Use this diagnostic to find which Unit 1 topics to revisit: at least one short question per topic, two for most.
These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. Both passages were written by Marlbridge for this practice. The diagnostic is not calibrated and gives no predicted score. Multiple-choice questions have four options, as in the exam.
How to take it. Allow 30 minutes. Read each passage twice, answer everything before opening any answer, and write the two constructed responses in full sentences.
Passage L (written by Marlbridge).
In the weeks before the library closed, Mr. Okoro came every morning and read the same newspaper he had read the day before. The reading room still smelled of lemon polish and radiator dust; the clock over the issue desk had stopped at ten past four, and no one had been told to mend it. “Last week’s news is the only kind I trust,” he told the new assistant, who did not know what to say. On the final Friday he arrived with a stepladder, wound the clock, and set it to the right time. Then he sat down and finished the crossword.
Passage M (written by Marlbridge).
I have been told, more than once, that I was a difficult child, and I accept it, since the people who say so were there and I was mostly looking at the ceiling. What I remember is the radiator under the window in my grandmother’s flat, which knocked three times before it began to heat, and how I believed the knocking was somebody asking permission.
Question 1 (multiple choice · 1.1)
“Last week’s news is the only kind I trust.” In Passage L, this line most directly reveals that Mr. Okoro
- (A) values what is settled over what is new
- (B) is eager to learn about current events
- (C) dislikes the new assistant
- (D) cannot read the newspaper well
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). He trusts news that has already played out, which shows a perspective that prefers the settled and the known.
- (B) is the opposite of what the line suggests.
- (C) is not supported; the assistant is described only as not knowing “what to say”.
- (D) has no basis in the passage.
If you missed this: Topic 1.1 study guide.
Question 2 (multiple choice · 1.1)
On the final Friday, Mr. Okoro “arrived with a stepladder, wound the clock, and set it to the right time.” This action most plausibly suggests that he
- (A) has been paid to repair the clock
- (B) wishes to make a last act of care for a place he values
- (C) is angry that the library is closing
- (D) is trying to avoid reading the newspaper
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The clock has been stopped, “no one had been told to mend it”, and he mends it on the last day, so the act reads as a farewell gesture.
- (A) is not stated; nothing suggests payment.
- (C) is not supported by anything in his actions, which are calm and deliberate.
- (D) is contradicted by the first sentence, where reading the paper is his routine, and he finishes the crossword afterwards.
If you missed this: Topic 1.1 study guide, “The detail, inference, perspective chain”.
Question 3 (multiple choice · 1.2)
The details “lemon polish and radiator dust” and a clock “stopped at ten past four” most directly convey a setting that is
- (A) newly built and busy
- (B) cared for in small ways but fading
- (C) dangerous and neglected
- (D) set in a distant historical period
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Polish suggests care; dust and a stopped clock suggest that attention is running out. Together they convey a place near its end.
- (A) contradicts the stopped clock and the closing.
- (C) overstates: polish and routine show some care, and nothing is described as dangerous.
- (D) is not established; the passage gives no period markers.
If you missed this: Topic 1.2 study guide.
Question 4 (multiple choice · 1.3)
The sentence “On the final Friday he arrived with a stepladder” most directly functions to
- (A) introduce the setting of the library
- (B) show that Mr. Okoro’s routine has been broken by a decisive action
- (C) provide background to explain why the clock stopped
- (D) begin a flashback
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The passage has established a repeated routine (reading “every morning”) and an unmended clock. The stepladder marks a turn from routine to action.
- (A) is wrong because the setting is given earlier.
- (C) is wrong; no explanation of why the clock stopped is given.
- (D) is wrong because the passage stays in the present sequence.
If you missed this: Topic 1.3 study guide, “The parts of a plot, as a vocabulary”.
Question 5 (multiple choice · 1.4)
Which of the following can the narrator of Passage L not provide, given how the passage is narrated?
- (A) What Mr. Okoro says to the assistant
- (B) What the reading room smells like
- (C) Mr. Okoro’s own reason for winding the clock
- (D) What Mr. Okoro does on the final Friday
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). The narration reports speech and action from outside and never states his thoughts, so his reason is left for the reader to infer.
- (A), (B) and (D) are all reported in the passage.
If you missed this: Topic 1.4 study guide, “First person and third person”.
Question 6 (multiple choice · 1.4)
In Passage M, the narrator says she accepts being called difficult “since the people who say so were there and I was mostly looking at the ceiling.” This most directly shows that the narrator
- (A) relies on others’ accounts of events she was too absorbed to notice
- (B) remembers her childhood in precise detail
- (C) is angry at her relatives
- (D) believes her relatives are lying
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The narrator concedes that the others saw what she did not, which shows a first-person perspective with limits on what she witnessed.
- (B) is contradicted by the admission that she was “looking at the ceiling”.
- (C) and (D) misread the tone, which is accepting and lightly humorous.
If you missed this: Topic 1.4 study guide, Worked example 2.
Question 7 (multiple choice · 1.5)
Which of the following is a claim about Passage M that requires defence with evidence?
- (A) The radiator knocks three times before it begins to heat.
- (B) The narrator remembers the radiator in her grandmother’s flat.
- (C) The narrator’s belief that the knocking was “somebody asking permission” shows a child’s imaginative, polite view of the world.
- (D) The narrator has been told that she was a difficult child.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). It says what a detail suggests and could be disputed.
- (A), (B) and (D) are facts stated in the passage.
If you missed this: Topic 1.5 study guide.
Question 8 (multiple choice · 1.1 and 1.5)
A student wants to support the claim “As a child the narrator of Passage M interpreted ordinary noises as signs of courtesy.” Which evidence is best?
- (A) “I was a difficult child”
- (B) “my grandmother’s flat”
- (C) “the knocking was somebody asking permission”
- (D) “looking at the ceiling”
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). It shows her reading an ordinary noise as a polite request, which directly supports a claim about courtesy.
- (A) and (D) support claims about her behaviour as a child, not about courtesy in noises.
- (B) is a place detail that does not bear on the claim.
If you missed this: Topic 1.5 study guide, “Choosing evidence”.
Question 9 (short written response · 1.1 and 1.5)
Write two to three sentences that make a claim about Mr. Okoro’s perspective in Passage L and support it with two short, accurate quotations.
Answer and explanation
Sample response. Mr. Okoro’s perspective is that the settled and familiar are more reliable than the new. He reads “the same newspaper he had read the day before” and says “Last week’s news is the only kind I trust”, which suggests that he finds security in what is already known.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (3 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | A claim about perspective that needs defence |
| 2 | Two accurate quotations or specific details |
| 3 | Quotations embedded in sentences and linked to the claim |
If you missed this: Topic 1.5 study guide; Topic 1.1 study guide.
Question 10 (short written response · 1.3 and 1.2)
Explain how the last two sentences of Passage L (“On the final Friday … Then he sat down and finished the crossword.”) affect the reader’s understanding of Mr. Okoro and the library.
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The sequence moves from a significant act (winding the clock and setting “it to the right time”) to an ordinary one (“finished the crossword”). Placing the ordinary act last keeps the tone quiet: Mr. Okoro does not make a speech or a gesture of protest. The clock, which marked a place that had stopped, is restored on the day the place closes, which suggests that his care is expressed through small actions, not words.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (3 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Describes the sequence (act of care, then routine) accurately |
| 2 | Explains the effect of the order on tone or on how the reader sees Mr. Okoro |
| 3 | Links to the setting (clock, closing library) with a specific detail |
What to revisit
| If you missed | Revisit |
|---|---|
| Questions 1, 2, 8 or 9 | Topic 1.1: character |
| Question 3 or 10 | Topic 1.2: setting |
| Question 4 or 10 | Topic 1.3: plot |
| Questions 5 or 6 | Topic 1.4: narrator and point of view |
| Questions 7 to 9 | Topic 1.5: claim and evidence |
When you have closed any gaps, move on to the Unit 1 review.