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Task A · argumentative / socio-cultural ~30 minutes in the real exam

Nature & Humanity

Our place in a world we did not make. A practice set in the authentic Section II format — a set of related statements on one theme; your job is an essay that finds an angle engaging several of them.

Consider the following statements

  • We rarely defend what we were never taught to notice in the first place.
  • Humanity is the only species that can imagine its own absence and still do nothing about it.
  • A forest measures its work in seasons, not deadlines, and is none the poorer for it.
  • To call something 'natural' is often just to say we have stopped questioning it.

Write a response developing your own view on the theme, engaging with one or more of the statements. Give yourself 30 minutes, planning included.

How to approach a Task A set

  • 1Take a position on the idea behind the set — not on one quote in isolation. The statements disagree with each other on purpose; the tension is your way in.
  • 2Argue it with specifics you can actually analyse: an event, a policy, a pattern you can name — not vague appeals to “society today”.
  • 3Engage at least one statement directly, including one you push back on. A thesis that survives an objection reads a band stronger than one that never meets it.

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