Edexcel GCSE English Language: Paper 1 Q1–Q2: Retrieval

This extract is from the opening of a story by the (fictional) writer Iris Tennant, titled The Long Field. A man named Reuben returns to the farmhouse where he grew up.

1 The farmhouse sat low and square at the foot of the hill, its slates green with moss and one 2 chimney leaning, as though it had grown tired of standing straight. The yard in front of it was 3 empty now. Where the muck and the cattle and the noise had once been, there was only nettle 4 and a single rusted churn lying on its side. Reuben stood at the gate and did not go in. The 5 door, painted a faded red, was shut, and across it somebody had nailed a rough plank, as if to 6 keep out more than the wind. A dog barked once, far off, and then thought better of it.

From lines 1 to 6, identify one detail about the farmhouse. (1 mark)

This extract is from a story by the (fictional) writer Oskar Brandt, titled The Glasshouse. A girl named Lena steps into a derelict greenhouse at the edge of a public park.

1 Inside the glasshouse the air was warm and green and very still. Most of the panes had gone, 2 and through the empty frames the ivy had climbed in and taken hold, so that the iron ribs of 3 the roof were wrapped in leaves. A long bench ran down the centre, and on it stood rows of 4 clay pots, cracked and empty, each one furred with grey dust. Water had pooled on the brick 5 floor and lay there dark and unmoving. In the far corner a single orange flower, impossibly 6 bright, had pushed its way up through a split in the bricks and turned its face to the light.

From lines 1 to 6, identify one thing the writer tells us about the inside of the glasshouse. (1 mark)

This extract is from a story by the (fictional) writer Marisol Vega, titled The Ferryman's Hut. The narrator describes an old man who rows passengers across an estuary.

1 The ferryman was a small, weathered man with skin the colour of tanned leather and eyes the 2 pale grey of a winter morning. He wore a thick blue jersey, darned at both elbows, and a 3 woollen cap pulled down low over his ears. His hands, which never seemed to rest, were broad 4 and scarred, the knuckles swollen from a lifetime at the oars. He spoke little, and when he did 5 his voice came out as a low, gravelled murmur, hardly louder than the slap of the water against 6 the hull. Around one wrist he had knotted a length of frayed orange cord, the only colour on him.

From lines 1 to 6, identify one detail about the ferryman's appearance. (1 mark)

This extract is from a story by the (fictional) writer Henrik Sole, titled The Cold Year. A boy named Tomas wakes on the first morning of a hard frost.

1 Tomas woke because the cold had reached him even under three blankets. The window of his 2 room had grown a forest overnight: ferns and feathers of ice, white and intricate, climbing the 3 glass from corner to corner so that the garden beyond was lost. When he breathed out, his 4 breath hung in the air of the bedroom in a small grey cloud. The water in the jug on the 5 washstand had frozen to a solid disc, and the brass handle of the door, when he touched it, 6 burned his fingers with cold. Downstairs, no fire had been lit. The whole house was silent, and 7 through the floorboards rose only the deep, settled chill of a building that had given up its heat.

From lines 1 to 7, give two ways the writer shows that it is extremely cold. (2 marks)

This extract is from a story by the (fictional) writer Adaeze Okwu, titled Market Day. A girl named Bisi walks through a crowded street market at midday.

1 By noon the market was at its loudest. Traders shouted their prices over one another, and the 2 shouts knotted together into one great wall of sound that Bisi felt in her chest as much as heard. 3 The air was thick with the smell of frying plantain, of dried fish, of diesel from the buses 4 edging past, and of overripe mangoes left too long in the sun. Bodies pressed in on every side, 5 so that to move at all she had to turn sideways and slide between shoulders and baskets. Colour 6 was everywhere: bolts of cloth in scarlet and gold, pyramids of tomatoes, a man selling 7 umbrellas of every shade at once. A radio somewhere played a tune she half knew, lost and 8 found again between the voices.

From lines 1 to 8, give two ways the writer shows that the market is busy. (2 marks)

This extract is from a story by the (fictional) writer Clara Mensah, titled The Lighthouse Keeper. The narrator describes the room at the top of the lighthouse where the keeper works.

1 The lamp room was a place of glass and brass and constant motion. At its heart the great lens 2 turned, slow and steady, throwing its long arm of light out into the dark and drawing it back, 3 out and back, all night without rest. Everything gleamed: the brass fittings were polished until 4 they burned, and not a fingerprint was allowed to dull them. A logbook lay open on a sloping 5 desk, its columns filled in a careful, slanting hand. The windows ran the whole way round, and 6 beyond them there was nothing but black water and the white teeth of the waves far below. It 7 was warm there, and quiet but for the soft hum of the turning gear and, every few seconds, the 8 hush of the beam passing over the sea.

From lines 1 to 8, give two details about the lamp room at the top of the lighthouse. (2 marks)