IGCSE Chinese (First Language) 0509: Paper 2 Writing Mock with Marking Notes

Question 1

How marks are earned: (1) the first paragraph must contain a challengeable judgement, not “this is a complex issue”; (2) state the strongest opposing case (“using AI is copying and nothing is learned”) before answering it – stronger than stacking your own reasons; (3) one concrete example: run the same homework twice, with and without the tool; (4) the close returns to the question asked – should it be allowed, not whether AI is good.
Model opening (about 90 characters): If homework existed only to produce an answer, AI would have won already. It exists to make students think through their mistakes, and there AI cannot help. I argue that secondary students may use AI tools, but only after they have thought it through themselves, and they must submit the thinking, not the finished product.
Official requirement: Section 1 offers four titles (argumentative or discursive); 25 marks; about 400-600 characters recommended.

Question 2

How marks are earned: (1) define the terms first – is it the form of the book or the act of reading that is being replaced; (2) generational difference is the best evidence, but say what changed, not just that young people differ; (3) sentimental value (smell, weight, gift-giving) must be answered, not avoided; (4) a prediction needs a condition – “if battery life and licensing are solved” beats “technology advances”.
Model opening (about 90 characters): Every time someone says e-books will replace printed books, I think of the reader in the shop who opens a book, smells it, and then buys it. E-books will replace the printed book as a reading tool, but not as an object: tools are replaced by better tools, objects survive because of memory.

Question 3

How marks are earned: (1) classify before explaining – portion design, time pressure, cultural attitude – one paragraph each; (2) be careful with numbers: without a reliable source, write what can be observed in the lunch period rather than a tonnage figure; (3) responses must be actionable: “more education” is empty, “offer three portion sizes chosen in advance” is not; (4) close with a priority – which response should come first and why.
Model opening (about 90 characters): Half an hour after the lunch bell the bins outside the classroom are full. Food waste in schools has more than one cause: some comes from portion design, some from time pressure, some from how we think about not finishing a meal. This piece takes the three in turn and offers one workable response to each.

Question 4

How marks are earned: (1) three paragraphs for three dimensions – economics (rent, jobs), culture (preservation versus commodification), daily life (whether residents can stay); (2) name a specific place: one street, one market, beats “old districts” in the abstract; (3) show the tension: renewal brings footfall, footfall raises rent, rent displaces the original shops – spell out the chain; (4) avoid the two-pole answer; say who gains and who loses.
Model opening (about 90 characters): The same street is a place to buy vegetables on a weekday morning and a backdrop for photographs at the weekend. Urban renewal brings footfall and trade, and with them rent and farewells. This piece sets out the effects under three headings: economics, culture and residents’ daily life.

Question 1

How marks are earned: (1) fix a viewing position – at the entrance, beside the fish stall – so the picture holds; (2) all five senses: colour (the yellow of the bulbs), sound (the cleaver), smell (fish and fruit), touch (the wet floor); (3) people need actions: not “many people” but “a woman pinches a bunch of choi sum between two fingers”; (4) close on the last image, not on a summary of feelings.
Model opening (about 90 characters): At half past six the bulbs come on one by one and turn the water in the fish stall to broken gold. The cleaver comes from the left, once, once, like someone keeping time. The floor is wet enough to shine and a slipper sticks as it passes. The woman pushes the last basket of greens forward and pinches it between two fingers, as if talking to the vegetables.

Question 2

How marks are earned: (1) grade the rain – drizzle to downpour – so the tension rises; (2) three kinds of person: the one in a hurry, the one who has given up, the one who helps, each with an action; (3) where the clothes are wet: shoulders, toe caps, trouser hems – the more specific, the more believable; (4) no reflection; “I realised life is like this” is the most common failure.
Model opening (about 90 characters): The rain falls at an angle, so everyone’s left shoulder is a shade darker than the right. The queue holds bags over their heads like a row of temporary roofs. A man in a suit puts away his phone, checks his watch, then hands his umbrella to the schoolboy beside him who has none – says nothing, just pushes the handle into his hand.

Question 3

How marks are earned: (1) open on the old view, stated concretely (“I thought tutoring was for people who would not read on their own”); (2) the turn must be an event, not an insight – something that forced the change; (3) write the body’s response (nerves, shaking hands, silence); it beats “I was moved”; (4) no moral at the end – show what you did afterwards.
Model opening (about 90 characters): In Secondary 4 I believed tutoring existed for people who would not read on their own. The belief lasted two years, until a Wednesday evening when I sat at a folding table and watched the tutor circle my wrong answers one by one, and understood that I was not unwilling to study – I did not know how.

Question 4

How marks are earned: (1) waiting needs duration – mark the hours (three, four, five) so the length is felt; (2) insert one memory that explains why it mattered, or the waiting carries no weight; (3) detail over adjective: “I turned my phone face down” beats “I was nervous”; (4) return to the scene at the end; do not jump to a philosophy of life.
Model opening (about 90 characters): At three o’clock I sat in the middle of the third row in A and E, folding the numbered ticket twice, then twice again. At four the nurse called a number; it was not ours. At five the door opened again and again and each time I looked up. In those three hours I learned that waiting is not sitting still; it is every one of those looks.