How to use this sample
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.
Q1 · Language change · 25 marks
AO2 /5 · AO4 /5 · AO5 /15 · suggested 65 minutes
Analyse how Text A illustrates language change, using evidence from all three sources and relevant wider study.
Text A
Your files in the cloud: a guide for new staff
The shared project folder is now available through the cloud service used by our organisation. This means you can open the current version from an approved device without carrying a separate copy between offices. It does not mean that the files exist nowhere in particular. They are stored on equipment managed by the service provider, and their availability depends on working systems and a suitable connection.
Before you upload a document, check which folder it belongs in and who has permission to open it. A link may make sharing convenient, but convenience is not the same as consent to distribute information. Do not send confidential material to a personal account simply because that account offers more space. Ask the project administrator if the correct location is unclear.
The service synchronises changes between authorised devices. If you edit a document while temporarily offline, allow time for the changes to sync when you reconnect. Where two people have edited different copies, the system may ask which version should be retained. Read that message carefully. Clicking the first option is a decision, even when it feels like removing an interruption.
You may hear colleagues speak of moving a whole department into the cloud. Usually they mean moving selected digital services, not abandoning every local system. Some equipment will continue to operate within our buildings, and some records must remain in their approved storage arrangements. The image is useful, but it can make a practical change sound more complete than it is.
Finally, remember that a cloud account is not a substitute for following the organisation's backup procedure. If you delete a file, report the mistake promptly rather than assuming that another copy will appear automatically. The aim of these arrangements is to make collaboration more reliable. Understanding where responsibility remains is as important as understanding where the files can be reached.
Text B · Simulated exact n-grams
Constructed teaching data, not real corpus findings. Each year is a hypothetical comparable 10,000,000-word written corpus; rates are per million, case-insensitive exact sequences.
| Year | cloud storage | cloud cover |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 0.2 | 18 |
| 2005 | 1 | 17 |
| 2010 | 5 | 19 |
| 2015 | 12 | 18 |
| 2020 | 24 | 20 |
| 2025 | 36 | 19 |
Text C · Simulated associations
Separate hypothetical 10,000,000-word written corpora in 2000 and 2025. Rates per million: second word within five tokens either side of the first, each qualifying anchor once per row; rows may overlap. Not exact n-grams or sense annotations.
| Association | 2000 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| cloud + storage | 0.4 | 28 |
| cloud + provider | 0.1 | 17 |
| cloud + rain | 22 | 23 |
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Model and rationale
Text A demonstrates a technical use of 'cloud' while explicitly challenging a misleading inference from its physical image. The staff guide is not evidence that the meteorological meaning has disappeared. Rather, it shows polysemy: a form can operate in several related or distinct contexts. The instruction that files do not exist 'nowhere in particular' makes the potential consequences of the metaphor part of the text's practical purpose.
The expression 'moving a whole department into the cloud' transfers a spatial action to a change in digital infrastructure. The guide then narrows the statement to 'selected digital services', distinguishing an accessible image from a complete description. This illustrates how familiar vocabulary can help speakers conceptualise unfamiliar systems, while also concealing their material organisation. A functional account of lexical innovation would consider the communicative usefulness of a short shared term, but the passage alone cannot establish why a whole community adopted it.
Text B supplies a simulated frequency pattern compatible with expansion of the technical expression: 'cloud storage' rises from 0.2 to 36 occurrences per million words between the labelled endpoints, while 'cloud cover' remains near 18–20. The contrast matters more than a claim that one meaning has replaced another. Within this constructed dataset, growth in one phrase coexists with relative stability in another. The graph counts exact expressions, not all instances of each sense of 'cloud'. It cannot directly tell us what proportion of every use is technical.
Text C provides a further contextual distinction. The simulated co-occurrence rate for 'cloud + storage' increases from 0.4 to 28, and 'cloud + provider' from 0.1 to 17, whereas 'cloud + rain' changes only slightly. These associations help explain why the noun can be interpreted technically in Text A. They do not themselves define a word's meaning: a five-word window can include unrelated material, and examples would need to be inspected. Nor are these counts directly interchangeable with the exact n-gram counts in Text B.
The surrounding vocabulary shows a connected register rather than an isolated new sense. 'Upload', 'offline' and 'sync' condense processes into forms the intended staff audience is expected to recognise. 'Sync' illustrates clipping of 'synchronise', which also appears in the passage. Their coexistence suggests variation in lexical form within one explanatory text, not that the longer form is obsolete. Direct imperatives and second-person address serve the guide's purpose; they should not automatically be labelled evidence of recent grammatical change.
Overall, the sources support an analysis of metaphorical extension and contextual specialisation in this exercise, with older usage remaining available. Because the numerical sources are constructed, they demonstrate how such an argument could be tested, not an actual historical frequency claim. A real investigation would need comparable corpora, contextual examples and evidence about when particular communities began using the technical sense. The passage makes the key point visible: lexical innovation can simplify communication without removing the need to explain what the familiar word now refers to.
- AO4: explains metaphorical extension and polysemy without claiming replacement of the weather sense.
- AO5: integrates exact graph values, co-occurrences and prose while distinguishing the two numerical measures.
- AO2: develops a qualified, coherent argument and identifies what further evidence would be needed.