These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. The poems U and V were written by Marlbridge for this practice; Question 7 quotes Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 (published 1609, public domain). Mark points are a suggested Marlbridge rubric, not an official scoring guideline. Multiple-choice questions have four options.
Poem U (written by Marlbridge), “Kettle”.
The kettle clicks. The kettle always clicks
before it boils, a small dry cough, a warning
nobody needs. I stand in my coat.
It is six o’clock and it is dark and I am leaving
for the first time since the funeral.
And the kettle comes to the boil behind me
like a room full of people standing up.
Poem V (written by Marlbridge), “Orchard”.
Grandfather planted the pear trees in rows
so straight that from the gate you could see
down every aisle to the wall,
the way a sentence sees down to its full stop.Now the rows lean. Some have gone.
In the gaps the grass has made small rooms
where nobody sits, and in autumn
the fruit falls and keeps its shape.
Question 1 (multiple choice · core)
Poem U opens with a short sentence (“The kettle clicks.”) followed by plain, repetitive description of the kettle. The most likely effect of this opening is to
- (A) create a slow, still domestic moment before the speaker moves
- (B) show that the speaker is panicking
- (C) introduce a new character
- (D) suggest that the kettle is broken
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The short statement and the repetition of “the kettle” slow the pace and establish an ordinary, quiet scene.
- (B) contradicts the calm, precise tone of these lines.
- (C) is wrong; no new character appears until the final simile.
- (D) is not stated; the kettle works normally.
Question 2 (multiple choice · core)
In Poem U, the sentence beginning “It is six o’clock” runs across two lines and ends with “funeral”. The most likely effect of this longer sentence is to
- (A) make the reader feel the speaker’s departure as a build-up of pressure
- (B) calm the speaker’s feelings
- (C) change the setting to a different house
- (D) repeat information already given
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The sentence piles up facts (“six o’clock … dark … leaving … first time since the funeral”) and the reader reaches the weighty word “funeral” only at the end, so the information builds to the emotional centre.
- (B) is the opposite of what the accumulating clauses suggest.
- (C) is not supported; the speaker stays in the kitchen.
- (D) is wrong because “leaving” and “funeral” are new.
Question 3 (multiple choice · stretch)
Placing the simile “like a room full of people standing up” in the last line most directly
- (A) gives the ending an image of presence and ceremony after a plain description
- (B) shows that the kettle has stopped working
- (C) returns the poem to the speaker’s childhood
- (D) introduces a new conflict with the neighbours
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). After flat statements, the final image gives the kettle’s rising noise the weight of a gathering that stands up for someone, which recalls the funeral.
- (B) is contradicted by “comes to the boil”.
- (C) and (D) introduce material that is not in the poem.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
The stanza break between the two stanzas of Poem V most directly marks a shift
- (A) from the past of the orchard to its present state
- (B) from one speaker to another
- (C) from a description of the orchard to a description of the house
- (D) from a question to its answer
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The first stanza uses the past (“planted”) and the second begins “Now”, so the break separates past order from present decay.
- (B) is wrong because the speaker is unchanged.
- (C) is wrong because both stanzas concern the orchard.
- (D) is wrong because there is no question in the poem.
Question 5 (multiple choice · core)
In the first stanza of Poem V, the lines “so straight that from the gate you could see / down every aisle to the wall” run on across the line break. This enjambment most likely
- (A) mimics the eye travelling down the straight aisle
- (B) shows that the speaker is out of breath
- (C) breaks the idea into separate thoughts
- (D) suggests the trees are leaning
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The sentence does not stop at the line end, as the eye does not stop along the row.
- (B) is not suggested by the content.
- (C) is the opposite: enjambment joins the thought.
- (D) contradicts “so straight” and belongs to the second stanza.
Question 6 (multiple choice · stretch)
How does the shorter, end-stopped phrasing at the start of the second stanza (“Now the rows lean. Some have gone.”) contribute to the poem?
- (A) It continues the long sentence of the first stanza
- (B) It contrasts with the ordered flow of the first stanza and states the loss plainly
- (C) It introduces a flashback
- (D) It shows that the speaker has forgotten the orchard
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The two short sentences, each ending with the line, are plain and abrupt after the flowing first stanza. They state the change without decoration.
- (A) is wrong because the sentences end within the line.
- (C) is wrong because “Now” moves forward, not back.
- (D) is contradicted by the detailed description of the orchard.
Question 7 (multiple choice · stretch)
The couplet of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 reads: “This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong, / To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.” Compared with the three quatrains, the couplet
- (A) adds a fourth picture of the speaker’s decline
- (B) turns from the pictures to the addressee and states what perceiving them should produce
- (C) repeats the first quatrain in different words
- (D) introduces a new speaker
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “This thou perceiv’st” refers back to the pictures and moves the focus to the addressee’s understanding and love.
- (A) is wrong because the couplet states a consequence, not a new image.
- (C) misreads the couplet, which has no image of boughs.
- (D) is wrong because the speaker continues to address “thou”.
Question 8 (constructed response · core)
Explain how the sentence structure of Poem U affects the reader’s experience of the speaker’s departure. Refer to at least two details.
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The poem begins with a short sentence (“The kettle clicks.”) and plain, repeated detail that make the kitchen feel still and ordinary, as if time is slow before the speaker moves. Then the longer sentence beginning “It is six o’clock” gathers time, darkness, leaving and “the first time since the funeral” into one run of lines, so the weight of the funeral arrives at the end of the build-up. The final simile, in the last line, comes after the plain statements and gives the departure a ceremonial feeling.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (3 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the contrast between short and long sentences or the placement of the simile |
| 2 | Uses at least two accurate details |
| 3 | Explains the effect on the reader’s experience (stillness, build-up, emotional weight) |
Question 9 (constructed response · stretch)
Explain how the two-stanza structure of Poem V develops the poem’s ideas about the orchard and time.
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The first stanza describes the orchard as it was: straight rows, a clear view “down every aisle to the wall”, and a comparison with order in language (“the way a sentence sees down to its full stop”). The stanza break separates this from the present. The second stanza begins “Now”, states the change plainly (“the rows lean. Some have gone”), and ends on the fruit that “keeps its shape”. The structure sets order against loss, and the last image suggests that something of the grandfather’s work remains.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the shift from past order to present change across the stanza break |
| 2 | Uses at least two accurate details, one from each stanza |
| 3 | Explains a structural effect (the change of sentence length, “Now”, the final image) |
| 4 | Links the structure to meaning (time, loss, what remains) |
How did you do? If you missed Questions 1 to 3, reread “What to look at” in the study guide. If you missed Questions 4 to 7, reread Worked example 1 and the section on strong and weak statements. Then check the checklist.