The disputed boundary
An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.
The brothers stood beside the same stone and pointed in opposite directions. Edward said the boundary followed the ditch. Philip said their father had always counted the apple tree as the corner. Between them, the field lay quiet, offering no opinion. Each repeated a sentence he had already spoken.
Their youngest sister arrived carrying the old estate plan. She spread it over the stone, and both men leaned closer. The ink had faded, but a line remained clear enough to follow. For several moments they said nothing. Then Edward asked Philip to hold one corner against the wind. Philip did so, and the argument continued in lower voices, now directed at the paper rather than at each other.
Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to present the brothers’ conflict over the land. Support your answer with references to the passage.
120 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.