These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. Passages marked “written by Marlbridge” are original; the lines from Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado (1846) and Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour (1894) are in the public domain. The mark points are a suggested Marlbridge rubric, not an official scoring guideline. Allow about 50 minutes.
Question 1 (multiple choice · core)
A student’s claim about The Cask of Amontillado is “Montresor withholds the reasons for his revenge.” Which piece of evidence is most relevant?
- (A) “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.”
- (B) Fortunato is described as “a man to be respected and even feared”.
- (C) Fortunato wears a jester’s costume.
- (D) The story is set during a carnival.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The line names “injuries” and “insult” but never says what they were, which supports the claim about withholding.
- (B) shows how Montresor describes Fortunato but not what he withholds.
- (C) and (D) concern setting and costume, not the reasons for revenge.
Question 2 (multiple choice · core)
A claim has two parts: “Montresor presents his revenge as justified, and he takes pleasure in it.” A student uses only the line about the “thousand injuries” and “insult”. What is the main weakness?
- (A) It supports the first part but not the second, so the evidence is insufficient for the whole claim.
- (B) The evidence is too short.
- (C) It should be paraphrased.
- (D) It comes from the beginning of the story.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). Sufficiency depends on coverage: every part of the claim needs support. Nothing here shows pleasure.
- (B) confuses length with support.
- (C) paraphrase is not the problem.
- (D) the beginning is a fine place for evidence; the issue is coverage, not position.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
Context written by Marlbridge. A student’s claim is “Mr Hollis’s politeness is cheerful acceptance.” The evidence is that he “told each landing, in a low voice, that he was only admiring the view.” This evidence most clearly
- (A) illustrates the claim without complication.
- (B) is irrelevant.
- (C) contradicts the claim completely.
- (D) qualifies the claim, since the low voice suggests private awareness of the stairs’ difficulty.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (D). The “low voice” implies that his cheer is partly a private act of self-encouragement, which complicates “cheerful acceptance”.
- (A) overlooks the nuance of the “low voice”.
- (B) is wrong: it bears directly on the claim.
- (C) overstates the effect: the evidence complicates, it does not defeat.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
A student’s thesis is “Mrs Mallard feels only joy at her husband’s death.” She finds the line, “And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not.” What is the best response?
- (A) Revise the thesis so that it accounts for her mixed feelings, or explain how the line complicates the claim without defeating it.
- (B) Ignore the line.
- (C) Delete the thesis.
- (D) Quote the line without comment.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). Counter-evidence is an opportunity to refine the claim and show nuance.
- (B) hides evidence and weakens the argument.
- (C) is an overreaction.
- (D) offers the line without explanation, so the reader sees a contradiction that the writer has not handled.
Question 5 (multiple choice · core)
Which use of evidence is strongest?
- (A) The words “smile … at the thought of his immolation” embedded in a sentence that explains what they reveal about Montresor’s pleasure.
- (B) A long paragraph quoted from the middle of the story, followed by a single sentence of agreement.
- (C) A summary of the whole plot.
- (D) A list of quotations without comment.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). It is short, embedded and explained.
- (B) quotes too much and explains too little.
- (C) is plot summary, not analysis.
- (D) offers no commentary linking evidence to claim.
Question 6 (multiple choice · stretch)
A student claims that a motif of cold light “intensifies” through a story. Which evidence set best supports a claim about a pattern?
- (A) Three references to cold light, all from the first paragraph.
- (B) One long quotation from the ending.
- (C) One reference to cold light at the beginning, one at a turning point and one at the ending, each explained.
- (D) A summary of the plot.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). A claim about a pattern or an intensifying development needs evidence from different points in the text.
- (A) comes from one location, so it cannot show development.
- (B) offers a single point.
- (D) is not evidence of a motif.
Question 7 (written response · core)
Passage written by Marlbridge.
Miss Alcott’s garden was, by general agreement, the best in the lane. She weeded it in white gloves, which she then burned. When her nephew proposed to pave the front path she said she would rather be buried, and went indoors, and watered her geraniums with a tenderness she had never shown him. In June the lane’s children came to look at the roses, and she gave each a cutting wrapped in damp paper and made each promise to plant it facing south. Not one of them did; she knew; she never said.
Claim. “Miss Alcott’s generosity is shaped by a wish for control.”
Choose three pieces of evidence. For each, say what job it does (illustrate, amplify, qualify and so on) and write one sentence of commentary.
Answer and explanation
Model response.
- “weeded it in white gloves, which she then burned” (illustrates). The fastidious ritual shows a need to keep the garden, and herself, perfectly ordered.
- “made each promise to plant it facing south” (amplifies). Her gift comes with a condition and a promise, so even generosity is a form of instruction.
- “Not one of them did; she knew; she never said” (qualifies). Her silence shows that she tolerates disobedience, which limits the claim: her control is real but gives way to her care for the children.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (6 points). Three points for three relevant pieces of evidence; two for correctly naming the job of at least two pieces; one for commentary that explains the link to the claim rather than restating the detail. Other defensible choices, such as the paving remark, earn credit if explained.
Question 8 (written response · core)
Claim and evidence written by Marlbridge. A student’s first claim is “Miss Alcott is cold.” Her evidence is that Miss Alcott gives each child a cutting wrapped in damp paper and waters her geraniums “with a tenderness she had never shown him”.
Explain how the evidence affects the claim, and write a revised claim.
Answer and explanation
Model response. The cuttings wrapped in damp paper show care for the children, and the “tenderness” she shows the geraniums contrasts with her treatment of her nephew. The evidence therefore contradicts “cold” as a general description and instead suggests that her warmth is directed at plants and at children, not at her nephew. A better claim is: “Miss Alcott’s warmth is real but selective, given freely to the garden and the lane’s children while withheld from the nephew who threatens its order.”
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points). One point for recognising that the evidence contradicts the first claim; one for a revised claim that accounts for both the warmth and the withholding; one for using specific words from the passage; one for explaining that evidence can reshape a claim.
Question 9 (written response · stretch)
Choose a short story you know well, or use Chopin’s The Story of an Hour (1894). State a claim with two or three parts. List evidence from the beginning, the middle and the ending, identify one piece of counter-evidence, and explain how you would handle it.
Answer and explanation
Model response (The Story of an Hour).
- Claim: “Chopin moves Mrs Mallard from conventional grief to an honest, if fearful, joy, and then ends the story with an irony that condemns the world that cannot allow it.”
- Beginning: she “wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms”, showing the expected reaction.
- Middle: “free, free, free!”, the whispered realisation.
- Ending: the doctors say she died “of the joy that kills”, the ironic verdict.
- Counter-evidence: “And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not.”
- Handling: the line complicates the claim that her joy is simple, because it admits love as well. I would use it to qualify: her freedom does not erase her love, which makes her feeling more honest and the irony more painful.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points). One point for a multi-part claim; one for evidence from three positions; one for identifying relevant counter-evidence; one for a reasoned way of handling it. Any well-supported story earns credit.
How did you do?
- 8 to 9 correct or well-supported answers: Check the whole unit with the Unit 7 diagnostic.
- 5 to 7: Re-read the audit table and the worked examples in the study guide and redo the written questions.
- 4 or fewer: Work through both worked examples again, then use the revision notes and checklist.