9093 Paper 1 · Reading

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Read the question guide, AOs, marks and suggested timing. Attempt before revealing the model; use the rationale and checklist to revise your answer.

Attempt first. Keep the model and explanation closed until you have finished. This sample reuses a selected activity from the paid collection; it is not an additional unseen test.

Source · The library after dark

An original feature article for a local newspaper, written for residents considering changes to their public library.

At five minutes to six, the library begins its nightly performance of departure. Chairs scrape backwards. A printer offers one final, reluctant sheet. Behind the returns desk, Sana folds the sign that says ASK ME into a drawer, although someone is always asking something as the doors close. Outside, buses carry people home from jobs that have kept them away from the building all day. Inside, the lights go out just as those people could begin to use them.

It is this small collision of timetables that a proposed evening opening hopes to repair. For a three-month trial, the council would keep the library open until nine on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The proposal includes two staffed study rooms, the main lending area and access to computers. It does not include the children's floor, whose supervision would require another team. Officials describe the scheme as a modest experiment. For residents who work until six, modest may be the wrong word.

'I have a library card that mostly lives beside my television,' says Imran, a delivery driver studying for a technical qualification. On Sundays he can usually find a table, but Sunday is also when his daughter wants help with homework. He is not asking for a building that never sleeps. Two reliable evenings, he says, would allow him to stop doing practice questions in a kitchen where everybody is doing something else. He shows me a notebook with a shopping list running down the margin.

Not every demand on the library is so easily resolved. A nearby residents' group worries about people waiting outside after closing, and several members have asked whether extra security would be necessary. Their concern is not that books are dangerous; it is that a quiet street can become less quiet when a public building changes its hours. The council proposes a review of noise and access arrangements after the first month. That promise will need to become an actual conversation, rather than another line in a consultation document.

There is also the question of who stays late. Library staff already run reading groups, assist with online forms and patiently explain why a password cannot be retrieved from memory by a stranger. Evening opening would require paid shifts, not an appeal to goodwill. Sana welcomes the idea but is firm about this distinction. 'An open door needs a person behind it,' she says. A timetable printed without a staffing budget, she adds, is merely an attractive piece of paper.

The trial would cost money that could otherwise replace worn books or repair the leaking roof above the history shelves. Supporters argue that a collection is of limited value when potential readers cannot reach it. Both arguments deserve more than the familiar contest between progress and resistance. The useful question is what evidence the trial will collect: who attends, which services they use, and whether the additional hours remove a real barrier. A crowded first night would be encouraging, but not sufficient proof of lasting demand.

When I leave, a cleaner is moving between the darkened desks. The building is not entirely asleep; it is simply unavailable. Through the glass I can still see the empty chair where Imran might have opened his notebook. Whether that chair should be occupied twice a week is a practical decision, with costs and consequences. It is also a question about whom a public place imagines when it says that everyone is welcome.

Q1(a) · Directed response · 10 marks

AO1 /5 · AO2 /5 · suggested 35 minutes

Imagine you are a resident supporting the trial. Write a letter to the council explaining why it should proceed and addressing one concern raised in the article. Use 150–200 words.

Select and reshape source ideas for the new audience and form; attempt before opening the model.

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