Unseen Prose: Marking a Question About a Deliberate Word Choice
An HSC Arabic paper sets an unseen prose passage of about 130 words. It describes a village library in Aurangabad district: the library opened in 1998, closed in 2011 after its roof collapsed, and reopened last March with 1,200 books donated by local students; a women's literacy class now meets there every Tuesday. Question 4 asks: «لماذا يقول الكاتب إنّ المكتبةَ «عادت» ولم يقل إنها «افتُتحت»؟» and carries two marks. A candidate writes in English: 'Because it is a new library with new books.' The paper's instructions state that answers to comprehension questions must be written in Arabic. The passage supplies the 2011 date but never uses the word 'new'. The same candidate scored 3 out of 5 on the earlier literal questions, has twelve minutes left for three questions, and asks you to review the script before it is handed in.
1. Should this answer receive two marks, one mark, or no marks? Identify what the question is actually testing before deciding.
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No marks. The question is not asking for a fact from the passage; it is asking the candidate to interpret the writer's choice of verb.
- «عادت» encodes return after absence. It presupposes (i) the library existed before, (ii) it stopped, (iii) it has resumed. The passage supplies exactly these three facts: opening in 1998, closure in 2011 after the roof collapsed, reopening last March.
- «افتُتحت» would present the library as new, with no history.
- The candidate's answer ('a new library with new books') contradicts the passage, since a library closed in 2011 and reopened is not new. An answer that contradicts the text cannot be given partial credit, even though it mentions a real detail (the donated books).
A full-mark answer needs two checkable elements: the 2011 closure and the recent return to work. The donated books are context, not the reason.
2. With twelve minutes left for three questions, how should the candidate handle this item? Draft the Arabic sentence that would earn the two marks.
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Spend no more than three minutes: one sentence, no preamble. The marks are earned by naming why the return is a return, not by explaining in general that libraries are useful.
Model sentence:
لأنّ المكتبةَ أُغلقت عام 2011 بعد سقوطِ سقفِها، ثم عادت إلى العملِ في مارس الماضي.
Why this works grammatically and for the scheme:
- «أنّ» + اسمها المنصوب «المكتبةَ» is correct after «لأنّ».
- «أُغلقت» agrees with the feminine subject.
- «بعد سقوطِ سقفِها» - مصدر مضاف إلى فاعله, compact and safe.
- It contains both scoring elements in fourteen words, leaving time for the other two questions.
If the candidate cannot recall «سقوط», «انهيار» or simply «لأنها أُغلقت عام 2011 ثم عادت» still carries both elements and is better than an English sentence.
3. The candidate insists that writing in English is acceptable because 'the examiner will understand'. Judge the risk and say what to do when time is short.
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Understanding is not the same as earning marks. The paper instructs Arabic, so:
- Any mark allocated to expression or language in the scheme is unreachable in English.
- Comprehension answers double as evidence of the candidate's Arabic; an English answer gives the examiner nothing to credit on that side.
- An English sentence also invites a dispute the candidate cannot win: the examiner marks against the printed scheme, not against intention.
When time is short, write short Arabic, not English: unvocalised Arabic such as «لأنها أُغلقت عام 2011 ثم عادت» is fully acceptable and takes seconds. Never mix the two languages in one answer; a mixed sentence reads as an unfinished translation of a thought and is the worst of both options.