O-Level Comprehension 1: The Last Bus
A narrative of about 580 words and ten questions worth 20 marks between them. The numbers down the left of the text are line numbers, and the questions refer to them.
Write your answers before you open anything. Where a question says in your own words, an answer that hands back the text's own wording earns nothing, however well it has understood the passage.
The text
1 The last bus leaves the interchange at eleven forty, and Wei Sheng had eleven minutes. He sat on the metal bench with his bag between his feet and watched the cleaners work their way down the empty concourse, dragging their trolleys, not speaking. Somewhere behind the shuttered stalls a radio was playing to nobody. The fluorescent tubes buzzed above him, and one of them had been flickering since he arrived, which nobody had come to fix.
6 He had spent four hours at the hospital and had said almost nothing. His grandmother had drifted in and out, and each time her eyes opened he had leaned forward with the sentence ready, and each time she had asked instead about his examinations, whether he was sleeping, whether his mother was eating properly. He had answered all of it, carefully, in the bright voice he kept for her. The sentence had stayed folded in his mouth like a note he kept meaning to post.
12 A nurse had come at nine to change the drip, and he had used the interruption to look at the window instead of the bed. Outside, the car park lights had come on in rows. When he turned back his grandmother was asleep again, her hand open on the blanket, and he had thought, with a kind of panic, that there would be another evening, and another after that, and that he would say it then.
17 At ten past eleven a woman sat down at the far end of the bench with a plastic bag of laundry. She glanced at him once, the way people do, and looked away. Wei Sheng was grateful. He did not think he could hold a conversation together.
20 The thing he had wanted to say was small. That was what made it unbearable. It was not a confession or an apology, only that he had kept the radio she had given him when he was nine, the brown one with the cracked dial, and that he still used it, and that when he turned it on in the evenings it sounded exactly like her kitchen: the same thin music, the same hiss underneath. Four hours, and he had not managed eleven words.
26 The bus came in early, hissing, its windows fogged. The driver did not look up. Wei Sheng let the woman board first and then stood a moment on the platform, his hand on the cold pole, as though the bus might wait if he asked it to. Behind him the flickering tube went out altogether, and the corner of the concourse it had lit went grey.
31 He thought about the cracked dial. He thought about tomorrow, which was a Saturday, and about visiting hours, which began at two. The thought arrived and settled and would not be argued with: he would go back. He would say it badly, and out of order, and probably while she was asking about his examinations again. It did not matter. He would say it, and she would know that he had kept the radio, and that would be enough for both of them.
37 He climbed aboard and paid, and the doors folded shut behind him with a sound like someone clearing their throat. Through the fogged window the concourse slid away, the cleaners still working, the radio still playing to nobody, and Wei Sheng sat with his bag between his feet and let the tiredness come, which it did, all at once, like something switched on.
The questions
Question 1: comprehension [14 marks]
(a) From lines 1 to 5, give two details that show the interchange was almost deserted. [2]
Mark scheme
One mark each, for any two of:
- the concourse is empty
- the cleaners are not speaking
- the stalls are shuttered
- the radio is playing to nobody
Give exactly two. Listing everything you can find risks the marker taking the first two, so lead with your best.
Not credited: the flickering tube, including the part about nobody coming to fix it. That describes a building nobody maintains, over weeks, not a concourse that is empty tonight. Nor is the time creditable: the last bus at eleven forty sets the scene rather than showing how few people are there.
(b) Using your own words, explain what the writer means by "The sentence had stayed folded in his mouth" (lines 10 to 11). [2]
Mark scheme
Two marks for both strands, one mark for either on its own:
- he kept the words in and never let them out
- they were ready and prepared, but put away out of sight rather than spoken. Holding them back through the whole visit, which "had stayed" carries, is an equally good second strand
Any wording carrying both ideas earns the two marks.
Not credited: an answer that only repeats the image, such as "the sentence was folded up inside his mouth". This is a vocabulary in context item, so it has to be reworded to show you understood it.
(c) Give one thing Wei Sheng's grandmother asked him about instead, each time she woke (lines 6 to 11). [1]
Mark scheme
One mark for any one of: his examinations; whether he was sleeping; whether his mother was eating properly.
Not credited: "she asked about him". Too general to show you located the detail.
(d) Explain why Wei Sheng was grateful that the woman looked away (line 19). [1]
Mark scheme
One mark for the reason, not the fact:
- he was worn out after four hours at the hospital and did not want to talk, or he knew he could not manage a conversation
Not credited: "because she looked away." That repeats what happened without giving the reason for it. Quoting the text's own phrase is fine here: this question does not ask for your own words.
(e) (i) How does Wei Sheng feel about his failure to say what he had come to say? (ii) Give two details from lines 20 to 25 that support your answer. [3]
Mark scheme
One mark for the feeling, one for each supporting detail.
The feeling, however worded: frustrated with himself, ashamed, tormented by how easy it should have been.
Any two details:
- he calls the thing he wanted to say small, and says that is what made it unbearable
- it was not a confession or an apology, only that he had kept the radio
- four hours, and he had not managed eleven words
Not credited: "he felt sad". The passage is more specific: what hurts him is the size of the thing he failed to say.
(f) Give two details from lines 31 to 36 that show Wei Sheng's decision is final. [2]
Mark scheme
One mark each, for any two of:
- the thought settled and would not be argued with
- he accepts he will say it badly, and out of order, probably while she is asking about his examinations again, and that it did not matter
- he is already sure of the outcome: she would know that he had kept the radio, and that would be enough for both of them
Not credited: "he would go back", on its own, which is the decision itself rather than evidence that it is firm. The same goes for "tomorrow was a Saturday and visiting hours began at two": the passage has him thinking that before he decides, so it is the decision being assembled, not proof that it holds.
(g) Explain in your own words how Wei Sheng's state of mind changes across the passage, supporting each stage with a detail from the text. You may quote the details themselves. [3]
Mark scheme
The change runs roughly: stuck and silent at the hospital, into panic at how easily he keeps putting it off, into self-reproach on the bench, and out into something settled by the end.
Details, any three:
- the sentence stays folded in his mouth through four hours
- he thinks with a kind of panic that there will be another evening, and another after that
- the thought settled and would not be argued with
- at the end he lets the tiredness come, which he has held off all evening
Banded, not counted up:
- 3 marks for a secure account of the change, in your own words, supported by the text
- 2 marks for some understanding of the change, partly supported
- 1 mark for some awareness of how he feels, with little sense of movement
Not credited: a retelling of what happens. The question asks how his mind changes, so an answer with no movement in it cannot reach 3, however much it quotes.
Question 2: the use of language for effect [6 marks]
(a) What does the writer suggest about Wei Sheng by saying he stood "as though the bus might wait if he asked it to" (line 28)? [1]
Mark scheme
One mark for any of:
- he is reluctant to leave, not ready to go
- he is not thinking clearly, wanting something that cannot happen
- he wants more time to put things right
Not credited: "he thought the bus would wait." He does not think that, and the writer says as though.
(b) The word "folded" is used twice: of the sentence in his mouth (line 11), and of the bus doors (line 37). What is the effect of using the same word in both places? [2]
Mark scheme
The credit here is for the pairing, not for what "folded" means on its own, which question 1(b) has already tested.
One mark each, up to two:
- it links the unsaid sentence to the bus, so the closing doors feel like the words being shut away again
- it suggests something closed up and unopened, picking up the note he keeps meaning to post
- the doors closing on him enact the sentence closing in him, so the ride home repeats the failure rather than ending it
Not credited: noting only that the word appears twice. The mark is for the effect, not for spotting the repetition.
(c) Identify one example of how the writer uses language in the last paragraph (from line 37) to close the evening, and explain the impression it creates. [3]
Mark scheme
Write the example and then the explanation. One without the other cannot reach 3.
Examples that work, with the impression each creates:
- "with a sound like someone clearing their throat": the doors sound almost human, as though the bus is about to speak the words he could not, which keeps the unsaid sentence in the reader's ear
- "the concourse slid away": he is passive, carried off rather than leaving, with the effort taken out of his hands
- "the cleaners still working, the radio still playing to nobody": nothing has changed outside him, which sets the evening's upheaval against a world that did not notice
- "let the tiredness come, which it did, all at once, like something switched on": the tiredness is a switch rather than a slope, so we understand he had been holding it back by force all evening
Banded:
- 3 marks for a well-chosen example with a clear explanation of the impression
- 2 marks for a reasonable example with some explanation
- 1 mark for an example with little or no explanation, or an explanation with no example
Not credited: naming a device without saying what it does. "It is a simile" earns nothing on its own.
How this set is built
Section B tests three things, and each question above is tagged to one of them.
| Question | What it tests | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| 1(a), 1(c), 1(f) | Explicit meaning: finding what the text states | 5 |
| 1(d), 1(e), 1(g) | Implicit meaning and attitude: inference | 7 |
| 1(b) | Vocabulary in context | 2 |
| 2(a), 2(b), 2(c) | The use of language for effect | 6 |
Ten questions for 20 marks, most worth 1 or 2, is the shape we have followed, and the reasoning behind it is on the Section B page. If you are writing practice of your own, that balance matters more than the passage: a set made only of big essay-style questions is not Section B.
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