IB World Religions Past Papers & Drilling (Paper 1): Three Sections of Stimulus Questions

Question 1

Model answer: (a) Ritual purity means that washing, offering light and similar acts restore a person to a state in which contact with the sacred is possible; the point is that the act makes someone fit, not that a moral judgement has been made (3). (b) The ritual sits inside the cycle of rebirth and liberation: human beings move through repeated lives, and in this life the task is to fulfil duty and keep the community’s order (4). The example must be specific – river bathing and household worship show that the ritual has both a personal and a communal side, and that it varies by region and festival (3). For full marks: framework, one example you really studied, then how the example supports your claim.

Question 2

Model answer: (a) Dukkha is not “pain only” but unsatisfactoriness and impermanence – obvious suffering, the suffering when pleasure changes, and the conditioned, passing nature of everything (3). (b) The structure of the Four Noble Truths is itself the response: diagnosis, cause (craving), the possibility of ending it, and the path (4). In daily practice this shows as training in conduct, mental discipline and wisdom – watching the breath mindfully, avoiding harm, and living within a community’s discipline (3). Keep “what is taught” and “how it is practised” separate, and write both.

Question 3

Model answer: (a) Shabbat is weekly sacred time: ceasing creative work imitates the completion of creation, so it is rest, remembrance and covenant practice (3). (b) Identity: keeping Shabbat knits household and community together and marks them out as a recognisable group (4). Time: the seven-day cycle gives ordinary time a sacred boundary (3). Contextualise the example – different communities handle electricity, travel and cooking differently, so one rule is practised in different ways (3).

Question 4

Model answer: (a) A sacrament is a visible sign that carries and conveys grace; baptism and communion are the usual examples (3). (b) Identity: baptism makes a person a member, and a public act turns private belief into something communal (4). Practices differ by tradition – infant baptism or believer’s baptism, who receives bread and wine, which language and music are used (3). In a comparison write both the ritual act and the theological reason.

Question 5

Model answer: (a) Wu wei is not doing nothing; it is not acting against the nature of things, so action follows what the situation allows (3). (b) Condition: most human difficulty comes from over-interference and contending, which unbalances the person and the natural order (4). Applications: in health practice, breath work, movement and restraint of desire; in government, little interference, light burdens on the people and no coercion by harsh law (3). Do not write wu wei off as passivity – that is where the marks go.

Question 6

Model answer: (a) Ahimsa means harming no living being in thought, word or action; it is the foundation of the discipline (3). (b) Conduct: food, travel and daily cleanliness are all arranged around it (4). Work: occupations that do not involve killing are preferred, which is one reason some communities concentrated in trade and finance (3). Condition: the human condition is bound by karma, so reducing harm is necessary for release (3).