Week 20 · English Practice Paper

Reading Passage

The story below is set on the morning of a village river regatta, many years ago. A paddle steamer called the Marigold is due to carry passengers across the river to the fairground on the far bank, but the jetty is dangerously overcrowded, and nobody can get the boat to leave on time. Peggy is travelling with her aunt, and finds herself squeezed in among total strangers.

The Marigold

Paragraph 1: Like a bad-tempered animal refusing to be led, the Marigold lurched against the mooring posts with a groan of old timber, then lurched back the other way, a jolt that ran the length of the deck and sent baskets of pears tumbling from a stallholder's arms. Somewhere above Peggy's head a coil of rope slid loose and thumped down onto a hatbox, and a jug of lemonade toppled and rolled, glugging its contents across the boards. Still the paddle steamer did not move off.

Paragraph 2: From bow to stern came the sound of restless passengers imitating the ship's whistle themselves, blowing raspberries and hooting through cupped hands, but another quarter of an hour crawled by without so much as a shudder from the engine, and every minute the crowded deck grew hotter and closer.

Paragraph 3: "I booked a covered seat!" complained a latecomer, hopping from foot to foot on the jetty in a fury of sunburn and indignation. "Covered seats is all took," the ferryman told him placidly, and helped him instead up onto the open top deck, calling out cheerily, "Make room there, one more a-coming!" A ripple of muttering swept along the rail, and Peggy decided she had never in her life heard so much good-natured grumbling in one place.

Paragraph 4: Beside her, wedged into the last inch of bench, sat a plump, red-faced couple, both built along the same round lines as a pair of prize marrows. When they had first climbed aboard they had smelled of fresh bread and warm butter; by now, baked slowly under the midday sun, they smelled distinctly of hot cheese.

Paragraph 5: Though Peggy had been listening hard for the ferryman's bell all morning, she never actually heard it ring, drowned as it was beneath the whining of tired toddlers, the grumbling of elderly gentlemen fanning themselves with programmes, and a persistent cry of, "...told you we should have come early...!" The Marigold simply gave a final shuddering heave, sounded her own hoarse whistle, and finally cast off.

Paragraph 6: A cheer went up the length of the boat, relief and excitement tangled together with a few last complaints, as the well-wishers and their waving handkerchiefs slid away from the jetty. Beyond the rail, the view opened out onto wide water-meadows, where cattle stood knee-deep in buttercups and reed banks leaned whispering into the current.

Paragraph 7: The Marigold, for all her puffing, did not pick up any real speed. She settled instead into a stately crawl, so that the young rowers training for the afternoon's regatta, out practising in their skiffs, could easily keep pace alongside her; the regatta committee had fixed the steamer's crossing speed at a strict four miles an hour, so that no crew training on the water that morning could complain of being left behind by her wash. A boy freewheeling along the towpath on his bicycle grinned and waved at Peggy's aunt, who pretended not to notice; an hour later, having looped back along the bank twice, he was still there, still grinning.

Paragraph 8: The dawdling pace was not even brisk enough to stir a breeze through the packed deck. The passengers were simply rocked gently together, like apples jostling in a barrel. "How much further is it?" Peggy asked, quite forgetting that she had already asked six times. Nobody answered her.

Option 1: Continue writing the story from Peggy's point of view.

• Decide what happens once the Marigold finally reaches the far bank and the regatta fairground.
• Use dialogue to bring some of the other passengers to life.

Option 2: Write a story that involves a journey by boat.

• Plan your story before you begin, with a clear beginning, middle and end.
• Use the senses (sound, smell, touch) to make the setting feel real.