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IGCSE · Cambridge (CIE) · 0408

The Model Millionaire · an appearance of poverty and a costly kindness

Keep Hughie’s allowance, the Colonel’s condition and the gift distinct · Compare an artist’s view of the model with Hughie’s response · Trace the disclosure, expected apology and actual wedding present

Section 2029-P3-STORIES · 2029–2030 · Seven Volume 3 story members · partial teaching pathway

Cambridge IGCSE World Literature 0408 · 2029-P3-STORIES / 2028-P3-A / 2028-P3-B
Exam scope and assessment notes

0408 preparation for exam year(s) 2029, 2030. The assessment changes in 2028; follow the component and selected texts for your year. Original StudyForA reading and writing practice for the 2029–2030 Stories of Ourselves Volume 3 prose option. Teaching and practice are available for 7 of the ten prescribed stories. The remaining 3 members and full-selection workshops need substantive teaching. Both complete 2029 and 2030 selection entries remain content gaps. Prepare all ten members if your centre selects this anthology option; not every prose alternative is compulsory. The pathway links complete primary readings and prints selected older public-domain excerpts. Achebe’s, Desai’s and Danticat’s protected stories are not reproduced; use the linked reading and centre anthology beside the original commentary and tasks. These are not Cambridge examination passages or a reproduction of the protected anthology. Translation, spelling, punctuation and paragraph layout may differ from the prescribed edition. Bracketed block counters are navigation aids, not original line numbers. Models illustrate supported arguments and do not award Cambridge marks or grades. Alternative supported interpretations can be valid. Qualified literature-teacher review and calibrated full papers remain unfinished. This is not the different 2025 or 2026–2028 Volume 2 selection. Revised coursework requires complete drama works, not these stories. Paper 3 is closed book: 90 minutes, one extract response and one whole-text essay, 25 marks each.

Before you begin

  • Confirm your examination year is 2029 or 2030 and your centre has selected the complete ten-story Volume 3 option. Read the complete story in the centre’s anthology before analysing an extract. 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

  • Keep Hughie’s allowance, the Colonel’s condition and the gift distinct
  • Compare an artist’s view of the model with Hughie’s response
  • Trace the disclosure, expected apology and actual wedding present

The Model Millionaire · kindness and corrected expectations

  • Read the complete story. For passage work, locate the specified scene in your centre’s anthology and connect it with earlier and later events.
  • Write before opening the model. Explain the effect of precise evidence on the question.
  • Bracketed block counters are StudyForA aids. Use your centre’s anthology for exact wording, translation and paragraph layout.

Original self-review practice, not official Cambridge questions, marked scripts, coursework or calibrated full timed papers. The linked reading edition is not certified identical to the prescribed anthology. Prepare all ten stories if selecting this option; models are not the only valid interpretations.

A gift made without the later knowledge

The sitter’s identity has not yet been disclosed to Hughie. Read the studio discussion in the complete story before this extract.

Wilde · the unexpected sovereign

[1] After some time the servant came in, and told Trevor that the framemaker wanted to speak to him.

[2] 'Don't run away, Hughie,' he said, as he went out, 'I will be back in a moment.'

[3] The old beggar-man took advantage of Trevor's absence to rest for a moment on a wooden bench that was behind him. He looked so forlorn and wretched that Hughie could not help pitying him, and felt in his pockets to see what money he had. All he could find was a sovereign and some coppers. 'Poor old fellow' he thought to himself, 'he wants it more than I do, but it means no hansoms for a fortnight'; and he walked across the studio and slipped the sovereign into the beggar's hand.

[4] The old man started, and a faint smile flitted across his withered lips. 'Thank you, sir' he said, 'thank you.' Then Trevor arrived, and Hughie took his leave, blushing a little at what he had done. He spent the day with Laura, got a charming scolding for his extravagance, and had to walk home.

  1. 1. How does Wilde make Hughie’s gesture generous without making him financially successful?

    Compare after trying

    The account places the sovereign beside the remaining small coins, so the gift has a perceptible cost within Hughie’s circumstances. His thought about losing hired cabs for a fortnight makes that cost comic but still real to him. The apparently miserable sitter draws pity before any identity or reward is known.

    Hughie’s blush, Laura’s affectionate scolding and the walk home keep the gesture within an amiable portrait of impractical generosity. They do not show a successful business calculation. The later disclosure changes what the reader knows about the recipient, while preserving what Hughie intended at the moment he gave.

    Why this response fits

    • Use the money, anticipated inconvenience and actual return journey.
    • Distinguish present intention from the outcome disclosed later.

An apology becomes a wedding present

This is the final sequence after Trevor has disclosed the model’s identity and Hughie has gone home embarrassed.

Wilde · the visitor, gift and wedding

[1] The next morning, as he was at breakfast, the servant brought him up a card on which was written, 'Monsieur Gustave Naudin, de la part de M. le Baron Hausberg.' 'I suppose he has come for an apology,' said Hughie to himself; and he told the servant to show the visitor up.

[2] An old gentleman with gold spectacles and grey hair came into the room, and said, in a slight French accent, 'Have I the honour of addressing Monsieur Erskine?'

[3] Hughie bowed.

[4] 'I have come from Baron Hausberg' he continued. 'The Baron———'

[5] 'I beg, sir, that you will offer him my sincerest apologies,' stammered Hughie.

[6] 'The Baron' said the old gentleman with a smile, 'has commissioned me to bring you this letter'; and he extended a sealed envelope.

[7] On the outside was written, 'A wedding present to Hugh Erskine and Laura Merton, from an old beggar,' and inside was a cheque for £10,000.

[8] When they were married Alan Trevor was the best man, and the Baron made a speech at the wedding breakfast.

[9] 'Millionaire models,' remarked Alan, 'are rare enough; but, by Jove, model millionaires are rarer still!'

  1. 1. How does the ending change the force of the word model?

    Compare after trying

    Hughie’s expectation of an apology makes the visitor seem initially like another consequence of his embarrassment. The letter instead identifies a wedding present from the person he treated as a beggar, and its amount matches the Colonel’s earlier financial condition. The subsequent wedding makes that change an actual outcome.

    Trevor’s closing verbal reversal turns the title’s sitter into an example of conduct. The Baron has modelled poverty for a painting and now displays generosity through the present. I find the ending warm but still interested in wealth: kindness is recognised, while the social threshold is met by money rather than abolished.

    Why this response fits

    • Connect the final amount with the earlier obstacle.
    • Explain the wordplay through both artistic role and conduct without inventing an investment scheme.

The narrator makes financial success a social test

The opening pronouncements place income before charm or romance, but the comic portrait of Hughie encourages affection as well as criticism. He has failed at several occupations and lives on an aunt’s allowance of £200 a year; he is not entirely without an income. Laura loves him, and her father likes him, yet the Colonel will not consider engagement until Hughie has £10,000 of his own. The financial condition therefore separates existing affection from permission to marry. Treat the narrator’s polished generalisations as part of the comedy rather than simple practical advice to every reader.

The same appearance invites different responses

Alan Trevor values the apparently poor sitter as a striking artistic subject. Hughie sees apparent misery and asks about a model’s payment beside the much larger price of the picture. The discussion sets aesthetic value and human need beside each other. When Alan goes out, Hughie gives the sitter a sovereign, expecting to lose the use of hired cabs for a fortnight. He acts before knowing that the man is Baron Hausberg, a wealthy patron posing in clothes supplied by Trevor. The gift is therefore not a calculated investment or a payment arranged to obtain marriage money.

The disclosure changes knowledge before it changes fortune

Trevor later reveals the sitter’s identity after learning about the sovereign. His suggestions about investing it and paying interest are comic speculation, not a narrated transaction. Hughie is embarrassed and expects the next morning’s visitor to seek an apology. Instead, the visitor brings a letter and a £10,000 cheque from the Baron as a wedding present. The story then reports the marriage, Trevor as best man and the Baron’s wedding speech. The final play on model distinguishes a millionaire who sits for a picture from one whose conduct becomes exemplary.

Sources for this lesson

Pause and explain

Does Hughie know he is giving the sovereign to a millionaire?

Put the idea to work

Worked example

Why is “Hughie buys the Baron’s support with a sovereign” inaccurate?

Show the worked solution
  1. At the moment of giving, Hughie thinks the man needs the money.
  2. He anticipates inconvenience to himself, not repayment.
  3. The much later gift depends on a revealed identity and generosity not known beforehand.

Answer The result rewards a misinformed but generous action; it does not make that action a knowingly negotiated bargain.

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

Explain what the £10,000 condition does to the romance.

Give me a hint

Separate Laura’s affection from the father’s permission.

Compare my reasoning
  1. The pair already love one another.
  2. The Colonel makes money a condition of engagement.

Existing affection is subject to an external financial threshold, which makes the later gift consequential.

Look for these in your work

  • Use both affection and condition
  • Avoid an invented rejection
2 · Independent

Compare Hughie’s pity with Trevor’s interest in the sitter.

Give me a hint

Use the discussion of payment and the later language about rags.

Compare my reasoning
  1. Hughie treats the apparent need as a reason to help.
  2. Trevor sees the clothes and face as valuable for a picture.

The same appearance becomes a human claim for one observer and artistic material for another; explain the contrast without assuming Trevor never values generosity.

Look for these in your work

  • Use two perspectives
  • Qualify the character judgement
3 · Transfer

Revise “The visitor demands an apology and leaves Hughie unable to marry”.

Give me a hint

Compare expectation with the envelope and narrated wedding.

Compare my reasoning
  1. Hughie expects a complaint and begins to apologise.
  2. The visitor delivers a present, and the story subsequently reports marriage.

The expected humiliation is reversed into material assistance; the wedding is narrated, not merely hoped for.

Look for these in your work

  • Track expectation and event
  • Use the actual aftermath

Common mistakes

  • Do not treat Trevor’s joking investment suggestion as the actual mechanism of the wedding gift.
  • Do not say Laura rejects Hughie because she does not love him.
Recall without your notes

What can you explain now?

Does Hughie know he is giving the sovereign to a millionaire?

Compare with the explanation

No; he believes the sitter is poor and acts before the Baron’s identity is disclosed.

His lack of that knowledge makes the gesture different from a calculated attempt to obtain a reward.

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

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Make it stick

Does Hughie know he is giving the sovereign to a millionaire?

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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