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 narration as a method of development in an argument?
- (A) A story told only for entertainment
- (B) Details of a real experience together with reflection on its significance
- (C) A list of statistics
- (D) A definition of a term
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Narration in argument offers real details and reflects on what the experience means.
- (A) is wrong: in argument the story serves the point.
- (C) is wrong: that describes a different kind of evidence.
- (D) is wrong: that is the method of definition.
Question 2 (multiple choice · foundation)
“The factory closed, so the shops lost customers, and as a result three shut within a year.” This sentence develops an idea through
- (A) description
- (B) comparison-contrast
- (C) definition
- (D) cause-effect
Answer and explanation
Answer: (D). It presents a cause (the closure) and a chain of effects, signalled by “so” and “as a result”.
- (A) is wrong: it gives no sensory detail.
- (B) is wrong: it compares nothing.
- (C) is wrong: it defines no term.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
Which addition would best supply the reflection missing from this narrative? “On 9 March I waited fifty minutes for the 8.15 bus, missed my interview and lost the job.”
- (A) “That morning showed me that an unreliable bus does not only waste time; it hands a person’s chances to someone who lives nearer a reliable route.”
- (B) “The bus is a vehicle.”
- (C) “The job was advertised online.”
- (D) “It was a Tuesday.”
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). It states the significance of the experience and connects it to a general claim.
- (B) is wrong: states an irrelevant fact.
- (C) is wrong: adds a detail, not reflection.
- (D) is wrong: adds a detail, not reflection.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
Wollstonecraft (1792): “Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.” Which statement best describes the cause-effect structure?
- (A) The cause is blind obedience and the effect is education
- (B) There is no cause
- (C) The cause is strengthening and enlarging women’s minds and the effect is the end of blind obedience
- (D) The sentence is a definition
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). The first clause is the cause (education of the mind) and the second the effect (an end to blind obedience).
- (A) is wrong: it reverses the order.
- (B) is wrong: the sentence plainly connects an action with a result.
- (D) is wrong: it does not define a term.
Question 5 (multiple choice · core)
A writer claims: “The new road caused the closure of the shop.” As evidence, she says only that the shop closed after the road opened. What is the main weakness?
- (A) The sentence is too long
- (B) It is a narrative
- (C) Sequence alone does not show cause; other explanations are possible
- (D) It has no verb
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). Showing that one event followed another does not establish that it caused it. The writer must give a link or rule out other causes.
- (A) is wrong: length is not the issue.
- (B) is wrong: it is not a story with reflection.
- (D) is wrong: it has a verb.
Question 6 (constructed response · core)
Write a short narrative paragraph (four to six sentences) that supports the claim “Small acts of kindness matter in a community”. Include at least two concrete details of a real or realistic experience and one sentence of reflection that states what it shows. Then, in one sentence, identify the reflection.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. “Last winter, the lift in our block broke on a Friday, and Mrs Pereira on the fourth floor could not get her shopping up the stairs. By Saturday morning, someone had taped a note to the door: ‘I’m going to the shop at 10; give me your list.’ Three of us left lists, and by lunchtime the bags were outside her door. Nobody organised it, and nobody thanked anyone; it simply happened. That weekend showed me that a community is not a set of rules but a habit of noticing one another.” Reflection: the last sentence.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | At least two specific, concrete details. |
| 1 | Events are in a clear sequence. |
| 1 | A sentence of reflection that states significance. |
| 1 | The reflection links to the claim about small acts of kindness. |
| 1 | The reflection is correctly identified. |
Accept any original, coherent narrative that meets these features.
Question 7 (constructed response · core)
Analyse the cause-effect reasoning in this paragraph (written by Marlbridge, invented data): “After the park’s lights were switched off at 6 p.m., evening visits fell from about 200 a week to about 60. Because fewer people were there, the park felt unsafe, so even fewer came. The park has now become a place no one visits, and the town has lost its only green space.” Identify the chain and one link that is weakly supported.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. Chain: lights off, fewer evening visits, park feels unsafe, even fewer visits, the park is abandoned, the town loses its green space. The first link is supported by figures (200 to 60). The link that “fewer people made it feel unsafe” is an assumption that no evidence supports (a survey would help), and the final claim that the town “has lost its only green space” overstates the result, since the space still exists and the visits may recover. The chain is plausible, but later links rely on assumptions.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the chain of causes and effects. |
| 1 | Notes that the first link is supported. |
| 1 | Identifies a weakly supported link. |
| 1 | Explains why it is weak (assumption, no evidence, overstatement). |
| 1 | Suggests what evidence would strengthen it or how to soften the claim. |
Question 8 (constructed response · stretch)
Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden (1854): “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” Explain how this sentence combines narration and reflection to develop his argument. Refer to at least two details of wording.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. The sentence begins with a simple narrative statement, “I went to the woods”, a real action in time. It at once adds the reason in the form of reflection: he wished “to live deliberately”, which sets his life against inherited routine, and “to front only the essential facts of life”, which names what he took to matter. The closing clause, “not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived”, reflects on the stakes: the fear of a wasted life gives the experience its significance. Together the narrative and the reflection make a personal experience into an argument about how everyone might live.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the narrative element (“I went to the woods”). |
| 1 | Identifies the reflective element and what it adds. |
| 1 | Refers to at least two details of wording. |
| 1 | Explains how the combination develops the larger argument. |
| 1 | Writes about significance, not only labels. |
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.