These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. Passages marked “Marlbridge passage” were written for this resource; quotations from historical texts are from public-domain sources, with author, title and year. The rubrics are a suggested Marlbridge rubric, not an official scoring guideline. Allow about 45 minutes.
Question 1 (multiple choice · core)
Read the final paragraph of an essay arguing that a town should keep its public swimming pool open (Marlbridge passage).
The pool at Greenway has taught three generations of this town to swim. If it closes, the lessons will not stop; they will move to the river. The council’s choice is not between a pool and a saving, but between a pool and the safety of children who will swim somewhere regardless. A town that saves money at that price has miscounted its costs.
Which choice best describes what the paragraph does?
- (A) It lists the essay’s three main points in order.
- (B) It brings the argument to a close by explaining a consequence and reframing the council’s choice, so the thesis is clear without being repeated.
- (C) It introduces a new statistic that the essay has not discussed.
- (D) It calls the audience to take a vote.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The paragraph explains what follows if the pool closes (children swimming in the river) and reframes the choice, so the thesis is present and the argument ends with force.
- (A) There is no list of points.
- (C) The paragraph contains no statistic.
- (D) The final sentence is a judgment, not a call to vote or any other specific action.
Question 2 (multiple choice · core)
A writer’s purpose is to persuade a school board to adopt a new reading programme. Which conclusion strategy is most appropriate for the last paragraph?
- (A) A summary that repeats each point in the same order
- (B) A call to act that names the decision the board must make and the benefit that follows, linked to the essay’s evidence
- (C) A closing joke about homework
- (D) A fresh set of statistics that the essay did not mention earlier
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The purpose is to move a decision-making audience, so naming the decision and the consequence, supported by the argument already made, fits.
- (A) Repetition adds nothing and does not push the audience to a decision.
- (C) A joke undermines the seriousness the audience expects.
- (D) New evidence at the end is unexplained and breaks the unity of the argument.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
Which of these conclusions is weakest?
- (A) “The orchard’s last tree will fall long before the council notices; the time to act is the season we still have fruit.”
- (B) “Thus the essay has shown that recycling is good. Recycling is good for the reasons I have said.”
- (C) “If recycling is a habit, as I have argued, then the bins outside every school are a lesson in citizenship.”
- (D) “The grey bin in the corner of the room is a small thing, and so is each of us; but a town is made of small things.”
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). It repeats the claim without adding significance, consequence or a call, so it fails the so-what test.
- (A) leaves an image and a time-sensitive call.
- (C) draws a consequence linked to the argument (“citizenship”).
- (D) widens the lens with an image and links it to the claim.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
Read the end of Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address (1865).
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds…
Which choice best describes the effect of these lines as a conclusion?
- (A) They summarise the events of the war in chronological order.
- (B) They turn from the past to a shared task, using repeated “with” phrases to set out the spirit in which the audience is asked to act.
- (C) They introduce evidence that the war was unavoidable.
- (D) They ask a question that the speech does not answer.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “Let us strive on” is a call to act in the first-person plural; the parallel “with…” phrases describe the attitude that should govern the work.
- (A) The lines look forward and contain no chronological account.
- (C) No evidence is introduced.
- (D) There is no question.
Question 5 (multiple choice · foundation)
Which statement about conclusions is most accurate?
- (A) A conclusion should add a new line of proof so that the argument ends with impact.
- (B) A conclusion may restate the thesis, but it is stronger when it also explains significance or implications.
- (C) A conclusion should always begin with the words “In conclusion”.
- (D) A conclusion should be longer than the introduction.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Restating the thesis can unify the essay, and adding significance or implications gives the reader the so-what.
- (A) A new line of proof belongs in the body, where it can be explained.
- (C) A label is not a conclusion; many strong endings do not announce themselves.
- (D) Length is irrelevant; a short conclusion that adds meaning is better than a long one that repeats.
Question 6 (constructed response · core)
Here is the conclusion to an essay arguing that students should be allowed to choose their own reading in English lessons (Marlbridge passage).
In conclusion, students should choose their own books. I have shown this in three ways. First, students read more. Second, they enjoy it more. Third, they learn more. Therefore, students should choose their own books.
(a) Apply the so-what test to this conclusion. (b) Rewrite it in three or four sentences so that it adds significance without introducing new proof.
Answer and explanation
(a) The conclusion only repeats: the first and last sentences say the same thing and the middle sentences list points already argued. A reader would still ask “So what?”: it does not explain why choice matters, what follows from the claim, or what should change.
(b) Sample rewrite (Marlbridge). A student who picks the book she wants to finish is practising the habit that lessons exist to build: reading because she wants to. If schools value lifelong readers more than a shared class set, they should let the choosing begin in the classroom, where it can be guided. The shelf of a student’s own choices may turn out to be the most important text on the syllabus.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Award it when the response… |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies that the draft only repeats and does not add meaning |
| 1 | Refers to the specific faults (list of points, repeated thesis) |
| 1 | The rewrite keeps the claim clear in fresh wording |
| 1 | The rewrite adds significance, an implication or a call without new unexplained evidence |
Alternative rewrites that return to an image or scene from the (unseen) introduction are acceptable if they add meaning.
Question 7 (constructed response · core)
The Declaration of Independence (1776) ends with these words:
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Explain how this closing sentence functions as a conclusion to the document’s argument.
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The sentence turns the document from argument to commitment. The signers, having set out their grievances and declared independence, pledge themselves, which is a call to act in the strongest form: they stake “Lives, Fortunes and sacred Honor”. The list of three items, ordered from the most basic to the most abstract, builds to the word “Honor” and leaves the audience with a sense of the seriousness of the act. The phrase “to each other” makes the closing a pledge of solidarity, unifying the signers as well as the argument.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (3 points).
| Point | Award it when the response… |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the strategy (pledge or commitment, a form of call to act) |
| 1 | Explains an effect with reference to specific words (“mutually pledge”, “Lives, Fortunes and sacred Honor”) |
| 1 | Connects the ending to the purpose of the document (declaring independence and binding the signers) |
Question 8 (constructed response · stretch)
Write a conclusion of three to four sentences for this scenario (Marlbridge prompt). An essay has argued that a neighbourhood should create a community garden on an empty lot. The introduction described the lot as “a rectangle of broken glass and thistles”. Return to the introduction in a new light and give the reader a reason to care. Then say in one sentence which strategies you used.
Answer and explanation
Sample response (Marlbridge).
The lot on Cobb Street need not stay a rectangle of broken glass and thistles. With a hundred volunteer hours and a few borrowed spades, it could become the place where a neighbour who has never met the family next door hands over a bag of beans. A garden grows vegetables, but what it grows more slowly, and for longer, is a neighbourhood. The council should lease the lot.
Strategies: return to the introduction, a concrete closing image, significance (what the garden grows), and a call to act.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points).
| Point | Award it when the response… |
|---|---|
| 1 | Returns to the introduction’s image and gives it new meaning |
| 1 | Adds significance or consequence (not just repetition) |
| 1 | States or clearly implies the claim in fresh words |
| 1 | Ends with a clear closing note (action, image or implication) without introducing new proof |
| 1 | Names the strategies and ties them to the purpose |
How did you do?
- If you missed questions 1 to 3, revisit “The so-what test” and “Weak and strong conclusions side by side” in the study guide.
- If you missed questions 4 or 7, revisit Worked example 2.
- If you missed questions 5 to 8, review “Common conclusion shapes” and Worked example 1.
- Then tick off the checklist and revise with the revision notes.