Comprehension: Explicit and Implicit Meaning: Question 5
Syllabus R1, R2
Read the following passage, then answer the questions that follow.
The night before they left the house on Fenwick Road, Elsa's mother wrapped each plate in newspaper with the brisk efficiency of someone completing a chore rather than dismantling a decade. She hummed while she worked, a tune Elsa didn't recognise, stopping abruptly whenever she reached for the good glasses, the ones from the wedding, kept at the back of the cupboard and used perhaps twice a year.
Elsa's father had spent the evening in the garden, supposedly checking the shed for anything left behind, though the torch beam had stayed fixed on one spot near the old rose bush for almost twenty minutes. When he came back inside, he said only that the shed was empty, and helped himself to a second cup of tea he did not drink.
At eleven, Elsa found her mother sitting on the stripped mattress in what had been her parents' room, a single unwrapped photograph balanced on her knee. She wasn't crying, exactly, but she held very still, the way Elsa held still when she didn't want to be noticed in class. When she saw Elsa in the doorway, she stood immediately, sliding the photograph into a box marked KITCHEN, the wrong box, Elsa noticed, though she said nothing.
"Big day tomorrow," her mother said, her voice bright in a way it usually wasn't after ten o'clock. Elsa said that it was, and went back to bed, leaving the light of the hallway on, the way she used to when she was much younger and afraid of the dark.
(a) According to the passage, what does Elsa find her mother doing at eleven o'clock? [2]
(b) Explain what the detail of the photograph being placed "into a box marked KITCHEN, the wrong box" suggests about the mother's state of mind at that moment. [3]
(c) Explain what the father's behaviour in the garden suggests about his feelings, and how this contrasts with what he says and does when he comes back inside. [3]
(d) In your own words, explain what Elsa's own action of leaving the hallway light on suggests about how she is feeling. [2]
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Mark scheme notes
This higher-tier question requires candidates to track implicit meaning across three different characters and to explicitly compare stated words against inferred feelings, a more demanding synthesis than a single-detail inference.
- (a) Explicit retrieval [2]. Both the location/action and the stillness/photograph detail are stated directly; both are needed for full marks.
- (b) Implicit meaning [3]. The “wrong box” is the pivotal detail; answers that describe the photograph generally without noticing the misplacement should not receive full marks.
- (c) Implicit meaning with contrast [3], this part specifically rewards candidates who identify the gap between the father’s private behaviour and his public composure, not just one or the other.
- (d) Own words / implicit meaning [2], the strongest answers link Elsa’s action back to the earlier childhood-fear detail rather than treating it as an isolated habit.