The exercise book
An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.
The certificate lay on the headmaster's desk, but when he called Henry forward, it seemed to brighten the whole schoolroom. "First in the class," announced the headmaster. Henry accepted it by the edges, fearful that his thumb might soil it. While the boys applauded, he pictured the certificate in a black frame above the parlour fireplace. Even on the walk back to his desk, he held it slightly ahead of him, like a lamp lighting his way.
After the room had emptied, Henry opened his desk to collect his books. Beneath them was his old arithmetic book. Across its pages ran Caleb's neat notes: Try the question this way. Begin again here. Henry remembered the evenings when Caleb had stayed behind, patiently explaining what Henry had failed to understand, before hurrying home to complete his own work.
The noise of the applause now seemed far away. Henry looked from the thin, spotless certificate to the worn book, its corners softened by months of use. He no longer held the certificate out before him. When the headmaster returned, Henry placed it upon the open exercise book.
"Your name stands first," the headmaster said.
"Yes, sir," Henry replied, "but it did not get there by itself."
Analyse the ways in which Henry's attitude towards coming first changes across the passage through the writer's choices of language and structure. Support your ideas with references to the passage.
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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.