Lesson 4.2.1.17

4.2.1.17 The Accrington Pals by Peter Whelan Quiz: AQA English Literature A, Unit 2

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 4.2.1.17, The Accrington Pals by Peter Whelan: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA English Literature A (7712), Unit 2: Texts in shared contexts, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. In what year was Peter Whelan's The Accrington Pals first performed?

    • 1981
    • 1945
    • 1999
    • 1967

  2. What was an Accrington Pals battalion?

    • A naval squadron from Lancashire that was built and crewed by the local towns
    • A volunteer fire brigade that served the town in the years before the war
    • A local battalion raised from neighbours and friends
    • A cavalry unit from Ireland that was raised to serve in the Boer War

  3. On which date did the Accrington Pals suffer heavy losses?

    • 11 November 1918
    • 1 July 1916
    • 4 August 1914
    • 28 June 1919

  4. Which battle is the setting for the destruction of the Accrington Pals?

    • Mons
    • Jutland
    • The Somme
    • Gallipoli

  5. What did the Pals battalions reveal about recruitment in WW1?

    • Only officers were allowed to enlist, and ordinary men were kept out of the new units
    • Women were in charge of all recruitment and ran the local offices in every town
    • Recruitment was entirely compulsory from 1914, with every eligible man called up by ballot
    • Men enlisted together, so whole communities suffered losses

  6. Which dramatic form does The Accrington Pals take?

    • Play
    • Sonnet sequence
    • Novel
    • Epic poem

  7. Which term describes a group of soldiers from the same locality serving together?

    • Pals battalion
    • Regiment of horse
    • Vanguard
    • Garrison

  8. Which feature of a drama can most effectively show the experience of war on the stage?

    • A map of the battlefield projected onto the back wall, with the positions marked by lights
    • A poem written in sonnets that is recited by a single speaker from the front of the stage
    • Dialogue and stage action that reveal character and conflict
    • A long narrative voice-over only, with no dialogue and no action on the stage at all

  9. Why does the Pals theme matter for understanding local responses to WW1?

    • It shows the war had no social effects on the towns and villages that sent their men
    • It shows how the loss of a whole community's men affected local life
    • It shows local men avoided the war entirely and stayed at home in safety throughout
    • It proves that local responses were uniform, with every town reacting in the same way

  10. Which contextual feature of WW1 helps explain the Pals schemes?

    • Compulsory conscription for all men from 1914
    • Abolition of the army in 1913
    • Voluntary enlistment encouraged by local leaders
    • A national lottery for soldiers

  11. Evaluate: what is the effect of depicting the Pals' deaths in a single day?

    • It hides the human cost of the battle
    • It shows the battle lasted for many years
    • It makes the loss seem routine and trivial
    • It makes the scale of the loss stark and immediate

  12. Which literary concept describes a sharp contrast between the expectation of a glorious campaign and its reality?

    • Metonymy, the use of a closely associated word to stand in for the thing it describes
    • Ellipsis, the deliberate omission of words that the reader is expected to supply
    • Dramatic irony
    • Assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds within a line of verse or prose passage

  13. Which term describes the way a play reconstructs a real historical event?

    • Pastoral, a form that idealises life in the countryside among shepherds and farmers
    • Farce, a form that relies on exaggerated situations, mistaken identity and rapid action
    • Historical drama
    • Melodrama, a form that uses heightened emotion and sensational plot to move audiences

  14. Which element of WW1 recruitment is the play's central concern?

    • The success of recruitment campaigns
    • The design of trench maps
    • The human cost of local enthusiasm for war
    • The creation of military uniforms

  15. Which phrase describes soldiers who volunteered together in local groups?

    • Naval conscripts who were transferred to the army in the closing years of the conflict
    • Enemy combatants who fought against the local men in the trenches of the Western Front
    • Friends from the same town
    • Army engineers who built the roads, bridges and railways behind the front line in France

  16. What is the significance of the Accrington Pals being destroyed at Serre?

    • It shows the battalion was never sent into battle and remained in reserve throughout
    • It shows the battalion won a decisive victory that secured the ground for the wider army
    • It proves the attack was successful and that the enemy's defences were overcome easily
    • It highlights a catastrophic failure of the attack on the first day of the Somme

  17. Which phrase best captures the play's wider context?

    • Industrial growth in Manchester
    • Imperial expansion in Africa
    • Local lives meeting national catastrophe
    • Scientific breakthroughs in medicine

  18. Which statement is the best evaluation of the Pals concept?

    • It was a purely military innovation without social impact
    • It was a powerful recruiting tool with devastating local consequences
    • It was a failed scheme that was quickly abandoned
    • It was a government plan for peacetime service

  19. In which Lancashire town were the Accrington Pals raised?

    • Blackburn
    • Preston
    • Burnley
    • Accrington

  20. What does the word 'Pals' suggest about the men's relationships in the play?

    • Rivalry between rival towns that competed fiercely over recruits and local pride
    • Formal military rank, which set officers apart from the men who served under them
    • Religious brotherhood, which bound the men together through shared church membership
    • Friendship and mutual loyalty between neighbours

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