The shoehorn at the door
Original non-fiction-style practice text.
The hotel room offered a pillow menu, a scented envelope and a television larger than my suitcase. My favourite object stood quietly beside the door: a long shoehorn. After a day of walking, I used it with a gratitude which none of the room's more ambitious surprises had produced.
Somebody had imagined an ordinary arrival carefully enough to know that a guest might be tired and wearing inconvenient shoes. No card asked me to rate this thoughtful experience. No brand name covered the handle. The object simply shortened a small difficulty between entering the room and sitting down.
I shall remember the hotel for it. This is not an argument that every comfort must be modest or every decorative extra removed. It is a compliment to hospitality which begins with something a person may actually need, before explaining how remarkable it hopes to feel.
Assess the writer’s attitude towards the hotel’s small practical provision. Use three details from the text to support your answer.
40 exam-style questions on CIE IGCSE English Language 4.3.3 Question 2(b) attitudes and opinions. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.