These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. Every unseen passage was written by Marlbridge for practice. The public-domain extracts are 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.
Neha thanked her neighbour for the soup, and when he had gone she tipped it into the sink. She washed the bowl until it shone and returned it to his door the next morning with a note: Delicious.
Which statement best describes the relationship?
- (A) A warm friendship in which each often shares food.
- (B) Open hostility, since she throws away what he gives her.
- (C) Outward courtesy that covers private reluctance, so politeness works as obligation.
- (D) Fear: Neha obeys the neighbour because she is afraid of him.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). The thanks and the note are polite; the sink shows she did not want the soup. The scrubbed bowl and the word “Delicious” suggest she is meeting a social duty.
- (A) The tipped soup contradicts a simple warm friendship.
- (B) She is not openly hostile; she is courteous to his face and in writing.
- (D) Nothing in the passage suggests fear; the detail is about concealment, not threat.
Question 2 (multiple choice · core)
In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” (1894), the narrator says of Louise Mallard’s husband: “And yet she had loved him — sometimes. Often she had not.” What does this sentence most clearly suggest?
- (A) Louise hated her husband from the start.
- (B) Louise’s feelings were mixed: real affection that was often absent.
- (C) Louise had never really loved him.
- (D) Louise forgets her husband quickly.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “Sometimes” admits genuine love, and “Often she had not” admits the opposite. The sentence holds both.
- (A) “She had loved him” rules out constant hatred.
- (C) Same error in the other direction: the text grants some love.
- (D) The passage does not mention forgetting; it shows her turning toward her own future.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
Read this passage written by Marlbridge.
“A shop is a promise,” her father said, sliding the key across the table. “A promise to whom?” said Ilse, and did not pick it up.
What is the most likely origin of the tension between them?
- (A) Ilse dislikes her father as a person.
- (B) The father values obligation to inheritance, while Ilse questions whether that obligation binds her.
- (C) The two are arguing about the price of the shop.
- (D) The father has no feelings about the shop.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “A shop is a promise” states a value of duty and continuity; “A promise to whom?” challenges it. The key left on the table shows the conflict in a gesture.
- (A) The passage shows disagreement over an idea, not dislike.
- (C) Price is not mentioned.
- (D) The father’s language about promises shows strong feeling.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
Read this passage written by Marlbridge.
“Whatever you like,” said Edda, and then spent the whole meal moving the salt, the pepper and the water jug until the table was square.
Which detail best shows a complexity beneath her words?
- (A) “Whatever you like”
- (B) The meal itself
- (C) The rearranging of the salt, pepper and jug
- (D) That she spoke at all
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). The fussing contradicts the easy words: she says she does not mind, but her hands show unease.
- (A) is the surface statement, the part the action undermines.
- (B) is a setting for the scene, not evidence about her feelings.
- (D) is not a meaningful detail.
Question 5 (multiple choice · stretch)
In Chopin’s story, the narrator says Louise will weep when she sees “the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her”. How does this detail most help the reader understand the marriage?
- (A) It shows the husband was cruel and deserved to die.
- (B) It shows Louise knew her husband to be loving, so her wish for freedom is not a response to cruelty.
- (C) It shows the marriage had no problems.
- (D) It shows Louise did not care about his death.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The detail establishes his kindness, so Louise’s “free” cannot be a simple escape from a bad husband; the complexity lies in what a marriage asks of a person, even a loving one.
- (A) contradicts “kind” and “tender”.
- (C) ignores the surrounding sentences about her wish for her own life.
- (D) She wept “at once, with sudden, wild abandonment”, so she did care.
Question 6 (short answer · core)
Read this passage written by Marlbridge.
Marta kept two seats on the train by laying her coat on one and her bag on the other. When Lise arrived, flushed and holding two paper cups, Marta moved the bag without a word. “They’d run out of the green tea,” Lise said, “so I got you the other one, the one you pretend to hate.” Marta took the cup and looked out of the window for some time. “I don’t pretend,” she said. But she drank it all the way to the end of the line.
Describe the relationship between Marta and Lise, using at least two details, and explain what is complicated about it. (4 points)
Answer and explanation
A strong answer: Marta and Lise are close: Marta saves a seat and Lise knows her private preference. Yet there is teasing friction. Lise’s “the one you pretend to hate” challenges Marta’s stated dislike, and Marta insists “I don’t pretend” while drinking the tea to the end of the line. The relationship is affectionate and prickly at the same time: Marta cannot say thanks or admit she likes the tea, but she acts as if she does.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the surface of the relationship (closeness, shared habit) with a detail |
| 2 | Identifies an undercurrent (teasing, pride, reluctance to admit) |
| 3 | Uses a second detail that shows the contradiction between Marta’s words and actions |
| 4 | Explains how the combination makes the relationship complex rather than simple |
Do not award points for “they are friends” alone.
Question 7 (short answer · core)
Read this passage written by Marlbridge.
Bea had labelled the boxes by room; Joaquin had labelled them by price. “This one’s for the charity shop,” he said, lifting a cracked teapot. “That teapot poured every Sunday of my childhood,” Bea said, and she put it back in the box marked Keep, and he did not take it out again.
(a) What difference in values causes friction between the siblings? (2 points) (b) What detail suggests that the relationship is not simply hostile? (2 points)
Answer and explanation
(a) Bea values memory and the emotional history of objects; Joaquin values practical use and disposal. The labelling systems (by room, by price) and the teapot show it.
(b) Joaquin “did not take it out again”: he yields to her feeling, which shows respect for the bond between them despite his disagreement.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Names Bea’s value (memory, sentiment) |
| 2 | Names Joaquin’s value (practicality, price, disposal) with the labelling detail |
| 3 | Identifies the yielding detail |
| 4 | Explains that the yielding shows affection or respect alongside the disagreement |
Question 8 (short answer · stretch)
Write one paragraph (about 120 words) about the marriage in Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” (1894). Include a claim, two short accurate quotations (one showing the husband’s kindness, one showing Louise’s mixed feeling) and commentary.
Answer and explanation
Sample response (written by Marlbridge). Chopin presents the Mallards’ marriage as kind and yet confining. The husband’s “kind, tender hands” and a face that “had never looked save with love upon her” show that nothing in his conduct was cruel. But the narrator adds that Louise “had loved him — sometimes. Often she had not.” The qualification and the blunt second sentence reveal that affection and the wish for self-possession coexisted. By giving Brently Mallard no fault, the story makes Louise’s joy at his death more shocking and shows that the tension lies in what marriage asks of a person, not in a villain.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | A claim that holds both layers of the relationship |
| 2 | Accurate quotation for the husband’s kindness |
| 3 | Accurate quotation for Louise’s mixed feelings |
| 4 | Commentary explaining what the complexity shows about the story’s meaning |
Lose a point if a quotation is altered or invented.
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 for describing a relationship” in the study guide. If your written scores were low, rewrite Question 6 with one sentence per step: surface, undercurrent, evidence, meaning. Then try the checklist.