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My Mother Said I Never Should - Illustrating and Supporting Points

This quiz helps you practise using short quotations from My Mother Said I Never Should as clear evidence to support your ideas about characters, themes and relationships.

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Fascinating Fact:

Doris’s fussing over objects, such as worrying that people will think she “didn’t know about roses,” provides evidence for discussions of pride, appearance, and coping with grief.

In GCSE English Literature, you are expected to illustrate and support your ideas with precise evidence. In this quiz on My Mother Said I Never Should, you practise choosing brief quotations, moments and stage directions that clearly back up what you say about characters, relationships and key themes across generations.

Key Terms

Evidence: A short, well chosen quotation or detail from the play that directly supports a point you are making.
Analytical comment: The sentence where you explain how your evidence proves your point about character, theme or structure.
Embedded quotation: A quotation that is smoothly fitted into your own sentence so that it reads naturally and stays focused.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

How do I choose good quotations from My Mother Said I Never Should?

Look for short phrases that show a character’s attitude or a change in a relationship. For example, Jackie’s sharper questions or Doris’s careful remarks often reveal deeper feelings and tensions.

What does illustrate and support your points mean in GCSE English?

It means you should not just give an opinion. You need to back it up with a quotation or detail from the play and then explain clearly how that evidence proves your idea.

How many pieces of evidence should I use in an exam paragraph?

A typical GCSE paragraph uses two or three short quotations. Each one should be followed by a clear comment that links the language or stage action to the question you are answering.

Try These Related Quizzes

Read the text from My Mother Said I Never Should and then choose the answer which best uses evidence in support of a point. The right answer will also be grammatically correct.

1 .

JACKIE (angry): I'll go back! Yes I will, finish the degree, I won't fail both things!

Jackie feels like a failure at motherhood, but promises her mother that she will go back to college, rather than failing both things

Jackie feels like a failure at motherhood, but promises her mother that she will "go back" to college, rather than failing "both things"

Jackie feels like a "failure" at motherhood, but promises her mother that she will go back to college, rather than failing "both things"

Jackie feels like a failure at motherhood, but promises her mother that she will go back to college, rather than failing "both things"

It's important to make a point, rather than just quoting from the text. Here the point concerns Jackie's feelings of failure and determination to make a success of part of her life. You should follow up your point with some explanation or analysis

2 .

MARGARET: You can come with me. To my secret, secret hide.
Margaret holds out her hand. Jackie takes it.
JACKIE: No. Not yet. Do you mind?

In the final scene in the Wasteground, Margaret invites Jackie to join her in death, her secret, secret hide

In the final scene in the Wasteground, Margaret invites Jackie to join her in death, her secret, secret "hide"

In the final scene in the Wasteground, Margaret invites Jackie to join her in death, her "secret, secret hide"

In the final scene in the Wasteground, Margaret invites Jackie to join her in death, her "secret, secret" hide

Try, when quoting from the text, to pick up on the most interesting phrases which demonstrate your point. In this case the following sentence could discuss what might be meant by "hide" and its relationship to the secret dens and hideouts of childhood

3 .

DORIS: Margaret? I brought you some cocoa. (Sound of planes, distant.) Margaret? Are you asleep? . . . Dear? (Silence.) Well then. You'll just have to drink it cold in the morning.

The first time in the scene that Doris shows Margaret kindness, bringing her "cocoa" and calling her "dear", it is too late: Margaret is "asleep"

The first time in the scene that Doris shows Margaret kindness, bringing her cocoa and calling her "dear", it is too late: Margaret is asleep

The first time in the scene that Doris shows Margaret kindness, bringing her cocoa and calling her dear, it is too late: Margaret is asleep

The first time in the scene that Doris shows Margaret kindness, bringing her "cocoa" and calling her dear, it is too late: Margaret is asleep

Remember that ordinary words such as "cocoa" and "asleep" do not need to be placed in quotation marks unless they are being used in an unusual or especially interesting manner in the text

4 .

ROSIE: It's so lovely here, Doris. (Pause.) Ken phoned to say happy birthday. I asked him to put some flowers on Margaret's grave today.

At the end of the play, after surviving the shock of revelation, Rosie refers to her entire family by their first names, "Doris", "Ken" and "Margaret"

At the end of the play, after surviving the shock of revelation, Rosie refers to her entire family by their first names: Doris, Ken and Margaret

At the end of the play, after surviving the shock of revelation, Rosie refers to her entire family by their first names; "Doris", "Ken" and "Margaret" join "Jackie", as she has always known her own mother

All of the above

Remember that there are many correct ways to use evidence from texts. Here, the names can be placed in quotation marks because it is significant that Rosie no longer knows what she should call her family members, but, being ordinary first names, the quotation marks aren't essential either. Your choice!

5 .

ROSIE: Why don't you go and get drunk, or whatever it is you lot do to show you're feeling something.

Rosie rejects her birth mother in the most cruel manner by referring to her as you lot

Rosie's complete and utter rejection of her birth mother is shown in her use of the phrase "you lot"

Rosie accuses Jackie of lacking feeling, telling her to go and get drunk or whatever

Rosie accuses Jackie of lacking "feeling", telling her to go and get drunk or whatever

Remember that whenever you use an exact phrase from the text, it will need quotation marks

6 .

MARGARET: If you left a bit of butter on your plate, it was either Mother on at you about rationing, or Father would tell us again, how he started his business with a tin of boot polish, cleaning gentlemen's shoes on the steps of the Royal Exchange. What that had to do with butter, I really don't know.

Margaret remembers being "lectured" frequently as a child, complaining: "it was either Mother on at you about rationing, or Father would tell us again, how he started his business with a tin of boot polish"

Margaret remembers being lectured frequently as a child, complaining it was either Mother on at you about rationing, or Father would tell us again, how he started his business with a tin of boot polish

Margaret remembers being lectured frequently as a child, complaining: "it was either Mother "on at you about "rationing", or Father would tell us again, how he started his business "with a tin of boot polish"

Margaret remembers being lectured frequently as a child, complaining: "it was either Mother on at you about rationing, or Father would tell us again, how he started his business with a tin of boot polish"

Here a longer quotation is combined with some paraphrasing to make the point

7 .

MARGARET: And I'm going to learn to type! Ken says it will be helpful if we need a second income. (As they shake the sheet.) Typing's far more useful than all those stupid school certificates. I'll get a proper job.

In referring to academic "qualifications" as "stupid" and housework as not a "proper job", Margaret rejects her mother's expectations for her

In referring to academic qualifications as "stupid" and housework as not a "proper job", Margaret rejects her mother's expectations for her

In referring to academic qualifications as "stupid" and housework as not a proper job, Margaret rejects her mother's expectations for her

In referring to academic qualifications as stupid and housework as not a "proper" job, Margaret rejects her mother's expectations for her

Be sure to place quotation marks around the exact words or phrases you are quoting

8 .

MARGARET: It's funny, hearing "Mummy" in this place. You do a job, people treat you differently.

Margaret is struck by how "odd" it is to hear herself "called Mummy" in the workplace

Margaret is struck by how odd it is to hear herself called "Mummy" in the "workplace"

Margaret is struck by how odd it is to hear herself called Mummy in the workplace

Margaret is struck by how odd it is to hear herself called "Mummy" in the workplace

Often you can make a point about a single word

9 .

JACKIE: There. I even washed your red sock. Washed everything, don't want Mummy to think — (Holding back tears.) I've got to clear up, Rosie. — All these ashtrays, Sandra and Hugh last night, they never think about you, do they?

As she fusses over the ashtrays, Jackie struggles with two simultaneous roles: being a good mother and a good daughter worried about pleasing her own mother

Jackie struggles with being a "good mother" at the same time as proving herself to her own "Mummy"

Jackie feels as if she is still a "little girl" who needs her mother's approval

All of the above

Sometimes the most practical way of using evidence is by paraphrasing rather than quoting directly. Be careful of using quotation marks just to draw attention to phrases (such as the scare quotes around the phrase "little girl")

10 .

DORIS: Mother! Come and look. Do I look different? I must look different, I feel as though I've swallowed a firework.

Doris is so excited and surprised by her engagement that she can only express her feelings by explaining that she feels as though she has swallowed a firework

Doris is so excited and surprised by her engagement that she can only express her feelings by explaining that she feels as though "I've swallowed a firework"

Doris is so excited and surprised by her engagement that she can only express her feelings by explaining that she "feels as though she has swallowed a firework"

Doris is so excited and surprised by her engagement that she can only express her feelings by explaining that she feels as though she has "swallowed a firework"

These can be tricky! Sometimes pronouns interfere with using quotations in a grammatical sentence. Be careful to quote accurately, but also try to make sure your own sentence is correct, too

Author: Sheri Smith (PhD English Literature, English Teacher & Quiz Writer)