P1-R2 Narrative perspectives and points of view Quiz: AQA English Language, Unit 1

The 20 questions

1. Which narrative perspective uses 'I' as the narrator?

   • First person narration, told from inside one character's viewpoint
   • Third person limited narration that uses he or she and stays close to one character
   • Second person narration that addresses the reader directly as 'you' throughout the text
   • A dramatic monologue delivered to a silent listener with no narrator giving description

2. Which perspective addresses the reader directly as 'you'?

   • Second person narration, which creates immediacy and involvement
   • First person narration, told by a single character who looks back on the past
   • Third person limited narration with a close viewpoint on one character's thoughts
   • Third person omniscient narration with a distant narrator who comments on all events

3. What is third person omniscient narration?

   • A narrator who is also a character inside the story and recounts their own actions
   • A narrator who knows the thoughts and feelings of several characters
   • A narrator who reports only the spoken dialogue and never describes what people think
   • A narrator who sees only one character's thoughts and never enters any other mind

4. What is third person limited narration?

   • A narrator inside the story who is the main character and tells events from within
   • A narrator who reports only what is said aloud and never describes anyone's thoughts
   • A narrator outside the story who shares one character's viewpoint
   • A narrator who knows everything about all the characters and their hidden motives

5. What is an 'unreliable narrator'?

   • A narrator who is always a child in the story
   • A narrator whose account the reader cannot fully trust
   • A narrator who uses a formal and polite tone throughout
   • A narrator who appears only in the final chapter

6. How does a narrator's perspective affect a reader's sympathy?

   • The reader's sympathy is unaffected by who narrates the story and how it is told overall
   • The reader sympathises only with characters who speak aloud and never with silent ones
   • The reader always sympathises with the narrator's enemies, however their actions are described
   • The reader tends to share the viewpoint of the character the story follows most closely

7. A story shifts from one character's viewpoint to another mid-chapter. What is this called?

   • A change of tense in the title of the story, from present to past at the start
   • A shift in narrative viewpoint between characters
   • A stage direction written into the text to show a character moving across the room
   • A numbered list of the characters' names printed in the margin of the first page

8. What is 'free indirect speech'?

   • A list of thoughts written in bullet points so the reader can scan them quickly
   • A character speaking directly inside quotation marks with a clear speech tag each time
   • A letter written by a character to the narrator, which is then quoted in full
   • A blend of a character's thoughts with a third-person narrator's voice

9. Which feature signals that a first-person narrator is reflecting on past events?

   • Past tense combined with comments that look back on what happened
   • Present tense with no comment on memory or time, so events seem to be happening now
   • Only dialogue with no description of events, so the narrator says almost nothing
   • Second person commands that tell the reader what to do at each stage of the story

10. Which is the best reason a writer might choose a child narrator?

    • A child narrator means no description is needed, because the child sees nothing much
    • The naive view creates irony, as the reader understands more than the narrator
    • A child narrator avoids the need for any dialogue, since children rarely speak aloud
    • A child narrator guarantees the story will always end happily for all the characters

11. A narrator says 'Everyone in the village knew the truth but me.' What does this line suggest?

    • The narrator may be unaware or biased, which affects how far the reader trusts them
    • The narrator is confident and always correct about events, so the reader can trust them
    • The narrator is writing about events in the future tense, so nothing has yet happened
    • The village is the only setting in the whole story and the narrator never leaves it

12. Which perspective is closest to a camera recording events with no commentary?

    • Second person narration issuing direct commands that the reader must follow closely
    • Objective third person narration that reports only what is seen
    • Omniscient third person narration with frequent judgements about each character
    • Subjective first person narration full of personal commentary and private feelings

13. A story is told through letters written by different characters. What is this form called?

    • A dramatic monologue, spoken to a silent listener
    • A stream of consciousness, flowing through thoughts
    • An epistolary structure, told through letters
    • A frame narrative, with an outer storyteller

14. Which technique makes a narrator's bias clearest to a reader?

    • Long technical lists describing the setting in careful detail for each room of the house
    • Loaded adjectives and judgemental comments about other characters
    • Numbered headings at each section break that organise the text into chapters
    • A title page written by the publisher that summarises the book for new readers

15. Why might a writer switch from first person to third person partway through?

    • To follow a rule that all stories must change narrator at the midpoint of the plot
    • To make the story shorter when it is published in the magazine for young readers
    • To avoid using any character names in the story, so the names remain hidden
    • To widen the view and reveal information the first-person narrator could not know

16. Which statement about point of view is most accurate?

    • Point of view is a feature found only in poetry and never in prose fiction
    • Point of view has no effect on what the reader knows about events in the story
    • Point of view is the same thing as the title of a story chosen by the publisher
    • Point of view controls what the reader knows, and that knowledge shapes the response

17. A third-person narrator reports a character's private thoughts, then comments ironically on them. Which judgement is most accurate?

    • The ironic comment proves the narrator is a character in the story who is speaking up
    • The ironic comment creates distance and signals an omniscient narrator with authorial control
    • The ironic comment appears only in second person narration, where the reader is addressed
    • The ironic comment means the story has no narrator at all and the events are presented directly

18. Which evaluation of a first-person narrator is the most balanced?

    • It always makes the narrator perfectly reliable throughout, so the reader never questions them
    • It never allows any emotion to be shown in the text, because the narrator stays detached
    • It always makes a story less believable than third person, whatever the subject matter is
    • The intimacy of 'I' builds trust, but a single viewpoint can limit what the reader learns

19. A narrator says 'I did not see what happened, but I heard the shouting.' What is the most significant effect?

    • It shows limited knowledge and makes the reader question what really happened
    • It shows the passage is a poem with a regular rhythm that repeats every few lines
    • It shows the narrator is omniscient and sees all events in the scene from every angle
    • It shows the reader is being addressed directly in dialogue, as if speaking to a friend

20. Which perspective choice best creates suspense when the reader knows less than a character?

    • A second person perspective that tells the reader what to feel at each moment
    • An objective perspective that gives the reader direct access to every character's thoughts
    • A limited perspective that withholds information from the reader
    • An omniscient perspective that reveals every secret to the reader at the very start

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