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IB Chinese B Past Papers and Drilling: Paper 1 Writing and Paper 2 Reading with Model Answers
TUTORZONE ORIGINAL DRILLING MOCK · IB CHINESE B PAPER 1 WRITING + PAPER 2 READING
Written to the IB Language B course (first assessment 2020, still governing the 2026 and 2027 sessions): Paper 1 writing 25% (30 marks), Paper 2 listening and reading 50% (65 marks), individual oral 25% (30 marks). Paper 1 is one task from three: SL writes 300-480 characters in 1 h 15, HL writes 540-720 in 1 h 30. Paper 2 is listening (25 marks) and reading (40 marks), and every text and answer in the examination is in Chinese. This mock demonstrates Paper 1 and the reading section with original texts (listening needs audio and comes with a drilling method), model answers and techniques.
How is IB Chinese B assessed, and what is each part worth?
Direct answer: Paper 1 writing 25% (30 marks), Paper 2 listening and reading 50% (65 marks), individual oral 25% (30 marks). Paper 1 is one task from three: SL writes 300-480 characters in 1 h 15, HL 540-720 in 1 h 30. Paper 2 is listening (25 marks; 45 min SL, 1 h HL) and reading (40 marks, 1 hour).
Assessment at a glance (2027)
| Component | Content | Weighting | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 writing | one task from three, 30 marks each; SL 300-480 / HL 540-720 characters | 25% | SL 1 h 15 min / HL 1 h 30 min |
| Paper 2 listening | three recordings, 25 marks (each played twice) | 25% | SL 45 min / HL 1 h |
| Paper 2 reading | three written texts, 40 marks (short answer, matching, gap-fill) | 25% | 1 hour |
| Individual oral (internal) | SL visual stimulus / HL literary extract, 30 marks, about 15 min | 25% | about 15 min |
IB Chinese B drilling technique: in Paper 1 choose the text type first and let it fix the structure (a blog needs a title and paragraphs, a proposal needs a salutation and a closing), and let the reader set the register – a letter to a principal cannot read like a note to classmates. In Paper 2 read the questions before the text, quote the text’s own key words in short answers, and write ‘because the text says …’ in inference questions. Numbers, times and sequence are what listening and reading test most. Write short and accurate: too few characters costs task completion, but wrong characters and the wrong register cost more.
How this paper was built
This is a TutorZone original drilling mock: every passage, question and answer was written for this paper. It is not an IB past paper, specimen paper or IB publication, and it quotes no copyrighted literary work.
The paper structure, marks and character limits come from the IB Language B assessment outline (first assessment 2020) and the IBO 2026 examiner instructions for Language B.
The mock demonstrates Paper 1 (three complete tasks, one model answer and two plans) and the Paper 2 reading section (three original texts, 40 marks, with answers and mark notes). Listening needs audio, so a drilling method is given instead.
Pacing
| Section | Marks | Suggested time | What to do first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 writing | 25% | 15 min planning, then 60 min writing at SL (75 min at HL) | text type, register and structure |
| Paper 2 listening | 25% | about 15 min per recording including both playings | key words, numbers and sequence |
| Paper 2 reading | 25% | about 18 min per text; read the questions first | locate detail, infer, quote the text |
| Individual oral (internal) | 25% | 3-4 min presentation, 8-10 min discussion | thinking on your feet, interacting |
How should I choose among the three Paper 1 tasks?
Direct answer: weigh three things – how well you know the theme (the five prescribed themes run from identities through experiences, human ingenuity and social organization to sharing the planet), whether you command that text type’s format (blog, proposal and review each have a fixed shape), and whether your practised sentence patterns and concept words fit. If all three look fine, take the text type you know best.
Paper 1 writing: one task from three (30 marks each)
Fix the text type and the reader before writing; 300-480 characters at SL, 540-720 at HL.
Question 1 (30 marks)
Theme: identities
Situation: your school’s Chinese society is publishing an online magazine on the theme ‘how learning a language changes a person’.
Task: write a blog post about how learning a language has shaped the way you see yourself. Give it a title. Your readers are students and parents at your school.
Length: SL 300-480 characters; HL 540-720 characters.
Question 2 (30 marks)
Theme: sharing the planet
Situation: your school plans to turn the roof of the teaching block into a growing area, and some teachers still worry about upkeep and safety.
Task: write a proposal to the principal setting out the benefits, a practical plan, and how the teachers’ concerns would be answered.
Length: SL 300-480 characters; HL 540-720 characters.
Question 3 (30 marks)
Theme: human ingenuity
Situation: your school film festival screened a documentary about a traditional craft.
Task: write a review for the school magazine, judging what the film does well and badly in showing the relationship between craft and technology, and stating your own view.
Length: SL 300-480 characters; HL 540-720 characters.
Paper 2 reading: three original texts (40 marks)
Read the questions first; quote the text in short answers and cite the text in inferences.
Text 1 (12 marks)
Text 1 (theme: identities, 12 marks)
Grandmother’s radio programme
After she retired, my grandmother kept to one Cantonese opera radio programme at two o’clock every afternoon. She could not use the internet; she had only a very old radio. As a child I found it noisy; growing up and listening beside her, I heard that she was not following the music but the old Hong Kong place names inside it: Sham Shui Po, Yau Ma Tei, Mong Kok.
Last year the radio broke. I found the same programme for her on a phone, but she could not listen to it, saying the sound was too thin. In the end I downloaded the programme onto a memory card and put it into the input of that old radio, and only then would she listen.
It struck me that what she guards is not a programme but a past she can still hear.
(1) At what time each day does the grandmother listen, and what is the first reason she uses the radio rather than a phone? (4 marks)
(2) What does ‘the sound was too thin’ mean in the text? (4 marks)
(3) According to the text, what does the writer finally say the grandmother is guarding? Answer with words from the text. (4 marks)
Text 2 (14 marks)
Text 2 (theme: sharing the planet, 14 marks)
Thirty planters on the roof
The roof of our building was used only for water tanks. Three years ago a Mr Chan from the seventh floor put two planters there, growing easy cabbage and spring onion. Neighbours feared water would reach the flats below, and there was plenty of opposition.
Mr Chan raised the planters on blocks and set drip trays underneath, and put a marked bucket beside the tap so that no watering used more than two litres. After one summer the objections had thinned; half a year later there were thirty planters on the roof and a wooden sign reading ‘help yourself’.
The harvest is small, but the residents have begun to know one another. Before a typhoon, everyone carries the planters into the stairwell together.
(1) Why did the neighbours object at first, and what two things did Mr Chan do in reply? (5 marks)
(2) What does the ‘help yourself’ sign say about the relationship between the residents? (4 marks)
(3) According to the text, what has the roof garden brought besides vegetables? (5 marks)
Text 3 (14 marks)
Text 3 (theme: human ingenuity, 14 marks)
The sixtieth mould
Mr Li has made cake moulds for forty years, with simple tools: a block of wood, a few carving knives, one lamp. On his desk, though, there is a tablet holding the designs customers send him.
‘A computer is fast, a hand is slow,’ he says, ‘but a computer does not know which way the grain runs.’ He looks at the design on the tablet first, then draws it on the wood in pencil, adjusting the lines to follow the grain. Once a customer asked for a company logo on the mould; he carved an extra arc beside the logo, saying, ‘without this, the cake will break at the edge when it is pressed.’
His sixtieth mould was for a bakery that has traded for seventy years. On the day he delivered it, he took no photograph.
(1) Why does Mr Li still use a tablet when he says a hand is slow? (4 marks)
(2) What does ‘a computer does not know which way the grain runs’ show? (5 marks)
(3) According to the text, in which two things does his professional judgement show? (5 marks)
Paper 2 listening: how to drill it (25 marks, no audio here)
Listening has to be drilled with real audio; a written sheet can only show the method.
Listening method (25 marks, audio needed)
Listening section (25 marks; no audio in this paper)
Paper 2 section one is real audio: three recordings, 25 marks, each played twice in the examination (45 minutes at SL, 1 hour at HL). A written sheet cannot replace listening, so drill it like this:
(1) Take a two-minute Chinese interview or news item, listen once without notes and write down three key words, then listen again to fill in the numbers and names.
(2) Compare with the transcript and record only why you missed something: speed, linking, or vocabulary.
(3) The question types are gap-fill, matching and short answer, and the answers arrive in the order of the recording – start writing the moment you hear the key word in the question.
How should the Paper 2 reading section be drilled?
Direct answer: read the questions before the text, 18 minutes per text; quote the text’s own key words in short answers; write inferences as ‘the text says … therefore …’; and work gap-fill and matching items in the order the passage presents them rather than skimming.
Paper 1 model answer and plans
Question 1
Model answer (SL sample, about 330 characters in Chinese):
One phrase, two identities
When I moved house at seven, my grandmother spoke only our home dialect. To talk with her I learned the sounds I could not understand before.
The first time I said ‘have you eaten’ in that dialect she laughed for a long time. I understood then that a language is not only a tool; it is a ticket into someone else’s life. Later I read Chinese newspapers and kept a diary, and noticed my sentences had become like hers: short, direct, few adjectives.
A classmate asked what use a dialect is. Not, I think, for exams – the use is that you can answer ‘who am I’. Moving between two languages does not make me two people; it puts two homes in one body.
What the sample is showing: (1) blog format (title plus paragraphs, a personal register that is still polite); (2) narrative plus reflection, answering the concept of what a language is worth; (3) three moves – the event, the discovery, the reply to the question. At HL add a fourth paragraph (for example on language and a community’s memory) to reach 540-720 characters.
Question 2
Model plan (proposal):
(1) Addressee and purpose (one paragraph): to the principal, recommending that the roof of the teaching block become a growing area.
(2) Benefits (two paragraphs): food-growing as part of biology teaching, class collaboration, and better insulation for the block.
(3) Plan (one paragraph): six trial planters, a student-council rota, a weekly log; water supply and drainage built to the facilities office’s instructions.
(4) Answering the concerns (one paragraph): raised planters with drip trays against leaking, everything moved into the stairwell before typhoons, one review each term.
(5) Closing and signature (one paragraph): a request to approve a one-year trial.
What the plan is showing: a proposal needs purpose, evidence, method and a reply to the objections, in a formal and courteous register – not advertising copy.
Question 3
Model plan (review):
(1) Context and verdict (one paragraph): the film, the screening, and one sentence of judgement – for example ‘it captures the tempo of the craft but writes technology as the enemy’.
(2) What works (one paragraph) with specific scenes: long takes of the maker sanding the same mould so the work reads as process rather than performance; the interviewees are allowed to trail off instead of being summarised by narration.
(3) What does not (one paragraph): computer drawing is cut in as the opposite side, with no mention that the craftsman also views designs on a tablet; the wider context (fewer apprentices, rent) is missing.
(4) Your own view (one paragraph): craft and tools are not a choice between two things – what matters is who keeps the judgement.
What the plan is showing: a review must cite specific moments and match each judgement to its evidence; ‘beautiful’ and ‘moving’ score very little.
Reading answers and mark notes
Question 1
Text 1 answers:
(1) Two o’clock in the afternoon (2); the first reason is that she cannot use the internet and only knows that old radio (2).
(2) The phone’s playback sounds thin and lacks the older radio’s tone, which she will not accept (2); the real issue is habit and nostalgia rather than technology (2).
(3) ‘A past she can still hear’ (2 for the quotation), plus a sentence of explanation: what she guards is her memory of old Hong Kong and of her own younger days (2).
Question 2
Text 2 answers:
(1) They feared the water would reach the flats below (2); Mr Chan (1) raised the planters and added drip trays (2), and (2) put a marked bucket by the tap limiting each watering to two litres (1).
(2) The harvest is shared, with no prior allocation and no charge (2); a plain sign replacing any rule shows an understanding and trust that already exists between neighbours (2).
(3) Residents moved from being strangers to knowing one another (2); shared care and co-operation appeared – carrying the planters in together before a typhoon (3).
Question 3
Text 3 answers:
(1) The tablet is used to receive and view the customers’ designs (2), saving time on correspondence and copying, but only in preparation – never to decide how the carving is done (2).
(2) Technology can handle design data but cannot judge the relationship between the material (grain) and the process (3); whether the finished mould lasts depends on grain direction, and that judgement comes from experience and cannot be delegated to software (2).
(3) (i) Adding an arc beside the logo so the cake does not break at the edge when pressed (3); (ii) adjusting the lines to follow the grain instead of carving the drawing straight (2).
Listening drilling note
Question 1
Why there is no listening item here: listening has to be drilled with audio – a written version trains the wrong habit, because ‘listening’ to text is just reading. Each week take three two-minute authentic Chinese recordings (a news item, an interview, an advertisement), write your own gap-fill questions, and afterwards summarise the recording aloud once, which doubles as oral practice.
What separates the SL and HL individual oral?
Direct answer: about 15 minutes, 30 marks, 25% at both levels. SL presents from a visual stimulus and then discusses it with the teacher; HL presents from an extract of one of the two literary works studied, at a higher level of language complexity and cultural discussion.
Where these marks are usually lost
| Mistake | What it looks like | What it costs | Instead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wrong text type in Paper 1 | A blog written as an essay, a proposal with no salutation | Low task completion | Fix the text type, then the structure |
| Register wrong for the reader | A letter to the principal reads like a chat with a classmate | Language and conceptual marks drop | Formal tone for formal readers |
| Ignoring the minimum length | Only 200 characters written | Task not completed | SL writes the full 300-480 characters |
| Answers without evidence | Answering from impression | No evidence marks in reading | Quote the key words, cite the text |
How to use this paper
First drill: Paper 1, task 1, timed at 75 minutes (SL) or 90 minutes (HL), no dictionary.
Mark it: check text type, register and structure, then add the concept words you missed to your notes.
Second drill: redo the same task three to seven days later, and re-run the three reading texts as a timed paper (18 minutes each).
What should I do after drilling this paper?
Direct answer: log every task where characters were wrong, the register slipped or the length fell short; redo the same task in three to seven days; drill listening weekly with three two-minute authentic Chinese recordings (this paper has no audio); and read aloud for two minutes a day for the oral.
FAQ
Is this an IB past paper?
No. Every passage, question and answer is a TutorZone original, not an IB past paper, specimen paper or IB publication.
How many papers are in IB Chinese B?
Paper 1 writing 25% (30 marks), Paper 2 listening and reading 50% (65 marks), and the individual oral 25% (30 marks). SL and HL carry the same weightings.
What separates SL from HL?
Paper 1 length: 300-480 characters at SL against 540-720 at HL. Paper 2 timing: 1 h 45 at SL against 2 hours at HL. HL also studies two literary works and answers its oral from a literary extract.
Official references
| Resource | What to check |
|---|---|
| IBO Language B course page | Confirm the course structure, five themes and assessment components |
| https://www.tutorzone.com.hk/en-ib-chinese-a-language-and-literature-paper-1-mock-2027/ | IB Chinese A: Language and Literature Paper 1 drilling mock |
| https://www.tutorzone.com.hk/en-ib-chinese-a-literature-paper-1-mock-2027/ | IB Chinese A: Literature Paper 1 drilling mock |
Related: IB Chinese A: Language and Literature Paper 2 mock · practice area · IGCSE Chinese First Language 0509 mock
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