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Please could someone mark this English language GCSE question please? :)

Look in detail at this extract, from lines 9 to 15 of the source:

Mr Fisher remembered a time surely, not so long ago when books were golden, when imaginations soared, when the world was filled with stories which ran like gazelles and pounced like tigers and exploded like rockets, illuminating minds and hearts. He had seen it happen; had seen whole classes swept away in the fever. In those days, there were heroes; there were dragons and dinosaurs; there were space adventurers and soldiers of fortune and giant apes. In those days, thought Mr Fisher, we dreamed in colour, though films were in black and white, and good always triumphed in the end.

How does the writer use language here to convey Mr Fisher’s views on
books and stories of the past?
You could include the writer’s choice of:
words and phrases
language features and techniques
sentence forms
From an AQA Paper :smile:

The writer presents Mr Fisher as a character who adores books. The metaphor ‘when books were golden' depicts how valuable books are to Mr Fisher by explicitly comparing them to something as expensive and precious as gold. Additionally, gold is
something that you take the utmost care of and keep forever, reflecting
the way Mr Fisher treats books; he tends to them extremely delicately. This demonstrates to us, as readers, that books are of absolute importance to Mr Fisher and reveals he even views them as irreplaceable.

Then he uses a list, ‘there were heroes; there were dragons and dinosaurs; there were space adventurers and soldiers of fortune and giant apes’ to describe the magical, philosophical world Mr foster reminisces getting lost in. By describing a list of fantastical creatures, the writer is displaying Mr Fisher’s joyful memories of reading books as a child. It highlights that he believed books are an important, key feature of childhood where ‘imaginations soar’

Thank you :smile:
Original post by user56770
Look in detail at this extract, from lines 9 to 15 of the source:

Mr Fisher remembered a time surely, not so long ago when books were golden, when imaginations soared, when the world was filled with stories which ran like gazelles and pounced like tigers and exploded like rockets, illuminating minds and hearts. He had seen it happen; had seen whole classes swept away in the fever. In those days, there were heroes; there were dragons and dinosaurs; there were space adventurers and soldiers of fortune and giant apes. In those days, thought Mr Fisher, we dreamed in colour, though films were in black and white, and good always triumphed in the end.

How does the writer use language here to convey Mr Fisher’s views on
books and stories of the past?
You could include the writer’s choice of:
words and phrases
language features and techniques
sentence forms
From an AQA Paper :smile:

The writer presents Mr Fisher as a character who adores books. The metaphor ‘when books were golden' depicts how valuable books are to Mr Fisher by explicitly comparing them to something as expensive and precious as gold. Additionally, gold is
something that you take the utmost care of and keep forever, reflecting
the way Mr Fisher treats books; he tends to them extremely delicately. This demonstrates to us, as readers, that books are of absolute importance to Mr Fisher and reveals he even views them as irreplaceable.

Then he uses a list, ‘there were heroes; there were dragons and dinosaurs; there were space adventurers and soldiers of fortune and giant apes’ to describe the magical, philosophical world Mr foster reminisces getting lost in. By describing a list of fantastical creatures, the writer is displaying Mr Fisher’s joyful memories of reading books as a child. It highlights that he believed books are an important, key feature of childhood where ‘imaginations soar’

Thank you :smile:


I would give that a 4, maybe 5 out of 8. You did really well at providing an analysis of what was done, and the embedding of the last quote was really well executed.
To improve, you could definitely elaborate more on your points as there is quite a few things you could've picked up on. Zoom in on specific words and talk about what they symbolise, and always try to mention something about imagery. Despite doing a really good job at embedding the last quote, that is something you can work on, it will just make your answer flow a bit better. But overall, your ideas are there, just structuring it and elaborating on it will get you over a 6/8 :smile:
Reply 2
I think you'd be on the border of level 2 and level 3.

Nice stuff:
- good use of quotations + textual evidence
- great vocabulary
- Signposting of language techniques (e.g. metaphor)
- adequate analysis

1 thing to improve
Repetitive analysis: The metaphor ‘when books were golden' depicts how valuable books are to Mr Fisher by explicitly comparing them to something as expensive and precious as gold. Additionally, gold is something that you take the utmost care of and keep forever, reflecting the way Mr Fisher treats books; he tends to them extremely delicately. This demonstrates to us, as readers, that books are of absolute importance to Mr Fisher and reveals he even views them as irreplaceable.
The paragraph above really only makes 1 point - "golden" books highlight their importance to Mr Fisher. You effectively restate that point in 2 or 3 ways but you don't build upon it. Think about how you can develop your point further

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