OxfordAQA IGCSE Urdu: Local, National, International and Global Areas of Interest — Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, in the style and at the standard of the examination. They are not reproduced past-paper questions — examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: Theme 2 revision notes

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Section A — Vocabulary and grammar

1. Give the Urdu for: neighbourhood, pollution, poverty, solution, journey. [5]

2. Complete each sentence with the correct conditional form:

(a) اگر ہم زیادہ درخت ______ (لگانا — plant) تو ہوا صاف ______ (ہونا — would be) [2] (b) اگر حکومت مدد ______ (کرنا — would give) تو غربت کم ______ (ہونا — would decrease) [2]

3. Rewrite each sentence using a cause-and-effect connective (“as a result of this / because of this”):

(a) بہت زیادہ کارخانے ہیں۔ ہوا آلودہ ہے۔ [2] (b) لوگوں کے پاس گھر نہیں ہیں۔ وہ سڑکوں پر رہتے ہیں۔ [2]

Section B — Comprehension and writing

4. Read the short passage (in the style of a Theme 2 reading task) about a local recycling scheme, then answer in English:

“ہمارے علاقے میں پچھلے سال ایک نئی ری سائیکلنگ اسکیم شروع ہوئی۔ پہلے لوگ کچرا الگ نہیں کرتے تھے، لیکن اب ہر گھر کو تین مختلف ڈبے دیے گئے ہیں۔ اس اسکیم کی وجہ سے ہمارے علاقے میں کچرا تیس فیصد کم ہو گیا ہے۔ میرے خیال میں یہ ایک بہت اچھا قدم ہے، لیکن ابھی بھی بہت سے لوگ صحیح طریقے سے کچرا الگ نہیں کرتے۔”

(a) What changed about the recycling scheme, and when? [2] (b) What has been the measurable effect of the scheme, according to the passage? [2] (c) Identify the writer’s opinion, and one limitation they mention. [2]

5. Write approximately 90 words in Urdu describing a social or global issue affecting your local area, using the four-step structure: name the problem, give a cause, propose a solution using a conditional, and give a personal opinion with a reason. [15]

Section C — Travel and tourism

6. Translate into English: “پچھلے سال میں نے اپنے خاندان کے ساتھ ایک پہاڑی علاقے کا سفر کیا۔ موسم بہت خوشگوار تھا اور ہم نے وہاں ٹریکنگ کی۔ میرے خیال میں یہ میری زندگی کی بہترین چھٹی تھی۔” [6]

7. Identify the two tenses combined in the passage above, and explain why a strong Theme 2 travel response typically needs both. [3]

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Worked answers

1. محلہ (neighbourhood) [1]، آلودگی (pollution) [1]، غربت (poverty) [1]، حل (solution) [1]، سفر (journey) [1].

2. (a) اگر ہم زیادہ درخت لگائیں تو ہوا صاف ہو گی/ہوگی [2] (conditional “if… would be” construction, correct verb agreement). (b) اگر حکومت مدد کرے تو غربت کم ہو جائے گی/ہوگی [2].

3. (a) بہت زیادہ کارخانوں کی وجہ سے ہوا آلودہ ہے۔ (“Because of too many factories, the air is polluted.”) [2] (b) لوگوں کے پاس گھر نہ ہونے کی وجہ سے وہ سڑکوں پر رہتے ہیں۔ [2]

4. (a) A new recycling scheme started in the area last year [1]; every household was given three different bins, where before people did not separate their rubbish [1]. (b) Rubbish in the area has decreased by thirty percent because of the scheme [2]. (c) The writer thinks it is a very good step [1]; the limitation mentioned is that many people still do not separate their rubbish correctly [1].

5. Full marks require: a clearly named problem stated in the present tense [3–4]; a cause introduced with a connective such as “اس کی وجہ سے” (because of this) [3–4]; a solution proposed using a correctly formed conditional (“اگر…تو…ہوگا/ہوگی”) [4–5]; and a personal opinion with a reason, using first-person present-tense structures (“میرے خیال میں…کیونکہ…”) [3–4]. Marks are lost for describing the problem only, or for a conditional with incorrect verb agreement. A response that completes all four steps in roughly 20–25 words each, staying close to 90 words overall, without straying into narrative-only description, best matches this task’s assessment objectives.

6. “Last year I travelled to a mountainous area with my family [1]. The weather was very pleasant [1], and we went trekking there [1]. In my opinion, this was the best holiday of my life [1].” (One mark each for accurately rendering the past-tense narrative verbs, and one mark each for the present-tense evaluative comment.)

7. The passage combines the past tense (سفر کیا، ٹریکنگ کی — narrating what happened on the trip) with the present tense (میرے خیال میں…تھی — giving a current evaluative opinion about that past experience) [1]. A strong Theme 2 travel response needs both because examiners reward narrative detail (what happened, in sequence) and personal evaluation (what you think of it now) separately — a response using only the past tense reads as a bare recount with no evaluative content, while a response using only the present tense fails to narrate the actual travel experience being asked about [2].

A note on marking approach

Examiners give credit for communication of meaning first, and accuracy second — a response that completes all four required steps with a minor grammatical slip scores higher than a grammatically perfect response that only describes the problem and stops. When practising Section B writing tasks, check your own draft against the four-step structure explicitly before checking spelling or grammar, since a missing step (most often the proposed solution) costs more marks than a string of small accuracy errors spread across an otherwise complete answer.