Between Floors
Text 1: The Red Button, by Elin Mercer
An original novel extract.
At first, the lift climbed smoothly. Quiet music floated from the speaker, and Maya watched the numbers change above the doors: 2, 3, 4. Her mother shifted the shopping bags from one hand to the other.
Between the fourth and fifth floors, the lift stopped with a violent jerk. One of the bags struck the wall. The ceiling light flickered three times and went out. Darkness folded around them. A moment later, a small emergency light appeared, filling the lift with a weak red glow.
Maya pressed the alarm button. Once. Twice. Nothing. The speaker crackled, but no voice answered. Her mother reached for the metal handrail and said, very calmly, ‘Someone will come.’
A groan sounded above them. The lift sank perhaps an inch. Maya’s stomach seemed to stay where it was while the rest of her dropped. Her mother’s fingers tightened around the rail.
‘Don’t move.’
There was nowhere to move to.
Something twanged overhead, sharp as a snapped guitar string. The lift shuddered again. Above the doors, the display still showed 4. Maya stared at the narrow line between the doors while the red alarm button blinked on and off, on and off.
In what ways does Elin Mercer use language and structure to make the lift journey seem increasingly dangerous?
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You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.
146 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE English Language 3.2 Section A: Reading meaning and effects – content, covering 3.2.3 Impact of language, structure and grammar. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.