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IGCSE · Cambridge (CIE) · 0408

Little Foxes · Alexandra’s future discussed in her absence

Connect family control of money with the proposed marriage · Distinguish a negotiation between adults from the young woman’s consent · Read the trip to Baltimore through competing accounts of care

Section SET-2027-2 · 2027 · Paper 3 · Little Foxes

Cambridge IGCSE World Literature 0408 · 2027-P3-FOXES / 2025-P3-A / 2025-P3-B
Exam scope and assessment notes

0408 preparation for exam year(s) 2027. The assessment changes in 2028; follow the component and selected texts for your year. Original StudyForA teaching for Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes, listed as Little Foxes in Cambridge’s 2027 Paper 3 selection. Twenty-two lessons teach all three acts of Little Foxes and four whole-play workshops, with sixty-six staged tasks and forty-eight original developed-response models. The complete SET-2027-2 option links this teaching for 2027; the existing supplemental route remains available without adding another counted requirement. Complete primary reading, qualified teacher review and full timed calibration remain separate requirements. Read the complete unabridged centre-selected script. The linked public scan is a Dramatists Play Service acting edition with printed pages through 79; reader scan numbers and printed page numbers differ. Check exact wording, revisions, blocking and punctuation against the centre edition. The protected play and its page images are linked, not reproduced here. Questions and models are original self-review and do not award Cambridge marks or grades. Other well-supported interpretations can be valid. Qualified literature-teacher review and calibrated full papers remain unfinished. For 2027, Paper 3 is closed book: 90 minutes, one extract response and one whole-text essay, 25 marks each. This play is not a prescribed 2025 or 2026 Paper 3 option, nor a 2028–2030 Paper 3 prose option. It is excluded from 2027 coursework because it is on that year’s Paper 3 list; private candidates cannot enter 0408. Analyse the play’s racism, unequal relationships and domestic violence critically rather than adopting a character’s claims as the author’s or a general truth.

Before you begin

  • Read the named scenes in the complete centre-selected script; read all three acts before attempting the whole-play workshops. Reader scans are two-page views; printed page locators refer to the linked acting edition.
  • Distinguish stage directions, observable action, a character’s claim and an inference about intention. A performance can realise the written directions in different ways.
  • The teaching sequence does not prove individual mastery. Read the complete play, write your own responses and seek qualified literature-teacher feedback; full timed calibration remains unfinished.

Work on paper. Try each question before revealing help, and explain why your method works.

Quick readiness check

What should support a claim about a literary text?

What you will learn

  • Connect family control of money with the proposed marriage
  • Distinguish a negotiation between adults from the young woman’s consent
  • Read the trip to Baltimore through competing accounts of care

Little Foxes · a person beyond the family bargain

  • Read the named scenes in the complete script before answering. The protected play is not reproduced here.
  • Printed page locators refer to the linked acting edition. Use the act and scene event when your centre edition differs.
  • Write a developed answer before opening the original model. Use brief checked wording from your copy and explain the effect of dialogue, movement or timing.

Original self-review for whole-play preparation, not official Cambridge questions, marks, coursework or a calibrated paper. These lessons do not replace the complete play, the learner’s own writing or qualified assessment; they do not certify individual mastery.

A future made negotiable

Read the proposed marriage, Regina’s answer and the young people’s return, printed pp.23–25, reader scans 12–13.

  1. 1. How does the dialogue make the proposed marriage part of a struggle over property and authority?

    Compare after trying

    The proposal follows Oscar’s objection to losing part of his financial interest. Ben’s account of where the money will eventually go makes the younger generation a way to keep the adult bargain within the family.

    Alexandra is absent while the plan is discussed, and Regina’s qualified promise is not the girl’s acceptance. I read the apparently affectionate language about a handsome pair against this timing and calculation, which leave the person concerned outside the decision.

    Why this response fits

    • Use the proposal’s position in the financial discussion.
    • Keep adult promises separate from Alexandra’s consent.

For whose sake?

Read the announcement of the Baltimore trip, objections and instructions, printed pp.25–26, reader scans 13 right–14 left.

  1. 1. How does the exchange complicate Regina’s claim that the journey is for Horace’s good?

    Compare after trying

    The audience has heard why his money is urgently wanted before the trip is announced. Alexandra’s delight and the objections from Addie and Birdie make the family instruction meet different expectations about care.

    Alexandra says she cannot pressure him if it would hurt him, and Regina answers by claiming the authority to judge his condition. I find the scene tense because care and obedience are being interpreted by people with different interests and unequal power, while Horace himself remains absent.

    Why this response fits

    • Use the audience’s prior knowledge.
    • Distinguish competing claims from an independently established medical judgement.

A young person becomes part of the financial settlement

Ben answers Oscar’s loss of a portion by imagining money remaining within the family through Alexandra and Leo. Marriage is discussed as an arrangement which could compensate an adult and preserve a stake. Alexandra is not in the room for that discussion, and the proposal is not an engagement she accepts. Regina promises serious consideration while keeping room to manoeuvre. The dialogue’s jokes about first cousins coexist with the calculation; they do not establish the younger people’s consent. A response should track who gains bargaining power by making another person’s future negotiable.

Small responses qualify the picture of a suitable pair

Oscar describes the pair’s appearance as evidence in favour of the match. Later, Alexandra’s anger at Leo’s account of the drive and her report that he beats the horses challenge that attractive surface. Birdie’s concern is therefore not merely a reluctance to let any young person grow up. Nor is Leo’s prior taking of bank money a theft whose full later consequences can already be supplied from Act I. Use what the scene has actually established, and keep the marriage as an adult plan which meets resistance rather than a completed family event.

The language of independence can serve another purpose

Regina sends Alexandra alone to Baltimore to bring Horace home, although the girl recalls that an earlier request to go had been refused. Addie and Birdie question the arrangement. Regina describes responsibility and her husband’s welfare, but the audience has already heard the business urgency behind the journey. Alexandra’s first delight assumes her father is well enough to return; the instruction to pressure him creates a different issue. Her refusal to do something she thinks would hurt him introduces a moral limit to obedience. The scene does not require readers to decide that every expression of care is either wholly true or wholly false.

Sources for this lesson

Pause and explain

Does the Act I marriage discussion establish Alexandra’s consent to marry Leo?

Put the idea to work

Worked example

Qualify “Alexandra chooses to marry Leo during the family meeting”.

Show the worked solution
  1. The meeting discusses a possible marriage while she is away.
  2. She later expresses a firm refusal when Birdie warns her.

Answer A plan made about someone is not that person’s agreement.

Try a topic test

Choose Easy, Normal or Difficult. Save your answers and open worked review after finishing.

Test this topic →

From guided practice to a new situation

Write your answer and reasoning first. Use a hint only if you are stuck. The model solution is for self-checking; your written work is not automatically marked.

1 · Guided

Why does marriage enter after Oscar loses a portion?

Give me a hint

Follow the proposed compensation.

Compare my reasoning
  1. His share is reduced in the family negotiation.
  2. Ben imagines money returning through the next generation.

The sequence makes the young people’s relationship a means of managing adults’ property interests.

Look for these in your work

  • Connect the order of topics
  • Distinguish proposal and consent
2 · Independent

How does the horse report challenge appearance?

Give me a hint

Compare the adult description with Alexandra’s experience.

Compare my reasoning
  1. Oscar praises the pair as visually suitable.
  2. Alexandra reports cruelty on the drive.

The attractive public match is tested by behaviour that the description leaves out.

Look for these in your work

  • Use contrary evidence
  • Avoid an unearned idealisation
3 · Transfer

Explain the change in Alexandra’s response to the journey.

Give me a hint

Compare delight with the later condition she voices.

Compare my reasoning
  1. She first assumes her father’s return means improvement.
  2. She refuses pressure which she believes would harm him.

Affection becomes a reason to question obedience rather than a resource Regina can simply command.

Look for these in your work

  • Trace the change
  • Use the stated moral limit

Common mistakes

  • Do not make a proposed marriage a completed engagement or wedding.
  • Do not present Horace’s medical fitness as something the absent audience has independently established.
Recall without your notes

What can you explain now?

Does the Act I marriage discussion establish Alexandra’s consent to marry Leo?

Compare with the explanation

No; adults discuss the plan without her, and she later rejects the idea.

Family calculation, a proposal and the young woman’s consent are different things.

After trying it yourself, choose your next review. This is your self-assessment.

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Make it stick

Does the Act I marriage discussion establish Alexandra’s consent to marry Leo?

If you needed the solution, close it and solve the problem again from a blank page. A correct answer is stronger when you can explain the reason for each step.

Keep learning World Literature

Course scope and assessment

238 original lessons provide 714 guided, independent and transfer tasks, plus 431 reading-tracker and long-response prompts. Twenty skill and route entries, three year-specific Cherry Orchard entries, two Anowa entries, three Crocodiles entries, one 2027 Little Foxes entry, two year-specific Volume 1 poetry entries, one historical 2025 Volume 2 poetry entry and three year-specific Volume 2 story entries link teaching. Anowa has ten lessons through the Prologue and all three phases, with thirty staged tasks and ten original developed responses. Complete primary reading locators support analysis of the contested community frame, partnership, enslavement, the children, remembered dream, separation and ending. The protected play is linked rather than reproduced; editorial BECE material is not reused. Both eligible 2025–2026 Anowa rows link the whole-play pathway. Twenty-eight lessons teach the Author’s Note and all six country chapters of In the Sea There Are Crocodiles, with eighty-four staged tasks and sixty original developed responses. Four workshops teach passage analysis, whole-book argument, layered voice and retrieval/revision. All three complete 2025–2027 book entries link the whole-book pathway; the existing supplemental route remains available without adding another counted requirement. The public reflowed reading is linked rather than reproduced, with edition limits explicit. Twenty-two Little Foxes lessons teach all three acts for 2027, with sixty-six staged tasks and forty-eight original developed responses. Hospitality, silenced voices, the mill, financial negotiation, the proposed marriage, Horace’s return and refusal, the bonds, Birdie’s disclosure, withheld help, the final bargain and Alexandra’s decision are taught through actual stage directions and dialogue locators. Four workshops develop passage analysis, whole-play argument, stagecraft and corrective retrieval. SET-2027-2 links the full sequence; the existing supplemental route remains available without inflating counted requirements. The protected acting script is linked rather than reproduced; exact centre-edition wording and revisions must be checked. The Cherry Orchard has an 18-lesson whole-text sequence with five actual Julius West excerpts and three argument models. The 2026–2027 poetry option has teaching for all fourteen members, three complete public-domain poems and close-reading, comparison and retrieval workshops. Twenty-four lessons teach all ten 2026–2028 Stories of Ourselves Volume 2 members, with named reading and writing sequences and evidence, passage-context, essay and ten-member retrieval workshops. Two complete public-domain narratives, nineteen actual prose extracts and Katie’s complete twenty-line poem within Besant’s prose story support close reading and whole-story writing. The Shrinking Shoe follows the original 1895 prose and its five sections; the embedded poem is not a Paper 2 set poem. All three eligible ten-story selection rows link the complete pathway. Wodehouse and Woolf use brief quotations and original commentary with complete reading sources; their full texts are not reproduced here. Twelve lessons teach twelve compulsory 2028–2030 Volume 3 poems, with thirty-six staged tasks and twenty-four developed-response prompts. The Dutt and Kingsley excerpts and Cissoko’s exact translation still need verified reading and teaching; full-selection workshops remain unfinished, so all three complete poetry rows remain unlinked. Fourteen lessons teach seven 2029–2030 Volume 3 stories with thirty-five developed-response prompts. Twelve actual older primary excerpts support four stories; Achebe, Desai and Danticat use original commentary with complete primary reading links rather than reproducing their protected texts. A separate partial-member pathway supports The Necklace, The Model Millionaire, Sultana’s Dream, The Interlopers, The Sacrificial Egg, Sale and New York Day Women without linking either complete ten-story row. The three other members and full-selection workshops remain unfinished. Read the full centre-selected works and protected anthology; check edition differences, including Weissenhorn’s older Necklace translation. The historical 2025 poetry pathway teaches all fourteen members through eighteen lessons, fifty-four staged tasks and fifty-one developed-response models. Three complete public-domain poems remain printed with line breaks; eleven protected poems use complete primary reading links and original commentary. Four workshops teach close analysis, whole-poem argument, preparation comparisons and specific retrieval of all fourteen members. The complete SET-2025-5 option links this sequence; the historical supplemental route remains without increasing counted requirements. Archival Cambridge and WJEC papers supply primary poems, not reused questions or later-year assessment rules. Centre-edition differences remain explicit. Forty-six lessons provide original teaching and practice for nine historical 2025 story members: The Doll’s House, The Gold Watch, A Visit, A Walk to the Jetty, In the Mountains, Mrs. Sen’s, Promenade, The Plantation and The Paper Menagerie. Together they provide one hundred and thirty-eight staged tasks and one hundred and one developed-response models. A Visit uses complete primary reading visually checked across printed pages 306–310. Promenade follows the complete seven-page narrative on printed pages 416–422; its four lessons trace bodily control, wordless meetings, the interrupted circuit and changed final walk. Mrs. Sen’s has six lessons through the complete story, with eighteen staged tasks and thirteen developed-response models. Teaching follows the collection scan from its unnumbered opening through printed p.135, with food, letters, recordings, separate journeys and the changed final care arrangement. The Plantation has five lessons, fifteen staged tasks and eleven developed-response models through all four numbered sections, visually checked against printed pages 423–429 through the final dawn bird-call. In the Mountains has seven lessons, twenty-one staged tasks and fifteen developed-response models through the final invitation to eat. The complete publisher transcription supports scene-based reading; automated-text errors and subscription access remain explicit, and original printed pages were not visually verified. A Walk to the Jetty has seven lessons, twenty-one staged tasks and fifteen developed-response models through the complete six-page retype’s final berth. Reader annotations and the appended question are separate; the complete publisher version has wording differences, so exact quotations require the approved edition. The centre edition remains required for exact quotations. The protected stories are linked, not reproduced. The partial member pathway is supplemental; Words and full-selection workshops remain unfinished, so SET-2025-6 stays unlinked. Fifteen year-specific prescribed-work entries remain unfinished; complete centre-selected coursework reading also needs substantive text-specific teaching. The 51-entry map is a StudyForA preparation map, not official numbered syllabus sections or a percentage of student mastery. Written practice is self-checked and is not officially marked. Full timed papers and qualified literature-teacher assessment remain unfinished. Fictional exercises are labelled separately from actual excerpts; alternative well-supported readings can be valid. Centre-authenticated coursework and Cambridge moderation are separate from self-check practice.

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