Tackling part 1 of question 1 of the AQA English Language exam
Task 1
Read this extract from the opening of Heart of Darkness by Joseph
Conrad. In texts like this, the paper would actually tell you some of
the more obscure words that you couldn’t be expected to know
yourself, such as those below:
Word
Definition
yawl
A sailing boat, with two masts.
Gravesend
A town in Kent, situated on the south bank of the Thames
river.
mizzen-mast
The smaller of the two masts that the boat has.
Golden Hind
The Golden Hind was ship that Francis Drake used to explore
the world.
Erebus and Terror
Erebus and Terror, two more famous ships.
Chapman light-house
An old offshore lighthouse, that has since been demolished.
However, the vast majority of the vocabulary would be unexplained; you
need to have a wide vocabulary!
1. Highlight all the words that you’re unsure about.
2. Look them up in the dictionary.
3. Annotate the definitions you need at the bottom of the extract.
Take your time over this task; do not rush the reading.
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Tackling part 1 of question 1 of the AQA English Language exam
The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at
rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the
only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide.
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The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable
waterway. In the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and in
the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand
still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished sprits. A haze rested
on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark above
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Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding
motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth.
The Director of Companies was our captain and our host. We four affectionately watched
his back as he stood in the bows looking to seaward. On the whole river there was nothing
that looked half so nautical. He resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness
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personified. It was difficult to realize his work was not out there in the luminous estuary,
but behind him, within the brooding gloom.
Between us there was, as I have already said somewhere, the bond of the sea. Besides
holding our hearts together through long periods of separation, it had the effect of making
us tolerant of each other's yarns—and even convictions. The Lawyer—the best of old
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fellows—had, because of his many years and many virtues, the only cushion on deck, and
was lying on the only rug. The Accountant had brought out already a box of dominoes, and
was toying architecturally with the bones. Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against
the mizzen-mast. He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic
aspect, and, with his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, resembled an idol. The
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director, satisfied the anchor had good hold, made his way aft and sat down amongst us.
We exchanged a few words lazily. Afterwards there was silence on board the yacht. For
some reason or other we did not begin that game of dominoes. We felt meditative, and fit
for nothing but placid staring. The day was ending in a serenity of still and exquisite
brilliance. The water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity
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of unstained light; the very mist on the Essex marsh was like a gauzy and radiant fabric,
hung from the wooded rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds. Only
the gloom to the west, brooding over the upper reaches, became more sombre every
minute, as if angered by the approach of the sun.
And at last, in its curved and imperceptible fall, the sun sank low, and from glowing
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white changed to a dull red without rays and without heat, as if about to go out suddenly,
stricken to death by the touch of that gloom brooding over a crowd of men.
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Tackling part 1 of question 1 of the AQA English Language exam
Forthwith a change came over the waters, and the serenity became less brilliant but
more profound. The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline of day,
after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks, spread out in the
tranquil dignity of a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth. We looked at the
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venerable stream not in the vivid flush of a short day that comes and depart
s for ever, but in the august light of abiding memories. And indeed nothing is easier for a
man who has, as the phrase goes, "followed the sea" with reverence and affection, than to
evoke the great spirit of the past upon the lower reaches of the Thames. The tidal current
runs to and fro in its unceasing service, crowded with memories of men and ships it had
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borne to the rest of home or to the battles of the sea. It had known and served all the men
of whom the nation is proud, from Sir Francis Drake to Sir John Franklin, knights all, titled
and untitled—the great knights-errant of the sea. It had borne all the ships whose names
are like jewels flashing in the night of time, from the Golden Hind returning with her
rotund flanks full of treasure, to be visited by the Queen's Highness and thus pass out of
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the gigantic tale, to the Erebus and Terror, bound on other conquests—and that never
returned. It had known the ships and the men. They had sailed from Deptford, from
Greenwich, from Erith—the adventurers and the settlers; kings' ships and the ships of men
on 'Change; captains, admirals, the dark "interlopers" of the Eastern trade, and the
commissioned "generals" of East India fleets. Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all
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had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the
might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness had not
floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth!... The dreams of
men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires.
The sun set; the dusk fell on the stream, and lights began to appear along the shore. The
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Chapman light-house, a three-legged thing erect on a mud-flat, shone strongly. Lights of
ships moved in the fairway—a great stir of lights going up and going down. And farther west
on the upper reaches the place of the monstrous town was still marked ominously on the
sky, a brooding gloom in sunshine, a lurid glare under the stars.
"And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth."
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Tackling part 1 of question 1 of the AQA English Language exam
Task 2
In pairs, discuss:
1. What happened in this extract? What’s it about?
2. What do you infer about the narrator?
3. What did you like about this extract?
4. What was difficult about reading an extract of ‘older’ fiction like this?
Task 3
The first question you’ll get on the extract is a ‘warm up’ question and you should find it
straightforward. Below is an example of a Question 1 that the examiner could ask, using an
extract like this.
Read again lines 4-10 from the source.
List four things that the narrator sees as he looks across the Thames. [4 marks]
1. .............................................................................................................
2. .............................................................................................................
3. .............................................................................................................
4. .............................................................................................................
Task 4
Read this answer to the example question. What marks would this candidate get? Discuss this
and agree, before read on.
Read again lines 4-11 from the source.
List four things that the narrator sees as he looks across the Thames. [4 marks]
1. The narrator sees the Thames stretched before him. He also sees the town of Gravesend.
2. The narrator sees someone doing some welding but ‘without a joint’.
3. The narrator sees a misty ‘haze’ over the sea.
4. The narrator sees the Director of Companies, who he recognises as his captain and host.
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Tackling part 1 of question 1 of the AQA English Language exam
Task 4 (answers)
1. The narrator sees the Thames stretched before him. He also sees the town of Gravesend.
This would get two marks – there are two valid, paraphrased points, that both answer the
question. It just so happens that two answers have been given within the same ‘lines’
provided, but the mark scheme allows this.
2. The narrator sees someone doing some welding but ‘without a joint’.
This doesn’t get a mark – the metaphor of the sky and the sea appearing to be welded
together has been misread. The quote only serves to back up the misreading.
3. The narrator sees a misty ‘haze’ over the sea.
This gets a mark – it’s a valid answer with a single word quote to back it up. It’s one of
the more obscure (less obvious) answers, but the mark scheme allows for any answer that
is correct from within the extract.
4. The narrator sees the Director of Companies, who he recognises as his captain and host.
This doesn’t get a mark – the candidate has taken the answer from a line just outside the
designated section! Gutted!
So the candidate gets three marks.
Now self-assess your response. Write down anything you’ve learnt
about how to answer these questions, in bullet points.
E.g. I’ve learnt that I must bracket off or highlight the section, to
make sure I answer on the right part of the text.
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Tackling part 1 of question 1 of the AQA English Language exam
Task 5
Now you have a better idea of the tricks of the trade, have a go at three more ‘Question 1’ style
questions.
Second example of a Question 1:
Read lines 14-24 from the source.
List four things that some of the crew are doing on board. [4 marks]
1. .............................................................................................................
2. .............................................................................................................
3. .............................................................................................................
4. .............................................................................................................
Third example of a Question 1:
Question 1
Read lines 43-51 from the source.
List four things that the Thames is said to have done, in its service to mankind. [4 marks]
1. .............................................................................................................
2. .............................................................................................................
3. .............................................................................................................
4. .............................................................................................................
Fourth example of a Question 1:
Read lines 59-64 from the source.
List four observations that the narrator makes about light and dark. [4 marks]
1. .............................................................................................................
2. .............................................................................................................
3. .............................................................................................................
4. .............................................................................................................
Task 6
In pairs, peer-assess these three questions.
Extension: agree how many points could’ve been pulled from each of the sections. Are there
always more than four possible answers?
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Tackling part 1 of question 1 of the AQA English Language exam
Task 7
In Paper 1, you will be asked to read an extract of a 20th or 21st century fiction text. It will be
from a book you’ve probably never read, possibly about a topic you’ve never considered. It may
well be from the middle of the book, which adds another layer of difficulty!
Brainstorm ways that you could prepare for this between now and the final exam.
Task 8
Read this extract from paragraph five of Chapter 2 of the same book.
Write your own Question 1 for this extract. Remember, you need to give the line references,
and have to ensure that there are at least four possible, correct answers.
Extract from Chapter 2 of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when
vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great
silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy
in the brilliance of sunshine. The long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted, into the
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gloom of overshadowed distances. On silvery sand-banks hippos and alligators sunned
themselves side by side. The broadening waters flowed through a mob of wooded islands;
you lost your way on that river as you would in a desert, and butted all day long against
shoals, trying to find the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off for ever
from everything you had known once—somewhere—far away—in another existence perhaps.
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There were moments when one’s past came back to one, as it will sometimes when you
have not a moment to spare for yourself; but it came in the shape of an unrestful and noisy
dream, remembered with wonder amongst the overwhelming realities of this strange world
of plants, and water, and silence. And this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a
peace. It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It
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looked at you with a vengeful aspect. I got used to it afterwards; I did not see it anymore; I
had no time. I had to keep guessing at the channel; I had to discern, mostly by inspiration,
the signs of hidden banks; I watched for sunken stones; I was learning to clap my teeth
smartly before my heart flew out, when I shaved by a fluke some infernal sly old snag that
would have ripped the life out of the tin-pot steamboat and drowned all the pilgrims; I had
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to keep a lookout for the signs of dead wood we could cut up in the night for next day’s
steaming. When you have to attend to things of that sort, to the mere incidents of the
surface, the reality—the reality, I tell you—fades. The inner truth is hidden—luckily, luckily.
But I felt it all the same; I felt often its mysterious stillness watching me …
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Tackling part 1 of question 1 of the AQA English Language exam
Read lines .................... from the source.
List four ............................................................................... . [4 marks]
1. ....................................................................................................
2. ....................................................................................................
3. ....................................................................................................
4. ....................................................................................................
Task 9
Swap with a partner and answer their question while they answer yours. Swap back and mark
each other’s answers.
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