Lesson T1.1.3

T1.1.3 Contemporary English literature: prose, poetry and drama Quiz: KS3 English, Unit 1

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson T1.1.3, Contemporary English literature: prose, poetry and drama: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 English (National Curriculum), Unit 1: Reading, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Which author wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings?

    • Philip Pullman, a writer of the His Dark Materials trilogy about parallel worlds
    • C.S. Lewis, an Oxford writer who created The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for children
    • Roald Dahl, a writer of stories such as Matilda and The BFG for young readers
    • J.R.R. Tolkien, an Oxford professor who wrote both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

  2. Which children's novel by Louis Sachar follows a boy sent to a camp where he must dig holes every day?

    • The Tracy Beaker Story, about a girl growing up in a children's home with many problems
    • Alex Rider, about a teenage spy who is recruited by a secret intelligence agency
    • Holes, about a boy sent to dig holes at a dry desert camp called Camp Green Lake
    • Noughts and Crosses, about two divided communities in a society where people are sorted by race

  3. What does 'contemporary' mean when used to describe a text?

    • Written in or near the present day, typically from the late twentieth century onwards
    • Originally written in a language other than English and then translated into it
    • Written before 1914 in a formal style of English that is now quite old-fashioned
    • Written in the form of a play that is performed by actors on a stage for an audience

  4. Which poet wrote 'Still I Rise', a celebration of resilience and self-belief?

    • Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet whose poem Digging describes his father working in a field
    • Maya Angelou, an American poet whose work often celebrates resilience and dignity
    • Benjamin Zephaniah, a British poet known for performance poetry such as Talking Turkeys
    • Ted Hughes, an English poet known for animal poems such as The Hawk in the Rain

  5. Which writer was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 2009?

    • Carol Ann Duffy, the first woman to hold the post of Poet Laureate
    • John Betjeman, who held the post of Poet Laureate from 1972 until 1984
    • Ted Hughes, who held the post of Poet Laureate from 1984 until 1998
    • Andrew Motion, who held the post of Poet Laureate from 1999 until 2009

  6. A student wants a contemporary novel about the experiences of a teenager in modern Britain. Which choice fits best?

    • A Victorian ghost story set in a foggy London boarding school for young gentlemen
    • A Shakespearean tragedy about kings and battles in the medieval Scottish highlands
    • A recent novel about a teenager facing issues such as social media and family change
    • A medieval romance about a knight's quest to find a holy relic in a distant land

  7. Why might a contemporary text be studied alongside a pre-1914 text?

    • Because contemporary writers are not allowed to be studied in schools in any form
    • To show that the English language has stopped changing since the nineteenth century
    • To prove that all modern writers copied directly from Victorian authors word for word
    • To compare how similar themes are treated in different periods and styles of writing

  8. A contemporary novel is narrated by a child living through a war. What is the most important question a reader should ask?

    • What the exact price of the paperback was when it first went on sale in shops
    • How many pages the novel has compared with the sequel in the same series
    • Which publisher printed the first edition in the nearest city to the author's home
    • How the child's point of view shapes what the reader learns and feels about the events

  9. In a modern poem, a poet uses short lines, no rhyme and everyday speech. What is this form most likely called?

    • A ballad, which always tells a story in regular four-line stanzas with a refrain
    • Free verse, which does not follow a regular rhyme or metre
    • A limerick, which always has five lines with the rhyme scheme AABBA
    • A sonnet, which always has fourteen lines and a strict rhyme pattern

  10. A reader wants to find out about the background to a contemporary novel. Which source is most useful?

    • A dictionary definition of every word on the first page of the novel only
    • A recipe book, because novels often include instructions for cooking meals
    • The author's biographical note or an interview about the book's ideas
    • A list of the novel's chapters with their word counts recorded in a spreadsheet

  11. Contemporary writers often reflect social change. Which example best fits this?

    • A novel that explores the challenges of growing up in a multicultural city today
    • A play that takes place entirely on a ship during the Napoleonic wars at sea
    • A novel that repeats the exact plot of a Greek myth with no changes at all
    • A poem that describes only the dress styles of the Tudor court in great detail

  12. A contemporary children's novel uses a first-person narrator who sometimes lies. What should a careful reader consider?

    • The reader may need to notice gaps between what the narrator says and what other clues suggest
    • A narrator who lies cannot be a real character, so the book must be a non-fiction account
    • Lying narrators appear only in plays, because speech on stage is always untrue
    • The narrator's lies are always stated clearly in the author's introduction at the front of the book

  13. Which statement best explains why contemporary texts are valuable to study?

    • They reflect present-day readers' ideas and language, so they connect with personal experience
    • They always contain more accurate facts than older texts, which is why they are preferred
    • They are never influenced by earlier literature, so they can be understood without context
    • They avoid all difficult vocabulary, which makes them easier to read than any older text

  14. A novel moves between two timelines, switching from the present to the past. Which technique is this?

    • Onomatopoeia, using words that imitate sounds such as buzz or crash
    • Structure, using a non-linear chronology that moves between different time periods
    • Simile, comparing two things using the words like or as
    • Alliteration, repeating the same consonant sound at the start of nearby words

  15. Why might a writer include a flashback?

    • To reveal earlier events that explain a character's present feelings or actions
    • To list the names of the publishers who have printed the book in different countries
    • To replace the need for any description of settings or characters in the text
    • To make the story end before the main conflict has begun to develop in the text

  16. Which feature of a contemporary poem is its 'persona'?

    • A list of the poems that a poet wrote before the age of twenty-one
    • The regular number of syllables in every line of a traditional sonnet
    • A speaker's voice in the poem, which may be different from the poet's own identity
    • The name of the publisher printed at the top of each poem on the page

  17. In contemporary fiction, what does 'dystopian' mean?

    • Set in a utopian society where everyone is perfectly happy and treated equally
    • Set in an imagined future or society where things have gone badly wrong
    • Set in a real town in the present day, with no fantasy or science elements at all
    • Set in ancient Rome during the reign of a famous emperor and his court

  18. Two teenagers text each other in shorthand in a contemporary novel. Which feature shows the contemporary setting?

    • The long sentences with many subordinate clauses that are typical of Victorian letters
    • The repeated use of archaic pronouns such as thou and thee in every line of speech
    • The formal use of subjunctive forms, as in the archaic court speech of the Tudor period
    • The informal, abbreviated language reflects the way young people communicate today

  19. A contemporary novel uses a child narrator; a Victorian novel uses a third-person omniscient narrator. What is the main difference in effect?

    • The child narrator always tells the whole truth, while the omniscient narrator always lies to the reader
    • The child narrator is never believed by readers, while the omniscient narrator is always trusted fully
    • The child narrator offers a limited, personal view, while the omniscient narrator reveals many characters' thoughts
    • Both narrators have exactly the same limited knowledge of the events and characters in the story

  20. Which children's novel by Michael Morpurgo follows a horse named Joey who serves in the First World War?

    • Holes, about a boy sent to dig holes in a dry desert camp in the American south-west
    • War Horse, which follows a horse named Joey through the battlefields of the First World War
    • Wonder, about a boy with a facial difference who starts at a mainstream school for the first time
    • The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, about a boy who befriends a child on the other side of a camp fence

All KS3 English quizzes