These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. The public-domain poems are credited to their authors: Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Eagle” (1851); John Keats, “To Autumn” (1820). The unseen poem and the sample 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 Tennyson’s “The Eagle” (1851), the eagle “clasps the crag with crooked hands”. Which sense does this image mainly appeal to, and what does it suggest?
- (A) Smell, suggesting the scent of rock
- (B) Touch and shape, suggesting a strong, grasping grip that looks old and human
- (C) Taste, suggesting hunger
- (D) Hearing, suggesting a loud cry
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “Clasps” and “crooked hands” present grip and form, and giving the bird “hands” suggests will and age.
- (A), (C) and (D) name senses the line does not use.
Question 2 (multiple choice · core)
“The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls.” What is the effect of the adjective “wrinkled”?
- (A) It suggests that the sea is dry.
- (B) It adds a sense of touch and age, so the sea looks like old skin, slow and small from above.
- (C) It tells us the sea is cold.
- (D) It has no effect.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “Wrinkled” describes the sea’s surface as skin, adding age and slowness.
- (A) “Wrinkled” does not suggest dryness.
- (C) Temperature is not stated.
- (D) Descriptive words contribute to imagery.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
In Keats’s “To Autumn” (1820), the small gnats are described as “a wailful choir”. What is the best description?
- (A) A visual image of grey clouds
- (B) An auditory image that links the gnats’ sound with mourning and music
- (C) A tactile image of rough fur
- (D) A literal count of how many gnats there are
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “Wailful” and “choir” are sounds; they associate the gnats with grief and song.
- (A), (C) and (D) do not describe what the words do.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
Which of these lines (written by Marlbridge) contains an image that works as a comparison?
- (A) “The kettle ticked as it cooled.”
- (B) “The bread smelled of Sunday.”
- (C) “A dog barked twice.”
- (D) “The tea was hot.”
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). It likens a smell to a day, linking the sensation to memory and routine.
- (A), (C) and (D) present literal sensations.
Question 5 (multiple choice · stretch)
In “The Eagle”, how do the images shift between the first and second stanzas?
- (A) From movement to stillness
- (B) From images of grip, height and stillness to a slow sea and then a sudden fall
- (C) From sound to silence
- (D) There is no pattern.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The first stanza collects images of grip and height; the second offers a slow sea and ends with the “thunderbolt” fall.
- (A) The direction is reversed.
- (C) Sound is not the pattern.
- (D) There is a clear shape from fixed to moving.
Question 6 (short answer · core)
Read this original Marlbridge poem, “Early Market”.
Before the stalls are open, crates of lemons sweat in the half-dark, a bright cold smell that stings the nose before the light comes. A cart wheel grinds the stones. Somewhere a radio is humming one thin note and the sellers, hunched in their coats, blow on their hands like men lighting small fires.
Identify two images, name the sense each appeals to and explain what the images together suggest. (4 points)
Answer and explanation
Sample response. “a bright cold smell / that stings the nose” appeals to smell and touch (the sting of cold), and “A cart wheel grinds the stones” appeals to sound. Together with “one thin note” and the sellers who “blow on their hands”, the images create a sparse, cold, early-morning world made of small sensations. The final comparison “like men / lighting small fires” turns the cold breath into warmth, so the imagery moves from chill toward the human effort to make comfort.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | First image quoted accurately with a sense named |
| 2 | Second image quoted accurately with a sense named |
| 3 | Explains an association or effect of at least one image |
| 4 | Describes the pattern (cold to warmth, sparse to human) |
Question 7 (short answer · core)
A student writes: “The poem has lots of nature imagery.” Rewrite the comment in two sentences so that it quotes an image from “The Eagle”, names the sense and explains the effect. (3 points)
Answer and explanation
Sample response. In “The Eagle”, the image of “the wrinkled sea beneath him crawls” appeals to sight and movement and presents the sea as old, slow skin. From the eagle’s height the world looks small and sluggish, which makes his sudden fall as a “thunderbolt” feel all the more powerful.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (3 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Quotes a specific image accurately |
| 2 | Names the sense or the kind of image |
| 3 | Explains the effect on the poem’s idea |
Question 8 (short answer · stretch)
Write one paragraph (about 120 words) explaining how the imagery of “The Eagle” develops the poem’s idea. Quote at least two images.
Answer and explanation
Sample response (written by Marlbridge). Tennyson’s imagery moves from stillness to sudden release. In the first stanza the eagle “clasps the crag with crooked hands” and stands “Close to the sun in lonely lands”, images of grip, height and isolation that present him as watchful and powerful. In the second stanza the “wrinkled sea beneath him crawls”, an image of slowness and age that makes the world below seem small. The final image, “like a thunderbolt he falls”, turns that held power into speed and violence. The pattern from fixed to moving shows the poem’s central idea, power seen from a distance and then used.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | A claim about the pattern or direction of the imagery |
| 2 | Two accurate quotations |
| 3 | Explains an association or sense for at least one image |
| 4 | Links the pattern to the poem’s central idea |
How did you do?
Count your correct multiple-choice answers (out of 5) and your rubric points (out of 11). If you missed questions 1 to 5, reread “What an image is” and “Reading imagery: four moves” in the study guide. If your written scores were low, redo Question 6 in four sentences: image, sense, association, effect. Then try the checklist.