| Mark / 80 | Indicative grade |
|---|---|
| 64–80 | A* |
| 56–63 | A |
| 48–55 | B |
| 40–47 | C |
| 32–39 | D |
| 24–31 | E |
Every weekday morning, eleven thousand vehicles edge into the seventeen narrow streets that make up the old centre of Northgate. They move, on average, at nine kilometres an hour: slower than a cyclist, barely faster than a determined walker. They occupy road space that was laid out three centuries ago for carts. And when they finally arrive, more than half of them are not arriving at all — they are circling, looking for somewhere to leave the car.
We are proposing something simple and, we believe, long overdue. From September, private cars would be excluded from the centre between seven in the morning and seven in the evening. Deliveries, taxis, residents and blue-badge holders would all be exempt. In place of the traffic we would give the city an avenue of lime trees along Corn Street, four new squares, and pavements wide enough for two people to walk side by side without stepping into the gutter. Imagine Northgate as it could be: children cycling to school without an adult beside them; an elderly woman crossing Market Hill without waiting for a gap; the cathedral bells reaching the far end of the high street for the first time in sixty years.
Where comparable schemes have been introduced, the results have been steady rather than spectacular. Retailers in the pedestrianised quarter of Ellsworth reported takings up fourteen per cent within two years. Air quality on the worst of its streets fell below the national limit for the first time since monitoring began. Nobody pretends the change was painless. The first winter was hard, and three businesses did not survive it. Yet the centre that emerged is busier today than the one it replaced.
We are consulting, not deciding. Park-and-ride buses would run every eight minutes and would be free for the first year. Tell us what we have failed to think of.
Sir — I have read the council booklet twice, and both times I set it down thinking the same thing. This has been written by people who do not carry things.
My customers buy paint, timber, tins of screws, four-metre lengths of skirting board. They stop outside, we load the boot together, and they drive home. A free bus every eight minutes is a fine thing, and it is no use whatever to a man with a bath panel under his arm. If he cannot reach my door he will drive to the retail park on the bypass, where the parking is free, the trees are in the car park, and nobody has ever heard a cathedral bell.
Miss Menon writes movingly of an elderly woman crossing Market Hill. My mother is eighty-four. She does not want to cross Market Hill. She wants to be driven to the door of the chemist, because the distance between the bus stop and that door is the whole of her difficulty. The people this scheme sets free are, for the most part, people who were never trapped.
As for Ellsworth: takings rose inside the pedestrian quarter. The booklet does not tell you what happened in the streets immediately outside it, and I have walked them. Consult by all means. But consult the people who will pay for this, and not only the ones who will enjoy it.
Read both texts in the insert, then answer all three parts of Question 1.
One mark for each valid reason, clearly explained in your own words. Lifting a phrase from Text B without explaining it scores nothing. Creditable reasons include:
First, his trade depends on people being able to load bulky goods straight into a car; a bus cannot carry a length of skirting board, so those customers will simply drive to the retail park instead. Second, older shoppers such as his mother are not made safer by wider pavements, because their real obstacle is the walk from the bus stop to the shop door, which the scheme does nothing to shorten.
One mark for identifying a precise language or structural choice, one for explaining its effect on the reader, and a third for doing that a second time with a different choice. Vague labelling (“she uses descriptive language”) earns nothing. Creditable points include:
Menon breaks off from statistics into the imperative “Imagine Northgate as it could be”, which makes the reader construct the picture themselves; an idea we have built for ourselves is much harder to reject. She then offers three vignettes — a cycling child, an elderly woman crossing, the cathedral bells — which run from the youngest citizen to the whole city, so the gain appears to belong to everyone rather than to cyclists alone. The closing phrase “for the first time in sixty years” presents the scheme as restoring something the city has lost, which quietly casts her opponents as defenders of that loss.
| Band | Descriptor |
|---|---|
| 5 9–10 | A thorough and sustained response. Ideas from both texts are selected, reshaped in your own words and developed — consequences are traced, connections are made between the two writers, and at least one idea is evaluated (weighed, questioned, or shown to be stronger or weaker than it looks). The counter-argument is handled rather than mentioned. |
| 4 7–8 | A competent, mostly assured response. Both texts are used and the better points are developed a step beyond the original. Some evaluation, though it may be uneven; one or two ideas are reproduced rather than reworked. The opposing case is acknowledged and answered, if a little briefly. |
| 3 5–6 | A clear response that uses both texts, but mainly by reporting what they say. Development is limited to restating an idea in different words. Little evaluation; the opposing view is mentioned and then left alone. |
| 2 3–4 | Some relevant material, but drawn mostly from one text, or lifted in phrases from the insert. Points are asserted without support. The task’s own view is stated but not built. |
| 1 1–2 | Occasional relevance. Copying or near-copying from the texts, or a general opinion piece about traffic that could have been written without reading the insert at all. |
These band descriptors are a study aid written for this site, not Cambridge’s published wording — the 0500 syllabus publishes assessment descriptors for Components 3 and 4 only.
The specific ideas a band 5 answer would develop. You do not need all of these — four or five, genuinely worked, beat ten mentioned in passing:
| Band | Descriptor |
|---|---|
| 5 21–25 | The form is fully inhabited: it sounds like a speech being delivered, with a spoken shape — an opening that seizes the room, direct address, rhetorical control, a close that lands. Structure is deliberate and cumulative; paragraphs are ordered so that each one earns the next. Vocabulary is wide, precise and used with evident enjoyment. Sentence lengths and types are varied for effect, including short sentences placed where they will strike. Spelling, punctuation and grammar are almost always correct; errors are rare and never obscure meaning. |
| 4 16–20 | The form is clearly and consistently maintained, with a suitable register for students and teachers. Structure is effective, with a clear line of argument and purposeful paragraphing, though one section may be thinner than the rest. Vocabulary is generally wide and mostly precise, with occasional slips into the ordinary. Some conscious sentence variety. Accuracy is good; minor errors occur but the reader is never delayed. |
| 3 11–15 | Recognisably a speech, though the voice may fade into a general essay after the opening. Structure is clear but mechanical — point, point, point, conclusion — with paragraphs of similar shape. Vocabulary is adequate and largely plain; some repetition. Sentences are mostly simple and compound, with limited variety. Errors are noticeable but meaning stays clear throughout. |
| 2 6–10 | Some sense of audience, but the form is thin: perhaps a greeting at the top and nothing spoken about the rest. Structure is loose; paragraphs are long or arbitrary and the argument doubles back on itself. Vocabulary is simple and repetitive. Sentence structure is uniform and often faulty. Errors are frequent and sometimes obscure the meaning. |
| 1 1–5 | Little sense of form or audience. Ideas are sequenced at random or in one undivided block. Vocabulary is very limited; sentences are short and repetitive or run together without punctuation. Errors are persistent and the reader has to work to follow. |
These band descriptors are a study aid written for this site, not Cambridge’s published wording — the 0500 syllabus publishes assessment descriptors for Components 3 and 4 only.
Good morning. I want to start with one number, because it changed my mind. Of the eleven thousand vehicles that enter our centre each morning, more than half are not arriving anywhere at all. They are circling. That single fact tells us that most of our congestion is not people coming to shop; it is people failing to park.
That is why I support the motion — and why Mr Bracewell’s letter, which is the best thing written against the scheme, does not quite land.
He is right about one thing, and we should say so plainly. You cannot take four metres of skirting board home on a bus, however often it runs. If this plan drove out the shops that sell heavy things, it would hollow the centre and hand it to the retail park on the bypass, where, as he puts it, the trees are in the car park. That danger is real.
But read the proposal again. Deliveries, exempt. Taxis, exempt. Blue-badge holders, exempt. Residents, exempt. His mother can still be driven to the door of the chemist, because a taxi is not a private car. His customers can still have their timber delivered. What the scheme removes is not the useful journey. It is the circling.
He says the people set free were never trapped. I would ask him to stand at our gates at half past eight. The child who is not allowed to cycle in is trapped — she has simply been trapped so long that we stopped noticing.
And Ellsworth proves less than the council claims: fourteen per cent inside the quarter says nothing about the streets outside, and three businesses did close. That is a genuine cost. It argues for loading bays, delivery windows and a proper survey before September. It does not argue for doing nothing.
Streets laid out for carts cannot hold eleven thousand cars. Let us stop pretending they can. Please support the motion.
Commentary — where this earns its marks.
Write about one of the following. Write 350 to 450 words. This question tests writing only — all 40 marks are for AO2.
Section B is marked in two strands. Judge each one separately, decide the band before you count anything, and read your own piece as a stranger would — not remembering what you meant, only what is on the page.
| Band | Descriptor |
|---|---|
| 5 13–16 | Descriptive: a strong overall concept, with detail selected rather than accumulated; the piece has a controlling idea and moves through it — in time, in space, or by narrowing focus — so that the ending feels arrived at. Narrative: a complete, credible shape with a genuine complication and a resolution that grows out of it; character is conveyed through action and speech rather than announced. In both, structure is consciously managed: openings do work, paragraphs vary in length for effect, the close resonates. |
| 4 10–12 | A clear and interesting piece with a sound overall design. Description shows range and some careful selection, though one or two passages simply list. Narrative has a clear beginning, complication and end, with a resolution that is satisfying if slightly easy. Paragraphing is purposeful; the ending is competent rather than memorable. |
| 3 7–9 | A straightforward piece that does what the title asks. Description covers the scene but stays on the surface and tends to move item by item. Narrative is a sequence of events; the complication arrives late or is resolved by chance. Structure is clear but predictable; the ending stops rather than closes. |
| 2 4–6 | Some relevant content, thinly developed. Description is a general list of what is present, with little sense of place. Narrative is largely summary (“then we went… then she said…”) and may drift from the title. Paragraphs are few, very long, or arbitrary. |
| 1 1–3 | Limited and often unclear content, or a piece only loosely connected to the title. Little or no structure; a single undivided block, or an ending that abandons the piece rather than finishing it. |
These band descriptors are a study aid written for this site, not Cambridge’s published wording — the 0500 syllabus publishes assessment descriptors for Components 3 and 4 only.
| Band | Descriptor |
|---|---|
| 5 20–24 | Vocabulary is wide, precise and used with evident control; imagery is original and earns its place rather than decorating. Sentence structures are consciously varied — length, opening, and type — and rhythm is used for effect. The register is sustained and the voice is distinctive. Spelling, punctuation and grammar are consistently accurate, including the punctuation of speech and of complex sentences; errors are rare and trivial. |
| 4 15–19 | Vocabulary is generally wide and mostly well chosen, with occasional over-reaching or a cliche or two. Clear evidence of deliberate sentence variety, though not sustained throughout. Style is fluent and largely appropriate. Accuracy is good; errors are minor and do not interrupt the reader. |
| 3 10–14 | Vocabulary is adequate and mostly plain, with some repetition and some imprecise word choices. Sentences are mainly simple and compound; variety is limited and any attempt at effect is intermittent. Meaning is always clear. Errors are noticeable — comma splices, uncertain apostrophes, wobbles in tense — but do not obscure the sense. |
| 2 5–9 | Vocabulary is simple and repetitive; adjectives are general (“nice”, “big”, “beautiful”). Sentence structure is uniform and sometimes faulty; punctuation of speech is unreliable. Errors are frequent and occasionally obscure meaning. |
| 1 1–4 | Very limited vocabulary and sentence control. Punctuation is missing or misplaced across long stretches. Errors are persistent and the reader must reread to follow the sense. |
These band descriptors are a study aid written for this site, not Cambridge’s published wording — the 0500 syllabus publishes assessment descriptors for Components 3 and 4 only.
| Total / 40 | What a paper at this standard looks like |
|---|---|
| 33–40 | A piece an examiner would read twice by choice. Shaped, controlled, precise, almost clean. |
| 25–32 | Clearly good writing with a sound design and some real moments; a few flat patches or minor errors. |
| 17–24 | Competent and clear, but plain and predictable; the piece does the task without surprising anyone. |
| 9–16 | Relevant but thin, listed rather than composed, with errors that begin to slow the reader. |
| 1–8 | Fragmentary or barely connected to the title; accuracy makes reading difficult. |
These band descriptors are a study aid written for this site, not Cambridge’s published wording — the 0500 syllabus publishes assessment descriptors for Components 3 and 4 only.
At four o’clock the market is only a shape. The stalls stand folded against the wall in stacks of poles and canvas, like the ribs of something not yet alive, and the cobbles keep last night’s rain in their seams, so that every hollow holds a small orange copy of the streetlamp above it. Nothing moves but a cat, working the gutter with the unhurried arrogance of an animal that has the place to itself.
The vans come at ten past. They reverse in one after another, and their beeping bounces off the shuttered banks on three sides of the square until the whole market seems to be counting. Doors go up. Out come the crates: fish first, packed in ice that squeaks; then flat trays of tomatoes; then sacks of onions that thud like something dropped from a height. The air changes. It smells of diesel and wet cardboard, of ice, and then, quite suddenly, of coriander.
Now the poles. Two men who have done this for years work without speaking, one lifting, one turning, and the frame of a stall stands up in ninety seconds. Canvas snaps over it — one wet crack, like a sail filling — and where there was empty air there is a room.
By half past five the square has grown walls. Between them the traders move at a speed nobody will see later, in the hour when they stand still and shout. A woman in a padded coat builds a slope of apples so steep it ought to collapse, turning each one so the red side faces out; she does this two hundred times and never once looks down. At the corner the flower seller cuts stems into a bin, and the cold smells green.
Then the tea urn, and the smell of it goes through the market like news. They gather in twos and threes with their hands round paper cups, saying almost nothing. Steam lifts off the cobbles where the water has been thrown.
At ten to six the light arrives — not as a sunrise but as a slow subtraction. The streetlamps that were the only colour turn pale and pointless; the awnings come back to their proper stripes. Somewhere a shutter rattles up. The woman with the apples wipes her hands, straightens, and looks towards the entrance of the square, where the first customer of the day is already walking in.
Commentary — where this earns its marks.