The last seed tray
“There’s nothing worth keeping,” Dad said, surveying the shed after the flood. Mud covered the lower shelves. The mower lay on its side, and the handles of his tools had begun to split. I carried each ruined box to the door while he wrote a list for the insurance company. Behind a fallen board, I found the seed tray my brother had labelled before he went abroad. Most of the seedlings were flattened. One pale shoot had bent around the board and reached the light. Dad crossed something off his list. “Put that on the kitchen window,” he said. He carried it himself.
Evaluate how far the passage supports Dad’s claim that there is “nothing worth keeping”. Use evidence from the passage.
40 exam-style questions on AQA GCSE English Language 3.1 Critical reading and comprehension, covering 3.1.1 Identify and interpret themes, ideas and information, 3.1.2 Read in different ways for different purposes, 3.1.3 Draw inferences and justify with evidence, 3.1.4 Support a point of view using textual evidence, 3.1.5 Identify bias and misuse of evidence, 3.1.6 Reflect critically and evaluatively using context, 3.1.7 Recognise different responses to a text, 3.1.8 Identify the main theme or themes, 3.1.9 Summarise ideas and information from a single text, 3.1.10 Synthesise from more than one text, 3.1.11 Explain how vocabulary and grammar create impact, 3.1.12 Analyse and evaluate form and structure, and 3.1.13 Compare texts critically. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.