ELAT Past Sample Paper for Practice Test
ENGLISH LITERATURE ADMISSIONS TEST
Time allowed: 1 hour 30 minutes.
You should spend at least 30 minutes reading and annotating the passages and in preparing your answer.
The following poems and extracts from longer prose and drama texts are all linked by the theme of storms. They are arranged chronologically by date of publication.
Read all the material carefully, and then complete the task below.
(a) From ‘The Storme’(1633), a poem by John Donne page 4
(b) From Modern Painters(1843), a book on art by John Ruskin page 5
(c) From The Story of an African Farm(1883), a novel by Olive Schreiner page 6
(d) From Riders to the Sea(1905), a play by John M Synge page 7
(e) ‘The Storm’ (1911), a poem by Katherine Mansfield page 8
(f) From Giovanni’s Room(1956), a novel by James Baldwin page 9
Task:
Select two or three of the passages (a) to (f) and compare and contrast them in any ways that seem interesting to you, paying particular attention to distinctive features of structure,language and style. In your introduction, indicate briefly what you intend to explore or illustrate through close reading of your chosen passages.
This task is designed to assess your responsiveness to unfamiliar literary material and your skills in close reading. Marks are not awarded for references to other texts or authors you have studied.