IGCSE English 0500: Selecting Evidence Without Repeating It. Marathon Passage

Read the passage, then answer the questions that follow.

Coach Idris always told Renata the same thing before a marathon: treat the first ten kilometres as a warm conversation, not an argument, and never push the pace early no matter how good you feel. At the fifteen-kilometre mark of the coastal marathon, her watch buzzed to show she was nineteen seconds ahead of her planned split. She let herself hold that gap rather than easing back onto the pace band taped to her wrist, telling herself a small cushion could only help later.

By kilometre eighteen the gap had grown to almost a minute, and she still felt strong on the flat road along the harbour, so she reasoned that slowing down now would simply waste an advantage she had worked hard to build. She pushed on at the faster pace through the incline that followed rather than reining herself in.

The long hill at kilometre twenty changed everything. Her legs began to feel hollow, drained of the reserve she would need for the final six kilometres, and within half a mile her stride had shortened to something closer to a shuffle. Two runners she had comfortably overtaken earlier passed her back without appearing to work hard at all. By the finish, she would later tell Coach Idris, there had simply been nothing left in her legs for the last, hardest stretch of the course, and the final six kilometres had taken almost as long as the first eighteen.

Focus for this task: why Renata slowed so dramatically over the final six kilometres of the race.

(a) The passage contains two sentences that both provide evidence for this focus by describing Renata's legs running out of energy. Quote the ONE phrase you judge to be the clearer, more precise piece of evidence, and briefly explain why using both phrases together would be unnecessary. [2]

(b) Using mostly your own words, plus your chosen quotation embedded within a single sentence, explain why Renata slowed so dramatically in the final six kilometres. [3]

Assessment focus

This question isolates a skill named directly in the topic objective: recognising when two sentences make essentially the same point, so that only one needs to be selected and quoted. Repeating near-identical evidence does not earn extra credit, and can crowd out other creditable material or waste time that could be spent on a different part of the answer.

Part (a): Choosing one precise quotation, not two

The passage states the same underlying point twice: once at the hill (“her legs began to feel hollow, drained of the reserve she would need for the final six kilometres”) and once near the finish (“there had simply been nothing left in her legs for the last, hardest stretch of the course”). Both describe the same cause, exhausted leg reserve, from slightly different moments in the race, so a strong answer selects only one.

Mark scheme for (a), up to 2 marks:

1 mark for selecting ONE accurate, appropriately short quotation from either candidate phrase, not both.
1 mark for a brief, valid explanation that the two sentences make the same underlying point, so quoting both would add length rather than extra evidence.

Part (b): Explaining the cause, mostly in the candidate’s own words

A strong answer links the earlier decision (holding a pace “almost a minute” faster than planned through kilometre eighteen) to the later effect (hollow, drained legs), rather than only restating one half of the story, for example:

Renata slowed dramatically because holding a pace nearly a minute faster than planned through kilometre eighteen used up energy she needed later, so that by the hill at kilometre twenty there had simply been nothing left in her legs for the last, hardest stretch of the course.

Mark scheme for (b), up to 3 marks:

1 mark for correctly explaining the immediate cause in the candidate’s own words (running the middle kilometres faster than planned used up the energy reserve needed later).
1 mark for a fluent sentence that embeds the chosen quotation grammatically, rather than tacking it on unexplained.
1 mark for linking cause (the early pace increase) to effect (hollow legs / shortened stride / being overtaken), rather than only describing one side of the story.

Common pitfalls specific to this text

Candidates sometimes select the pace-band detail (why she sped up) as if it directly answers “why she slowed,” without linking it forward to the later exhaustion the focus actually asks about.
The detail about the “two runners… passed her back without appearing to work hard at all” is a consequence and an illustration of the fatigue, not the clearest direct statement of it, so it is a weaker choice for part (a) than the two candidate phrases about her legs.