Week 30 · English Practice Paper

Reading Passage

The passage below imagines a moment from an early age of undersea exploration, when a small crew is about to be lowered into the ocean depths inside a diving bell.

The Last Tide

The third of September had come at last — a day the crew had marked on their calendars for months, for if the diving bell did not begin its descent before eleven minutes past midnight, the tide in the Long Trench would turn, and the strange stillness in its currents would not return again for another six months.

The evening was unusually calm for the time of year. A fine mist hung low over the water, and lanterns along the pier glowed soft and yellow in the fading light. Three people stood at the harbour's edge, checking their equipment one final time before they abandoned the surface world for the deep water below.

As dusk thickened into full darkness, a restless murmur rippled through the crowd that had gathered on the quay to watch the extraordinary spectacle. An unease none of them could quite name seemed to press upon every onlooker, and more than one voice was heard to ask whether it would be over soon. Then, precisely as the harbour bell tolled seven, a hush fell, followed at once by a ragged cheer — the slack tide they had been waiting for had preceded the turn of the current by only a few minutes, exactly as the charts had promised.

At half past eleven, it was time for the crew to take their places inside the bell. One by one, they climbed down the narrow rope ladder into the copper chamber; the engineer checked and bolted shut the heavy iron hatch from within, and the harbour hands began unhooking the bell from the crane that had held it suspended above the water all evening.

Who could describe the feelings of those who watched? The last light drained slowly from the sky, and a heavy silence settled over the whole harbour. Not a plank creaked underfoot. Not a voice was raised above a whisper. Every eye on the quay was fixed on the great copper sphere, swinging gently now above the black water.

Then, at last, the signal was given. An almighty splash — sudden, thunderous, unlike anything the watching crowd had heard before — followed instantly as the chains released and the bell dropped into the sea. A great spout of white foam shot up from the surface like a fountain, and for a moment those nearest the edge caught only a last, blurred glimpse of the copper sphere sinking swiftly into the darkening water, trailing a curtain of silver bubbles behind it.

Option 1: Write the opening section of a story about an unexplored place.

• In your opening, try to include description of character and setting.
• Create a feeling of excitement or tension.
• Leave your reader wondering what will happen next.
• You do not need to finish your story.

Option 2: Continue the story from the last sentence of the passage: 'A great spout of white foam shot up from the surface like a fountain, and for a moment those nearest the edge caught only a last, blurred glimpse of the copper sphere sinking swiftly into the darkening water, trailing a curtain of silver bubbles behind it.'

• You do not need to write a full story.
• You do not need to finish your story.