Text: an original contemporary profile-style practice extract.
Nabil had not presented a programme for eight years. After leaving the station, he worked in a bookshop and rarely spoke into a microphone. Now, each Thursday evening, he hosts a live programme from a small community studio, taking questions from local listeners about practical problems.
Before the broadcast, Nabil sorts the messages into a pile and puts the most urgent ones on top. A caller asks how to make a shared hallway easier for a neighbour who uses a walking frame. Nabil pauses, then asks what the neighbour has already suggested. The caller describes a conversation about moving a shoe rack. Nabil does not offer a list of rules; he asks the caller to explain which change the neighbour would find useful.
“I used to think a good programme needed a sharp opening and a strong finish,” he tells me afterwards. “Now I’m more interested in whether someone leaves with a question they can take back to the people involved.” His old microphone is still there, but the studio clock no longer seems to hurry him. When the next caller comes through, Nabil listens for a moment before speaking. The return has brought him back to broadcasting, though not to the measure of success he once used.
The writer presents Nabil's return as an opportunity to redefine what a successful broadcast can achieve.
Evaluate how successfully this is achieved. Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.
834 exam-style questions on Edexcel GCSE English Language 2.3 Content: non-fiction study and transactional text types, covering 2.3.9 Write an article, 2.3.10 Write a letter, 2.3.11 Write a review, 2.3.12 Write a text for a speech, and 2.3.13 Write a section for a guide, textbook, leaflet or booklet. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.