AQA-style GCSE English Language Paper 1 Question Paper – George Orwell, 1984
Section A: Reading
Answer all questions in this section. You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section.
1. Read again the part of this Source from Lines 8 to 21.
List four things about nature in this part of the text. [4 marks]
2. Look in detail at this extract from Lines 22 to 32 of the Source.
How does the writer here use language to describe Winston’s feelings about human bodies?
You could include the writer’s choice of:
· Words and phrases
· Language features and techniques
· Sentence forms [8 marks]
3. You now need to think about the whole of the Source.
This text is from the final chapter of a novel.
How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?
You could write about:
· What the writer focuses your interest on at the beginning
· How and why the writer changes this focus as the Source develops
· Any other structural features that interest you. [8 marks]
4. Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source, from Line 33 to the end.
A student, having read this section of the text, said, ‘The writer makes this a very sad meeting through what the characters say and what they won’t say or can’t say.’
To what extent do you agree?
In your response, you could:
· Write about your own impressions of the characters
· Evaluate how the writer has created these impressions
· Support your opinions with references to the text. [20 marks]
Section B: Writing
Answer the question in this section. You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this section.
5. You are going to enter a creative writing competition called ‘The Orwell Youth Prize’. Your entry will be judged by a panel of professional writers.
Either: Write a scene from a play in which one character tries to get the truth from a second character.
Or: Write the opening part of a story about a place where it is hard or impossible to tell the truth.
(24 marks for content and organisation and 16 marks for technical accuracy) [40 marks]
AQA-style GCSE English Language Paper 1
Explorations in creative reading and writing
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Source A: George Orwell, 1984
This novel was written in the 1940s and set in 1984, a terrible future in which the people are completely controlled by the state, or ‘the Party’. Love is illegal, citizens must agree with everything the Party says – and telescreens everywhere allow ‘Big Brother’ to see that everybody obeys. This extract is from the final chapter of the novel. The main character, Winston Smith, has been tortured by a man called O’Brien until he has agreed that 2+2=5, if the Party says so. He has also betrayed Julia, the woman he once loved.
[Winston’s] thoughts wandered again. Almost unconsciously he traced with his finger in the dust on the table:
2 + 2 = 5
‘They can’t get inside you,’ [Julia] had said. But they could get inside you. ‘What happens to you here is forever,’ O’Brien had said. That was a true word. There w...
