Lesson P1-S1

P1-S1 20th and 21st century prose fiction Quiz: AQA English Language, Unit 1

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

In partnership with Revision Ninja

Lesson P1-S1, 20th and 21st century prose fiction: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA GCSE English Language (8700), Unit 1: Paper 1: Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing, written with Revision Ninja.

Host it live on the board and students join with a game code on their own devices, or revise alone with Free Play. The answers are revealed in the game.

Host this setFree Play

The 20 questions

  1. Which period is the Paper 1 source text drawn from?

    • The 17th or 18th century
    • Any period the examiner chooses
    • The 20th or 21st century
    • The 19th century only

  2. What genre must the Paper 1 Section A text belong to?

    • Drama, such as an extract from a stage play written for performance in theatres
    • Prose fiction, such as extracts from novels and short stories
    • Literary non-fiction, such as a memoir or an essay about personal experience
    • Poetry, such as lyric verse from a 19th-century anthology of sonnets

  3. How many marks is Section A of Paper 1 allocated?

    • 40 marks
    • 20 marks
    • 80 marks
    • 60 marks

  4. How many marks is the whole Paper 1 written exam worth?

    • 100 marks
    • 60 marks
    • 40 marks
    • 80 marks

  5. How long is each written GCSE English Language paper?

    • 45 minutes
    • 1 hour 45 minutes
    • 1 hour 15 minutes
    • 2 hours 15 minutes

  6. Which assessment objectives does Paper 1 assess for reading?

    • AO1, AO2 and AO4
    • AO3, AO4 and AO6
    • AO1, AO2 and AO3
    • AO2, AO5 and AO6

  7. Which assessment objectives does Paper 1 assess for writing?

    • AO5 and AO6
    • AO1 and AO2
    • AO3 and AO4
    • AO2 and AO3

  8. A question asks how a writer uses sentence length to build tension. Which AO does this reading task test most directly?

    • AO3, comparing two texts across time periods
    • AO2, explaining how writers use language and structure
    • AO5, communicating clearly in the student's own writing
    • AO6, using accurate spelling and punctuation

  9. Why does Paper 1 pair a creative reading text with a creative writing task?

    • To assess spoken language skills before the students give a formal presentation
    • To compare two texts from different centuries so students can rank them by quality
    • To let a model text inspire students to write their own narrative and descriptive work
    • To test students' memory of quotations from famous novels studied in English lessons

  10. Which description matches the aim of Section A?

    • Considering how established writers use narrative and descriptive techniques to capture readers' interest
    • Comparing the viewpoints of two writers across two centuries on the same social issue
    • Summarising statistics from an official government report on school attendance figures
    • Presenting a formal spoken argument to a live audience with rebuttal and questions

  11. In Section B, what does a 'designated' audience, purpose and form mean?

    • The task states who the writing is for, why it is written and what form it takes
    • The form is always a diary entry written in the past tense with a dated heading
    • Students may choose any audience, purpose and form they feel comfortable using in class
    • The examiner decides the handwriting style and the layout of the response on the page

  12. Which of these could be the stimulus for a Section B writing task?

    • A photograph connected to the theme of the Section A text
    • A bar chart of last year's exam results from one school with no link to the reading text
    • A spelling list for technical accuracy drawn from the grammar section of a revision guide
    • A transcript of a prepared spoken presentation about a school trip from a previous year

  13. Why might a modern prose text help students write their own creative pieces?

    • Its narrative and descriptive methods can be studied, imitated and adapted
    • It is written entirely in verse, so students can copy the rhythm and rhyme scheme exactly
    • Its language avoids all figurative devices so that students can copy it word for word
    • It is always written as a diary, so students can learn to date every single entry

  14. A 900-word extract comes from a short story. Which description is most accurate?

    • A full non-fiction report written as an official speech for a public meeting
    • A prose fiction extract that can serve as the Paper 1 Section A source
    • A complete play written for stage performance that can be used as a drama source
    • A cycle of nine sonnets taken from a poetry anthology used in Paper 2 study

  15. Which pairing of centuries does Paper 2 always include in its non-fiction sources?

    • The 19th century and either the 20th or 21st century
    • The 18th century and the 19th century, presented as two linked texts in one section
    • The 17th century and the 21st century, since both periods share a similar style
    • The 20th century and a future century that has not yet been written about

  16. A teacher uses a two-line piece of flash fiction as the only text in a unit. What is the main problem with this choice?

    • It contains no dialogue at all, which the spec requires for every reading text studied
    • It is too slight to be the substantial text the spec requires
    • It is prose, which the spec forbids for every reading text used in the examination
    • It was written in the 21st century, which the spec forbids for all reading texts

  17. Which two requirements does the spec place on texts used for reading?

    • Verse only, kept under twenty lines and written in a regular rhyme scheme throughout the text
    • High-quality, challenging texts that include literature and extended literary non-fiction
    • Texts drawn only from the 17th and 18th centuries, chosen for their formal regular verse
    • Instant news feeds that are updated many times a day and shared across social platforms

  18. Which kind of text does the spec say must not be included in study?

    • Essentially transient texts, such as instant news feeds
    • Substantial novels from the 19th century that are studied in full over several weeks
    • Literary essays that run for several thousand words and address social questions
    • Extended literary non-fiction from the 20th century that runs to several thousand words

  19. Which AO covers identifying and interpreting explicit and implicit information and ideas?

    • AO6
    • AO2
    • AO4
    • AO1

  20. A question asks students to evaluate a text critically and support their judgement with textual references. Which AO is this?

    • AO3
    • AO4
    • AO1
    • AO5

All AQA English Language quizzes