AQA Style SPECIMEN MATERIAL 001

GCSE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Paper 2 - 007

Insert (80 Marks)

Sources included in this insert:

Source A: 21st Century non-fiction

Run for Your Life (Or Someone Else’s)
A magazine article from Keep Fit UK, published in April 2018.

Source B: 19th Century non-fiction

THE OLYMPIC FESTIVAL OF THE LIVERPOOL ATHLETIC CLUB
A newspaper report from an 1862 copy of the Liverpool Daily Post.

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Source A – 21st Century non-fiction

This article appeared in the April 2018 issue of Keep Fit UK. In it, the writer explores some of the
reasons for, and effects of, running.

Run for Your Life (Or Someone Else’s)

Your heart’s pumping; beads of sweat drip from every pore; every muscle fibre
in your legs aches, the build-up of lactic acid causing a burning sensation, the
sinews stretched to breaking point… the will to continue has drained from your
battered body, your mind fades to grey…

5 This is the infamous feeling of ‘hitting the wall’ and it is well known to an ever-
increasing band of long-distance runners.
Of course, your definition of long-distance will vary depending on how devoted a
runner you are. Novices might hit the wall at 4.5km, marathon runners at 40.5km,
but once you’ve experienced the sensation akin to throwing yourself headfirst
10 into a mountain then you’re a fully paid-up member of the club. And the peculiar
thing is, more and more people are actually paying to feel this way!

A stroll in the park

Though this might sound serious business, the Parkrun organisation provides a
more welcoming entry-point for those that find ‘fun run’ an oxymoron, and is so
far responsible for sucking in more than 1.25 million budding athletes. With 448
15 locations across the country, Parkrun is what it sounds like: a run around a local
green space. What makes it different, and so much more appealing than dragging
yourself out for a jog around the park on a drizzly Saturday morning, is its
communal element – runners typically number in the hundreds, taking in all ages
and all abilities, so the loneliness of the long-distance runner is entirely unknown
20 to its participants. The emphasis here is on fun and fitness. The competitive edge,
if you’re that way inclined, is largely internalised, with runners encouraged to
better their PBs. And it’s all free, administered by a group of volunteers armed
with barcode scanners that will record and log your time via the registration that
runners print out beforehand and pin to their kit. Summing up the egalitarian
25 spirit of parkrun, Chief Operating Officer Tom Williams – parkrunner A6013 –
hated running at school and didn’t take part in any timed run until the age of 25,
but now says he “loves the thrill of the finish line! Every single emotion captured

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across one final glorious metre”.

However, the marathon’s gruelling 26.219 miles is definitely not for
30 beginners. Any fool who thinks they can make the leap straight from couch
potato to marathon man is likely to meet the same fate as its originator,
poor Philippides. The Greek messenger who in 490 BC, so the legend
goes, ran the 26.2 miles from the battlefield in Marathon to the Athens
assembly, bursting in to proudly proclaim that the Persians had been
35 defeated. He promptly collapsed in an exhausted heap, his life expired.

Nourishing gruel
So what exactly makes the average Joe want to copy Philippides’ punishing feat?
Philanthropy is undoubtedly a common cause, with London Marathon runners
reckoned to have raised a remarkable £4 billion since its inception. Indeed,
competition for places is so fierce that you’ll need to have friends and relatives
40 with deep pockets to claim one of the guaranteed charity places which obligate
fundraisers to pledge around £3,000. Nevertheless, the majority of those
who gain a place through the ballot – a matter of pot-luck, although persistent
applicants are rewarded with a guaranteed place in their sixth consecutive year
of registering – still raise money for their chosen charities. When pounding the
45 pavements in the weeks and months leading up to the 26.2-mile trial, and in that
moment when you hit the wall, it is a boost to recall that you are sacrificing your
time and energy for those whose suffering is perhaps not impermanent.
Extreme runner Robin Harvie has a slightly different take on things. ‘Each
runner has their own reason, in some cases their own cross to bear,’ he writes
50 in Why We Run: A Story of Obsession, ‘but they are united by an attainment of
existential deliverance.’
All who have put on a pair of trainers will know the sense of freedom that comes
with fresh air on the face miles from home. What we come to feel in those
moments of liberation is, as Emerson described it, like ‘standing on the bare
55 ground – my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space, – all
mean egotism vanishes. I became a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all;
the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me.’
Deep. But then running 72-mile ultra-marathons does give you lots of time
to think.

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Source B – 19th Century non-fiction

This is the beginning of a report that appeared in the Liverpool Daily Post on Monday 16 June,
1862, in which the writer gives his opinion on Liverpool’s first Olympic Festival.

THE OLYMPIC FESTIVAL OF THE

LIVERPOOL ATHLETIC CLUB
This festival, looked forward to with much interest, came off on Saturday
afternoon last, at the Mount Vernon Parade Ground, under the patronage of many
influential ladies and gentlemen. Notwithstanding the somewhat threatening
aspect of the weather, the attendance was great, and the grandstand was graced
5 by a large proportion of ladies. Altogether there must have been about 9,000
persons present. The ground was gaily decorated with flags, and the bands of the
Childwall Rifles and the 4th L. A. V. were present, and cheered the assemblage
their musical performances, while a number of the Volunteers themselves
rendered valuable service in keeping the ground. The chief prize, the Champion's
10 Gold Medal, was presented by his Worship the Mayor, the other prizes consisting
of five gold, 25 silver, and 25 bronze medals. C. P. Melly, Esq., presided, and the
judges were Sir John Jones and Major Faulkner.
It would be superfluous for one to write a lengthened essay on the advantages
of physical culture, inasmuch the wise men of all ages have insisted on its
15 paramount importance. The questions of health and physical vigour are those
which most concern the happiness of mankind, and life is enjoyed, other things
being equal, precisely in proportion to the extent to which these qualities are
possessed. The mysterious action of the brain itself will become disordered—
the marvellous power of thought injured, if the body be not wisely cared for;
20 for the brain is part of the body, and derives its tone and sustenance from all
the organs and functions the whole frame. That the powers and faculties of
this wondrous piece of work should be well sustained and preserved is a duty
man owes to himself. The Greeks, well aware of this, paid the utmost attention
to physical culture; none were warmer encouragers of it than their philosophers
25 and statesmen, and the intellectual glory of Athens, in her best days, arose, in a
great degree, from that love of physical prowess which predisposed her youth
to the indulgence of all manly and vigorous sports. That physical exercise is
necessary to health is a lesson nature daily teaches. Men whose gymnasium is, as
it were, the world—the soldier, the sailor, the open air labourer—are those who,
30 generally speaking, enjoy the luxury of good bodily condition, and upon whose
manly power the safety of a nation in times of emergency must mainly depend.
The denizens of large cities who are confined to sedentary occupations are those
who, on the contrary, often pine under a low and unhealthy tone of life, arising
from the want of due use of their bodies and limbs. Hence the want in populous
35 towns of proper places for recreation and exercise, and the necessity for properly
regulated gymnasiums.

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Not the least admirable feature of the Volunteer movement is the fact that it
tends to stimulate a love for physical, and therefore manly exercise. With the
objects of the Liverpool Athletic Club, we perfectly sympathise, and cordially
40 wish it success. With regard to the festival of Saturday, we can but speak in
terms of high praise. There were, however, some faults in the management of
the proceedings which might easily have been avoided. In the first place, the
grandstand should have been erected on the upper part of the ground, instead of
the lower, where it was partially buried. In the next, the programme of the sports
45 was far too long. These are errors which we trust future experience will rectify.
One of the greatest mistakes, however, was in not keeping a proper record of the
successful competitors, which rendered it exceedingly difficult for the reporters
to obtain a correct list of those who gained prizes.

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