O-Level Comprehension 2: The Substitute
A narrative of about 570 words with ten questions worth 20 marks between them. The numbers down the left of the text are line numbers, and the questions refer to them.
Answer everything before you open a mark scheme. Where a question says in your own words, handing back the passage's own wording earns nothing, however well you have understood it. Where it does not say so, quoting is fine.
The text
1 Fifty-one minutes of the final had gone, and Priya had touched nothing all afternoon but the zip of her own tracksuit. The bench at the far end of the hall was cold through her leggings. She kept her eyes on the clock above the scoreboard, because it was the only thing she could look at without seeming to want something. Around her the noise came and went in waves, and each time it rose she felt her shoulders lift with it, and each time it fell she made herself sit back.
7 She had not played a competitive minute all season. In training she was quick and certain, and she could see a pass two moves before it existed. Her mother had stopped asking on the drive home. But Coach Lim picked on what he had seen under pressure, and what he had seen of Priya under pressure was one afternoon in March, when she had frozen with the ball at her feet and let it roll out for a throw-in. Nobody had said anything about it afterwards. That was somehow worse than if they had.
14 At sixty-three minutes Meiling went down. It was nothing dramatic, no collision, only a wrong step and a hand reaching for the back of her own thigh. The hall went quiet in the way halls do, all at once and not completely. Priya was on her feet before she had decided to be, and she was aware, with a clarity she was ashamed of, that some part of her was already calculating.
19 "Warm up," Coach Lim said, without looking round.
20 She ran the length of the hall and back. Her legs felt borrowed. On the sideline she pulled the tracksuit over her head and the cold air found her arms, and for a moment the whole thing seemed to be happening to somebody else, somebody she was watching from the bench she had just left. Behind her a board went up with her number on it, and she did not turn round, because turning round would have made it real a second sooner than she needed.
26 Meiling was helped past her, one arm across the physiotherapist's shoulders, putting no weight at all on the leg. Their eyes met for less than a second. Priya said her name, and Meiling nodded without really looking up, already somewhere else, and the gap between them closed over as though neither had spoken.
30 Then she was on. The first ball came to her too fast and she gave it away, and the noise did something complicated behind her. The second came and she gave that away too. She heard her own breath. She thought, with a calm that frightened her, that this was exactly what everybody had expected, and that there were nine minutes left of it.
35 What she did next she could not afterwards explain. She stopped trying to deserve the ball. The third one she did not think about at all: it arrived and she had already moved, and the pass she had seen a hundred times in training was suddenly there in front of her, and she played it, and it was good. Nothing came of it. No goal, no chance, nothing anyone would remember by Monday. But the hall made a different sound, and Priya felt it land somewhere under her ribs, and she turned and ran back for the next one.
The questions
Question 1: comprehension [14 marks]
(a) From lines 1 to 6, give two details that show Priya had taken no part in the match. [2]
Mark scheme
One mark each, for any two of:
- she had touched nothing all afternoon but the zip of her own tracksuit, so she had not touched the ball
- she was on the bench at the far end of the hall, away from the play
- fifty-one minutes had gone and she was still sitting there
- she watched the clock, which is what you do when you are not in the game
Give exactly two. Listing everything you can find risks the marker taking the first two, so lead with your best.
Not credited: that the bench was cold. True, and nothing to do with whether she had played.
(b) Using your own words, explain what the writer means by saying that in March she "had frozen with the ball at her feet" (line 11). [2]
Mark scheme
Two marks for both strands, one for either alone:
- the stillness: she stopped completely and did nothing at all, when the ball was hers to play
- the cause: the stopping was not a choice. Panic took over. Accept "panicked", "nerves", "could not make herself move"
An answer giving only the cause, such as "she panicked", earns one mark: the second needs the stillness as well. The passage never uses the word fear, so do not require it.
Not credited: "she was cold", which reads the word literally, or "she played badly", which is far too general for what the image describes.
(c) Explain why the fact that nobody said anything about the March incident was "somehow worse" than if they had (line 13). [1]
Mark scheme
One mark for any of:
- the silence meant it was taken for granted, or treated as no more than what everyone expected of her
- it left her nothing to answer, so she could not put it right
- being talked about would at least have meant it was unusual
Not credited: "because she felt bad about it." That was true before the silence, and it does not explain the comparison the question asks about.
(d) (i) How does Priya feel about herself at the moment Meiling is hurt? (ii) Give two details from lines 14 to 18 that support your answer. [3]
Mark scheme
One mark for the feeling, one for each supporting detail.
The feeling, however worded: ashamed of her own reaction, guilty, disgusted with herself.
Any two details:
- she was on her feet before she had decided to be, an eagerness she never chose
- some part of her was already calculating while Meiling was still on the floor
A candidate who quotes the whole sentence, including "with a clarity she was ashamed of", still earns the calculating detail.
Not credited: "she felt sorry for Meiling." She may well, but the question asks how she feels about herself. "With a clarity she was ashamed of" on its own is not a supporting detail either, because it names the feeling that part (i) asks for.
(e) Using your own words, explain what the writer means by "Her legs felt borrowed" (line 20). [2]
Mark scheme
Two marks for both strands, one for either alone:
- not her own: they felt unfamiliar, as though they belonged to somebody else. Accept "she could not make them obey her" as the same strand
- only lent: they were hers for the moment and would have to be given back
Unfamiliarity and loss of control are one strand, not two. The second mark is for the idea of borrowing rather than owning.
Not credited: "she had borrowed someone's legs", which repeats the image, or "her legs were tired", which swaps it for something the passage does not say.
(f) Give one detail from lines 30 to 34 that shows Priya's first minutes went badly. [1]
Mark scheme
One mark for either:
- the first ball came to her too fast and she gave it away
- the second came and she gave that away too
Not credited: "she heard her own breath", or "she thought it was what everybody had expected". Both describe how she felt about it, and the question asks for evidence of the play itself.
(g) (i) How does Priya feel about herself in lines 1 to 6? (ii) How has that changed by the end of the passage, and what changed it? [3]
Mark scheme
One mark for (i), two for (ii).
(i) She is holding herself in: wanting to play, and working hard not to let anyone see it. Accept "anxious", "self-conscious", "trying not to hope".
(ii) Two marks for a clear account of both the change and its cause, one for either alone:
- the change: by the end she is absorbed in the game rather than watching herself, playing without needing anyone's permission
- the cause: she stopped trying to deserve the ball, and the pass then came out of her the way it always did in training
Credit any answer that locates the change in self-consciousness rather than skill. The passage is explicit that the ability was there all along.
Not credited as the cause: "she became confident because she made a good pass." The passage puts it the other way round, with "she stopped trying to deserve the ball" first and the pass second. The change itself still earns its mark if the answer sees it as being about self-consciousness.
Question 2: the use of language for effect [6 marks]
(a) Explain why the writer says the noise did something "complicated" behind her (line 31), rather than something loud or something angry. [1]
Mark scheme
One mark for any of:
- the crowd's reaction was mixed, part groan and part encouragement, and not one clear thing
- "complicated" says she could not read it, which "loud" and "angry" could not carry
- it suggests a disappointment being politely covered, which is more uncomfortable than open anger
Not credited: "because it was complicated." Repeating the word is not explaining the choice of it.
(b) The writer says Priya thought "with a calm that frightened her" (line 33). What two impressions does this create? [2]
Mark scheme
One mark each, up to two:
- she has stopped panicking because she has given up, so the calm is surrender and not control
- she is detached from herself, watching her own failure from outside
- the calm is frightening because she knows it is not normal, and she recognises that even while she feels it
Not credited: "she was calm", or "she was frightened". The impression lives in the contradiction, so half of it is not an answer.
(c) Choose one phrase from the last paragraph (from line 35) and explain how the writer uses it to show that something had changed by the third ball. [3]
Mark scheme
Write the phrase, then the explanation. One without the other cannot reach 3.
Phrases that work, with the impression each creates:
- "She stopped trying to deserve the ball": her problem was never skill but the effort of justifying herself, and naming it as something she stops doing makes the change deliberate rather than lucky
- "it arrived and she had already moved": the order is reversed, so she is ahead of the play instead of chasing it, and the training version of her has arrived at last
- "the pass she had seen a hundred times in training": what she does is not new, which is the point; the passage has been telling us all along that the ability was never missing
Banded:
- 3 marks for a well-chosen phrase with a clear explanation
- 2 marks for a reasonable phrase with some explanation
- 1 mark for a phrase with little explanation, or an explanation with no phrase
Not credited: naming a device with nothing about its effect. "It is a short sentence" earns nothing on its own.
How this set is built
| Question | What it tests | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| 1(a), 1(f) | Explicit meaning: finding what the text states | 3 |
| 1(c), 1(d), 1(g) | Implicit meaning and attitude: inference | 7 |
| 1(b), 1(e) | Vocabulary in context | 4 |
| 2(a), 2(b), 2(c) | The use of language for effect | 6 |
The questions follow the passage in order, as a real paper does, so you can work down the text once rather than jumping back and forth.
Practice 1 splits the same 20 marks differently, putting 5 on explicit meaning and 2 on vocabulary. Nobody publishes a fixed split, which is the reason for working both sets rather than one twice.
Why nothing comes of it
The last paragraph is worth reading twice. The pass leads to no goal, no chance, nothing anyone would remember by Monday, and the writer says so plainly. A weaker story would have given Priya a winning goal.
So resist writing that Priya "saved the match". She did not. What changed is that she stopped playing as though she had to earn her place, and the passage is careful to make that the only thing that changed.
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