Unseen poetry and prose — IGCSE English - Literature In English (0475) questions by topic
Previously unseen poems and prose extracts, often on love, growing up or an unfamiliar setting, are the focus here, tested across 30 real questions from 2023 to 2025 papers, each worth 25 marks.
How and explain govern every question, asking how a poet or writer conveys feeling memorably in a text you have never studied, so the skill tested is close reading under exam conditions rather than recall of a set text. Because reports praise answers that go beyond making sense of the poem to detailed and insightful readings, drafting a response to an unseen extract and getting it marked instantly builds exactly that skill.
What examiners look for
- Strong answers focus purposefully on language, particularly a repeated chorus line or refrain, and its effect on the poem's central mood.
- Strong responses go beyond making sense of a difficult poem to offer detailed and insightful readings of its terrible or powerful message.
- Strong answers compare a closing image to other images or metaphors used earlier in the poem, connecting them to the meaning being built.
- Strong responses step back from line-by-line or stanza-by-stanza analysis to focus on how ideas develop, cross-referencing different layers of meaning and possible interpretations.
May–June 2025, Paper 41
Read carefully the poem on page 3. The poet is alone in the family house now that her children have grown up and left home. She listens to the sounds of her empty house. How does…
Answer this question and get it marked →Read carefully the following opening to a historical novel. It is set during the Second World War, and the boy's town is about to be invaded. He is trying to find a place of…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2025, Paper 42
Read carefully the poem on page 3 in which the poet addresses someone she once loved. How does the poet vividly portray this relationship? To help you answer this question, you…
Answer this question and get it marked →Read carefully the following opening from a novel. On a hot summer's day, a teenage girl is standing on the driveway to a convent. Exhausted and feeling ill, she is looking for…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2025, Paper 43
Read carefully the poem printed on the paper. The poet is speaking to someone he loves. How does the poet memorably present himself? To help you answer this question, you might…
Answer this question and get it marked →Read carefully the following extract from a novel. Aaron is visiting another country. Looking from his hotel window, he watches an anti-government demonstration. The protesters…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 41
Read carefully the poem on page 3 about the starling, a species of bird. How does the writer strikingly convey his admiration for the starling? To help you answer this question,…
Answer this question and get it marked →Read carefully the following extract from a novel. Uma is a woman who lives at home looking after her elderly parents. She suffers from occasional fits. They are being visited by…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 42
Read carefully the poem below. The poet thinks back to the night when he and his partner first kissed. How does the poet memorably describe this moment? To help you answer this…
Answer this question and get it marked →Read carefully the following extract from a novel set in sixteenth-century England. The country has been hit by an epidemic of bubonic plague, a fatal illness. Buboes are…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 43
Read carefully the following poem. The poet remembers a time when a hurricane hit his community and how the children reacted to it. How does the poet vividly convey the impact of…
Answer this question and get it marked →Read carefully the following extract from a short story set in the early twentieth century. It describes a first encounter between Henry, an idealistic young man, and Edna, a…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2024, Paper 41
Read carefully the poem on page 3. The speaker of the poem is the traveller of the title. How does the poet memorably create a sense of mystery about the traveller? To help you…
Answer this question and get it marked →Read carefully the following extract from a recent novel. Carmel is now a grandmother living in London. She is thinking to herself about the time when she agreed to marry her…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2024, Paper 42
Read carefully the poem on page 3. How does the poet convey the man's thoughts and feelings at night? To help you answer this question, you might consider: - how the poet conveys…
Answer this question and get it marked →Read carefully the following extract from a novel. Lucy, the narrator, works in a boarding school abroad where she has heard rumours of a ghost. She is out at night, thinking…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2024, Paper 43
Read carefully the poem on page 3. How does the poet convey his idea of paradise? To help you answer this question, you might consider: - what his grandmother suggested to him -…
Answer this question and get it marked →Read carefully the following extract from a novel set in a future in which most of Europe has been submerged underwater. Kerans, a scientist, has been lowered in a diving cage by…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 41
Answer EITHER Question 1 OR Question 2. Read carefully the poem on page 3. The poet imagines a future in which there is a global release of meltwater from glaciers and ice caps;…
Answer this question and get it marked →Answer EITHER Question 1 OR Question 2. Read carefully the following short story. It is about a woman, Marion, who has been widowed and is on a day out at the beach with her two…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 42
Answer EITHER Question 1 OR Question 2. Read carefully the poem on page 3. It is about a man who has migrated from the country to the city. How does the poet make you feel about…
Answer this question and get it marked →Answer EITHER Question 1 OR Question 2. Read carefully the following extract from a novel set in the Arctic. Sumner, who has a weak leg, has gone hunting and is pulling animal…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 43
Answer EITHER Question 1 OR Question 2. Read carefully the poem below. It is about a boy, Bahadour, who has left his family and his home in Nepal to work as a poorly paid…
Answer this question and get it marked →Answer EITHER Question 1 OR Question 2. Read carefully the following extract from the opening of a novel. Lila ('the child') is an orphaned young girl living in poverty in a house…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 41
Answer EITHER Question 1 OR Question 2. Read carefully the poem on page 3. The poet gives a voice to the feelings of a passionate fourteen-year-old girl. How does the poet convey…
Answer this question and get it marked →Answer EITHER Question 1 OR Question 2. Read carefully the following extract from a novel set in the time of the mythical Greek-Trojan war. Achilles, the greatest Greek hero and…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 42
Answer EITHER Question 1 OR Question 2. Read carefully the poem on page 3. The poet's family were refugees from Vietnam after a war. How does the poet strikingly convey what his…
Answer this question and get it marked →Answer EITHER Question 1 OR Question 2. Read carefully the following extract from a novel set in India, where a man of Indian origin now living in the USA is on holiday with his…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 43
Answer EITHER Question 1 OR Question 2. Read carefully the poem on page 3. The poet gives a nightmare vision of an imaginary city where people are silent. How does the poet make…
Answer this question and get it marked →Answer EITHER Question 1 OR Question 2. Read carefully the following extract from a novel set just after the Second World War. Barbary and Raoul, children who spent the war in…
Answer this question and get it marked →Other IGCSE English - Literature In English topics
- Prose (210)
- Drama (150)
- Poetry anthology (Songs of Ourselves) (60)
- Poetry (30)
- Prose anthology (Stories of Ourselves) (30)
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