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 method of development?
- (A) A type of conclusion
- (B) A way of organising and developing an idea so that readers can trace the reasoning
- (C) A list of sources
- (D) A kind of punctuation
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Methods of development give the audience the means to follow how a writer builds an idea.
- (A) is wrong: conclusions are a different structural feature.
- (C) is wrong: sources are not methods.
- (D) is wrong: punctuation is unrelated.
Question 2 (multiple choice · foundation)
“Whereas the north bank has a park, a pool and a library, the south bank has a car park.” The dominant method of development is
- (A) narration
- (B) definition
- (C) cause-effect
- (D) comparison-contrast
Answer and explanation
Answer: (D). “Whereas” and the parallel lists of features place the two banks side by side.
- (A) is wrong: no story is told.
- (B) is wrong: no term is defined.
- (C) is wrong: no cause or effect is explained.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
“By ‘community’ I do not mean everyone who lives here. I mean the people who would notice if you did not turn up.” The method is
- (A) definition
- (B) description
- (C) narration
- (D) comparison
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The writer sets the meaning of a key term and marks its boundaries.
- (B) is wrong: it does not give sensory detail.
- (C) is wrong: it tells no story.
- (D) is wrong: it does not compare two things.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
“When the factory closed, the shops nearby lost their lunchtime trade, so three closed within a year, and with them went two bus routes.” The dominant method is
- (A) description
- (B) definition
- (C) cause-effect
- (D) narration of a personal memory
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). The passage links events in a chain of causes and consequences, signalled by “so” and “with them went”.
- (A) is wrong: there is no sensory detail.
- (B) is wrong: no term is defined.
- (D) is wrong: it is not a personal story.
Question 5 (multiple choice · core)
Booker T. Washington (1895) tells of a ship at sea whose crew is told to “cast down your bucket where you are” and finds fresh water. What does this narration most clearly do for his argument?
- (A) It gives a statistic
- (B) It defines a term
- (C) It gives a memorable story that lets the audience reach his conclusion about using what lies close at hand
- (D) It describes his birthplace
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). The parable works as an analogy and makes the abstract advice concrete and easy to remember.
- (A) is wrong: it contains no figures.
- (B) is wrong: it does not define a term.
- (D) is wrong: it concerns a ship, not his birthplace.
Question 6 (constructed response · core)
Name the dominant method of development in each passage (written by Marlbridge) and cite one signal.
(i) “The bakery smells of burnt sugar and warm flour. Trays of buns cool on racks by the window, and the glass counter is smeared with a day’s fingerprints.” (ii) “A ‘good neighbour’, for the purposes of this argument, is someone who notices when your bins have not been put out and does something about it.” (iii) “Unlike the old system, which required pupils to queue for a form, the new app lets them book in seconds.”
Answer and explanation
Model answer. (i) Description: concrete sensory details (burnt sugar, warm flour, fingerprints). (ii) Definition: the phrase “for the purposes of this argument” and the explanation of what a good neighbour is mark the term’s meaning. (iii) Comparison-contrast: “unlike” sets the old system against the new.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | (i) identified as description. |
| 1 | (ii) identified as definition. |
| 1 | (iii) identified as comparison-contrast. |
| 1 | A correct signal cited for each of at least two passages. |
| 1 | A correct signal cited for all three. |
Question 7 (constructed response · core)
A student is writing an argument that the town should keep its public pool. His audience is a budget-minded council. (a) Choose two methods of development he might use and (b) say what each would do for this audience, and in what order he might use them.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. (a) Cause-effect and comparison-contrast. (b) Cause-effect would show that closing the pool leads to rising costs elsewhere, such as increased health spending and lost income from swimming lessons, which speaks to a budget-minded audience. Comparison-contrast would set the cost per user of the pool against the cost per user of other council services, showing it to be good value. He might begin with cause-effect to show why the closure would cost more than it saves, then use comparison to show the pool’s value relative to other spending. A short narration of a child learning to swim could follow to give the case a human face.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Names two appropriate methods. |
| 1 | Explains what the first method does for the audience. |
| 1 | Explains what the second method does for the audience. |
| 1 | Gives an order with a reason. |
| 1 | Links the choices to the audience’s concern with budgets. |
Accept other defensible choices (for example, narration to open) if justified.
Question 8 (constructed response · stretch)
Explain how Booker T. Washington’s story of the ship at sea (1895) works as a method of development in his argument. In your answer, name the method and explain two effects it has on the audience.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. The story is narration, used as an analogy: the ship lost at sea stands for the community that does not realise it already has resources close at hand. One effect is that it lets the audience reach the conclusion by itself, because the sailors discover the fresh water after being told twice to lower the bucket, so listeners feel the lesson as a discovery and not an instruction. Another effect is that it gives the abstract advice a memorable image (the bucket), so the phrase “Cast down your bucket where you are” can be recalled and repeated, which makes the reasoning easier to trace and to carry away.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Names narration (and/or analogy) as the method. |
| 1 | Explains the analogy between the ship and the audience’s situation. |
| 1 | Explains a first effect on the audience. |
| 1 | Explains a second effect. |
| 1 | Writes about effect and purpose, not just the label. |
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.