AQA Paper 1 Creative Explorations in Reading and Writing Section A: Reading This extract is from the middle of a novel by Cormac McCarthy, published in 2006, called The Road. It tells the story of one man and his son as they head south in search of food and hope. The novel is set in the future when an unnamed disaster has destroyed the natural world and left only a few starving human survivors to fight over the remains of civilisation. In this section, the man discovers a trap door in the back yard of an abandoned house. He led the boy out into the yard trailing the black smoke from the lamp. He put the pistol in his belt and picked up the spade and began to chop the hasp out of the plywood. He wedged the corner of the blade under it and it pried it up and then knelt and took hold of the lock and twisted the whole thing loose and pitched it into the grass. He pried the blade under the door and got his fingers under it and then stood and raised it up. Dirt went rattling down the boards. He looked at the boy. Are you all right? he said. The boy nodded mutely, holding the lamp in front of him. The man swung the door over and let it fall in the grass. Rough stairs carpentered out of two by tens leading down into the darkness. He reached and took the lamp from the boy. He started to descend the stairs but then he turned and leaned and kissed the child on the forehead. The bunker was walled with concrete block. A poured concrete floor laid over with kitchen tile. There were a couple of iron cots with bare springs, one against either wall, the mattress pads rolled up at the foot of them in army fashion. He turned and looked at the boy crouched above him blinking in the smoke rising up from the lamp and then he descended to the lower steps and sat and held the lamp out. Oh my God, he whispered. Oh my God. What is it Papa? Come down. Oh my God. Come down. Crate upon crate of canned goods. Tomatoes, peaches, beans, apricots. Canned hams. Corned beef. Hundreds of gallons of water in ten gallon plastic jerry jugs. Paper towels, toilet paper, paper plates. Plastic trash bags stuffed with blankets. He held his forehead in his hand. Come on, he said. It s all right. What did you find? I found everything. Everything. Wait till you see. He led him down the stairs and picked up the bottle and held the flame aloft. Can you see? he said. Can you see? What is all this stuff, Papa? It s food. Can you read it? Pears. That says pears. Yes. Yes it does. Oh yes it does. There was just headroom for him to stand. He ducked under a lantern with a green metal shade hanging from a hook. He held the boy by the hand and they went along the rows of stencilled cartons. Chilli, corn, stew, soup, spaghetti sauce. The richness of a vanished world. Why is this here? the boy said. Is it real? Oh yes. It s real. He pulled one of the boxes down and clawed it open and held up a can of peaches. It s here because someone thought it might be needed. But they didn t get to use it. No. They didn t.
They died. Yes. Is it okay for us to take it? Yes. It is. They would want us to. Just like we would want them to. They were the good guys? Yes. They were. Like us. Like us. Yes. So it s okay. Yes. It s okay. What would you like for supper? he said. Pears. Good choice. Pears it is. He took two paperware bowls from a stack of them wrapped in plastic and set them out on the table. He unrolled the mattress pads on the bunks for them to sit on and he opened the carton of pears and took out a can and set it on the table and clamped the lid with the can opener and began to whirl the wheel. He looked at the boy. The boy was sitting quietly on the bunk, still wrapped in the blanket, watching. The man thought he had probably not fully committed himself to any of this. You could wake in the dark wet woods at any time. These will be the best pears you ever tasted, he said. The best, just you wait. They sat side by side and ate the can of pears. Then they ate the can of peaches. They licked the spoons and tipped the bowls and drank the sweet rich syrup. They looked at each other. One more. 1. Read again the first part of the source, lines 1 9. List four things from this part of the text that the man does. A. B. C. D. [4 marks]
2. Look in detail at this extract from lines 11-24 of the source: The bunker was walled with concrete block. A poured concrete floor laid over with kitchen tile. There were a couple of iron cots with bare springs, one against either wall, the mattress pads rolled up at the foot of them in army fashion. He turned and looked at the boy crouched above him blinking in the smoke rising up from the lamp and then he descended to the lower steps and sat and held the lamp out. Oh my God, he whispered. Oh my God. What is it Papa? Come down. Oh my God. Come down. Crate upon crate of canned goods. Tomatoes, peaches, beans, apricots. Canned hams. Corned beef. Hundreds of gallons of water in ten gallon plastic jerry jugs. Paper towels, toiletpaper, paper plates. Plastic trashbags stuffed with blankets. He held his forehead in his hand. Come on, he said. It s all right. What did you find? I found everything. Everything. How does the writer use language here to describe the bunker and its contents? You could include the writer s choice of: words and phrases language features and techniques sentence forms. [8 marks] 3. You now need to think about the whole of the source. This text is from the middle of a novel when the characters are nearly starved. How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader? You could write about: what the writer does to create an atmosphere at the beginning of the extract how and why the writer changes the focus as the extract develops any other structural features that interest you. 4. Focus this part of your answer on the second half of the source, from line 15 to the end. [8 marks] A student, having read this section of the text said: The writer allows us to feel excited for the man and the boy when they discover the food. To what extent do you agree? In your response, you should: write about your own impressions of the characters evaluate how the writer has created these impressions support your opinions with quotations from the text. [20 marks]
Section B 5. Your school or college is asking students to contribute some creative writing for its website. Either: Write a description suggested by this picture: Or: Describe the best or worst meal you have ever eaten. Focus on the thoughts and feelings you had at the time. 24 marks for content and organisation 16 marks for technical accuracy) [40 marks]