Read the big ideas and the method table, then try the six questions without notes. Each question combines two or more Unit 1 topics. The extracts are from Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour” (1894), which is in the public domain, and the quotations were checked against the published text.
These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. The rubrics are a suggested Marlbridge rubric, not official scoring.
Big ideas of the unit
- Details come first. Read for specific details of description, dialogue and behaviour, then say what they suggest (1.1).
- Setting carries mood and values. Time and place details do more than locate: they create atmosphere and show what a world values (1.2).
- Plot is a chain and an order. Events are connected, and the order in which they are told directs attention (1.3).
- The narrator controls what you get. Point of view decides what can be known, and perspective colours what is told (1.4).
- A paragraph is a small argument. A claim, evidence and a link sentence (1.5).
Key relationships and methods
| If the question asks you to… | Use… | Watch out for… |
|---|---|---|
| Say what a detail reveals about a character | Detail, inference, perspective or motive | Trait words with no evidence |
| Say what a setting conveys | Time, place, mood and values; the effect on character | Describing scenery without saying what it does |
| Explain a sequence of events | Cause and effect; what the order makes the reader notice | Summary instead of function |
| Explain a narrator’s role | Point of view, what the narrator can and cannot know, perspective | Writing “the author thinks” |
| Support a claim | A defensible claim plus two or three exact, embedded quotations | Facts offered as claims; quotations with no link |
The extracts
Extract 1. “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.”
Extract 2. “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone.”
Extract 3. “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air.”
Extract 4. “There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself.”
Extract 5. “Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for admission.”
Question 1 (multiple choice · 1.1 and 1.4)
In Extract 2, the narrator compares Mrs. Mallard’s reaction with that of “many women”. The comparison most directly
- (A) shows that Mrs. Mallard is unlike the weak person implied in Extract 1
- (B) proves that Mrs. Mallard does not love her husband
- (C) reveals that the narrator disapproves of tears
- (D) shows that other women are more emotional than she is
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). Extract 1 sets up an expectation of fragility (“great care was taken”). Extract 2 says she did not react with “a paralyzed inability to accept its significance”, and she “wept at once”. The narrator’s comparison separates her from the expectation.
- (B) goes beyond the evidence; she weeps “with sudden, wild abandonment”.
- (C) misreads: the tears are described as wild and sudden, not as something to disapprove.
- (D) reverses the comparison: it says she responds differently from many women, not that she is calmer or less emotional.
Question 2 (multiple choice · 1.2)
In Extract 3, the details “tops of trees … aquiver with the new spring life” and “the delicious breath of rain” most directly create a setting that
- (A) matches the sorrow of the news
- (B) contrasts with the news of death by suggesting renewal
- (C) shows that the story takes place in winter
- (D) establishes that Mrs. Mallard dislikes the outdoors
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Spring, new life and the pleasant air contrast with the news of a death. The contrast prepares the reader for Mrs. Mallard’s unexpected feeling of freedom.
- (A) misreads the details, which are lively and pleasant.
- (C) is the opposite of “new spring life”.
- (D) has no support; she looks out of the window.
Question 3 (multiple choice · 1.3)
Extract 5, in which Josephine kneels at the closed door, comes after the passage in which Mrs. Mallard whispers “Free! Body and soul free!”. The effect of this order is mainly to
- (A) resolve the conflict between the sisters
- (B) set Mrs. Mallard’s private feeling against what others expect of her
- (C) explain why Mrs. Mallard is afraid of Josephine
- (D) show that the story takes place in several settings
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Josephine’s plea to open the door, “you will make yourself ill”, shows that others still see Mrs. Mallard as fragile, just after the reader has seen her feeling free. The placement sets the private against the expected.
- (A) is wrong; the scene creates a new tension.
- (C) is unsupported; she is not afraid of her sister.
- (D) is wrong; both events occur around the same room and door.
Question 4 (multiple choice · 1.4)
Which statement best describes what the narrator can provide that the other characters in the story cannot?
- (A) Access to Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts as she sits in the armchair
- (B) A description of what Josephine is saying
- (C) An opinion about the railroad accident
- (D) The sound of a peddler in the street
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The narrator reveals her inner recognition (“She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her”). Josephine and Richards, outside the closed door, cannot know this.
- (B) is available to anyone present.
- (C) is not what distinguishes the narrator in the extracts.
- (D) is an outside sound that anyone in the room could hear.
Question 5 (short written response · 1.5)
A student writes the following paragraph about Extract 4.
Mrs. Mallard is selfish. She thinks about herself and not her husband. She says she will live for herself. This is bad.
Rewrite it as a paragraph with a defensible claim, one quotation from Extract 4 and a link sentence. Avoid trait words with no evidence.
Answer and explanation
Sample response. In this moment Mrs. Mallard’s perspective turns from grief to a new sense of possibility. She imagines the years ahead as years in which “there would be no one to live for her” and in which “she would live for herself”. The repeated “live for” shows her setting self-direction against the way others, including her husband, have defined her life, which suggests that what she feels is release and not simply indifference.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Replaces the label with a claim that needs defence (perspective, motive) |
| 2 | Uses an accurate, short quotation from Extract 4 |
| 3 | Embeds the quotation in a sentence and uses the present tense |
| 4 | Includes a link sentence explaining how the evidence supports the claim |
Other defensible claims (for example, that her thoughts show a wish for independence) earn full marks if the evidence supports them.
Question 6 (extended written response · all topics)
Write one paragraph that answers: How does the narrator’s access to Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts change the reader’s understanding of her? Use a claim, at least two quotations from the extracts and a link sentence.
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The narrator’s access to Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts allows the reader to see a perspective that those around her cannot. Josephine and Richards treat her as someone to be told “as gently as possible”, but the narrator shows that she “wept at once”, then went to her room “alone” and, in the room, recognised what is “approaching to possess her”. The outside view, which presents her as fragile, is therefore set against an inner view of a woman who feels freedom, so the reader understands her as more complicated than the people who are trying to protect her.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | A claim about how access to her thoughts changes the reader’s view |
| 2 | Identifies the outside view (others’ perspective on her) |
| 3 | Identifies the inside view (the narrator’s report of her thoughts) |
| 4 | Two accurate quotations, embedded |
| 5 | A link that explains the contrast (limited knowledge of others versus the narrator’s wider knowledge) |
How to use this review
Mark your paragraphs against the rubrics, then list the topics where you lost marks. Use the checklists for each topic and revisit the guides. When the unit feels secure, begin Unit 2, Poetry I, or return to the Unit 1 diagnostic.