English Literature

1. 1.

   Two original invented extracts. A: 'I carried the house key across the sea. Each new room became a corridor back to the door it could no longer open.' B: 'We built no door. At dusk the neighbours brought their chairs, and the empty square learned our names.' Explain what the key symbolises in A.

   [2 marks] · no calculator

   Answer explanation

   Draft walkthroughs are based on marking guidance, not independently verified derivations.

   1. A key normally enables entry; here it survives without that function. It can therefore hold memory while exposing displacement.
   2. Award each point once. Accept other well-supported interpretations addressing the task.

   Marking points

   • It preserves a connection to a former home.
   • Its inability to open the door suggests loss of practical access.

   Examiner tip: Use the failed function of the object to support the symbolism.

2. 2.

   Two original invented extracts. A: 'I carried the house key across the sea. Each new room became a corridor back to the door it could no longer open.' B: 'We built no door. At dusk the neighbours brought their chairs, and the empty square learned our names.' How does B's first-person plural affect its idea of home?

   [2 marks] · no calculator

   Answer explanation

   Draft walkthroughs are based on marking guidance, not independently verified derivations.

   1. No single owner dominates B. The square becomes socially inhabited through repeated gathering, contrasting with possession of a private doorway.
   2. Award each point once. Accept other well-supported interpretations addressing the task.

   Marking points

   • 'We' makes home a collective experience.
   • Neighbours and shared chairs suggest belonging through participation.

   Examiner tip: Plural narration is evidence of collectivity, not proof everyone agrees.

3. 3.

   Two original invented extracts. A: 'I carried the house key across the sea. Each new room became a corridor back to the door it could no longer open.' B: 'We built no door. At dusk the neighbours brought their chairs, and the empty square learned our names.' Compare the function of the door in A and B.

   [3 marks] · no calculator

   Answer explanation

   Draft walkthroughs are based on marking guidance, not independently verified derivations.

   1. Anchor the comparison in the same image: A has a door but no access; B lacks a door yet gains belonging. This reverses an expected relationship between enclosure and home.
   2. Award each point once. Accept other well-supported interpretations addressing the task.

   Marking points

   • A's inaccessible door represents a boundary to a lost home.
   • B's refusal to build a door suggests openness.
   • Explains the contrast between remembered private access and present communal access.

   Examiner tip: Compare within a sentence rather than writing two unrelated mini-analyses.

4. 4.

   Two original invented extracts. A: 'I carried the house key across the sea. Each new room became a corridor back to the door it could no longer open.' B: 'We built no door. At dusk the neighbours brought their chairs, and the empty square learned our names.' Compare how each extract figuratively transforms place.

   [3 marks] · no calculator

   Answer explanation

   Draft walkthroughs are based on marking guidance, not independently verified derivations.

   1. The places respond to their occupants in different ways. A's transformations return the speaker to an unavailable past, whereas B's learning marks an emerging relationship with the present.
   2. Award each point once. Accept other well-supported interpretations addressing the task.

   Marking points

   • A's rooms become corridors in the speaker's imagination.
   • B personifies the square as learning names.
   • A directs place backwards toward memory; B directs it toward new recognition.

   Examiner tip: Do not call every figurative transformation personification.

5. 5.

   Two original invented extracts. A: 'I carried the house key across the sea. Each new room became a corridor back to the door it could no longer open.' B: 'We built no door. At dusk the neighbours brought their chairs, and the empty square learned our names.' Evaluate the claim that A is hopeless while B is wholly optimistic.

   [4 marks] · no calculator

   Answer explanation

   Draft walkthroughs are based on marking guidance, not independently verified derivations.

   1. The broad emotional contrast is useful but incomplete. A's attachment can be sustaining as well as painful; B narrates a process of making belonging, not an already perfect community.
   2. Award each point once. Accept other well-supported interpretations addressing the task.

   Marking points

   • The unusable key and repetitive return support A's loss.
   • Carrying the key also suggests continuity or refusal to abandon identity.
   • Shared names and chairs support hope in B but 'empty' acknowledges an initial lack.
   • Offers a qualified comparison grounded in both extracts.

   Examiner tip: Challenge absolute words such as 'wholly' with precise counterevidence.

6. 6.

   Two original invented extracts. A: 'I carried the house key across the sea. Each new room became a corridor back to the door it could no longer open.' B: 'We built no door. At dusk the neighbours brought their chairs, and the empty square learned our names.' Which extract more strongly presents home as something people create rather than inherit? Construct a comparative judgement.

   [4 marks] · no calculator

   Answer explanation

   Draft walkthroughs are based on marking guidance, not independently verified derivations.

   1. B more directly foregrounds shared action. Yet A actively gives each room a symbolic function, so the distinction is between kinds of creation rather than action versus no action.
   2. Award each point once. Accept other well-supported interpretations addressing the task.

   Marking points

   • Defines creation as a process of current social or imaginative activity.
   • B's building decision and gatherings support collective creation.
   • A's transformed rooms also show imaginative creation, though tied to an inherited key.
   • Weighs both rather than assuming possession makes A wholly passive.

   Examiner tip: The text does not specify legal inheritance of the key; 'inherit' may be figurative.

Original, unofficial practice questions from SubjectScout — not official past-paper questions.