English Language Paper 1 Revision

This exam paper is worth half of your English language grade.

This paper will be based on one fiction extract.

The text will be from the 20th century, but could be quite early in the 20th century

The extract will be a side of A4 typed up from a novel.

You will answer 4 questions on these two extracts based around:

 Your ability to understand the text and follow what is happening

 Your ability to analyse language
 Your ability to explain how the text is structured for effect
 Your ability to evaluate and prove a crtical argument

You will also write a description or a narrative (short story) based on an image or idea.

In this booklet you will find:

Outline of the questions you will be asked

2 example exam papers
Advice on how to tackle the questions
Revision tasks and techniques
Example answers
Sitting the exam

The exam will last for 1 hour 45 minutes.

This is a challenge, but it is not impossible. You need to be organised and well-practiced.

It is important that you make the most of the time. Part of this is knowing when to move on to a
new question. You may not finish an answer, but you will get more marks for moving on to a new
question than you will for adding to the one you are on.

In the grid below write down the timings that you have agreed with you teacher for each question.

Question How many marks? How long should you What paragraph
spend? structure will you
use to write your
answer
(PEE/PEALE etc.)
Read the extract and
understanding the 5w’s
(who, what, when, where,
why)
Question 1
Select 4 things

Question 2
How does the writer use
language in a 10 line extract
Question 3
How does the writer
structure for effect across
the whole extract
Evaluate whether you agree
or disagree with a statement
about half of the extract.
Write a description or short
story

For this paper you will need to be fluent in reading a range of resources. You should be reading
regularly. Many people find reading is a good thing to do when waiting for someone or before going
to sleep. Below is a very limited list of suggested novels representing the level of challenge the
students might expect to find in the exam.

White Teeth – Zadie Smith

1984 - George Orwell
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
Brighton Rock - Graham Green
Shrelock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle
The Woman in Black – Susan Hill
Advice for Question 2

How does the writer use language here to describe/present.....? (Based on a short extract)

This question is asking you to:

 Identify and name language features

 Analyse the effects of language techniques
 Analyse the connotations of words
 Explain the effects of sentences

Key Tips:

 To be good at this question you need to be able to spot language features

 You also need to do more than just spotting the feature, you need to analyse and say what
effect it has.
 When you analyse a technique, comment on the effect of the technique and zoom in on the
word that creates the technique and explore the connotations e.g.

‘This grey prison had no walls’

 Metaphor – emphasise the effect of the mist/ symbolic suggestion of

power

 Adjective – grey = lifeless, ominous in this setting

 Noun – prison = Entrapment, punishment, unpleasant/threatening

The writer creates a sense of entrapment in the description of the

moors. He includes the metaphor, ‘This grey prison had no walls’.
The use of the noun ‘prison’ creates the metaphor and implies
restriction and a sense that the experience is like an unpleasant
punishment. This is further developed by the use of the adjective
‘grey’ which has connotations of lifelessness and therefore implies
something ghostly. In this context there is also a sense of a lack of
emotion and indifference towards the character who is suffering
enhancing the powerlessness of the character. As a result, the
metaphor can be seen to emphasise the overpowering, overwhelming
effect of the mist and to symbolically imply that the restriction is as
much one of the mind as the moors themselves.

To revise independently for this question:

 You need to know word classes, language techniques and sentence structures. Research
them; challenge yourself to remember them; find a book and see if you can identify them.
 Select a short passage (about 10 lines) and look for interesting features of language. Try to
explain why the writer chose to use those words, what the connotations are and what the
effects are.
These are some of the language techniques you may want to know

Noun Active verb Passive Verb Modal verb

Adverb Adjective Preposition Imperative

Pronoun Possessive pronoun Connectives Names and references

Metaphor Simile Personification Imagery

Symbolism Lists Formal vocabulary Informal words and

slang

Alliteration Plosive Alliteration Onomatopoeia Repetition

Group of three Rhetorical Question Emotive words Hyperbole

Semantic field Allusion Pun Facts and stats

Which techniques might create these effects?

Suggest something is Emphasis Create agreement Suggest the ideas are

Impressive reliable

Imply something is Generate anger Generate desire Create an impression of

overwhelming balance

Create sympathy Imply guilt Give a clear direction Create mystery

Impact Dramatic Shock Contrast

Comparison Exaggerate Create a connection Direct

Personal Impersonal Confusion Stress importance

 Name the techniques and comment on the effect

1. He edged suspiciously around the sides of the hall, watching, frowning, waiting.

Adverb Dynamic Verbs List

The writer uses Emphasises the verbs

Edged - does not want to be
the adverb to and makes the
seen
develop the character appear
sense that he is watching/waiting - he seems calculating as he builds
doing something like a threat as if he is towards releasing the
he shouldn’t and going to do something anger.
building the
Frowning - suggests his
tension since we
displeasure and suggests he
are unaware of
is waiting to release his
what he is about
anger.
to do.

2. The banging of blood in the brain blinded him to sense and reason.

3. He shuddered as the door creaked open like the cackle of some demented daemon.
Advice for question 3

How has the writer structured to interest the reader?

The question is asking you to:

 Explain the effect of the writer’s structural choices

 Identify structural features
 Identify word classes
 Evidence your ideas
 Explain the quotation

Key tips:

 The question always has the same bullet points to guide you. You should use these to
structure your answer
o What the writer focuses the reader’s attention on at the beginning
o How the writer shifts the focus
o Any other structural features
 It is important to explain the effect of the structural choices rather than simply explaining
what the quote you choose suggests. You could try always ending every paragraph with a
sentence that is about the writer and structure e.g. The writer deliberately chooses to
______ (shift the focus/ change teh perspective/ repeat the idea) in order to .....

To revise independently for this question

 You need to know and be able to name structural features. You will need to challenge
yourself to remember some of the features in the grid below and then see if you can explain
why the writer uses this technique. Here are some key examples to get you going.

Shift in focus Shift in perspective Flash back Foreshadowing

Contrast Juxtaposition Repetition Mirroring
Echoing Motif Cyclical structure Chronological
Developing Cinematic Zoom in Broadening out

 Select a page or two from a novel (about 6-8 paragraphs) and use the same question. Apply
your knowledge by planning and writing an answer. The opening of the novel and the
openings of chapters are often good places to look because the writer has to shift the focus.

Below you will find an example answer to the exam question above. It is annotated by an examiner.
It received full marks:
Advice for Question 4

A student/ teacher having read this extract commented “.............................” To what extent do you
agree?

The question is asking you to:

 Have an opinion
 Prove your opinion
 Evidence your ideas
 Analyse language and structure to prove your point of view

Key tips:

 This question needs to be based on a strong opinion. Your opening paragraph/statement

should be one or two sentences long and should give an overview of whether you agree or
disagree e.g. I agree strongly with the statement. The reader would.....
 It is highly likely that you will need to agree with the statement.
 You need to use all the skills you have already used in analysing structure and language to
help you prove your point.

Independent revision

 You need to try and create a question with a statement. Read a short section (about 4
paragraphs) and imagine what a student might say about the character or about how a
reader would react. E.g. A student commented that:
o “It really makes you feel like you are there with them”
o “It really shows how good/bad the situation was”
o “It makes the reader really dislike.....”
o “It makes the reader feel scared for....”
o “It keeps reminding the reader of ....”

Below you will find an example answer to the exam question above. It is annotated by an examiner.
It received full marks:
 Paper 1: Extract taken from The Woman in Black.
Arthur Kipps, a solicitor on business, is alone in a graveyard and has once again noticed
the mysterious, ill-looking woman he saw at Mrs Drablow’s funeral.

Suddenly conscious of the cold and the extreme bleakness and eeriness of the spot and of the
gathering dusk of the November afternoon, and not wanting my spirits to become so depressed that
I might begin to be affected by all sorts of morbid fancies, I was about to leave, and walk briskly back
to the house, where I intended to switch on a good many lights and even light a small fire if it were
possible, before beginning my preliminary work on Mrs Drablow’s papers. But, as I turned away, I
glanced once again around the burial ground and then I saw again the woman with the wasted face,
who had been at Mrs Drablow’s funeral. She was at the far end of the plot, close to one of the few
upright headstones, and she wore the same clothing and bonnet, but it seemed to have slipped back
so that I could make out her face a little more clearly.
In the greyness of the fading light, it had the sheen and pallor not of flesh so much as of bone itself.
Earlier, when I had looked at her, although admittedly it had been scarcely more than a swift glance
each time, I had not noticed any particular expression on her ravaged face, but then I had, after all,
been entirely taken with the look of extreme illness. Now, however, as I stared at her, stared until
my eyes ached in their sockets, stared in surprise and bewilderment at her presence, now I saw that
he face did wear an expression. It was one of what I can only describe – and the words seem
hopelessly inadequate to express what I saw – as a desperate, yearning malevolence; it was as
though she were searching for something she wanted, needed – must have, more than life itself, and
which had been taken from her. And, towards whoever had taken it she directed the purest evil and
hatred and loathing, with all the force that was available to her. Her face, in its extreme pallor, her
eyes, sunken but unnaturally bright, were burning with the concentration of passionate emotion
which was within her and which streamed from her. Whether or not this hatred and malevolence
was directed towards me I had no means of telling – I had no reason at all to suppose that it could
possibly have been, but at that moment I was far from able to base my reactions upon reason and
logic. For the combination of the peculiar, isolated place and the sudden appearance of the woman
and the dreadfulness of her expression began to fill me with fear. Indeed, I had never in my life been
so possessed by it, never known my knees to tremble and my flesh to creep, and then to turn cold as
stone, never known my heart to give a great lurch, as if it would almost leap up into my dry mouth
and then begin pounding in my chest like a hammer on an anvil, never known myself gripped and
held fast by such dread and horror and apprehension of evil. It was as though I had become
paralysed. I could not bear to stay there, for fear, but nor had I any strength left in my body to turn
and run away, and I was as certain as I have ever been of anything that, at any second, I would drop
dead on that wretched path of ground.
It was the woman who moved. She slipped behind the gravestone and, keeping close to the shadow
of the wall, went through one of the broken gaps and out of sight.

Paper 1: The Woman in Black

1. Read again the first part of the source lines 1-6.

List 4 things Arthur Kipps intends to do.

[4 marks]

2. Look in detail at this extract of the source:

In the greyness of the fading light, it had the sheen and pallor not of flesh so much as of bone
itself. Earlier, when I had looked at her, although admittedly it had been scarcely more than a
swift glance each time, I had not noticed any particular expression on her ravaged face, but then I
had, after all, been entirely taken with the look of extreme illness. Now, however, as I stared at
her, stared until my eyes ached in their sockets, stared in surprise and bewilderment at her
presence, now I saw that he face did wear an expression. It was one of what I can only describe –
and the words seem hopelessly inadequate to express what I saw – as a desperate, yearning
malevolence; it was as though she were searching for something she wanted, needed – must have,
more than life itself, and which had been taken from her. And, towards whoever had taken it she
directed the purest evil and hatred and loathing, with all the force that was available to her. Her
face, in its extreme pallor, her eyes, sunken but unnaturally bright, were burning with the
concentration of passionate emotion which was within her and which streamed from her.
Whether or not this hatred and malevolence was directed towards me I had no means of telling – I
had no reason at all to suppose that it could possibly have been, but at that moment I was far
from able to base my reactions upon reason and logic.

How does the writer use language here to describe the mysterious woman in black? You could
include the writer’s choice of:

• words and phrases 


• language features and techniques 


• sentence forms. 


[8 marks]
3. You now need to think about the whole of the source.


This text is from the middle of a gothic novel.


How has the writer structured the text to make the reader feel as though they are in the graveyard
with Arthur?

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]

Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the source from line 23 to the end.

A student, having read this section of the text, said: “In this part of the text you can really feel
Arthur’s fear of the mysterious woman growing. He’s terrified of her.”

To what extent do you agree? In your response, you could:

• consider your own impressions of how Arthur feels 


• evaluate how the writer creates a sense of fear and tension


• support your opinions with references to the text. 


[20 marks]