The reading room
An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.
Nora had been asked to mind the parish reading room for an hour. At the doorway, she paused while the visitors settled at the long table. The shelves seemed to offer too many choices, and she kept her hands folded behind her back. When a young visitor asked for a book about ships, Nora glanced towards the labels and then at the floor. “I will look,” she said, so quietly that he leaned closer to hear.
She returned with two books and placed them side by side. The visitor opened one, but frowned at its crowded pages. Nora drew the other nearer and pointed to a clear map near the beginning. Soon he was tracing a route with one finger. A second visitor approached, then a third. Nora moved a chair to make room, and answered each question without looking towards the doorway. By the time the hour was over, she had begun arranging the books for the next group.
Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to show Nora establishing helpful relationships with the visitors. You should consider what Nora says, how she responds to the visitors’ needs and how the interactions develop across the passage. Support your answer with references to the passage.
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.