Week 3 · English Practice Paper

Reading Passage

In this extract the writer describes a young boy's move to Portugal.

The Balcony

1. Kavi was woken by the sharp cry of gulls somewhere close to the window. His neck ached from where he'd fallen asleep at an odd angle, and his mouth was dry from the long flight the night before. Beyond the shutters, the town was anything but quiet: the discordant clatter of the fish market three streets away rang out in bursts of shouting and laughter, threaded through with tinny music drifting up from a café below. It was nothing like the hush of home, and though the sound pressed in on him from every side, it was the strangeness of the room itself, not the noise, that kept him from settling.

2. Beside him on the narrow bed, Kavi's carved fox, Bramble, watched the room with painted glass eyes. He had been made by Kavi's grandfather years before Kavi was even born, and every other object in the room seemed to know it — the furniture was old and dark, crowded together as if it had been collected rather than chosen. Faded photographs lined one wall, their subjects unfamiliar; a chipped porcelain jug stood guard on the windowsill; and beside the bed sat a small tin box, dented and rust-spotted, fastened with a lock far too heavy for something so small. Kavi propped Bramble against the pillow so he could survey the room properly. "I don't know what to make of this place," he murmured, though Bramble, naturally, said nothing back.

3. "I'm not sure I want to be here," Kavi admitted to Bramble under his breath, turning the fox to face him. He held it steady in one hand while his other traced the worn grain of its wooden ears. His father had said it would only be for a little while, until things at home settled down, but Kavi wasn't sure he believed that any more than he believed his uncle's cheerful insistence that everything would be "una aventura." Kavi's uncle Mateus had met him at the airport with an embrace so tight it had nearly lifted Kavi off his feet, and though it should have felt welcoming, something in it had felt almost like relief — as though Mateus had been waiting for this moment far longer than one plane journey would explain.

4. Sitting cross-legged on the lumpy mattress, weary but wary, Kavi turned the last few days over in his mind. It had taken almost eighteen hours of travelling to reach this town, tucked into hills above a coastline he had never seen before. His uncle had seemed unusually interested in whether Kavi had brought anything belonging to his mother — a question that struck Kavi as odd, given that his uncle had barely mentioned her name since he'd arrived. Kavi supposed it might have been a kind thing to ask, a way of keeping her close, though the eagerness in his uncle's voice had left him uneasy rather than comforted, as if there were something specific Mateus had been hoping he would produce.

5. As Kavi turned this thought over, the single candle beside his bed guttered and went out. The room dropped instantly into darkness. Startled, he fumbled for the box of matches on the nightstand, singeing his thumb as he struck one and coaxed the wick back to life. In the sudden flare of light, something shifted at the very edge of the balcony outside — a low shape, moving without hurry, the way a fox moves when it already knows exactly where its prey will run. Kavi went still. How long had it been sitting there? And what, exactly, had it been listening to?

Option 1: Continue the story. It should start with Kavi looking outside to see what the shape on the balcony really is.

• Keep Kavi's cautious, watchful character consistent with how he has been shown so far.
• You do not need to resolve every mystery in the passage — focus on writing a vivid, well-paced continuation.

Option 2: Discuss the following: 'The most important promises are often the ones we can't keep.' Discuss this view, using examples from your own life.

• Give real or realistic examples to support your ideas.
• Consider more than one side of the argument before reaching your own conclusion.