Source A: The boat on the mantelpiece

An original contemporary non-fiction-style practice text, written for this question.

The model boat had taken me seven months. I had researched the original vessel, drawn the hull and made the tiny deck fittings from wire. At school, my teacher said the work showed patience and imagination. I carried that sentence home as carefully as the boat itself. My grandfather repaired things for a living, and I wanted to hear what patience and imagination sounded like in his voice.

He cleared a space on the kitchen table. I set the boat down, removed the cloth and waited. He looked at the deck, then lifted the edge slightly to examine the underside. His hands were large beside it. I found myself watching the calluses rather than the expression on his face. He asked whether the little cabin roof came off. I said yes. He nodded and said that would make repairs easier.

I explained that it was a scale model, not something which would be used on water. He said he understood. Then he asked how I had fixed the mast. I showed him the joint, and for the first time he smiled. It was a sound joint, he said. I knew this was praise. I also knew that the sentence I had brought home was still waiting somewhere outside the conversation.

I wanted to tell him about the imagined crew, the decisions made from old drawings and the week I had spent getting the curve of the bow right. Instead, I asked whether he thought it was good. The question sounded younger than I wanted. He turned the boat towards the window and said that I had made something which would last if it was looked after. He offered to build a protective case.

That evening, I felt ungrateful for being disappointed. Nobody had dismissed the model. My grandfather had given it a place on the mantelpiece until the case was ready, moving his own clock to make room. Yet he had admired the part he knew how to judge, and I had hoped that admiration would include everything I had wanted the boat to mean.

The next day, I showed him the drawings. We argued about one measurement, then looked up the original dimensions together. He listened while I explained the curve. I listened while he described why the case should not fit too tightly. The conversation was less perfect than the praise I had rehearsed and lasted much longer.

The boat is still on the mantelpiece. Visitors ask whether it floats. My grandfather tells them about the joint beneath the mast. Sometimes he asks me to explain the drawing too. I have learned to hear the first account as his way of valuing it, without pretending that it is the whole of mine.

Source B: From Chinese Cinderella — Adeline Yen Mah

Read Source B in the official Pearson anthology (printed pages 21–23).

Compare how the writers present their ideas and perspectives about the importance and limitations of approval from a family member.

Support your answer with detailed examples from both texts, including brief quotations.