AQA Paper 1 English Language sample practice questions

For this activity, you will need a copy of an extract from Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, which is on
pp.149-151 of the Vintage (1993) edition, from ‘We charged through on our bikes’ to ‘We could
see in all directions.’ It is also available in the GCSE English Language Reading resource on the
AQA website.

Using the extract from Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, answer the following exam style questions.

1. Read again lines 1 to 11 from the first part of the source.

List four things about the bikes from this part of the source.
(4 marks)

2. Look in detail at lines 1 to 16, from ‘We charged through on our bikes’ to ‘a second attack’.
How does the writer use language to describe the way the boys played on their bikes?
You could include the writer’s choice of:
 words and phrases
 language features and techniques
 sentence forms.
(8 marks)

3. Now you need to think about the whole of the source.

How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?
You could write about:
 what the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning
 how and why the writer changes their focus as the source develops
 any other structural features that interest you.
(8 marks)

4. Focus this part of your answer on line 42 (‘I’d got the bike for Christmas’) to the end of the
source.
A student, having read this section of the source, said: ‘This part of the story shows the
development of the narrator’s relationship with his bike. I think the writer presents the way
this changes in a clever way.’
To what extent do you agree?
In your response, you could:
 write about your own impressions of the narrator’s relationship with his bike
 evaluate how the writer conveys the change in this relationship
 support your opinions with reference to the text.
(20 marks)

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 AQA Paper 1 English Language sample practice questions

Suggested answers

1. Read again lines 1 to 11 from the first part of the source.

List four things about the bikes from this part of the source.
(4 marks)
The bikes were important to the boys.
The bikes were used to ride through garage yards.
The boys saw/treated their bikes like horses.
The bikes were tied to poles with rope.
The bikes were parked on grass verges.

2. Look in detail at the extract from lines 1 to 16.

How does the writer use language to describe the way the boys played on their bikes?
You could include the writer’s choice of:
 words and phrases
 language features and techniques
 sentence forms.
(8 marks)

Example answer

The writer describes the boys as if they are the cavalry riding into battle, ‘We charged
through on our bikes’. This horse metaphor is extended throughout the paragraph. He uses
the verb ‘galloped’, which shows the boys playing imaginatively on their bikes; they see
them as horses. The bikes are ‘hitched … to a pole’, the word ‘hitched’ conjures up the
image of cowboys in a Western movie. This image is emphasised by the description of them
parking the bikes on ‘verges so they could graze’. The narrator has an accident on his bike, ‘I
was alone. I was okay.’ These short simple sentences imply that the incident had been
shocking and perhaps painful, but he puts a brave face on and carries on. This suggests the
bikes are so much fun that even when you fall off them, you want to get straight back on and
keep going. The boys make wild noises on their bikes, ‘Woo wooo wooo’ and want the noises
to sound ‘grown up’. This, added to the words ‘escaped’ and ‘attack’, emphasise their
warlike play on the bikes.

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 AQA Paper 1 English Language sample practice questions

3. Now you need to think about the whole of the source. How has the writer structured the text
to interest the reader?
You could write about:
 what the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning
 how and why the writer changes this focus as the source develops
 any other structural features that interest you.
(8 marks)

Example answer

At the beginning of the extract, the writer focuses our attention on the bikes and how the
boys use them to ‘attack’ the neighbourhood of Bayside. Then there is a time shift, signified
by the key sentence, ‘I’d got the bike for Christmas, two Christmases before.’ The reader is
interested to hear about the narrator acquiring the bike because we realise how important it
is to him in the present day. Consequently, we are surprised by his lack of interest in his
Christmas bike, ‘I didn’t try to ride the bike … we didn’t need them.’ The reader’s interest is
immediately piqued as we wonder how the narrator will develop his passion for his bike. The
turning point is the narrator’s realisation that, ‘Bayside was for bikes.’ This single sentence
paragraph marks a shift in the narrative as the boy realises he cannot be part of the gang if
he cannot ride his bike. Next the reader is taken through the slow process of the boy being
taught to ride. This section of the flashback is key because we learn how hard it was for him
to learn to ride the bike, thereby increasing the kudos of the skill and the importance of the
bike to him. The extract ends by returning to the present day when the narrator uses his bike
to ‘rule’ Bayside. The writer returns to the belligerent imagery, bringing the extract full
circle.

4. Focus this part of your answer on line 42 (‘I’d got the bike for Christmas’) to the end of the
source.
A student, having read this section of the source, said: ‘This part of the story shows the
development of the narrator’s relationship with his bike. I think the writer presents the way
this changes in a clever way.’
To what extent do you agree?
In your response, you could:
 write about your own impressions of the narrator’s relationship with his bike
 evaluate how the writer conveys the change in this relationship
 support your opinions with reference to the text.
(20 marks)

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 AQA Paper 1 English Language sample practice questions

Example answer

I agree that the way the writer presents the change in the narrator’s relationship with his bike is
clever. At first, the narrator is fearful of the bike because it is delivered to his room
mysteriously in the middle of the night, ‘I was confused. And afraid.’ The short sentences
convey the fear felt by the child. This response is intriguing as most children are excited by
presents and Santa Claus. However, one can also see that it is a natural response, to fear the
thought of Santa coming to their room in the dead of night.

After fear comes dissatisfaction, ‘It was the right size for me and I didn’t like that either.’ This
response seems ungrateful and rather petulant. To make things worse, the narrator struggles to
ride the bike, ‘I couldn’t do it.’ This simple sentence conveys the boy’s youth and the feeling of
failure he associates with the bike.

To mark a change in the narrator’s view of the bike, the writer uses a one line paragraph,
‘Bayside was for bikes.’ This stands out dramatically and is effective in marking a change. The
alliteration of ‘b’ adds emphasis to the fact that the narrator is realising he has to learn to ride
his bike to be part of the gang. However, the sentence also stands out as a challenge when
followed by the words, ‘I couldn’t cycle it.’ Indeed, ‘couldn’t’ is repeated three times to show
how he struggled to ‘stay up’ and eventually, he ‘gave up’.

The next phase of the development in his relationship with the bike is closely linked to his
relationship with his father. He says, ‘My da got angry. I didn’t care’ when he gives up. His
father is unhelpful at first, giving useless advice like, ‘It’s as natural as walking.’ Indeed, the
boy needs to ask his father for help. However, when his father helps him, he makes real
progress, ‘He held the back. He said nothing. I pedalled.’ But their relationship is clearly
distant. The father has helped him succeed at riding his bike but the boy does not appreciate his
efforts, ‘I could do it. I didn’t need him now. I didn’t want him.’ The trio of simple sentences
beginning with ‘I’ prove the boy’s feeling of wanting to break away from his father. Indeed, the
bike symbolises his freedom and the start of his coming of age as he breaks away from his
father, ‘He was gone anyway … I stayed on … I stayed on … I stayed on …’ The repetition here
emphasises the delight the boy feels when he masters riding his bike. The writer ends the
extract by going back to the present day, ‘We ruled Bayside.’ The verb ‘ruled’ conveys the
control and power he feels when riding his bike.

To conclude, the writer presents the narrator’s changing relationship with his bike in an
engaging way by conveying the negative emotions initially generated by the bike and then
showing the gradual transformation driven by a ‘need’ to ride the bike to enter into the next
stage of adolescence.

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