Re-checking an unseen-passage script: what earns inference and vocabulary marks
You are re-checking the First Language English paper of a school in Nashik. Section I is an unseen passage of about 300 words on the disappearance of sparrows from the city, carrying 12 marks: A1 complete a four-row table of causes (2 marks), A2 inference - Why does the writer call the sparrows 'tenants without leases'? (2 marks), A3 find from the passage a word meaning 'a gradual decrease' (1 mark), A4 personal response - two things you would do to bring sparrows back (2 marks), and A5 language study (5 marks), which nobody disputes. The scheme for A2 says: 1 mark for naming what the metaphor compares, 1 mark for explaining it in the light of the passage, where the writer blames glass facades and pesticide. Rohan writes: A1 - two of the four causes correct; A2 - 'Because they are tenants without leases'; A3 - 'decrease'; A4 - 'We should feed them and not cut trees.' The passage's own word for the fall is 'dwindling'.
1. Rohan's A2 answer repeats the phrase printed in the question. Award the mark and justify the decision against the two-part scheme, then state what a full-mark answer must contain.
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Award 0 out of 2.
- The item tests inference, and the metaphor is already in the question stem. Lifting it back is a copy of the prompt, not evidence of inference. A quick test: delete the quoted phrase from his sentence and nothing remains.
- First mark (naming what is compared): 'tenants' live in a place they do not own; 'without leases' means they hold no legal claim to it. Rohan names neither half.
- Second mark (explaining in the light of the passage): the explanation must connect the metaphor to the writer's argument - sparrows live among people but have no guaranteed place, and glass facades and pesticide have removed even that.
- Full-mark model: 'The sparrows live among us like tenants who pay no rent and hold no lease: tolerated, but with no permanent claim on the place. The writer's point is that glass facades and pesticide have taken away even that uncertain footing.'
- Fairness check: had the question read only 'Why does the writer call the sparrows tenants without leases?' the repetition would still score 0, because quoting is not explaining. Give the candidate a reusable formula: name the two things compared + say what the comparison reveals about the writer's view.
2. Decide the marks for A1 and A3, and write the single margin comment you would put against each.
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A1 - award 1 out of 2. The item is worth 2 marks across four rows, so each correct row is ½. Rohan has two correct rows. Do not round this to 2, and do not round it down to 0 by treating the item as all-or-nothing; tick the two rows he has so that a re-checker can see the basis.
Margin: 'Two causes correct - ½ + ½. Supply the remaining two from the paragraph on buildings.'
A3 - award 0 out of 1. The wording is 'find from the passage a word meaning…', which is a location task, not a synonym task. 'Decrease' means the right thing but is not the word printed in the passage; the passage uses 'dwindling'. Treat the two item types differently: 'find from the passage a word for…' demands the printed word, while 'give a word that means…' allows any synonym. Accept a minor inflection ('dwindle', 'dwindled') but not a different word, and do not accept 'decline'/'reduction' just because they are accurate English.
Margin: 'Meaning right, word wrong - copy the exact word from the passage: dwindling.'
3. A4 carries 2 marks for personal response. Rohan names two actions in one line. Mark it, explain how content and expression are separated here, and state the total for the four comprehension items.
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Award 1 out of 2.
Two actions are named ('feed them' and 'not cut trees'), so a case for 2 exists; the reason for stopping at 1 is that the two actions are stacked in a single unexpanded clause, neither is linked to the causes the passage actually names, and personal-response items reward relevance plus a little development. A full-mark answer would read: 'Stop felling the old tamarind and neem trees where they nest, and put up a shallow water bowl and grain tray on a window ledge in summer, when the passage says the chicks are lost to heat.' That shows two distinct actions, each with a reason.
On content vs expression: in a personal-response item the two marks are almost always content marks, not one content and one expression. Do not deduct for grammar here; grammar is tested in A5. Deduct only for irrelevance, repetition of the same idea in different words, or an undeveloped list.
Section total for these items: A1 1 + A2 0 + A3 0 + A4 1 = 2 out of 7. Note in the report that three of the five lost marks are method errors (copying the prompt, ignoring 'from the passage', listing without developing), not comprehension failures - that changes what the remedial work should be.