These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. Any passage not credited to a named public-domain author was written by Marlbridge for practice; quotations from named authors are public-domain texts quoted briefly. The rubrics are a suggested Marlbridge rubric to help you check your own work; they are not an official scoring guideline. There is no calculator. Try each question before opening its answer.
Question 1 (multiple choice · foundation)
Which statement best describes a thesis?
- (A) The first sentence of any essay
- (B) The main, overarching claim that the writer defends with reasoning and evidence
- (C) A summary of the facts given
- (D) A list of the sources used
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). A thesis is the overarching claim of the whole argument.
- (A) is wrong: a thesis may come anywhere, or be implied.
- (C) is wrong: a summary of facts takes no position.
- (D) is wrong: a list of sources is not a claim.
Question 2 (multiple choice · foundation)
Which of the following is not a thesis?
- (A) The town’s library hours should be restored because the library serves the people who have nowhere else to go.
- (B) Reduced library hours harm the town’s most vulnerable residents more than any other group.
- (C) Library cuts do more harm than the savings they produce.
- (D) This essay will discuss library hours.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (D). It announces what the essay will do but takes no position.
- (A) is wrong: it takes a position and gives a reason.
- (B) is wrong: it asserts a position that must be defended.
- (C) is wrong: it asserts a position that must be defended.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
Read this passage, written by Marlbridge. “The council’s survey found that most residents want a new skate park. Some argue that the money should go to the library instead, and their case deserves hearing. But the library has a surplus this year, while the skate park has no site, no funding and no plan. The council should build the skate park and leave the library’s budget alone.” Which sentence is the thesis?
- (A) “The council should build the skate park and leave the library’s budget alone.”
- (B) “The council’s survey found that most residents want a new skate park.”
- (C) “Some argue that the money should go to the library instead…”
- (D) “But the library has a surplus this year…”
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). It states the writer’s position and recommendation, which the other sentences support or answer.
- (B) is wrong: a fact that supports the thesis.
- (C) is wrong: the counterargument.
- (D) is wrong: a sub-claim that supports the thesis.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
A writer begins by describing in detail a day in the life of a worker on a poorly lit factory floor, then lists three injuries reported in the past year, and ends with: “Safe lighting is not a luxury; it is the cost of employing people.” What is the structure of the argument?
- (A) Thesis first, then evidence
- (B) The thesis is implied and never stated
- (C) Evidence and reasoning build up, and the thesis comes last
- (D) The passage has no thesis
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). The final sentence states the claim that the earlier description and injuries support.
- (A) is wrong: the thesis is not at the start.
- (B) is wrong: the thesis is stated in the last sentence.
- (D) is wrong: the last sentence is the thesis.
Question 5 (multiple choice · core)
In Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” (1729), the narrator seriously proposes that poor families sell their children as food. Which statement best describes the thesis of the essay as a whole?
- (A) The thesis is the narrator’s literal proposal.
- (B) The essay has no thesis.
- (C) The thesis is implied: the proposal exposes how existing policies and attitudes treat the poor as a resource, and real reform is needed.
- (D) The thesis is a statement about cooking.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). The essay is satire. The writer’s real position is the opposite of the narrator’s, and is shown by exaggeration and by the narrator’s rejection of real remedies.
- (A) is wrong: taking the narrator literally mistakes satire for sincerity.
- (B) is wrong: satire has a thesis; it is implied.
- (D) is wrong: nothing in the essay concerns the choice of recipes.
Question 6 (constructed response · core)
Read this passage, written by Marlbridge.
The bridge has been closed for nine weeks, and the nine-mile detour adds twenty minutes to every trip. The council says repairs cannot begin until a survey is finished. A survey, however, takes six weeks at most, and none has been booked. The bridge does not need another committee; it needs a date.
(a) Quote the thesis. (b) Identify one fact, one counterargument and one sub-claim. (c) Describe the structure.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. (a) “The bridge does not need another committee; it needs a date.” (b) Fact: the bridge has been closed for nine weeks and the detour adds twenty minutes. Counterargument: the council says repairs cannot begin until a survey is finished. Sub-claim: a survey takes six weeks at most and none has been booked (which questions the council’s excuse). (c) Thesis last: the writer reports the problem, answers the council’s reason, and then states the position in the final sentence.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Quotes the thesis accurately. |
| 1 | Identifies a fact. |
| 1 | Identifies the counterargument. |
| 1 | Identifies a sub-claim. |
| 1 | Describes the structure (thesis last) with a reason. |
Question 7 (constructed response · core)
Read this passage, written by Marlbridge.
What a marvellous idea, to cancel the school play to save money on the hall. Who needs the thrill of a first night, the nervous giggles, the quiet pride of a parent in the third row? Think what we shall gain: an extra hour of silence in the hall. Next year, perhaps, we can save on lunch too, and learn the value of nothing at all.
(a) Explain how you know that the writer does not mean what the surface says. (b) State the implied thesis in one sentence.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. (a) The praise (“marvellous”) is followed by rhetorical questions about the things that cancelling the play destroys, and the “gain” is an extra hour of silence, which is plainly not a benefit. The suggestion to “save on lunch too” and “the value of nothing at all” exaggerates the logic to the point of absurdity, so the tone is ironic. (b) Cancelling the school play to save a little money sacrifices something of real value to pupils and families and is a false economy.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies irony or a mismatch between praise and content. |
| 1 | Gives textual evidence for the irony. |
| 1 | States a thesis that reverses the surface meaning. |
| 1 | The thesis is a defensible claim, not a topic. |
| 1 | The explanation covers at least two features of the text. |
Question 8 (constructed response · stretch)
The Declaration of Sentiments (1848) states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.” (a) Explain why this is the document’s thesis rather than a sub-claim. (b) Explain what the phrase “and women” does in relation to the text it echoes.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. (a) The sentence states the central claim of the whole document: everything that follows (the list of grievances and the resolutions) is intended to show that women have been denied the equality asserted here and to demand its recognition. A sub-claim would support only one part of the argument, whereas this one governs all of it. (b) It echoes the opening of the Declaration of Independence, which spoke of “all men”, and by adding “and women” it claims the same founding principle for women. The change is small but it shows that the argument is that the nation’s own stated ideals already demand women’s equality, which is the whole argument in miniature.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the sentence as the overarching claim. |
| 1 | Explains how the rest of the document supports or follows from it. |
| 1 | Contrasts it with a sub-claim. |
| 1 | Explains the echo of the Declaration of Independence. |
| 1 | Explains the effect of adding “and women”. |
How did you do?
Count the multiple-choice questions you got right and compare your written answers with the rubric points. For anything you missed, reread the matching section of the study guide, then tick off the topic checklist.