IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature – Language, Context, Culture and Power Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and they do not replicate the exam’s exact structure, question count or mark tariffs – the IB holds copyright in its own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available through your school or the IB store.

This set covers Language, context, culture and power for IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature, at SL and HL. It follows the current IB subject brief (first assessments for SL and HL 2021). This site maps the unit to the Time and space component; the course has no numbered subtopics.

Learn the unit first with the study guide and the revision notes. Course links: Language and Literature hub · printable checklist.

Questions

1. Define representation, and state the difference between perspective and bias. [2]

Passage A – two news openings (original texts written for Marlbridge; the town and people are invented)

Text A1. LIBRARY SIT-IN: ACTIVISTS TAKE OVER COUNCIL BUILDING A group of activists has occupied Brinmouth Central Library for a second day, forcing staff to cancel children’s reading sessions. Council leader Mark Ellery said the protest was “unlawful and irresponsible”. The library is due to close next month as part of savings of £2 million.

Text A2. “This is the only warm place many of us have”: residents refuse to leave library Around forty residents, some in their eighties, spent a second night inside Brinmouth Central Library yesterday. The library, which lends 90,000 books a year, is to be closed by the council next month. “My grandchildren learned to read here,” said retired bus driver Joyce Amadi, 78.

2. Identify how Text A1 and Text A2 each name the people inside the library. Give one quotation from each. [2]

3. Explain how the choice of who is quoted in Text A1 positions the reader. [3]

4. Explain how Text A2 uses details about the people to build the reader’s sympathy. Refer to two quotations. [4]

5. Compare how Text A1 and Text A2 present who is responsible for closing the library. [3]

Passage B – Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Chapter 4 (public domain; (…) marks a cut)

(…) if fear in girls, instead of being cherished, perhaps, created, were treated in the same manner as cowardice in boys, we should quickly see women with more dignified aspects. It is true, they could not then with equal propriety be termed the sweet flowers that smile in the walk of man; but they would be more respectable members of society, and discharge the important duties of life by the light of their own reason. “Educate women like men,” says Rousseau, “and the more they resemble our sex the less power will they have over us.” This is the very point I aim at. I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.

6. Explain how the phrase “the sweet flowers that smile in the walk of man” represents women, and why Wollstonecraft uses it. [3]

7. Explain how Wollstonecraft uses Rousseau’s words to redefine power. [4]

8. Explain how a reader in 1792 and a reader today might respond differently to Passage B. [4]

Passage C – workplace email (original text written for Marlbridge; the company is invented)

To: All colleagues From: The Executive Team Subject: Our next chapter

We are excited to share that Brackwater Foods is entering a new phase of growth. Following a careful review, the Leeming Road site will be consolidated into our central hub from 1 March. A small number of roles will be impacted by this transition. Colleagues affected will be contacted in due course. We know change can be unsettling, and we thank you for your continued flexibility. Together, we will emerge stronger.

9. Identify two euphemisms in Passage C and explain what each one hides. [4]

10. Guided analysis: How does Passage C use language to present a decision as positive and unavoidable? Write a plan with a thesis and three analytical points, each with evidence. [8]

11. Comparison plan: Compare how Text A1 and Passage C give authority to an institution’s point of view. Give a thesis, three points of comparison and a closing sentence on what the comparison shows. [8]

Answers

For questions 10 and 11 the points listed are indicative. The real exam is marked holistically against the IB assessment criteria, not point by point.

1. Representation is the way a text presents people, groups, places or events through its choices of language, selection and framing. [1] Every text has a perspective (the position it is written from); bias is a stronger claim – a one-sided treatment presented as fair – that must be shown with evidence. [1] Examiner insight: Credit goes to answers that separate the two terms; saying “bias means perspective” treats a universal feature as a fault.

2. Text A1 calls them “activists” (or “A group of activists”). [1] Text A2 calls them “residents” (or “Around forty residents”). [1] Examiner insight: “Identify” needs the exact word from each text; a paraphrase such as “protesters” for both misses the contrast.

3. Only the council leader, “Mark Ellery”, is quoted, so official authority speaks. [1] His words “unlawful and irresponsible” frame the protest as a breach of law, not a response to a closure. [1] No occupier speaks, so the reader hears only the institution and sees the sit-in as a problem. [1] Examiner insight: Strong answers note who is not quoted; the occupiers’ silence is evidence.

4. The detail “some in their eighties” stresses age and vulnerability. [1] The occupiers seem frail, not threatening, so removing them would seem harsh. [1] Naming “retired bus driver Joyce Amadi, 78” turns a group into an ordinary, named individual. [1] Her words “My grandchildren learned to read here” link the library to family and learning, so the closure reads as a community loss. [1] Examiner insight: Each quotation must be followed by its effect on the reader; two quotations dropped in without comment earn little.

5. Text A1 says the library “is due to close”, which has no agent: the closure seems to happen by itself. [1] The phrase “as part of savings of £2 million” frames it as a sensible budget measure. [1] Text A2 says it “is to be closed by the council”, naming the council as the actor and so making it responsible. [1] Examiner insight: Comparison rewards a point that holds both texts together; describing A1, then A2, without the contrast in agency misses it.

6. The metaphor presents women as decorative and passive – flowers exist to be looked at. [1] The phrase “smile in the walk of man” places women along a man’s path, for his enjoyment. [1] Wollstonecraft cites the image to reject it: she wants women to be “more respectable members of society”, so the flattery is exposed as a way of keeping women weak. [1] Examiner insight: The best answers see that the image is used critically; treating it as her own view reverses the passage’s meaning.

7. Rousseau warns that educating women “like men” will reduce their “power” over men. [1] For him, women’s power is influence over men through charm and difference. [1] Wollstonecraft accepts his prediction – “This is the very point I aim at” – so his warning becomes her goal. [1] She redefines power as self-command, “not … over men; but over themselves”, guided by “the light of their own reason”. [1] Examiner insight: Strong responses show the quotation turned against its speaker; summarising Rousseau without the reversal stays at description.

8. In 1792 the claim that girls should be raised like boys challenged common views of women’s nature, so many readers would have found it radical. [1] Readers who shared Rousseau’s view would have read it oppositionally. [1] A reader today, where equal education is common, may find the main claim obvious and read the passage as history. [1] That reader may instead notice limits: measuring girls against “cowardice in boys” still treats male behaviour as the standard. [1] Examiner insight: Answers that name a specific difference between readers, tied to a phrase in the passage, score higher than general claims that “times have changed”.

9. “consolidated into our central hub” [1] hides that the Leeming Road site is closing. [1] “A small number of roles will be impacted” [1] hides job losses and turns people into “roles”. [1] Examiner insight: Naming a euphemism is only half the answer; the mark for effect comes from saying exactly what harsh fact the phrase replaces.

10. Model plan:

Thesis: The email frames a site closure as good news by using the language of growth, hiding the actors behind passive verbs and binding readers into a shared “we”. [1]

Point 1 – positive framing. “Our next chapter” and “entering a new phase of growth” present the change as progress [1]; the closure comes only after “We are excited to share” has set the mood [1].

Point 2 – hidden decision-makers. “Following a careful review” and “will be consolidated” give no agent [1]; the decision sounds like the result of a process, not a choice that could be reversed [1].

Point 3 – pronouns and power. “We” is the Executive Team, yet “Together, we will emerge stronger” folds staff into the same group [1]; the affected staff are “Colleagues affected” who “will be contacted”, always acted upon, never acting [1].

Linking sentence: The email serves the company’s version of events: by the end, the reader is thanked for “continued flexibility”, which asks for acceptance before any objection is voiced. [1] Examiner insight: Plans score well when every point answers the guiding question with a quotation; features listed in text order, not tied to “positive and unavoidable”, read as description.

11. Model plan:

Thesis: Both texts give authority to an institution by letting it speak while the people affected are summarised or silenced, but Text A1 does this through news selection while Passage C does it through the institution’s own voice. [1]

Point 1 – who speaks. In Text A1 only the council leader is quoted (“unlawful and irresponsible”) [1]; in Passage C the whole text is the voice of “The Executive Team”, and the staff never speak [1].

Point 2 – hiding the decision. Text A1’s “is due to close” and Passage C’s “will be consolidated” both remove the agent from the key decision [1], so in both texts the closure seems inevitable rather than chosen [1].

Point 3 – framing the cost. Text A1 frames the closure as “savings of £2 million”, and Passage C as “a new phase of growth” [1]; both use the language of good management to hide a loss to the people affected [1].

Closing sentence: In both texts authority comes less from argument than from control of voice and grammar: the institution names the event, and the people affected are left without words. [1] Examiner insight: The strongest plans keep both texts in every point; covering Text A1 in full and then Passage C in full is block comparison and weakens the argument.

Where marks are usually lost

• Treating Text A2 as the “true” version when it also selects (it omits the council’s budget case).
• Spotting that “is due to close” has no agent without saying who is hidden.
• Reading “the sweet flowers that smile in the walk of man” as Wollstonecraft’s own view.
• Writing about 1792 as general history with no link to a phrase in Passage B.
• Naming a euphemism but not the harsh fact it replaces.
• Missing how “we” in Passage C shifts from the executives to everyone.
• Comparing block by block in question 11 instead of pairing evidence in each point.

Next steps

• Language, context, culture and power revision notes
• Language, context, culture and power study guide
• Language and Literature course hub
• Printable checklist
• All free 10-minute diagnostics
• Book a free trial class

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief, Language A: language and literature, first assessments for SL and HL 2021 (2019).