Question
You are advised to write between 350 and 500 words on the following topic:
‘Suddenly everything stopped moving and there was complete silence.’ Describe what was before your eyes and the sensations that you experienced.
Model Essay
Suddenly, everything stopped moving and there was complete silence. The cacophony of urban life halted in an instant, as if the world had been placed on pause. I stood frozen, my heart pounding in the stillness, absorbing the surreal scene before my eyes.
Moments earlier, I had been standing at the busy intersection of Main and Elm, enveloped in the familiar sounds of the city—honking cars, chattering pedestrians, the distant wail of a siren. It was the usual symphony of urban chaos, a constant background to my daily routine. The sun hung high in the sky, casting a warm glow over the bustling street, where vendors peddled their wares and children laughed as they chased each other.
But now, the scene had transformed into an eerie tableau. Cars that had been zipping through the intersection were suspended mid-motion, their drivers seemingly frozen in place. A bicyclist, mid-pedal, appeared as a still-life figure, his face locked in an expression of concentration. Pedestrians stood like statues, their conversations abruptly cut off, leaving mouths agape and gestures half-formed.
The sudden silence was deafening. It pressed down on me like a tangible weight, amplifying the thud of my own heartbeat in my ears. My breaths sounded unnaturally loud, and I could almost hear the blood rushing through my veins. The usual ambient noise that I had taken for granted was conspicuously absent, replaced by a profound and unsettling quiet.
I glanced around, trying to make sense of what I was witnessing. The sky was a perfect, unbroken blue, with not a single cloud in sight. The trees lining the street stood perfectly still, their leaves frozen in mid-rustle. Even the pigeons, which moments before had been fluttering about in search of crumbs, were now motionless, their wings suspended in flight.
A sense of awe and fear washed over me. My skin prickled with goosebumps, and a shiver ran down my spine despite the warmth of the day. It felt as if time itself had ceased to exist, trapping me in a moment that stretched on indefinitely. My mind raced with questions—was this some kind of elaborate prank? A strange natural phenomenon? Or perhaps something even more inexplicable?
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I took a tentative step forward, my footfall echoing loudly in the stillness. The sound startled me, breaking the spell of silence momentarily, but everything remained unchanged. I reached out to touch the shoulder of a woman standing nearby, her arm outstretched towards a child. Her skin felt cool and lifeless under my fingertips, like the surface of a wax figure.
Desperation began to creep in. I tried calling out, my voice sounding strange and hollow in the silence, but there was no response. I was alone in a sea of people, surrounded by life that had been abruptly suspended. My senses were heightened, every detail stark and vivid— the glint of sunlight on a car’s windshield, the vibrant colors of the market stalls, the distant shimmer of the river that ran through the city.
As I stood there, grappling with the surreal reality before me, a single thought echoed in my mind: I needed to find a way to break free from this frozen moment. The weight of the silence and stillness bore down on me, pushing me to take action, to find an explanation, to somehow restore the world to its natural state of chaotic motion and sound.
With renewed determination, I began to explore my surroundings, searching for any sign of movement, any clue that might explain the phenomenon. Each step I took felt like an eternity, but I clung to the hope that, somewhere in this frozen world, there was an answer waiting to be discovered.
Word Count: 613