The garden gate
An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.
Clara hurried along the path with a basket on her arm. She knew the gardener would let her through the gate, as he had done before. But the gate was shut, and the chain hung through its bars.
She called his name. No answer came from the glasshouse beyond the wall. A gust stirred the branches overhead, scattering leaves across the path. Clara set down her basket and peered through the bars. The narrow path beyond was empty.
At last she picked up the basket. The apples shifted against one another as she turned back towards the house. She walked more slowly than before, stopping once to look over her shoulder. The gate remained shut behind her.
Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to present Clara’s changing response to the locked gate. In your answer, consider how her response develops from the beginning to the end of 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.