AQA Specimen Paper 3
The main character in this short story is a boy, though we don’t get to know his name or age. At this mid-point in the story, he is playing amongst some rubble on the site of a demolished building. Everything seems normal to begin with, however….
1 One evening, the boy was crouched on top of the mound making a new town out of a heap of broken glass. He liked this time of day best – after tea, before bed. The air seemed to get grainy as its colour changed from vinegary yellow to candyfloss blue. He could rub it between his fingers like dust and slow time down. At the top of the mound he was in charge and he didn’t want to go 5 home to bed. He collected green glass shards and broken brown bottle necks. He tumbled fragments of old window in his hands like shattered marbles. He pushed the glass into the mound, 7 making houses, balancing roofs on them, building towers. The last of the sunlight caught and glinted in the tiny glass walls.
More of the black birds than he’d ever seen before rushed overhead and gathered on the 10 lamppost. The orange light hadn’t yet switched on but the shadows were growing. He heard nine chimes of the town hall clock. For a moment, the lamppost looked like a tall thin man wearing a large black hat. When the man turned towards him, he looked like a lamppost. The man had a greyish-green coat speckled with rust and a black hat that quivered with beaks and feathers. The man didn’t need to climb the mound; he was face to face with the boy with his feet still planted in
15 the pavement.
16 ‘What are you making?’ asked the man.
The boy didn’t answer.
‘Every child is always making something. Shake them out and they‘re full of dust and dreams.’
The boy stood up, ready to run, but then he remembered that at the top of the mound he was
20 king. He dug his heels into the rubble.
‘I’m making a new town, better than this one. The sun can shine in through the walls. The buildings look grander. It’ll be a great glass city.’
‘All it needs is people,’ said the man.
‘Yes, it needs people,’ said the boy. And when he looked down, tiny creatures were scuttling 25 beneath the glass roofs. They looked like ants or spiders, but the sky was darkening and the creatures were moving too fast to be sure. He looked to the man but there was only the lamppost
and as its orange light snapped on, the birds launched into the sky.
The boy plunged down the mound and ran, hoping he wouldn’t get told off for being late home.
Before he reached the end of the street he knew something was wrong. The world was too quiet.
30 Where were the sounds of cars? Of footballs being kicked against walls? There were no shouts from parents calling everyone in.
‘Mum?’ He pushed open their front door. The house was in darkness but the telly was switched
on. His mum wasn’t in any of the rooms. A half-drunk cup of tea had been left on the arm of the
settee.
35 The boy thundered back along the silent streets. He stood in the orange light beneath the
lamppost. ‘Give them back,’ he shouted.
Nothing happened, although he could hear the rustle of feathers coming from the darkness above
the light.
The boy ran to the top of the mound. ‘Give them back!’
40 ‘But I haven’t got them,’ The man’s face glowed. ‘You have.’
In the gloom, it was hard to make out the tiny creatures beneath the glass roofs. They were no
longer moving. The boy couldn’t be sure what was a particle of rubble and what was a person
sleeping in their broken-glass house. ‘How do I get them back?’ he asked.
But the man was a lamppost again.
01. Read again the first part of the Source from lines 1 to 7.
List four things from this part of the Source about the boy.
[4 marks]
02. Look in detail at this extract from lines 5 to 15 of the Source:
He tumbled fragments of old window in his hands like shattered marbles. He pushed the glass into the mound, making houses, balancing roofs on them, building towers. The last of the sunlight caught and glinted in the tiny glass walls.
More of the black birds than he’d ever seen before rushed overhead and gathered on the lamppost. The orange light hadn’t yet switched on but the shadows were growing. He heard nine chimes of the town hall clock. For a moment, the lamppost looked like a tall thin man wearing a large black hat. When the man turned towards him, he looked like a lamppost. The man had a greyish-green coat speckled with rust and a black hat that quivered with beaks and feathers. The man didn’t need to climb the mound; he was face to face with the boy with his feet still planted in the pavement.
How does the writer use language here to describe the boy playing in the evening?
You could include the writer’s choice of:
words and phrases
language features and techniques
sentence forms.
[8 marks]
03. You now need to think about the whole of the Source.
This text is from the middle of a short story.
How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?
You could write about:
what the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning
how and why the writer changes this focus as the Source develops
any other structural features that interest you.
[8 marks]
04. Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source from line 16 to the
end.
A reviewer wrote: ‘This end part of the extract where the boy’s game comes to life
takes a darker and more chilling tone.’
To what extent do you agree?
In your response, you could:
consider your own impressions of the boy’s game
evaluate how the writer creates a dark and chilling tone
support your response with references to the text.
[20 marks]
Section B: Writing
You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section.
Write in full sentences.
You are reminded of the need to plan your answer.
You should leave enough time to check your work at the end.
You have been invited to produce a piece of creative writing about how children play
imaginatively.
Either: Write a story set on a dark night as suggested by this picture:
Or: Write a story about a game that goes badly wrong.
(24 marks for content and organisation, 16 marks for technical accuracy)
[40 marks]
Example Responses
Question 1: Read again the first part of the Source from lines 1 to 7. List four things from this part of the Source about he boy. [4 marks]
Possible answers:
Question 2: Look in detail at this extract from lines 5 to 15 of the Source. How does the writer use language here to describe the boy playing in the evening?
You could include the writer’s choice of:
Words and phrases
Language techniques
Sentence forms
[8 marks]
You must:
Include subject terminology in your answer;
Say why a writer has chosen a particular technique. What does he/she want the reader to think/feel? It’s not enough to just highlight techniques.
Exemplar:
The writer list three consecutive verbs in order to emphasise how the boy is the creator of his make believe world, ‘making houses, balancing roofs on them, building towers’. The present participles capture the boy’s sense of power ‘where he is in charge’ in that it helps the reader to picture him in the continuous act of ‘making’ and building’. This suggests to the reader that the boy is captivated by his game; that he is isolated in the game away from the rest of the world and happy to be alone.
In then introducing a simile by describing the lamppost as ‘looking like a tall thin man’ the writer prepare us for a change in mood. The simile can be interpreted at two levels. In the physical world where he is playing on the mound, it can simply imply a link between a tall and thin lamppost and a man that in the dusky light could also appear tall and to tower over him in an imposing way. This suggests to the reader that this man may be dangerous in some way and that the boy may no longer be in charge of his game. On another level though, it cleverly blurs the boundary between his game and the possibly sinister repercussions of it. Does he just imagine the lamppost as a man, or does the lamppost come to life as a real man? The effect is to create a sinister and eerie atmosphere; one where the boundary between reality and fantasy is blurred and that the boy may not be safe in his make believe world.
Question 3: You now need to think about the whole of the Source. This text is from the middle of a short story. How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader? You could write about:
What the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning;
How and why the writer changes this focus as the Source develops;
Any other structural features that interest you.
[8 marks]
You must:
Focus on all of the text;
Think about how the writer moves the story along;
Only focus structure (not language);
Include subject terminology (dialogue, focusing, opening)
Avoid discussing language devices;
Discuss why the writer has structured the text in the way he/she has.
Example response:
The writer structures the text at the start in order to confirm the place and perspective for the reader, that it is ‘evening’ and that a boy is ‘on top of a mound making a new town’. This is important because in establishing a clear sense of time and place, the reader is perhaps lulled into a false sense of security. It seems like an ordinary boy playing an innocent game.
It describes in third person perspective a single character in a pleasant setting in which ‘sunlight glinted in the tiny glass walls’ of his city. However, through the structural device of time shifts, the writer makes use of references to ‘nine chimes’. These don’t just indicate that it is nine o’clock but also signal a change, that the boy is perhaps moving from real play into more darker aspects of his imagination. The chimes further signal movement away from a singular character to the introduction of a second, in the lamppost man. In his way, dialogue between them widens the scope of the text and adds increased tension. The motif of ‘glass’ and ‘glinting light’ is repeated, but this time, it is ‘gloom’ and the glass is ‘broken’. This juxtaposes the innocence of the game before the change to the more sinister events after the appearance of the man.
Question 4: Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source from line 16 to the end.
A reviewer wrote: ‘The end part of the extract where the boy’s game comes to life takes a darker and more chilling tone.’
To what extent do you agree? In your response, you could:
Consider your own impressions of the boy’s game;
Evaluate how the writer creates a dark and chilling tone;
Support your response with references to the text.
[20 marks]
You must:
Focus on the instructed lines;
Combine the skills that you have used in both questions 2 and 3;
Ensure you use subject terminology and quotations to explain how the writer creates the dark tone.
Example response:
The reviewer is right to pick up on the change in tone from something innocent to ‘chilling’ as this word suggests that the reader feels uncomfortable and a little disturbed by events. As ‘king’ of the ‘mound’ the boy defiantly states: ‘I’m making a new town, better than this one. It’ll be a great glass city’. The list of adjectives and the alliterative repetition of the ‘g’ consonant in ‘great glass’ reinforce how impressive he imagines it to be. It also helps the reader to imagine it too, for whilst it is tiny in reality, the adjective ‘great’ can imply size as well as the impression it makes on someone.
Equally, the writer uses methods such as pathetic fallacy when referring to ‘the sky … darkening’. The ‘darkening’ sky is suggestive or foreshadows darker events to come. The readers sense the boy’s panic and fear through his dash home, through verbs like ‘plunged’ and ‘thundered’. The use of onomatopoeia in the verb ‘thundered’ confirms for the reader a connection with an unstoppable and out of control storm. It is a metaphor that shows not just how anxious he has become, or how much he has lost his earlier confidence, but one which also reinforces how his game is taking on more sinister proportions. Were the ‘tiny creatures’ that once ‘scuttled’ really people from his town and why are they ‘no longer moving’?
A chilling atmosphere is also created through the way the writer juxtaposes the ‘darkness’ in the boy’s house with the fact that the ‘telly was switched on’, suggesting an unnatural light. The juxtaposition is effective as it implies that someone should be there watching the television, but they are not. The expectation of someone being there to watch it also implies that the person left suddenly and were therefore not able to turn the ‘telly’ off. This ominous atmosphere is further enforced by the writer through the description of the ‘half-drunk cup of tea’. The adverb ‘half’ suggests that the person was in the middle of drinking the tea when she suddenly stopped drinking, which again creates chilling tone as there is no explanation as to why it was only ‘half-drunk’.
Section B
Question 5: You have been invited to produce a piece of creative writing about how children play imaginatively.
Write a story set on a dark night as suggested by this picture:
Or
Write a story about a game that goes badly wrong.
Exemplar response:
A chill wind drifted across the park.
Shivering, the boy turned up his collar as he walked down the path; passing the deserted benches as he moved. The joyful sounds of children playing had died with the light. Now there was only silence. A silence that hung in the air like the hangman’s noose. A silence that was waiting for the boy. Waiting to give him away to those that stalked him through the cold, bitter and desolate nights.
The trees lined the path like the queen’s guards outside the palace. Though rather than offering the boy protection, they offered shadows and secrets for those who might choose to dwell there.
The boy was struck by the contrast the unnatural lamplight created with the darkness. The light should have provided comfort to the boy, but instead it only provided more shadows. These shadows meant it was harder to distinguish what was a natural, friendly shadow or one that was hiding a secret.
Silence surrounded the boy. This was an uneasy silence as this should be a place of noise and laughter; everything associated with the innocence of a children’s park. The boy felt none of these things, only fear as he had no idea if he was alone. The slow and steady tap, tap, of feet walking suggested he wasn’t, but he had no way of knowing in the murky darkness.
The bushes that lined the pathment, though an image of natural beauty in the daylight, was another feature in this dark place that might offer a stranger sanctuary from the boy’s gaze, should the stranger choose it.
The boy continued to move forward through the oppressive silence. The silence was deafening to the boy; it filled his straining ears. Then, as suddenly as a bursting dam, the silence was shattered into a thousand tiny pieces by a voice that echoed through the dark, a voice that echoed through the past, present and future of the boy’s life, a voice that took any remaining spark of hope the boy had and extinguished it in a word.
‘Here,’ the voice slithered through the silence.
Turing, the boy ran into the darkness of the park. Arms flailing through the air, legs thundering through the undergrowth, heart pounding in the darkness. There was no escape.
The silence had betrayed him.