Total marks: 60 · Duration: 2 hours
Instructions to candidates
- This paper has 60 items based on SIX extracts that you have not seen before: two from drama (Section A), two poems (Section B) and two from prose fiction (Section C). In each section, one extract is Caribbean and one is not.
- Answer ALL 60 items. Each item is worth ONE mark. Choose the ONE best answer from A, B, C and D. In the January 2027 sitting, Paper 01 is taken online, so you select your answer on screen.
- Read each extract carefully before you answer its items. You have about 20 minutes for each extract.
- All the extracts in this paper were written for Kramizo practice and are not taken from published works.
Paper
Section A — Drama (Items 1–20)
Extract 1 (Items 1–10)
Read the following extract from a play carefully and then answer Items 1–10.
THE NET MENDER
[Early morning. A beach at Gouyave, Grenada. An upturned pirogue, painted blue, has the name GLORIA in white letters on its side. PAPA SOLOMON, sixty-two, sits on a crate mending a fishing net spread across his knees. His right leg is in a cast and a crutch leans against the boat. JANELLE, seventeen, enters carrying two buckets.]
JANELLE: The others gone out already, Papa. Rawle say the jacks running off the point this morning.
PAPA SOLOMON: (not looking up) Let them run. Jacks have legs now?
JANELLE: (setting down the buckets) You know what I mean. (Pause.) Six weeks the boat sitting there. Six weeks no money coming in this house.
PAPA SOLOMON: Doctor say two more weeks. Then I go out.
JANELLE: Doctor say two more weeks to walk. (She crouches beside the net.) I could take her out. Rawle will come with me. I know the marks, Papa. I know where the reef break, I know —
PAPA SOLOMON: (pulling a knot tight, hard) Your mother used to say the same thing. "I know, I know." (He looks at the name on the boat.) The sea don't care what you know.
JANELLE: Mammy went out with you every Saturday for twenty years.
PAPA SOLOMON: And every Saturday I watch the sky like a thief watching a policeman. (He holds the net up to the light. There is a large hole in it.) See this? A shark do that. One night. Two years of work.
JANELLE: (quietly) And you mend it.
[Pause. PAPA SOLOMON lowers the net. He looks at JANELLE for a long moment, then at the boat.]
PAPA SOLOMON: Tomorrow. Not today — the wind turning. Tomorrow, early, and you come back before the sun reach the church steeple. You hear me?
JANELLE: (standing quickly) I hear you!
PAPA SOLOMON: (holding out the netting needle) Now sit down. If you going to fish with my net, you going to learn to mend it.
[JANELLE sits. He guides her hands. The lights fade on the two heads bent over the net.]
1. Where and when is the scene set?
A) On a fishing boat far out at sea
B) At the fish market in the evening
C) In a hospital ward where Papa Solomon is a patient
D) On a beach in Grenada, early in the morning
2. Papa Solomon's reply, "Let them run. Jacks have legs now?", is BEST described as
A) anger at the other fishermen
B) a serious question about the fish
C) praise for Rawle's knowledge of the sea
D) dry humour that avoids Janelle's real point
3. Janelle's repetition of "Six weeks" mainly emphasises
A) how carefully the boat has been repaired
B) the growing pressure on the family's income
C) the laziness of the other fishermen
D) Janelle's dislike of fishing
4. Janelle stresses the words "to walk" when she repeats the doctor's advice. This shows that she
A) is pointing out that her father is avoiding the truth
B) wants her father to see another doctor
C) has misheard what the doctor said
D) is pleased that he is recovering quickly
5. The stage direction "pulling a knot tight, hard" suggests
A) that the net is about to tear apart
B) a strong feeling that Papa Solomon does not put into words
C) his pleasure at finishing the net
D) that his skill as a net mender is failing
6. The name GLORIA on the boat MOST likely refers to
A) Janelle's mother, whose memory is tied to the boat
B) Rawle's sister, who owns half of the boat
C) the village church near the beach
D) the boat's first owner, from whom it was bought
7. "I watch the sky like a thief watching a policeman" is
A) personification of the sky
B) a metaphor showing that he was dishonest
C) a simile showing how constantly watchful he was at sea
D) hyperbole showing that he hated the sea
8. Janelle's quiet reply, "And you mend it", is important because it
A) explains why her mother stopped fishing
B) shows that Papa Solomon is careless with his net
C) shows that damage can be repaired with patience, which changes her father's mind
D) proves that the boat can never go out again
9. Papa Solomon's change of mind is shown MAINLY through
A) the pause and the long look before he speaks
B) Janelle shouting at him
C) Rawle's arrival on the beach
D) the sound of the church bell
10. The ending of the extract, in which Papa Solomon guides Janelle's hands on the net, suggests that he
A) is too tired to finish the work himself
B) wants her to sell the net in the market
C) has decided that she must never go to sea
D) is passing on his knowledge and accepting her as a fisher
Extract 2 (Items 11–20)
Read the following extract from a play carefully and then answer Items 11–20.
VISITING HOURS
[A hospital corridor at night. Three plastic chairs in a row. A vending machine hums. A clock on the wall reads 2:40. MICHAEL, forty-five, in a crumpled suit, sits very upright holding a paper cup that he has not drunk from. DANNY, thirty-eight, in a wet jacket, enters quickly and stops when he sees him.]
DANNY: They rang you too, then.
MICHAEL: I'm her next of kin. (Beat.) They rang me first.
DANNY: Course they did. (He sits, leaving the empty chair between them.) How is she?
MICHAEL: Stable. That's the word they keep using. Stable. Like she's a table.
DANNY: (almost laughing) She'd have liked that. She'd have said it twice to make sure you got it.
MICHAEL: (not smiling) Seven years, Danny.
DANNY: I sent cards.
MICHAEL: You sent three cards. She kept them on the mantelpiece, in front of the photographs, so they were the first thing anyone saw when they came in.
[Silence. The vending machine hums. DANNY looks at the cup in MICHAEL's hand.]
DANNY: That's gone cold.
MICHAEL: I know.
DANNY: (standing, digging in his pocket for coins) What do you want? Tea? It'll be terrible.
MICHAEL: (after a long pause) Two sugars.
DANNY: You never took sugar.
MICHAEL: I do now. Things change when you're not here.
[DANNY feeds coins into the machine. It swallows them and gives nothing. He thumps it once. MICHAEL, despite himself, laughs. DANNY turns, and for a moment they are simply brothers again.]
11. The opening stage directions create an atmosphere of
A) busy daytime activity
B) cheerful celebration
C) tense, late-night waiting
D) peaceful rest
12. The detail that Michael holds a cup "that he has not drunk from" suggests that he
A) is too anxious to notice it
B) has only just bought it
C) is saving the drink for Danny
D) dislikes the taste of hospital coffee
13. Michael's words "They rang me first" mainly show his
A) resentment, and his wish to show that he has been the responsible son
B) surprise that the hospital also rang Danny
C) pride that the hospital has his telephone number
D) concern about the cost of the call
14. Danny sits "leaving the empty chair between them". This stage direction suggests
A) that he wants to lie down across two chairs
B) that he is being polite to a stranger
C) the emotional distance between the brothers
D) that he expects their mother to join them
15. "Stable. Like she's a table." is an example of
A) wordplay that shows Michael's frustration with hospital language
B) alliteration that makes the news sound cheerful
C) a rhetorical question that Danny must answer
D) a metaphor showing that their mother has died
16. What does the detail about where the mother kept Danny's cards reveal?
A) She preferred cards to photographs
B) She missed Danny and gave his cards pride of place
C) Michael had thrown the photographs away
D) She was angry with Danny for leaving
17. Michael's line "Things change when you're not here" refers to the sugar in his tea and also to
A) the hospital's new rules for visitors
B) everything that has happened in the family while Danny was away
C) Michael's plans to move abroad
D) the price of drinks in the vending machine
18. Danny's offer to fetch tea is BEST understood as
A) an attempt to make peace without saying so
B) a sign that he is about to leave the hospital
C) proof that he is thirsty after his journey
D) a joke at Michael's expense
19. The moment when the machine "swallows them and gives nothing" MAINLY
A) breaks the tension and lets the brothers share a laugh
B) suggests that their mother has died
C) shows that the hospital is badly run
D) makes Michael angrier with Danny
20. The final stage direction suggests that the brothers' relationship is
A) exactly as it was in childhood
B) beginning to mend
C) about to become violent
D) over for good
Section B — Poetry (Items 21–40)
Extract 3 (Items 21–30)
Read the following poem carefully and then answer Items 21–30.
Dominoes
Under the almond tree behind Mr Lyn's shop
four men sit at a board laid across two drums,
and the afternoon breaks into pieces:
clap — the six-four — clap — the double blank,
each tile slammed down like a verdict
no court on the island would dare to appeal.My father played there every Friday.
He held his hand close to his chest
the way some men hold secrets,
spoke only to say pass or doubles,
and laughed — once — the year he won
six games straight against the champion from Belmont.Now his chair is pulled in for someone younger.
I stand at the shop door with my bag of flour
and the men look up, and nod, and someone says
your father had a good hand,
and the tiles go down again, hard as rain on zinc,
and I count them, the way he taught me,
until the sum comes out to something I can carry.
21. The poem is MAINLY about
A) a quarrel between players outside a village shop
B) a speaker remembering a dead father through the game he loved
C) a domino championship that the speaker won
D) a speaker learning to play dominoes for the first time
22. The italicised words "clap" in the first stanza are an example of
A) alliteration
B) personification
C) metaphor
D) onomatopoeia
23. The comparison of each tile to "a verdict / no court on the island would dare to appeal" suggests that
A) dominoes is against the law on the island
B) the players are judges from the local court
C) the players often argue about the rules
D) the players treat every move as final and powerful
24. "the afternoon breaks into pieces" is BEST described as
A) onomatopoeia imitating the sound of the game
B) a metaphor linking the passing of time to the domino tiles
C) a simile comparing the afternoon to a broken plate
D) hyperbole describing a violent storm
25. "He held his hand close to his chest / the way some men hold secrets" presents the father as
A) nervous and unsure
B) loud and boastful
C) dishonest and cruel
D) private and reserved
26. The dashes around "once" in "and laughed — once —" emphasise
A) that the speaker could not hear him
B) that he was laughing at the speaker
C) how rare and memorable his laughter was
D) that he laughed for a very long time
27. The move from memory to the present in the third stanza is signalled MAINLY by
A) a question asked by the speaker
B) a description of the weather
C) the word "Now" at the start of the stanza
D) the arrival of a new speaker
28. "the tiles go down again, hard as rain on zinc" is
A) a simile comparing the sound of the tiles to rain on a tin roof
B) a metaphor showing that a storm has begun
C) a symbol of the father's anger
D) personification of the rain
29. The final two lines suggest that the speaker
A) wants to become the new domino champion
B) uses what the father taught to cope with the loss
C) has forgotten how to count the tiles
D) is adding up the cost of the flour
30. The men's words "your father had a good hand" are BEST understood as
A) an invitation to the speaker to join the game
B) criticism of the way the father played
C) a joke about the speaker's bag of flour
D) a quiet expression of respect and sympathy
Extract 4 (Items 31–40)
Read the following poem carefully and then answer Items 31–40.
Removal
Three men came for the piano on a Tuesday.
They wrapped it in grey blankets, tenderly,
the way you would wrap someone who had fallen asleep
in a cold room, and the house held its breath.It would not fit. They tilted it,
they took the door off its hinges,
they argued softly about angles,
and the piano, on its side, said nothing,
though once, when it knocked the frame,
one low string spoke for all of us.My mother played it badly every evening,
hymns mostly, and the songs her mother sang,
and we complained, and closed the kitchen door.Now the room is larger than it was.
Four pale squares mark the carpet where it stood.
I keep the door shut, out of habit,
and listen.
31. The poem is MAINLY about
A) the loss of a mother, felt through the removal of her piano
B) the difficulty of moving to a new house
C) a family taking piano lessons together
D) three removal men who damage a piano
32. "tenderly, / the way you would wrap someone who had fallen asleep" is
A) onomatopoeia imitating the blankets
B) an oxymoron that joins opposite ideas
C) a simile that makes the piano seem like a person
D) a metaphor for the speaker's childhood
33. "the house held its breath" is an example of
A) onomatopoeia
B) rhyme
C) simile
D) personification
34. The list of actions in the second stanza ("They tilted it, / they took the door off its hinges, / they argued softly…") creates a sense of
A) great joy and excitement
B) a slow, awkward struggle
C) calm and easy progress
D) a sudden accident
35. "one low string spoke for all of us" suggests that
A) the family laughed at the noise
B) the piano was badly out of tune
C) the sound expressed the family's unspoken grief
D) the removal men began to sing
36. The tone of the third stanza is BEST described as
A) angry
B) gently regretful
C) excited
D) indifferent
37. "Now the room is larger than it was" is literally true, but it also suggests
A) that the room had been wrongly measured
B) that the family has built an extension
C) the emptiness left by the mother's absence
D) that the speaker is pleased to have more space
38. The image of "Four pale squares" on the carpet is
A) evidence that the carpet is new
B) a sign that the men were careless
C) part of the pattern of the carpet
D) a visual reminder of what is missing
39. The final lines, "I keep the door shut, out of habit, / and listen.", suggest that the speaker
A) is waiting for the removal men to return
B) still half expects to hear the mother playing
C) is afraid of the empty room
D) wants to block out the noise of the street
40. The structure of the poem moves from
A) one season of the year to another
B) the removal, to a memory of the past, to the emptiness afterwards
C) a happy event, to an argument, to a reunion
D) childhood, to adulthood, to old age
Section C — Prose Fiction (Items 41–60)
Extract 5 (Items 41–50)
Read the following extract carefully and then answer Items 41–50.
When the water came up through the floorboards, Shanti's mother did not save the television or the good plates. She saved the sewing machine.
Shanti watched her from the stairs. The brown water was already over her mother's ankles, carrying a slipper, a calendar and the lid of the rice pot, all of them turning slowly. Her mother waded across the kitchen with her skirt knotted at her knees, lifted the old black sewing machine in both arms like a newborn, carried it up to the top step, set it down and wiped it dry with the hem of her blouse.
"Ma, the TV," Shanti said.
"The TV never fed anybody in this house." Her mother pushed a wet strand of hair from her face. "This machine sent you to school. This machine paid for your uniform, your books, your shoes. Every Christmas dress for every girl on this street went under this needle."
Outside, the rain kept falling on Georgetown as though it had been saving up for years. Somewhere a dog was barking, and someone was calling a name, over and over, across the water.
They sat on the top step together with the machine between them. After a while her mother laid her hand on its cold wheel and turned it once, slowly, the way another woman might touch a rosary. The needle went down and came up again, sewing nothing.
"When the water goes," her mother said, "we will have plenty work. Everybody will want new curtains."
Shanti looked at her mother's face to see whether she was joking. She was not. And for the first time that night, Shanti was not afraid.
41. The extract is narrated by
A) Shanti, speaking as "I"
B) a neighbour watching from across the street
C) a third-person narrator who follows Shanti's point of view
D) Shanti's mother, speaking as "I"
42. The opening paragraph is effective MAINLY because it
A) explains what caused the flood
B) surprises the reader, who wants to know why the machine was saved
C) describes the weather in great detail
D) introduces every character in the story
43. The list "a slipper, a calendar and the lid of the rice pot" MAINLY shows
A) how the flood has scattered the ordinary objects of the home
B) that the house was always untidy
C) that the family is very wealthy
D) that Shanti is good at counting
44. Her mother lifts the machine "in both arms like a newborn". This simile suggests
A) that she has recently had a baby
B) that she is afraid of the machine
C) how precious the machine is to her
D) that the machine is very light
45. The reply "The TV never fed anybody in this house" reveals her
A) anger with Shanti for watching television
B) hatred of modern technology
C) practical values: she prizes what earns the family's living
D) wish to buy a new television after the flood
46. The repetition of "This machine…" in her speech MAINLY
A) shows that she is confused by the flood
B) suggests that the machine is new
C) shows that Shanti is not listening
D) emphasises how much the family owes to the machine
47. "the rain kept falling on Georgetown as though it had been saving up for years" is an example of
A) a rhetorical question
B) personification
C) onomatopoeia
D) understatement
48. The details of the barking dog and someone "calling a name, over and over, across the water" MAINLY create
A) a humorous contrast with the kitchen
B) a feeling of complete silence
C) a sense of danger and distress in the wider community
D) a cheerful, lively atmosphere
49. Her mother turns the wheel "the way another woman might touch a rosary". This suggests that for her the machine is
A) a source of comfort, almost like faith
B) something she is ashamed of
C) a toy for her daughter
D) an object she plans to sell
50. Why is Shanti "not afraid" at the end of the extract?
A) Her father has come home
B) Her mother's calm plans for the future make her feel safe
C) She has managed to save the television
D) The flood water has already gone down
Extract 6 (Items 51–60)
Read the following extract carefully and then answer Items 51–60.
On Saturdays I work at the Bubble & Spin launderette on Corporation Street, which mostly means I sit behind the counter, sell little boxes of powder, and tell people that machine four is broken. Machine four has been broken since before I was born. Nobody has ever fixed it, and nobody has ever taken the sign down.
Mrs Okafor comes in at eleven. She always brings the same coat — long, navy, with brass buttons — and she always puts it in machine seven on its own, cold wash, and sits on the bench in front of it with her handbag on her knees. She does not read. She does not look at her phone. She watches the coat go round as if it were a programme she has been waiting all week to see.
The first few weeks I thought she was a bit strange. Then I thought she was very strange. By the summer I had stopped thinking about it at all; she was just part of Saturday, like the broken machine and the smell of warm cotton.
In September she came in without the coat.
She stood in the doorway for a while, holding her empty bag. Then she came to the counter and bought a box of powder she did not need, and sat down on the bench in front of machine seven, and watched it, empty and still, for a full forty minutes.
I didn't say anything. I'm sixteen; I didn't know what you were supposed to say. But when she got up to go, I came out from behind the counter, which I am not allowed to do, and held the door open for her, and she touched my arm, once, as she went past.
The next Saturday I took the sign off machine four. I don't know why. It still doesn't work.
51. Who narrates the extract?
A) Mrs Okafor
B) The owner of the launderette
C) An outside narrator who knows every character's thoughts
D) A sixteen-year-old who works at the launderette
52. The comments about machine four in the first paragraph create a tone that is
A) frightening
B) tragic
C) angry
D) gently humorous
53. Mrs Okafor watches the coat "as if it were a programme she has been waiting all week to see". This suggests that she
A) gives the washing her complete, almost loving attention
B) is bored and waiting to leave
C) wishes that she owned a television
D) is checking that the machine works properly
54. The sequence "a bit strange … very strange … stopped thinking about it at all" shows that the narrator
A) began to dislike working on Saturdays
B) grew more and more afraid of her
C) asked the owner to ban her
D) came to accept Mrs Okafor as part of the routine
55. The one-sentence paragraph "In September she came in without the coat." is effective because
A) it brings the story to an end
B) it describes the weather in September
C) it introduces a new character
D) its shortness marks a sudden and important change
56. What is the MOST likely reason Mrs Okafor comes without the coat but still watches machine seven?
A) She has lost someone connected with the coat and keeps the ritual out of grief
B) She has bought a washing machine for her home
C) She left the coat on the bus by mistake
D) She wants to complain that machine seven is faulty
57. She buys "a box of powder she did not need". This MAINLY shows that she
A) is careless with her money
B) is trying to increase the narrator's sales
C) wants a reason to stay in a place that matters to her
D) plans to wash the coat later that day
58. "I didn't know what you were supposed to say" reveals the narrator's
A) rudeness towards customers
B) lack of interest in Mrs Okafor
C) dislike of the job
D) youth and uncertainty in the face of grief
59. The narrator comes out from behind the counter, "which I am not allowed to do". This shows that
A) kindness matters more to the narrator than the rules
B) the narrator wants to be dismissed
C) Mrs Okafor had asked for help
D) the narrator is careless at work
60. The narrator's removal of the sign from machine four at the end MOST likely suggests that
A) the narrator has repaired the machine
B) the narrator wants customers to use the broken machine
C) the narrator has been changed by the encounter, without fully understanding how
D) the owner told the narrator to remove the sign