These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. The poems were written by Marlbridge for this practice. Mark points are a suggested Marlbridge rubric, not an official scoring guideline. Multiple-choice questions have four options.
Poem Z (written by Marlbridge), “Telephone”.
I rang and it rang, and rang. The hall
of that house, I knew, was long and cold,
and the phone sat on its little table
ringing in the long cold hall
for no one, for no one, for no one,
until I put down mine.
Poem AA (written by Marlbridge), “Harbour at Dawn”.
The cold clouds cling to the cranes.
Gulls grumble, gather, go.
Poem AB (written by Marlbridge), “The Boat”.
My sister and her friend were arguing
about her father’s boat. She said
it was hers by right. The other said
she had been promised, and that she would
not give it up. It was only a boat.
It was, they both agreed, the one thing left
that he had loved.
Question 1 (multiple choice · core)
In Poem AA, “cold clouds cling to the cranes” is an example of
- (A) alliteration of a hard k sound
- (B) a simile
- (C) an ambiguous referent
- (D) end rhyme
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). “Cold”, “clouds”, “cling” and “cranes” all start with the same k sound.
- (B) is wrong because there is no “like” or “as”.
- (C) is wrong because there are no pronouns.
- (D) is wrong because “cold”, “clouds”, “cling” and “cranes” repeat sounds at the start, not the end.
Question 2 (multiple choice · core)
The most likely function of the alliteration in “Gulls grumble, gather, go” is to
- (A) link three actions of the gulls in a sequence that suggests complaint and departure
- (B) show that the gulls are silent
- (C) introduce a human speaker
- (D) change the setting to a field
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The shared g sound ties the verbs into a single movement, from noise to gathering to leaving.
- (B) is contradicted by “grumble”.
- (C) is unsupported; no speaker appears.
- (D) is not supported; the harbour is the setting.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
In Poem Z, the repetition of “long cold hall” (first as “long and cold” and then again as “long cold hall”) most directly
- (A) emphasises the emptiness and chill of the place the speaker imagines
- (B) shows that the speaker is describing a different house
- (C) suggests that the hall is warm
- (D) introduces a second speaker
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). Returning to the same description makes the hall’s cold emptiness a fixed image.
- (B) is wrong because it is the same hall.
- (C) contradicts “cold”.
- (D) is unsupported.
Question 4 (multiple choice · stretch)
“for no one, for no one, for no one” most directly
- (A) turns the phone’s ringing into an image of unanswered loneliness that does not stop
- (B) shows that the speaker has misdialled
- (C) lists three different people who did not answer
- (D) signals that the phone has been disconnected
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The tripled phrase imitates the repeated ring and states the same absence each time.
- (B) is unsupported; the speaker knows the house.
- (C) misreads “no one” as three separate people.
- (D) contradicts “ringing”.
Question 5 (multiple choice · stretch)
The movement from “I rang” in the first line, to the phone “ringing” in the fourth, to “I put down mine” in the last most likely
- (A) moves the poem from the speaker’s action to the sound itself and then back to the speaker’s choice to stop
- (B) shows that the poem is about a different phone
- (C) indicates that the speaker is angry
- (D) has no function
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The poem moves from “I rang”, through the phone that keeps “ringing”, to “I put down mine”, so the repeated word follows the speaker’s action, the sound and the decision.
- (B) is unsupported; “mine” refers to the speaker’s own phone.
- (C) is not shown by the tone.
- (D) is wrong because changes in a repeated word are often meaningful.
Question 6 (multiple choice · core)
In Poem AB, “her father’s boat” is ambiguous because “her” could refer to
- (A) the speaker’s sister or the sister’s friend
- (B) the boat itself
- (C) the speaker only
- (D) the father
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). “My sister and her friend … her father’s boat” allows either woman to be the daughter.
- (B) and (D) do not make sense as someone who owns a father.
- (C) is wrong because the speaker is “my” and is not the antecedent of “her” here.
Question 7 (multiple choice · stretch)
The ambiguity of “She said / it was hers by right. The other said / she had been promised” most directly
- (A) hides which woman is making which claim, so the reader cannot take a side
- (B) proves that the speaker is the owner
- (C) shows that the boat is damaged
- (D) shows that the father is alive
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The pronouns echo the quarrel itself: each woman’s claim sounds like the other’s.
- (B) is unsupported.
- (C) and (D) have no basis in the poem.
Question 8 (constructed response · core)
Explain the function of the repetition in Poem Z. Refer to at least two repeated words or phrases.
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The repetition of “rang” in the first line makes the speaker’s persistence audible, and the return of “long cold hall” fixes an image of an empty, chilly house. The final three-fold “for no one” stresses that nobody answers, and the repetition imitates the unbroken ringing, so loneliness seems to go on without end until the speaker “put[s] down mine”.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (3 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies at least two repeated words or phrases accurately |
| 2 | Explains what each repetition emphasises (persistence, emptiness, absence) |
| 3 | Links the repetition to the poem’s overall effect (loneliness, the speaker’s decision to stop) |
Question 9 (constructed response · stretch)
Explain how the ambiguous referents in Poem AB affect the reader’s interpretation of the argument.
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The pronouns “she”, “her” and “the other” make it hard to say which woman owns the claim. “She said / it was hers by right” could be either, and “she had been promised” and “she would / not give it up” are equally open. The reader is therefore placed in the same position as an outsider hearing the argument, unable to say who is right. The ambiguity also suggests that the claims are interchangeable, which fits the final line, where both agree that the boat was “the one thing left / that he had loved”. The dispute is less about ownership than about each woman’s wish to keep the father.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies an ambiguous referent and names the possible readings |
| 2 | Uses at least two accurate details |
| 3 | Explains how the ambiguity affects the reader’s understanding of the argument |
| 4 | Links the ambiguity to the poem’s wider meaning (shared claim, loss of the father) |
Other defensible readings of the effect earn full marks if they are supported by the text.
How did you do? If you missed Questions 1 or 2, reread “Alliteration” in the study guide. If you missed Questions 3 to 5, reread “Repetition”. If you missed Questions 6 to 9, reread “Ambiguous referents” and Worked example 2. Then check the checklist.