. For each one, explain what specific effect it has in the extract:

Verb Effect

3 In this extract, Doyle likens the character to ‘a fierce old bird of prey’. What effect does this have? What does it suggest about his character?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________






"I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I have traced

Student workbook


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her. What has she been saying to you?"




Which word choices suggest that Holmes is not threatened by Dr Roylott? Select three and write them below:

5 How does Doyle contrast Holmes with Roylott? Think about the ways they are described, and about their dialogue. What effect does this contrast have?

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6 Read the next part of the extract, below:

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"Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler."

My friend smiled.





Doyle uses repeated sentence structures in Roylott’s speech, when he says

‘Holmes, the meddler."

My friend smiled.




What effect does this have? What does it suggest about Roylott and his feelings towards Holmes?


Student workbook

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


7 A motif is a repeated idea or symbol in a piece of writing. In this story, the hunting crop is a motif – here, Roylott is ‘shaking his hunting crop’, and when he first entered, he was ‘swinging a hunting crop in his hand’. What effect does this motif have? What does it symbolise or suggest about Roylott?

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8 In this section, Doyle uses a semantic field of violence. Write down five examples.1.

2.

3.

4.

5.


9 How does Doyle present Roylott as a violent and unpleasant man in this extract? Support your ideas with quotations and terminology, including word class.

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You may wish to use your answer to question 8 to help you!________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



"Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk down to Doctors’ Commons, where I hope to get some data which may help us in this matter."

How is Sherlock Holmes presented in this extract? Support your answer with quotations and terminology, including word class.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


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Structurally, it is interesting that Doyle only reveals Holmes’ physical strength once he has had Roylott leave the room. What effect does this have?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’Teacher notes and suggested answers

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List four things you learn about the man who enters the room:


he has thrown the door open he is standing in the doorway he is very large his clothes are odd he is carrying a hunting-crop he has many wrinkles he looks like a bird of prey.


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2 Look back at the extract above. Choose three verbs which suggest the man’s violent nature, and write them down below. For each one, explain what specific effect it has in the extract:

Answers may include

Verb Effect

3 In this extract, Doyle likens the character to ‘a fierce old bird of prey’. What effect does this have? What does it suggest about his character?

he is used to preying on the more vulnerable he is dangerous.



"I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat."




"But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued


DashedSuggests the extreme force with which he opens the door

Swinging Sounds threatening

Marked Suggets he is indelibly altered by his ‘evil passion[s]’

my companion imperturbably. Teacher notes and suggested answers


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Which word choices suggest that Holmes is not threatened by Dr. Roylott? Select three and write them below:

quietly blandly imperturbably.

5 How does Doyle contrast Holmes with Roylott? Think about the ways they are described, and about their dialogue. What effect does this contrast have?


They are described in contrasting ways – Roylott ‘screamed ... furiously’, whereas Holmes ‘said ... quietly’. This makes Holmes seem calmer and more in control, whereas Roylott seems angry and dangerous.

Roylott’s speech is demanding (‘What has she been saying to you?’) and rude (‘I will do nothing of the kind’). He also seems keen to establish himself as superior to Holmes (‘I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran’). In contrast, Holmes refuses to be impressed or intimidated (‘Blandly’) and speaks to the doctor courteously (‘Pray take a seat’). He doesn’t respond to Roylott’s temper or demands, and at times seems to be having a completely different conversation (‘I have heard that the crocuses promise well’). This makes Roylott seem aggressive and unreasonable, while Holmes is staunchly unintimidated.

6 Read the next part of the extract, below:


My friend smiled.




Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for


there is a decided draught." Teacher notes and suggested answers


‘The

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Doyle uses repeated sentence structures in Roylott’s speech, when he says:

‘Holmes, the meddler."

My friend smiled.




What effect does this have? What does it suggest about Roylott and his feelings towards Holmes?

It emphasises Roylott’s growing anger and dislike of Holmes.

7 A motif is a repeated idea or symbol in a piece of writing. In this story, the hunting crop is a motif – here, Roylott is ‘shaking his hunting crop’, and when he first entered, he was ‘swinging a hunting crop in his hand’. What effect does this motif have? What does it symbolise or suggest about Roylott?

It symbolises his aggression. It characterises him as a hunter, preying on those who

are more vulnerable. It shows his wish to physically intimidate others.




8 In this section, Doyle uses a semantic field of violence. Write down five examples.

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seized bent snarled hurling strode.

9 How does Doyle present Roylott as a violent and unpleasant man in this extract? Support your ideas with quotations and terminology, including word class.


the semantic field of violence his direct threats to Holmes (‘See that you keep

yourself out of my grip’) the verb ‘snarled’, which dehumanises the character,

with connotations of a dangerous animal.



"Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer from her imprudence in allowing this brute

How is Sherlock Holmes presented in this extract? Support your answer with quotations and terminology, including word class.


he seems undaunted by Roylott’s threats, as shown by his sarcastic comment, ‘He seems a very amiable person’ and the fact that he is ‘laughing’

he is surprisingly strong (‘with a sudden effort, straightened it out again’) Roylott’s visit has only made him more interested in the case (‘This incident gives zest to our investigation’).


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Structurally, it is interesting that Doyle only reveals Holmes’ physical strength once he has had Roylott leave the room. What effect does this have?

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It means that Roylott is unaware that Holmes is physically as strong as he is, and therefore may underestimate him later in the text.


Exam questions



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This extract is from the opening of a novel by Arthur Conan Doyle. Earlier in the novel, a young lady, Helen Stoner, visits Sherlock Holmes. She tells him about her stepfather’s violent temper, and asks Holmes to investigate the death of her sister, who died recently under strange circumstances. In this extract, immediately after Helen Stoner’s visit, her stepfather appears in Sherlock Holmes’ rooms.‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’


Exam style questions









"What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man

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My friend smiled.








"Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk

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down to Doctors’ Commons, where I hope to get some data which may help us in this matter."

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Ejaculation – ExclamationAperture – OpeningAgricultural – To do with farmingGaiters – Cloth coverings for the lower legsHunting-crop – A whipSeared – BurntApparition – Ghost, or someone who is ghostlikeBlandly – In a way which lacks strong emotionImperturbably – Calmly

Poker – A metal rod used for poking and stirring a fireAmiable – Friendly and pleasant



1 Read again the first part of the Source from lines 1 to 14.List four things you learn about the man who opens the door.

[4 marks]


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A large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey.






How does the writer use language here to describe Dr Roylott?You could include the writer’s choice of: words and phrases language techniques sentence forms.

[8 marks]

3 You now need to think about the whole of the Source.This text is from the opening page of a short story.How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?You could write about: what the writer focuses your attention on at the



[8 marks]

4 Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source, from line 38 to the end of the source.A reviewer wrote: ‘The writer builds a sense of conflict between Sherlock Holmes and Dr Roylott. His use of contrast plays a key part in this.’To what extent do you agree?In your response, you could: write about your own impressions of the conflict evaluate how the writer has created these impressions support your opinions with references to the text.

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[20 marks]


Edexcel

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Earlier in the novel, a young lady, Helen Stoner, visits Sherlock Holmes. She tells him about her stepfather’s violent temper, and asks Holmes to investigate the death of her sister, who died recently under strange circumstances. In this extract, immediately after Helen Stoner’s visit, her stepfather appears in Sherlock Holmes’ rooms.

‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’: Arthur Conan Doyle







"I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has

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been here. I have traced her. What has she been saying to you?"


"What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man


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furiously.



My friend smiled.








"Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk

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down to Doctors’ Commons, where I hope to get some data which may help us in this matter."

55





Read the text and answer ALL questions.

You should spend about 1 hour on this section.

1 From lines 1 to 5, identify the word which shows the door was opened violently.


2 From lines 6–9, give two ways the description of Dr Roylott suggests that he is not a pleasant character.



3 In lines 17–31, how does the writer use language and structure to show Dr Roylott's violent nature?


(Total for Question 3 = 6)

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4 In this extract, there is an attempt to create conflict between Sherlock Holmes and Dr Roylott.





WJEC Eduqas

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SECTION A: 40 marksRead carefully the passage below. Then answer all the questions which follow it.

This extract is from the opening of 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band', by Arthur Conan Doyle. Earlier in the novel, a young lady, Helen Stoner, visits Sherlock Holmes. She tells him about her stepfather's violent temper, and asks Holmes to investigate the death of her sister. In this extract, her stepfather appears in Sherlock Holmes' rooms.







"I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I have traced her. What has she been

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saying to you?"



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My friend smiled.








"Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer from her imprudence in

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allowing this brute to trace


her. And now, Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk down to Doctors’ Commons, where I hope to get some data which may help us in this matter."

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Read lines 1–9.

A1. List five things you learn about the man who opens the door. [5]

Read lines 6–18.

A2. How does the writer show that Dr. Roylott is an aggressive and dangerous character? [5]


Read lines 19-27.

A3. What impressions do you get of Sherlock Holmes from these lines?


Read lines 25-31.




drama; the effects on the reader. Th

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Read lines 32 to the end.A5. ‘In the last seven lines of this passage, the writer forces

us to rethink our initial impression of Sherlock Holmes and his interaction with Dr. Roylott.’ [10]


You should write about: your own impressions of Sherlock Holmes as he is

presented here and in the passage as a whole; how the writer has created these impressions.


The Book Thief


The Book ThiefThis is the opening chapter of The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, which was written in 2005. It is set in Nazi Germany in World War II, and is narrated by Death.

First the colours.

Then the humans.

That’s usually how I see things.

Or at least, how I try.

HERE IS A SMALL FACT

You are going to die.

I am in all truthfulness attempting to be cheerful about this whole topic, though most people find themselves hindered in believing me, no matter my protestations. Please, trust me. I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that’s only the As. Just don’t ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.

REACTION TO THE AFOREMENTIONED FACT

Does this worry you?

I urge you - don’t be afraid.

I’m nothing if not fair.

Of course, an introduction.

A beginning.

Where are my manners?

I could introduce myself properly, but it’s not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A colour will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.

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At that moment, you will be lying there (I rarely find people standing up). You will be caked in your own body. There might be a discovery; a scream will dribble down the air. The only sound I’ll hear after that will be my own breathing, and the sound of the smell, of my footsteps. The question is, what colour will everything be at that moment when I come for you? What will the sky be saying?

Personally, I like a chocolate-coloured sky. Dark, dark chocolate. People say it suits me. I do, however, try to enjoy every colour I see – the whole spectrum. A billion or so flavours, none of them quite the same, and a sky to slowly suck on. It takes the edge off the stress. It helps me relax.

A SMALL THEORY

People observe the colours of a day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me it’s quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations, with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colours. Waxy yellows, cloud-spat blues. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them.

As I’ve suggested, my one saving grace is distraction. It keeps me sane. It helps me cope, considering the length of time I’ve been performing this job. The trouble is, who could ever replace me? Who could step in while I take a break, in your stock-standard resort-style holiday destination, whether it be tropical or of the ski-trip variety? The answer, of course, is nobody, which has prompted me to make a conscious, deliberate decision – to make distraction my holiday. Needless to say, I holiday in increments. In colours.

Still, it’s possible that you might be asking, Why does he even need a holiday? What does he need distraction from?

Which brings me to my next point.

It’s the leftover humans.

The survivors.

They’re the ones I can’t stand to look at, although on many occasions, I still fail. I deliberately seek out the colours to keep my mind off them, but now and then, I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling amongst the jigsaw puzzle of realisation, despair and surprise. They have punctured hearts.

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Which in turn brings me to the subject I am telling you about tonight, or today, or whatever the hour and colour. It ‘s the story of one of those perpetual survivors – an expert at being left behind.

It’s just a small story really, about, amongst other things:

a girl some words an accordionist some fanatical Germans a Jewish fist-fighter and quite a lot of thievery.

I saw the book thief three times.

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Student workbook


The Book Thief

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1 What is the difference between a writer and a narrator?

2 What is a narrative voice?

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3 What are your expectations for a novel which is narrated by Death? Think about : - the content - the narrative voice.


A writer

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A narrator

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Student workbook

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Now read the opening part of the novel, below:

First the colours.

Then the humans.



4 What impression of the narrator is created in these opening lines? Use quotations to support your answer.

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I am in all truthfulness attempting to be cheerful about this whole topic, though most people find themselves hindered in believing me, no matter my protestations. Please, trust me. I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that’s only the As. Just don’t ask me to be nice.


Nice has nothing to do with me. Student workbook


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5 In this section, the writer creates a conversational tone, making it seem like the narrator is talking to the reader.List two ways in which he does this. Support each one with a quotation.


6 What effect does this conversational tone have on the reader and their reaction to the narrator?

The

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A beginning.



7 In the last part of this extract, the writer uses three simple sentences to describe the moment of death:

Your soul will be in my arms. A colour will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.

How do these simple sentences make dying sound? Explain your answer.


Student workbook

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


8 What impression of the narrator is created by each of the following quotations?

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Quotation Technique Effect

‘Where are my manners?’

Question

‘At some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible.’

Connotations of the word ‘genially’

‘I will carry you gently away.’

Connotations of the word ‘gently’.

Student workbook


9 In this part of the text, the writer uses synaesthesia, using more than one sense in his description. Give two examples:

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What effect do you think the use of synaesthesia has here? You might want to think about:- the effect on the narrative- the effect on our impressions of the narrator.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Now read the next part of the extract:

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A SMALL THEORY



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What impression of the narrator does the writer create here? Use quotations to support your ideas.


Student workbook

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



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The survivors.

They’re the ones I can’t stand to look at, although on many occasions, I still fail. I deliberately seek out the colours to keep my mind off them, but now and then, I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling amongst the jigsaw puzzle of realisation, despair and surprise. They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs.

13

Here, the writer describes people who are grieving for those who have died. Answer the following questions to explore the effects of his language choices:

I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling amongst the jigsaw puzzle of realisation, despair and surprise. They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs.


2. What connotations does this verb have? How does it make the people sound?

3. What effect does this metaphor have?

4. What technique is used here? What effect does it have?

What effect does this phrase have?

Student workbook


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A student read the extract printed above question 13 and said, ‘The writer’s presentation of the narrator changes here, and it makes me feel really sorry for the narrator.’ To what extent do you agree?Support your ideas with quotations and analysis.

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________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Now read the final part of the extract:

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Which in turn brings me to the subject I am telling you about tonight, or today, or whatever the hour and colour. It’s the story of one of those perpetual survivors – an expert at being left behind.


• a girl• some words• an accordionist• some fanatical Germans• a Jewish fist-fighter• and quite a lot of thievery.


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In this section, the writer uses a bullet point list, which is unusual in a novel. What effect does this bullet point list have? Support your ideas with quotations.

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In this final section of the chapter, the writer tries to create intrigue. Give three examples. For each one, explain why it is intriguing.

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Example This creates intrigue because …

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Why do you think the writer chose to use Death as his narrator?

You might want to think about:- the effects of Death’s unusual viewpoint- the time the novel is set in- the effects of the unusual narrative voice.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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The Book ThiefTeacher notes and suggested answers

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1 What is the difference between a writer and a narrator?

2 What is a narrative voice?

The distinctive voice which the writer creates for the narrator. With more able students, you may wish to look at overt (obvious) and covert (more subtle) narrative voices and the effects this has.

3 What are your expectations for a novel which is narrated by Death? Think about : - the content - the narrative voice.

Students are likely to expect the novel to be supernatural, Gothic or ‘scary’. They may expect the narrative voice to be dark or sinister.



A writer

A writer is the person who has written the text.

A narrator

A narrator is a character created by the writer to tell the story.


First the colours.

Then the humans.




4 What impression of the narrator is created in these opening lines? Use quotations to support your answer.

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Students are likely to comment on the narrator’s appreciation of beauty, as suggested by the ‘colours’. They may also comment on the sense of the narrator’s fallibility, suggested by ‘how I try’, which suggests that he often fails / is not as confident as might be assumed from the confident tone of the first two lines.









5 In this section, the writer creates a conversational tone, making it seem like the narrator is talking to the reader.List two ways in which he does this. Support each one with a quotation.




Answers may include:- first person narrative ('I')- sentences which begin with 'and' /humour ('And that's only the As')- directly addressing the reader ('Please, trust me.')

6 What effect does this conversational tone have on the reader and their reaction to the narrator?

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It makes this unusual narrator more relatable.



A beginning.



7 In the last part of this extract, the writer uses three simple sentences to describe the moment of death:

Your soul will be in my arms. A colour will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.

How do these simple sentences make dying sound? Explain your answer.

They make death sound simple, easy and painless. Students may note that this is emphasised by the word ‘gently’.

8 What impression of the narrator is created by each of the following quotations?




‘Where are my manners?’

Question It suggests he is polite.

‘At some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible.’

Connotations of the word ‘genially’

It suggests that he is pleasant, or at least wants to be pleasant (the addition of ‘as possible’ suggests he is not always able to be as genial as he would like).



‘I will carry you gently away.’

Connotations of the word ‘gently’.

He sounds kind and caring.

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9 In this part of the text, the writer uses synaesthesia, using more than one sense in his description. Give two examples:

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What effect do you think the use of synaesthesia has here? You might want to think about:- the effect on the narrative- the effect on our impressions of the narrator.

Answers are likely to note that it creates an unusual narrative perspective, which is appropriate given the unusual narrator. It also strengthens our understanding of the narrator as a sensitive character, who is highly aware of the things around him.


Answers may include:'A scream will dribble down the air.''What colour will everything be?''The only sound I'll hear ... will be my own breathing'.


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What impression of the narrator does the writer create here? Use quotations to support your ideas.




the narrator’s appreciation of the world and beauty around him (‘Cloud-spat blues’)

the fact that the narrator finds his job hard (‘It helps me cope’)

a sense of arrogance or self-importance (‘Who could ever replace me? ... The answer, of course, is no-one.’).






The survivors.


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Here, the writer describes people who are grieving for those who have died. Fill in the following questions to explore the effects of his language choices:

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sI witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling amongst the jigsaw puzzle of realisation, despair and surprise. They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs.


2. What connotations does this verb have? How does it make the people sound?

4. What technique is used here? What effect does it have?

1. What effect does this phrase have?

3. What effect does this metaphor have?

Makes the grieving sound lonely and abandoned.

Connotations of something disintegrating /breaking - makes people sound like their grief is destroying them.

Suggests that nothing makes sense any more – they are struggling to put the pieces back together.

Metaphors reiterate the idea that bereavement has broken these people.

14

A student read the extract printed above question 13 and said, ‘The writer’s presentation of the narrator changes here, and it makes me feel really sorry for the narrator.’ To what extent do you agree?Support your ideas with quotations and analysis.

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Students are likely to agree, commenting on quotes such as the following:

‘They’re the ones I can’t stand to look at’ – shows that he finds his job really difficult and has sympathy for humans.

‘I still fail’ – Shows his fallibility.

‘They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs.’ The listing of metaphors here again shows his sympathy for humans.

Students may disagree, commenting that some sympathy has been created for the narrator earlier in the text.

Here read the final part of the extract:

Which in turn brings me to the subject I am telling you about tonight, or today, or whatever the hour and colour. It’s the story of one of those perpetual survivors – an expert at being left behind.


• a girl• some words• an accordionist• some fanatical Germans• a Jewish fist-fighter• and quite a lot of thievery.


15

In this section, the writer uses a bullet point list, which is unusual in a novel. What effect does this bullet point list have? Support your ideas with quotations.

Students are likely to comment that the list creates intrigue, both because it is unusual and because the list is a strange list of apparently unconnected items.


16

In this final section of the chapter, the writer tries to create intrigue. Give three examples. For each one, explain why it is intriguing.

17

Finally, think about the whole extract.Why do you think the writer chose to use Death as his narrator?You might want to think about:- the effects of Death’s unusual viewpoint- the time the novel is set in- the effects of the unusual narrative voice.

Answers are likely to comment on:

- the omniscient viewpoint- the fact that the war is a relatively common setting for novels, and this unusual viewpoint brings something new to the story.- it establishes that the novel will mix fantasy and historical fact.

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Example This creates intrigue because

‘A girlSome wordsAn accordionist’

The items on the list do not seem connected, so we are interested to see how they link together.

‘It’s just a small story, really.’

It downplays the story, which is unusual.

‘I saw the book thief three times. ‘

Information is withheld – we are intrigued to know who the book thief is. We are also intrigued to know why he sees her three times, when you would expect death to see someone once.

Exam questions



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This is the opening chapter of a novel by Marcus Zusak, which was written in 2005. It is set in Nazi Germany in World War Two, and is narrated by Death.The Book Thief

First the colours.

Then the humans.











A beginning.


I could introduce myself properly, but it’s not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon

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enough, depending

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on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A colour will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.



A SMALL THEORY


As I’ve suggested, my one saving grace is distraction. It keeps me sane. It helps me cope, considering the length of time I’ve been performing this job. The trouble is, who could ever replace me? Who could step in while I take a break, in your stock-standard resort-style holiday destination, whether it be tropical or of the ski-trip variety? The answer, of course, is nobody, which has prompted me to make a conscious, deliberate decision – to make distraction my holiday. Needless to say, I holiday in

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increments. In colours.




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The survivors.






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1 Read again the first part of the Source from lines 1 to 12.List four things about the narrator in this section.

[4 marks]



Please, trust me. I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that’s only the As. Just don’t ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.REACTION TO THE AFOREMENTIONED FACTDoes this worry you?I urge you - don’t be afraid.I’m nothing if not fair.Of course, an introduction.A beginning.Where are my manners? I could introduce myself properly, but it’s not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A colour will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.


How does the writer use language here to describe the narrator?You could include the writer’s choice of: words and phrases language features and techniques sentence forms.

[8 marks]

3 You now need to think about the whole of the Source.This text is taken from the opening of a novel.How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?You could write about: what the writer focuses your attention on at the



[8 marks] The

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4 Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source, from lines 45 to the end.A student, having read this section of the text, said: “This part of the novel shows that Death has a difficult job and makes the reader feel sympathy for him.”To what extent do you agree?In your response, you could: write about your own impressions of the narrator evaluate how the writer has created these impressions support your opinions with references to the text.

[20 marks]

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Edexcel

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Read the text below and answer the questions that follow.This is the opening chapter of a novel by Marcus Zusak, which was written in 2005. It is set in Nazi Germany in World War Two, and is narrated by Death.The Book Thief: Markus Zusak

First the colours.

Then the humans.











A beginning.


I could introduce myself properly, but it’s not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some

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point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A colour will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.



A SMALL THEORY



Still, it’s possible that you might be asking, Why does he even need a holiday? What does he need

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distraction from?




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The survivors.






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1 From lines 1 to 10, identify the phrase which shows that the narrator considers himself to be friendly.


2 From lines 13–25, give two ways the narrative shows that the narrator is kind and polite.




3 In lines 56–64, how does the writer use language and structure to show Death’s emotions?



4 In this extract, there is an attempt to build intrigue.




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WJEC Eduqas

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SECTION A: 40 marksRead carefully the passage below. Then answer all the questions which follow it.This is the opening chapter of a novel by Marcus Zusak, which was written in 2005. It is set in Nazi Germany in World War Two, and is narrated by Death.

First the colours.

Then the humans.











A beginning.


I could introduce myself properly, but it’s not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending

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on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A colour will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.



A SMALL THEORY



Still, it’s possible that you might be asking, Why

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does he even need a holiday? What does he need distraction from?

Which brings me to my next point.5


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The survivors.






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Read lines 1-10.

A1. List five things you learn about the narrator. [5]

Read lines 13-25.

A2. How does the writer present the narrator? [5]


Read lines 45-53.

A3. What impressions do you get of Death and his job from these lines?


Read lines 65-76.A4. How does the writer create intrigue in these lines? [10]


what happens to create intrigue; the writer’s use of language to create intrigue; the effects on the reader.

Read lines 59 to 64.

A5. “In these lines, the writer’s use of narrative creates sympathy for Death.” [10]


You should write about: your own impressions of Death as it is presented here

and in the passage as a whole; how the writer has created these impressions. You must refer to the text to support your answer.

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Everything I Never Told You


Everything I Never Told YouThis is the opening part of a novel called ‘Everything I Never Told You’, by Celeste Ng. It is set in 1977. At the start of the novel, a teenage girl, Lydia, is missing.

Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet. 1977, May 3, six thirty in the morning, no one knows anything but this innocuous fact: Lydia is late for breakfast. As always, next to her cereal bowl, her mother has placed a sharpened pencil and Lydia’s physics homework, six problems flagged with small ticks. Driving to work, Lydia’s father nudges the dial toward WXKP, Northwest Ohio ‘s Best News source, vexed by the crackles of static. On the stairs, Lydia’s brother yawns, still twined in the tail end of his dream. And in her chair in the corner of the kitchen, Lydia’s sister hunches moon-eyed over her cornflakes, sucking them to pieces one by one, waiting for Lydia to appear. It’s she who says, at last, ‘Lydia’s taking a long time today.’

Upstairs, Marilyn opens her daughter’s door and sees the bed unslept in: neat hospital corners still pleated beneath the comforter, pillow still fluffed and convex. Nothing seems out of place. Mustard-colored corduroys tangled on the floor, a single rainbow-striped sock. A row of science fair ribbons on the wall, a postcard of Einstein. Lydia’s duffel bag crumpled

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on the floor of the closet. Lydia’s green bookbag slouched against her desk. Lydia’s bottle of Baby Soft atop the dresser, a sweet, powdery, loved-baby scent still in the air. But no Lydia.

Marilyn closes her eyes. Maybe, when she opens them, Lydia will be there, covers pulled over her head as usual, wisps of hair trailing from beneath. A grumpy lump bundled under the bedspread that she’d somehow missed before. I was in the bathroom, Mom. I went downstairs for some water. I was lying here all the time. Of course, when she looks, nothing has changed. The curtains glow like a blank television screen.

Downstairs, she stops in the doorway of the kitchen, a hand on each side of the frame. Her silence says everything. ‘I’ll check outside,’ she says at last. ‘Maybe for some reason –’ She keeps her gaze trained on the floor as she heads for the front door, as if Lydia’s footprints might be crushed into the hall runner .

Nath says to Hannah, ‘She was in her room last night. I heard the radio

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Everything I Never Told You by Cele


ste Ng


playing. At eleven thirty.’ He stops, remembering that he had not said goodnight.’

‘Can you be kidnapped if you’re sixteen?’ Hannah asks.

Nath prods at his bowl with a spoon. Cornflakes wilt and sink into clouded milk.

Their mother steps back into the kitchen. ‘The car’s still here,’ she says, but Nath had known it would be. Lydia can’t drive; she doesn’t even have a learner’s permit yet. Last week, she’d surprised them all by failing the exam, and their father wouldn’t even let her sit in the driver’s seat without it. Nath stirs his cereal, which has turned to sludge at the bottom of his bowl. The clock in the front hall ticks, then strikes seven thirty. No one moves.

‘Are we still going to school today?’ Hannah asks.

Marilyn hesitates. Then she goes to her purse and takes out her keychain with a show of efficiency. ‘You’ve both missed the bus. Nath, take my car and drop Hannah off on your way.’ Then: ‘Don’t worry. We’ll find out what’s going on.’ She doesn’t look at either of them. Neither looks at her.

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Student workbook


Everything I Never Told You

The novel begins with the following sentences:

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Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.

1 What effect do these opening sentences have?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2 In the second sentence, what effect does the word ‘yet’ have?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

The novel continues:

1977, May 3, six thirty in the morning, no one knows anything but this innocuous fact: Lydia is late for breakfast. As always, next to her cereal bowl, her mother has placed a sharpened pencil and Lydia’s physics homework, six problems flagged with small ticks. Driving to work, Lydia’s father nudges the dial toward WXKP , Northwest Ohio ‘s Best News source, vexed by the crackles of static. On the stairs, Lydia’s brother yawns, still twined in the tail end of his dream. And in her chair in the corner of the kitchen, Lydia’s sister hunches moon-eyed over her cornflakes, sucking them to pieces one by one, waiting for Lydia to appear. It’s she who says, at last, ‘Lydia’s taking a long time today.’


Student workbook


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3 In this paragraph, the writer is very specific in her reference to the date and time. What effect does this have?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 Throughout the paragraph, which word is repeated? What effect does this have?

Word Effect

5 The writer tells us that ‘Lydia is late for breakfast. As always, next to her cereal bowl, her mother has placed a sharpened pencil and Lydia’s physics homework, six problems flagged with small ticks.’ What does this suggest about Lydia’s character? Explain your answer.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


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What does it suggest about Lydia’s mother? Explain your answer.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6 Look back at the whole paragraph, printed just before question 3.Which phrase here suggests that Lydia might be close to her sister?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Upstairs, Marilyn opens her daughter’s door and sees the bed unslept in: neat hospital corners still pleated beneath the comforter, pillow still fluffed and convex. Nothing seems out of place. Mustard-colored corduroys tangled on the floor, a single rainbow-striped sock. A row of science fair ribbons on the wall, a postcard of Einstein. Lydia’s duffel bag crumpled on the floor of the closet. Lydia’s green bookbag slouched against her desk. Lydia’s bottle of Baby Soft atop the dresser, a sweet, powdery, loved-baby scent still in the air. But no Lydia.

7 Fill in this table with your ideas about what each detail suggests about Lydia:


Student workbook

Detail What it suggests about Lydia‘Neat hospital corners still pleated beneath the comforter’

‘A single rainbow-striped sock’


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Detail What it suggests about Lydia

‘A row of science fair ribbons on the wall’

‘A postcard of Einstein’

8 In this paragraph, the writer lists images of Lydia’s room. She then finishes the paragraph with a short sentence: ‘But no Lydia.’What effect do these structural choices have?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Downstairs, she stops in the doorway of the kitchen, a hand on each side of the frame. Her silence says everything. ‘I’ll check outside,’ she says at last. ‘Maybe for some reason-’ She keeps her gaze trained on the floor as she heads for the front door, as if Lydia’s footprints might be crushed into the hall runner .


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9 Highlight the simile in this section. What effect does this have?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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The writer tells us that Marilyn’s ‘silence says everything.’ What does this mean?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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How can you tell that Marilyn is upset in this section? Fill in the table below with your ideas. The first one has been done for you.Quote This shows Marilyn is upset

because:‘Marilyn closes her eyes. Maybe, when she opens them, Lydia will be there ...’



Nath says to Hannah, ‘She was in her room last night. I heard the radio playing. At eleven thirty.’ He stops, remembering that he had not said goodnight.’



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Write down two things we learn about Lydia from this dialogue:


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What does the conversation suggest about Hannah and Nath? Use quotations to support your ideas.Hannah

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nath

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Based on the things you have already learnt about Lydia, why do you think her family were ‘surprised’ that she failed her exam?


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Highlight the reference to time in this paragraph. What effect does this have? You may wish to refer to earlier parts of the extract.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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The writer describes how ‘Nath stirs his cereal, which has turned to sludge at the bottom of his bowl.’What does this suggest about Nath and the way he is feeling? Explain your answer.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What could the cereal symbolise?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________





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A student read this part of the extract and said, ‘Lydia’s mum doesn’t seem to care that she is missing at all.’Choose one quotation which shows that the student is wrong. Explain your choice.

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Why do you think the writer chooses to reveal that Lydia is dead at the start of the novel? What effect does this have?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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The writer has chosen to use the present tense in this extract. What effect does this have?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Everything I Never Told YouTeacher notes and suggested answersThe novel begins with the following sentences:

Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.

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1 What effect do these opening sentences have?

Students are likely to comment on the dramatic nature of these opening sentences. They may also note the intrigue created by withholding information about how Lydia died, who ‘they’ are and why they ‘don’t know this yet’.

2 In the second sentence, what effect does the word ‘yet’ have?

It suggests that they will know soon.

The novel continues:

1977, May 3, six thirty in the morning, no one knows anything but this innocuous fact: Lydia is late for breakfast. As always, next to her cereal bowl, her mother has placed a sharpened pencil and Lydia’s physics homework, six problems flagged with small ticks. Driving to work, Lydia’s father nudges the dial toward WXKP, Northwest Ohio ‘s Best News source, vexed by the crackles of static. On the stairs, Lydia’s brother yawns, still twined in the tail end of his dream. And in her chair in the corner of the kitchen, Lydia’s sister hunches moon-eyed over her cornflakes, sucking them to pieces one by one, waiting for Lydia to appear. It’s she who says, at last, ‘Lydia’s taking a long time today.’

3 In this paragraph, the writer is very specific in her reference to the date and time. What effect does this have?



It suggests that this is an important moment, which is (or will be) significant to the characters.


4 Throughout the paragraph, which word is repeated? What effect does this have?

Word Effect

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5 The writer tells us that ‘Lydia is late for breakfast. As always, next to her cereal bowl, her mother has placed a sharpened pencil and Lydia’s physics homework, six problems flagged with small ticks.’ What does this suggest about Lydia’s character? Explain your answer.

It suggests that she usually follows a strict routine, because it is clearly unusual that she is ‘late for breakfast’. It also suggests that she is a conscientious student as she has marked her homework tasks with ‘small ticks’.

What does it suggest about Lydia’s mother? Explain your answer.

It suggests that she is a caring mother as she has put her daughter’s ‘cereal bowl’ and ‘homework’ out for her. However, she might be a bit pushy and over zealous as she has even sharpened her daughter’s pencil for her. Students might also note that academic success is important to this character.

6 Look back at the whole paragraph, printed just before question 3.Which phrase here suggests that Lydia might be close to her sister?

‘Lydia’s sister hunches moon-eyed over her cornflakes ... waiting for Lydia to appear.’


Upstairs, Marilyn opens her daughter’s door and sees the bed unslept in: neat hospital corners still pleated beneath the comforter, pillow still fluffed and convex. Nothing seems out of place. Mustard-colored corduroys tangled on the floor, a single rainbow-striped sock. A row of science fair ribbons on the wall, a postcard of Einstein. Lydia’s duffel bag crumpled on the floor of


Lydia'Lydia' is repeated, focusing the reader's attention on this character and her absence.

the closet. Lydia’s green bookbag slouched against her desk. Lydia’s bottle of Baby Soft atop the dresser, a sweet, powdery, loved-baby scent still in the air. But no Lydia.


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7 Fill in this table with your ideas about what each detail suggests about Lydia:Detail What it suggests about Lydia‘Neat hospital corners still pleated beneath the comforter’

That she is methodical and well behaved, because she makes her bed in a careful fashion.

‘A single rainbow-striped sock’

That she might not be as organised and perfect as she appears – the ‘rainbow’ stripes also remind us that she is young.

‘A row of science fair ribbons on the wall’

That she performs well at school and is particularly good at science. The description of the ‘row’ of ribbons suggests the care she has taken over displaying these.

‘A postcard of Einstein’

That she loves science, as she has a picture of a scientist where most teenage girls might have pictures of celebrities.

8 In this paragraph, the writer lists images of Lydia’s room. She then finishes the paragraph with a short sentence: ‘But no


Lydia.’What effect do these structural choices have?


The list of images builds a vivid impression of this character, which makes the reminder of her absence more disturbing.





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9 Highlight the simile in this section. What effect does this have?

‘The curtains glow like a blank television screen’ suggests that Marilyn is searching for meaning or information about her daughter’s disappearance but cannot find it here.

10

The writer tells us that Marilyn’s ‘silence says everything.’ What does this mean?

That she does not need to tell her children that Lydia is not in her room – they can tell from her silence.

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How can you tell that Marilyn is upset in this section? Fill in the table below with your ideas. The first one has been done for you.Quote This shows Marilyn is upset

because:‘Marilyn closes her eyes. Maybe, when she opens them, Lydia will be there ...’

She is behaving irrationally, which shows how desperate she is for her daughter to reappear.

‘Downstairs, she stops in the doorway of the kitchen, a hand on each side of the frame.’

It sounds like she needs help to stand – she seems to need the door frame to prop herself up.

‘She keeps her gaze trained on the floor’

This creates the impression that she is afraid she will cry or lose control if she looks at her children.






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Write down two things we learn about Lydia from this dialogue:

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What does the conversation suggest about Hannah and Nath? Use quotations to support your ideas.Hannah

Is concerned about her sister and fears the worst – clear through the quotation, ‘Can you be kidnapped if you’re sixteen?’

Nath

Feels guilty that he did not say goodnight to his sister – clear through the way he ‘stops, remembering that he had not said goodnight.’ He also seems worried about his sister, as suggested by the way he futilely ‘prods at his bowl’.



She was in her room at 11:30pm the previous evening.

She is sixteen.

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Based on the things you have already learnt about Lydia, why do you think her family were ‘surprised’ that she failed her exam?

Because it sounds like she was a good student and so it was probably unusual for her to fail an exam.

15

Highlight the reference to time in this paragraph. What effect does this have? You may wish to refer to earlier parts of the extract.

‘The clock in the front hall ticks, then strikes seven thirty. No one moves.’

This links to the reference to it being ‘six thirty’ at the start of the extract and shows that a whole hour has passed with no news about Lydia. We know that the family are going to find out she is dead, so this creates a feeling that we are getting closer to the time when they will find out.

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The writer describes how ‘Nath stirs his cereal, which has turned to sludge at the bottom of his bowl.’What does this suggest about Nath and the way he is feeling? Explain your answer.

It suggests that he is worried about his sister as he is unable to eat.

What could the cereal symbolise?

Nath’s hope that his sister will be alright.




17

A student read this part of the extract and said, ‘Lydia’s mum doesn’t seem to care that she is missing at all.’Choose one quotation which shows that the student is wrong. Explain your choice.


‘She doesn’t look at either of them’ shows the student is wrong as it suggests that Lydia’s Mum doesn’t believe what she is saying and doesn’t dare to look at her children in case they see that she is lying, or in case she becomes upset.


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Why do you think the writer chooses to reveal that Lydia is dead at the start of the novel? What effect does this have?

It means that while her family starts to look for Lydia, we know that this is futile. It builds tension as we wait for the moment when her family will find out.

It also creates intrigue as the writer withholds information about how and why Lydia died.

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The writer has chosen to use the present tense in this extract. What effect does this have?

It makes the action seem more immediate – we feel we are seeing events as they unfold.

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Exam questions



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This is the opening part of a novel by Celeste Ng. It is set in 1977. At the start of the novel, a teenage girl, Lydia, is missing.Everything I Never Told You



Marilyn closes her eyes. Maybe, when she opens them, Lydia will be there, covers pulled over her head as usual, wisps of hair trailing from beneath. A grumpy lump bundled under the bedspread that

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she’d somehow missed before. I was in the bathroom, Mom. I went downstairs for some water. I was lying here all the time. Of course, when she looks, nothing has changed. The curtains glow like a blank television screen.

Downstairs, she stops in the doorway of the kitchen, a hand on

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each side of the frame. Her silence says everything. ‘I’ll check outside,’ she says at last. ‘Maybe for some reason-’ She keeps her gaze trained on the floor as she heads for the front door, as if Lydia’s footprints might be crushed into the hall runner .







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1 Read again the first part of the Source from lines 1 to 13.List four things from this part of the text about Lydia’s family.

[4 marks]


2 Look in detail at this extract from lines 14 to 29 of the source:




How does the writer use language here to describe Lydia’s bedroom?You could include the writer’s choice of: words and phrases language techniques sentence forms.

[8 marks]




[8 marks]

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4 Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source, fromline 30 to the end.A student, having read this section of the text, said: “This part of the story shows that Lydia’s family are extremely worried about her. I think they are a very close family.”To what extent do you agree?In your response, you could: write about your own impressions of setting evaluate how the writer has created these impressions support your opinions with references to the text.

[20 marks]

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Edexcel

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Read the text below and answer the questions that follow.This is the opening part of a novel. It is set in 1977. At the start of the novel, a teenage girl, Lydia, is missing.

Everything I Never Told You: Celeste Ng



Marilyn closes her eyes. Maybe, when she opens them, Lydia will be there, covers pulled over her head as usual, wisps of hair trailing from beneath. A grumpy lump bundled under the bedspread that she’d somehow missed before. I was in the

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bathroom, Mom. I went downstairs for some water. I was lying here all the time. Of course, when she looks, nothing has changed. The curtains glow like a blank television screen.

Downstairs, she stops in the doorway of the kitchen, a hand on

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each side of the frame. Her silence says everything. ‘I’ll check outside,’ she says at last. ‘Maybe for some reason-’ She keeps her gaze trained on the floor as she heads for the front door, as if Lydia’s footprints might be crushed into the hall runner.







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Read the extract and answer all the questions.


1 From lines 1 to 6, identify the phrase which explains why Lydia’s family are not upset by her death.



2 From lines 11–22, give two ways the description of Lydia’s bedroom shows that she likes science.



3 In lines 30–34, how does the writer use language and structure to show Marilyn’s emotions?







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WJEC Eduqas

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SECTION A: 40 marksRead carefully the passage below. Then answer all the questions which follow it.This is the opening part of a novel called Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng. It is set in 1977. At the start of the novel, a teenage girl, Lydia, is missing.



Marilyn closes her eyes. Maybe, when she opens them, Lydia will be there, covers pulled over her head as usual, wisps of hair trailing from beneath. A grumpy lump bundled under the bedspread that she’d somehow missed before. I was in the

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bathroom, Mom. I went downstairs for some water. I was lying here all the time. Of course, when she looks, nothing has changed. The curtains glow like a blank television screen.


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Read lines 1-12.

A1. List five things you learn about Lydia’s family. [5]

Read lines 14-22.

A2. How does the writer present Lydia’s bedroom? [5]



Read lines 23-34.

A3. What impressions do you get of Marilyn and her relationship with her daughter from these lines?


Read lines 35-49.



what happens to build tension; the writer’s use of language to create tension; the effects on the reader.

Read line 50 to the end.

A5. ‘In the last five lines of this passage, the writer’s description of character suggests that Lydia’s family are not too worried about her.” [10]


You should write about: your own impressions of the characters as they are

presented here and in the passage as a whole; how the writer has created these impressions. You must refer to the text to support your answer.

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The Handmaid’s Tale



This extract is taken from the opening of The Handmaid’s Tale, a novel by Margaret Atwood. This novel is set in the future, in America.

We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. A balcony ran around the room, for the spectators, and I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat, shot through with the sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume from the watching girls, felt-skirted as I knew from pictures, later in miniskirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky green-streaked hair. Dances would have been held there; the music lingered, a palimpsest of unheard sound, style upon style, an undercurrent of drums, a forlorn wail, garlands made of tissue-paper flowers, cardboard devils, a revolving ball of mirrors, powdering the dancers with a snow of light.

There was old sex in the room and loneliness, and expectation, of something without a shape or name. I remember that yearning , for something that was always about to happen and was never the same as the hands that

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were on us there and then, in the small of the back, or out back, in the parking lot, or in the television room with the sound turned down and only the pictures flickering over lifting flesh.

We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability? It was in the air; and it was still in the air, an afterthought, as we tried to sleep, in the army cots that had been set up in rows, with spaces between so we could not talk. We had flannelette sheets, like children’s, and army- issue blankets, old ones that still said U.S. We folded our clothes neatly and laid them on the stools at the ends of the beds. The lights were turned down but not out. Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts.

No guns though, even they could not be trusted with guns. Guns were for the guards, specially picked from the Angels. The guards weren’t allowed inside the building except when called, and we weren’t allowed out, except for our walks, twice daily, two by two around the football field, which was enclosed now by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.

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The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atw


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The Angels stood outside it with their backs to us. They were objects of fear to us, but of something else as well. If only they would look. If only we could talk to them. Something could be exchanged, we thought, some deal made, some tradeoff. That was our fantasy.

We learned to whisper almost without sound. In the semidarkness we could stretch out our arms, when the Aunts weren’t looking, and toucheach other’s hands across space. We learned to lip-read, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other’s mouths. In this way we exchanged names, from bed to bed:

Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June.

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Student workbook



The extract you will be working on in this section is taken from the opening of The Handmaid’s Tale, a novel by Margaret Atwood. The novel was published in 1985, but is set in a dystopian future America.

1 This extract is taken from a novel called The Handmaid’s Tale.What effect does this title have? You may wish to think about:

- the connotations of the words in the title

- the expectations this title creates.

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Here is the opening line of the novel:

We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.

2 Which word or phrase in this sentence suggests that it is set in a time when things have changed?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3 Write down two pieces of information which the writer withholds from the reader in this sentence:


Student workbook


4 Why do you think the writer withholds this information?

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The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. A balcony ran around the room, for the spectators, and I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat, shot through with the sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume from the watching girls, felt-skirted as I knew from pictures, later in miniskirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky green-streaked hair. Dances would have been held there; the music lingered, a palimpsest of unheard sound, style upon style, an undercurrent of drums, a forlorn wail, garlands made of tissue-paper flowers, cardboard devils, a revolving ball of mirrors, powdering the dancers with a snow of light.

5 Write down four things you learn about the gymnasium from this extract:


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6 Write down two phrases which show that things have changed:

1.

2.

7 In this extract, there is a sense of sadness. Fill in the table to explore how the writer’s language choices create this:Quote Technique (Word

choice / metaphor / personification)

This creates a sense of sadness because …

‘The music lingered’

‘A forlorn wail’

‘Garlands made of tissue-paper flowers’

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8 In this extract, the writer focuses on the past. What effect does this have?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


There was old sex in the room and loneliness, and expectation, of something without a shape or name. I remember that yearning , for something that was always about to happen and was never the same as the hands that were on us there and then, in the small of the back, or out back, in the parking lot, or in the television room with the sound turned down and only the pictures flickering over lifting flesh.

We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability ? It was in the air; and it was still in the air, an afterthought, as we tried to sleep, in the army cots that had been set up in rows, with spaces between so we could not talk. We had flannelette sheets, like children’s, and army- issue blankets, old ones that still said U.S. We folded our clothes neatly and laid them on the stools at the ends of the beds. The lights were turned down but not out. Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts.

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9 What can you infer from each of these quotations?Quotation This suggests that …

‘We had flannelette sheets, like children’s’


Student workbook


Quotation This suggests that …

‘We had ... army-issue blankets, old ones that still said U.S.’

‘We folded our clothes neatly and laid them on the stools at the ends of the beds.’

‘Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled’

‘They had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts.’

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What are the Aunts’ names? Why do you think the writer has chosen these particular names?

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What connotations does the word ‘Aunt’ have?

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How does the writer’s description of the Aunts contrast with these connotations? You can answer in your own words, or use a quotation.

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What effect does this contrast have?

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In this extract, the writer uses words like ‘Aunts’ and ‘Angels’ in unfamiliar ways, without explaining what she means. What effect does this have?

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Using your inference skills, what do you think the writer uses these terms to mean?


Aunt

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Angel

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How does the writer use language to describe the narrator’s life in this extract? Use quotations to support your answer.

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What does the writer focus on at the end of this extract? What effect does this have?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


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Think about the whole of the extract.What sort of narrator does the writer use? What effect does this have?

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The Handmaid’s TaleTeacher notes and suggested answersThe extract you will be working on in this section is taken from the opening of The Handmaid’s Tale, a novel by Margaret Atwood. The novel was published in 1985, but is set in a dystopian future America.

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1 This extract is taken from a novel called The Handmaid’s Tale.What effect does this title have? You may wish to think about:

- the connotations of the words in the title

- the expectations this title creates.

Students may comment on:

the fairytale connotations of ‘tale’, which suggests a traditional story

the archaic word ‘handmaid’, which has connotations of servitude and subservience. Some may note the contrast between this and the fact this novel is set in the future

the connection between the title and ‘The Canterbury Tales’

the fact that the phrasing of the title suggests the main character is defined by her role

the contrast between her resulting lack of identity and the title’s claim that this is her ‘tale’.

Here is the opening line of the novel:

We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.

2 Which word or phrase in this sentence suggests that it is set in a time when things have changed?

‘Had once’

3 Write down two pieces of information which the writer withholds from the reader in this sentence:




why is it no longer a gymnasium why they are sleeping in what used to be a gymnasium who 'we' are how long it is since it was a gymnasium.


4 Why do you think the writer withholds this information?

It means that from the start of the novel, the reader is submerged in this unfamiliar world, creating intrigue.


The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. A balcony ran around the room, for the spectators, and I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat, shot through with the sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume from the watching girls, felt-skirted as I knew from pictures, later in miniskirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky green-streaked hair. Dances would have been held there; the music lingered, a palimpsest of unheard sound, style upon style, an undercurrent of drums, a forlorn wail, garlands made of tissue-paper flowers, cardboard devils, a revolving ball of mirrors, powdering the dancers with a snow of light.

5 Write down four things you learn about the gymnasium from this extract:



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6 Write down two phrases which show that things have changed:


‘The games that were formerly played there’ ‘As I knew from pictures’


There are stripes and circles painted on the floor.

People used to play games there.

The floor was made of varnished wood.

The basketball nets were still in place.

A balcony ran around the room for the spectators.

‘Dances would have been held there’

7 In this extract, there is a sense of sadness. Fill in the table to explore how the writer’s language choices create this:

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This creates a sense of sadness because

‘The music lingered’

Verb choice (lingered)

Personification

It suggests that the music doesn’t want to leave / that it is waiting for something.

‘A forlorn wail’

Personification

Adjective choice (forlorn)

Noun choice (wail)

The word choices here suggest sadness and pain. ‘Wail’ has childish connotations and suggests an inability to change the situation.

Quote Technique (Word choice / metaphor / personification)

This creates a sense of sadness because

‘Garlands made of tissue-paper flowers’

Metaphor The ‘tissue-paper flowers’ sound fragile and insubstantial – this could be read as a metaphor for the past.

8 In this extract, the writer focuses on the past. What effect does this have?

It creates the impression that the narrator isn’t able to move on, and yearns for the past. This suggests that the present is not a good time.



9 What can you infer from each of these quotations?

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Quotation This suggests that …

‘We had flannelette sheets, like children’s’

The narrator and the other people who sleep in the gym are treated like children – looked after, but not allowed any autonomy. This is emphasised by the passivity of ‘had’, which suggests they do not purchase these sheets or have any choice over them.

‘We had ... army-issue blankets, old ones that still said U.S.’

This suggests that some sort of war or military take over has taken place, as the blankets are ‘army issue’. The fact that the narrator states they are ‘old ones’ because they ‘still said U.S.’ suggests that the USA doesn’t exist any longer under that name.

‘We folded our clothes neatly and laid them on the stools at the ends of the beds.’

The narrator and the other people who sleep in the gym follow a strict routine. They are tidy and well behaved – but again, they sound very much like children.

‘Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled’

‘Patrolled’ suggests that the narrator and the other people who sleep there are being watched or guarded. Calling these women ‘Aunt’ once again emphasises the impression of the narrator as childlike, or forced into a childlike role.

‘They had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts.’

The ‘Aunts’ are willing to use brutal violence to control the narrator and the other people. ‘Slung’ creates a casual air, suggesting a carelessness or indifference to this brutality.


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What are the Aunts’ names? Why do you think the writer has chosen these particular names?

Their names are Sara and Elizabeth.Students may comment on the fact that these names are common now, suggesting that although this novel is set in the future, it is not the distant future but a world not that far away from our own.Students may also comment on the Biblical connotations of these names, which contrasts with the violence suggested by the ‘cattle prods’ the characters carry.

11

What connotations does the word ‘Aunt’ have?

Connotations of family / caring / love / kindness

12

How does the writer’s description of the Aunts contrast with these connotations? You can answer in your own words, or use a quotation.

The Aunts carry ‘cattle prods’, suggesting a brutal violence which contrasts with the connotations of their title.

13

What effect does this contrast have?

It suggests that this is a dangerous world / that things in this world are not as they first appear / that language in this novel cannot always be trusted.

Now read the next part of the extract:Th

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In this extract, the writer uses words like ‘Aunts’ and ‘Angels’ in unfamiliar ways, without explaining what she means. What effect does this have?



It means that we are plunged into this future world, and makes this world unfamiliar to us. This makes it more disturbing.


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Using your inference skills, what do you think the writer uses these terms to mean?

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How does the writer use language to describe the narrator’s life in this extract? Use quotations to support your answer.

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Students are likely to comment on some of the following:

‘Guns were for the guards’ – the words ‘guns’ and ‘guards’ suggests danger and creates the impression that the women are in some sort of prison.

‘We weren’t allowed out’ suggests that the women live very restricted lives. The restrictions sound like those placed on children, and this is emphasised by the childish verb ‘allowed’.

‘Two by two around the football field’ again emphasises this feeling of restriction, creating an image reminiscent of a primary school trip through the detail ‘two by two’. This detail also makes the people sound unimportant, as they have no identity but are referred to only in numbers. The regimented exercise contrasts with the location, a ‘football field’, which has connotations of passion and competition. This contrast


Aunt

Women who care for and police the narrator and the other people who sleep in the gymnasium.

Angel

A soldier.

emphasises the regimented nature of the exercise the narrator is allowed.

‘Enclosed now by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire’. The verb choice ‘enclosed’ suggests that there is no way out. The image of the ‘chain link fence’ and the ‘barbed wire’ again suggests a prison.





We learned to whisper almost without sound. In the semidarkness we could stretch out our arms, when the Aunts weren't looking, and toucheach other's hands across space. We learned to lip-read, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other's mouths. In this way we exchanged names, from bed to bed:


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What does the writer focus on at the end of this extract? What effect does this have?

Here, the writer changes the focus. Within the extract, the focus has been on the ways in which the women are restricted. Here, however, she ends the chapter with their attempts to rebel – by planning their escape, and by communicating with each other when they are not supposed to. This perhaps creates a sense of hope and suggests that the novel will track the rebellion of the women.Students may also note that the chapter ends with the listing of the names of the women. This suggests that despite the way they are forced to live, the women are clinging to their identities.

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Think about the whole of the extract.What sort of narrator does the writer use? What effect does this have?



The first person narrator forces the reader to become involved and invested in this unfamiliar world.

Exam questions



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This extract is taken from the opening of The Handmaid’s Tale, a novel by Margaret Atwood. This novel is set in the future, in America.The Handmaid’s Tale



We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability ? It was in the air; and it was still in the air, an afterthought, as we tried to sleep, in the army cots that had been set up in rows, with

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spaces between so we could not talk. We had flannelette sheets, like children’s, and army- issue blankets, old ones that still said U.S. We folded our clothes neatly and laid them on the stools at the ends of the beds. The lights were turned down but not out. Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle prods slung on

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thongs from their leather belts.

No guns though, even they could not be trusted with guns. Guns were for the guards, specially picked from the Angels. The guards weren’t allowed inside the building except when called, and we weren’t allowed out, except for our walks, twice daily, two by two around the football field, which was enclosed now by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.The Angels stood outside it with their backs to us. They were objects of fear to us, but of something else as well. If only they would look. If only we could talk to them. Something could be exchanged, we thought, some deal made, some tradeoff. That was our fantasy.



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1 Read again the first part of the Source from lines 1 to 14.List four things about the gymnasium from this part of the Source.

[4 marks]


How does the writer use language here to describe the narrator’s life?You could include the writer’s choice of: words and phrases language techniques sentence forms.

[8 marks]




[8 marks]

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4 Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source from

line 32 to the end.A student, having read this section of the text, said: “The narrator’s life is very restricted and I admire her attempts to rebel against this."To what extent do you agree?In your response, you could: write about your own impressions of the narrator evaluate how the writer has created these impressions support your opinions with references to the text.

[20 marks]

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Mark scheme

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1 Read again the first part of the source, lines 1 to 14.

List four things about the gymnasium from this part of the source.

[4 marks]

Marks can be awarded for the following:

Indicative content; students may include:

the floor was made of varnished wood there are stripes and circles painted on the floor people used to play games there the basketball nets were still in place a balcony ran around the room for the spectators dances would have been held there.

Or any other valid responses that you are able to verify by checking the source.

2 Look in detail at this extract from lines 22 – 31 of the source:

How does the writer use language here to describe the narrator’s life?You could include the writer’s choice of: words and phrases language techniques sentence forms.

[8 marks](Ao2)

Exemplar answers

1 The active verb ‘patrolled’ has military connotations, suggesting that the women are being actively guarded. The contrast between this verb choice and the usually kindly, loving connotations of ‘Aunt’ is disturbing and suggests that in this dystopian world, danger is everywhere. This is emphasised by the description of the ‘electric cattle prods slung’ from the Aunts’ belts; an image which suggests that the Aunts are brutally violent towards the women. The fact that their weapon is the ‘cattle prod’ dehumanises the women, suggesting that the Aunts see their charges as subhuman, whilst the verb


‘slung’ has casual connotations which indicate the Aunts’ casual attitude towards this brutality.


2 The verb ‘patrolled’ has military connotations, suggesting that the women are being guarded or watched. The contrast between this verb choice and the usually kindly, loving connotations of ‘Aunt’ is disturbing and suggests that in this dystopian world, things are perhaps not what they seem.

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3 The writer says, ‘Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled’. The verb ‘patrolled’ suggests that Aunts are guarding the other women. The phrase, ‘Aunt Elizabeth patrolled’, has the effect of making us feel worried about the narrator because Aunts are supposed to be kind, but ‘patrolled’ doesn’t sound kind.

4 The writer says ‘Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled.’ The word ‘patrolled’ emphasises that the Aunts are in charge.

3 You now need to think about the whole of the Source.

This text is from the opening of a novel.How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?You could write about: what the writer focuses your attention on at the



[8 marks]

Exemplar answers

1 The extract begins with a focus on the past, with a description of what the gymnasium used to be like. The length and sensory detail of this description suggests that the narrator is preoccupied with the past. This focus on the past suggests that the narrator’s present is not very pleasant, as it creates the impression that she is trying to escape it.As the extract develops, the focus changes from the gymnasium to the Aunts and the restricted life the narrator leads. The writer presents us with several images showing this restriction, from the Aunts who ‘patrolled’ with ‘cattle prods slung’ from their belts, to the


regimented exercise she is permitted ‘twice daily’, to the strict routines she follows, ‘folding [her] clothes neatly’. The multiple images suggest that the women are restricted in every aspect of their lives.


The focus then moves to the narrator’s small acts of rebellion, as she fantasizes about making ‘some deal’ with the guards, and ‘learned to lip read’. This contrasts with the images of restriction which are explored in much of the extract, showing the narrator’s fiesty spirit. The fact that the chapter ends with moments of rebellion suggests that the narrator might rebel further later in the text. It also creates the impression that there is some hope for the narrator.

2 The extract begins with a focus on the past, as the narrator tells us what the gymnasium she sleeps in what like then. This helps us to understand that the narrator is preoccupied with the past and suggests that she is struggling to move on.As the extract develops, the focus changes from the gymnasium to the Aunts and the restricted life the narrator leads. It then moves to the narrator and ends with her small acts of rebellion, as she fantasizes about making ‘some deal’ with the guards, and ‘learned to lip read’. This suggests that she might rebel further later in the text and creates the impression that there is some hope for the narrator.

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3 The writer writes about the gymnasium and what it used to be like at the start of the extract, making the reader feel interested as they wonder why it isn’t like this anymore. Then it focuses on the narrator’s life in the gymnasium, so we can understand how she feels. Finally, it focuses on the women whispering to each other so we can imagine we are there with them. So overall the writer changes the focus from the setting to the narrator and her companions.

4 The text is written in paragraphs which makes it easy to read. It tells us about the gymnasium first which sets the scene and then moves on to tell us about the Aunts and Angels.


4 Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the source, from

lines 32 to the end.A student, having read this section of the text, said: " The narrator’s life is very restricted and I admire her attempts to rebel against this."To what extent do you agree?In your response, you could: write about your own impressions of setting evaluate how the writer has created these impressions support your opinions with references to the text.

[20 marks]

Exemplar answers

1 For much of the extract, the writer does makes the narrator’s life sound restricted by describing the strict routines she is forced to follow. She and the other women ‘folded our clothes neatly and laid them on the stools at the ends of the beds’. This connotes a child’s bedtime routine, suggesting that the narrator and the other women are treated like children and forced to follow strict rules.The fact that all the women follow this routine seems unnatural, and just a couple of sentences later, we learn that ‘Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled’, suggesting that this restricted way of living is strictly enforced. However, after presenting the reader with multiple images of restriction, the writer ends the extract by showing us small moments of rebellion, such as the narrator learning ‘to lip read’ and learning the names of the women she lives with. Because this contrasts with the restricted life shown throughout the majority of the extract, this does cause me to admire the narrator, because it seems that she is determined not to be subdued. The final line, which lists the women’s names - ‘Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June’ - suggests that these women are rebelling by clinging on to their identities, symbolised by their names. This ends the extract with a glimpse of hope for these characters and their future.

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2 The writer makes the narrator’s life sound restricted by describing the strict routines she is forced to follow. She and the other women ‘folded our clothes neatly and laid them on the stools at the ends of the beds’. This suggests


that the narrator and the other women live like children, following strict rules. The fact that all the women follow this routine is disturbing, as it makes them sound like robots who have no personalities, showing the effects of this restricted lifestyle.

Just a couple of sentences later, the writer notes that ‘Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled’, suggesting that this restricted way of living is strictly enforced.

3 The narrator’s life is restricted because the writer includes detail to make it seem like she has to follow a strict routine. She says ‘we folded our clothes neatly and laid them on the stools at the ends of the beds.’ This seems restrictive they do the same thing every day. The writer makes it sound like the narrator is a child who has to do what she is told.

4 The narrator’s life is restricted because you can see what it is like. She isn’t allowed outside except for her walks. Also the writer makes us understand that these walks are restricted because they have to walk ‘two by two’.

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’s TaleExam style questions


Edexcel

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Read the text below and answer the questions that follow.This extract is taken from the opening of a novel by Margaret Atwood. This novel is set in the future, in America.The Handmaid’s Tale: Margaret Atwood



We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability ? It was in the air; and it was still in the air, an afterthought, as we tried to sleep, in the army cots that had been set up in rows, with spaces between so we could not talk. We had flannelette sheets, like children’s, and army- issue

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blankets, old ones that still said U.S. We folded our clothes neatly and laid them on the stools at the ends of the beds. The lights were turned down but not out. Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle prods slung on

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No guns though, even they could not be trusted with guns. Guns were for the guards, specially picked from the Angels. The guards weren’t allowed inside the building except when called, and we weren’t allowed out, except for our walks, twice daily, two by two around the football field, which was enclosed now by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. The Angels stood outside it with their backs to us. They were objects of fear to us, but of something else as well. If only they would look. If only we could talk to them. Something could be exchanged, we thought, some deal made, some tradeoff. That was our fantasy.



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Read the extract then answer all the questions.


1 From lines 1 to 10, identify the phrase which explains how the narrator knows what the girls who watched the sports matches looked like.


2 From lines 1–14, give two ways the description shows what the gymnasium used to be like.




3 In lines 22–31, how does the writer use language and structure to show that the narrator lives a restricted life?



4 In this extract, there is an attempt to build intrigue.




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Section A – Reading

Question number

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1 Accept only the following: ‘As I knew from pictures’

(1)

Question number

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2 Accept any reasonable answer based on lines, up to a maximum of 2 marks.

For example:

the games that were formerly played there

a balcony ran around the room, for the spectators

dances would have been held there the music lingered faintly like an afterimage, the pungent

smell of sweat the watching girls.

(2)

Question number

3 Reward responses that explain how the writer uses language and structure to show that the narrator lives a restricted life in lines 22 to 31.For example: the narrator is dissatisfied with the present –

‘We yearned for the future’ the narrator’s life is so restricted that she seems

almost childlike - this is emphasised by the © www.teachitenglish.co.uk 2018 of 494

image of the women folding their ‘clothes neatly’ and by the simile ‘flannelette sheets, like children’s’


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the narrator has little control over her own life, as shown by passive verbs such as ‘had’

the narrator appears to be being guarded - ‘Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle prods’

the Aunts seem willing to use violence to enforce these restrictions - ‘They had electric cattle prods’.

Responses may include the following points about the structure of the text: There are multiple images of restriction –the

beds ‘set up in rows ... so we could not talk’, their strict routines, the Aunts who ‘patrolled’ – this suggests that the narrator is restricted in every aspect of her life.

The majority of the paragraph has a factual tone, which makes the details more disturbing, as it suggests the narrator has accepted them or come to see them as normal. This contrasts with the more emotive initial sentence of the paragraph, which shows her dissatisfaction.

The repetition of ‘we’ suggests that the women are no longer seen to have individual identities, but are seen as a group.

Question number

4 Reward responses that evaluate how successfully the purpose of building intrigue is achieved.


Responses may include: Much information – such as where the narrator

is, and why she is there – is withheld. The setting is at the same time familiar and

unfamiliar – there is a narrative gap as it is not explained how this dystopian vision of the future was reached.

The fact that this is an unfamiliar, dystopian world suggests that something unexpected may happen.

There are multiple suggestions that the narrator is in danger, but we don’t know why she is being treated in this way.

Structure builds the impression of the narrator’s life as highly restricted, but the final paragraphs show small moments of rebellion, suggesting that there may be further rebellion later in the novel.


WJEC Eduqas

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SECTION A: 40 marksRead carefully the passage below. Then answer all the questions which follow it.This extract is taken from the opening of The Handmaid’s Tale, a novel by Margaret Atwood. This novel is set in the future, in America.



We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability ? It was in the air; and it was still in the air, an afterthought, as we tried to sleep, in the army cots that had been set up in rows, with spaces between so we could not talk. We had flannelette sheets, like children’s, and army- issue

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blankets, old ones that still said U.S. We folded our clothes neatly and laid them on the stools at the ends of the beds. The lights were turned down but not out. Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle prods slung on 3

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No guns though, even they could not be trusted with guns. Guns were for the guards, specially picked from the Angels. The guards weren’t allowed inside the building except when called, and we weren’t allowed out, except for our walks, twice daily, two by two around the football field, which was enclosed now by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. The Angels stood outside it with their backs to us. They were objects of fear to us, but of something else as well. If only they would look. If only we could talk to them. Something could be exchanged, we thought, some deal made, some tradeoff. That was our fantasy.



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Read lines 1-10.

A1. List five things you learn about the gymnasium. [5]

Read lines 4-14.

A2. How does the writer suggest that the gymnasium was once an exciting place to be? [5]



Read lines 22-28.

A3. What impressions do you get of the narrator from these lines?



Read lines 28-37.A4. How does the writer create intrigue in these lines? [10]


what happens to build intrigue; the writer’s use of language to create intrigue; the effects on the reader.

Read line 32 to the end.

A5. ‘In the last twelve lines of this passage, the writer’s description of setting and character creates the impression that the narrator leads a very restricted life.” [10]


You should write about: your own impressions of the narrator as she is

presented here and in the passage as a whole; how the writer has created these impressions. You must refer to the text to support your answer.

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Read lines 1-10.

A1. List five things you learn about the gymnasium. [5]

Award one mark for each separate point, to a maximum of five:

the floor was made of varnished wood there are stripes and circles painted on the floor people used to play games there the basketball nets were still in place a balcony ran around the room for the spectators.

Read lines 4-14.

A2. How does the writer suggest that the gymnasium was once an exciting place to be? [5]


This question tests the ability to explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language to achieve effect, using subject terminology to support their views.

Give 0 marks for responses where there is nothing worthy of credit.Give 1 mark to those who identify and begin to comment on the presentation of the gymnasium.Give 2 marks to those who identify and give straightforward comments on how the writer presents the gymnasium as somewhere which was once an exciting place to be. These responses will simply identify language for effect and some subject terminology.Give 3 marks to those who explain how the writer suggests that the gymnasium was once an exciting place to be and how language is used to achieve effects and influence the reader and begin to show some understanding of language, e.g. The writer uses the senses. These responses will begin to use relevant subject terminology accurately to support their comments.


Give 4 marks to those who make accurate comments about the gymnasium and begin to analyse how language and tone are used to achieve effects, e.g. The gymnasium seems like it used to be an exciting


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place to be. This is shown through the use of the senses in ‘the pungent scent of sweat’, which creates a vivid image of the gymnasium as a place of passion’. Subject terminology is used accurately to support comments effectively.Give 5 marks to those who make accurate and perceptive comments about how the writer presents the gymnasium as somewhere which was once an exciting place to be and analyse how language and tone are used to achieve effects, e.g. the use of synaesthesia shows the narrator’s obsession with the past and the amount of time she has spent imagining the scenes of passion which took place here. Subtleties of the writer’s technique are explored in relation to how the reader is influenced. Well- considered, accurate use of subject terminology supports comments effectively.In addition to the examples given above, other details candidates may explore or comment on could be:

the effects of verb and adjective choices – ‘lingered’, ‘palimpsest’, ‘forlorn’ – and / or semantic fieldsthe description of the music - it 'lingered'; it was ‘a forlorn wail’the use of metaphor - ‘tissue paper flowers’the presence of the ‘watching girls’

Read lines 22-28.

A3. What impressions do you get of the narrator from these lines?




Give 0 marks for responses where there is nothing worthy of credit.Give 1-2 marks to those who identify and begin to comment on some impressions of the narrator, e.g. she is treated like a child.Give 3-4 marks to those who identify and give straightforward comments on the narrator, e.g. “We had flannelette sheets, like children’s” to show that the narrator is treated like a child. These responses will simply identify some subject terminology.Give 5-6 marks to those who explain how the narrator is presented and begin to show some understanding of how language is used to achieve


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effects and influence the reader, e.g. “We had flannelette sheets, like children’s” suggests that the narrator is treated like a child and has little control over her life. These responses will begin to use relevant subject terminology accurately to support their comments.Give 7-8 marks to those who make accurate comments about how the narrator is presented and begin to analyse how language and tone are used to achieve effects and influence the reader, e.g. The simile “We had flannelette sheets, like children’s” suggests that the narrator is forced to live like a child, and has little control over her life. Subject terminology is used accurately to support comments effectively.Give 9-10 marks to those who make accurate and perceptive comments on a wide range of examples about how the writer presents the gymnasium as somewhere which was once an exciting place to be. They also provide detailed analysis of how language and tone are used to achieve effects and influence the reader, e.g. In the sentence the simile “We had flannelette sheets, like children’s”, the passive verb ‘had’ suggests that, like a child, the narrator has little control over her own life ... Subtleties of the writer’s technique are explored in relation to how the reader is influenced. Well-considered, accurate use of subject terminology supports comments effectively.


the narrator ‘yearned for the future’, so she didn’t like her present

she follows a strict routine she lives a very restricted life.

Read lines 28-37.

A4. How does the writer create intrigue in these lines? [10]


what happens to build intrigue; the writer’s use of language to create intrigue; the effects on the reader.

This question tests the ability to explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language to achieve effect and


influence readers, using subject terminology to support their views.


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Give 0 marks for responses where there is nothing worthy of credit.Give 1-2 marks to those who identify and begin to comment on some examples of intrigue in this part of the text, e.g. the writer uses words in unusual ways.Give 3-4 marks to those who identify and give straightforward comments on some examples of intrigue, e.g. the writer uses familiar words in unfamiliar ways, causing the reader to wonder who these characters are. These responses will simply identify some subject terminology.Give 5-6 marks to those who explain how a number of different examples create intrigue, and begin to show some understanding of how language and the organisation of events are used to achieve effects and influence the reader, e.g. the use of the title ‘Aunt’ has connotations of family love and kindness.’ These responses will begin to use relevant subject terminology accurately to support their comments.Give 7-8 marks to those who make accurate comments about how a range of different examples create intrigue, and begin to analyse how language and the organisation of events are used to achieve effects and influence the reader, e.g. the writer uses familiar words in unfamiliar ways. For example, ‘Aunt’ usually has connotations of family and kindness, but the writer contrasts this with the description of the Aunts patrolling with ‘electric cattle prods’. Subject terminology is used accurately to support comments effectively.Give 9-10 marks to those who make accurate and perceptive comments about how a wide range of different examples create intrigue, and provide detailed analysis of how language and the organisation of events are used to achieve effects and influence the reader, e.g. ‘Aunt’ usually has connotations of family and kindness, but the writer contrasts this with the description of the Aunts patrolling with ‘electric cattle prods’. This creates intrigue because it suggests that this is a very different world, where danger is everywhere. Subtleties of the writer’s technique are explored in relation to how the reader is influenced. Well-considered, accurate use of subject terminology supports comments effectively.In addition to the examples given above, other details candidates may explore or comment on could be:

the narrator’s restricted lifestyle the Angels withheld information.


Read line 32 to the end.A5. ‘In the last twelve lines of this passage, the writer’s

description of setting and character creates the impression that the narrator leads a very restricted life.” [10]



your own impressions of the narrator as she is presented here and in the passage as a whole;

how the writer has created these impressions. You must refer to the text to support your answer.

This question tests the ability to evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual references.

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Give 0 marks for responses where there is nothing worthy of credit.Give 1-2 marks to those who express a simple personal opinion with linked basic textual reference, e.g. It does sound restricted because she is not allowed to go out.Give 3-4 marks to those who give a personal opinion supported by straightforward textual references. These responses will show limited interaction with the text e.g. I thought her life did sound restricted as the text makes the setting sound like a prison, ‘barbed wire’.Give 5-6 marks to those who give an evaluation of the text and its effects, supported by appropriate textual references. These responses will show some critical awareness of the text, e.g. even though her life sounds restricted, I think the narrator is attempting to rebel, ‘we learned to lip-read’.Give 7-8 marks to those who give a critical evaluation of the text and its effects, supported by well-selected textual references. They will show critical awareness and clear engagement with the text, e.g. the narrator’s life sounds restricted when the writer describes her daily walks, ‘two by two around the football field’, which sounds almost childlike.


However, this is contrasted with the narrator’s small attempts to rebel by learning ‘to lip read’ and ‘whisper almost without sound’. Give 9-10 marks to those who give a persuasive evaluation of the text and its effects, supported by convincing, well selected examples and purposeful textual references. These responses will show engagement and involvement, where candidates take an overview to make accurate and perceptive comments on the text, eg. The writer makes the


narrator’s life sounds restricted through multiple images of restriction, like when she is made to walk ‘two by two around the football field’ - a childlike image. However, this is contrasted at the end of the text with the narrator’s small attempts to rebel by learning ‘to lip read’, which means that the chapter ends with a sense of hope.Areas for possible evaluation:

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the impressions of the narrator’s restricted life; the narrator’s attempts to rebel against this.


Top tips


Top tips for addressing an unseen fiction extract

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1. DON’T PANIC! This can be a daunting paper – there is a lot to do, and unlike the Literature papers, you don’t know what text you will be asked about. Remember, though, that everyone is in the same position. Keep your cool and remember what you have been taught.

2. Revise. Working through this pack will help you to develop the reading skills you are being tested on in this paper. You also need to ensure that you know the questions inside out. Make sure you know what skills each question is testing, and what the examiner is looking for. You should also practise answering questions in timed conditions.

3. Take care over timing. The questions later on in the paper are worth far more marks. If you don’t leave yourself time to answer them properly, you are throwing these marks away. Keep an eye on the clock and be strict with yourself.

4. Work through the questions methodically. Remember what you have been taught and the key elements that are required for each question.

5. Plan. The way you do this is likely to be different for each question. It might take the form of highlighting, annotating, or, for the longer questions, drawing a quick table. It doesn’t matter how you do it, but planning will help you to choose fruitful quotes and points, and will generally make your answer more coherent. It will also help you to avoid repeating yourself, returning to points, or running out of things to say! See time spent planning as an investment.


6. Be specific and precise. Much of this paper tests your ability to analyse. Think carefully about the effects the writer’s choices have on the reader and how these are created. Take care not to fall back on generic phrases which could apply to any texts. You won’t get any marks for these. Examples include ‘This makes the reader want to read on’, ‘The writer uses language’, ‘This is very effective’, ‘This creates an image in your head’, and, ‘The writer uses long and short sentences’.

7. Be concise. Nervous students often waffle – don’t be one of them! As we’ve already established, time is precious in this exam. Don’t waste it by taking half a page to make a point which could have been covered in a line or two. Make sure every sentence gets you marks.

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Acknowledgements


Acknowledgements

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About the author

Lyndsey Chand

Lyndsey has been teaching English for the past eight years, working in schools in London and Yorkshire. She is currently Acting Head of English at a large secondary school in the North of England. Lyndsey has a particular interest in Literature teaching at both GCSE and A Level, and has examined for the A Level Literature paper. She has been a Teachit English contributor for several years.

Extracts

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien

2017 Granta Books edition Reprinted by permission of Granta Books.© 2016

Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

1993 Wordsworth Editions Limited edition

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

2015 Fourth Estate edition Reprinted by permission of Harper Collins Publishers Ltd© 2014, Anthony Doerr


Arthur Conan Doyle 2007 Pocket Penguin Classic edition © Copyright holders of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle works.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Published by The Bodley HeadReprinted by permission of The Random House Group


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Everything I Never Told You Copyright © 2014 by Celeste Ng.Reprinted by permission of Blackfriars, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Published by Jonathan CapeReprinted by permission of The Random House Group Limited.© 1986


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