English Department

Entrance Examination Year 7 and 8

Practice Paper

Total Duration: 45 minutes Name: _______________________

Section A: Reading
You are advised to spend around 5 minutes reading and 20 minutes answering the questions.

1 The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with
2 brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a
3 pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over
4 his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in
5 the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its
6 spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung
7 down his brush on the floor, said 'Bother!' and 'O blow!' and also 'Hang spring-cleaning!'
8 and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above
9 was calling him imperiously, and he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his
10 case to the gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are nearer to the
11 sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged and then he scrooged
12 again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little paws and
13 muttering to himself, 'Up we go! Up we go!' till at last, pop! his snout came out into the
14 sunlight, and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow.

15 'This is fine!' he said to himself. 'This is better than whitewashing!' The sunshine struck hot
16 on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he
17 had lived in so long the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout.
18 Jumping off all his four legs at once, in the joy of living and the delight of spring without its
cleaning, he pursued his way across the meadow till he reached the hedge on the further side.
1. List 3 nouns from the first sentence:
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(3 marks)

2. Where was Spring moving according to line 4?

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(2 marks)

3. Explain how Mole was feeling when he said ‘Bother’, ‘O blow’ and ‘Hang spring-cleaning’.
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(2 marks)

4. List 3 verbs from lines 11 and 12:

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(3 marks)

5. Explain the effect the writer has created by writing the list of verbs in lines 11 and 12.

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(4 marks)
6. Explain how and why Mole’s feelings change in the second paragraph.

• Use evidence from the text to support your answer

• Try to make 3 points about how and why his feelings change.
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Section B: Writing to describe

You are advised to spend about 20 minutes on this section.

Task:
Write a short passage describing the beach in summer.

Criteria:
In this piece of writing you are reminded of the need for:

• Accurate spelling
• A range of punctuation
• A range of sentence lengths and structures
• Paragraphs

(9 marks)