Source A: The last note

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

I had been standing in the school hall for twenty minutes, holding my music folder open while the choir found its places. The piano was against the stage, the chairs were in their usual rows, and a strip of afternoon light lay across the floor. I knew which loose chair rocked and where the draught came under the side door. It was an ordinary rehearsal, and I was thinking about the first line of our song.

The lights went out in the middle of a note. Our voices stopped at different times, one after another, until there was only the sound of someone shifting a chair. I could still see the pale rectangle of the windows, but the room seemed larger without its bright ceiling. For a moment I held my folder as if the printed words might help us continue.

A few people laughed. Someone asked whether we should go home. I wanted to answer, but the question seemed bigger than it was: we were not in danger, only in the dark. I heard the piano bench scrape, then the music teacher said, calmly, that we should stay where we were while she checked the corridor. Her voice gave the room a centre again.

I found the first line on the page by the window light. It looked familiar, but I could not remember how the tune began. When the teacher returned with a torch, she asked us to wait until the lights came back on. I was glad to have something simple to do. We folded our music and sat down, still in our places.

The lights returned a few minutes later. The chairs, the piano and the strip of sunlight were exactly where they had been. We started the song again, more quietly at first. I had expected the room to feel ordinary as soon as it was bright, but I noticed the small pause before everyone joined in. Then the voices met, and the rehearsal carried on.

Source B: The caretaker's round

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

I was walking back from the office when the hall lights went out. The choir had been practising for some time; I could hear them from the corridor, their voices rising and falling through the closed doors. I knew the building well enough to notice what was missing: the bright line beneath the hall doors had vanished.

I stopped and listened. The singing had broken off, but there was no shouting. That was useful. I took the torch from my pocket and went to the door. Inside, faces turned towards me. A few students were smiling, as if the darkness were a joke they were waiting to share. Others sat very still, their music open on their knees.

I told them the teacher was checking the corridor and that they should wait. I did not know how long the interruption would last, so I did not promise that the lights would return quickly. The torch made a small circle on the floor. In it, chair legs and music folders looked separate and oddly precise.

When the teacher came back, I stayed by the door. She asked everyone to remain seated until the hall was bright again. I could have gone to check another part of the building, but I waited where the group could see me. People seemed calmer when they had someone to look towards, even if I could not tell them what would happen next.

The lights came back on after a few minutes. The choir began again, softly, and I continued along the corridor. The interruption had been brief, but as I walked away I could still hear the first few voices finding one another. The hall sounded different for a moment, then it was simply a rehearsal again.

Compare how the writers present their ideas and perspectives about a familiar activity being interrupted unexpectedly. In your answer, you may wish to consider how the narrators react, how they respond to other people and how each account ends.

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