Read the following extract from an original work of fiction set in the nineteenth century.
The photographer stepped into the passage to fetch a fresh plate. Left alone, Clara and her uncle faced the empty chair arranged beside hers.
“Your glove is creased,” he said.
She smoothed it, although it was not. He turned the empty chair a fraction towards the painted garden. Neither looked at the space where her father should have sat. His name remained at the edge of their conversation, like a visitor whom neither would invite inside.
When the photographer returned, Clara’s uncle asked at once whether the light was sufficient.
Explain what the comparison of the father’s name to “a visitor” reveals about the silence between Clara and her uncle.
Explain how one other detail from the extract develops the impression of their silence established by this comparison.
456 exam-style questions on Edexcel GCSE English Language 1.3 Content: prose fiction study requirements, covering 1.3.1 Read challenging prose fiction for the unseen 19th-century extract. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.