The witness
Source: an original fiction extract.
“When the jar broke in the school workshop, everyone looked at Ben. He was nearest the bench, and his sleeve was wet with blue dye. The teacher asked him to step back while she cleared the glass. Ben began to speak, but someone at the other end of the room said he had been showing off. Nina heard it clearly. She had seen the whole thing from the sink, where she was washing a brush.
The room became busy in the way rooms do when nobody wants to be involved. Stools scraped. Lids were found and screwed tightly onto pots. A dozen careful hands discovered useful tasks. Nina held her brush beneath the tap long after the water ran clear. The dye beside Ben's shoe spread into a thin blue border around a fallen pencil.
He had not knocked the jar over. A bag swung from a stool had caught the edge of the bench; Ben had reached to stop the jar and arrived too late. The bag belonged to Nina's closest friend. Nina had seen the strap catch. She had also seen her friend pull the bag away and put it beneath the table. Now the teacher was asking who had been moving around when it happened.
Nina turned off the tap. The silence that followed seemed to point at her. She said she had seen the bag catch the bench. Her friend stared at the tabletop. Nina added that Ben had tried to stop the jar, because that was part of what she had seen too. The teacher asked two more questions, then told everyone to return to work. Nobody thanked Nina. Ben picked up a clean cloth and wiped his sleeve.
At lunch, her friend sat at the far end of the table. Nina opened her sandwich and wished, briefly, that she had said nothing. Then she remembered Ben's hand reaching towards the falling glass. She did not feel brave. She felt tired and slightly sick. When her friend finally looked towards her, Nina moved her bag from the empty chair beside her and waited.”
Consider the whole source.
“The writer makes Nina’s honesty convincing by showing that it does not immediately make her feel good.”
To what extent do you agree? Evaluate how the writer presents these ideas, using evidence from the source. Consider your impressions and how the writer's choices influence them.
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.