English Language paper 1 revision

Year 11
 This is the opening of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, 1938:

‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate
leading 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 chimney, 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.’

1. What do you think Manderley is? Why?

2. What do you think has happened to Manderley? Why?

3. What do you predict will happen in the story? Why?

4. What genre is this novel? How can you tell?

5. Identify any adjectives, metaphors, personification or other literary techniques.

6. Draw a sketch of the scene that is described.

7. What tone or mood is created, e.g. sadness? What words or phrases make you think that?

8. What makes this an effective opening to a novel? Why?

9. Write down at least 3 questions you would want answers to, e.g. I want to know who the
narrator is.

10. We are presented with a first person narrative. Do you think we can truly believe everything
the narrator tells us? Why?
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 after image, 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.
List four things about the gymnasium from this part of the Source.
• Firstly, the writer uses personification to create an idea of an attack in the extract. ‘The wind
lashing the trees’ creates an aggressive image: ‘Lashing’ is an aggressive verb which shows
the power of the storm. It makes the reader view the scene as dark, dingy and unsafe. The
idea that the boy ‘turned on the light’ shows he is scared of the dark and of how intense
storm is.

• The idea of the storm being nightmarish is also shown by the boy being ‘still tangled in the
images of a bad dream.’ The nightmarish situation scares the boy and petrifies him. Only a
storm that is ‘roaring’ and ‘lashing’ would scare someone like this so the reader can see the
intense storm that lay before the boy.

• Finally, through the phrase of ‘roaring Pacific Ocean’ the storm is compared to an animal:
‘roaring’. It has turned into a raging animal which roars like a lion or tiger and strikes fear.
So, then a reader sees the effect of the storm as fear, fear towards nature and what it will do
next. It is unpredictable.
Read this longer paragraph from “Wuthering Heights”. In it, Heathcliff has just learned of the
death of his lover, Catherine.

“Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!” He dashed
his head against the knotted trunk; and, lifting up his eyes, howled, not like a man, but like a savage
beast being goaded to death with knives and spears. I observed several splashes of blood about the
bark of the tree, and his hand and forehead were both stained; probably the scene I witnessed was a
repetition of others acted during the night. It hardly moved my compassion – it appalled me: still, I
felt reluctant to quit him so. But the moment he recollected himself enough to notice me watching,
he thundered a command for me to go, and I obeyed. He was beyond my skill to quiet or console!

How does the writer use language here to describe the effect of Catherine’s death on
Heathcliff?
You could comment on

 words and phrases

 language features
 Sentence forms.

Improve this paragraph:

Heathcliff’s use of the word “unutterable” shows that he can’t even speak about what has
happened. His use of repetition of “I cannot live without”, suggest he feels like he can’t live without
her. He calls her his “life” and “soul” which shows that she is his life. He is “howling” like an animal
or “savage beast” showing that he is sad.

Heathcliff’s use of the word “unutterable” shows that he finds Catherine’s death almost too terrible
to speak about. His exclamations, repeating “I cannot live without”, show his desperation, and
calling her his “life” and “soul” show how his happiness is tied to her. His violent behaviour, together
with the violent verbs “dashed” and “thundered” show how strong his feelings are. To the narrator,
he seems like an animal, “howling” like a wolf or some other “savage beast” showing that he has
been reduced to a raw emotion that is deeper than anything civilised – almost beyond being human.
 Structural Features
• Zooming in from something big to something much smaller (and vice versa)

• Shifting between different times and places (they may notice this between paragraphs).

– Sudden or gradual introduction of new characters at significant points.

– Moving from inside to the wider world outside (and vice versa).

– Combining external actions with internal thoughts.

– Switching between different points of view. (Perspectives)

– Contrasts/juxtapositions

– Paragraphing (effect = integral structural device to shape focus and to move the
narrative on)

– Tenses

– Climax or tracking to climax

• Developing and reiterating (focusing on a point of view by expanding and repeating it)

• Cyclical structure (returning at the end to what happened at the beginning)

• Positioning of key sentences and their impact on the whole text.

– Different sentence structures: simple/complex/minor (effect of short sentences =

‘builds and heightens the tension’, ‘creates a contrast’, ‘is a juxtaposition to’
‘interrupts the fluency of the narrative’)

• Foregrounding

• Speech

If the extract is from the opening…:

• The text opens with a detailed description of the old seaman- ‘his hands ragged and scarred,
with black, broken nails’. This is significant because the writer is establishing the characters
and ensuring the reader focuses his/her attention on…

• The writer repeats ‘I remember him’ in the opening. This use of anaphora serves to show us
how important this character is, because…

• As this text is from the beginning of a novel, it is clear that this is going to be an important
character. The writer has immediately focused the reader’s attention on…

• In the middle of the extract, the writer changes the focus from a physical description of the
seaman, to examples of the way he spoke. This shifts the focus of the reader to…

• The sentence ‘And that was all we could learn of our guest’ is structurally important because
it gives the reader a strong sense of conclusion to the description of the seaman and creates
a sense that the character was enigmatic or…
Source A
Let the reader be introduced to Lady Carbury,
upon whose character and doings much will
depend of whatever interest these pages may Which opening gains the
have, as she sits at her writing-table in her own reader’s interest by:
room in her own house in Welbeck Street. Lady
Carbury spent many hours at her desk, and 1. Addressing the
wrote many letters – wrote also very much
beside letters. reader?
Anthony Trollope, “The Way We Live Now”
2. Giving a strong
sense of setting?
3. Raising questions
about a character’s
daily life?
4. Raising questions as
to why a character
Source B
is where they are?
Day had broken cold and gray, exceedingly
cold and gray, when the man turned aside
from the main Yukon trail and climbed the
high earth-bank, where a dim and little-
travelled trail led eastward through the fat
spruce timberland.
Jack London, “To Build a Fire”
 Which of the elements of structure are listed in the extract below?

He crouched behind the bin and scanned the  Use of commas

view: an expanse of wet concrete, and behind it  Zooming in from an overall
a railway viaduct over six red-brick arches, each view to a detail
sealed to form an individual lock-up. Beneath a  Scene- setting
sign reading ‘JD Engines Ltd’ was a solid steel  Narrative viewpoint /
gate. In this gate, a door was inset. Any moment perspective
now, that door would fly open.  Shifts between focus
Yesterday it had all been different. He had been points
a free man. That was before Arthur had  Connections between
approached him about “a little job”. paragraphs
 Topic sentences
Suddenly a gunshot sounded and Arthur burst
out running.

Read this passage from “To The Lighthouse” by Virginia Woolf, in which a family are in a
sailing boat.
The rush of the water ceased; the world became full of little creaking and squeaking
sounds. One heard the waves breaking and flapping against the side of the boat as if they
were anchored in the harbour. Everything became very close to one. For the sail, upon
which James had his eyes fixed until it had become to him like a person whom he knew,
sagged entirely; there they came to a stop, flapping about waiting for a breeze, in the hot
sun, miles from shore, miles from the Lighthouse. Everything in the whole world seemed
to stand still. The Lighthouse become immovable, and the line of the distant shore became
fixed. The sun grew hotter and everybody seemed to come very close together and to feel
each other’s presence, which they had almost forgotten. Macalister’s fishing line went
plumb down into the sea. But Mr Ramsay went on reading with his legs curled under him.

How has the writer structured this text so it interests the reader?
Example for Question 3: Yellow = structure and Green = effect

• At the beginning of the extract, the reader’s attention is focused on the “nightmare” that Alex has,
where the “black bird” “crashed” into his house. This immediately throws the reader into Alex’s
mind, as we are introduced to the main character, focusing on Alex’s thoughts. This connects the
reader to Alex from the beginning, as they are shown what he fears. In his nightmare, there are
“dark clouds”, the theme of threatening weather carried into the second paragraph, which is
focused on the “lashing”, “furious” storm. As the reader we see that although the focus has
changed from Alex’s nightmare to the storm, the continuity of the weather creates the impression
that Alex has woken into a nightmare, and the reader begins to sense that something is not quite
right. This is intensified by the wild and aggressive use of listing: “wind lashing…, rain on the
rooftop, and thunder.” This creates a feeling of growing power and aggression for the reader, and
they begin to fear what the storm foreshadows.

• This dark beginning is juxtaposed by the focus switching to Alex’s family. The use of short and
abrupt sentences between the characters adds to the reader’s sense of unease from the first
paragraph, as the reader’s focus is turned to Alex’s mother. The contrast of his mother’s “music”
and “flowers” to the “thin” “silent ghost” with “sunken eyes” emphasises her deterioration, and
the cyclical nature of the extract brings the reader on a journey as the focus shifts from his mother,
the weather, the family and then back to his mother. This emphasises Alex’s connection to his
mother as all his thoughts revolve around her. The reader begins to realise that the “black bird”
may be an extended metaphor for the illness that has taken his mother away from him.

GCSE English Language Paper 1, Question 4 – “To What Extent …?”

Step 1: Step 2: Step 3:
 Explain your decision using clear
Decide if you agree or disagree Explain yourself in detail
PEE paragraphs
with the statement.  This suggests that
 Use quotations to support
 I agree entirely …  This gives the impression that
your ideas
 I agree partially …  This creates a sense of
 Clearly identify
 I disagree somewhat …  This makes the reader
techniques and methods
 I completely disagree … feel/think/wonder/worry/ask
(language or structure)

HOW DO WE STRUCTURE THE RESPONSE?

STEP ONE Remember
• make a clear statement in response. Make opinion clear immediately Question 4 is a SYNOPTIC
then each paragraph is the same... QUESTION. This means you
STEP TWO must use ALL of your reading
• make a statement linked to Q - refer to writer's method skills to answer it. Infer,
(terminology/what has writer done/used). analyse language and talk
• explain WHY writer has used that particular word/phrase/term about the structure. Think of
I fully agree withback
linked the to
student,
Q that Alex is struggling to cope with his mother’s illness. questions 1, 2 and 3 as
Alex begins “not in the mood” which foreshadows the growing sense of pain due to his mother’s
preparation for this question.
• Evidence
“absence”. When his younger sister asks “when’s Mamma going to get better?” Alex replies with “shut
up,STEP THREE
Nicole”. The irritated tone and blunt response implies that Alex is frustrated because he wants his
• explain
mother to be healthy,effectbut
onbecause
reader/meaning/inference
she isn’t getting better, he has to be angry at “life in general”, showing
he isn’t coping well.

The story set at “breakfast” ends with “he rushed out of the kitchen”. The verb “rushed” illustrates to the
reader that Alex is struggling to cope, as he is desperate to be away from everything and be “angry with”
the world, and “even his mother for getting sick”.

The last paragraph shows Alex’s realisation of “how painful her absence was now” and how “enormous
his mother’s presence had been”. He even “admitted” he “missed her easy laughter and affection, even
her discipline”. The listing of “he missed her music, her flowers, the once-familiar fragrance of fresh
baked cookies, and the smell of paint” implies that he isn’t coping well at all as he is reminiscing and
listing what he loved about her, showing he is desperate to have her back and that he can’t deal with her
“absence.”
AQA English Language Paper 1, Q4
This extract is taken from a short story, ‘Power’ by Jack Cope, about a South African boy
living in an isolated area, who can see a large electricity pylon and powerline from his house.

Andre was ten and he knew volts were electricity and the line took power by a short cut far
across country. It worked gold mines, it lit towns, and hauled trains and drove machinery
somewhere out beyond. The power station was in the town ten miles on the other side of
his father’s place and the great line simply jumped over them without stopping.
Andre filled the empty spaces in his life by imagining things. Often he was a jet plane and
roared around the house and along the paths with his arms outspread. He saw an Everest
film once and for a long time he was Hillary or Tensing, or both, conquering a mountain.
There were no mountains so he conquered the roof of the house which wasn’t very high
and was made of red-painted tin. But he reached the summit and planted a flag on the
lighting conductor. When he got down, his mother hit his legs with a quince switch for being
naughty.
Another time, he conquered the koppie. It took him the whole afternoon to get there and
back and it was not as exciting as he expected, being less steep than it looked from a
distance so he did not need his rope and pick. Also, he found a cow had beaten him to the
summit.
He thought of conquering one of the powerline towers. It had everything, the danger
especially, and studying it from all sides he guessed he could make the summit without
touching a live wire. But he was not as disobedient as all that, and he knew if he so much as
went inside the barbed-wire fence, his mother would skin him with the quince, not to
mention his father. There were peaks which had to remain unconquered.
He used to lie and listen to the marvellous hum of the powerline, the millions of volts
flowing invisible and beyond all one’s ideas along the copper wires that hung so smooth and
light from ties of crinkled white china looking like Chinese lanterns up against the sky. Faint
cracklings and murmurs and rushes of sound would sometimes come from the powerline,
and at night he was sure he saw soft blue flames lapping and trembling on the wires as they
were only half peeping out of that fierce river of volts. The flames danced and their voices
chattered to him of a mystery.
In the early morning when the mist was rising and the first sun’s rays were shooting
underneath it, the powerline sparkled like a tremendous spiderweb. It took his thoughts
away into a magical distance, far-far off among gigantic machines and busy factories. That
was where the world opened up. So he loved the powerline dearly. It made a door through
the distance for his thoughts. It was like him except that it never slept, and while he was
dreaming it went on without stopping, cracking faintly and murmuring. Its electricity hauled
up the mine skips from the heart of the earth, hurtled huge green rail units along their
shining lines, and thundered day and night in the factories.
Glossary:
Hillary: Edmund Hillary, one of the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest
Tensing: Tensing Norgay, one of the first men to reach the summit of Everest
quince switch: a flexible cane cut from a quince tree
koppie: a small hill on South African grazing land

___________________________________________________________________

Q 4) Focus your answer on the second half of the source, from ‘He thought of conquering…’
to the end.
On reading this section of the text, a student said: ‘The writer makes us understand Andre’s
fascination with the powerline and the exciting life it represents to him. It is as though we
can see from a child’s viewpoint.’
To what extent do you agree?
In your response, you could:

 write about your own impressions of Andre

 evaluate how the writer has conveyed his fascination with the powerline
 support your opinions with quotations from the text.

What the writer does + evidence Why he does it/effect on reader

 Extract from ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allen Poe (1843)

I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings. I
then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye --not even his --could have detected
any thing wrong. There was nothing to wash out --no stain of any kind --no blood-spot whatever. I had been
too wary for that. A tub had caught all --ha! ha!
When I had made an end of these labors, it was four o'clock --still dark as midnight. As the bell sounded the
hour, there came a knocking at the street door. I went down to open it with a light heart, --for what had I
now to fear? There entered three men, who introduced themselves, with perfect suavity, as officers of the
police. A shriek had been heard by a neighbour during the night; suspicion of foul play had been aroused;
information had been lodged at the police office, and they (the officers) had been deputed to search the
premises.
I smiled, --for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome. The shriek, I said, was my own in a dream.
The old man, I mentioned, was absent in the country. I took my visitors all over the house. I bade them
search --search well. I led them, at length, to his chamber. I showed them his treasures, secure, undisturbed.
In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room, and desired them here to rest from
their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very
spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim.
The officers were satisfied. My manner had convinced them. I was singularly at ease. They sat, and while I
answered cheerily, they chatted of familiar things. But, ere long, I felt myself getting pale and wished them
gone. My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears: but still they sat and still chatted. The ringing
became more distinct: --It continued and became more distinct: I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling:
but it continued and gained definiteness --until, at length, I found that the noise was not within my ears.
No doubt I now grew very pale; --but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound
increased --and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound --much such a sound as a watch makes
when enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath --and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly --
more vehemently; but the noise steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with
violent gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased. Why would they not be gone? I paced the floor to
and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men --but the noise steadily
increased. Oh God! what could I do? I foamed --I raved --I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been
sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder
--louder --louder!
And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God! --no, no!
They heard! --they suspected! --they knew! --they were making a mockery of my horror!-this I thought, and
this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could
bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! and now --again! --hark! louder!
louder! louder! louder!
"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the
beating of his hideous heart!"

Q4: A student, having read this section of the text said, ‘Due to his actions, the
narrator is unreliable and his account of events cannot be trusted.’ To what extent
do you agree?
You have 5 minutes to plan out as many ideas as you can…
 Extract from ‘I Capture the Castle’ (1948) by Dodie Smith
I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. That is, my feet are in it; the rest of me is on the draining board,
which I have padded with our dog's blanket and the tea cosy. I can't say that I am really comfortable, and
there is a depressing smell of carbolic soap, but this is the only part of the kitchen where there is any
daylight left. And I have found that sitting in a place where you have never sat before can be inspiring; I
wrote my very best poem while sitting on the hen house. Though even that isn't a very good poem. I have
decided my poetry is so bad that I mustn't write any more of it.
Drips from the roof are plopping into the water butt by the back door. The view through the windows
above the sink is excessively drear. Beyond the dank garden in the courtyard are the ruined walls on the
edge of the moat. Beyond the moat, the boggy ploughed fields stretch to the leaden sky. I tell myself that
all the rain we have had lately is good for nature, and that at any moment spring will surge on us. I try to
see leaves on the trees and the courtyard filled with sunlight. Unfortunately, the more my mind's eye sees
green and gold, the more drained of all colour does the twilight seem.
It is comforting to look away from the windows and towards the kitchen fire, near which my sister Rose is
ironing though she obviously can't see properly, and it will be a pity if she scorches her only nightgown. (I
have two, but one is minus its behind.) Rose looks particularly fetching by firelight because she is a pinkish
person; her skin has a pink glow and her hair is pinkish gold, very light and feathery. Although I am rather
used to her I know she is a beauty. She is nearly twenty one and very bitter with life. I am seventeen, look
younger, feel older. I am no beauty but have a neatish face.
I have just remarked to Rose that our situation is really rather romantic: two girls in this strange and
lonely house. She replied that she saw nothing romantic about being shut up in a crumbling ruin
surrounded by a sea of mud. I must admit that our home is an unreasonable place to live in. Yet I love it.
The house itself was built in the time of Charles II, but it was grafted on to a fourteenth century castle
that had been damaged by Cromwell. The whole of our east wall was part of the castle; there are two
round towers in it. The gatehouse is intact and a stretch of the old walls at their full height joins it to the
house. And Belmotte Tower, all that remains of an even older castle, still stands on its mound close by.
But I won't attempt to describe our peculiar home fully until I can see more time ahead of me than I do
now.
I am writing this journal partly to practise my newly acquired speed writing and partly to teach myself
how to write a novel I intend to capture all our characters and put in conversations. It ought to be good
for my style to dash along without much thought, as up to now my stories have been very stiff and self
conscious. The only time father obliged me by reading one of them, he said I combined stateliness with
a desperate effort to be funny. He told me to relax and let the words flow out of me.

Q4: Focus on the part in bold. A student, having read this section of the
text said: “The writer portrays the two girls as having a romantic lifestyle.”
To what extent do you agree?
You have 5 minutes to plan out as many ideas as you can…

Extract from ‘Beautiful Ghosts’ (2004) by Eliot Pattison

There are sounds in Tibet heard nowhere else in the world. Hollow moans inexplicably roll down the slopes of
Q4: A student, having read this section of the text, said, ‘Shan feels lonely and
isolated. He clearly does not belong here.’ To what extent do you agree?
You have 5 minutes to plan out as many ideas as you can…

This is an extract from ‘The Ghost Road’ by Pat Barker.

It is a war novel, first published in 1995 and winner of the Booker Prize. It is the third volume of a
trilogy that follows the fortunes of shell-shocked British army officers towards the end of the First
World War.

Concentrate on nothing but the moment, Prior told himself, moving forward on knees and elbows
like a frog or a lizard or like- like anything except a man. First the right knee, then the left, then the
right then the left again and again and again, slithering through fleshy green grass that smelled
incredibly sharp as scrabbling boots cut it. Even with all this mist there was now perceptible thinning
of the light, a gleam from the canal where it ran between spindly, dead trees.

There is to be no retirement under any circumstances. That was the order. They have tied us to the
stake, we cannot fly, but bear-like we must fight the course. The men were silent, staring ahead into
the mist. Talk, even in whispers, was forbidden. Prior looked at his watch, licked dry lips, watched the
second hand crawl to the quarter hour. All around him was a tension of held breath. 5.43. Two more
minutes. He crouched further down, whistle clenched between his teeth.

Prompt as ever hell erupted. Shells whined over, flashes of light, plumes of water from the drainage
ditches, tons of mud and earth flung into the air. A shell fell short. The ground shock beneath them
and a shower of pebbles and clods of earth peppered their steel helmets. Five minutes of this, five
minutes of the air bursting in waves against your face, men with dazed faces braced against it. As
they picked up the light bridges meant for fording the flooded drainage ditches, and carried them out
to the front. Then abruptly, silence. A gasp for air, then noise again but further back, as the barrage
lifted and drummed down on to the empty fields.

Prior blew the whistle, couldn’t hear it, was on his feet and running anyway, urging men on with
wordless cries. They rushed forward, making for the line of trees. Prior kept shouting, ‘Steady,
steady! Not too fast on the left!’ It was important there should be no bunching when they reached
the bridges. ‘Keep it straight!’ though the men were stumbling into quagmires or tripping over
clumps of grass. A shell whizzing over the German side exploded in a shower of mud and water. And
another. He saw several little figures topple over, it didn’t look serious, somehow, they didn’t look
like beings who could be hurt.

Bridges laid down, quickly, efficiently, no bunching at the crossings, just the clump of boots on wood,
and then they emerged from beneath the shelter of the trees and out into the terrifying openness of
the bank. As bare as an eyeball, no cover anywhere, and the machine-gunners on the other side were
alive and well. They dropped down firing to cover the sappers as they struggled to assemble the
bridge, but nothing covered them. Bullets fell like rain, puckering the surface of the canal, and the
men started to fall. Prior saw the man next to him, a silent, surprised face, no sound, as he twirled
and fell, a slash of scarlet like a huge flower bursting open on his chest. Crawling forward, he fired at
the bank opposite though he could hardly see it for the clouds of smoke that drifted across. The
sappers were still struggling with the bridge, binding pontoon sections together with the wire that
sparked in their hands as bullets struck it. And still the terrible rain fell. Only two sappers left, and
then the Manchesters took over the building of the bridge. Kirk paddled out in a crate to give
covering fire, was hit, hit again, this time in the face, went out firing directly at the machine-gunners
who crouched in

their defended holes only a few yards away. Prior was about to start across the water with
ammunition when he was himself hit, though it didn’t feel like a bullet, more like a blow from
something big and hard, a truncheon or a cricket bat, only it knocked him off his feet, and he fell, one
arm trailing over the edge of the canal.

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

List four phrases or words to describe the setting

[4 marks]

2. How does the writer use language here to describe the beginning of the attack?
[8 marks]

Prompt as ever hell erupted. Shells whined over, flashes of light, plumes of water from
the drainage ditches, tons of mud and earth flung into the air. A shell fell short. The
ground shock beneath them and a shower of pebbles and clods of earth peppered their
steel helmets. Five minutes of this, five minutes of the air bursting in waves against your
face, men with dazed faces braced against it. As they picked up the light bridges meant
for fording the flooded drainage ditches, and carried them out to the front. Then
abruptly, silence. A gasp for air, then noise again but further back, as the barrage lifted
and drummed down on to the empty fields.

You could include the writer’s choice of:

• words and phrases

• language features and techniques

• sentence forms

3. You now need to think about the whole of the source. [8 marks]
This text is from the climax of a novel.

How has the writer structured the description of the attack to have an impact on the reader?

You could write about:

• The beginning of the extract

• How and why the writer changes focus

• Any other structural features

4. Focus this part of your answer on the second half of the source, from line 25 to the end.

“Barker paints a horrifying picture of what it would be like to be a soldier.” To what extent do you
agree?

In your response, you could:

• write about your own impressions of the soldier’s experiences

• evaluate how the writer has created these impressions

• support your opinions with quotations from the text.

GCSE English Language Paper 1 – Question 1 Top Tips

  “List four things” in relation to the opening of the extract.
 4 marks
 3 minutes
 You will only be able to select your answers for a certain part of the text.
 Read up until the end of the given line in the question. Then answer question 1.

E.g.
Text: The tall, ancient, willow tree stood beside the banks of the winding river.

Question: List four things you learn about the tree.

1. The tree is tall.

2. The tree is old.
3. It is a willow tree.
4. The tree is by the banks of the river.

Remember, one sentence may have more than one answer in. Break the sentence down and
use it for more than one answer.

GCSE English Language Paper 1 – Question 2 Top Tips

 analyse theme/emotion/person/place through language
 8 marks
 8-10 minutes
 2 to 3 paragraphs

You must do the following:

 outline overall inferences
 identify language devices
 use multiple quotations
 explore inferences

You should use this structure to form a paragraph:

P The author has presented [topic] as being [adjective]

E This is evident through the description of [embed quotation]

A In particular/Perhaps/Interestingly the [choose word or technique in the quotation] links to the idea of…
because… A reader may infer that… Another inference that can be made is that…

Also, the use of [choose another word or technique from the quotation]

Stretch:

You may want to talk about:

 sentence structure and its link to language

 development of theme/emotion/person/place
 overall patterns of language (semantic fields, extended metaphor)

GCSE English Language Paper 1 – Question 3 Top Tips: Writing about

Structure
  8 marks
 8-10 minutes
 3 paragraphs (beginning/middle/end)

You must do the following:

 discuss how the focus changes throughout the text (talk about the way the author
chooses to open the extract, how the focus may change towards the middle of the
text and, finally, how the author chooses to end the extract)
 consider how the reader would react

Structural devices you should look out for:

 shifts in focus GCSE English Language Paper 1, Question 3 – Structural
 change of Analysis
perspective Structural Features: How to start your point (pick one)
 change of tense  1st, 2nd, or 3rd person  The text is structured using
 juxtaposition narrator …
 flashback  Who is the narrator?  At the start of the extract …
 Start of extract (what do we  At the end of the extract …
 sequencing focus on?)  The writer zooms-in on …
 mirroring  End of extract (cliff-hanger?  The writer focuses our
 repetition How does it compare with attention on …
the start of the extract?  In paragraph […] the writer
The following sentences Similar? Better? Worse?) shifts the reader’s attention
 Focus of each paragraph to …
are banned:
 Zoom-in  The pace of the extract is …
“This will make the reader  Order of events
want to read on.” (chronological order?)
“This will make the reader
want to find out what happens next.”
“This will make the reader curious.”
YOU MUST EXPLAIN WHY!

You should be aiming to write three short paragraphs. Here are some useful sentences you may wish to use:

Opening of the text:

 The focus in the beginning of the text is… “QUOTE”.

 Immediately, the reader is encouraged to think/feel/believe/view/imagine… when the author
introduces... because…
Middle of the text:

 Later in the text, the author shifts the focus of the text to… when s/he writes/uses “QUOTE.” This
fascinates/engages/captivates a reader because…
 At this point in the text, the reader is drawn to consider… due to the author writing/using [structural
device], “QUOTE” This will intrigue/fascinate/captivate them because…

End of the text:

 By the end of the text, the author is now drawing the reader’s focus to…: “QUOTE.” By ending the text
in this way, the author is eliciting a feeling of [emotion] in the reader, because…
 Finally, the author ends the text by shifting the focus to [topic]. S/he does this by writing/using
[structural device]: “QUOTE”. The impact here is that a reader will feel [topic] because…
 Considering the opening of the text “QUOTE” the ending is… The author uses (structural device) which
impacts the reader to think
 This might link to the opening of the extract because…

GCSE English Language Paper 1 – Question 4 Top Tips

  You will be given a statement and be asked to what extent you agree.
 Focus on the specified section
 20 marks
 20-25 minutes

You must do the following:

 Outline overall argument in an introduction sentence- I agree somewhat

 Use connectives (firstly, in addition, comparatively).
 Identify Methods
 Use multiple quotations
 Explore inferences - Use tentative, evaluative language (arguably, perhaps, more/less)
 Consider patterns and contrasts

You should use this structure to form a paragraph:

Intro Sentence: I agree somewhat with the statement because

P = At the start/in the middle/toward the end the author has presented [topic] as being [adjective]

E = This is evident through [embed quotation]

A = In particular/Perhaps/Interestingly the [choose word or technique in the quotation] links to the idea of…
because… A reader may infer that… Another inference that can be made is that…

Also, the use of [choose another word or technique from the quotation]

The impact of this sentence/description is…

This make the reader believe/feel/worry… because…

Stretch:

 Create a point that disagrees with the statement.

 Analyse how structural and language features impact each other.

GCSE English Language Paper 1, Question 4 – “To What Extent …?”

Step 3:
Step 1: Step 2: Explain yourself in detail
Decide if you agree or Explain your decision using  This clearly suggests that
disagree with the statement. clear PEA paragraphs  This vividly gives the
 I agree entirely …  Use quotations to impression that
 I agree partially … support your ideas  This creates a sense of
 I disagree somewhat  Clearly identify  This makes the reader
… techniques and feel/think/wonder/worry/ask
 I completely disagree methods (language or  In particular the focus on…
… structure)  Significantly…
 Section B:
Question 5
1. You are going to enter a creative writing competition at your school

Either:

Write a description suggested by this picture:

OR: Write a story with the title: The Long Wait

(24 marks for content and organisation

16 marks for technical accuracy)

[40 marks]