This book is a superb all-in-one guide to success GCSE English Language and English Literature - GCSE English 2003

Warm-up Questions
Section Five — Stories and Novels

Take a deep breath and go through these warm-up questions one by one.

If you don't know the answers to these basics, there's no way you'll cope with the exam questions.

Warm-up Questions

1) When you're writing about a book, why bother mentioning the times when it was written?

2) Some stories are set in the past, the future or an imaginary world even though they deal with current issues. Why would a writer want to do that?

3) Write down the names of all the novels and short stories you're studying for GCSE. Next to each one, say whether it deals with social, historical or philosophical issues. If it's not about any of these, say what it is about.

4) If you have a random flash of inspiration about the book as you're writing your essay, should you:

a) Ignore it. New ideas are dangerous and subversive.

b) Stick it in the essay — the examiner will be pleased to see that you can think for yourself.

c) Send your idea to the Patent Office in London.

5) Fill in the gaps in this sentence with words from the box: Quoting to ... your points is ... in any English Literature essay.

stupid

back up

irrelevant

vital

undermine

6) If they ask you to write about an extract from a book in the exam, should you:

a) just write about the part of the book that's quoted and ignore the rest of the book

b) mention a couple of things that happen towards the end of the book so the examiner will think you've read the whole thing

c) write about how this extract fits in with the rest of the book, and why it's important.

7) Which of these sentences would the examiners prefer to see in a GCSE essay?

a) "The chapters are given prime numbers instead of being numbered normally."

b) "The writer heads the chapters with prime numbers instead of numbering them normally."

Explain your choice.

8) Are the writer and the narrator the same person:

a) in a novel written in the third person?

b) in a novel written in the first person?

9) Write down five questions you could ask yourself about the main characters in your set books, so you're ready for any character questions they could throw at you in the exam.

10) Say what you think about the character of Rhi in the following extract, and say why: "Rhi's really happy about moving to her new school. She talks about it all the time!" said Rhi's mum to Mrs. Jenkins. Mrs. Jenkins smiled at the pair of them. Rhi gave no sign of having seen her, and kept staring blankly out of the window.