IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature – Paper 1: Guided Analysis of Non-Literary Texts 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 practice set covers Paper 1: guided textual analysis 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), and maps to the areas of exploration Readers, writers and texts and Time and space. All three passages are original and fictional.

Learn the method first with the Paper 1 study guide and the revision notes. Course links: Language and Literature hub · printable checklist.

Questions

Passage A – public information poster (original text written for Marlbridge)

[Layout: a tall poster. The top half is a photograph of a single drop of water hanging from a tap, shown very large against a dark blue background. The headline is in large white capitals; the bullet points are smaller.]

EVERY DROP HAS SOMEWHERE TO BE.

Don’t let it be the drain.

Last August, Eastholm’s reservoirs fell to their lowest level in twenty years. You saw the brown grass. You lived with the hosepipe ban. This summer, you can do something about it.

• Turn off the tap while you brush.
• Fix that drip. It takes ten minutes.
• Water the garden after sunset, not at noon.

Eastholm Water Board. Your water. Your town. Your choice.

1. Identify the text type, the target audience and the purpose of Passage A. [3]

2. Describe one visual feature of Passage A and explain its effect. [2]

3. Analyse how the final line of Passage A supports the poster’s purpose. [3]

Passage B – opinion column (original text written for Marlbridge)

Let the library be loud

Last Tuesday I watched a librarian shush a four-year-old. The child had found a book about volcanoes and wanted, very badly, to tell someone. She was told to whisper. She put the book back.

Ask yourself: who is actually in our library on a weekday afternoon? Pensioners who have not spoken to anyone since Sunday. Teenagers with nowhere warm to go. Parents with toddlers who have run out of ideas.

These people do not need a reading room. They need a living room.

Of course, the council will say that noise drives serious readers away. Put them upstairs. The building has three floors and one rule; it could easily have three floors and three rules.

A library that only allows whispering is teaching a lesson, and it is the wrong one: that books are for keeping quiet about. Let the volcano girl shout. She has found something worth shouting about.

4. Explain how the opening anecdote prepares the reader for the writer’s argument. [3]

5. Analyse how the writer deals with the council’s objection in the fourth paragraph. [3]

6. Analyse the effect of the one-line third paragraph. [3]

Passage C – speech at a bridge reopening (original text written for Marlbridge)

Friends, neighbours, and those of you who have driven the long way round for eighteen months – welcome back to the river.

A hundred years ago, on this spot, our great-grandparents opened the first bridge. They had rope, stone and stubbornness. When the flood took their bridge in March of last year, some said we should not rebuild it. Too costly. Too slow. Too old-fashioned.

Well, look behind me.

This bridge is steel where theirs was stone. But it stands exactly where theirs stood, because a town is not only its people. It is the paths its people have always walked.

So walk it. Walk it today, walk it tomorrow, and walk it when the next flood comes, because we will build it again.

7. Explain how the speech depends on the time and place in which it is delivered. [4]

8. Here is a weak paragraph on Passage A, written in answer to the guiding question “How does the poster persuade readers to change their habits?”

The poster uses a lot of techniques. It uses a picture of a tap. It says “Last August, Eastholm’s reservoirs fell to their lowest level in twenty years.” It also uses bullet points. This makes the reader want to save water.

Identify two weaknesses and rewrite the first two sentences to fix them. [4]

9. Extended task. Plan a full guided analysis of Passage B in response to the guiding question: How does the writer try to change the reader’s view of what a library is for? Give a thesis and a paragraph plan with evidence. [8]

10. Extended task. Write the introduction and one body paragraph of a guided analysis of Passage C in response to the guiding question: How does the speaker connect the new bridge to the town’s past? [10]

Answers

1. Text type: a public information poster from a water company. [1] Audience: households in Eastholm, who lived through last summer’s drought. [1] Purpose: to persuade them to use less water this summer through small daily changes. [1] Examiner insight: “People” is too vague; strong answers name the reader the text assumes.

2. Feature: a single drop of water shown very large in the top half, against dark blue. [1] Effect: something tiny becomes the dominant image, so each drop seems precious, as the headline “EVERY DROP” confirms. [1] Examiner insight: A visual point needs precise detail (size, position, colour) plus an effect.

3. A list of three [1] with the repeated possessive “Your”. [1] It moves from resource (water) to community (town) to individual (choice), so after three imperatives, saving water ends as the reader’s own decision, not an order. [1] Examiner insight: Strong answers explain the order of the three items; weak ones only count them.

4. The anecdote shows the rule’s cost in one small, sympathetic moment. [1] The short final sentence “She put the book back.” makes the loss of curiosity quiet and sad. [1] The child returns at the end (“Let the volcano girl shout”), so the opening frames the whole column. [1] Examiner insight: Linking opening to ending shows you are analysing structure, not one paragraph.

5. The writer states the objection fairly: “noise drives serious readers away”. [1] The reply is an immediate, blunt imperative: “Put them upstairs.” [1] The practical detail “three floors and three rules” makes the proposal sound simple, so the writer seems fair and confident. [1] Examiner insight: The concession is half the point; credit goes to explaining how the rebuttal turns the objection to the writer’s advantage.

6. The paragraph is built on contrast in a parallel structure: “reading room” against “living room”. [1] Isolated on its own line, it stands out as the column’s central claim. [1] “Living room” connotes warmth, home and conversation, which fits the lonely people just listed, so the library’s purpose is redefined in two short sentences. [1] Examiner insight: Strong answers connect the layout (one line) to the language (the contrast).

7. Place: the speech is given at the river, “on this spot”, to people who can see the bridge. [1] “Well, look behind me.” uses the bridge itself as evidence, which works only for a live audience. [1] Time: “A hundred years ago” links the reopening to the first bridge, giving the occasion a sense of history. [1] “March of last year” and “eighteen months” recall a recent loss the audience shares, so the celebration means more to them than to an outside reader. [1] Examiner insight: Context earns credit only when tied to an effect on this audience; “it is a speech at a bridge” is description.

8. Weaknesses, any two of: no claim answering the guiding question; techniques listed, not analysed; a long quotation dropped in without comment; a generic effect. First weakness [1], second weakness [1]. Rewrite, for example: “The poster persuades readers to change their habits by reminding them of a crisis they lived through. The phrase ‘lowest level in twenty years’ gives the drought a precise, local scale,” [1] “so the reader sees the request as a response to their own town’s problem.” [1] (Claim mark, then embedded-quotation-with-effect mark.) Examiner insight: The fastest fix for a weak paragraph is a first sentence that answers the guiding question.

9. The real Paper 1 is marked holistically against the IB criteria, not point by point. These are indicative points.

Thesis: the writer redefines the library from a place of silent study into a shared social space, by making readers feel the cost of silence and then showing that a noisy library is easy to achieve. [1]

• P1: the anecdote makes the rule’s cost concrete (“She put the book back.”). [1]
• P2: the rhetorical question “who is actually in our library…?” and the list of pensioners, teenagers and parents shift attention from the rule to real users. [1]
• P3: the contrast “reading room” / “living room” states the new purpose in one memorable line. [1]
• P4: the concession and practical rebuttal (“three floors and three rules”) make the change sound easy. [1]
• P5: the ending returns to the child and turns the rule into “the wrong” lesson, so readers leave with the new view. [1]
• Context: a local column addressed to “our library” users, with the council as opponent, so the inclusive “our” invites residents to claim the building. [1]
• Organisation: paragraphs ordered by idea, each linked to the question, and a conclusion on how the features combine. [1]

Examiner insight: Strong plans are organised by argument; weak plans follow the text in order and slide into summary.

10. The real exam is marked holistically against the IB criteria; these are indicative points.

Model introduction:

This speech was given at the reopening of a town’s bridge, a hundred years after the first bridge was built and eighteen months after a flood destroyed it. [1] Its audience is local residents, many of whom have “driven the long way round” [1], and its purpose is to celebrate the new bridge and build pride in the town’s resilience. [1] The speaker connects the new bridge to the past by presenting it as the latest act in a century-old tradition of stubborn rebuilding. [1]

Model body paragraph:

The speaker presents the new bridge as a continuation of the old one, not a replacement. [1] The great-grandparents are remembered for “rope, stone and stubbornness” [1], and the final quality, not a material at all, is the one the present town has inherited. [1] The contrast “steel where theirs was stone” admits change [1], but the next sentence insists the bridge “stands exactly where theirs stood”, so the modern materials sit on a historic path. [1] By tying new steel to the old spot, the speaker makes rebuilding feel like loyalty to the past. [1]

Examiner insight: Keep every sentence pointed at the guiding question; a good paragraph that never mentions the past has drifted.

Where marks are usually lost

• Starting to write before choosing a thesis, so paragraphs wander away from the guiding question.
• Naming techniques without explaining their effect on the target audience.
• Dropping long quotations in without comment instead of embedding a few key words.
• Ignoring layout, images and typography in a multimodal text such as Passage A.
• Mentioning context only in the introduction instead of using it as evidence.
• Poor timing: a strong opening paragraph and no conclusion.

Next steps

• Paper 1 revision notes
• Paper 1 study guide
• Readers, writers and texts practice and Time and space practice
• 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).