Cambridge Lower Secondary – Mark Scheme
PROGRESSION TEST
Stage 7 Paper 2 Mark Scheme
Section A: Reading (Fiction)
Question
1
Answer
What does the narrator dislike about the violin?
Marks
1
Award 1 mark for the following:

practising / being told to practise.
Rx [7Rx1]
Question
2
Answer
In lines 1–3, which word does the writer use to show the narrator has
mixed feelings about her violin?
Marks
1
Award 1 mark for:

‘ambivalent’.
Rx [7Rx1]
Question
3
Answer
In lines 1–6, what effect does playing the violin have on the narrator?
Support your answer with a quotation.
Marks
2
Award 1 mark for answers that identify the powerful effect of the violin.
Award 1 mark for supporting their answer with one of the following:




‘(I could) lose myself in the music.’
‘(just beginning to) feel at one with my violin.’
‘(I could) feel the skin prickling (with pleasure all down my arms.)’
‘The magic was broken.’
Ri [7Ri1]
Question
4
Answer
Explain in your own words why the narrator stops playing her violin
when the doorbell rings for the first time.
Award 1 mark for an answer that identifies that the doorbell:

brings her back to the real world / breaks the spell.
Do not accept the quotation ‘the magic was broken’.
Ri [7Ri1]
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Page 12 of 20
Marks
1
Cambridge Lower Secondary – Mark Scheme
PROGRESSION TEST
Question
5
Answer
Look at lines 8–12.
Marks
2
Explain in your own words two ways the writer creates suspense in
these lines.
Award 1 mark for an answer that recognises any of the following, up to a
maximum of 2 marks:




the use of a shadow (before the old man is revealed) / the narrator can’t
see what is happening as she comes down the stairs / the narrator
asking ‘Who is it?’
the stillness of the mother / the use of the word ‘motionless’ at the end of
the sentence
repetition of the word ‘shadow’
the shadow moving suddenly / the shadow suddenly turning into the old
man.
Rv [7Rv2]
Question
6
Answer
Why doesn’t the mother believe what the old man is saying?
Marks
1
Award 1 mark for correctly identifying that:

her mother believes that ‘Arthur hasn’t got a father’.
Rx [7Rx1]
Question
7(a)
Answer
‘It was as if his whole body was weeping tears.’ (line 18)
Marks
1
What literary technique is this an example of?
Award 1 mark for:

simile
Rw [7Rw4]
7(b)
How does the writer want the reader to feel about the old man?
1
Award 1 mark for answers that recognise any of the following:



sympathy for the old man
feel sorry for the old man
sadness for the old man.
Do not accept that he is wet.
Rw [7Rw2]
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Page 13 of 20
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Cambridge Lower Secondary – Mark Scheme
PROGRESSION TEST
Question
8
Answer
Why does the old man open his wallet ‘… with great care, almost
reverently’ (line 21)?
Marks
1
Award 1 mark for answers that recognise inferences from both ‘great care’
and ‘reverently’, for example:



because his wallet contains something important / a special photograph
because his wallet is full (of money)
because he is worried something may fall out of his wallet.
Ri [7Ri1]
Question
9
Answer
Who is the ‘young man’ in the photograph (line 23)?
Marks
1
Award 1 mark for answers that identify any of the following:


the old man
any correct description of the old man’s relationship with the girl or her
mother or father, e.g. the girl’s/narrator’s grandfather / Arthur’s father.
Rx [7Rx1]
Question
10
Answer
Look at lines 27–30.
3
The narrator’s excitement builds up in this part of the text. Explain in
your own words three ways the writer shows this.
Award 1 mark for answers that recognise any of the following, up to a
maximum of 3 marks.






use of ‘warm shiver creeping up my back’ (oxymoron) / the lines describe
the physical effects of excitement
repetition of ‘blue eyes’ / ‘He had … My father had … I had …’ / ‘father’
use of short sentences (to build excitement/tension)
emphatic use of ‘vanished … had to be.’ / the lines build up to certainty
there’s an element of interior monologue / the narrator shares her
thoughts/feelings as they happen
structure of final sentence ‘… father’s father, my grandfather’ ends on a
realisation / paragraph builds to a climax.
Rw [7Rw1/7Rw2/7Rw6]
© UCLES 2017
Marks
Page 14 of 20
Cambridge Lower Secondary – Mark Scheme
PROGRESSION TEST
Question
11
Answer
Marks
What is the word ‘slurped’ (line 34) an example of?
1
Tick () one box.
Award 1 mark for:

onomatopoeia.
Do not accept answers where more than one option has been ticked.
Rw [7Rw2]
Question
12
Answer
Marks
Give two things the writer suggests about the old man from the way he
eats and drinks.
4
Support each suggestion with a different quotation.
Award 1 mark for answers that recognise any of the following, up to a
maximum of 2 marks.
Award 1 mark for a different quotation that supports each point, up to a
maximum of 2 marks.




He is very hungry. / He eats and drinks very quickly. (‘devouring’ / ‘set
about’ / ‘scarcely a pause for breath’ / ‘famished’)
He does not eat very politely. / He does not have good manners. / He
makes a lot of noise when he eats and drinks. (‘sipped and slurped’ /
‘dunking’)
He is very much enjoying the tea and biscuits. (‘both hands holding the
mug’ / ‘savouring it’)
He does not care what other people think.
Ri [7Ri1]
Question
Answer
Marks
13
Give one sentence from the text that shows the narrator is fascinated by
her grandfather.
1
Award 1 mark for answers that identify any of the following:


‘I’d never seen a face like it.’
‘I couldn’t take my eyes off him.’
Rx [7Rx1]
© UCLES 2017
Page 15 of 20
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Cambridge Lower Secondary – Mark Scheme
PROGRESSION TEST
Question
14
Answer
The text is narrated by the girl. The mother does not say much.
Marks
3
How does the writer show the mother’s feelings? Give three quotations
from the text and explain what each one shows about the mother’s
feelings at that point.
Award 1 mark for each of the following quotations and matching
explanations, up to a maximum of 3 marks:

‘(my mother was standing beside it) motionless’
The mother is shocked/disconcerted/scared.

‘I felt my mother take my hand and hold on to it tightly, so tightly it was
hurting me.’ / ‘My mother still held me by the hand in a grip of steel.’ /
‘pulling me close to her.’
The mother feels protective of her daughter.

‘My mother just sat there staring’ / ‘she was gawping at him shamelessly.’
The mother is shocked/worried (about how Arthur will react to his father).
Rv (7Rv1)
Question
15
Answer
‘He was obviously too intent on his tea and biscuits to say anything at
all.’ (lines 39–40)
What does the phrase ‘intent on’ mean in this quotation?
Award 1 mark for answers that recognise any of the following:


focused on / obsessed with / pre-occupied with (his tea and biscuits)
his tea and biscuits are all he’s interested in.
Rx (7Rx1)
© UCLES 2017
Page 16 of 20
Marks
1
Cambridge Lower Secondary – Mark Scheme
PROGRESSION TEST