Passage Analysis practice questions.

In an analysis question worth six marks, a candidate spends the first two paragraphs setting out the concept named in the question — its history, its main theorists and two definitions — before turning to the extract in a final short paragraph. The principal cost of this arrangement is that

• the definitions offered are likely to contain inaccuracies that the examiner will penalise
• the marks are allocated to analysis of the extract, so most of the answer earns nothing
• candidates are not permitted to define a concept before applying it in this question
• the examiner will not have time to read an answer of that length within the marking period

Answer: the marks are allocated to analysis of the extract, so most of the answer earns nothing

A sentence of definition is useful because it fixes what the answer is about. Beyond that, every line spent away from the extract is a line that cannot be credited, and the candidate has spent the majority of the available time on the part of the answer that is worth least.

Reading an unseen passage about herders moving between seasonal pastures, a candidate decides that it describes a society she has studied and adds several claims about that society which the passage itself does not contain. The risk she has taken is that

• the passage may be composite or altered, so the added claims may not hold for the people described
• material from outside the passage may not be used anywhere in this paper
• her claims are likely to be more accurate than the passage and will therefore contradict it, since she has read about the society and the examiner may not have
• identifying the society correctly would give her an unfair advantage over other candidates

Answer: the passage may be composite or altered, so the added claims may not hold for the people described

Paper 1 extracts are set to be answered on their own terms and are often abridged or adapted, and a passage that resembles a familiar case may concern different people or a different period. Answer from the extract, and bring in outside material only where a question asks for it — as a comparison, not as further information about the same people.

A passage records that the men who repair the nets are fed by the boat owners on the days they work. Which sentence is an analysis of this rather than a summary of it?

• The men who repair the nets receive meals from the boat owners on the days when they are working.
• Feeding rather than payment keeps the repairers attached to particular owners, since a meal creates no settled account.
• It is stated in the passage that the boat owners provide food for the men who carry out repairs to the nets.
• The passage tells us about the arrangements between the boat owners and the men who repair their nets during the working day.

Answer: Feeding rather than payment keeps the repairers attached to particular owners, since a meal creates no settled account.

The sentence about feeding rather than payment makes a claim that goes beyond the text — about what that form of payment does to the relationship — while resting on a detail the text supplies, which is what analysis means here. The other three restate the passage in different words.

At higher level Paper 1 contains a second section built on a further extract, independent of the first. In planning her time, a candidate should note above all that

• the second extract continues the first, so material from Section A can be carried over
• the second section is optional and may be left out if time in Section A runs short
• the second extract is unrelated, so it has to be read and annotated from the beginning
• the second section is marked more leniently, since it comes at the end of a long paper

Answer: the second extract is unrelated, so it has to be read and annotated from the beginning

Two separate readings have to be paid for out of the same clock, which is why higher level candidates who overrun on Section A are the ones who arrive at the last question with an unread extract. Reading and marking up the second passage before writing anything on it is time well spent.

Question 1 of Paper 1 asks the candidate to describe a named concept and apply it to the passage; question 2 asks her to analyse the passage using a named concept. The difference between what the two answers have to do is best stated as

• the first must quote the passage, whereas the second may be answered from the candidate's own reading
• the first is worth fewer marks, so what is wanted is the same answer at a shorter length
• the first must show that the concept is understood, the second must take the passage apart with it
• the first asks for one concept while the second asks for several, which then have to be linked

Answer: the first must show that the concept is understood, the second must take the passage apart with it

In question 1 the description earns marks and the application confirms that the concept is understood; in question 2 no marks are available for defining anything, and every point has to be a claim about the passage anchored to a line of it. Both questions require the passage, which is why treating the second as a longer version of the first loses most of the six marks.

An unseen extract uses the phrase 'the sitting money' twice without explaining it: it is handed over when a family takes a place at the front of the meeting house. The candidate does not know the term. The best course is to

• work out from the extract what the payment does, and keep the writer's phrase for it
• render it as a rent, since a payment made for the use of a place is what a rent is
• avoid the phrase, because a term the extract leaves unexplained cannot carry an analytical point
• state that the extract is incomplete and treat the passage as evidence only where it is explicit

Answer: work out from the extract what the payment does, and keep the writer's phrase for it

An untranslated local term is an advantage to the analysis: it marks a category the account itself keeps in the participants' own words, and the extract usually shows what it does even when it does not say what it means. Supplying an English equivalent such as 'rent' imports an analyst's category the passage has not licensed.