Inference or Echo: Marking an Unseen Prose Response
In a Class XII internal assessment, a 350-word unseen prose passage describes a coastal village being relocated because of erosion. The passage says the relocation is 'a slow unmooring' and that 'the sea keeps its own calendar, not the government's.' It notes that officials visited twice, promised a survey, and left; a concrete wall was sanctioned but not built. The question paper asks: (a) Why does the writer call the relocation 'a slow unmooring'? (2) (b) What does 'the sea keeps its own calendar' suggest about the villagers' relation to the tides? (2) (c) Identify two details showing official reluctance. (2) Student A answers (a) by quoting 'a slow unmooring' and saying it was slow; for (b) writes 'the sea has a calendar'; for (c) writes 'officials visited.' Student B writes that 'unmooring' implies loss of rootedness and that the metaphor makes displacement gradual and emotional; for (b) says the villagers live by tidal rhythms rather than bureaucratic schedules; for (c) cites the twice-visited survey and the unbuilt wall. The teacher must award 6 marks across the three parts.
1. Which student's answers meet the demands of the questions, and why? Refer to each part and propose a mark out of 6.
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Student B meets the demands; Student A mostly echoes words from the passage.
- Part (a): The question asks why the writer uses the phrase, not what the phrase is. Student A merely repeats 'a slow unmooring' and adds 'it was slow', which is tautology. Student B unpacks the metaphor: 'unmooring' suggests a boat being loosened from its moorings, so the villagers are losing their rootedness; 'slow' makes the loss gradual and emotionally drawn out. B earns 2/2; A earns 0 or, at most, 1 for a partial gesture towards slowness.
- Part (b): 'The sea has a calendar' is a literal restatement and does not explain what the metaphor suggests. B explains the contrast between tidal rhythm and bureaucratic schedule: the villagers' lives are governed by nature, not by official time. B earns 2/2; A earns 0.
- Part (c): 'Officials visited' is a detail, but it does not by itself show reluctance. B gives two specific details - the twice-visited survey that did not lead to action, and the sanctioned but unbuilt wall - and each implies delay or unwillingness. B earns 2/2; A earns 0.
Suggested award: B = 6/6; A = 0–1/6. The teacher should reward explanation and textual support, not quotation alone.
2. Student A protests, 'But the answer is in the passage.' Explain the difference between locating evidence and answering an inference question, using A's answer to part (b).
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Locating evidence means finding the words that support an answer; answering an inference question means stating what those words imply. The passage does contain 'the sea keeps its own calendar', so Student A has found the right evidence - but the question asks what the phrase suggests, and A simply repeats 'the sea has a calendar'. That is a literal paraphrase, not an inference.
A useful explanation for the student: the quotation is the proof, not the point. The point is the contrast between two ways of measuring time: the sea's tidal cycle and the government's administrative timetable. The villagers live by the first; the officials act by the second, which is why promises are delayed. Student A needs to add a sentence of the form: 'The phrase suggests that ______, because the metaphor contrasts ______ with ______.'
A quick check: if the answer could be written without reading beyond the quoted words, it is probably too literal for an inference question.
3. Rewrite Student A's answer to part (b) in no more than 30 words so that it would earn full marks.
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It suggests the villagers' lives are ruled by the sea's tidal rhythm, not by official timetables; the metaphor makes nature, not bureaucracy, the true authority. (28 words)
The rewrite keeps the quotation's idea but explains the implied contrast between natural time and administrative time, which is what the question demands.