Prose (Prescribed Textbook Lessons)
What the section tests
Prose questions ask you to explain an extract, sketch a character, justify a title, or state the writer's message in a prescribed lesson. Marks go for closeness to the text: an answer that could have been written without reading the lesson earns little.
Answer shapes that score
- Extract explanation: identify speaker and situation in one line, give the sense of the passage in your own words, then its significance.
- Character sketch: four or five traits, each followed by a specific action or remark from the lesson. Adjectives alone earn nothing.
- Title justification: take each key word of the title, show where it operates in the action, then conclude that it captures the central concern.
- Theme: state the idea in one sentence and support it with two moments from the text.
Worked example
Question type: 'Why does the craftsman refuse to sell the flawed piece?' Reasoning sequence: (1) locate the scene of refusal; (2) note what he says about his craft - the flaw is his own standard, not the buyer's fault; (3) connect this to the lesson's contrast between price and worth. Model answer: 'He refuses because the flaw would make the buyer pay for work he himself cannot respect; his refusal shows that for him worth lies in the making, not the price.' The answer cites the scene, interprets the motive, and links it to theme - the three moves the examiner is looking for.
Traps
- Retelling the plot instead of answering the question.
- Quoting without explaining the quotation.
- Inventing incidents the lesson does not contain.
- Adding a moral the question never asked for.
- Ignoring a stated word limit such as 'about 40–50 words'.