These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. The public-domain poems are credited to their authors: Robert Burns, “A Red, Red Rose” (1794); William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 130 (1609). The other poems and lines were written by Marlbridge for practice. 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)
In Burns’s “A Red, Red Rose” (1794) the speaker promises to love “Till a’ the seas gang dry”. Which statement best describes the language?
- (A) It is literal: the speaker expects the seas to dry up.
- (B) It is hyperbole: an impossible condition that measures how long the love will last.
- (C) It is understatement: the speaker minimises his feeling.
- (D) It is a plain description of the weather.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The literal event is impossible, so the phrase works figuratively, exaggerating to express constancy.
- (A) The seas are not expected to dry.
- (C) The phrase makes the feeling larger, not smaller.
- (D) There is no weather report.
Question 2 (multiple choice · core)
In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 (1609) the speaker says: “My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.” What does the verb “treads” contribute?
- (A) It suggests that she moves with divine lightness.
- (B) It gives a plain, heavy, ordinary sense of movement that rejects the conventional praise of a goddess.
- (C) It suggests she is angry.
- (D) It shows that she is walking on a path in a garden.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “Treads” is a heavy, earthbound verb set against “goddess”; it works as understatement.
- (A) is the opposite of the connotation.
- (C) Anger is not suggested here.
- (D) The garden is not mentioned.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 the speaker says “summer’s lease hath all too short a date”. Why is the word “lease” effective?
- (A) It is only a word for rent and has no further meaning.
- (B) It combines a legal term (an agreement with a time limit) with the idea of summer’s limited time, adding a note of loss.
- (C) It means that summer is a house.
- (D) It shows that the speaker is a landlord.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The double sense (contract and season) suggests time running out, which is the poem’s concern.
- (A) The legal sense is figuratively applied to the season.
- (C) The comparison is to a time limit, not a house.
- (D) Nothing makes the speaker a landlord.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
Read these two Marlbridge sentences. (1) “A slender tree stood in the corner of the yard.” (2) “A gaunt tree stood in the corner of the yard.” What is the main difference in function?
- (A) There is no difference.
- (B) “Gaunt” carries a connotation of hunger or ill health that suggests a more bleak or troubling view.
- (C) “Slender” shows the tree is taller.
- (D) “Gaunt” is more accurate.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Both describe thinness; “gaunt” adds associations of suffering, so the speaker’s attitude is more sombre.
- (A) The connotations differ.
- (C) Neither word shows height.
- (D) Both can be accurate; the difference is in attitude.
Question 5 (multiple choice · stretch)
Read this Marlbridge line: “The flood, I am told, has made the road a little damp.” What is the best description of the effect?
- (A) Hyperbole that makes the flood seem enormous
- (B) Understatement that minimises the flood and conveys irony or numbness
- (C) A literal weather report
- (D) A personification of the road
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “A little damp” shrinks the flood to an inconvenience; the gap suggests irony, shock or restraint.
- (A) It minimises, not exaggerates.
- (C) A literal report would not use “a little damp”.
- (D) The road is not given human traits.
Question 6 (short answer · core)
Read this original Marlbridge poem, “The Forecast”.
They say there may be some rain later, a light shower perhaps, nothing to trouble us, as the sky thickens and the river climbs the second step of the garden wall. We have moved the chairs inside. We have moved the books inside. It’s only weather, my neighbour says, and ties her boat to a tree.
Identify the understatement and explain its effect on the speaker’s perspective. (4 points)
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The understatement lies in “some rain”, “a light shower” and “nothing to trouble us”, which minimise a danger that the river climbing the garden wall and the neighbour tying her boat to a tree make plain. The gap between the calm words and the alarming facts conveys a perspective of restraint, a refusal to admit fear, and a shared habit of treating disaster as ordinary. The final plain statement “It’s only weather” repeats the habit and makes the reader feel the unspoken anxiety.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies understatement (“some rain”, “a light shower” or “only weather”) |
| 2 | Identifies the contrast with the actual evidence (the river, the boat) |
| 3 | States the perspective conveyed (restraint, denial, irony) |
| 4 | Explains the effect on the poem as a whole (unspoken anxiety, tone) |
Question 7 (short answer · core)
Read this original Marlbridge couplet.
I would carry you a thousand miles of stairs, and then turn round and carry you again.
(a) Distinguish the literal and figurative meaning. (2 points) (b) Explain what the hyperbole conveys about the speaker. (2 points)
Answer and explanation
(a) Literally, the speaker would carry someone up a thousand miles of stairs, which is impossible. Figuratively, it suggests endless willingness to bear another person’s weight.
(b) The hyperbole conveys devotion that is extravagant yet sincere; the repetition (“again”) adds endurance, so the speaker presents love as labour that does not tire.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | States the literal meaning and its impossibility |
| 2 | States the figurative meaning (devotion, willingness) |
| 3 | Identifies the effect of the exaggeration (intensity, extravagance) |
| 4 | Connects “again” or another word to endurance |
Question 8 (short answer · stretch)
Write one paragraph (about 120 words) explaining how the speaker of Sonnet 130 uses plain words and understatement to convey his attitude. Quote at least two phrases.
Answer and explanation
Sample response (written by Marlbridge). The speaker of Sonnet 130 rejects the exaggerated praise of love poetry and replaces it with plain statements. He says his mistress’s “eyes are nothing like the sun”, and, a few lines later, “I grant I never saw a goddess go; / My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.” The flat verb “treads” and the mild, nearly comic understatement reduce the language of worship to the facts of ordinary life. This makes the final claim, that his love is “as rare” as any celebrated with “false compare”, more credible, because it is made without exaggeration. The tone is playful but honest: affection is shown through candour, not flattery.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies understatement or plain speech as a strategy |
| 2 | Two accurate quotations |
| 3 | Explains the connotation or function of at least one word |
| 4 | Links the strategy to the speaker’s attitude and the final couplet |
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 “Literal and figurative meaning” and “Hyperbole and understatement” in the study guide. If your written scores were low, redo Question 6 in four sentences: literal, figurative, word, effect. Then try the checklist.