Answering a 'suggest' question: lifting the text versus making an inference
Ka-yan is 48 minutes into Paper 1 and has chosen Part B2. She has 20 minutes left and four questions unanswered, worth 11 marks in total: a 2-mark "implied meaning" question, a 4-mark question asking her to explain why the writer calls a company's claims "a stretch", a 1-mark vocabulary item on the word "ferment", and a 4-mark question asking her to summarise two criticisms of the company. The passage is about a Hong Kong start-up that brews beer from surplus bread collected from bakeries. The 2-mark question reads: "What does the writer suggest about the founders' view of their own product?" The relevant sentence is: "The founders are quick to insist that the drink is not a novelty." Ka-yan writes: "They insist that the drink is not a novelty." For the vocabulary item she has never seen the word "ferment"; the sentence reads: "The bread is fermented for a fortnight, turning its sugars into alcohol." She is about to skip that question and spend the remaining 10 minutes on the 4-mark summary.
1. Explain what Ka-yan's 2-mark answer does and does not do, then write an answer that would earn both marks.
Read the worked answer
Why the answer stalls at 1 mark (and probably earns 0)
The question uses suggest, which is an invitation to infer. Ka-yan has done the opposite: she has copied a clause from the passage, keeping the writer's own noun novelty and adding nothing. A marker can see no evidence that she has understood the attitude being described, only that she can locate the sentence. Copying also re-uses the passage's wording, which is exactly what summarising and inference items test against.
Why the sentence supports a stronger answer
Two signals do the work: quick to (they anticipate the accusation, so they are defensive) and insist (they are pushing back against something). Putting those signals together, the founders expect to be dismissed as a gimmick and are trying to pre-empt that judgement.
A full-mark answer
They are defensive about being treated as a gimmick: they want the beer judged as a serious commercial product rather than a marketing stunt.
For a 2-mark item, expect to need two distinct ideas, for example defensive plus wanting to be taken seriously. The reusable method: name the signal word in the text, then state the attitude, then state the reason for it.
2. With 20 minutes left and 11 marks across four questions, how should Ka-yan allocate her time, and what principle should drive the order?
Read the worked answer
First principle: no blank answers.
A blank scores zero with certainty; an attempt can pick up part marks, and short-answer items often award 1 mark for a partially correct idea. The order below protects that.
Suggested order and timings
- Vocabulary item (1 mark) - 90 seconds. It is the cheapest mark on the page and is answerable from context (see the next task).
- 2-mark "suggest" item - 3 minutes. One reread of the relevant paragraph, two ideas, written in her own words.
- "A stretch" 4-mark item - 6 minutes. This needs the surrounding paragraph plus the writer's tone, so it costs reading time.
- Summary 4-mark item - 7 minutes. Left last on purpose: it draws on the whole passage, so by this point she has already re-read most of it.
- Buffer - 2 minutes. Check spelling of words copied from the passage, check she has answered the question actually asked (e.g. two criticisms, no more), and make sure nothing is blank.
The reasoning behind the order
Marks per minute is roughly 1.8, but marks are not equally expensive: the vocabulary item is retrievable without the passage, while the summary requires whole-text reading. Spending 10 minutes on the summary would win at most 4 marks and would forfeit 3 marks she could have collected in four minutes. Rule of thumb: buy the certain marks first, and never trade three small marks for one large uncertain one.
3. Show how Ka-yan can answer the 1-mark "ferment" item without knowing the word, and state the risk in the method.
Read the worked answer
The substitution test
The sentence gives the meaning inside itself: fermented for a fortnight, turning its sugars into alcohol. So fermented names the process the bread undergoes before it becomes alcoholic. She can write a functional definition rather than a dictionary gloss:
allowed to sit and break down so that its sugars turn into alcohol
What makes this acceptable
Vocabulary items in Paper 1 normally test whether the candidate can work out meaning from context, not whether they have memorised a gloss. A paraphrase that fits the sentence earns the mark; a blank cannot.
Supporting clues she can check
- Grammar: is fermented is passive, so it is something done to the bread, not something the bread does by itself.
- Collocation: fermented foods and drinks (bread, beer, yoghurt) are all products of controlled breakdown over time.
- Consistency check: substitute the guess back into the sentence. If "allowed to break down so its sugars turn into alcohol" reads sensibly, the guess is good enough to write.
The risk
Guessing a meaning that has nothing to do with the sentence (for example "baked") fails the substitution check and will not score. The method is contextual guessing, not free association - always re-read the sentence with the guess in place before committing to it.