Ten-story pathway · recall every member and revise a specific gap
Test the whole ten-story selection beyond title recognition · Correct perspective, sequence and ending errors · Turn a weak response into a concrete reading and writing task
Exam scope and assessment notes
0408 preparation for exam year(s) 2026, 2027, 2028. The assessment changes in 2028; follow the component and selected texts for your year. Original StudyForA teaching and practice for the 2026, 2027 and 2028 Stories of Ourselves Volume 2 Paper 3 option. Read all ten prescribed stories in your centre-selected anthology. Teaching is available for all ten stories: twenty named reading and writing lessons plus four full-selection workshops. Complete reading and independently supported writing are still required. The protected anthology is not reproduced in full. Public-domain texts and selected extracts are primary transcriptions; Wodehouse and Woolf use brief quotations and original commentary with linked complete reading sources. These are not Cambridge examination passages; punctuation and spelling may differ from the anthology. Models do not award Cambridge marks or grades. Other supported interpretations can be valid. Qualified teacher assessment and calibrated full papers remain unfinished. This is not the different 2025 Volume 2 selection or the 2029–2030 Volume 3 selection. Listed stories are not eligible for 2026–2027 coursework, and the revised 2028 coursework requires drama.
Before you begin
- Confirm your exam year is 2026, 2027 or 2028 and your centre selected this ten-story option. Read the complete story before the analysis and writing lesson. All ten members need preparation; private candidates cannot enter 0408.
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
- Test the whole ten-story selection beyond title recognition
- Correct perspective, sequence and ending errors
- Turn a weak response into a concrete reading and writing task
All ten stories · retrieval and evidence review
- Read the complete story before analysing. Use the linked primary source for any portions not printed here.
- Write your response before opening the model. Explain the effect of your textual evidence.
- Check references and quotations against the complete story in your centre’s anthology.
Original self-check practice, not Cambridge examination passages, marked examination scripts or coursework submissions. Models illustrate an argument; they are not the only valid interpretation. Read all ten selected stories. Teacher judgement and full timed assessment remain unfinished.
Death of the Laird’s Jock · Walter Scott
Recall first, then verify against the complete story. Add two precise references and explain a method; matching the model’s idea alone is insufficient.
1. How do the father’s grief and final effort differ from the daughter’s response?
Compare after trying
The father centres his loss on the sword and clan honour, while the daughter mourns her brother and cares for her father. His final exertion does not restore health: he dies three days later.
The contrast invites a judgement about what a code of honour values and neglects. Explain the narrative’s treatment of that difference, keeping the unnamed son and the letter’s traditional frame accurate.
Why this response fits
- Check each event, speaker and time relation against the complete primary text.
- Develop an independent supported paragraph and revise any invented outcome before treating this skill as secure.
George Silverman’s Explanation · Charles Dickens
Recall first, then verify against the complete story. Add two precise references and explain a method; matching the model’s idea alone is insufficient.
1. How does George’s fear of appearing worldly shape his choices, and how does the ending qualify a wholly hopeless reading?
Compare after trying
The childhood label becomes an inward pressure that makes George vulnerable to accusations about money. He arranges Adelina’s marriage to Granville and denies his own attachment rather than risk that charge.
The later accusation is not proved payment, and resignation does not end his life. Support and a new living qualify the suffering; explain the continuing limits of the retrospective voice rather than claim that all religious faith is rejected.
Why this response fits
- Check each event, speaker and time relation against the complete primary text.
- Develop an independent supported paragraph and revise any invented outcome before treating this skill as secure.
The Nightingale and the Rose · Oscar Wilde
Recall first, then verify against the complete story. Add two precise references and explain a method; matching the model’s idea alone is insufficient.
1. How does the price of the rose compare with what the Student understands and values at the end?
Compare after trying
The Nightingale’s making culminates in sacrifice, but the Student finds the rose without learning its cost or understanding her language. The girl’s preference for jewels and status defeats his hoped-for reward.
The crushed rose and return to a book refuse an easy reward for the ideal. Explain the gap between the reader’s knowledge and the Student’s judgement; do not invent his gratitude, the bird’s rescue or a successful romance.
Why this response fits
- Check each event, speaker and time relation against the complete primary text.
- Develop an independent supported paragraph and revise any invented outcome before treating this skill as secure.
The Copper Beeches · Arthur Conan Doyle
Recall first, then verify against the complete story. Add two precise references and explain a method; matching the model’s idea alone is insufficient.
1. How do Violet’s observation and the later explanation qualify Holmes’s interpretation of the empty room?
Compare after trying
Violet’s mirror gives her access to the watcher and prompts an inference about Mrs Rucastle. At the empty room Holmes supposes the father has removed Alice, but Mrs Toller later explains the earlier escape with Fowler.
A developed response distinguishes observed detail, provisional inference and later correction. It can value Violet’s resourcefulness without making Holmes the successful rescuer, killing Rucastle or inventing a romance between Violet and Holmes.
Why this response fits
- Check each event, speaker and time relation against the complete primary text.
- Develop an independent supported paragraph and revise any invented outcome before treating this skill as secure.
A Story of a Wedding Tour · Margaret Oliphant
Recall first, then verify against the complete story. Add two precise references and explain a method; matching the model’s idea alone is insufficient.
1. How do the accidental separation, Janey’s later choice and the final return complicate a simple liberation story?
Compare after trying
The missed train creates an unplanned separation; Janey subsequently chooses to use the opportunity. The ten-year interval includes work, community and care for John rather than an immediate effortless happiness.
She helps the dying man before recognising her husband and continues to care for him. He never explains his motive; her guilt does not prove murder. Explain the unresolved emotional cost beside the independent life, without turning reported historical rights into current legal advice.
Why this response fits
- Check each event, speaker and time relation against the complete primary text.
- Develop an independent supported paragraph and revise any invented outcome before treating this skill as secure.
The Shrinking Shoe · Walter Besant
Recall first, then verify against the complete story. Add two precise references and explain a method; matching the model’s idea alone is insufficient.
1. How does the five-year contrast change the meaning of the shoe’s promise?
Compare after trying
Geoffrey’s anticipated public achievement gives way to inherited status and leisure, while Katie becomes useful through nursing. The poem imagines her ideal of him; it is not evidence that he fulfilled it.
The later shoe’s change and the departure make renewal conditional. A response should explain the relation between symbol and changed lives without inventing achieved reform, a restored shoe or a wedding that the story never narrates.
Why this response fits
- Check each event, speaker and time relation against the complete primary text.
- Develop an independent supported paragraph and revise any invented outcome before treating this skill as secure.
Gabriel-Ernest · Saki (Hector Hugh Munro)
Recall first, then verify against the complete story. Add two precise references and explain a method; matching the model’s idea alone is insufficient.
1. How does the final memorial differ from the evidence available to the reader?
Compare after trying
Threatening speech, fearful animals and Cunningham’s transformation report make the assumed rescue doubtful. Van Cheele hears the final scream but does not witness the final attack or transformation.
The commemorative account gives comforting permanence to a limited inference. Explain how the earlier warnings make it ironic, while keeping probable predation distinct from a narrated eyewitness scene and the refusal to donate distinct from public proof.
Why this response fits
- Check each event, speaker and time relation against the complete primary text.
- Develop an independent supported paragraph and revise any invented outcome before treating this skill as secure.
A Warning to the Curious · M R James
Recall first, then verify against the complete story. Add two precise references and explain a method; matching the model’s idea alone is insufficient.
1. Why does returning the crown not provide a secure resolution?
Compare after trying
Paxton reburies the crown with the helpers and briefly sleeps better, but the later false calls draw him away. His death is real within the account, while the inquest identifies murder by an unknown attacker.
The nested voices and local history make a supernatural reading powerful without supplying an official finding that a ghost killed him. Explain the failed attempt at restitution alongside those limits of witness and testimony.
Why this response fits
- Check each event, speaker and time relation against the complete primary text.
- Develop an independent supported paragraph and revise any invented outcome before treating this skill as secure.
Indian Summer of an Uncle · P G Wodehouse
Recall first, then verify against the complete story. Add two precise references and explain a method; matching the model’s idea alone is insufficient.
1. How does the final admission change the apparent purpose of the luncheon?
Compare after trying
Jeeves knew that Mrs Wilberforce was Maudie and intended the reunion. Bertie’s supposed deterrent becomes an effective meeting, and George announces an engagement to the aunt rather than to Rhoda.
The plan also serves Smethurst’s continuing understanding with Rhoda. Explain the inversion of practical knowledge and formal rank while retaining Agatha’s incomplete information and the unshown future marriage.
Why this response fits
- Check each event, speaker and time relation against the complete primary text.
- Develop an independent supported paragraph and revise any invented outcome before treating this skill as secure.
Lappin and Lapinova · Virginia Woolf
Recall first, then verify against the complete story. Add two precise references and explain a method; matching the model’s idea alone is insufficient.
1. How does the shared game change, and what is actually ended by the final scene?
Compare after trying
The private rabbit-and-hare world begins in mutual participation and later protects Rosalind’s sense of self. Ernest briefly returns to it after forgetting, before the final dismissal leaves her need unanswered.
Lapinova is a white hare, and the apparent gunshot is a key turning. Explain the narrative’s decisive relational ending without inventing a literal killing, a legal divorce, a diagnosis or objective animal identities for the relatives.
Why this response fits
- Check each event, speaker and time relation against the complete primary text.
- Develop an independent supported paragraph and revise any invented outcome before treating this skill as secure.
Recall first, then verify
Answer every member’s prompt without the story, then reopen the complete text. Add two precise references from different moments and explain a narrative method that connects them. Do not interpret a remembered title or model phrase as evidence of complete knowledge. The review deliberately tests vulnerable distinctions: who sees or reports an event, what a character believes, whether an ending states a fact, predicts a future or leaves a motive unknown. A confident but invented event should be corrected before the prose is polished.
Make the revision fit the weakness
If Scott’s final exertion becomes a recovery in your answer, revisit the final time interval. If Holmes becomes Alice’s rescuer, trace the escape and the later account separately. If Woolf’s imagery becomes a literal shooting, read the key at the door beside the ordinary final actions. If Besant’s promise becomes a completed reform, mark conditional language and the point at which the narration stops. Then write a new paragraph answering the actual question; merely copying a model does not demonstrate an independent revision.
Keep completion claims proportionate
This review covers all ten prescribed members in the 2026–2028 option. It accompanies full teaching and explained practice, but it is not a calibrated paper, authenticated coursework or an official grade. Complete reading, independently developed responses and qualified feedback remain necessary. A checked site map reports the availability of preparation resources, not a learner’s percentage mastery. For examination practice retain the year’s required one extract response and one essay, and use your centre’s edition to check any wording or layout differences.
Sources for this lesson
- Cambridge World Literature 0408 · 2025–2027 · Version 2
- Cambridge 0408 · revised 2025–2027 component weightings
- Cambridge World Literature 0408 · 2028–2030 · Version 1
- Walter Scott · Death of the Laird’s Jock · complete primary text, Project Gutenberg
- Charles Dickens · George Silverman’s Explanation · complete primary text, Project Gutenberg
- Oscar Wilde · The Nightingale and the Rose · complete primary text, Project Gutenberg
- Arthur Conan Doyle · The Copper Beeches · complete primary text, Project Gutenberg
- Margaret Oliphant · A Story of a Wedding Tour · complete primary text, Project Gutenberg
- Walter Besant · The Shrinking Shoe · original prose, In Deacon’s Orders (1895), Internet Archive scan
- Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) · Gabriel-Ernest · complete primary text, Project Gutenberg
- M R James · A Warning to the Curious · complete primary text, Project Gutenberg
- P G Wodehouse · Indian Summer of an Uncle · complete primary reading source, American Literature
- Virginia Woolf · Lappin and Lapinova · complete primary reading source, A Haunted House, Project Gutenberg Australia
Pause and explain
Do these self-check answers certify Cambridge marks or complete mastery?
Worked example
A James answer correctly recalls the crown but says reburial makes everyone safe. Choose the next revision.
Show the worked solution
- Reread the brief relief, later false calls and Paxton’s death.
- Write a paragraph explaining why restitution does not remove the pursuit.
- Qualify identification of the attacker with the limits of witness and the inquest.
Answer Target the failed resolution and limits of proof instead of repeating a general plot summary.
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.
A Scott answer says the father mainly mourns his dead son. What should be checked?
Give me a hint
Compare the grief given to father and daughter.
Compare my reasoning
- The father centres the sword and honour.
- The daughter mourns her brother and cares for him.
Revisit their contrasted grief and explain what the honour code values; retain the son’s unnamed status.
Look for these in your work
- Correct the attribution
- Explain the contrast
A review of Saki gives Van Cheele an eyewitness account of the final attack. Revise it.
Give me a hint
Trace report, sound and public inference.
Compare my reasoning
- Cunningham reports a transformation.
- Van Cheele hears a scream; the village assumes a rescue.
Keep these separate kinds of evidence and analyse the memorial’s irony without inventing a witnessed attack.
Look for these in your work
- Identify each witness
- Limit the certainty
A strong-sounding essay has no explanation of its quotations. Choose a revision action.
Give me a hint
Work on one relevant detail before adding more.
Compare my reasoning
- Identify the particular effect needed by the question.
- Explain how the detail and its position create that effect and test a complication.
Replace quotation display with a supported detail–effect–argument link, then practise independently.
Look for these in your work
- Explain the method
- Connect to the actual task
Common mistakes
- Do not replace rereading with memorising model wording.
- A linked preparation entry is not a student-completion record.
What can you explain now?
Do these self-check answers certify Cambridge marks or complete mastery?
Compare with the explanation
No; they guide revision and do not certify assessed performance.
Accurate recall needs developed independent writing and formal assessment before a performance claim.
After trying it yourself, choose your next review. This is your self-assessment.
Your review choice appears on Today. Sign in to sync it across devices.
Make it stick
Do these self-check answers certify Cambridge marks or complete mastery?
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.