AQA GCSE English Language Paper 1, Section A style practice on an extract from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Practise Question 1 (multiple choice, explicit information), revise ten language techniques, learn to zoom in on single words, and practise Question 2 (language analysis, AO2). About two hours: use Part A in one lesson and Part B in the next. Keep the extract open next to this page. Your answers save on this device as you type.
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Text:
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Objectives
Identify explicit and implicit information.
Understand the hard words in the extract before analysing it.
Answer the multiple-choice Question 1 accurately, using only the lines asked for.
Recognise and explain ten language techniques: metaphor, simile, alliteration, sibilance, assonance, sensory language, contrast, direct speech, list of three and verbs.
Zoom in on a single word and explain the idea and feeling it creates.
Explain what, how and why a writer uses language (AO2), using subject terminology.
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Teacher notes
Extract:SOURCE_URL points to The-Handmaids-Tale.pdf, which should sit next to this page. The worksheet quotes only short phrases. The extract has no line numbers, so questions refer to paragraphs (five paragraphs in total).
Scaffolding for struggling analysts: vocabulary first; a paragraph-by-paragraph gist; the “zoom in” task (word class, idea, feeling); a sentence builder with drop-down choices; then a model paragraph and a guided paragraph. Support students see word banks and frames.
Q1: from 2026 Question 1 is multiple choice. The four questions here are my own, on the first paragraph, to practise the skill.
Techniques: definitions, example sentences and effects are my own revision materials. Two examples are short phrases from the extract.
Q2: the model paragraph, level summaries and sample responses are my own, to be used as guides only. This is a practice extract, not an AQA exam text.
Pathways: Support = frames and word banks; Core = starters; Stretch = two quotations, second readings and sentence forms.