IB Diploma Programme Language A: Literature – Paper 1: Guided Literary Analysis 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 literary analysis for IB Diploma Programme Language A: Literature, at SL and HL. It follows the current IB subject brief (first assessments for SL and HL 2021), and maps to Readers, writers and texts and Time and space. All passages are original and fictional.

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

Questions

Passage A – poem (original text written for Marlbridge)

Night Shift

At four the ward goes quiet the way a field goes quiet under snow: not empty, only covered.

She walks the corridor and counts the green lights, the slow breaths, the one bed where the breathing is too fast.

Her hands know what to do. Her hands have always known. It is the rest of her that stands at the window

and watches the first bus cross the bridge with its lights on, full of people going to work, as if the night were an ordinary thing.

1. Identify the simile in the first stanza and explain what it suggests about the ward. [3]

2. Explain how the list in the second stanza builds tension. [3]

3. Analyse the effect of the repetition in the third stanza and of the break between the third and fourth stanzas. [4]

4. The poem is written in free verse. Explain one way this form suits the poem. [2]

Passage B – prose fiction extract (original text written for Marlbridge)

The letter came on a Tuesday, which Grandad said was the wrong day for anything important. He read it standing up, by the back door, with his glasses pushed onto his forehead, so that he was really reading it with his arm held out, the way he read seed packets.

“Well,” he said.

I waited. The kettle began its long complaint on the stove, and nobody moved to stop it.

“They want the allotment back,” he said at last. “For houses.” He folded the letter in half, then in half again, then once more, until it was small enough to be nothing, and put it in the pocket where he kept string.

That afternoon he planted the beans anyway. I held the canes while he tied them, and neither of us said that they would not be ready until August.

5. What does the comparison “the way he read seed packets” suggest about Grandad? [2]

6. Explain the effect of the sentence about the kettle. [3]

7. Analyse how the writer uses the folding of the letter to show Grandad’s response. [3]

8. Explain how the final sentence creates meaning through what is not said. [3]

Passage C – drama extract (original text written for Marlbridge)

[A kitchen, late evening. One chair is pushed away from the table. JUNE, in her sixties, is drying a plate that is already dry. Her son TOM stands in the doorway with his coat still on.]

TOM: I can stay. Tonight, I mean. If you want. JUNE: There’s no need. TOM: I know there’s no need. I’m asking if you want. JUNE: [Still drying the plate.] The spare bed’s not made up. TOM: I can make a bed, Mum. JUNE: [She puts the plate down. Picks it up again.] Your father always said you couldn’t. [Pause. TOM takes off his coat.]

9. Explain what the opening stage directions suggest before anyone speaks. [3]

10. Analyse how dialogue and action work together from “The spare bed’s not made up” to the end of the extract. [4]

Extended tasks

11. Guiding question for Passage A: How does the poem explore the gap between what the woman does and what she feels? Write a thesis and a three-paragraph plan, then write one body paragraph in full. [10]

12. Guiding question for Passage B: How does the writer use everyday details to convey strong feeling? Write an introduction ending in a thesis, and a three-paragraph plan. [6]

Answers

1. The simile is “the way a field goes quiet under snow” [1]. The next line, “not empty, only covered”, makes the quiet a covering, not an absence [1]. The calm hides pain and danger underneath, preparing for the next stanza’s tension [1]. [3] Examiner insight: Strong answers use the line after the simile; “it shows the ward is quiet” only repeats the text.

2. The list begins with calm items, “the green lights, the slow breaths” [1], then ends with its longest item, “the one bed where the breathing is too fast” [1]. The broken pattern pulls the reader’s attention, like hers, onto the patient in danger: routine turns to alarm [1]. [3] Examiner insight: “There is a list of three” is a label; credit comes from explaining why the last item breaks the pattern.

3. The repetition “Her hands know what to do. / Her hands have always known.” [1] presents her skill as automatic, held in her body rather than her thoughts [1]. “It is the rest of her” separates the working hands from the feeling self, suggesting exhaustion [1]. The sentence runs across the stanza break, “stands at the window // and watches”, so the white space enacts a pause outside her duties [1]. [4] Examiner insight: A comment on a stanza break is analysis of form only when tied to meaning; “the sentence runs on” alone earns little.

4. Free verse has no regular rhyme or metre [1]. The uneven lines follow the rhythm of her attention, such as the long line for the fast breathing; a neat pattern would make the night sound tidy [1]. [2] Examiner insight: The second mark needs a link to something specific in this poem.

5. It shows a familiar, slightly comic habit: he reads at arm’s length with his glasses on his forehead [1]. “seed packets” places his life in his garden and hints at what the letter threatens [1]. [2] Examiner insight: Two-mark “suggest” questions reward two different suggestions; the same idea said twice gains one.

6. The kettle’s “long complaint” personifies it [1], so an object voices the distress that neither person expresses [1]. “nobody moved to stop it” shows both characters frozen by the news: the noise makes the tense silence audible [1]. [3] Examiner insight: Strong answers see the feeling displaced onto an object; weak ones stop at “personification makes it vivid”.

7. He folds it “in half, then in half again, then once more” [1]: the building phrases slow the moment into a controlled action, not an outburst [1]. Folding it until it is “small enough to be nothing”, then keeping it with “string”, shrinks the threat into something ordinary: quiet denial [1]. [3] Examiner insight: Short embedded quotations keep analysis precise; “this shows he is upset” does not.

8. “planted the beans anyway” shows defiance or stubborn hope [1]. “neither of us said that they would not be ready until August” leaves the key point unspoken: the reader infers the allotment may be gone before the harvest [1]. The shared silence of “neither of us” binds narrator and Grandad in grief and loyalty, stronger than any stated feeling [1]. [3] Examiner insight: Implication questions reward the inference spelled out; “it is sad” does not say what the reader works out.

9. “One chair is pushed away from the table” suggests an absence in the household [1]. Drying “a plate that is already dry” is pointless, so it reads as grief kept busy [1]. Tom “with his coat still on” is unsure whether he is staying [1]. [3] Examiner insight: Stage directions are evidence in their own right; answers on dialogue alone miss half the text.

10. June meets an emotional offer with a practical objection, “The spare bed’s not made up”, avoiding what she wants: subtext [1]. Putting the plate down and picking it up again shows the indecision her words hide [1]. “Your father” names the absent figure for the first time, in a gentle joke that reveals the loss behind the scene [1]. The “Pause” and Tom taking off his coat settle it through action: he will stay, and she has accepted [1]. [4] Examiner insight: The strongest drama answers show words and action pulling against each other, not just what is said.

11. Model thesis: The poem presents a woman whose skilled body works on while her feelings stand apart, through the ward’s hidden tension, the split between “hands” and “the rest of her”, and the ordinary morning outside.

P1  Hidden feeling in the setting: "not empty, only covered";
    the list that ends "too fast".
P2  Body and self divided: "Her hands ... Her hands";
    "the rest of her"; the stanza break at the window.
P3  Her night against the world's morning: "full of people
    going to work"; "as if the night were an ordinary thing".

Model paragraph (P2): The poem divides the woman in two. The repeated “Her hands” gives her skill a life of its own. “The rest of her” is set apart, as if her feelings belong to a separate person who does no work. The sentence runs over the stanza break, “stands at the window // and watches”, so the white space becomes a pause in which nothing is done. What she does and what she feels are no longer in one place.

Indicative creditworthy points: thesis on doing versus feeling [1]; plan by idea, three stages [1]; simile as hidden feeling [1]; the list’s final item [1]; repeated “Her hands” as automatic skill [1]; “the rest of her” as a divided self [1]; stanza break as a pause [1]; the final “as if” contrast [1]; short embedded quotations [1]; paragraph linked back to the question [1]. [10] The real exam is marked holistically against the IB criteria, not point by point. Examiner insight: A response built on the question’s own terms (doing, feeling) stays focused; a line-by-line tour drifts into description.

12. Model introduction: In this prose extract, narrated by a grandchild, a letter tells Grandad his allotment will be taken for houses. Neither says how they feel; the writer conveys shock, grief and quiet defiance through a kettle, a folded letter and a row of beans.

P1  Shock: "Well," and the kettle's "long complaint" that
    "nobody moved to stop".
P2  Control and denial: the letter folded "small enough to be
    nothing", kept with "string".
P3  Defiance and grief: "planted the beans anyway"; what
    "neither of us said".

Indicative creditworthy points: form, narrator and situation [1]; thesis answers the question [1]; plan by feeling, not device [1]; kettle as displaced feeling [1]; folding as denial [1]; the unspoken final sentence [1]. [6] The real exam is marked holistically against the IB criteria, not point by point. Examiner insight: Strong introductions are short and end on a thesis, not a plot summary.

Where marks are usually lost

• Retelling the passage instead of arguing an answer to the guiding question.
• Naming a technique (“enjambment”, “personification”) and not saying what it does here.
• Calling the speaker of Passage A “the poet”, or treating the narrator of Passage B as the author.
• Ignoring stage directions in drama, or line and stanza breaks in poetry.
• Vague effects that fit any text: “it makes the reader want to read on”.
• Inventing context, such as a date or the writer’s life.
• Long quotations dropped in, or no conclusion because time ran out.

Next steps

• Paper 1 revision notes
• Paper 1 study guide
• IB DP Language A: 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: literature, first assessments for SL and HL 2021 (2019). All passages and model answers on this page are original texts written for Marlbridge.