These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. Unless a source is credited, every passage and every figure was written by Marlbridge for this page and is invented for practice. 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 statement correctly describes the relationships that evidence can have with a thesis?
- (A) Evidence must always support the thesis.
- (B) Evidence can support, complement or contradict the thesis.
- (C) Evidence is either true or false and has no relationship with the thesis.
- (D) Only statistics can contradict a thesis.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The three relationships are support, complement and contradiction.
- (A) ignores complementary and contradictory evidence.
- (C) confuses truth with relevance to a particular claim.
- (D) Any type of evidence can contradict a thesis.
Question 2 (multiple choice · core)
Thesis: “Community gardens improve neighbourhood life.” Which evidence is best described as complementary?
- (A) “Residents living near a community garden reported knowing twice as many neighbours.”
- (B) “Community gardens also provide a venue for local school science projects.”
- (C) “Several gardens closed after one year because of low participation.”
- (D) “There are no community gardens in the town.”
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). It adds a different benefit (education) that extends the thesis without directly proving the effect on neighbourliness.
- (A) supports the claim directly.
- (C) contradicts, at least in part, by suggesting limits.
- (D) is not evidence for or against the effect of gardens; it describes absence.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
A writer finds a strong study that contradicts part of the thesis. What is the best response?
- (A) Ignore it
- (B) Acknowledge it and respond by qualifying, conceding, rebutting or refuting
- (C) Change the topic
- (D) Quote it without comment
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Addressing contradictions honestly builds credibility and often leads to a stronger claim.
- (A) risks credibility if the reader knows the study.
- (C) avoids the issue.
- (D) A quotation without commentary does no work.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
Thesis: “Daily exercise improves concentration in teenagers.” A source reports: “A trial of 300 teenagers found that those who exercised for thirty minutes before school scored 8 per cent higher on a concentration test.” The source
- (A) supports the thesis directly.
- (B) contradicts the thesis.
- (C) is irrelevant.
- (D) complements the thesis by adding an unrelated benefit.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). It measures the effect the thesis claims, in the population the thesis names.
- (B) The result points the same way as the claim.
- (C) It bears directly on the thesis.
- (D) The benefit is the same one the thesis names, not a different one.
Question 5 (multiple choice · stretch)
A writer says: “The costs are real, and in some towns they outweigh the benefit, so my claim applies only where the scheme is affordable.” Which response to contradictory evidence does this mainly show?
- (A) Refuting, by proving the opposing evidence false
- (B) Qualifying, by narrowing the claim
- (C) Ignoring the evidence
- (D) Repeating the thesis without change
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The writer accepts the costs and narrows the claim to affordable cases.
- (A) The writer does not argue that the costs are false.
- (C) The writer acknowledges them.
- (D) The thesis is narrowed, not repeated.
Question 6 (constructed response · core)
Thesis (written by Marlbridge): “Towns should provide free public Wi-Fi in the centre.”
- Source A: “A pilot in one town found that library visits rose by 12 per cent after free Wi-Fi was installed in the square.”
- Source B: “Free Wi-Fi can help local traders attract customers who browse while they wait.”
- Source C: “Maintenance and security cost the pilot town £15,000 a year, more than the budget expected.”
(a) Classify each source as supports, complements or contradicts, with a reason. (3 marks) (b) State how you would respond to Source C in an essay. (3 marks)
Sample answer and suggested rubric
(a) A supports: it links free Wi-Fi to a measurable benefit (more library visits) in the centre. B complements: it adds a benefit for traders, an economic angle that extends the case without proving the library effect. C contradicts in part: it shows a cost higher than expected.
(b) Concede that the cost is real and higher than expected, then qualify the thesis: towns should provide the Wi-Fi where the cost can be met, and compare the cost with the benefits shown in A and B; or rebut by suggesting that sharing costs with traders would offset the expense.
| Mark | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | A classified as support with a reason |
| 1 | B classified as complement with a reason |
| 1 | C classified as contradiction with a reason |
| 1 | The response acknowledges C |
| 1 | The response names a legitimate move (concede, qualify, rebut) |
| 1 | The response protects a defensible claim |
Question 7 (constructed response · core)
Read the paragraph below, written by Marlbridge.
“Evening classes for adults help people retrain, and a study of 600 participants found that 58 per cent moved into better-paid work within two years. Classes also bring people together: organisers report that learners often form study groups that last long after the course ends. One critic notes that those who enrol may already be unusually motivated. That is a fair point, and it means the gains may be smaller for the average adult. Still, even for the motivated, the training is worth supporting.”
Explain how the writer uses supporting, complementary and contradictory evidence. (6 marks)
Sample answer and suggested rubric
Sample. The study of 600 participants with 58 per cent moving into better-paid work is supporting evidence for the claim that classes help people retrain: it directly measures the outcome. The point that learners form lasting study groups is complementary: it adds a social benefit that extends the case without proving the retraining effect. The critic’s observation that enrolled learners may already be motivated is contradictory in part, since it questions whether the classes caused the gains. The writer concedes (“That is a fair point”), qualifies the claim (“the gains may be smaller for the average adult”), and then holds a narrower position (“even for the motivated, the training is worth supporting”). Using all three types, and answering the contradiction openly, makes the argument more credible.
| Mark | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the study as supporting evidence |
| 1 | Explains why it supports |
| 1 | Identifies the study groups as complementary |
| 1 | Identifies the critic’s point as contradictory |
| 1 | Explains the concession and qualification |
| 1 | Evaluates the effect on credibility |
Question 8 (constructed response · stretch)
Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden (1854, public domain): “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.”
Thoreau’s thesis is that a simple life lived deliberately is worth choosing. Explain what kind of evidence this sentence is, how it relates to the thesis and one limit of this kind of evidence. (5 marks)
Sample answer and suggested rubric
Sample. The sentence offers Thoreau’s own experiment as evidence: he reports going to the woods in order to test what a simple life can teach. It supports his thesis because it shows that living deliberately is possible and can be valued, and it is first-hand and specific. A limit is that it is one person’s experience, so it does not show that others would find the same, and it does not weigh the costs or what he gave up. A careful reader would treat it as evidence of what is possible rather than of what is typical, and might look for complementary evidence from other people.
| Mark | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the evidence as first-hand experience or an experiment |
| 1 | Explains that it supports the thesis |
| 1 | Notes that it is specific or vivid |
| 1 | Identifies a limit (one case, not representative) |
| 1 | Suggests how the limit might be addressed (more evidence, qualification) |
How did you do? If you missed Questions 1 to 5, reread “Three relationships between evidence and a thesis”. If you lost marks in 6 to 8, check that you classified each source with a reason and explained how it is used.