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Task A · argumentative / socio-cultural ~30 minutes in the real exam
Freedom & Power
Liberty, authority, and the bargains between them. 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
- Freedom is not the absence of constraint, but the power to choose which constraints to accept.
- Power reveals more about a person than adversity ever could.
- Every right granted to one person is a limit placed on another.
- The first thing the powerful forget is what it was like to be without power.
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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