Exam practice — week 43 · lang, lit, cs

2026-10-21 · marked · sat 36 of 45 min · handed in early

Whole paper

20 / 36

English Language

7 / 13

English Literature

5 / 9

2 blank

Computer Science

8 / 14

English Language 13 marks

12 / 3

Source A — from a short story, 21st century. Sam, twelve, is walking home across the moor.

(lines 1–7)
Sam had walked the moor path a hundred times. In summer it was a dusty ribbon between the heather, and you could see the roof of the farm from the top of the first rise. Today the sky was the colour of dishwater, and the wind had dropped to nothing. He had his father's old coat on, the one with the torn pocket, and a bag of shopping that knocked against his knee at every step. He was not worried. It was four o'clock. He would be home before the lamps went on.

(lines 8–16)
The fog came up from the valley without a sound. One minute the far wall was there, a grey line stitched across the hill; the next it had been rubbed out. The fog did not drift so much as pour, filling the hollows first, then climbing. It swallowed the gorse. It swallowed the path ten paces ahead of him, then five, and the world shrank to a circle of wet grass and the sound of his own breathing. His coat grew heavy. Drops gathered on his eyelashes. Somewhere to his left a sheep coughed, close, and he could not see it.

(lines 17–22)
He stopped. The path had been under his feet a moment ago; now there was only heather, springy and wrong, and he did not know which way he had turned. He put the bag down. Then, far off and low, where he thought the farm should be, a single light came on — and it was moving away from him.

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0 1 Read again the first part of the source, from lines 1 to 7.

Answer all parts of this question. Choose one answer for each part.

0 1 . 1 What is the sky like today?

A A dusty ribbon.
B The colour of dishwater.
C A grey line across the hill.

0 1 . 2 Whose coat is Sam wearing?

A His own.
B His brother's.
C His father's.

0 1 . 3 What time is it when the story begins?

A Three o'clock.
B Four o'clock.
C Five o'clock.

[3 marks]

1. A 2. C 3. B

1 min on this question

Two of three. Part 1 asks about the sky TODAY — the first sentence of a question like this usually has a word that narrows it down. Find that word before you choose.

22 / 4

Source A — from a short story, 21st century. Sam, twelve, is walking home across the moor.

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0 2 Look at the whole source.

At one point the writer moves the reader's attention away from Sam and what he is carrying, and on to the fog.

Explain the effect of this change. In your answer:

say what is happening in the story at that moment
say where it comes in the source
say why the writer has placed it there — what it does to the reader.

[4 marks]

In the extract the focuse shifts from sam to the fog and this effect shows that the fog is a strong point of the story. This starts at line 8. The writer probily put it there to show that it will be a big part of the story later

4 min on this question

You hit all three bullets, which is the right shape. Two things: for 'what is happening' say the event itself (what does the fog actually do?), not that the focus changes. For 'why there', say what the reader was feeling just BEFORE line 8 and how the change plays off that.

33 / 6

Source A — from a short story, 21st century. Sam, twelve, is walking home across the moor.

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0 3 Look in detail at lines 8 to 16 of the source.

How does the writer use language here to describe the fog?

Choose three words or phrases from these lines. For each one, write what it suggests about the fog and what effect it has on the reader.

Spend about 8 minutes on this question.

[6 marks]

"pour" the use of the word pour shows that the fog rolded is fast and thick. "climbing" the use of the word climbing shows that the fog is falling to the ground and then bulding it up. "swallowed" the use of the word swallowed shows that the fog looks like it is eating the landscape.

6 min on this question

Three good quotes, three good 'what it suggests' lines — 'swallowed … eating the landscape' is exactly right. Every one is missing the second half: what it makes the READER feel or expect. One short clause each would have doubled the marks.

This section on the English Language record

English Literature 9 marks

41 / 2

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias (Power and Conflict anthology).

The traveller describes the broken face of the statue:

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Explain what these lines suggest about Ozymandias.

[2 marks]

"Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,/ And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command," the use of this sentence shows that Ozymandias is a crule king and that to other kings he looks kind

2 min on this question

'Cruel' is right. Instead of copying both lines, pick ONE word from them — which word tells you he's cruel? — and say what that word does.

51 / 3

William Blake, London (Power and Conflict anthology). Here are the first three stanzas.

I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every black'ning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

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In the first two stanzas Blake writes about everybody: 'every face', 'every cry', 'every voice'.

In the third stanza he turns to particular people: the Chimney-sweeper and the Soldier.

Explain the effect of this change from everybody to particular people.

[3 marks]

Left blank

0 min on this question · flagged

The idea that Blake picks out individuals is right. Two more things a 3-mark question wants: what that does to the READER (a crowd vs one child), and WHY Blake chose those two people — look at who each one is standing next to in the stanza.

63 / 4

Read the poem below and answer the question that follows. Spend about 5 minutes on this question.

London — William Blake

I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every black'ning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

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How does Blake present the people of London in this poem?

Write one short paragraph of three sentences:

a point that answers the question
a sentence with a short quotation from the poem inside it
a sentence saying what Blake wants the reader to understand.

[4 marks]

Left blank

1 min on this question · flagged

Three sentences, quote inside your own sentence, Blake as the subject at the end — the shape is right and that earned three. The last sentence needs Blake's actual point: who in the poem is to BLAME for the misery? Say that.

This section on the English Literature record

Computer Science 14 marks

71 / 1

The algorithm in Figure 1 is written in AQA pseudo-code.

Figure 1

FOR i ← 1 TO 6
   OUTPUT i
ENDFOR

State how many times the line OUTPUT i is executed when the algorithm runs.

[1 mark]

the second line will repeat 6 times

while i in range(1, 7) print(i)

2 min on this question

Right. You don't need to rewrite the loop in Python to answer this — reading the bounds is enough.

80 / 1

The algorithm in Figure 2 is written in AQA pseudo-code.

Figure 2

total ← 0
FOR i ← 1 TO 5
   total ← total + i
ENDFOR
OUTPUT total

State the value that is output when the algorithm runs.

[1 mark]

when the algorithm is run the output will be 13

total = 0 while i in range(1, 6) total = total + i print(total)

2 min on this question

Not 13. You wrote the loop out again instead of RUNNING it. A quick trace — i on the left, total on the right, one row per pass — would have given you the number in under a minute.

90 / 2

0 3 . 1 Convert the binary number 10111011 into decimal.

[1 mark]

0 3 . 2 Convert the decimal number 150 into an 8-bit binary number.

[1 mark]

1. 179 2. 10011110

10111011 = 128+34+16+8+2+1=179 150 = 128+16+4+2 = 10011110

3 min on this question

Both methods were right — and both answers were wrong on the writing-down. Part 1: write the place values along the top first (128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1) and copy from them. Part 2: your decomposition of 150 was correct; check the binary you wrote actually matches it, column by column.

103 / 3

Add the three binary numbers together.

00110101
01001110
00011011

Give your answer as an 8-bit binary number. You may show your working.

[3 marks]

10011110

00110101 01001110 +00011011 10011110

2 min on this question

Full marks, and in two minutes. That was the hardest question on the paper.

111 / 2

Programmers often write numbers in hexadecimal rather than in binary.

Explain why.

[2 marks]

Programmers often write numbers in hexadecimal rather than in binary because hex is easer to write and you make less mestaces

1 min on this question

'Easier and fewer mistakes' is the so-what. A 2-mark explain also wants the FACT first — what is it about a hex number compared to the same number in binary that makes it easier?

123 / 5

A program asks the user to enter the temperature in degrees Celsius as a whole number.

The program then stores a message in a variable called advice:

if the temperature is below 5, the message is Cold - wear a coat
if the temperature is from 5 to 20 (including 5 and 20), the message is Mild
if the temperature is above 20, the message is Hot - take water

Finally the program outputs the value of advice once.

Write a Python 3 program for this.

You should use indentation as appropriate, meaningful variable name(s) and Python 3 syntax in your answer.

[5 marks]

1 min on this question

Input, int(), and all three boundaries right — that's three marks. Reread the task: it said STORE the message in a variable called advice, then output it ONCE at the end. Your print lines went where the storing should be.

This section on the Computer Science record