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 AC (written by Marlbridge), “Winter Debt”.
Loneliness is a lodger who pays no rent
and keeps the thermostat low. It leaves
its boots in the hall. When the phone rings
it looks up, hopeful, then looks away.
Poem AD (written by Marlbridge), “Bags”.
My mother’s hands were like the paper bags
she saved: creased, folded, kept for use,
and somehow always holding something.
Poem AE (written by Marlbridge), “The Town”.
The town was a clock nobody wound.
The streets kept their hours out of habit;
the bakery opened, and no one came.
Question 1 (multiple choice · core)
In Poem AC, what are the main subject and the comparison subject?
- (A) Main subject: the lodger; comparison subject: loneliness
- (B) Main subject: loneliness; comparison subject: a lodger
- (C) Main subject: the hall; comparison subject: the phone
- (D) Main subject: the thermostat; comparison subject: boots
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The poem is about loneliness, which it compares with a lodger.
- (A) reverses the two subjects.
- (C) and (D) pick out details within the comparison, not the figure as a whole.
Question 2 (multiple choice · core)
Which trait of a lodger is most clearly transferred to loneliness by “pays no rent and keeps the thermostat low”?
- (A) Generosity
- (B) A presence that takes without giving and lowers comfort
- (C) Cheerfulness
- (D) Short stays
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “Pays no rent” and “keeps the thermostat low” show a presence that costs the household and chills it.
- (A) and (C) contradict the details.
- (D) is not supported: the lodger “leaves its boots”, which suggests settled presence.
Question 3 (multiple choice · stretch)
“When the phone rings it looks up, hopeful, then looks away.” This image most directly shows that loneliness
- (A) hopes for contact and is quickly disappointed
- (B) rejects all visitors
- (C) is angry with the speaker
- (D) is a physical person who lives next door
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The lodger’s glance shows a hope for a call, then withdrawal, which presents loneliness as wanting connection and expecting not to get it.
- (B) is contradicted by “hopeful”.
- (C) is not suggested.
- (D) confuses the figure with a literal person.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
Which phrase in Poem AD signals that the comparison is a simile?
- (A) “My mother’s hands”
- (B) “were like the paper bags”
- (C) “she saved”
- (D) “always holding something”
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “Like” marks the comparison.
- (A), (C) and (D) are parts of the description but do not signal the comparison.
Question 5 (multiple choice · core)
The traits “creased, folded, kept for use” are transferred from the paper bags to the mother’s hands. They most directly suggest hands that are
- (A) worn by long use and kept ready to be useful
- (B) new and unused
- (C) cruel and demanding
- (D) idle and unwilling to work
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). Creases and folds show wear; “kept for use” shows readiness.
- (B) contradicts “creased”.
- (C) and (D) are not supported by the details.
Question 6 (multiple choice · stretch)
“And somehow always holding something.” The difference between hands and bags that this line points out is that
- (A) hands, unlike bags, are always full of something they give or carry for others
- (B) hands are lighter than paper
- (C) bags cannot hold anything
- (D) the mother has no hands
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The line carries the comparison forward (bags hold things) and applies it to hands, which carry care, work or objects for others. “Somehow” signals that the hands do something the bags do not need to do on their own.
- (B) and (C) are unsupported.
- (D) is wrong; the poem is about her hands.
Question 7 (multiple choice · core)
“The town was a clock nobody wound.” This is best described as
- (A) a simile comparing a town to a clock
- (B) a metaphor presenting the town as a clock that has run down
- (C) a repetition of the word “town”
- (D) an ambiguous referent
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The sentence says the town was a clock; there is no “like” or “as”.
- (A) misidentifies the form because there is no “like” or “as”.
- (C) is wrong because “town” occurs only once in the line.
- (D) is wrong because no pronoun creates ambiguity.
Question 8 (constructed response · core)
Explain what the metaphor of the lodger conveys about loneliness in Poem AC. Refer to at least two details.
Answer and explanation
Sample response. Loneliness is presented as an unwelcome but permanent resident. The lodger “pays no rent”, so loneliness takes without giving, and “keeps the thermostat low”, so it makes the house colder. It “leaves its boots in the hall”, a sign that it has settled in. When it “looks up, hopeful, then looks away”, the metaphor also gives loneliness a wish for contact, which makes it both a burden and something sad.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (3 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies loneliness as the main subject and a lodger as the comparison subject |
| 2 | Uses at least two accurate details with the traits they transfer |
| 3 | Explains what the figure shows about loneliness (a cost, a chill, a longing) |
Question 9 (constructed response · stretch)
In Poem AE, explain how the context of the poem decides what is transferred from a clock to the town, and what the final line adds.
Answer and explanation
Answer outline. A clock suggests time, regularity, mechanism and, here, a mechanism that has stopped without winding. The context (“nobody wound”, “kept their hours out of habit”) makes the relevant traits run down and going through the motions. The streets “kept their hours” (the clock-like routine) but there is no energy to renew it. The final line, “the bakery opened, and no one came”, gives a concrete example: the routine continues without purpose.
Sample response. The comparison does not use every trait of a clock, such as accuracy or usefulness. The words “nobody wound” make the key trait that a clock needs someone to keep it going, so the town is presented as something that has run down. “Kept their hours out of habit” shows the motion of a clock that continues without meaning. The bakery that “opened, and no one came” shows that the routine remains but has lost its purpose. The metaphor therefore transfers mechanical routine without a keeper.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the main subject (the town) and the comparison subject (a clock) |
| 2 | Explains that the context selects the traits (running down, routine without purpose) |
| 3 | Uses at least two accurate details (“nobody wound”, “out of habit”, “no one came”) |
| 4 | Explains what the final line adds (a concrete example of routine without purpose) |
How did you do? If you missed Questions 1 to 3, reread “The two subjects” and “What transfers, and who decides” in the study guide. If you missed Questions 4 to 7, reread Worked examples 1 and 3. Then check the checklist.