Cambridge & Pearson Edexcel Past Paper Questions

Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: Stanhope: (as he takes off his pack, gas satchel, and belt) Has Hardy gone? Osbor...

Cruel bully Inspiring leader Which do you think is the more accurate description of Sherriff’s portrayal of Stanhope? Support your ideas with deta...

You are Trotter near the end of the play. You have just been made second-in-command of the company. Write your thoughts.

Read this extract from In Memoriam, and then answer the question that follows it: Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the fro...

How does Tennyson’s writing make the story so intriguing for you in either The Lady of Shalott or Mariana? Support your ideas with details from you...

What are your feelings about the ways in which Tennyson portrays Ulysses in Ulysses? Refer to details in the poem as you answer.

Read this poem, and then answer the question that follows it: Amends Content removed due to copyright restrictions. (by Adrienne Rich) Explore ...

How do you think the poet’s words create a vivid feeling of sorrow in either Dover Beach (by Matthew Arnold) or The Voice (by Thomas Hardy)?

Explore the openings of any two poems from the selection which you find particularly memorable, bringing out why the poets’ words catch your attent...

Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: Heathcliff went to the back of her chair, and leant over, but not so far as to le...

A loyal and loving servant An interfering gossip To what extent do you think both these descriptions apply to Nelly Dean? Support your ideas with ...

You are Hindley Earnshaw on your way home to Wuthering Heights to attend your father’s funeral. Write your thoughts.

Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it. One day, on a trip to the bazaar, Mr Chawla spotted a large striped garden umbrel...

A fraud A holy man Which of these descriptions is closer to your view of Sampath? Support your ideas with details from Desai’s writing.

You are Hungry Hop towards the end of the novel, helpless in the nets as Pinky looks down on you. Write your thoughts.

Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: Gatsby walked over and stood beside her. ‘Daisy, that’s all over now,’ he said ea...

How far do you think Fitzgerald intends us to dislike Jordan Baker? Support your ideas with details from the novel.

You are Gatsby. You are waiting at night outside the house of Tom and Daisy following the death of Myrtle Wilson. Write your thoughts.

Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: One day, a strange, massively built, blue-eyed young man walked into the paramoun...

Explore two moments in the no vel where Head makes vivid the hardships that the people of Botswana face. (Do not use the passage in Question 28 in ...

You are Makhaya. You have just learnt that Gilbert has proposed to Maria. Write your thoughts.

Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: In the black shade of the Varnum spruces he caught up with her and she turned wit...

How does Wharton make Zeena such an unattr active and dislikeable character? Support your ideas with details from the writing.

You are Mattie. You have just been told that you are to go to live in Starkfield with Zeena and Ethan Frome. Write your thoughts.

Read this extract from The Lemon Orchard (by Alex La Guma), and then answer the question that follows it: The men came down between two long, regu...

How do the writers make the narrators so interesting in two of the following stories? On Her Knees (by Tim Winton) The Signalman (by Charles Dicke...

You are the boy in Secrets. You have just read the first of Aunt Mary’s letters. Write your thoughts.

Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: Happy: Oh, gets to be like everything else. Selling is selling, y'know. Girl: I su...

In this play the action often shifts between the present and the past. Explore the dramatic effect of two moments in the play where this happens.

You are Biff, lying in bed on the night before you go to see Bill Oliver. Write your thoughts.

Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: Citizens: We will be satisfied! Let us be satisfied! Brutus: Then follow me, and g...

To what extent does Shakespeare make you sympathise with Cassius? Support your ideas with details from the play.

You are Brutus. You are just about to reveal to Portia what has happened in your meeting with Cassius and the other conspirators. Write your thoughts.

Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: Stephano: Stand farther. Come, proceed. Caliban: Why, as I told thee, 'tis a custo...

How does Shakespeare vividly convey to you Caliban's feelings about being under Prospero's control?

You are Miranda at the end of the play. You are thinking about your recent experiences. Write your thoughts.

Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: Algernon: Did you hear what I was playing, Lane? Lane: I didn't think it polite to...

How does Wilde make Miss Prism's attempts to ‘improve' Cecily so funny? Support your ideas with details from Wilde's writing.

You are Algernon at the end of Act 1. You have just re-read what you have written on your shirt cuff. Write your thoughts.

Read this extract from Ulysses, and then answer the question that follows it: This is my son, mine own Telemachus, To whom I leave the sceptre and ...

'A profound portrayal of hopeless love.' How far do you agree with this description of the poem The Lady of Shalott? Support your answer by close r...

What makes CXV from In Memoriam (beginning 'Now fades the last long streak of snow') so moving? Support your answer with details from Tennyson's wr...

Read this poem, and then answer the question that follows it: Sonnet: Composed Upon Westminster Bridge Earth has not anything to show more fair: Du...

How does the poet convey the power of nature in either Hunting Snake (by Judith Wright) or Pike (by Ted Hughes)?

Explore how the poets use images to create vivid effects in Pied Beauty (by Gerard Manley Hopkins) and A Birthday (by Christina Rossetti).

Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: Catherine and he were constant companions still, at his seasons of respite from la...

Explore the ways in which Brontë makes Heathcliff so compelling in the novel.

You are Edgar Linton. You are riding home after your first visit to Catherine Earnshaw at Wuthering Heights. Write your thoughts.

Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: It was no use telling Lucia not to go into the house, so we did not even try. We j...

Explore the ways in which Dangarembga strikingly presents the relationship between Babamukuru and Maiguru.