Narrative Composition: Question 6

Worked solution

Assessment focus

This tests the ability to recognise effective foreshadowing: a specific, plausible detail planted early enough to pay off later, without either announcing that payoff directly or offering nothing concrete at all.

Why B is correct

Option B plants a specific object, the compass, along with an understated reason it is almost left behind, which quietly raises a question (“will she regret nearly leaving this?”) without answering it. Because it never states why the compass will matter, it can be paid off naturally later without feeling like a coincidence.

Why the others are wrong

• A names the compass’s future significance outright (“it would save her life by morning”), which tells the reader the payoff in advance instead of planting an understated detail for them to notice later.
• C contains no specific, nameable detail. “packed carefully” and “checking twice” describe a general habit, not an object or moment that could plausibly return later in the story.
• D is specific but has no plausible connection to the kind of conflict a story like this is likely to build toward, so it reads as a distracting aside rather than an intentional plant.