The blocked lock
An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.
At dusk, Abel steered the cargo barge into the canal lock. The keeper pushed against the upper gate, but a fallen branch was wedged beneath it. He reached for the iron winding handle and found that it had cracked at the socket. While the crew secured the barge for the night, Abel climbed onto the bank to seek help at the nearest cottage.
Give two reasons the barge cannot pass through the lock.
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.