These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. Every unseen passage below was written by Marlbridge for practice. The one public-domain extract is from Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour” (1894). The marks in the rubrics are a suggested Marlbridge rubric, not an official scoring guideline. Answer every question before opening its answer.
Question 1 (multiple choice · foundation)
Read this passage written by Marlbridge.
Wen counted the coins twice, then a third time. Beside her, her cousin Pilar had already bought three ribbons and a paper fan, and was holding out a fourth ribbon. “You can’t take it home in your pocket if you don’t buy it,” Pilar said. Wen folded both hands over the purse.
Which statement best describes the contrast between Wen and Pilar?
- (A) Wen is poor and Pilar is wealthy.
- (B) Wen values caution and holding back, while Pilar values enjoying the moment.
- (C) Wen is the protagonist and Pilar is an enemy who wants her ruined.
- (D) Wen and Pilar want the same thing but disagree about how to get it.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Wen counts the coins three times and shields the purse, which shows careful restraint. Pilar buys freely and urges Wen to do the same, which shows a value of present pleasure. The difference is one of values.
- (A) The passage never states how much money either has; Pilar’s spending shows a spending habit, not necessarily more wealth.
- (C) Nothing suggests Pilar wants to harm Wen. Opposing a character’s habit is not the same as being an enemy.
- (D) The two clearly want different things from the market: Wen wants to keep her money safe, Pilar wants to spend it.
Question 2 (multiple choice · foundation)
A Marlbridge summary of an invented story: A fisherman is determined to bring his boat home before dark. A rising wind, a fog and a falling tide keep pushing him away from the harbour mouth. The story ends with him tied to the mooring, soaked and unsure whether he has won or been spared. What is the antagonist?
- (A) The fisherman’s own fear of the sea
- (B) The harbour master, who is absent
- (C) Nature: the wind, fog and tide
- (D) There can be no antagonist, because no second character appears
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). The antagonist is whatever opposes the protagonist, and here the wind, fog and tide do that directly.
- (A) Fear is not mentioned; the summary shows an outside force, not an inner conflict.
- (B) The harbour master is not mentioned at all.
- (D) An antagonist does not have to be a character. Nature, a collective or an internal conflict can fill the role.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
Use the ferry-office passage from the study guide: Mr Okafor, who has “not been late in thirty-one years”, and Tamsin, who arrives with a cello case and says “My brother is ill”. At the end he reaches “for the key to the gate”. Which is the best statement of the function of the contrast?
- (A) It shows that old men are strict and young women are emotional.
- (B) It establishes the conflict between order and compassion and shows the rule-keeper beginning to give way.
- (C) It proves that Tamsin was right and Mr Okafor was wrong.
- (D) It describes what each character is wearing and carrying.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The contrast sets order against compassion, creates the conflict of the scene, and the last action shows the contrast easing as he weighs both.
- (A) turns two individuals into stereotypes; the passage does not generalise about age or sex.
- (C) judges a winner; the passage’s last line is hopeful about both and does not declare either “wrong”.
- (D) describes details but gives no function.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” (1894), Josephine kneels at the closed door of her sister’s room, “imploring for admission”, and says “you will make yourself ill”. Louise is meanwhile whispering “free, free, free!” Which statement is best supported?
- (A) Josephine and Louise both feel the same grief and express it differently.
- (B) Josephine reads Louise’s silence as sorrow, while Louise is experiencing a private release the sister cannot see.
- (C) Josephine is the antagonist because she wants Louise to be ill.
- (D) Louise has already decided to leave her sister’s house.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Josephine’s plea shows she believes Louise is suffering; Louise’s whispered “free” shows a different inner state. The contrast is between what is seen and what is felt.
- (A) The story directly contrasts their understanding of the moment.
- (C) Josephine is trying to protect Louise, not harm her; she begs her to open the door for her own good.
- (D) The extract says nothing of leaving the house.
Question 5 (multiple choice · stretch)
Which sentence best explains the function of a contrast, rather than only describing it?
- (A) “Mara is patient and Dev is hasty.”
- (B) “Mara waits at the gate while Dev climbs over it.”
- (C) “By setting Mara’s patience against Dev’s haste, the story shows how each pays a price for the way they treat time.”
- (D) “Mara and Dev are brother and sister, and Dev is the elder.”
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). It names both characters’ values (patience, haste) and says what the contrast reveals (“how each pays a price”). It gives a claim that a paragraph can develop.
- (A) states a difference without saying why it matters.
- (B) gives details of action but no interpretation.
- (D) gives background facts that are neither a contrast of values nor a function.
Question 6 (short answer · core)
Read this passage written by Marlbridge.
Anselm kept the orchard the way his father had: every ladder hung on its own hook, every crate numbered in white paint. When his sister Rafaela arrived for the harvest she dropped her bag in the grass, ate a windfall apple on the way to the house, and left the core on the porch rail. “It’s only an apple,” she said, when he picked it up and carried it to the compost heap. “It’s the same apple,” Anselm said, “that’s the trouble,” and she laughed as if he had made a joke.
(a) Identify one value each character stands for. (2 points) (b) Explain one function of the contrast. (2 points)
Answer and explanation
(a) Anselm stands for care of inherited order and continuity (ladders on hooks, numbered crates, the compost heap). Rafaela stands for spontaneity and a lighter attitude to rules (bag in the grass, core on the rail).
(b) Possible function: the contrast establishes a quiet conflict between preserving a family’s way of doing things and living freely in the moment, and the last line shows each misreads the other (he is serious, she hears a joke), which prepares tension over what the orchard will mean to each of them.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Names a value for Anselm (order, continuity, care for inheritance) with a supporting detail |
| 2 | Names a value for Rafaela (spontaneity, casualness) with a supporting detail |
| 3 | States a function (creates conflict, reveals attitudes to inheritance, sets up misunderstanding) |
| 4 | Explains how the detail supports that function, not just repeating it |
Alternative readings that are textually supported are acceptable. Do not award the third and fourth points for “they are different” alone.
Question 7 (short answer · core)
Read this passage written by Marlbridge.
Idris had written the letter in March. It lay now in the drawer of the hall table, stamped and addressed, under a screw of loose keys. Every morning he passed the drawer on his way to the door. Every morning a voice in him said: send it, you wrote it for a reason; and another voice, more reasonable, said: wait for a calmer week. By June the stamp had curled at one corner.
(a) What kind of antagonist does the protagonist face? (1 point) (b) Explain how the passage shows contrasting values within one character. (3 points)
Answer and explanation
(a) An internal conflict: Idris is opposed by his own hesitation.
(b) Two inner voices carry opposed values: one values honesty and action (“send it, you wrote it for a reason”), the other values caution and comfort (“wait for a calmer week”). The repetition of “every morning” shows the contrast is not resolved, and the curling stamp shows the cost of the second value winning.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies an internal conflict as the antagonist |
| 2 | Names the two opposed values (action/honesty versus caution/delay) |
| 3 | Uses evidence from both voices |
| 4 | Explains what the detail of the stamp or the repetition suggests about the cost of delay |
Question 8 (short answer · stretch)
Write one paragraph (about 120 words) about Chopin’s Josephine and Louise in “The Story of an Hour” (1894). Include a claim about the function of the contrast, two short quotations (each from a different character’s moment in the extract: Josephine’s “I beg, open the door” and Louise’s “Free! Body and soul free!”), and commentary connecting them.
Answer and explanation
Sample response (written by Marlbridge). Chopin contrasts Josephine’s conventional concern with Louise’s private exhilaration to show that the force opposing the protagonist is not a person but a way of life she is expected to grieve for. Josephine kneels at the door and pleads, “I beg, open the door”, assuming that a widow behind a closed door must be suffering. Louise, meanwhile, is “whispering” “Free! Body and soul free!” The sister’s worry and the widow’s joy cannot meet through a keyhole. The gap between them makes the reader see that Louise’s real antagonist is the expectation that her life belongs to someone else.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | A defensible claim about function (not just “they differ”) |
| 2 | Accurate evidence from both characters |
| 3 | Commentary that explains how each quotation supports the claim |
| 4 | A clear point about the antagonist or theme that follows from the contrast |
Quotations must be accurate; one point is lost if either is invented or altered.
How did you do?
Count your correct multiple-choice answers (out of 5) and your rubric points (out of 12). If you missed questions 1 to 5, reread “A method: detail, difference, value, effect” in the study guide. If you scored below 7 on the written questions, redo the method on Question 6 in four sentences, one per step. Then try the checklist.