Read the big ideas and the method table, then try the five questions without notes. Each question combines two or more Unit 9 topics.
These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. All passages are written by Marlbridge, and the people, places and figures are invented. The rubrics are a suggested Marlbridge rubric, not official scoring.
Big ideas of the unit
- Arguments enter a conversation. Map the positions already argued, represent them fairly and say how your claim relates to them (9.1).
- Evidence supports, complements or contradicts a thesis, and each relationship needs a different use (9.2).
- Conceding accepts all or part of a competing claim, accepts it under different circumstances, or acknowledges the limits of one’s own argument (9.3).
- Rebutting offers a contrasting perspective or alternative evidence; refuting demonstrates with evidence that a claim is invalid (9.4).
- Transitions introduce counterarguments, placement depends on the reader’s likely thoughts, and not every argument addresses one explicitly (9.5).
Key relationships and methods
| If the task asks you to… | Do this | Watch out for… |
|---|---|---|
| Enter a conversation | Map positions; represent fairly; place your claim as agree, disagree, qualify or add | Summary with no claim of your own |
| Classify evidence | Supports, complements or contradicts; say why | Treating every source as support |
| Concede | Accept a true portion, or a different circumstance, or your own limit; then pivot back | Conceding the heart of the thesis |
| Rebut | Offer a contrasting view or alternative evidence | Calling it a refutation without demonstration |
| Refute | Use evidence to show the claim is invalid | A strawman |
| Introduce and place a counterargument | Transition, concede, pivot, respond, return; place by audience | Inventing an objection; spending too long on a minor one |
| Analyse an argument | Name the move, quote the words, say what the writer gains | Claiming a counterargument that is not there |
Question 1 (multiple choice · 9.5)
Use this passage (written by Marlbridge) for Questions 1 to 4.
“Councillors who want to close the Eastgate Pool say that it loses £120,000 a year, and on the accounts they are right. Admittedly, a pool is expensive to heat and to staff. Yet that figure measures only one side of the ledger. Among regular swimmers surveyed by the council’s own health team, 31 per cent said that swimming helped them manage joint pain, and closing the pool would move the school swimming programme to a pool eleven miles away, at a bus cost of £45,000 a year. It might be said that residents can use the private gym on the High Street. But the gym runs no lessons for children and charges four times as much. The pool is not a loss; it is a service whose costs are visible and whose savings are not.”
The sentence “It might be said that residents can use the private gym on the High Street” mainly
- (A) states the writer’s thesis.
- (B) introduces a counterargument, using a transition that signals an opposing view.
- (C) concludes the argument.
- (D) gives statistical support.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “It might be said that” introduces an opposing view that the writer then answers with “But the gym runs no lessons for children and charges four times as much.”
- (A) The thesis is that the pool is a service, not a loss.
- (C) The conclusion is the last sentence.
- (D) There are no statistics in the sentence.
Topics: 9.5 (transitions that introduce counterarguments).
Question 2 (multiple choice · 9.3, 9.4)
“Councillors… say that it loses £120,000 a year, and on the accounts they are right. Admittedly, a pool is expensive to heat and to staff.” What is the writer doing?
- (A) Conceding a portion of the opposing claim as correct
- (B) Refuting the councillors with evidence
- (C) Ignoring the opposing claim
- (D) Conceding the whole thesis
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). “On the accounts they are right” and “Admittedly” accept the cost claim as correct, and the next sentence pivots with “Yet”.
- (B) No evidence is used to demonstrate that the councillors are wrong about the cost.
- (C) The councillors’ claim is stated and accepted.
- (D) The writer keeps the claim that the pool is a service.
Topics: 9.3 (conceding).
Question 3 (multiple choice · 9.4, 9.2)
“Yet that figure measures only one side of the ledger.” Which description fits best?
- (A) A rebuttal: it offers a contrasting perspective that suggests the councillors’ reasoning is incomplete.
- (B) A strawman
- (C) A concession of the whole argument
- (D) An irrelevant remark
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The sentence reframes the issue, proposing that cost alone is not the whole picture, and the evidence that follows develops the point.
- (B) The writer has fairly stated the councillors’ claim.
- (C) The writer is not giving up the thesis.
- (D) The sentence leads straight into the evidence.
Topics: 9.4 (rebutting), 9.2 (how a claim is tested).
Question 4 (multiple choice · 9.2)
The statement about the school swimming programme moving eleven miles away at a bus cost of £45,000 a year is best classified, in relation to the thesis that the pool is a service and not a loss, as
- (A) contradicting evidence.
- (B) supporting evidence, because it shows a cost of closure that offsets the savings.
- (C) irrelevant.
- (D) a concession.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The figure bears directly on the thesis: closing the pool has costs that reduce the apparent saving.
- (A) It works for the writer’s claim, not against it.
- (C) It is relevant to the question of net cost.
- (D) It is not a concession; the writer is not conceding anything with it.
Topics: 9.2 (supporting evidence).
Question 5 (constructed response · 9.1, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5)
Choose one of the following theses, and write a paragraph of five to six sentences that enters the conversation by introducing an opposing view with a transition, concedes something true, and answers the rest with either a rebuttal or a refutation (invent plausible evidence if you need it).
- Thesis A: Schools should let pupils redo exams that they fail.
- Thesis B: Towns should plant wildflower verges instead of mowing them.
Then name your placement in a short essay and justify it. (10 marks)
Sample answer and suggested rubric
Sample (Thesis B). “Some residents argue that unmown verges look neglected. Admittedly, a tall verge in June can look untidy to people who expect clipped grass. However, a count on three verges in one town found four times as many bee and butterfly species where the grass was left to flower, and the council saved £8,000 in fuel and labour. A tidy look, in other words, costs money and wildlife that residents may not know they are paying. Therefore, towns should plant wildflowers and put up small signs explaining the scheme.” (Figures invented for practice.)
Placement. In the second body paragraph, after a first case about wildlife, because residents’ worry about appearance is the obvious objection and should be answered before the case moves on.
| Mark | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Introduces an opposing view with a transition that signals it |
| 1 | The opposing view is stated fairly |
| 1 | Concedes something true |
| 1 | Uses a pivot transition |
| 1 | Offers a rebuttal (contrasting view or alternative evidence) or refutation (evidence) |
| 1 | The evidence or perspective is relevant and plausible |
| 1 | Returns to the thesis with a transition |
| 1 | The paragraph is coherent and not over-long |
| 1 | Names a placement |
| 1 | Justifies the placement by the reader’s likely thoughts |
What next?
If any question surprised you, return to the matching study guide. When you are comfortable, move on to the exam-skills guides for the course, and then practise full essays under timed conditions.