English
Stage 7
Paper 2 Fiction 2025
Cambridge Lower Secondary Progression Test
Insert
3138_02_INS_FP
© UCLES 2025
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Text for Section A, an extract from A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
A young girl called Margaret (or Meg for short) is unable to sleep during a storm.
It was a dark and stormy night.
In her attic bedroom Margaret Murry, wrapped in an old patchwork quilt, sat on the foot of her
bed and watched the trees tossing in the frenzied lashing of the wind. Behind the trees clouds 5
scudded frantically across the sky. Every few moments the moon ripped through them, creating
wraith-like shadows that raced along the ground.
The house shook.
Wrapped in her quilt, Meg shook.
She wasn’t usually afraid of weather. —It’s not just the weather, she thought. – It’s the weather 10
on top of everything else. On top of me. On top of Meg Murry doing everything wrong. School.
School was all wrong.
She’d been dropped down to the lowest section in her grade. That morning one of her teachers
had said crossly, ‘Really, Meg, I don’t understand how a child with parents as brilliant as yours
are supposed to be, can be such a poor student. If you don’t manage to do a little better you’ll 15
have to stay back next year.’
And on the way home from school, walking up the road with her arms full of books, one of the
boys had said something about her ‘dumb baby brother.’ At this she’d thrown the books on the
side of the road and tackled him with every ounce of strength she had, and arrived home with
her blouse torn and a big bruise under one eye. 20
Sandy and Dennys, her ten-year-old twin brothers, who got home from school an hour earlier
than she did, were disgusted. ‘Let us do the fighting when it’s necessary,’ they told her.
– A delinquent, that’s what I am, she thought grimly. – That’s what they’ll be saying next. Not
Mother. But Them. Everybody Else. I wish Father –
But it was still not possible to think about her father without the danger of tears. Only her mother 25
could talk about him in a natural way, saying, ‘When your father gets back –’
Gets back from where? And when? Surely her mother must know what people were saying,
must be aware of the smugly vicious gossip. Surely it must hurt her as it did Meg. But if it did
she gave no outward sign. Nothing ruffled the serenity of her expression.
– Why can’t I hide it, too? Meg thought. Why do I always have to show everything? The window 30
rattled madly in the wind, and she pulled the quilt close about her. Curled up on one of her
pillows, a grey fluff of kitten yawned, showing its pink tongue, tucked its head under again, and
went back to sleep.
Everybody was asleep. Everybody except Meg. Even Charles Wallace, the ‘dumb baby brother,’
who had an uncanny way of knowing when she was awake and unhappy, and who would come, 35
so many nights, tiptoeing up the attic stairs to her – even Charles Wallace was asleep.
How could they sleep? All day on the radio there had been hurricane warnings. How could they
leave her up in the attic in the rickety brass bed, knowing that the roof might be blown right off
the house, and she tossed out into the wild night sky to land who knows where?
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Her shivering grew uncontrollable. 40
– You asked to have the attic bedroom, she told herself savagely. – Mother let you have it
because you’re the oldest. It’s a privilege, not a punishment.
‘Not during a hurricane, it isn’t a privilege,’ she said aloud. She tossed the quilt down on the foot
of the bed, and stood up. The kitten stretched luxuriously, and looked up at her with huge,
innocent eyes. ‘Go back to sleep,’ Meg said. ‘Just be glad you’re a kitten and not a monster like 45
me.’
She looked at herself in the wardrobe mirror and made a horrible face, baring a mouthful of
teeth covered with braces. Automatically she pushed her glasses into position, ran her fingers
through her mouse-brown hair, so that it stood wildly on end, and let out a sigh almost as noisy
as the wind. 50
The wide wooden floorboards were cold against her feet. Wind blew in the crevices about the
window frame, in spite of the protection the storm sash was supposed to offer. She could hear
wind howling in the chimneys. From all the way downstairs she could hear Fortinbras, the big
black dog, starting to bark. He must be frightened, too. What was he barking at? Fortinbras
never barked without reason. 55
Suddenly she remembered that when she had gone to the post office to pick up the mail she’d
heard about a tramp who was supposed to have stolen twelve sheets from Mrs Buncombe, the
constable’s wife. They hadn’t caught him, and maybe he was heading for the Murry’s house
right now, isolated on a back road as it was; and this time maybe he’d be after more than
sheets. Meg hadn’t paid much attention to the talk about the tramp at the time, because the 60
postmistress, with a sugary smile, had asked if she’d heard from her father lately.
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reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.
To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced annually and is available to download at
https://lowersecondary.cambridgeinternational.org/
Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.
© UCLES 2025 E/S7/INSERT/02
English
Stage 7
Paper 2 Fiction 2025
1 hour 10 minutes
Additional materials: Insert
INSTRUCTIONS
• Answer all questions.
• Write your answer to each question in the space provided.
• You should pay attention to punctuation, spelling and handwriting.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 50.
• The number of marks for each question or part question is shown in brackets [ ].
• Suggestions for how long to spend on each section are given in the booklet.
3138_02_3RP
© UCLES 2025
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Section A: Reading
Spend 35 minutes on this section.
Read the text in the insert, and answer Questions 1–13.
1 Look at the first line (line 3). Why do you think the writer chose to start with this sentence?
[1]
2 Look at the second paragraph (lines 4–7). Give one word or phrase that tells the reader the
clouds are moving quickly.
[1]
3 Look at lines 8–12.
What literary technique does the writer use to build up detail? Tick () one box.
personification
metaphor
repetition
oxymoron
[1]
4 Look at lines 13–22.
Why do you think her twin brothers reacted in this way? Give a quotation to support your answer.
Reason:
Quotation:
[2]
5 Look at lines 23–29.
Meg’s mother appears unaffected by her father’s disappearance. Give two phrases that tell the
reader this.
•
[2]
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6 Look at lines 30–39.
How does the writer use a dash ( – ) in two different ways? Tick () two boxes.
to break up dialogue
to show an interruption
to repeat a phrase for effect
to provide additional information
to introduce a character’s thoughts
[2]
7 Look at line 40.
What does the writer emphasise by using a one-sentence paragraph?
[1]
8 Look at lines 41–50.
Why does Meg deliberately mess up her hair in the mirror? Support your answer with a quotation
from the text.
Reason:
Quotation:
[2]
9 Look at lines 51–55.
How does the writer use grammatical structure to build up tension in the last three sentences of
this paragraph? Give two ideas.
•
[2]
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10 Look at lines 56–61.
(a) Look at the word Suddenly in the first sentence. Explain how this opening is grammatically
different from the other sentences in this paragraph.
The first sentence starts with:
The other sentences start with:
[2]
(b) Meg originally thought the dog was barking at the weather. What does Meg think the dog is
barking at now?
[1]
(c) What punctuation does the writer use to connect two distinct ideas in the second sentence?
Tick () one box.
colon
semi-colon
comma
apostrophe
[1]
11 Which idea in the final sentence links back to an idea in an earlier paragraph (lines 25–26)?
[1]
12 Look at lines 41–42 and lines 51–55.
Do you think Meg should be happy to have the attic bedroom? Support your answer with
evidence from the text.
Reason:
Quotation:
[2]
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13 Look at the whole text.
People are unkind towards Meg and her family. How are they unkind? Give two ways. Support
your ideas with quotations from the text.
First way:
Quotation:
Second way:
Quotation:
[4]
© UCLES 2025 E/S7/02 [Turn over
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Section B: Writing
Spend 35 minutes on this section.
14 This extract is from the first part of the book. What do you think happens next?
Now continue the story.
You could think about:
• where Meg goes next
• who she meets
• what she sees.
Space for your plan:
Write your story on the next page. [25 marks]
© UCLES 2025 E/S7/02
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© UCLES 2025 E/S7/02 [Turn over
8
Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.
To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced annually and is available to download at
https://lowersecondary.cambridgeinternational.org/
Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.
© UCLES 2025 E/S7/02
