Text 1: Saturday among the apple trees, by Nia Evans

An original contemporary online feature.

At nine o’clock on Saturday morning, twenty volunteers gathered in the community orchard behind the library. The grass was wet and the toolshed smelled of damp wood. Before anyone touched a tree, Mara, the orchard manager, showed us how to check secateurs, tie back loose clothing and carry a ladder with two hands.

We started by clearing nettles and fallen branches from the paths. Then the experienced volunteers demonstrated winter pruning. We cut away dead twigs and branches that crossed one another, leaving the healthy shoots alone. I was paired with a twelve-year-old called Ellis, who held the ladder while I made my first uncertain cuts. Mara came round each group, checking the trees and answering questions.

After a break for tea, we spread compost around the trunks and fixed labels to the younger trees. By midday my gloves were muddy and my shoulders ached, but the paths were clear and every tree had been given attention. Ellis said he could now recognise a bud, which seemed a good result for one morning’s work.

Text 2: The keeper’s morning, by Alfred C. Bell

An original memoir extract written in a nineteenth-century voice; a period simulation, not an archival document.

In this extract, the writer recalls learning his duties from his father, a lighthouse keeper, in the 1870s.

When I first joined my father at the headland lighthouse, our morning duties began before the sun had cleared the water. We climbed the spiral stair to the lantern room carrying a pail, a brush and a bottle of oil. Father inspected the lamp while I polished the glass panels until no smear remained.

The brass fittings were cleaned with a cloth, and the great lens was turned slowly by its mechanism so that each section could be examined. We then checked the winding handle and recorded the level of oil in a notebook. Father insisted that I repeat each task under his eye before he trusted me to do it alone.

The work was quiet but demanding. The stair made my legs tremble, and the cold entered through my sleeves. Still, when the lamp shone clearly across the darkening sea that evening, I felt that the long morning had served a serious purpose.

Using information from both texts, explain briefly how the people prepared for and carried out their work, and what they experienced.

You should make it clear which text you are referring to.