Use this diagnostic to find which Unit 5 topics to revisit: one short question for each of Topics 5.1 to 5.4 and two each for Topics 5.5, 5.6 and 5.7. It takes about 35 minutes and uses no notes.
These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. The public-domain poem is William Blake, “The Sick Rose” (from Songs of Experience, 1794), in the nineteenth-century text printed below; one short couplet was written by Marlbridge. The diagnostic is not calibrated and gives no predicted score. The rubrics are a suggested Marlbridge rubric, not an official scoring guideline.
How to take it. Answer everything before you open any answer. Then follow the “If you missed this” link for each question you got wrong.
O rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm, That flies in the night, In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy, And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.
Question 1 (multiple choice · 5.1)
The poem is one sentence that runs across the stanza break (“The invisible worm, / … Has found out thy bed”). What is the structural effect?
- (A) It separates the rose from the worm.
- (B) It joins the agent (the worm) with its act (finding the bed) across the stanza break, so the attack feels continuous and inescapable.
- (C) It shows that the poem is in prose.
- (D) It makes the two stanzas unrelated.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Because the sentence does not stop at the stanza break, the worm’s flight and its act of finding are one movement.
- (A) The break is crossed by the sentence, so it links, not separates.
- (C) The poem is in verse.
- (D) The sentence ties the stanzas together.
If you missed this: Topic 5.1 study guide.
Question 2 (multiple choice · 5.2)
The poem calls the worm’s feeling “dark secret love” and says it “Does thy life destroy”. What does the word choice create?
- (A) A simple celebration of love
- (B) A clash of connotations: love, which normally cherishes, is joined with secrecy and destruction
- (C) A literal description of a gardening problem
- (D) A neutral statement of fact
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “Love” is joined to “dark”, “secret” and “destroy”, so the word carries a destructive, possessive connotation.
- (A) The surrounding words undercut celebration.
- (C) The language is figurative; the rose and worm stand for more.
- (D) The connotations are strongly charged.
If you missed this: Topic 5.2 study guide.
Question 3 (multiple choice · 5.3)
“That flies in the night, / In the howling storm”. What does this imagery mainly appeal to, and with what effect?
- (A) Sight only, suggesting a calm evening
- (B) Hearing and sight, suggesting violence and hidden, threatening movement
- (C) Taste, suggesting sweetness
- (D) Touch only, suggesting softness
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “Howling” is sound; “night” and “storm” suggest darkness and violence; “flies” suggests unseen movement.
- (A), (C) and (D) name senses or moods the lines do not use.
If you missed this: Topic 5.3 study guide.
Question 4 (multiple choice · 5.4)
The speaker says “O rose, thou art sick!” and speaks of the rose’s “bed” and “life”. What is the best description of the figurative language?
- (A) The rose is given human traits (it can be addressed and can be ill), characterising it as a vulnerable person.
- (B) The rose is a literal rose with a plant disease only.
- (C) The rose is compared to a mountain.
- (D) The rose is not mentioned.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The speaker addresses the rose and gives it a “bed”, sickness and a “life”, which is personification and invites a human response.
- (B) The language invites more than a plant disease.
- (C) No mountain is mentioned.
- (D) The rose is the poem’s subject.
If you missed this: Topic 5.4 study guide.
Question 5 (multiple choice · 5.5)
Which statement correctly describes an allusion?
- (A) A repeated word at the end of lines
- (B) An indirect reference to a person, place, event, work of art or literary work outside the text
- (C) A rhyme between the first and last lines
- (D) A description of the weather
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). An allusion refers indirectly to something outside the text and brings its associations.
- (A) describes repetition or rhyme.
- (C) describes a pattern of sound.
- (D) describes setting.
If you missed this: Topic 5.5 study guide.
Question 6 (short answer · 5.5)
Read this couplet written by Marlbridge. (In Greek myth, Pandora opened a jar that released troubles into the world.)
He opened the message like Pandora with her jar, and stood a long time wondering how far it spread.
Explain the allusion and what it adds. (3 points)
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The allusion to Pandora refers to a myth in which curiosity releases troubles that cannot be recalled. It suggests that the message contains something that, once read, cannot be taken back, and the second line’s “how far it spread” confirms the sense of damage that has been let loose. It raises an everyday moment to a mythic scale of consequence.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (3 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the reference (Pandora’s jar) |
| 2 | States the associations (troubles released, irreversible) |
| 3 | Links them to the message and the effect |
If you missed this: Topic 5.5 study guide.
Question 7 (multiple choice · 5.6)
Which is the most defensible thesis about “The Sick Rose”?
- (A) The poem is about a rose and a worm.
- (B) Blake uses personification and imagery.
- (C) By making the worm’s destruction an act of “love”, the poem suggests that secret, possessive feeling can harm what it claims to cherish.
- (D) Roses can get sick.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). It states an interpretation with a reason and rests on a tension in the poem’s wording.
- (A) and (D) are summary or fact.
- (B) lists devices without a claim.
If you missed this: Topic 5.6 study guide.
Question 8 (short answer · 5.6)
Write a thesis for “The Sick Rose” and a two-step line of reasoning. (3 points)
Answer and explanation
Sample response. Thesis: The poem presents hidden, possessive love as a destructive force, and its single sentence, which flows from storm to bed to destruction, makes the harm seem inevitable. Line of reasoning: (1) The first stanza introduces the threat as unseen and violent (“invisible worm”, “howling storm”). (2) The second stanza reveals that the threat enters the rose’s most private place (“thy bed / Of crimson joy”) and calls itself “love”, so the intimacy of the act deepens the harm.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (3 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | A defensible thesis (not a summary or device list) |
| 2 | A first claim connected to the thesis |
| 3 | A second claim that builds on the first |
If you missed this: Topic 5.6 study guide, Worked example 1.
Question 9 (multiple choice · 5.7)
Which quotation of the poem’s opening is correct?
- (A) The poem begins “O rose, thou art sick, the invisible worm”.
- (B) The poem begins “O rose, thou art sick! / The invisible worm,”.
- (C) The poem begins O rose thou art sick the invisible worm.
- (D) The poem begins: “oh rose, you are sick! / The invisible worm”.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). It copies the words, capitals and punctuation exactly and marks the line break with a slash.
- (A) changes the punctuation and hides the line break.
- (C) has no quotation marks or punctuation.
- (D) changes words (“oh”, “you are”).
If you missed this: Topic 5.7 study guide, “Quoting poetry”.
Question 10 (short answer · 5.7)
Revise this paragraph so that it has a topic sentence, an integrated quotation and a transition. Keep it under 70 words. (3 points)
The worm is bad. It flies at night. The rose is sick. The poem is sad.
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The poem presents the worm as a hidden, violent threat. It “flies in the night, / In the howling storm”, so the attack comes unseen and through noise and darkness. Consequently the rose’s sickness appears not as an accident but as the result of something that has been hunting it.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (3 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | A topic sentence that makes a claim |
| 2 | An accurate quotation integrated into a sentence, with the line break marked |
| 3 | A transition and commentary that explains an effect |
If you missed this: Topic 5.7 study guide, Worked example 2.
Where to go next
Tally which topics you missed and read those guides first. When you are ready, work through the Unit 5 mixed review.