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Exam-style questions by topic — Edexcel A-Level English Literature

One verified question for each of 17 topics. These are written for this specification and checked by MasteryMind. They are not past-paper questions, and they are not from Pearson Edexcel.

Component 2: Prose
A student is analysing a novel in which the entire plot is advanced through a series of fictional diary entries, newspaper clippings, and letters exchanged between the characters. Which critical term should the student use to accurately describe this structural form?
Practise Component 2: Prose
Component 3: Poetry
A student is analysing a poem where the speaker's voice is distinct from the poet's own biographical identity. Which critical concept best describes this constructed voice?
Practise Component 3: Poetry
Component 3: Poetry – Section A: Post-2000 Poetry – Poems of the Decade: An Anthology of the Forward Books of Poetry 2002–2011
How does the speaker's attitude shift at the conclusion of 'A Minor Role'?
Practise Component 3: Poetry – Section A: Post-2000 Poetry – Poems of the Decade: An Anthology of the Forward Books of Poetry 2002–2011
Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Post-1900 – The Modernist Period – T S Eliot: Selected Poems (Faber, 2009)
How does the conclusion of 'Journey of the Magi' reflect the Magus's spiritual state after witnessing the birth?
Practise Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Post-1900 – The Modernist Period – T S Eliot: Selected Poems (Faber, 2009)
Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Post-1900 – The Modernist Period – The Great Modern Poets, editor Michael Schmidt (Quercus, 2014)
In Robert Frost's poem 'Mowing', what does the speaker conclude is the 'sweetest dream that labor knows'?
Practise Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Post-1900 – The Modernist Period – The Great Modern Poets, editor Michael Schmidt (Quercus, 2014)
Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Post-1900 – The Movement – Philip Larkin: The Less Deceived (Faber, 2011)
How does the speaker in 'Reasons for Attendance' characterise the sound of the trumpet in the opening stanza?
Practise Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Post-1900 – The Movement – Philip Larkin: The Less Deceived (Faber, 2011)
Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Post-1900 – The Movement – The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse, editor Philip Larkin with foreword by Andrew Motion (OUP, 1973)
In Elizabeth Jennings's poem 'Delay', what central metaphor is used to explore the delayed realisation of love?
Practise Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Post-1900 – The Movement – The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse, editor Philip Larkin with foreword by Andrew Motion (OUP, 1973)
Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – Metaphysical Poetry – John Donne Selected Poems (Penguin Classics, 2006)
What is the central philosophical argument regarding the relationship between the body and the soul presented in the concluding stanzas of 'The Ecstasy'?
Practise Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – Metaphysical Poetry – John Donne Selected Poems (Penguin Classics, 2006)
Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – Metaphysical Poetry – Metaphysical Poetry, editor Colin Burrow (Penguin, 2006)
In 'A Dialogue of Friendship Multiplied', how does the use of the dialogue form primarily contribute to the poem's metaphysical exploration of friendship?
Practise Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – Metaphysical Poetry – Metaphysical Poetry, editor Colin Burrow (Penguin, 2006)
Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Medieval Period – English Mystery Plays: A Selection, editor Peter Happé (Penguin Classics, 1975)
How does the structure of 'The Second Shepherds' Play' use the subplot of Mak's stolen sheep to enhance the central religious narrative?
Practise Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Medieval Period – English Mystery Plays: A Selection, editor Peter Happé (Penguin Classics, 1975)
Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Medieval Period – Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays, editor A C Cawley (Everyman, 1993)
How does the anonymous author of the Chester *Noah's Flood* characterise God's opening speech?
Practise Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Medieval Period – Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays, editor A C Cawley (Everyman, 1993)
Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Medieval Period – The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, editor James Winny (Cambridge, 1994)
In *The Wife of Bath's Prologue*, how does the Wife categorise her five husbands?
Practise Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Medieval Period – The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, editor James Winny (Cambridge, 1994)
Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Romantic Period – English Romantic Verse, editor David Wright (Penguin Classics, 1973)
How does the speaker describe his past relationship with nature during his earlier visit to the Wye valley?
Practise Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Romantic Period – English Romantic Verse, editor David Wright (Penguin Classics, 1973)
Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Romantic Period – Selected Poems: John Keats, editor John Barnard (Penguin Classics, 2007)
Which of the following best explains the significance of the metaphor "seal the hushed Casket of my Soul" in the final line of Keats's "To Sleep"?
Practise Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Romantic Period – Selected Poems: John Keats, editor John Barnard (Penguin Classics, 2007)
Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Victorian Period – Christina Rossetti Selected Poems, editor Dinah Roe (Penguin, 2008)
In the final stanza of 'What Would I Give?', what is the primary effect of the speaker's longing for "scalding tears"?
Practise Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Victorian Period – Christina Rossetti Selected Poems, editor Dinah Roe (Penguin, 2008)
Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Victorian Period – The New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse, editor Christopher Ricks (OUP, 2008)
In Elizabeth Barrett Browning's sonnet 'Grief', what is the primary effect of the final simile comparing the mourner to a 'monumental statue'?
Practise Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Victorian Period – The New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse, editor Christopher Ricks (OUP, 2008)
Non-examination assessment
A student is finalising their non-examination assessment and has included several direct quotations from a critical essay. According to the requirements for referencing, which approach must the student take?
Practise Non-examination assessment

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Exam-style questions by topic — Edexcel A-Level English Literature

Component 2: Prose

Component 3: Poetry

Component 3: Poetry – Section A: Post-2000 Poetry – Poems of the Decade: An Anthology of the Forward Books of Poetry 2002–2011

Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Post-1900 – The Modernist Period – T S Eliot: Selected Poems (Faber, 2009)

Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Post-1900 – The Modernist Period – The Great Modern Poets, editor Michael Schmidt (Quercus, 2014)

Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Post-1900 – The Movement – Philip Larkin: The Less Deceived (Faber, 2011)

Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Post-1900 – The Movement – The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse, editor Philip Larkin with foreword by Andrew Motion (OUP, 1973)

Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – Metaphysical Poetry – John Donne Selected Poems (Penguin Classics, 2006)

Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – Metaphysical Poetry – Metaphysical Poetry, editor Colin Burrow (Penguin, 2006)

Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Medieval Period – English Mystery Plays: A Selection, editor Peter Happé (Penguin Classics, 1975)

Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Medieval Period – Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays, editor A C Cawley (Everyman, 1993)

Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Medieval Period – The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, editor James Winny (Cambridge, 1994)

Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Romantic Period – English Romantic Verse, editor David Wright (Penguin Classics, 1973)

Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Romantic Period – Selected Poems: John Keats, editor John Barnard (Penguin Classics, 2007)

Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Victorian Period – Christina Rossetti Selected Poems, editor Dinah Roe (Penguin, 2008)

Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Victorian Period – The New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse, editor Christopher Ricks (OUP, 2008)

Non-examination assessment

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