The Ten-Mark Passage That Answers Itself
You are moderating the Class X First Language English paper for a district-level school. A setter has submitted a 260-word unseen passage on rooftop rainwater harvesting in a coastal block, with eight draft questions carrying 12 marks in total. The board pattern allows exactly 10 marks: four 1-mark short answers, two 2-mark items and one 2-mark vocabulary item. The draft includes: Q1 'What is rainwater harvesting?' (1); Q2 'Which district built 40 tanks?' (1, answer stated in line 2); Q3 'Name two benefits of harvesting' (2, benefits listed verbatim in paragraph 3); Q4 'Why does the writer call the roof the cheapest dam?' (2, inference); Q5 'Find a word meaning scarcity' (1, the word appears in paragraph 2); Q6 'What is the tone of the last paragraph?' (2); Q7 'Do you think schools should harvest rain?' (2, no textual basis); Q8 'Change into passive: The block has built 40 tanks' (1, grammar). You have eight minutes of candidate reading and writing time to protect.
1. Select the five items that should survive in a 10-mark set and state what you would replace the rest with. Explain the principle behind each keep or cut.
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Keep, with rewording: Q1, but only as 'According to the passage, what two parts does a rooftop system need?' - the original asks for a definition the candidate may already know. Keep: Q4 and Q6, because both require inference or tonal judgement, and both can be anchored to lines in the passage. Keep and reword: Q5, which currently rewards synonym-spotting rather than contextual reading.
Cut: Q2 (single stated fact, answerable in three seconds); Q3 (copying a list verbatim, so it tests handwriting, not comprehension); Q7 (opinion with no passage anchor, impossible to mark consistently); Q8 (a grammar item that duplicates the grammar section and cannot test reading).
The governing principle is the blueprint plus the eight-minute limit: four 1-mark items, two 2-mark items, one 2-mark vocabulary item. Replace Q2, Q3 and Q7 with three short items - a contrast ('What does the writer say the tank replaces?'), a referent ('What does "it" refer to in line 9?'), and a number-inference item. That gives two inference items, one vocabulary item, and exactly 10 marks.
2. Rewrite Q5 so that it tests contextual vocabulary rather than synonym-spotting, and explain why your version is harder to guess.
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Rewritten item: 'In paragraph 2 the writer says the tank spared the block a scarcity of water. Explain what spared suggests about the tank's role, and replace scarcity with a word that keeps the same meaning in this sentence.'
The original Q5 only asks the candidate to locate a word already present and match it to a synonym supplied in the question; a candidate who has not read the passage can still scan for 'scarcity'. The rewrite forces two operations: interpreting the verb 'spared' (the tank prevented the shortage rather than merely survived it), and testing a replacement word against the grammar and logic of the sentence. A candidate who writes 'shortage' must still explain why it fits; a candidate who writes 'lack' must see that 'spared the block a lack' is ungrammatical. That is contextual vocabulary, not word-matching.
3. A candidate answers Q4 with: 'Because the roof is the cheapest dam as the writer says in paragraph 4.' Award marks and justify.
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Award 1 of 2. The answer locates the right phrase and shows the candidate has found the metaphor, so it is not a blank response. But the question asks why the writer uses the comparison, and the candidate only repeats it. A full-mark answer would unpack the comparison: a dam is expensive to build and stores water behind a barrier, whereas a roof already exists and collects free water at no construction cost, so the writer's point is about cost and reuse, not about size.
A useful marking rule is: one mark for identifying the relevant phrase or comparison, one mark for explaining the implied point. The candidate earns the first and not the second. Returning the script with the phrase 'you have found the metaphor - now tell me what it makes us understand' is more useful than a bare 1/2.