Cambridge Past Paper Questions
Browse 23,045questions from 25 years of O-Level & A-Level exams. Click any question to practice.
Read the following extract, and then answer the question that follows it: Oldham, September 1987. The backyard of Doris's terrace cottage. Distant ...
How far does Keatley make you sympathise with Jackie? Support your ideas with details from the play.
You are Margaret. You have just learned that your daughter, Jackie, is pregnant. Write your thoughts.
Read the following extract, and then answer the question that follows it: Benedick: How doth the lady? Beatrice: Dead, I think. Help, uncle! Hero! ...
Does Shakespeare make you feel any sympathy for Claudio? Support your answer with details from the play.
You are Dogberry. You and the Watch have just handed over Borachio to Leonato. Write your thoughts.
Read the following extract, and then answer the question that follows it: King Edward: Why, so. Now have I done a good day's work. You peers, conti...
Explore how Shakespeare makes the characters and situation of the two Princes (Edward, Prince of Wales and Richard, Duke of York) so sad for you.
You are Richard on the night before your coronation. Write your thoughts.
Read the following extract, and then answer the question that follows it: Hibbert: I've a perfect right to go sick if I want to. The men can why ca...
Explore how Sherriff vividly portrays in the character of Stanhope the pressures of being in command. Support your ideas with details from the play.
You are Osborne at the end of Act 1. You have just got into your bed. Write your thoughts.
Read these lines from In Memoriam and then answer the question that follows: Be near me when my light is low, When the blood creeps, and the nerves...
What does Tennyson make you feel about Ulysses as a leader? Support your answer with details from the poem Ulysses.
Tennyson asked for Crossing the Bar to be placed at the end of editions of his poetry. What is there about this poem, do you think, that makes it s...
Read this poem and then answer the question that follows it: On The Grasshopper and The Cricket The poetry of earth is never dead: When all the bi...
Explore how the poets' words create striking pictures of the world at night in Amends (by Adrienne Rich) and Dover Beach (by Matthew Arnold).
Explore the endings of two poems in the selection from Part 3 which you find particularly memorable. By close reference to the poets' words, show w...
Read the following extract, and then answer the question that follows it: I was going to the Grange one evening a dark evening threatening thunder ...
How far do you think Brontë makes it possible to sympathise with Heathcliff? Support your ideas with details from the novel.
You are Linton Heathcliff. You are in bed on your first night at Wuthering Heights. Write your thoughts.
Read the following extract from Pineapple Cake, and then answer the question that follows it: Victor was a nervous rather than rebellious child. Bu...
Explore one short story in which Desai vividly conveys to you the sadness of people's lives. Support your views with details from the writing. (Do ...
You are Rakesh in A Devoted Son. You have just taken your parents to see your new clinic. Write your thoughts.
Read the following extract, and then answer the question that follows it: 'The children belong to the families of Golema Mmidi,' Dinorego said, smi...
Dinorego says 'In my village people have long been ready to try out new ideas'. How does the novel make this particularly vivid for you? Support yo...
You are Chief Matenge. George Appleby-Smith has just refused to remove Makhaya from the village. Write your thoughts.
Read the following extract, and then answer the question that follows it: When they met again, two days later, it was Gatsby who was breathless, wh...
Do you think that Fitzgerald presents Jordan Baker as a likeable character? Support your views with details from the novel.
You are Gatsby on your way to meet Daisy for tea at Nick's house. Write your thoughts.
Read the following extract, and then answer the question that follows it: Andrew Hale was a ruddy man with a big grey moustache and a stubbly doubl...
Explore the ways in which Wharton vividly portrays the growing attraction between Ethan and Mattie.
You are Zeena. You have just been informed that your husband and Mattie have been seriously injured in a sled accident. Write your thoughts.
Read the following extract from On Her Knees, and then answer the question that follows it: Mum came in while I was on my knees still vacuuming the...
What do you find particularly intriguing about the way in which these two stories begin? Meteor (by John Wyndham) There Will Come Soft Rains (by Ra...
You are Helen in The Third and Final Continent. You are on your way back to Arlington at the end of the story. Write your thoughts.
SECTION A: DRAMA ARTHUR MILLER: Death of a Salesman Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: Biff: Because I know he's a fa...
SECTION A: DRAMA ARTHUR MILLER: Death of a Salesman
CHARLOTTE KEATLEY: My Mother Said I Never Should
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Much Ado About Nothing
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Richard III Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: Anne: And I with all unwillingness will go. O, wo...
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Richard III
R.C.SHERRIFF: Journey's End Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: The German Boy, calm now, bows stiffly to the Colonel ...
R.C.SHERRIFF: Journey's End
SECTION B: POETRY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON: Poems Read this extract from In Memoriam, and then answer the question that follows it: Ring out, wild bel...
SECTION B: POETRY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON: Poems
SECTION B: POETRY Songs of Ourselves: from Part 3
SECTION C: PROSE EMILY BRONTË: Wuthering Heights Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: 'Ah! you are come, are you, Edgar...
SECTION C: PROSE EMILY BRONTË: Wuthering Heights
ANITA DESAI: Games at Twilight and Other Stories Read this extract from Studies in the Park, and then answer the question that follows it: - Turn i...