An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.
Clara paused outside the schoolroom with one hand resting on the door. The voices within seemed to crowd against it, and she held her new copybook tightly to her chest. When the teacher called her name, Clara entered without looking up. The long room appeared full of watching faces. Even the empty place at the end of a bench looked narrow and unwelcoming.
As Clara sat down, the girl beside her moved an inkpot between them and pushed a clean pen towards her. Nothing was said. Soon, the scratch of Clara’s pen joined the steady sound of the others, and the rows of unfamiliar faces turned back to their work. During the reading lesson, her neighbour quietly showed her the correct page. By the final bell, Clara was still completing her last sentence. The room that had seemed to be waiting to judge her now seemed to have made a place for her.
Analyse the writer’s presentation of Clara’s growing sense of belonging in the schoolroom.
In your answer, you should consider:
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.