Selecting and Using Evidence for a Purpose: Question 2
Syllabus R5
Read the passage, then answer the question that follows.
Tomasz had kept the light at Blackrock Point for eleven years, and Friday would be his last watch before the automated system took over. He climbed the spiral stair for the final oil check out of habit rather than necessity, the new equipment ran on batteries topped up by a small turbine bolted to the gallery rail, and needed no oil at all. Still, he liked the smell of it, and he lingered by the lamp longer than the job required.
Down in the kitchen, he found the logbook open at a blank page, pen resting in the crease. For over a century, keepers had written a line each evening: wind direction, ships sighted, anything unusual. Tomorrow the entries would stop, replaced by a sensor feed nobody would read unless something went wrong. He picked up the pen, then set it down again without writing anything, unsure whether a final entry would mean something or nothing at all.
Outside, the tide was retreating fast, uncovering a stretch of black rock that gave the point its name. A trawler crew waved as they passed, as they always did, not knowing it was the last time anyone would wave back from that particular window.
Which quotation from the passage BEST supports the idea that Tomasz feels the human tradition of keeping the light is being lost, not simply replaced by newer machinery? [1]
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Worked solution
Assessment focus
This question tests whether a candidate can test several plausible-looking quotations against one precise, stated focus, rather than picking whichever detail is most vivid or most memorable. This is the core skill of selection: every option below is genuinely present in the passage, but only one is actually evidence for this point.
Why B is correct
The focus is the loss of a human tradition, not simply a change of equipment. Option B, “replaced by a sensor feed nobody would read unless something went wrong”, follows directly from the passage’s explanation that “for over a century, keepers had written a line each evening,” a human record kept and read by people. The sensor feed replaces not just the task but the human attention behind it: nobody will read it unless there is a fault. This is the clearest, most direct evidence that something more than machinery is being lost.
Why the distractors are wrong
- A describes the turbine and batteries. This is about the mechanics of the new system, not about tradition or human attention being lost. It is a plausible-sounding “official-sounding” detail, which is exactly why it tempts candidates who have not tested it against the focus.
- C is thematically close (it also involves someone at the light interacting with the outside world) but its focus is the trawler crew’s unawareness that this wave is the last, which is about human connection with passers-by, not about the specific record-keeping tradition named in the question.
- D is a purely scenic, descriptive detail about the tide and is not evidence for any point about tradition, loss, or automation.
Mark scheme
- 1 mark for selecting B.
- 0 marks for any other option. No partial credit, since this is a discrete single-answer selection question.