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Cover

Contents

Contents

Introduction 4

Do Not Say We Have Nothing 5

Extract 5

Student workbook 7

Teacher notes and suggested answers 14

Exam style questions 19

Tess of the d’Urbervilles 29

Extract 29

Student workbook 31



All the Light We Cannot See 59

Extract 59

Student workbook 62



Rebecca 96

Extract 96

Student workbook 98



‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’ 134

Extract 134

Student workbook 136



The Book Thief 161

Extract 161




Everything I Never Told You 197

Extract 197




The Handmaid’s Tale 225

Extract 225




Top tips 269

Acknowledgements 271

About the author 271

Extracts 271

Introduction

© www.teachitenglish.co.uk 2018Page 3 of 47

Introduction

Introduction

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 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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Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien

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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Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien

Changsha – A city in central China

Conjecture – Forming an opinion based on incomplete information

Chinatown – A district of a non-Chinese city in which the population is mostly Chinese

Bach – A famous composer

Student workbook


The novel begins with the following sentence:


Student workbook

In a single year, my father left us twice.

1

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

2

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


Student workbook

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?

Here is the next part of the extract:



4

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

1.

2.

3.

4.


Student workbook

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:


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

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

Challenge question:

What could this symbolise?

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.

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:



Student workbook

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.

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:

PresentPast

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


Student workbook



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?

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.




Student workbook

8

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

9

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

10

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?

Teacher notes and answers


Teacher notes and suggested answers

The novel begins with the following sentence:

Do Not Say We have Nothing


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.



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.

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:

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.


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.

Challenge question:


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.



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:

PresentPast

has a kind, handsome face

is a kind ... man

wears glasses that have no frames

his eyes ... are guarded

he is only 39 years old

my father's name was ...

I learned ...

his fingers tapped ...

he gave me ...

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.





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.’

10

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.

11

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 questions

AQA



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 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: Reading

Answer 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]



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]



Edexcel



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




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)



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.


WJEC Eduqas



SECTION A: 40 marks

Read 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 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.



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?


· 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


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. 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 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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Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

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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Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Student workbook



Student workbook

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.

1.

2.

3.

2

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


Student workbook

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:


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.


Student workbook

Example


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.’

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Now read the next part of the source:


Student workbook



"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.

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


Student workbook

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.

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:


Student workbook

1.

2.

What effect does this contrast have on the reader?

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 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

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

cried

verb

gazing

disaster

killed


Student workbook


Student workbook

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.

1. 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?

"‘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!"

10

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

No

Because:

Quote which proves this:

Because:



Student workbook


Yes

No

Because:


Because:



Student workbook


Student workbook

11

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.







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.

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?

Answers may include:

· 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).



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


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.



5

Now read the next part of the source:



"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.’



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:

1. '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

and



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.

8

Now read the final part of the extract:


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

noun

It 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

noun

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

killed

verb

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



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?

5. 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.




10

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.

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’.

11

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


AQA



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.







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 – Wait

Iridescence – Shimmering with different colours

Coagulation – Starting to thicken or clot

Prismatic – Having lots of colours

Section A: Reading

Answer 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 10.

List four things which happen in this part of the text.

[4 marks]

2 Look in detail at this extract from lines 11 to 29 of the Source:




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.

[8 marks]



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]



Edexcel



Read the text below and answer the questions that follow.

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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Bide – Wait




SECTION A – Reading

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

(Total for Question 1 = 1 mark)

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.

Evaluate how successfully this is achieved.

Support your views with detailed reference to the text.




WJEC Eduqas



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.






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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15

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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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Bide – Wait






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]

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

Read lines 12-19.

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

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

Read lines 33-47.

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


· 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?


· your own impressions of Tess 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.

All The Light We Cannot See


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.

Leaflets

At 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.

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.

The Girl

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All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

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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60


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.

65

70


Student workbook


Read the first part of the novel, below:


Student workbook

Leaflets

At 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.

1

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


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.’


Student workbook


Student workbook

3.

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?



Student workbook

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?

5

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


Student workbook

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.

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.

6

List four things which can be seen from the planes:

1.

3.

2.

4.

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.

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.’


Student workbook


Student workbook


The Girl

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.

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:


Student workbook

Yes / No … because …:

Quotation from the text which supports this:

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.


Student workbook

Here is the final part of the extract:

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


And something else.

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.

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:


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

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:


Student workbook

1.

2.

3.

14

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

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?

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?

Focus of Chapter 1

Focus of Chapter 2

Focus of Chapter 3


Student workbook

17

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?


Student workbook




Read the first part of the novel, below:



Leaflets

At dusk they pour from the sky. They blow across the ramparts, turn cartwheels over ro

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