By Melissa & Emily & Lucy

Understanding Questions Most understanding questions begin with the word “Explain” Other words that may be used are “Give”, “What”, “Refer/Refering” and “According to”

YOU MUST USE YOUR OWN WORDS AS FAR AS POSSIBLE!

If the writer has used the best words, don’t just repeat it because you can’t rephrase it as well as they have written it. You must try and use your own words even if they are simple words, as blatant lifts will be given NO MARKS!

3 Types of Understanding Questions 1)Summary – A summary question will often ask you to “Explain briefly..” several points. 2) Context – A context question will ask how the language surrounding a word or expression helps you understand the meaning of it. 3) Link – A link question will ask you to show how a sentence provides a link between two ideas.

How to go about answering the 3 different types of understanding questions. Summary - To answer a summary question it is best to use bullet points so the marker can see clearly where marks should be allocated. Context – To answer a context question start by explaining the word or expression in your own words. Then you must find one or two quotations from the surrounding text and explain how they help you to understand the meaning of the word or expression. Link – There is four different parts to answering a link question. The first part is to find a quote which sums up the idea in the first sentence. Then you must summarise this in your own words. The third part is to find a quote from the same sentence which sums up the following idea. And finally you must then summarise this idea in your own words

Examples for the 3 different types of questions & answers Summary In a world changing faster now than ever before, the dispossessed and the ambitious are flooding into cities swollen out of all recognition. Poor cities are struggling to cope. Rich cities are reconfiguring themselves at breakneck speed. China has created an industrial powerhouse from what were fishing villages in the 1970s. Lagos and Dhaka attract a thousand new arrivals every day. In Britain, central London’s population has started to grow again after 50 years of decline. Q- Explain which groups of people are being attracted to cities (2010 Q1) A - There must be some attempt to use own words. Lifts: 0. Gloss on the following two terms for 1+1: “the dispossessed” people who are homeless, displaced, driven from their own land, alienated from their own society, poor people, people with few possessions “the ambitious” people with a strong desire to succeed, to get on in life, to better themselves, to make money (undeveloped variants of “ambitious” – eg “people with ambitions”: 0)

Examples for the 3 different types of questions & answers Context What felt radical when Dublin, Barcelona and Glasgow embarked on the city makeover path in the late 1980s and early 1990s, now feels derivative and is delivering diminishing returns. Q - What does the writer mean by the words “radical” (line 13) and “derivative” (line 14) in his discussion of city development? (2010 Q 11) A – gloss on “radical” for 1 mark – eg original, drastic, far-reaching, fundamentally different, … gloss on “derivative” for 1 mark – eg unoriginal, imitative, copied, …

Examples for the 3 different types of questions & answers Link (Passage) And when I hear politicians—most of them comfortably off—trying to deny enlightenment and pleasure to “working class” people, I reach for my megaphone. Maybe Tommy Tattoo and his mates do use cheap flights to the sunshine as an extension of their binge-drinking opportunities, but for thousands of people whose parents would never have ventured beyond Blackpool or Rothesay, air travel has been a social revelation. So, before we all give the eco-lobby’s anti-flying agenda the unconditional benefit of the doubt, can we just review their strategy as a whole? Remember, it is not just air travel that the green tax lobby is trying to control: it is a restriction on any mobility.

Examples for the 3 different types of questions & answers Q - Referring to specific words and/or phrases, show how the sentence “So, before … as a whole?” (lines 13-14) performs a linking function in the writer’s argument. (2009 Q2) A- Four elements are required: 1 “eco-lobby’s anti-flying agenda” … 2 … refers back to the restrictive air travel proposals discussed in the opening two paragraphs; 3 “their strategy as a whole”/“can we just review” 4 … leads into the discussion of the eco-lobby’s proposed restrictions on travel as a whole/on energy use in general Answers which do not follow the requirement to refer to “specific words and/or phrases” cannot score more than 1 mark.