The fern house
Source: an original fiction extract.
On Tuesday morning, Leila reported to the fern house at the botanical gardens for her first volunteer shift. Her supervisor, Jo, gave her a green watering can and a list of six plants to check. Leila was to feel the compost before adding water, because some pots were still damp from Monday. The oldest fern stood beside the north door in a square stone container. A school group was due at half past ten, so Jo asked her to keep the central path clear. Leila left her coat on a hook in the small equipment room.
Inside, the air felt warmer than the weather outside had promised. Droplets gathered along the metal ribs of the roof. Leila followed the names on the list, trying to match their printed certainty with the confusion of overlapping leaves. The first pot was wet enough to darken her fingertip. She passed it without watering. It seemed odd to complete a task by doing nothing, and she checked the list again to make sure she had understood. Somewhere above her, a drop fell into an empty bucket with a sound like a small bell.
Jo returned carrying a tray of young plants. She showed Leila a curled frond that had not yet opened. Leila had taken its brown covering for a sign that it was dying. Jo said it was growing exactly as it should. They placed the tray on a bench away from the door, where a draught had been drying the smallest pots. When Leila moved one, its label slipped behind the bench. She knelt to retrieve it and found two older labels underneath, both faded almost white. Jo put them aside to check against the records.
The school group arrived in a rustle of waterproof coats. One child asked why the ferns had no flowers. Another wanted to know whether the largest could eat insects. Leila knew neither answer confidently and called Jo over. While Jo spoke, Leila noticed a child at the back tracing the spiral of an unopened frond in the air with one finger. Nobody had asked him to do it. She moved the watering can from the path so he could look more closely. He followed the curve once more, then hurried after the others.
At lunchtime the glass roof brightened and the droplets began to disappear. Leila checked the six pots again. Two needed a little water now; the others did not. She marked the list and returned the can to the equipment room. Before leaving, she looked at the frond Jo had shown her. It had hardly changed. She would return the following Tuesday, which seemed a long time to wait for something so small. Outside, she stopped beside a drain where a tiny fern had rooted in a crack, unnoticed among the paving stones.
Read the first paragraph. Select one answer for each question.
1. On which day does Leila begin her shift?
2. What colour is the watering can?
3. What must Leila check before watering?
4. Where is the oldest fern?
136 exam-style questions on AQA GCSE English Language 5.2 Content, covering 5.2.1 Reading source: literature fiction text, 5.2.2 Focus of the extracts, 5.2.3 Stimulus for students' own writing, and 5.2.4 Scenario sets audience, purpose and form. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.