Oxford Cambridge and RSA - 2025
Wednesday 21 May 2025 – Afternoon
A Level English Language and Literature (EMC)
H474/01 Exploring non-fiction and spoken texts
Time allowed: 1 hour
(Verified Question Paper With Mark
Scheme Combined June 2025)
, INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink.
• Write your answer to the question in the Answer Booklet.
• Fill in the boxes on the front of the Answer Booklet.
• Answer the question.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 32.
• The marks for the question are shown in brackets [ ].
• This document has 8 pages.
ADVICE
• Read the question carefully before you start your answer.
© OCR 2025
OCR is an exempt
[601/4704/0] DC
Charity Turn over
(ST/CB) 333238/4
, 2
Read the two text extracts and answer the question.
Text A from the anthology is an extract from George Saunders’ speech given to
graduates at Syracuse University in 2013.
Text B is a fact sheet produced by a British company called 52 Lives: The School of
Kindness in 2022. They are a charity who aim to create a culture of kindness. They work
in primary schools and offer ‘Kindness Workshops’ which teach children how to spread
kindness. This fact sheet is one resource they have produced to explain the science of
kindness on physical and mental health.
1 Carefully read the two texts and compare the ways in which the speaker in
Text A and the writers of Text B use language to convey meaning.
In your answer you should analyse the impact that the different contexts have on
language use, including for example, mode, purpose and audience. [32]
© OCR H474/01
2025 Jun25
, 3
Text A
So here’s something I know to be true, although it’s a little corny, and I don’t quite know
what to do with it:
What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.
Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I
responded ... sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.
Or, to look at it from the other end of the telescope: Who, in your life, do you remember
most fondly, with the most undeniable feelings of warmth?
Those who were kindest to you, I bet.
It’s a little facile, maybe, and certainly hard to implement, but I’d say, as a goal in life,
you could do worse than: Try to be kinder.
Now, the million-dollar question: What’s our problem? Why aren’t we
kinder? Here’s what I think:
Each of us is born with a series of built-in confusions that are probably somehow
Darwinian. These are: (1) we’re central to the universe (that is, our personal story is the
main and most interesting story, the only story, really); (2) we’re separate from the
universe (there’s US and then, out there, all that other junk – dogs and swing-sets, and
the State of Nebraska and low-hanging clouds and, you know, other people), and (3)
we’re permanent (death is real, o.k., sure – for you, but not for me).
Now, we don’t really believe these things – intellectually we know better – but we believe
them viscerally, and live by them, and they cause us to prioritize our own needs over the
needs of others, even though what we really want, in our hearts, is to be less selfish,
more aware of what’s actually happening in the present moment, more open, and more
loving.
So, the second million-dollar question: How might we DO this? How might we become
more loving, more open, less selfish, more present, less delusional, etc., etc?
Well, yes, good question.
Unfortunately, I only have three minutes left.
So let me just say this. There are ways. You already know that because, in your life, there
have been High Kindness periods and Low Kindness periods, and you know what inclined
you toward the former and away from the latter. Education is good; immersing ourselves
in a work of art: good; prayer is good; meditation’s good; a frank talk with a dear friend;
establishing ourselves in some kind of spiritual tradition – recognizing that there have
been countless really smart people before us who have asked these same questions and
left behind answers for us.
Because kindness, it turns out, is hard – it starts out all rainbows and puppy dogs, and
expands to include ... well, everything.
One thing in our favor: some of this “becoming kinder” happens naturally, with age. It
might be a simple matter of attrition: as we get older, we come to see how useless it is
to be selfish – how illogical, really. We come to love other people and are thereby
counterinstructed in our own centrality. We get our butts kicked by real life, and people
come to our defense, and help us, and we learn that we’re not separate, and don’t want
to be. We see people near and dear to us dropping away, and are gradually convinced
that maybe we too will drop away (someday, a long time from now). Most people, as
Wednesday 21 May 2025 – Afternoon
A Level English Language and Literature (EMC)
H474/01 Exploring non-fiction and spoken texts
Time allowed: 1 hour
(Verified Question Paper With Mark
Scheme Combined June 2025)
, INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink.
• Write your answer to the question in the Answer Booklet.
• Fill in the boxes on the front of the Answer Booklet.
• Answer the question.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 32.
• The marks for the question are shown in brackets [ ].
• This document has 8 pages.
ADVICE
• Read the question carefully before you start your answer.
© OCR 2025
OCR is an exempt
[601/4704/0] DC
Charity Turn over
(ST/CB) 333238/4
, 2
Read the two text extracts and answer the question.
Text A from the anthology is an extract from George Saunders’ speech given to
graduates at Syracuse University in 2013.
Text B is a fact sheet produced by a British company called 52 Lives: The School of
Kindness in 2022. They are a charity who aim to create a culture of kindness. They work
in primary schools and offer ‘Kindness Workshops’ which teach children how to spread
kindness. This fact sheet is one resource they have produced to explain the science of
kindness on physical and mental health.
1 Carefully read the two texts and compare the ways in which the speaker in
Text A and the writers of Text B use language to convey meaning.
In your answer you should analyse the impact that the different contexts have on
language use, including for example, mode, purpose and audience. [32]
© OCR H474/01
2025 Jun25
, 3
Text A
So here’s something I know to be true, although it’s a little corny, and I don’t quite know
what to do with it:
What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.
Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I
responded ... sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.
Or, to look at it from the other end of the telescope: Who, in your life, do you remember
most fondly, with the most undeniable feelings of warmth?
Those who were kindest to you, I bet.
It’s a little facile, maybe, and certainly hard to implement, but I’d say, as a goal in life,
you could do worse than: Try to be kinder.
Now, the million-dollar question: What’s our problem? Why aren’t we
kinder? Here’s what I think:
Each of us is born with a series of built-in confusions that are probably somehow
Darwinian. These are: (1) we’re central to the universe (that is, our personal story is the
main and most interesting story, the only story, really); (2) we’re separate from the
universe (there’s US and then, out there, all that other junk – dogs and swing-sets, and
the State of Nebraska and low-hanging clouds and, you know, other people), and (3)
we’re permanent (death is real, o.k., sure – for you, but not for me).
Now, we don’t really believe these things – intellectually we know better – but we believe
them viscerally, and live by them, and they cause us to prioritize our own needs over the
needs of others, even though what we really want, in our hearts, is to be less selfish,
more aware of what’s actually happening in the present moment, more open, and more
loving.
So, the second million-dollar question: How might we DO this? How might we become
more loving, more open, less selfish, more present, less delusional, etc., etc?
Well, yes, good question.
Unfortunately, I only have three minutes left.
So let me just say this. There are ways. You already know that because, in your life, there
have been High Kindness periods and Low Kindness periods, and you know what inclined
you toward the former and away from the latter. Education is good; immersing ourselves
in a work of art: good; prayer is good; meditation’s good; a frank talk with a dear friend;
establishing ourselves in some kind of spiritual tradition – recognizing that there have
been countless really smart people before us who have asked these same questions and
left behind answers for us.
Because kindness, it turns out, is hard – it starts out all rainbows and puppy dogs, and
expands to include ... well, everything.
One thing in our favor: some of this “becoming kinder” happens naturally, with age. It
might be a simple matter of attrition: as we get older, we come to see how useless it is
to be selfish – how illogical, really. We come to love other people and are thereby
counterinstructed in our own centrality. We get our butts kicked by real life, and people
come to our defense, and help us, and we learn that we’re not separate, and don’t want
to be. We see people near and dear to us dropping away, and are gradually convinced
that maybe we too will drop away (someday, a long time from now). Most people, as
