Unfamiliar written texts: close reading

Practice

Recall it first, then use it — testing yourself builds the memory, where rereading the notes above only feels easier.

Recall and application shuffled together — you have to work out what each item wants before you can answer it, which is the part the exam actually tests. Both kinds feed the same spacing schedule, so anything you miss comes back sooner.

Say the answer out loud before flipping — that attempt is where the learning happens, even when you get it wrong.

Exam-style only. Instant feedback, shuffled each attempt, best score saved on this device.

What actually comes up

The passages themselves are copyrighted and never seen in advance, so nothing below is a real quotation from any of them — this is the real EXAM WORDING for each question (identical in structure every year, per the achievement standard) and a paraphrase, in plain language, of the KINDS of aspect the marking schedule flagged as fruitful for that theme. That second part is genuinely useful: it shows the RANGE of aspect a strong answer draws on, without reproducing the source text.

Across 4 years

The pattern — what to prepare

The 2022 paper ↗ Marking schedule ↗

Question One — Prose ("Rabbit Run"), the significance of animals to people

Discuss how the writer explores the significance of animals to people, referring to at least TWO specific aspects of written texts.

• a The schedule flagged as fruitful: different ways children and adults view animals; how a pet might help a parent bond with their children; minor sentences, repetition, rhetorical question and emotive language; and a structure moving day to night, or tracing a change of opinion. Excellence

Question Two — Poetry ("Night in the forest"), darkness and light

Discuss the ways the writer explores how people experience darkness and light, referring to at least TWO specific aspects of written texts.

• a The schedule flagged as fruitful: darkness read as inspiring, magical, or threatening; simile, metaphor and personal pronouns; and a structure built on stanza divisions, a journey, or a shift from group to individual. Excellence

Question Three — Comparison, relationships between adults and children

Compare how the writers reflect on relationships between adults and children, referring to at least ONE specific aspect of written texts used in each text.

• a The schedule flagged as fruitful: which party (adult or child) holds control at different points, and whether adults listen to children or create situations for children to explore; personal pronouns marking whose voice is centred ("we" for the children's voice, "he"/"the kids" for a negotiation); and a structure using time to trace how the balance of power shifts. Excellence

The 2025 paper ↗ Marking schedule ↗

Question One — Prose, "storytelling"

Discuss the ways in which storytelling is explored in the passage, referring to at least TWO specific aspects of written texts.

• a A strong answer here drew on: WHO gets to tell whose story, and what that implies about ownership of a narrative; word choices that reframe ordinary talk as deliberate performance or craft; and a structural choice about when a key piece of information (like an identity) is withheld versus revealed. Excellence

Question Two — Poetry, "exploring emotions"

Discuss the ways the writer explores their emotions, referring to at least TWO specific aspects of written texts.

• a A strong answer here drew on: language patterns suggesting self-doubt or hesitation (repetition, speculative or qualifying phrasing); imagery of being overwhelmed by something much larger than oneself; and a shift in register triggered by another person's question or presence. Excellence

Question Three — Comparison, "how people make sense of things"

Compare how the writers explore people's sense-making strategies, referring to at least ONE specific aspect of written texts used in each text.

• a A strong comparison here set the two writers' different reference points for making sense of experience (e.g. one anchored in a shared or historical frame, the other in a personal or momentary one) against each other, and against how directly each writer owns their own voice versus channels someone else's. Excellence

The 2024 paper ↗ Marking schedule ↗

Question One — "experiencing environment"

Discuss how the writer explores the ways people experience their environment, referring to at least TWO specific aspects of written texts.

• a A strong answer here drew on: personification of a non-human presence in the environment; emotive language marking the physical toll of the experience (exhaustion, being overwhelmed); a recurring motif linking a human and a non-human figure; and first-person phrasing marking a shift in understanding over time. Excellence

Question Two — "belonging" (people and/or seals, feeling about where they live)

Discuss how the writer explores ideas about belonging, referring to at least TWO specific aspects of written texts.

• a A strong answer here drew on: an intrusion into domestic space treated as both funny and unsettling; sensory language marking a familiar place made suddenly unfamiliar; and ownership language ("our"/"his") applied ambiguously across a human–animal boundary. Excellence

Question Three — Comparison, "people and animals"

Compare how the writers portray the relationships between people and animals, referring to at least ONE specific aspect of written texts used in each text.

• a A strong comparison here set opposing pairs against each other across the two texts (entertainment vs inconvenience, intrigue vs threat, indulgence vs annoyance) and asked whether each writer describes the animal in human terms or resists doing so — a genuine point of difference to compare, not just describe twice. Excellence

The 2023 paper ↗ Marking schedule ↗

Question One — Poetry, "responding to the details of life"

Discuss how the writer explores the ways people respond to the details of life, referring to at least TWO specific aspects of written texts.

• a A strong answer here drew on: simile and emotive language locating unexpected beauty in ordinary things; a structural movement between inside and outside, or between past and present, that frames memory as a source of joy; and a closing idea of holding two things at once ("having it both ways"). Excellence

Question Two — Prose, "the significance of naming"

Discuss the ways the writer explores the significance of naming, referring to at least TWO specific aspects of written texts.

• a A strong answer here drew on: metaphor and cliché linking a name to identity, gender, or power; and a structural pattern of expectation set up then met or subverted by reality. Excellence

Question Three — Comparison, "experiences of change"

Compare how the writers reflect on people's experiences of change, referring to at least ONE specific aspect of written texts used in each text.

• a A strong comparison here contrasted who is doing the changing and who is watching it happen across the two texts (via personal pronouns marking whose perspective the change is felt from), and set an ambivalent, appreciative tone for change in one text against a more negative one in the other — plus a structural point about change arriving slower than expected in one text and faster than realised in the other. Excellence

The specific aspects above are paraphrased from what each year's marking schedule flagged as fruitful — never treat them as facts to memorise about a text you have not read, since the actual passage changes every year. Their real value is calibration: seeing the RANGE and SPECIFICITY a full-mark answer draws on (pronoun shifts, a withheld detail, a structural echo) rather than settling for "the writer uses imagery".

Past exams & resources

⏱ Timed opens the paper and starts a countdown matching the exam length. Official NZQA PDFs. If a link 404s, that year’s paper may sit under a slightly different code: browse the NZQA subject page.