Week 44 · English Practice Paper

Reading Passage

Read the poem below carefully, then answer the questions that follow. Spend around 15 minutes on this section.

The Early Shift

You came home most mornings just as I left for school, keys turning in the lock as my toast went cold. You never meant to wake me, you always said, though I heard the click of the door regardless, the careful, quiet weight of your footsteps crossing the kitchen tiles in your work shoes. Some mornings I found you still at the table, coat buttoned up, too tired to take it off, warming your hands round a mug you wouldn't drink from. You'd ask about my spellings, or my times tables, though your eyes were already halfway to sleep. Of course, you said, you'd only just got in. Parents' evenings. Sports days. The school play. The birthday party. The dentist. Prize-giving day. You always said you'd swapped a shift specially, just this once, though somehow it happened every time. Only just managed it. Only just made it in time. No one else's mother arrived quite so tired, or quite so sure she would come. Now I am older, and no longer need someone waiting at the door when I get home. I think of all those mornings differently — the mug you wouldn't drink from, the coat still buttoned, the tired, patient way you asked your questions, and I understand, now, what you were really saying.

Option 1: Section A, Option 1: Describe a sunrise flight in a hot air balloon, in which you appeal to the reader's senses to recreate the experience.

• Focus on sensory description rather than a fast-moving plot.

Option 2: Section A, Option 2: Imagine either a lighthouse keeper or a circus ringmaster. Describe their physical appearance and habits in some detail.

• Think about creating a vivid picture in the reader's mind.
• You could suggest things about their personality through this description.
• Remember — this is a description of a character, not a story.

Option 3: Section A, Option 3: "The wind kept flinging handfuls of grit against the shutters, as if determined to find some way in — and still she climbed, her fingers numb, the whole sky pressing down grey and merciless above the ridge." Write a continuation of this scene.

• Try to maintain the atmosphere created in the passage above.

Option 4: Section B, Option 1: Write a letter to a pen pal describing a memorable day out you have had recently.

• Keep your chosen reader in mind throughout.

Option 5: Section B, Option 2: Write a short article for your school magazine in which you advise other pupils on the best ways of looking after a class pet.

• Make sure that you do what is asked in the task and keep the chosen reader in mind.

Option 6: Section B, Option 3: Your teacher has asked you to give a short speech to the rest of your class on the importance of recycling. Write out your speech.

• Think carefully about the ways in which you will engage your audience.