The clock that stopped

Text: an original contemporary speech-style practice extract.

For years, the clock tower has told the town what time it is. Then its hands stopped, and we discovered how much else we had asked it to tell us. People used to meet beneath it after work. Shopkeepers glanced up before closing. Children learned to estimate the walk home by the number of chimes still to come.

Restoring the clock will not restore those routines by itself. A repaired mechanism cannot make anyone look up; it cannot turn a quiet square into a meeting place. So why spend money on the tower? Because a town is not made only of what is useful at this exact moment. Some things hold the marks of the people who have passed them, even when the people have moved on.

We should repair the clock, but we should not mistake the repair for the whole task. Let the hands move again. Then give the square reasons to gather beneath them. Time will return to the tower; what happens around it is ours to decide.

Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to interest and engage the reader.

In your answer, consider:

• language features and techniques
• structural techniques
• the effect on the reader.

Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.