The cinema interval
Text: an original contemporary film-review-style practice extract.
The screen went dark halfway through a conversation, and for a second I thought the projector had failed. Then INTERVAL appeared. The film had chosen to leave an unfinished question in the auditorium while we went to buy drinks.
In the foyer, strangers compared what they thought the question meant. Someone repeated a line I had barely noticed. Another person wanted the next scene to settle the argument immediately. The pause had moved part of the film into the audience: its silence on the screen had become speculation beside the coffee machine. When we returned, the people on screen continued speaking, but I heard their answer through several possibilities supplied by the foyer.
The interval did not improve every part of the experience. A rustling bag interrupted the first quiet sentence after it. Yet the break had made me aware of interpretation as something occurring between viewers, rather than only inside each seat. The film stopped for ten minutes. Its question did not.
Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to interest and engage the reader.
In your answer, consider:
Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.
260 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.