Daily Practice · A Level
December 2003 - A Level 5-a-day
Every A Level sheet published in December 2003, with answers. A Level - discourse, register, framework analysis and language change.
Printing for a group?
The batch download puts all 5 tiers' December 2003 sheets in a single PDF, each tier behind its own divider page - 155 sheets in one file.
Every sheet in December 2003
The same date always regenerates the same five questions, so a sheet you print today is the sheet a classmate prints tomorrow.
- 1st December 2003Explain the difference between a positive and a negative face-threatening act.
- 2nd December 2003Define volta and explain why it is useful in comparison.
- 3rd December 2003What is meant by a 'structural shift' in an unseen text?
- 4th December 2003Name the linguist associated with the 'damp spoon', 'crumbling castle' and 'infectious disease' images of prescriptivist attitudes.
- 5th December 2003Identify one way this stage direction creates foreboding: 'Thunder, distant. The lamp flickers and does not right itself.'
- 6th December 2003What term describes a variety of language used in a specific social setting or for a specific purpose?
- 7th December 2003Identify the narrative structure technique where the story jumps back in time to an earlier event.
- 8th December 2003Explain how a transcript could be used as evidence against Skinner's account.
- 9th December 2003How can AO3 be addressed in an unseen where no author or date is given?
- 10th December 2003Explain in one sentence why comparing structure, not just content, matters when comparing two poems.
- 11th December 2003A child calls all four-legged animals 'doggie'. What is this process called?
- 12th December 2003A poem has four-line stanzas. What is this stanza form called?
- 13th December 2003How can flouting a Gricean maxim be an exercise of power?
- 14th December 2003Give one risk of using a comparison grid, and how to avoid it.
- 15th December 2003What should you do first when reading an unseen extract in an exam?
- 16th December 2003The word 'dog' once referred to one specific breed but now refers to the whole species. Name this type of semantic change.
- 17th December 2003In the line 'I have kept this light for twenty-six years, and the sea has never once told me my business,' identify the tone.
- 18th December 2003Give one example of a linguistic feature typical of unplanned spoken discourse.
- 19th December 2003What is the effect of a very short, simple sentence placed after a long, complex one?
- 20th December 2003Give two of Halliday's functions of language and an example utterance for each.
- 21st December 2003Rewrite this weak sentence to earn AO2 credit: 'The writer uses a simile to describe the house, which makes it more interesting.'
- 22nd December 2003In 'I sold the lamp for scrap and kept the key,' identify the contrast being set up.
- 23rd December 2003Calculate the MLU in morphemes for these three utterances: 'I want juice' (3 morphemes), 'the dog barked' (4 morphemes, counting -ed as one), 'mummy gone now' (3 morphemes).
- 24th December 2003Identify the technique in 'the silence screamed.'
- 25th December 2003Define synthetic personalisation and give an example.
- 26th December 2003Convert this into a comparative sentence: 'In poem A the sea is a threat. In poem B the sea is a comfort.'
- 27th December 2003Give one reason subject terminology should be used carefully in unseen analysis.
- 28th December 2003The word 'nice' once meant 'foolish or fussy' but now means 'pleasant'. Name this type of semantic change.
- 29th December 2003A tragic hero's downfall is usually explained by two competing forces. Name them.
- 30th December 2003Identify which is more likely to use nominalisation and passive voice: a casual spoken chat or a formal council report.
- 31st December 2003Identify the technique in this phrase: 'the silence pressed against the windows like a living thing.'