One lamp between them
An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.
At dusk, Daniel lifted the oil lamp from the centre of the kitchen table and placed it beside his arithmetic book.
"You have the window," he said, although the grey panes gave Martha little light for her stitching.
"And you have eyes younger than mine," she answered, drawing the lamp back. The brass base scraped between them. Daniel seized the handle; Martha kept her palm flat upon the base. The flame narrowed and smoked, while their shadows fought upon the wall.
A cough sounded from the room above. Both hands released the lamp. For a moment, neither looked at the other. Martha gathered her sewing, while Daniel closed two books and shifted his chair. When they sat again, the lamp stood in the middle. Its circle of light just reached Daniel's page and Martha's needle.
"Do not shake the table," Daniel muttered.
"Then do not spread your elbows," Martha replied. Yet, after a few minutes, Daniel turned the shade slightly towards her work, and she pretended not to notice.
Analyse the writer's use of language and structure in showing how Daniel and Martha's disagreement develops.
You could write about:
Use evidence from the passage to support your response.
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.