Daily Practice · A Level
December 2020 - A Level 5-a-day
Every A Level sheet published in December 2020, with answers. A Level - discourse, register, framework analysis and language change.
Printing for a group?
The batch download puts all 5 tiers' December 2020 sheets in a single PDF, each tier behind its own divider page - 155 sheets in one file.
Every sheet in December 2020
The same date always regenerates the same five questions, so a sheet you print today is the sheet a classmate prints tomorrow.
- 1st December 2020What is the effect of a very short, simple sentence placed after a long, complex one?
- 2nd December 2020Identify the phonological process in 'gog' for dog and in 'nana' for banana.
- 3rd December 2020Explain the difference between commenting on structure and commenting on language in an unseen prose response.
- 4th December 2020In 'I sold the lamp for scrap and kept the key,' identify the contrast being set up.
- 5th December 2020Calculate 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).
- 6th December 2020Identify the technique in 'the silence screamed.'
- 7th December 2020Explain the difference between a positive and a negative face-threatening act.
- 8th December 2020Define volta and explain why it is useful in comparison.
- 9th December 2020Give one reason subject terminology should be used carefully in unseen analysis.
- 10th December 2020The word 'nice' once meant 'foolish or fussy' but now means 'pleasant'. Name this type of semantic change.
- 11th December 2020A tragic hero's downfall is usually explained by two competing forces. Name them.
- 12th December 2020Identify which is more likely to use nominalisation and passive voice: a casual spoken chat or a formal council report.
- 13th December 2020Identify the technique in this phrase: 'the silence pressed against the windows like a living thing.'
- 14th December 2020Explain how a transcript could be used as evidence against Skinner's account.
- 15th December 2020How can AO3 be addressed in an unseen where no author or date is given?
- 16th December 2020What does the term 'volta' mean in poetry?
- 17th December 2020Name the theorist associated with the Language Acquisition Device (LAD).
- 18th December 2020What term describes a pause or break within a line of poetry, often marked by punctuation?
- 19th December 2020How can flouting a Gricean maxim be an exercise of power?
- 20th December 2020Give one risk of using a comparison grid, and how to avoid it.
- 21st December 2020True or false: unseen answers are marked mainly on how much of the text you cover.
- 22nd December 2020What term describes a speaker adjusting their speech to sound more like their listener?
- 23rd December 2020Define the term 'hamartia' as used in the study of tragedy.
- 24th December 2020Define 'mode' as a linguistic term.
- 25th December 2020What term describes a narrator who knows the thoughts and feelings of all characters?
- 26th December 2020Give two of Halliday's functions of language and an example utterance for each.
- 27th December 2020Rewrite this weak sentence to earn AO2 credit: 'The writer uses a simile to describe the house, which makes it more interesting.'
- 28th December 2020Define 'extended metaphor'.
- 29th December 2020A child says 'I have two foots.' Identify the grammatical process.
- 30th December 2020What term describes giving human qualities to a non-human thing, e.g. 'the wind whispered'?
- 31st December 2020Define synthetic personalisation and give an example.