Question 2: summary

What Question 2 asks

Question 2 asks you to use and write a between two people, places or experiences.

: choosing evidence from both texts and it, and making .
8 marks.
About 8–10 minutes.

It is about what the sources say, the content, not how they are written.

Common mistake

Question 2 is about content; Question 3 is about language. Don't analyse techniques in Question 2: explain what the differences are and what they suggest.

Key terms

Source A

Source A: London Labour and the London Poor (the watercress girl) by Henry Mayhew, 1851

The little watercress girl who gave me the following statement,

although only eight years of age, had entirely lost all childish ways,

and was, indeed, in thoughts and manner, a woman. There was something

cruelly pathetic in hearing this infant, so young that her features had

scarcely formed themselves, talking of the bitterest struggles of life,

with the calm earnestness of one who had endured them all. I did not

know how to talk with her. At first I treated her as a child, speaking

on childish subjects; so that I might, by being familiar with her,

remove all shyness, and get her to narrate her life freely. I asked

her about her toys and her games with her companions; but the look of

amazement that answered me soon put an end to any attempt at fun on

my part. I then talked to her about the parks, and whether she ever

went to them. “The parks!” she replied in wonder, “where are they?” I

explained to her, telling her that they were large open places with

green grass and tall trees, where beautiful carriages drove about, and

people walked for pleasure, and children played. Her eyes brightened

up a little as I spoke; and she asked, half doubtingly, “Would they

let such as me go there—just to look?” All her knowledge seemed to

begin and end with water-cresses, and what they fetched. She knew no

more of London than that part she had seen on her rounds, and believed

that no quarter of the town was handsomer or pleasanter than it was at

Farringdon-market or at Clerkenwell, where she lived.

Source B

(written for this app, in the style of a 21st-century newspaper column)

Every Saturday at half past seven, my fifteen-year-old daughter Ella pulls on a black apron and walks to the café at the end of our road. For the next six hours she carries plates, wipes tables and learns, mostly by making mistakes, how to be polite to people who are not polite back.

I'll admit I worried at first. Shouldn't a teenager spend her weekends sleeping in, seeing friends, doing homework? She has exams next year, after all. But the girl who comes home at two o'clock, smelling of coffee and counting her tips, is not the girl who left. She is tired, yes. She is also proud.

She earns her own money now, and she spends it carefully, because she knows exactly how long it took to earn. She has learned to talk to strangers, to keep calm when the coffee machine breaks, and to turn up on time even when it's raining.

None of this means children should work instead of learning. Ella goes to school five days a week, and if her grades slipped, the apron would go back on its hook. But a few hours of real work, chosen freely and paid fairly, has taught her things no classroom could.

Childhood isn't only about being protected. Sometimes it's about being trusted.

Method

Find two or three differences between the sources on the topic in the question.
For each, give a short quotation from .
Make an : what does each detail suggest?
Link the sources with comparative words such as ‘whereas’ and ‘in contrast’.

A good pattern: In Source A… which suggests… whereas in Source B… which suggests…

Model answer

Use details from both sources. Write a summary of the differences between the watercress girl and Ella.

The watercress girl's whole life is work. Mayhew says she has ‘entirely lost all childish ways’, which suggests work has taken away her childhood completely. Ella, in contrast, works only on Saturdays and goes to school ‘five days a week’, so work is a small part of a full life. The girl has never even seen the parks, and asks ‘Would they let such as me go there’, implying she feels shut out of the world. Ella's job, ‘chosen freely and paid fairly’, makes her feel ‘proud’ and more confident.

What makes a level 4 answer

The top level (7–8 marks) needs:

inferences from both texts;
perceptive synthesis, bringing the two sources together;
, well-chosen quotations;
clear differences, all linked to the focus of the question.

The model answer does this by explaining what each detail suggests about the girls' lives, not just copying out what happens.

Key terms

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