Read the big ideas and the method table, then try the seven questions without notes. Each question combines two or more Unit 4 topics.
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 official scoring.
Big ideas of the unit
- A frame holds an argument. The introduction orients, engages and focuses; the conclusion brings the argument to a unified end (4.1, 4.2).
- Choice depends on the rhetorical situation. The best opening or closing is the one that suits this audience, purpose and moment, not the most dramatic.
- A thesis can map the argument. It may preview the line of reasoning with reasons, a progression or a concession, without listing every point (4.3).
- Methods of development make reasoning traceable. Comparison-contrast examines similarities and differences in like categories; definition and description relate characteristics, features and sensory details, with examples (4.4, 4.5).
- Every method serves a claim. A comparison, definition or description that does not lead to the writer’s point is only decoration.
Key relationships and methods
| If the task asks you to… | Use… | Watch out for… |
|---|---|---|
| Analyse an introduction | Name the strategy, then its effect on orienting, engaging and focusing the audience | Labelling the strategy without the effect |
| Write an introduction | Choose a strategy that fits the audience; lead to the claim | “Since the beginning of time”; announcing the plan |
| Analyse a conclusion | Name what it does (significance, call to act, return to the opening) and its effect | Treating a summary as a strength |
| Write a conclusion | Add the so-what; connect to the opening; no new proof | Repeating the thesis word for word |
| Write a previewing thesis | Claim plus reasons or shape of the argument | Lists of topics; announcements |
| Read a thesis | Find the claim; note what it signals about structure | Assuming it lists every point |
| Compare or contrast | Choose like categories; organise point by point or by block; end in a claim | Comparing unlike categories |
| Define or describe | Use features, examples and concrete detail linked to the claim | Dictionary openers; vague adjectives |
Question 1 (multiple choice · 4.1, 4.3)
Read this introduction (Marlbridge passage).
Schools tell students to read widely and then hand them a list of forty books. The list is meant to open doors, but a door that is chosen for you is a corridor. Students should choose most of their own reading, because choice builds motivation, because it widens the range of what gets read, and because it teaches students to judge a book for themselves.
Which statement best describes the introduction?
- (A) It opens with a statistic and ends with an announcement of what the essay will discuss.
- (B) It opens with an image that engages the reader, then states a thesis that previews three reasons in order.
- (C) It opens with a long quotation and states no position.
- (D) It opens with a definition of “reading” and a history of school reading lists.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The first two sentences use an image (“a door that is chosen for you is a corridor”) to engage and orient the reader. The last sentence states a position and previews three reasons, which the body can follow in order.
- (A) There is no statistic, and the last sentence is a claim, not an announcement.
- (C) No quotation appears, and a position is taken.
- (D) No definition or history is given.
Topics: 4.1 (introductions), 4.3 (previewing thesis).
Question 2 (multiple choice · 4.2, 4.3)
The introduction in Question 1 is followed by an essay that argues the three reasons in order. Which conclusion best fits?
- (A) In conclusion, students should choose their own books, as I have said above.
- (B) A student who has chosen a book and finished it has learned something the list can never teach: that a reader is made by the books she wanted, and the corridor becomes a door.
- (C) Forty books is too many for most students to read in a year.
- (D) Another point is that libraries are important places.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). It returns to the image from the introduction (door and corridor) and adds significance, the idea that choice makes a reader.
- (A) repeats the thesis and adds nothing.
- (C) introduces a new point that was not argued in the body.
- (D) introduces an unrelated point and does not return to the claim.
Topics: 4.2 (conclusions), 4.3.
Question 3 (multiple choice · 4.4)
A student writes: “Walking to school costs nothing and keeps you fit, whereas a bus pass is expensive, and the bus is often crowded.” The student wants to compare walking and the bus on like categories. Which revision does this best?
- (A) Walking costs nothing and the bus is crowded.
- (B) Walking costs nothing, whereas a bus pass is expensive; walking is a form of exercise, whereas the bus involves sitting.
- (C) Walking costs nothing and keeps you fit, and the bus is often crowded, which is unpleasant.
- (D) Walking is better than the bus.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Each pair compares the two options on the same category (cost; physical activity).
- (A) compares cost with crowding.
- (C) mixes categories (fitness for walking, crowding for the bus).
- (D) states a conclusion with no comparison.
Topic: 4.4.
Question 4 (multiple choice · 4.4, 4.5)
Read this passage (Marlbridge passage).
A bridge and a wall are both structures that stand between two places. But a wall exists to keep apart what it divides, and a bridge exists to join it. The difference is not in the stone, which may be the same, but in the purpose: the bridge-builder says “come across”, and the wall-builder says “stay there”.
Which methods of development does the writer use?
- (A) Comparison-contrast, and a definition of each structure by its purpose
- (B) Narration of a historical event
- (C) Cause-and-effect chain
- (D) A description of a single landscape
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The passage compares and contrasts a bridge and a wall in one category (purpose), and defines each by that purpose, with the voice of each builder as illustration.
- (B) No event is narrated.
- (C) No chain of causes and effects is presented.
- (D) No landscape is described.
Topics: 4.4, 4.5.
Question 5 (constructed response · 4.1, 4.3)
Prompt (Marlbridge): Argue whether towns should spend public money on public art. Write an introduction of three to five sentences for readers of a local newspaper. It should use a specific opening strategy and end with a thesis that previews your line of reasoning. Then name your strategy and explain in one sentence why it suits the audience.
Answer and explanation
Sample response (Marlbridge).
When the council unveiled a steel sculpture in the roundabout on Ferry Road, the first reaction in the letters column was outrage at its £60,000 cost. A year later, the roundabout is the place where visitors stop to take photographs and where the bus drivers give directions. Public art is not a luxury a town buys with spare money; it is a way of telling people where they are. Towns should fund it, because it gives a place an identity, draws visitors who spend money and gives residents something to argue about together.
Strategy: a short anecdote of a local controversy. Why it suits the audience: newspaper readers who may be sceptical recognise the cost objection first and then see its answer.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (6 points).
| Point | Award it when the response… |
|---|---|
| 1 | Opens with a specific, relevant strategy (not a generalisation) |
| 1 | Orients the reader to the subject and situation |
| 1 | Engages the reader (for example, a contrast or a concrete scene) |
| 1 | Ends with a defensible thesis |
| 1 | The thesis previews at least two reasons in a sequence |
| 1 | Names the strategy and justifies it by reference to the audience |
Question 6 (constructed response · 4.4, 4.5)
Write a body paragraph of five to seven sentences for the claim A good teacher is not the same as a good performer. Use definition (including at least one example) and contrast. End with a sentence that ties the paragraph to the claim.
Answer and explanation
Sample response (Marlbridge).
A good teacher is someone whose students become able to do without her. A performer is judged by the applause at the end of the hour; a teacher is judged by what the students can do the next week, when she is not in the room. Consider two lessons on fractions: in one, the teacher’s jokes and demonstrations keep the class laughing, but a month later few can divide a pizza fairly; in the other, the teacher is quieter, and her students have worked through problems themselves and can explain their method. By the measure of what remains, the second teacher is the better one. The difference shows that teaching is defined by what it leaves behind, not by the show it makes, which is why a good teacher is not simply a good performer.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points).
| Point | Award it when the response… |
|---|---|
| 1 | Gives a clear, defensible definition of “good teacher” (features or purpose) |
| 1 | Uses a specific example or illustration |
| 1 | Contrasts teacher and performer on like categories (what each is judged by) |
| 1 | Provides commentary that explains the comparison |
| 1 | Ends by tying the paragraph to the claim |
Question 7 (constructed response · 4.1, 4.3)
Abraham Lincoln opened the Gettysburg Address (1863) with:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Explain how this opening functions as an introduction, and what it signals about the speech’s line of reasoning.
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The sentence orients the audience in time and in national history: “Four score and seven years ago” places the founding in the past, and “our fathers” includes the audience in a shared inheritance. It engages by using solemn, memorable language that suggests the weight of the occasion. It focuses the audience on a principle, that the nation was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”, which signals that the speech will measure the present, a war and its dead, against that principle. The opening therefore previews a line of reasoning that moves from founding principle to present test to a call to resolve.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Award it when the response… |
|---|---|
| 1 | Describes how the opening orients the audience (time, shared history) |
| 1 | Describes how it engages (language, tone) with a quoted word or phrase |
| 1 | Describes how it focuses on the principle that will frame the speech |
| 1 | Explains what the opening signals about the speech’s structure or reasoning |
What to do next
If any question felt uncertain, return to the matching study guide (4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5) and the unit diagnostic. When you are ready, move on to Unit 5 with the Unit 5 diagnostic.