Pearson Edexcel International IGCSE·✍️ English Language

Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Language — Paper 1 (Reading & Writing)

⏱ 90 minutes📊 60 marks📄 Paper 1

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ℹ️ About this paper: This is an exam-board-aligned practice paper written in the style of Pearson Edexcel International IGCSE — not an official past paper. Use it for timed practice, then check against the mark scheme included below. For official past papers, see the exam board's website.

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Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Language — Paper 1 (Reading & Writing)

Total marks: 60 · Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

Instructions to candidates

• Answer all questions. • Use black ink or black ball-point pen. • The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question. • Section A (Reading) is worth 30 marks; Section B (Writing) is worth 30 marks. • The reading extract below was written for this paper; you are not expected to have read it before. • In Section B, marks are awarded for content and organisation (18 marks) and technical accuracy — spelling, punctuation, grammar and vocabulary (12 marks). • The total number of marks for this paper is 60.

Paper

Section A — Reading (30 marks)

Read the following extract from a short story, "The Coast Road", and answer all the questions that follow.

The Coast Road

The letter said his grandfather had left him the boat, nothing else — not the house, not the little money there was, only the boat — and for two days Daniel could not decide whether this was a gift or a joke. He had not seen the old man in eleven years. He remembered him mostly as a smell of diesel and tobacco, and a voice that never softened, not even for a child.

He drove down on the Friday, the coast road unspooling grey and endless beside a sea the colour of old coins. The village had shrunk in his memory's absence, or perhaps it had always been this small: a single street, a shut café, gulls picking at something on the harbour wall. And there, at the end of the jetty, was the boat — smaller than he had imagined, its blue paint blistered, its name, Marina, half worn away.

He climbed down into it awkwardly, a grown man playing at a child's game, and sat on the wet bench where his grandfather must have sat ten thousand mornings. Under the seat he found a tin. Inside were not valuables but photographs, dozens of them, all of the same small boy on the same small boat, growing older frame by frame — and Daniel understood, with a lurch he had not expected, that the boy was him, that the old man had kept him after all, all these years, in the only way he knew how.

1. From the first paragraph, identify two things we learn about Daniel's relationship with his grandfather. [2]

2. Look again at the second paragraph. Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to convey a sense of a faded, run-down place. Support your answer with examples. [10]

3. Analyse how the writer presents Daniel's change of feeling across the whole extract, from the opening to the discovery in the tin. Refer closely to the text in your answer. [18]

Section B — Writing (30 marks)

Answer one question. Write about 400–500 words.

Either

4. Write about a time when something you inherited or were given turned out to be more important than it first seemed. Your response can be real or imagined. [30]

5. "The past is best left alone." Write a piece giving your views on this statement, arguing for or against it. [30]

📋 Mark Scheme & Sample Answers

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Mark Scheme

Section A — Reading

1. (2 marks) One mark each for two valid points, e.g.: they were estranged / had not seen each other for eleven years; the grandfather was cold/harsh ("a voice that never softened, not even for a child"); Daniel barely knew him (remembers him "mostly as a smell of diesel and tobacco"). [2]

2. (10 marks) Reward analysis of how language and structure convey a faded, run-down place. Candidates might explore:

The simile "a sea the colour of old coins" — dull, tarnished, suggesting age and lost value.
The verb "unspooling" and "grey and endless" — a bleak, monotonous journey.
Images of decline and closure: "The village had shrunk", "a shut café", "gulls picking at something" — emptiness and neglect.
The boat's decay: "its blue paint blistered", "its name, Marina, half worn away" — the fading name symbolising time and loss.
Structure: the paragraph narrows from the wide coast road to the single street to the small boat, focusing down onto the neglected object.
8–10 = perceptive analysis of several examples with precise terminology and effect; 5–7 = clear comments with effect; 3–4 = features identified with simple comment; 1–2 = a few features spotted.

3. (18 marks) Reward analysis of how Daniel's feeling changes across the extract.

Opening — detachment/confusion: he "could not decide whether this was a gift or a joke"; the estrangement and the grandfather's coldness; the inheritance of "only the boat" feels like a slight.
Arrival — bleakness/reluctance: the grey journey and shrunken village mirror his low expectations; the boat is "smaller than he had imagined", disappointing.
The turn — unexpected emotion: climbing in "awkwardly, a grown man playing at a child's game"; the tin of photographs; the "lurch he had not expected"; the realisation that "the old man had kept him after all... in the only way he knew how" — detachment gives way to moving recognition of hidden love.
Reward analysis of method (the photographs "growing older frame by frame"; the reveal delayed to the final sentence) and of the emotional arc.
15–18 = perceptive, well-structured analysis tracking the change with precise evidence; 10–14 = clear, developed; 5–9 = some relevant comment with support; 1–4 = simple/limited.

Section B — Writing

Content and organisation (18 marks): reward writing well matched to form, purpose and audience (personal/discursive); engaging content; clear structure and paragraphing; a controlled, consistent viewpoint; ambitious vocabulary and crafted effects.

15–18 = compelling, sophisticated, controlled; 11–14 = clear, engaging, organised; 7–10 = competent with some organisation; 1–6 = basic.

Technical accuracy (12 marks): reward accurate spelling and punctuation, a range of sentence structures used for effect, and ambitious, correctly used vocabulary.

10–12 = consistently accurate with range; 7–9 = mostly accurate; 4–6 = some accuracy with errors; 1–3 = frequent errors.

Sample Answers with Examiner Commentary

Question 2 — Sample Answers

Grade A response (extract). "The writer conveys a faded, run-down place mainly through imagery of dullness and decay. The simile describing 'a sea the colour of old coins' is particularly effective: coins that are old are tarnished and have lost their shine and much of their value, so the image suggests a place that is drab, ageing and somehow worthless now. The journey itself is described as 'grey and endless', and the verb 'unspooling' makes the coast road feel monotonous and tiring, setting a bleak mood before Daniel even arrives. The writer then builds a picture of neglect through a list of small details — 'a shut café' and 'gulls picking at something on the harbour wall' — which suggest a village that has closed down and been abandoned. Finally, the structure narrows from the wide road to the single street to the boat, whose 'blue paint blistered' and name 'half worn away' show physical decay, the fading name Marina hinting at how time has worn everything down."

Mark: 9/10. Examiner commentary: A perceptive response that selects a range of well-chosen examples and analyses the effect of each — the tarnished 'old coins' simile, the monotony of 'unspooling', the list of neglected details, and the physical decay of the boat. The candidate also handles structure convincingly, noting how the paragraph narrows onto the worn-out boat. Precise, embedded quotation and consistent focus on how each choice builds the 'faded, run-down' impression place this near the top of the band.

Grade C response (extract). "The writer makes the place sound old and run down. The sea is 'the colour of old coins' which is a simile and makes it sound dull. The café is shut and the paint on the boat is 'blistered' which shows it is old and not looked after. This makes the place seem run down and empty."

Mark: 5/10. Examiner commentary: The candidate selects three relevant examples and correctly identifies the simile, showing understanding of the run-down atmosphere. However, the comments on effect stay general ('sounds dull', 'old and not looked after'). To move up, each example needs developed analysis — for instance, why 'old coins' suggests something tarnished and worthless, or how the shut café and blistered paint build a picture of abandonment — and some comment on the writer's structure. Developing the effect of each quotation is what lifts a mid-band answer.

Question 3 — Sample Answers

Grade A response (extract). "Across the extract Daniel moves from cold detachment to unexpected emotion. At the start, the writer stresses his distance from his grandfather: he 'could not decide whether this was a gift or a joke', and the fact that he inherits 'only the boat' and 'had not seen the old man in eleven years' makes the bequest feel like a slight rather than a kindness. This detachment continues on the bleak journey down, where the 'grey and endless' road and the shrunken village mirror his low expectations, and the boat, 'smaller than he had imagined', disappoints him.

The turning point is the discovery in the tin. Climbing into the boat 'awkwardly, a grown man playing at a child's game' already hints at a softening, a return to childhood, and the photographs of 'the same small boy... growing older frame by frame' deliver the change. The writer delays the meaning until the final sentence, so the reader shares Daniel's 'lurch he had not expected' as he realises 'the old man had kept him after all... in the only way he knew how'. The cold, distant grandfather is transformed, and Daniel's detachment gives way to a moving recognition of a love that had always been there, just never spoken."

Mark: 16/18. Examiner commentary: A perceptive, well-structured analysis that tracks the emotional arc precisely — detachment, bleak disappointment, then the moving turn — and anchors each stage in embedded evidence. The candidate analyses method as well as feeling: the landscape mirroring his mood, the childlike image as he climbs aboard, and crucially the writer's decision to delay the revelation to the final sentence so the reader feels the 'lurch' with Daniel. Sensitive whole-text understanding of the change from coldness to recognised love secures a mark high in the top band.

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