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 this paragraph (Marlbridge passage). Sentences are numbered.
(1) A community garden would give the street a place to meet. (2) Neighbours who have never spoken might share a bench while the beans grow. (3) The council’s budget this year is £2.4 million. (4) Regular work days would give residents a reason to talk. (5) A shared project of this kind builds the habit of asking for help.
Which sentence most clearly breaks the unity of the paragraph?
- (A) Sentence 2
- (B) Sentence 3
- (C) Sentence 4
- (D) Sentence 5
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Sentence 3 is about the council’s overall budget and does not serve the controlling idea (the garden as a meeting place).
- (A) develops the idea with a concrete image.
- (C) gives a reason residents would talk.
- (D) extends the idea to a result of shared projects.
Question 2 (multiple choice · core)
A writer has four sentences in this order: (1) The council has £50,000 to spend on the street. (2) A cycle lane would fit within that budget. (3) A resurfaced road would not. (4) The lane would therefore be the better use of the money.
Which ordering of these same sentences is most coherent?
- (A) 1, 2, 3, 4
- (B) 4, 1, 2, 3
- (C) 2, 4, 1, 3
- (D) 3, 1, 2, 4
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The order moves from the budget, to the first option (which fits), to the contrast (which does not), to a conclusion marked by “therefore”, which depends on what came before.
- (B) starts with a “therefore” sentence that refers to reasons the reader has not yet read.
- (C) places the conclusion before the budget is mentioned, so “the money” has no referent.
- (D) begins with “A resurfaced road would not”, which refers to a budget that has not yet been introduced.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
A paragraph argues that a cycle lane would make short trips safer. Which sentence would best begin the next paragraph so that the argument moves on logically?
- (A) Many people enjoy exercise.
- (B) Safer trips are only part of the case: the lane would also lower the cost of living for families who now run two cars.
- (C) Cars were invented in the nineteenth century.
- (D) Another reason is also here.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). It refers back to the previous idea (“safer trips”), signals that it is part of a larger case, and introduces a new, related claim.
- (A) is a general statement with no link to the previous paragraph.
- (C) introduces an unrelated fact.
- (D) points to a link but gives no content (“is also here” is vague).
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
In The American Crisis (Thomas Paine, 1776), the second sentence reads: “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” What is the function of “but” in this sentence?
- (A) It adds a second example of the same kind of person.
- (B) It contrasts those who shrink from the crisis with the one who stands, linking the two clauses by opposition.
- (C) It shows that the second clause happened earlier.
- (D) It introduces a question.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “But” turns from people who fail the test to the person who passes it, making the contrast the structure of the sentence.
- (A) The two groups are opposites, not examples of the same kind.
- (C) The sentence is not about the order of events.
- (D) There is no question.
Question 5 (multiple choice · foundation)
Which statement correctly distinguishes unity from coherence?
- (A) Unity means sentences are linked in order; coherence means they are all on the same topic.
- (B) Unity means every sentence serves one controlling idea; coherence means the ideas are linked so that each leads logically to the next.
- (C) Unity and coherence are two names for the same thing.
- (D) Unity applies to whole essays; coherence applies only to sentences.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Unity is about staying on one idea. Coherence is about the logical links between ideas.
- (A) reverses the definitions.
- (C) They describe different qualities.
- (D) Coherence operates at the sentence, paragraph and text levels, and unity is a feature mainly of paragraphs.
Question 6 (constructed response · core)
Revise this paragraph (Marlbridge passage) so that it has unity and coherence. You may cut, reorder and add short linking phrases but not new evidence. Then name what you changed and why.
Our school should have a longer lunch break. Lunch is currently 30 minutes. The canteen has new tables. Many students eat in a hurry and return to lessons hungry. A longer break would give time to eat properly and move around. The school bus leaves at 3:30.
Answer and explanation
Sample revision (Marlbridge).
Our school should have a longer lunch break. Lunch is currently 30 minutes, which means that many students eat in a hurry and return to lessons hungry. A longer break would give them time to eat properly and move around, and they would come back to lessons ready to concentrate.
What changed and why. I cut “The canteen has new tables” and “The school bus leaves at 3:30” because they do not serve the controlling idea (unity). I combined the sentences about the current length and the rush so that the cause leads to the effect (“which means that”), and I placed the benefit after the problem, so the paragraph moves from problem to solution (coherence).
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Award it when the response… |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cuts both off-topic sentences |
| 1 | Orders the remaining ideas logically (current situation, effect, proposed change) |
| 1 | Adds a link that states a relationship (cause or result) |
| 1 | Explains the changes in terms of unity and coherence |
The added phrase about concentrating is acceptable as commentary, not new evidence.
Question 7 (constructed response · core)
Read this passage (Marlbridge passage).
Rivers shape the towns built beside them. A town on a river must decide where to cross it, and that decision decides where its streets run. The crossing, once chosen, draws shops and inns to its approaches; those shops give the streets their names. In this way a single early decision about a bridge may be recorded, centuries later, in the names on a map.
Explain how the writer creates coherence and how the organisation reflects a line of reasoning.
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The writer links each sentence to the one before by repeating or restating its last idea: the first sentence ends with “towns built beside” rivers, and the second begins “A town on a river”. The second ends with “decision decides where its streets run”, and the third begins “The crossing, once chosen”, which refers back to the decision. The third ends with “the streets their names” and the fourth sums up “names on a map”. Within sentences, the semicolon in the third sentence connects the effect (shops) with a further effect (names). The sequence also reflects a chain of cause and effect: river, crossing, shops, street names, so the passage’s line of reasoning is that an early choice leaves permanent traces, a claim the last sentence states directly.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Award it when the response… |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies sentence-to-sentence links by repeated or related terms, with a quotation or close paraphrase |
| 1 | Notes a link within a sentence (for example, the semicolon or “once chosen”) |
| 1 | Describes the sequence as a chain of cause and effect |
| 1 | Connects the organisation to the claim of the last sentence |
Question 8 (constructed response · stretch)
A first paragraph ends: “A cheap bus pass would help students who cannot afford the daily fare.” The second paragraph is meant to argue that a bus pass would also help the town’s shops. Write a first sentence for the second paragraph that links the two paragraphs and introduces the new claim. Then add two sentences that continue the paragraph.
Answer and explanation
Sample response (Marlbridge).
A pass that helps students reach school would also bring them, and their spending, to the town’s shops. Students who now walk home after school pass the high street without stopping; with a pass for the bus, an afternoon in town becomes affordable. The shops that serve them, from the bakery to the bookseller, would gain steady customers at the quietest time of their day.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Award it when the response… |
|---|---|
| 1 | The first sentence refers back to the first paragraph’s idea (the pass, students) |
| 1 | It introduces a distinct, related claim (the shops) |
| 1 | The two following sentences stay on that claim (unity) |
| 1 | The ideas follow logically within the paragraph (coherence) |
How did you do?
- If you missed questions 1, 5 or 6, revisit “Two words, two jobs” and Worked example 1 in the study guide.
- If you missed questions 2 or 3, review “How ideas link” and “What breaks unity and coherence”.
- If you missed questions 4 or 7, review Worked example 2.
- Then tick off the checklist and revise with the revision notes.