A forecast changes
Source A: an original contemporary non-fiction-style account.
“We planned an outdoor film evening for Friday and hired a projector from the library. On Monday, the forecast looked dry. By Thursday afternoon, it showed a high chance of rain, so we moved the event into the school hall. Two neighbours complained that the forecast had changed. I understood their disappointment: we had borrowed cushions and spent an evening hanging lights between the trees.
A forecast is a window into a moving situation, not a promise pinned to the sky. Updating it is often a sign that someone is paying attention. That does not make every prediction reliable, or remove the nuisance of rearranging chairs. But demanding an unchanging answer from changing evidence rewards stubbornness. On Friday, rain drummed on the hall roof while the film played. We had lost the stars above the screen and gained dry socks. The revised information had not spoiled the evening; it had helped us keep one.”
Source B: an original nineteenth-century-style letter or account, written for practice; this is not an archival document.
“The notice at the harbour advised strong winds before nightfall, although the morning was calm enough to tempt several boat owners into ridicule. By noon the warning had been strengthened. Some declared that a prediction altered could not be trusted. I remained ashore, having less confidence in my own observations than in the reports arriving from beyond the headland.
The wind came late in the afternoon. This does not establish that every warning will prove correct, nor that every cautious decision will earn a visible reward. It does suggest that revising advice is not necessarily a confession of incompetence. The prudent observer adjusts his judgement as information arrives. A captain who refuses to alter course merely because he announced it confidently is unlikely to improve the reputation of navigation.”
Refer to both sources. Infer the differences in the weather warnings and the decisions made. Write a summary supported by details from both sources.
160 exam-style questions on AQA GCSE English Language 6.2 Content, covering 6.2.1 Reading sources: non-fiction and literary non-fiction, 6.2.2 Time periods of the sources, 6.2.3 Choice of genre, and 6.2.4 Section B writing task. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.