Descriptive response — 'A Crowded Marketplace'

Question (40 marks)

Describe a crowded marketplace.

You should aim to write 450–600 words.

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Mark Scheme — AO5 (24)

• Band 5 (22–24): controlling idea (e.g. sensory overload, contrast between vendor and customer perspectives); kinetic verbs; synaesthesia; rhythmic sentence variation mirroring crowd movement; cyclical structure returning to a single recurring detail.
• Lower bands as standard.

Mark Scheme — AO6 (16) — as above.

Indicative Grade 9 features: polysyndeton replicating overwhelming abundance ('and saffron and turmeric and cardamom and cloves'); asyndeton for staccato effect; semicolons linking parallel sensory clauses; precise culinary/textile lexis; deliberate shift from wide-angle to close-up.