2025 AQA A-LEVEL ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Paper 1 Telling Stories Question Paper & Mark Scheme
(Merged) Wednesday 14 May 2025 [VERIFIED]
A-level
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE
Paper 1 Telling Stories
Wednesday 14 May 2025 Afternoon Time allowed: 3 hours
Materials
For this paper you must have:
an AQA 12-page answer book
a copy of the set texts you have studied for Section B and Section C. These texts must not be
annotated and must not contain additional notes or materials
Instructions
Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is 7707/1.
There are three sections:
Section A: Remembered Places
Section B: Imagined Worlds
Section C: Poetic Voices
Answer three questions in total: the question in Section A, one question from Section B and one
question from Section C.
Do all rough work in your answer book. Cross through any work you do not want to be marked.
Information
The maximum mark for this paper is 100.
The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
There are 40 marks for the question in Section A, 35 marks for the question in Section B and 25
marks for the question in Section C.
You will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
Advice
It is recommended that you spend 70 minutes on Section A, 60 minutes on Section B and 50 minutes
on Section C.
IB/G/Jun25/G4005/V8 7707/1
, 2
Section A
Remembered Places
Answer Question 1 in this section.
Read Text A and Text B printed below and on page 3.
Text A is an extract from Breathless: An American Girl in Paris by Nancy Miller.
Text B is an extract from Personal Narrative: Zara.
0 1 Compare and contrast how the writers of Text A and Text B express their ideas about
youthful experiences in Paris.
You should refer to both texts in your answer.
[40 marks]
Text A
Nancy Miller is an American academic who has written a number of autobiographical works.
Breathless: An American Girl in Paris is an account of her time in Paris, where she lived and
studied, during the 1960s.
We were the same size and wore each other’s clothing, playing at being sisters or even
twins, despite the fact that Monique was as blonde as I was dark. It was the game of
identification we liked. Monique’s mother had been a petite main, an apprentice to a
famous designer, when she was young. The dresses she made for Monique were a step
5 above what my mother knocked out on the Singer sewing machine that provided the
white noise to my childhood, and I coveted them.
One chilly afternoon, a street photographer snapped a picture of the two of us arm in
arm. In the photograph, we are strolling down from the Foyer along the boulevard
Saint-Michel, where girls were regularly pursued by relentless young men. “Vous êtes
10 seules?” they would ask rhetorically, oblivious to our self-sufficiency. Alone! We’re with
each other! In the snapshot, Monique is wearing a double-breasted blazer, a straight
skirt that falls just below the knee, sheer stockings that show off her slender legs, black
pumps, leather gloves, and a perfectly tied scarf. She looks Parisian already and, like
French girls, doesn’t seem to feel the cold. Our arms are linked, but I’m dressed for
15 another season, wearing the brown tweed wool dress with velvet piping that her mother
made that fall (for both of us, we joked) and a beige, baggy corduroy coat I had still not
realized was completely out of style in Paris.
The Foyer cast itself as the custodian of our virtue, the guardian of future wives and
mothers. Madame Carnot, the cleaning woman, shared the Foyer’s mission. One
20 morning she knocked at the door at 7:30 while we were sitting on our beds, facing each
other in our long flannel night gowns. Monique opened the door, cigarette in hand.
Plunging her hands into the pockets of her smock, as she looked past Monique at the
books and papers strewn across the floor, Madame Carnot threatened to report us to
Madame la Directrice for bad conduct. She shook her head gravely to emphasize her
25 point, and adjusted the little gray scarf she always wore to protect her hair.
I conjured up Jane Eyre’s little friend Helen Burns wearing the sign for “slattern” in
punishment for her untidy room.
IB/G/Jun25/7707/1
, 3
Text B
This text is part of a set of personal narratives from a mother (Anna) and her adult daughter (Zara)
about their time spent in Paris. This transcript was recorded in 2013.
Zara: erm (.) hi (.) this is Zara (.) erm talking about (.) Parisian culture (.) erm (1) I (1) am
younger than my mum so I haven’t (.) spent as many years in Paris as she has (.) erm but I do
find (.) that I keep going back there (.) because I do love it a lot (.) erm (1)
so (1) I kind of (.) I guess my first memories of going there (.) is (.) as a very small child and (.) I
5 guess being a bit underwhelmed because it just feels like you’re in London but you’re not (.)
like it doesn’t (.) I don’t know (.) I (.) there was a time when we (.) went on holiday and my
parents heard me saying in the night to my sister (1) what is this this isn’t the real Paris this
isn’t Disneyland Paris (.) erm (.) so (.) I think it just (.) I guess as a small child it’s a bit (1) you
don’t get as excited in the same way by things unless they’re (.) rollercoasters or something (.)
10 erm (1)
but (.) going back (.) I just (.) really really fell in love with it in that kind of clichéd way that
people love Paris (.) erm (.) and (.) I love it for all sorts of things (.) erm (1) the (.) I’m talking
about the fashion (.) erm I think (.) Paris has a very big reputation for being very chic and
trendy and fashionable (.) erm (1) but (.) it is (.) like it’s (1) you can be a bit disappointed if you
15 go thinking that and you walk around the streets and people look quite (.) plain (.) and people
wear very (.) long conservative clothes (.) and (.) I think they’re less outlandish with their
fashion than here (.) but (.) generally with that they are very (.) chic and very classic I think is
the look gone for by people (.) and you get (.) I guess you get (.) as you get anywhere (.)
people who will dress more or less excitingly than others and different age groups will (.) have
20 different (.) styles but (1) I feel like there is always an aim for very kind of classic (1) I don’t
know (1) erm (.) almost kind of traditional but (.) very chic and tailored things. I don’t know (1)
Key
(.) indicates a pause of less than a second
(1) indicates a longer pause (number of seconds indicated)
Turn over for Section B
Turn over ►
IB/G/Jun25/7707/1
, 4
Section B
Imagined Worlds
Answer one question in this section.
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Either
0 2 Read the extract printed below. This is from the section of the novel where the creature
describes how he attacked and murdered William.
Explore the significance of characters’ acts of destruction in the novel. You should
consider:
the presentation of characters’ acts of destruction in the extract below and at different
points in the novel
the use of fantasy elements in constructing a fictional world.
[35 marks]
‘Urged by this impulse, I seized on the boy as he passed, and drew him towards me.
As soon as he beheld my form, he placed his hands before his eyes, and uttered a shrill
scream: I drew his hand forcibly from his face, and said, “Child, what is the meaning of
this? I do not intend to hurt you; listen to me.”
5 ‘He struggled violently; “Let me go,” he cried; “monster! ugly wretch! you wish to eat
me, and tear me to pieces—You are an ogre—Let me go, or I will tell my papa.”
‘“Boy, you will never see your father again; you must come with me.”
‘“Hideous monster! let me go; My papa is a Syndic—he is M. Frankenstein—he would
punish you. You dare not keep me.”
10 ‘“Frankenstein! you belong then to my enemy—to him towards whom I have sworn
eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim.”
‘The child still struggled, and loaded me with epithets which carried despair to my heart:
I grasped his throat to silence him, and in a moment he lay dead at my feet.
‘I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph:
15 clapping my hands, I exclaimed, “I, too, can create desolation; my enemy is not
impregnable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall
torment and destroy him.’’
IB/G/Jun25/7707/1
Paper 1 Telling Stories Question Paper & Mark Scheme
(Merged) Wednesday 14 May 2025 [VERIFIED]
A-level
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE
Paper 1 Telling Stories
Wednesday 14 May 2025 Afternoon Time allowed: 3 hours
Materials
For this paper you must have:
an AQA 12-page answer book
a copy of the set texts you have studied for Section B and Section C. These texts must not be
annotated and must not contain additional notes or materials
Instructions
Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is 7707/1.
There are three sections:
Section A: Remembered Places
Section B: Imagined Worlds
Section C: Poetic Voices
Answer three questions in total: the question in Section A, one question from Section B and one
question from Section C.
Do all rough work in your answer book. Cross through any work you do not want to be marked.
Information
The maximum mark for this paper is 100.
The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
There are 40 marks for the question in Section A, 35 marks for the question in Section B and 25
marks for the question in Section C.
You will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
Advice
It is recommended that you spend 70 minutes on Section A, 60 minutes on Section B and 50 minutes
on Section C.
IB/G/Jun25/G4005/V8 7707/1
, 2
Section A
Remembered Places
Answer Question 1 in this section.
Read Text A and Text B printed below and on page 3.
Text A is an extract from Breathless: An American Girl in Paris by Nancy Miller.
Text B is an extract from Personal Narrative: Zara.
0 1 Compare and contrast how the writers of Text A and Text B express their ideas about
youthful experiences in Paris.
You should refer to both texts in your answer.
[40 marks]
Text A
Nancy Miller is an American academic who has written a number of autobiographical works.
Breathless: An American Girl in Paris is an account of her time in Paris, where she lived and
studied, during the 1960s.
We were the same size and wore each other’s clothing, playing at being sisters or even
twins, despite the fact that Monique was as blonde as I was dark. It was the game of
identification we liked. Monique’s mother had been a petite main, an apprentice to a
famous designer, when she was young. The dresses she made for Monique were a step
5 above what my mother knocked out on the Singer sewing machine that provided the
white noise to my childhood, and I coveted them.
One chilly afternoon, a street photographer snapped a picture of the two of us arm in
arm. In the photograph, we are strolling down from the Foyer along the boulevard
Saint-Michel, where girls were regularly pursued by relentless young men. “Vous êtes
10 seules?” they would ask rhetorically, oblivious to our self-sufficiency. Alone! We’re with
each other! In the snapshot, Monique is wearing a double-breasted blazer, a straight
skirt that falls just below the knee, sheer stockings that show off her slender legs, black
pumps, leather gloves, and a perfectly tied scarf. She looks Parisian already and, like
French girls, doesn’t seem to feel the cold. Our arms are linked, but I’m dressed for
15 another season, wearing the brown tweed wool dress with velvet piping that her mother
made that fall (for both of us, we joked) and a beige, baggy corduroy coat I had still not
realized was completely out of style in Paris.
The Foyer cast itself as the custodian of our virtue, the guardian of future wives and
mothers. Madame Carnot, the cleaning woman, shared the Foyer’s mission. One
20 morning she knocked at the door at 7:30 while we were sitting on our beds, facing each
other in our long flannel night gowns. Monique opened the door, cigarette in hand.
Plunging her hands into the pockets of her smock, as she looked past Monique at the
books and papers strewn across the floor, Madame Carnot threatened to report us to
Madame la Directrice for bad conduct. She shook her head gravely to emphasize her
25 point, and adjusted the little gray scarf she always wore to protect her hair.
I conjured up Jane Eyre’s little friend Helen Burns wearing the sign for “slattern” in
punishment for her untidy room.
IB/G/Jun25/7707/1
, 3
Text B
This text is part of a set of personal narratives from a mother (Anna) and her adult daughter (Zara)
about their time spent in Paris. This transcript was recorded in 2013.
Zara: erm (.) hi (.) this is Zara (.) erm talking about (.) Parisian culture (.) erm (1) I (1) am
younger than my mum so I haven’t (.) spent as many years in Paris as she has (.) erm but I do
find (.) that I keep going back there (.) because I do love it a lot (.) erm (1)
so (1) I kind of (.) I guess my first memories of going there (.) is (.) as a very small child and (.) I
5 guess being a bit underwhelmed because it just feels like you’re in London but you’re not (.)
like it doesn’t (.) I don’t know (.) I (.) there was a time when we (.) went on holiday and my
parents heard me saying in the night to my sister (1) what is this this isn’t the real Paris this
isn’t Disneyland Paris (.) erm (.) so (.) I think it just (.) I guess as a small child it’s a bit (1) you
don’t get as excited in the same way by things unless they’re (.) rollercoasters or something (.)
10 erm (1)
but (.) going back (.) I just (.) really really fell in love with it in that kind of clichéd way that
people love Paris (.) erm (.) and (.) I love it for all sorts of things (.) erm (1) the (.) I’m talking
about the fashion (.) erm I think (.) Paris has a very big reputation for being very chic and
trendy and fashionable (.) erm (1) but (.) it is (.) like it’s (1) you can be a bit disappointed if you
15 go thinking that and you walk around the streets and people look quite (.) plain (.) and people
wear very (.) long conservative clothes (.) and (.) I think they’re less outlandish with their
fashion than here (.) but (.) generally with that they are very (.) chic and very classic I think is
the look gone for by people (.) and you get (.) I guess you get (.) as you get anywhere (.)
people who will dress more or less excitingly than others and different age groups will (.) have
20 different (.) styles but (1) I feel like there is always an aim for very kind of classic (1) I don’t
know (1) erm (.) almost kind of traditional but (.) very chic and tailored things. I don’t know (1)
Key
(.) indicates a pause of less than a second
(1) indicates a longer pause (number of seconds indicated)
Turn over for Section B
Turn over ►
IB/G/Jun25/7707/1
, 4
Section B
Imagined Worlds
Answer one question in this section.
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Either
0 2 Read the extract printed below. This is from the section of the novel where the creature
describes how he attacked and murdered William.
Explore the significance of characters’ acts of destruction in the novel. You should
consider:
the presentation of characters’ acts of destruction in the extract below and at different
points in the novel
the use of fantasy elements in constructing a fictional world.
[35 marks]
‘Urged by this impulse, I seized on the boy as he passed, and drew him towards me.
As soon as he beheld my form, he placed his hands before his eyes, and uttered a shrill
scream: I drew his hand forcibly from his face, and said, “Child, what is the meaning of
this? I do not intend to hurt you; listen to me.”
5 ‘He struggled violently; “Let me go,” he cried; “monster! ugly wretch! you wish to eat
me, and tear me to pieces—You are an ogre—Let me go, or I will tell my papa.”
‘“Boy, you will never see your father again; you must come with me.”
‘“Hideous monster! let me go; My papa is a Syndic—he is M. Frankenstein—he would
punish you. You dare not keep me.”
10 ‘“Frankenstein! you belong then to my enemy—to him towards whom I have sworn
eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim.”
‘The child still struggled, and loaded me with epithets which carried despair to my heart:
I grasped his throat to silence him, and in a moment he lay dead at my feet.
‘I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph:
15 clapping my hands, I exclaimed, “I, too, can create desolation; my enemy is not
impregnable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall
torment and destroy him.’’
IB/G/Jun25/7707/1
