Get premium membership and access revision papers, questions with answers as well as video lessons.
Uasin - Gishu District Mock - English Paper 2 Question Paper
Uasin - Gishu District Mock - English Paper 2
Course:Secondary Level
Institution: Mock question papers
Exam Year:2006
ENGLISH
101 / 2
Question 1
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
BEWARE HOW MUCH TV YOUR CHILD IS WATCHING
The more time children spend watching television the poorer they perform academically, according to three studies published this week in the US.
Excessive television viewing has been blamed for increasing rates of childhood obesity and for aggressive behaviour, while its impact on schooling has been inconclusive, American researchers said.
But studies published on the topic in this month’s Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine concluded that television viewing tended to have an adverse effect on academic pursuits.
For instance, children in third grade (approximately eight years old) who had televisions in their bedrooms and therefore watched more TV – scored lower on standardized tests than those who did not have sets in their rooms.
In contrast, the study found having a home computer with access to the Internet resulted in comparatively higher test scores.
“Consistently, those with a bedroom television but no home computer access had, on average, the lowest scores and those with home computer access but no bedroom television had the highest score, “wrote study author Dina Borzekowski of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
American homes with children have an average of nearly three televisions each, the report said, and children with televisions in their bedrooms averaged nearly 13 hours of viewing a week compared to nearly 11 hours by children who did not have their own sets.
The American Academy of Paediatrics had urged parents to limit children’s television viewing to no more than one to two hours per day – and to try to keep younger children away from TV altogether.
In two other studies published in the same journal, children who regularly watched television before the age of three ended up with lower test scores later on, and children and adolescents who watched more television were less likely to go on to finish high school or earn a college degree.
University of Washington researchers reported that 59 per cent of US children younger than age two watch an average of 1.3 hours of television per day, though there is no programming of proven educational value for children that young.
Their analysis of 1,800 children over a decade showed television watching was linked to poorer cognitive development among children younger than three and between the ages of six and seven.
TV watching appeared to help three to five – year – olds with basic reading recognition and short-term memory, but not reading comprehension or mathematics, so the net effect of television watching is “limited in its beneficial impact,” wrote study author Fredrick Zimmerman.
Similarly, Robert Hancox of the university of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, found that children and adolescents who watched more television had less educational attainment regardless of their intelligence, socio-economic states or childhood behavioral problems.
But condemning television as a vast waste wasteland-government regulator Newton Minow’s of quoted diatribe against the medium-would be unfair as programming is not “monolithic”, an editorial accompanying the studies said.
“Parents should be encouraged to incorporate well-produced, age-appropriate educational TV into their children’s lives. Such programming represents a valuable tool for stimulating children’s cognitive development,” wrote Ariel Chernin and Deborah Linebarger of the university of Pennsylvania.
(By Reuters, Daily Nation, July 2005)
QUESTIONS ( 20 MKS)
1. What, according to the passage, is the result of excessive television viewing in children?3mks
2. Rewrite the following sentence as instructed
Excessive Television viewing has been blamed for increasing rates of childhood obesity: Begin:
Increasing ….. 1mk*UG*
3. What is the impact of: 2mks*UG*
a) Having a home computer with access to the internet
b) Having bedroom television without computer access
4. Punctuate the following sentence
Parents should be encouraged to incorporate well produced, age-appropriate educational
Television into their children’s lives, said the author, such programming represents a valuable
tool for stimulating children’s cognitive development. 2mks*UG*
5. Provide a suitable word to replace “In contrast” in paragraph five. 1mk*UG*
6. What is Robert Hancox’s conclusion on children and adolescents who watch more television?
2mks*UG*
7. Change the following sentence into a question
TV watching appeared to help three to five years – olds with basic reading recognition and short
term memory 1mk*UG*
8. What should parents do to ensure that the children benefit from TV watching? 2mks*UG*
9. What is the author’s main concern? 2mks*UG*
10. Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases. 4mks*UG*
Obesity
b) a vast waste land
c) monolithic
d) paediatrics
Question No. 2 .Merchant of Venice
Read the following passage and answer the questions after it.
Enter PORTIA as Balthasar,dressed like a Doctor of Laws
You hear the learn'd Belario, what he writes: And here, I take it, is the doctor come. (TO PORTIA) Give me
your hand. Come you from old Bellario?
PORTIA: I did, my lord.
DUKE: You are welcome; take your place.
Are you acquainted with the difference that holds this present question in the court?
PORTIA: lam informed thoroughly of the cause.
Which is the merchant here? And which the Jew?
DUKE: Antonio and old Shylock, both stand forth.
PORTIA: Is your name Shylock?
SHYLOCK: Shylock is my name
PORTIA: Of a strange nature is the suit you follow,
Yet in such rule that the Venetian law
Cannot impugn you as you do proceed.
(TO ANTONIO) You stand within his danger, do you not?
ANTONIO: Ay, so he says.
PORTIA: Do you confess the bond?
ANTONIO: I do.
PORTIA: Then must the jew be merciful
SHYLOCK: On what compulsion must I? Tell me that.
PORTIA: The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty
’Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself,
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew.
Though justice be thy plea, consider this-
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much to mitigate the justice of thy plea. Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.
SHYLOCK: My deeds upon my head! 1 crave the law. The penalty and forfeit of my bond.
POR TIA: Is he not able to discharge the money?
BASS AN K): Yes, here 1 tender it for him in the court.
Yea twice the sum. If that will not suffice,
I wi l l be bound to pay it ten times o'er
On forfeit of my hands , my head, my heart
If this wi l l not suffice , it must appear
That malice bear down truth. And beseech you.
Wrest once the law to your authority.
To do a great right do a lit tle wrong.
And curb this cruel devil of this will.
PORTIA: It must not be. There is no power in Venice
Can alter a decree established.
'Twi l l be recorded for a precedent.
And many an error by the same example
Wi l l rush into the state. It cannot be.
SHYLOCK: A Daniel come to judgment! Yea. a Daniel! Oh wise young judge, how do I honour thee!
PORTIA: I pray you let me look upon the bond.
SHYLOCK: Here ' tis , most reverend doctor, here it is.
PORTIA: (After reading the bond) Shylock, there is thrice thy money offered thee.
SHYLOCK: An oath, an oath! I have an oath in heaven: Shall I lay perjury upon my soul? No,
not for Venice!
PORTIA: Why. this bond is forfeit.
And lawfully by this the Jew may claim
A pound of flesh. to be by him cut off nearest the merchant's heart. Be merciful: Take
thrice the money; bid me tear the bond.
SHYLOCK: When it is paid, according to the tenour. It doth
appear you are a worthy judge. You know the law. Your exposition hath been most sound. I
charge you by the law, whereof you are a well-deserving pillar. Proceed to judgement. By
my soul 1 swear There is no power in the tongue of man to alter me. I stay here on my
bond.
ANTONIO: Most heartily I do beseech the court to give the judgement.
PORTIA: Why then, thus it is:
You must prepare your bosom for his knife.
SHYLOCK: Noble judge! O excellent young man!
PORTIA: For the intent and purpose of the law
Hath full relation to the penalty.
Which here appeareth due upon the bond.
SHYLOCK: Tis very true. O wise and upright judge.
How much more elder art thou than thy looks!
PORTIA: Therefore lay bare your bosom.
SHYLOCK: Ay. his breast.
So says the bond, doth it not, noble judge? "Nearest his heart" -those are the very words.
PORTIA: It is so. Are there balance here to weigh the flesh?
SHYLOCK: I have them ready.
PORTIA: Have by some surgeon, Shylock , on your charge,
To stop is wounds, lest he do bleed to death.
SHYLOCK: Is it so nominated in the bond?
PORTIA: It is not so expressed, but what of that? I were good you do so much for charity.
SHYLOCK: ( takes the bond from her.)
SHYLOCK: I cannot find it: tis not in the bond.
PORTIA: You. merchant, have you anything to say?
ANTONIO: But little. I am armed and well prepared.
Give me your hand. Bassanio; fare you well, (grieve not that lam fallen to this for you:
For herein Fortune shows herself more kind Than is her custom. It is still her use To let
the wretched man outlive his wealth. To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow An age
of poverty; from which lingering penance Of such misery doth she cut me off? Commend
me to your honourable wife, tel l her process of Antonio's end. Say how I loved you;
speak me fair in death; And when the tale is told, bid her be judee Whether Bassanio had
not once a love. Repent but you that you shall lose your friend. And he represent not that
he pays your debt: for if the Jew do cut but deep enough. I'l l pay it instantly with all my heart.
BASSANIO: Antonio. I am married to a wife
Which is a dear to me as life itself? But life itself, my wife, and all the world Are
not wi th me esteemed above thy life. I would lose all, ay sacrifice them all Here to
this devil, to deliver you.
PORTIA: Your wife would give you little thanks for that if she were by to hear you make the offer.
GRATIANO: I have a wife who I protest I love-
I would she were in heaven, so she could entreat some power to change this currish Jew.
NERISSA: Tiis well you offer it behind her back.
The wish would make else an unquiet house.
SHYLOCK: (Aside) These be the Christian husbands! 1 have a daughter ; Would any of the stock of Barabbas Had been her husband, rather than a Christian.
(TO PORTIA) We trifle time. I pray thee pursue sentence.
PORTIA: A pound of that same merchant flesh is thine The court awards it and the law doth give it.
SHYLOCK: Most rightful judge!
PORTIA: And you must cut this flesh off his breast The law allows it. and the court awards it.
SHYLOCK: Most learned j udge! A sentence! Come. prepare
PORTIA: Tarry a little- there is something else.
This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood;
The words expressly are a pound of flesh.
Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh;
But in the cutting it, if thou dost shed
One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods
Are by the laws of Venice confiscate
Unto the state of Venice.
GRA TIANO: O upright judge! Mark. Jew. O learned judge!
SHYLOCK: Is that the law?
PORTIA: Thyself shall see the act:
For, as thou urgest justice, be assured
Thou shalt have justice more than thou desir’st.
GRATIANO: O learned Judge. Mark, Jew. A learned judge!
SHYLOCK: I take this offer then. Pay the bond thrice
And let the Christian go.
BASS AN IO: Here is the money.
PORTIA: Soft!
The Jew shall have justice. Soft, no haste,
He shall have nothing but the penalty.
GRATIANO: O Jew! An upright judge, a learned judge!
PORTIA: Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh.
Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more
But just a pound of flesh. If thou tak'st more
Or less than a just pound, be it but so much
As makes it light or heavy in the substance
Or the division of the twentieth part
Of one poor scruple, nay, if the scale do turn
But in the estimation of a hair.
Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate.
GRATIANO: A second Daniel! Daniel, Jew!
Now, infidel, I have you on the hip!
PORTIA: Why doth the Jew pause? take thy forfeiture.
SYLOCK: Give me my principal, and let me go.
BASSANO: I have it ready for thee: here it is.
PORTIA: He hath refused it in the open court.
He shall have merely justice and his bond.
GRATIANO: A Daniel still say a second Daniel!
I thank thee Jew. for teaching me that word.
SHYLOCK: Shall I not have barely my principal?
PORTIA: Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture.
To be so taken at thy peril, Jew.
SHYLOCK: Why. then the devil give him good of it! I ' l l stay no longer question.
PORTIA: Tarry Jew!
The law hath yet another hold on you.
It is enacted in the laws of Venice.
If it be proved against an alien
That by direct or indirect attempts
He seek the life of any citizen.
The party against the which he doth contrive
Shall seize one hal f his goods, the other half
Cones to the privy coffer of the state.
And the offender's life lies in the mercy
Of the Duke only. ' gainst al l other voice.
In which predicament I say thou stand st;
For it appears by manifest proceeding
That indirectly, and directly too.
Thou has contrived against the very life
Of the defendant; and thou has incurred
The danger formerly by me rehearsed.
Down therefore, and beg mercy of the Duke.
SHYLOCK falls to his knees
GRAT1ANO: Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thyself-And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the state .
Thou hast not left the value of a cord. Therefore thou must be hanged at the
state's charge.
DUKE: That thou shalt see the difference of our spirit,I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it.
For half thy wealth, it is Antonio's;
The other hal f comes to the general state.
Which humbleness may drive unto a fine.
PORTIA: Av. for state, not for Antonio.
SHYLOCK: Nay. take my life and all! Pardon not that
You take my house when you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house. You take my life
When you do take the means whereby I live.
PORTIA: What mercy can you render him, Antonio?
GRATIANO: A halter gratis! Nothing else, for God's sake!
ANTONIO: So please my lord the Duke and all the court
To quit the fine for one half of his goods. I am content. so he will let me have The other
hal f in use. to render it Upon his death unto the gentleman That lately stole his daughter.
Two things provided more: that for this favour He presently become a Christian;
QUESTIONS (25 mks) *UG*
(i) Briefly explain what happens before this extract. 3mks*UG*
(ii) In note form identify Portia’s role in this passage. 3mks*UG*
(iii) Explain the meaning of the following statement. 2mks*UG*
“To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow An eye of poverty; from which ling ring penance”
(iv) Re-write the following lines in standard English 2mks*UG*
“For as thou urgest justice, be assured. Thou shalt have justice more than thou desirest.
(v) Shylocks obsession for revenge blinds him from logic, show evidence from this passage2mks*UG*
(vi) In not more than 60 words paraphrase Portia’s speech about mercy. 6mks*UG*
(vii) “Appearances can be deceptive”. In view of what happen in this passage, justify the statement.
3mks*UG*
(viii) A second Daniel Daniel ……………………………….
Explain the meaning of this biblical allusion. 2mks*UG*
(ix) “Portia’s judgement is biased against the minority group”. Briefly explain this statement
basing your answer on the excerpt. 2mks*UG*
QUESTION 3 POETRY (20Mks) *UG*
WOMAN
a) How sad it is to be a woman!
Nothing on earth is held so cheap
Boys stand leaning at the door
Like Gods fallen off heaven.
Their hearts brave the four oceans,
The wind and dust of a thousand miles
No one is glad when a girl is born
By her the family sets no store
When she grows up, she hides in her home
Afraid to look a man in the face
No one cries when she leaves her home
Sudden as clouds when the rain drops
She bows and kneels countless time’s
She must humble herself even to the servants
His love is distant as the stars in Heaven
Yet the sunflower bends towards the sun
Their hearts more sundered
Than water and fire …………..
A hundred evils are heaped upon her
Her face will follow the year’s changes,
Her Lord will find new pleasures
They that were once like substance and shadow
Are now as far as Hu from ch’in
Yet Hu and ch’in shall sooner meet
Than they whose parting is like Ts’ and ch’en*
FU HSUAN
a) Explain what the poem is talking about. 2mks*UG*
b) With close reference to the poem, outline the unfair treatment women are subjected to
4mks*UG*
c) Discuss three poetic techniques employed in the poem. 6mks*UG*
d) Explain the meaning of the following lines.
(i) By her the family sets no store 2mks*UG*
(ii) They that were once like substance and shadow. 2mks*UG*
e) What is the poet’s attitude towards
(i) women 2mks*UG*
(ii) Men 2mks*UG*
Q. 4 GRAMMAR ( 15 MKS)
(a) Re-write the following sentences according to the instructions given. 3mks*UG*
i) Is there life after death or not? This is a question which man has been asking himself
for a very long time.
(Re-write beginning:The question of …………………………………… Do not use the
word question twice)
ii) don’t think you should go out this afternoon.
(Re-write beginning: I’d rather …………………………………….)
iii) After a new principal was appointed, results began to improve. (Rewrite beginning:
Subsequent ………………………….)
b) Explain the difference in meaning between the following pairs of sentences. 2mks*UG*
(i) a) She went and bought herself a skirt
(b) She went and bought a skirt herself
(ii) Write sentences using the abstract nouns of the following adjectives. 2mks*UG*
i) Novel
(ii) Short
c) Rewrite the underlined words using phrasal verbs in place of the underlined words3mks*UG*
(i) The dog attacked the stranger the moment the gate was opened.
(ii) The patient recovered from his injuries sooner than we expected.
(iii) Wafula became sick with fever after he was bitten by a mosquito
d) Replace the underlined words with a single word. 3mks*UG*i)
My father is a very old man of between eighty and ninety years of age.
ii) He bought books, pens, envelopes and a writing pad.
iii) Samuels health condition improved when he became one who does not take all form of
alcoholic drinks.
(e) After each question write down the correct shortened answer. 2mks*UG*
For e.g. – You like beans, don’t you?
(i) You will see the doctor, ..………………………………………………………?
(ii) They had bought the house; ……………………………………………………..?
More Question Papers