A week in weather symbols
These practice sources were written for this question and describe imaginary weather-recording projects.
Text One: A pupil's account of keeping a weather record at school
At the start of lunch each day, I stood beside the library door for five minutes and recorded the weather in the courtyard. Using the same place and time made the entries easier to compare.
At first, I drew a circle whenever the sky was bright. My partner thought the circle meant that the day was warm, so I added a key explaining each symbol. When the conditions changed during one observation, I divided the day's box in two and numbered the parts. I also added a few words when a symbol did not give enough detail.
By the end of the week, the record helped us identify conditions that had occurred more than once. However, it only showed what I noticed during five minutes beside one doorway. It could not show the weather in every part of the school or throughout the whole day.
Text Two: Instructions used by an imaginary community gardening group
Volunteers observe the garden at the same time and from the same bench each morning. This allows entries from different days to be compared.
| Feature being recorded | Agreed method |
|---|---|
| Rain during the observation | Three diagonal lines |
| Leaves moving in the wind | A curved arrow |
| A change during the observation | A divided box showing the order |
Everyone uses the shared key so that a later reader can understand the symbols. A short written comment may be added if the agreed signs leave out an important detail.
The completed records can show repeated conditions and support discussion. Each entry is still only a brief observation from one position, and different volunteers may notice different details.
Synthesise what you learn from both texts about how simple weather records are made useful and what their limitations are.
You should bring together details about:
528 exam-style questions on WJEC GCSE English Language 3.1 Section A (20%) – Reading, covering 3.1.1 Understanding description, narration and exposition texts, 3.1.2 Range of continuous and non-continuous texts, 3.1.3 Short and extended response question types, and 3.1.4 Editing task at word, sentence and text level. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.