Before the Concert

Text 1: The Hall, by Elinor March

An original short story extract.

At four o’clock, the school hall was empty except for Mr Lewis and a row of chairs waiting to be moved. He checked the plan on the noticeboard, then counted the gaps between the rows with his footsteps. One chair stood out of line. He lifted it and set it down again, its legs touching the floor without a scrape.

From the stage, the room looked different. Mr Lewis crossed it slowly, straightening a music stand here and turning a chair there. He worked without speaking. A door banged behind him and the chairs seemed to shiver in the sudden noise. He stopped, looked towards the corridor, then returned to the row he had been arranging.

The clock hands crept towards five. One by one, the lights above the stage came on, making the polished floor shine. Mr Lewis walked to the back of the hall and looked across the rows. Not a gap was out of place. He folded the plan and slipped it into his pocket. Soon the room would be full of voices, but for a moment he stood alone beneath the lights, listening to the quiet he had made ready.

How does Elinor March use language and structure to show Mr Lewis’s care as he prepares the hall?

You could write about:

• the words and phrases that describe his actions and the hall
• how the focus and pace develop from the beginning to the end.

You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.