2026 OCR GCSE English Literature Exploring
modern and literary heritage texts (J352/01)
Complete Question paper with Marking Scheme Combined
Oxford Cambridge and RSA
INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink.
• Write your answer to each question in the Answer Booklet. The question numbers must be
clearly shown.
• Fill in the boxes on the front of the Answer Booklet.
• All questions in Section A have two parts, (a) and (b). Answer both parts of the question on the
text you have studied.
• Answer one question on the text you have studied in Section B.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 80.
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets [ ].
• Quality of extended response will be assessed in questions marked with an asterisk (*).
• This document has 24 pages.
ADVICE
• Read each question carefully before you start your answer.
, 2
BLANK PAGE
© OCR 2025 J352/01 Jun25
, 3
Contents Page
Section A – Modern prose or drama Question Page
Anita and Me by Meera Syal 1 4
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 2 6
Animal Farm by George Orwell 3 8
An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley 4 10
Leave Taking by Winsome Pinnock 5 12
DNA by Dennis Kelly 6 14
Section B – 19th century prose Questions Page
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 7/8 16
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 9/10 18
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells 11/12 19
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis
13/14 20
Stevenson
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë 15/16 21
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 17/18 22
© OCR 2025 J352/01 Jun25 Turn over
, 4
Section A – Modern prose or drama
Answer one question from this section.
1 Anita and Me by Meera Syal and The Boy with the Topknot by Sathnam Sanghera
Read the two extracts below and then answer both part (a) and part (b).
You should spend about 45 minutes on part (a) and 30 minutes on part (b).
For part (a), you should focus only on the extracts here rather than referring to the rest of your
studied text.
(a) Compare how the characters’ feelings about family life are presented in these two extracts.
You should consider:
• the situations and experiences faced by the characters
• how the characters react to these situations and experiences
• how the writers’ use of language and techniques creates effects.
[20]
AND
(b) Explore another moment in Anita and Me where Meena becomes aware of differences between
her family’s life and others in Tollington.
[20]
Extract 1 from: Anita and Me by Meera Syal
In this extract, Meena thinks about her mother’s cooking.
My mother would right now be standing in a haze of spicy steam, crowded by huge
bubbling saucepans where onions and tomatoes simmered and spat, molehills of
chopped vegetables and fresh herbs jostling for space with bitter, bright heaps of
turmeric, masala, cumin and coarse black pepper whilst a softly breathing mound of
dough would be waiting in a china bowl, ready to be divided and flattened into round, 5
grainy chapatti. And she, sweaty and absorbed, would move from one chaotic work
surface to another, preparing the fresh, home‑made meal that my father expected, needed
like air, after a day at the office about which he never talked.
From the moment mama stepped in from her teaching job, swapping saris for M & S
separates, she was in that kitchen; it would never occur to her, at least not for many 10
years, to suggest instant or take‑away food which would give her a precious few
hours to sit, think, smell the roses – that would be tantamount to spouse abuse.
This food was not just something to fill a hole, it was soul food, it was the food their
far‑away mothers made and came seasoned with memory and longing, this was the
nearest they would get for many years, to home. 15
So far, I had resisted all my mother’s attempts to teach me the rudiments of
Indian cuisine; she’d often pull me in from the yard and ask me to stand with her
while she prepared a simple sabzi or rolled out a chapatti before making it dance
and blow out over a naked gas flame. ‘Just watch, it is so easy, beti,’ she’d say
encouragingly. I did not see what was easy about peeling, grinding, kneading and 20
burning your fingers in this culinary Turkish bath, only to present your masterpiece
and have my father wolf it down in ten minutes flat in front of the nine o’ clock
© OCR 2025 J352/01 Jun25
modern and literary heritage texts (J352/01)
Complete Question paper with Marking Scheme Combined
Oxford Cambridge and RSA
INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink.
• Write your answer to each question in the Answer Booklet. The question numbers must be
clearly shown.
• Fill in the boxes on the front of the Answer Booklet.
• All questions in Section A have two parts, (a) and (b). Answer both parts of the question on the
text you have studied.
• Answer one question on the text you have studied in Section B.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 80.
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets [ ].
• Quality of extended response will be assessed in questions marked with an asterisk (*).
• This document has 24 pages.
ADVICE
• Read each question carefully before you start your answer.
, 2
BLANK PAGE
© OCR 2025 J352/01 Jun25
, 3
Contents Page
Section A – Modern prose or drama Question Page
Anita and Me by Meera Syal 1 4
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 2 6
Animal Farm by George Orwell 3 8
An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley 4 10
Leave Taking by Winsome Pinnock 5 12
DNA by Dennis Kelly 6 14
Section B – 19th century prose Questions Page
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 7/8 16
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 9/10 18
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells 11/12 19
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis
13/14 20
Stevenson
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë 15/16 21
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 17/18 22
© OCR 2025 J352/01 Jun25 Turn over
, 4
Section A – Modern prose or drama
Answer one question from this section.
1 Anita and Me by Meera Syal and The Boy with the Topknot by Sathnam Sanghera
Read the two extracts below and then answer both part (a) and part (b).
You should spend about 45 minutes on part (a) and 30 minutes on part (b).
For part (a), you should focus only on the extracts here rather than referring to the rest of your
studied text.
(a) Compare how the characters’ feelings about family life are presented in these two extracts.
You should consider:
• the situations and experiences faced by the characters
• how the characters react to these situations and experiences
• how the writers’ use of language and techniques creates effects.
[20]
AND
(b) Explore another moment in Anita and Me where Meena becomes aware of differences between
her family’s life and others in Tollington.
[20]
Extract 1 from: Anita and Me by Meera Syal
In this extract, Meena thinks about her mother’s cooking.
My mother would right now be standing in a haze of spicy steam, crowded by huge
bubbling saucepans where onions and tomatoes simmered and spat, molehills of
chopped vegetables and fresh herbs jostling for space with bitter, bright heaps of
turmeric, masala, cumin and coarse black pepper whilst a softly breathing mound of
dough would be waiting in a china bowl, ready to be divided and flattened into round, 5
grainy chapatti. And she, sweaty and absorbed, would move from one chaotic work
surface to another, preparing the fresh, home‑made meal that my father expected, needed
like air, after a day at the office about which he never talked.
From the moment mama stepped in from her teaching job, swapping saris for M & S
separates, she was in that kitchen; it would never occur to her, at least not for many 10
years, to suggest instant or take‑away food which would give her a precious few
hours to sit, think, smell the roses – that would be tantamount to spouse abuse.
This food was not just something to fill a hole, it was soul food, it was the food their
far‑away mothers made and came seasoned with memory and longing, this was the
nearest they would get for many years, to home. 15
So far, I had resisted all my mother’s attempts to teach me the rudiments of
Indian cuisine; she’d often pull me in from the yard and ask me to stand with her
while she prepared a simple sabzi or rolled out a chapatti before making it dance
and blow out over a naked gas flame. ‘Just watch, it is so easy, beti,’ she’d say
encouragingly. I did not see what was easy about peeling, grinding, kneading and 20
burning your fingers in this culinary Turkish bath, only to present your masterpiece
and have my father wolf it down in ten minutes flat in front of the nine o’ clock
© OCR 2025 J352/01 Jun25
