www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.

) – Mock 2022 – English

11+ Sutton
SELECTIVE ELIGIBILITY TEST (S.E.T.)
MOCK 2022

English
50 minutes

Instructions:

– This test contains 34 questions, which are split over 4 sections.

– You are advised to spend the time suggested below on each section:
Section A: Spelling – 5 minutes
Section B: Text 1 – 25 minutes
Section C: Text 2 – 10 minutes
Section D: Comparison of Texts 1 & 2 – 10 minutes
– These timings are just recommendations – you are allowed to spend as
much of the given time as you like on each section, and you may return to
questions at any time during the test.
– Read the instructions for each section carefully.
– Mark all your responses on the separate answer sheet provided.

Your time will start when you turn over the page.
 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 1

Section A

Which of these is the correct spelling?

1. A Collegue

B Colleague

C Coleague

D Colegue

E Colleeg

2. A Experince

B Experiance

C Experence

D Expereiance

E Experience

3. A Passtime

B Pasttime

C Pastime

D Pasthyme

E Passthyme

4. A Receive

B Recieve

C Receve

D Reseeve

E Resieve
 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 2

5. A Accidentlly

B Accidently

C Acksidentally

D Accidentally

E Acidentally

6. A Agknowledgement

B Acknowledgement

C Acknowledgemant

D Acknowlegement

E Acknowlegment
 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 3

Section B
The extract below is from Flight of a Starling, by Lisa Heathfield.

Read the extract carefully and then answer the questions that follow.

He stops the car in a space at the side of the track and when he turns the engine off
real silence appears. For a moment, we don’t move, but then Dean is unclicking his seat
belt, opening his door.

‘Come on. We don’t want to miss it.’

5 We get out of the car and Dean holds my hand as we cross over to the other side.

‘Careful here,’ he says, holding back a bramble, and I follow him to where there’s a thin
break in the sharp bushes. At the end there’s a fence and Dean kneels down, lifting the
wire high enough for me to crawl through.

‘Sorry. It’s not exactly elegant,’ he says. If Ma could see me now, scraping my knees,
10 my clean palms pressed flat to the earth.
Dean clambers through after me, all legs and arms pushing through the wire as I hold
it open for him.

‘Quick,’ he says. He takes my hand again and we run over the bumpy ground, across a
wide-open field.

15 ‘What if a farmer shoots us?’ I’ve read it in books, I’ve heard it in the songs Da sang to
us as children.

‘There aren’t any farmers,’ Dean laughs. ‘It’s just a nature reserve.’

‘A what?’

‘For people to walk around, look at the animals and plants and everything. It’s too early
20 so it’s closed now, which means everyone misses the best bit.’
He keeps hold of my hand as we wade through the long grass, with stalks almost white
where they brush against us. The sky is rushing to get light. Here, the new day feels
like a whole new world, the trees behind us pushed strong through the ground in the
night, the sky painted on for the first time. I could live here. Stay here. Grow my own
25 home up from the earth and have its bricks hold steady.

‘Look.’ Dean sounds like an excited child as he pulls me down to crouch next to him.
‘There.’ He’s pointing to the land moving in front of us.

‘What is it?’ I whisper.

‘Starlings.’ He looks at me, his eyes bright. And I see now, the tiny feathered bodies
30 swaying together.
 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 4

‘But there are hundreds of them.’

‘Thousands. Watch. It won’t be long.’

‘What won’t?’ But as I say it, a few of the starlings lift gentle from the ground. Within a
second, they all follow, a rush of thousands and thousands of wings swooping them up.
35 I can hear their feathers, a heavy rumble as they rise higher. Suddenly, they all turn
together, as if they all just know.

‘How did they do that?’

‘They’re amazing, aren’t they?’ Dean only glances at me before he’s back watching
them. They peak at the top, then shoot down so low. A smudge of paint thrown dripping
40 into the sky.

‘I love it,’ I whisper, although I hadn’t meant to speak.

‘I knew you would,’ Dean says.

The racing black cloud suddenly bends and twists, changing colour from black to grey.
They’re like nothing I’ve ever seen, nothing I knew existed, these tiny black stars
45 meeting to make a whole. I feel so small, but as big as the world all at once.

‘They remind me of you,’ Dean says.

‘Of me?’ I don’t take my eyes off the starlings. I don’t want to miss any of it. Any of the
shapes of their dance.

‘The way they move like it’s impossible,’ Dean says. ‘The way you fly, in your circus.’

50 So this is what the audience sees. Now it’s my breath held as I watch them leap and
twist symmetrical in the air. Our eyes watch them, so they won’t fall.

I hold Dean’s hand and I know.

‘My own circus,’ I say.

‘All for you.’

55 Thousands of feathers fold and beat against the bodies above us, knowing exactly what
to do. Our circus birds, bending in the white.

‘Look,’ Dean says. He’s pointing to the edge of the group, to a bigger shape tracking
them closer. ‘A hawk.’

‘Is it trying to get them?’ But I know it is. It’s waiting for its time, a mistake, for a
60 starling to forget its way and lose the others.

‘I think it’s why they stay so close together.’ Dean says. ‘So the hawk can’t get them.’

All I can see is the hawk hovering.

‘Do you think some of them are tired?’ I ask. ‘That they want to stop, but they have to
keep following?’
 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 5

7. Look carefully at lines 1–3. Which of these is NOT correct?

Select one answer.

A The narrator is a passenger in a car.

B The car is on a rough lane rather than a proper road.

C The narrator does not notice the noise of the car until it stops.

D They get out of the car as soon as it stops.

E After undoing his seatbelt, Dean immediately opens his door.

8. Look at lines 9–10.

Select the TWO words that describe how the narrator’s mother would be
likely to react if she saw her now.

A Unsurprised

B Disapproving

C Pleased

D Shocked

E Resigned

9. Why is the narrator worried that a farmer might shoot them?

Select all that are correct.

A She is worried that they are trespassing on someone’s land.

B She has spotted a farmer in the distance.

C She has read about farmers with shotguns in books.

D Her dad used to sing rhymes about farmers with guns.

E She has seen news stories about people being shot by farmers.
 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 6

10. Look closely at lines 15–18.

Select the TWO most accurate words to describe how the narrator is
presented in these lines.

A Naïve

B Knowledgeable

C Unworldly

D Pretentious

E Foolish

11. What is the grass like in lines 21–22?

Pick the most accurate description.

A Sparse, bristling tufts of coarse white reeds

B Tall and dense with dry, sun-bleached tips

C Lush green blades that gleam white in the bright sunlight

D A cropped, patchy carpet of dry fronds

E A sea of high, leafy greenery

12. Select the TWO most accurate words to describe the time of day when the
events in the extract take place.

A Dawn

B Dusk

C Noon

D Daybreak

E Sunset
 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 7

13. Look carefully at lines 22–25. Which of these is NOT correct?

Select one answer.

A Everything here feels fresh and new to the narrator.

B The narrator would like to make a painting of the scene.

C The narrator imagines that the trees popped up, fully formed, overnight.

D It feels like a safe and secure place to the narrator.

E The idea of a new beginning is appealing to the narrator.

14. Why is the land described as ‘moving’ in line 27?

Pick the most accurate explanation.

A An earthquake is causing the ground to shudder.

B The narrator has mistaken the rippling surface of a lake for land.

C The author wants to show that the narrator is mistaken about the
bricks of her new home holding steady.

D There is a vast number of birds on the ground, moving as one.

E The narrator crouches down so suddenly that it feels like the ground is
dropping away.

15. Which of these statements about Dean are true?

Select all that are correct.

A He is seventeen or older.

B He has been to the nature reserve before.

C He treats the narrator with contempt.

D He is delighted by the birds.

E He is eager for the narrator to see the starlings.

 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 8

16. ‘How did they do that?’ (line 37)

What is the narrator asking here?

Pick the most accurate explanation.

A She wants to know how birds fly.

B She wants to know how the starlings can fly so quickly.

C She wants to know how the starlings all knew to change direction at
the same time.

D She wants to know how the starlings all managed to take off without
crashing into each other.

E She wants to know how the starlings produced the deep, reverberating
noise that she heard.

17. Select the TWO most accurate words to describe how Dean feels when he
sees the starlings.

A Awed

B Admiring

C Alarmed

D Apathetic

E Agitated

18. Look carefully at lines 38–40. Which of these statements are true?

Select all that are correct.

A These lines include direct speech.

B These lines include a rhetorical question.

C These lines include a metaphor.

D These lines include a simile.

E These lines include personification.

 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 9

19. Select the TWO most accurate words to describe the word ‘peak’ in line 39.

A Noun

B Verb

C Adjective

D Homophone

E Onomatopoeic

20. Which of the following quotes from the extract refer to the starlings?

Select all that are correct.

A ‘racing black cloud’

B ‘rushing to get light’

C ‘painted on for the first time’

D ‘A smudge of paint’

E ‘tiny black stars’

21. Look carefully at lines 46–51. Which of these is NOT correct?

Select one answer.

A Dean thinks the starlings seem to defy the laws of physics.

B The starlings remind the narrator of Dean.

C The cloud of starlings morphs from one shape into another.

D The narrator is in a flying act in a circus.

E The narrator suddenly understands what her audiences must see

and feel.
 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 10

22. Select the TWO words that Dean would most likely use to describe the
narrator’s circus act.

A Trickery

B Extraordinary

C Unfeasible

D Unbelievable

E Perilous

23. Select the TWO most accurate words to describe how the narrator feels in
lines 57–64.

A Concerned

B Detached

C Empathetic

D Pitiless

E Objective
 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 11

Section C
The poem below is Starling, by Rob Cowen.

Read the poem carefully and then answer the questions that follow.

Starling

We forget you were once as common as coal.

Little coal-black bird.
Stumpy, dumpy. The wire-dotter, pylon swarmer.
Camped out on our ledges and trees, screaming England’s towns down.
5 Noisy as a classroom on the last day of term.

We forget that you once shimmered through frozen air; ripple bird.
Shape-shifter, dusk-dancer. Murmurer, sky-writer,
Endlessly becoming on the darkening gold:
Animals, patterns, waves.
10 And how we, wonderstruck, witnessed a nightly unity against death.

We forget that you stayed true;

Loyal little bird. Roof-flocker, aerial-clinger,
When the rest up and left.
And how you carried the constellations in your feathers,
15 Iridescent purples, greens and blues, the rare hues of petrol on water.

We forget that you were once as common as coal,

Little coal-black bird.
That your blackening of streets and chimney whistles,
Your smoke-like swirling in the skies,
20 Was an olive branch from heaven.

Yet in the mad pursuit of a spotless life, we believe you plague.

We forget that in loss it’s the little things that leave the largest holes
And that, all along, you were drawing patterns to live by.
Community bird, collaborator, congregator, conversation bird.
25 You, accepter bird, come-together bird.

Crowd bird. YOLO bird.

The dance-like-no-one’s-watching bird,
Over town and field, city and sea.
Beauty-beyond-compare bird. Modest bird,
30 Youth bird. Joy bird.
 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 12

We forget that you were once as common as coal.

And that fact makes your scarcity more keenly felt.
How losing you is devastating;
A hole both in sky and soul,
35 For it signifies a greater loss in us.

24. Look carefully at lines 1–2. Which of these is NOT correct?

Select one answer.

A The opening line contains a simile.

B The repetition of ‘coal’ emphasises the starling’s colour.

C The poet uses the first person singular.

D Starlings are compared to coal because both used to be ubiquitous in

the UK but are now far less common.

E The poet thinks we have forgotten how many starlings there used
to be.

25. Where are starlings seen in the poem?

Select all that are correct.

A Flocking around electricity pylons

B Perched on overhead cables

C Sitting on the branches of trees

D Inside school buildings

E Resting on the ledges of buildings

 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 13

26. What is the meaning of lines 11–13?

Pick the most accurate explanation.

A Starlings make good pets because they are very faithful.

B Starlings remain in the UK when other birds migrate south.

C Starlings have neither changed nor evolved over time.

D Starlings are the only birds that can be seen on our rooftops.

E Starlings are very territorial and fight to the end.

27. Select the TWO words that could be used in place of ‘rare’ in line 15
without changing the meaning of the sentence.

A Odd

B Sparse

C Remarkable

D Scarce

E Exquisite

28. What behaviours displayed by the starlings does the poet think we could
learn from?

Select all that are correct.

A They make loud and piercing noises.

B They will settle and rest anywhere.

C They are gregarious birds.

D They work together towards the same end.

E They are amenable and tolerant.

 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 14

29. Select the TWO most accurate words to describe the starling as it is
portrayed in lines 26–30.

A Yobbish

B Harassing

C Uninhibited

D Exuberant

E Austere

30. How does the poet feel about the decline in the starling population?

Pick the most accurate explanation.

A It does not matter much in the grand scheme of things.

B Their loss is not felt as greatly as a larger animal’s would be.

C It has gone unnoticed; therefore, it cannot be important.

D It is understandable as, like coal, they are no longer relevant.

E It is a great and tragic loss for nature and humanity.

 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 15

Section D

Answer the following questions using BOTH the extract and the poem.

31. Select the TWO themes that are common to BOTH texts.

A Loss

B Unity

C Optimism

D Nature

E Religion

32. Think about the styles of the extract and the poem. Which of these is true
about BOTH?

Select all that are correct.

A They are written in the first person.

B They address the birds directly.

C They are written in the present tense.

D They use metaphors to refer to the starlings.

E The overall tone is nostalgic.

33. Think about the similarities between the two texts. Which of these is
NOT correct?

Select one answer.

A They both refer to the flight of the starlings as a dance.

B They both suggest that starlings flock together for survival.

C They both convey wonder at the flight of the starlings.

D They both draw a parallel between the narrator and the starlings.

E They both refer to the different shapes that flocks of starlings form.
 www.exampapersplus.co.uk © 11+ Sutton (S.E.T.) – Mock 2022 – English
Page 16

34. Think about the differences between the texts. Which of these is
NOT correct?

Select one answer.

A The starlings come together to fly at sunrise in the extract but at night
in the poem.

B The starlings are in a natural setting in the extract, but they interact
with the manufactured environment in the poem.

C The extract emphasises the vast number of starlings, whereas the

poem focuses on their dwindling population.

D In the extract the starlings are portrayed as invincible, whereas the

poem exposes their vulnerability.

E The starlings are compared to performers in the extract, but they do

not care if they have an audience or not in the poem.

End of Test