A place for the missing word
An original explanation of an invented word game.
We made a game in which each player received a sentence with one word removed. The task was not to guess the original word. Instead, players supplied a new one and explained how it changed the sentence. A quiet lane could become a muddy lane, an endless lane or a forbidden lane.
At the first trial, people worried about getting the answer wrong. We changed the instructions to make it clear that several answers could be defensible. A player still had to show that their choice made sense in the sentence. Simply choosing a surprising word was not enough. The best discussions began when two sensible choices led readers to imagine very different places.
In this passage, explain the meaning of “defensible”.
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.