AQA Sample Paper: GCSE English Language
Paper 1: Explorations in creative reading and writing
Time allowed: 1 hour 45 minutes
You are advised to spend about 15 minutes reading through the Source and all five questions you have to answer. You should make sure you leave sufficient time to check your answers.
Source A
This extract is from the first chapter of a novel by Donna Tartt.
The Goldfinch
Things would have turned out better if my mother had lived. As it was, she died when I was a kid; and though everything that’s happened to me since then is thoroughly my own fault, still when I lost her I lost sight of any landmark that might have led me someplace happier, to some more populated or congenial* life.
Her death the dividing mark: Before and After. And though it’s a bleak thing to admit all these years later, still I’ve never met anyone who made me feel loved the way she did. Everything came alive in her company; she cast a charmed theatrical light about her so that to see anything through her eyes was to see it in brighter colours than ordinary – I remember a few weeks before she died, eating a late supper with her in an Italian restaurant down in the Village, and how she grasped my sleeve at the sudden, almost painful loveliness of a birthday cake with lit candles being carried in procession from the kitchen, faint circle of light wavering in across the dark ceiling and then the cake set down to blaze amidst the family, beatifying* an old lady’s face, smiles all round, waiters stepping away with their hands behind their backs – just an ordinary birthday dinner you might see anywhere in an inexpensive downtown restaurant, and I’m sure I wouldn’t even remember it had she not died so soon after, but I thought about it again and again after her death and indeed I’ll probably think about it all my life: that candlelit circle, a tableau vivant* of the daily, commonplace happiness that was lost when I lost her.
She was beautiful, too. That’s almost secondary; but still, she was. When she came to New York fresh from Kansas, she worked part-time as a model though she was too uneasy in front of the camera to be very good at it; whatever she had, it didn’t translate to film.
And yet she was wholly herself: a rarity. I cannot recall ever seeing another person who really resembled her. She had black hair, fair skin that freckled in summer, china-blue eyes with a lot of light in them; and in the slant of her cheekbones there was such an eccentric mixture of the tribal and the Celtic Twilight that sometimes people guessed she was Icelandic. In fact, she was half Irish, half Cherokee, from a town in Kansas near the Oklahoma border; and she liked to make me laugh by calling herself an Okie even though she was as glossy and nervy and stylish as a racehorse. That exotic character unfortunately comes out a little too stark and unforgiving in photographs – her freckles covered with makeup, her hair pulled back in a ponytail at the nape of her neck like some nobleman in The Tale of Genji – and what doesn’t come across at all is her warmth, her merry, unpredictable quality, which is what I loved about her most. It’s clear, from the stillness she emanates in pictures, how much she mistrusted the camera; she gives off a watchful, tigerish air of steeling herself against attack. But in life she wasn’t like that. She moved with a thrilling quickness, gestures sudden and light, always perched on the edge of her chair like some long elegant marsh-bird about to startle and fly away. I loved the sandalwood perfume she wore, rough and unexpected, and I loved the rustle of her starched shirt when she swooped down to kiss me on the forehead. And her laugh was enough to make you want to kick over what you were doing and follow her down the street. Wherever she went, men looked at her out of the corner of their eyes, and sometimes they used to look at her in a way that bothered me a little.
*Glossary
congenial = pleasant
beatifying = blessing, making saintly
tableau vivant = a living picture/painting
Section A: Reading
Answer all questions in this section.
You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section.
Q1. Read again the first part of the Source from lines 1 to 6.
List four things from this part of the text about the narrator.
[4 marks]
Q2. Look in detail at this extract from lines 5 to 20 of the Source:
Her death the dividing mark: Before and After. And though it’s a bleak thing to admit all these years later, still I’ve never met anyone who made me feel loved the way she did. Everything came alive in her company; she cast a charmed theatrical light about her so that to see anything through her eyes was to see it in brighter colours than ordinary – I remember a few weeks before she died, eating a late supper with her in an Italian restaurant down in the Village, and how she grasped my sleeve at the sudden, almost painful loveliness of a birthday cake with lit candles being carried in procession from the kitchen, faint circle of light wavering in across the dark ceiling and then the cake set down to blaze amidst the family, beatifying* an old lady’s face, smiles all round, waiters stepping away with their hands behind their backs – just an ordinary birthday dinner you might see anywhere in an inexpensive downtown restaurant, and I’m sure I wouldn’t even remember it had she not died so soon after, but I thought about it again and again after her death and indeed I’ll probably think about it all my life: that candlelit circle, a tableau vivant* of the daily, commonplace happiness that was lost when I lost her.
She was beautiful, too. That’s almost secondary; but still, she was. When she came to New York fresh from Kansas, she worked part-time as a model though she was too uneasy in front of the camera to be very good at it; whatever she had, it didn’t translate to film.
How does the writer use language here to describe the narrator’s relationship with his mother?
You could include the writer’s choice of:
[8 marks]
Q3. You now need to think about the whole of the Source.
This extract comes from the opening chapter of the novel.
How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?
You could write about:
[8 marks]
Q4. Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source from line 18 to the end.
A student, having read this section of the text, said: ‘The description is so vivid that the character of the mother really seems to come to life.’
To what extent do you agree?
In your response, you could:
[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.
Q5. Either: Write a description suggested by this picture:
Or: Write the opening of a story with the title ‘The Outsider’.
(24 marks for content and organisation
16 marks for technical accuracy)
[40 marks]
AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 1: Explorations in creative reading and writing
Mark Scheme
Q1. Read again the first part of the Source from lines 1 to 6.
List four things from this part of the text about the narrator. [4 marks]
Give 1 mark for each point about the narrator:
Indicative content; students may include:
Or any other valid responses you are able to verify by checking the Source
Q2. Look in detail at this extract from lines 5 to 20 of the Source. (Extract in paper.)
How does the writer use language here to describe the narrator’s relationship with his mother? [8 marks]
Level 4
Detailed, perceptive analysis
7-8 marks
Level 3
Clear, relevant explanation
5-6 marks
Level 2
Some understanding and comment
3-4 marks
Level 1
Simple, limited comment
1-2 marks
Level 0
No marks
No comments on the use of language.
Nothing to reward.
AO2 content may include the effect of ideas such as:
Q3. You now need to think about the whole of the Source.
This extract comes from the opening chapter of the novel.
How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader? [8 marks]
Level 4
Detailed, perceptive analysis
7-8 marks
Level 3
Clear, relevant explanation
5-6 marks
Level 2
Some understanding and comment
3-4 marks
Level 1
Simple, limited comment
1-2 marks
Level 0
No marks
No comments on the use of structure.
Nothing to reward.
AO2 content may include the effect of ideas such as:
Q4. Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source from line 18 to the end.
A student, having read this section of the text, said: ‘The description is so vivid that the character of the mother really seems to come to life.’
To what extent do you agree? [20 marks]
Level 4
Detailed, perceptive evaluation
16-20 marks
Level 3
Clear, relevant evaluation
11-15 marks
Level 2
Some evaluation
6-10 marks
Level 1
Simple, limited evaluation
1-5 marks
Level 0
No marks
No relevant comments offered in response to the statement, no impressions, no evaluation.
AO4 content may include the evaluation of ideas such as: