These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. Unless a source is credited, every passage was written by Marlbridge for this page. The rubrics are a suggested Marlbridge rubric to help you check your work; they are not an official scoring guideline. No calculator is needed.
Question 1 (multiple choice · foundation)
Which of the following is a dependent clause?
- (A) “The council approved the plan”
- (B) “after the vote”
- (C) “because the vote was close”
- (D) “approving the plan”
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). It has a subject (“the vote”) and a verb (“was”), but the word “because” makes it depend on a main clause.
- (A) is an independent clause: it can stand alone.
- (B) is a phrase: “after” has an object but there is no subject-and-verb pair.
- (D) is a phrase beginning with a verb form; it has no subject of its own.
Question 2 (multiple choice · core)
“When the rain stopped, the market reopened, and the stallholders returned.” How is this sentence best classified?
- (A) Simple
- (B) Compound
- (C) Complex
- (D) Compound-complex
Answer and explanation
Answer: (D). “When the rain stopped” is a dependent clause; “the market reopened” and “the stallholders returned” are two independent clauses. Two independent clauses plus a dependent clause make a compound-complex sentence.
- (A) has more than one clause.
- (B) ignores the dependent clause.
- (C) ignores the second independent clause.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
Which version of the sentence places the strongest emphasis on the idea that the plan failed?
- (A) “Failing quickly, the plan was begun with great hope.”
- (B) “The plan failed, although it began with great hope.”
- (C) “Despite great hope at the outset, the plan failed.”
- (D) “The plan, which began with great hope, had some problems.”
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). “Failed” is the last word, in the strongest position, and the opening phrase builds the contrast.
- (A) puts “failing” at the front, but the sentence ends on “great hope”.
- (B) names the failure first but ends on “great hope”, so the last impression is hope, not failure.
- (D) ends on “some problems”, which is a vague and weaker idea.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
“When every door had been closed, when every voice had been silenced, when every friend had gone, she opened the window and began to sing.” This sentence is best described as
- (A) loose, because the main clause comes first.
- (B) periodic, because the main clause is held back to the end.
- (C) balanced, because it has two equal independent clauses.
- (D) simple, because it describes one action.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Three dependent “when” clauses build up, and the independent clause “she opened the window and began to sing” arrives last.
- (A) reverses the order.
- (C) The three clauses before the comma are dependent, not equal independent clauses.
- (D) A simple sentence has one clause only.
Question 5 (multiple choice · stretch)
Which sentence is complex but not compound?
- (A) “The senator spoke, and the crowd listened.”
- (B) “The senator, who had waited all week, spoke.”
- (C) “The senator spoke.”
- (D) “The senator spoke; the crowd listened.”
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). It has one independent clause (“The senator spoke”) with a dependent clause (“who had waited all week”) inside it.
- (A) has two independent clauses joined by “and”, so it is compound.
- (C) is simple.
- (D) has two independent clauses joined by a semicolon, so it is compound.
Question 6 (constructed response · core)
Identify the independent and dependent clauses in this sentence and classify it:
“Although the bridge was safe, the engineers closed it, and the town waited for the report.” (4 marks)
Answer and suggested rubric
Dependent clause: “Although the bridge was safe” (subject the bridge, verb was, with “Although” making it depend on a main clause). Independent clauses: “the engineers closed it” and “the town waited for the report”. Classification: compound-complex.
| Mark | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the dependent clause |
| 1 | Identifies the first independent clause |
| 1 | Identifies the second independent clause |
| 1 | Classifies the sentence as compound-complex |
Question 7 (constructed response · core)
A student writes: “The new library opened to great fanfare, although it had no books.” The student wants the sentence to emphasise the library’s fanfare rather than the missing books.
(a) Rewrite the sentence to do this. (2 marks) (b) Explain how your rewrite achieves the emphasis. (2 marks)
Sample answer and suggested rubric
(a) “Although it had no books, the new library opened to great fanfare.” (b) The idea to be emphasised, “great fanfare”, now sits in the final position, which is the most emphatic. The missing books are subordinated in an opening dependent clause, so they are mentioned but not stressed.
| Mark | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | The rewrite keeps the facts |
| 1 | The rewrite ends on the fanfare idea |
| 1 | Explains that the end position carries emphasis |
| 1 | Explains the effect of subordinating the books idea |
Accept other valid rewrites that end on “fanfare”.
Question 8 (constructed response · stretch)
Read the passage below, written by Marlbridge.
“We had been warned. For months the engineers had written memos, the neighbours had signed petitions, and the old mill’s owners had promised repairs that never arrived. When the roof finally fell, it fell quietly, on a Sunday, onto an empty floor. Nobody was hurt. That was luck.”
Explain how the arrangement of sentences and clauses in the passage emphasises the writer’s point. Refer to at least three features. (6 marks)
Sample answer and suggested rubric
Sample. The passage begins with a short sentence (“We had been warned”) that states the main idea plainly and in the strongest position at the beginning. The second sentence is a long compound sentence whose parallel clauses (“the engineers had written memos, the neighbours had signed petitions, and the owners had promised repairs”) pile up evidence of the warnings, so the reader feels how many times they were ignored. The third sentence begins with a dependent clause (“When the roof finally fell”) and puts the main clause (“it fell quietly”) after it, delaying the event. The last two sentences are very short: “Nobody was hurt. That was luck.” The short sentences after the long ones make the reader pause, and ending on “luck” implies that safety was not earned, which supports the writer’s criticism.
| Mark | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the short opening sentence and says what it does |
| 1 | Identifies the long compound sentence and explains the build-up |
| 1 | Identifies the delayed main clause in the third sentence (or similar) |
| 1 | Identifies the short final sentences |
| 1 | Explains the effect of the contrast in sentence length |
| 1 | Links the arrangement to the writer’s point about warnings ignored |
How did you do? If you missed Questions 1 to 5, reread “Sentences are made of clauses” and “Four sentence types”. If you lost marks in 6 to 8, check that you moved from naming the structure to saying what it emphasises and why.