These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. Passages marked “written by Marlbridge” are original; Hamlet (Shakespeare, about 1600) is a public-domain work. The mark points are a suggested Marlbridge rubric, not an official scoring guideline. Allow about 50 minutes.
Question 1 (multiple choice · foundation)
A writer claims that a character’s composure is “partly real, not only a mask”, and uses a detail that shows the character restoring order after a moment of distress. In the vocabulary of evidence, this detail mainly
- (A) illustrates the claim.
- (B) qualifies the claim.
- (C) replaces the claim.
- (D) contradicts the thesis.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Evidence that qualifies complicates or limits a point. Here it adds nuance to a claim that composure is only a mask.
- (A) is plausible for a simple supporting example but this detail adds a complication, not just an instance.
- (C) is wrong: evidence does not replace claims.
- (D) overstates the effect: the detail refines the claim and does not defeat the thesis.
Question 2 (multiple choice · core)
A student argues that “Hamlet’s soliloquies present his delay as a matter of conscience.” The only evidence is one quotation from one soliloquy. The best advice is to
- (A) add more adjectives to the claim.
- (B) add evidence from another soliloquy or scene that supports or complicates the claim, and explain how each piece fits.
- (C) remove the quotation and write a summary.
- (D) change the claim to “Hamlet speaks to himself.”
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). A claim about soliloquies in general needs more than one example. Adding evidence from another point, with commentary, makes support sufficient.
- (A) does not add evidence.
- (C) replaces evidence with summary.
- (D) weakens the claim into a statement of fact.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
Passage written by Marlbridge.
Professor Venn lectured to the empty benches every Thursday at ten, as he had done for thirty years, and he did not remark on the emptiness. He set out his notes, cleared his throat, and addressed his “gentlemen” with a warmth he never showed the colleagues who passed his door. When the porter came to say the room had been reassigned in September, he thanked him gravely and asked only that the chalk be left.
For the claim “Venn’s routine protects him from loneliness”, which evidence is most relevant?
- (A) “a warmth he never showed the colleagues who passed his door”
- (B) “every Thursday at ten”
- (C) “cleared his throat”
- (D) “the room had been reassigned in September”
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The warmth he reserves for the imagined audience, in contrast to his coldness towards real colleagues, bears directly on loneliness and on how the routine compensates for it.
- (B) shows routine but not what it protects him from.
- (C) is a minor gesture of preparation with no link to loneliness.
- (D) is a plot detail that creates pressure on the routine but does not itself show the protective function.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
Which sentence uses subordination to emphasise that a character’s anxiety matters more than her apparent calm?
- (A) Lydia appears calm, and she is anxious.
- (B) Lydia is calm; she is anxious.
- (C) Although Lydia appears calm, she is anxious.
- (D) Lydia is anxious, but calm.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). The subordinate clause “Although Lydia appears calm” gives the calm less weight and puts the emphasis on the main clause, “she is anxious”.
- (A) uses coordination, which treats both ideas as equally important.
- (B) places the ideas side by side with a semicolon, again giving them equal weight.
- (D) is awkward and does not clearly set one idea beneath the other.
Question 5 (multiple choice · foundation)
Which sentence uses a colon correctly?
- (A) The narrator: reveals her distress through repetition.
- (B) The narrator reveals: her distress through repetition.
- (C) The narrator reveals her distress because: she reads the letter twice.
- (D) The narrator reveals her distress through repetition: she reads the letter twice.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (D). A colon follows a complete clause and introduces an explanation or example.
- (A) separates the subject from its verb.
- (B) places the colon in the middle of a verb phrase, so the part before it is not a complete clause.
- (C) places it after a conjunction, which cannot end a clause.
Question 6 (multiple choice · core)
Which sentence integrates a quotation most effectively?
- (A) Austen writes. “It is a truth universally acknowledged.” This is irony.
- (B) Irony.
- (C) The quotation “a truth universally acknowledged” is in the book.
- (D) Austen’s narrator calls her opening idea “a truth universally acknowledged”, and the grandeur of the phrase becomes ironic when the chapter traces it to one anxious mother.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (D). The quotation is short, built into the sentence and followed by interpretation.
- (A) drops the quotation and gives vague commentary.
- (B) offers no evidence or explanation.
- (C) points to the quotation without interpreting it.
Question 7 (written response · core)
Use the Professor Venn passage from Question 3. The claim is: “The narrator presents Venn’s routine as a dignity that protects him from loneliness.” Choose three pieces of evidence. For each, say what it does (illustrate, exemplify, amplify, qualify and so on) and write one sentence of commentary.
Answer and explanation
Model response.
- “lectured to the empty benches every Thursday at ten, as he had done for thirty years” (illustrates). The unbroken thirty-year routine shows that the habit is a structure holding his life together.
- “a warmth he never showed the colleagues who passed his door” (amplifies). The contrast between the imagined “gentlemen” and the real colleagues shows that the routine gives him a relationship that real people do not.
- “he thanked him gravely and asked only that the chalk be left” (qualifies). His grave courtesy and modest request keep his dignity intact in the face of loss, but “only” hints at how little he is able to keep, and so qualifies the idea of protection with an undertone of vulnerability.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (6 points). One point each for three relevant pieces of evidence (3), plus one point each for correctly naming the job of at least two pieces (2), and one for commentary that explains the relationship between evidence and claim rather than restating the detail. Other jobs for the same evidence are acceptable if justified.
Question 8 (written response · core)
Revise the following draft into two or three well-controlled sentences. Use at least one subordinate clause and one colon or semicolon. Replace vague verbs with precise ones.
“Venn lectures to empty benches. He is dignified. He is lonely. The narrator shows this by what he says to the benches.”
Answer and explanation
Model response. “Although Venn lectures to empty benches with unbroken dignity, the narrator reveals his loneliness in the way he speaks to them: he addresses them as ‘gentlemen’, with a warmth he withholds from the colleagues who pass his door.”
Why it works. The subordinate clause “Although Venn lectures … with unbroken dignity” gives the dignity less weight than the loneliness, which sits in the main clause. The colon introduces an explanation, and “reveals” and “withholds” are precise verbs that replace “shows” and the flat repeated “is”.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points). One point for combining the ideas using subordination; one for a correct colon or semicolon; one for precise verbs; one for a result that reflects the interpretation (loneliness beneath dignity) rather than only reordering the words.
Question 9 (written response · stretch)
Scenario written by Marlbridge. A student claims, “Mr Tolland is cruel to his servant.” The evidence she finds is: he scolds the servant about cold tea; later, in a snowstorm, he gives her his own coat and walks bareheaded behind her.
Explain how the second piece of evidence should affect the claim, and write a revised claim. Say what this shows about developing an interpretation.
Answer and explanation
Model response. The second piece of evidence does not support “cruel”; it complicates it. A man who gives his coat and walks bareheaded in a snowstorm shows concern that his scolding does not. The student should revise the claim, for example: “Mr Tolland’s harshness over small matters masks a protective concern that appears when real hardship comes.” This shows that developing an interpretation is recursive: evidence can reshape the claim, and a revised claim can send the writer back to look for more evidence.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points). One point for recognising that the evidence conflicts with the claim; one for a revised claim that accounts for both pieces; one for explaining what the new claim shows about Tolland (concern beneath harshness); one for explaining the recursive nature of interpretation.
How did you do?
- 8 to 9 correct or well-supported answers: Move on to the Unit 6 diagnostic.
- 5 to 7: Re-read the evidence table and the sentence-control section in the study guide, then redo the written questions.
- 4 or fewer: Work through both worked examples again, then use the revision notes and checklist.