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Ucu 100: Communication Skills Question Paper
Ucu 100: Communication Skills
Course:Bachelor Of Commerce In Accounting
Institution: Kenyatta University question papers
Exam Year:2010
Q1. READING COMPREHENSION – (25 MARKS)
Read the following passage and answer question a to h.
The ability to produce more and more food each year stems from one of history’s most important
inventions: the farm.
1 For the first hundred millennia or so of our species’ existence, a person’s next meal
depended on which nuts shook loose from trees or which wild animals could be clubbed. But
somewhere around 8000 B.C. Neolithic man – actually, some scholars say, it was probably
Neolithic woman – began farming. Women figured out that if they saved some of the grain they
gathered, scattered it on the ground and waited around a few months, more grain would spring
up.
2 The first significant agricultural crops were grasses: barley, wheat, rice, etc. These grains
quickly became the staff of life – so valuable that almost every early religion known had a
specific god who could be invoked to guarantee the grain harvest. In Western civilization the
most important grain deity was the Roman goddess Ceres, which explains why the Wheaties,
Corn Flakes, and Rice Krispies we eat in the morning are known as “cereal.” The ancients were
obviously onto something, because even today more than 70 percent of all cultivated land is
devoted to cereal grains. These crops provide the bulk of human nutrition; most of the calories
we consume come from grain or from eating animals raised on feed grains.
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3 Traders and travelers transplanted local crops around the world, and these green emigrants often flourished in their new homes, a fact obvious to anyone who has traveled through the central plains of North America and seen there oceans of waving wheat, a plant native to the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Lebanon.
4 The agricultural revolution was accompanied by another fundamental change in the pattern of life: The birthrate came to exceed the death rate, and world population began a steady growth. Of necessity, agriculture became the dominant human endeavor – and still employs nearly 50 percent of the world’s labor force.
5 To produce more food, humans expanded the amount of land under cultivation and found ways to increase the yield from existing fields. For the most part this has been a success story. But each breakthrough has had undesirable by-products.
6 Around 3000 B.C. the invention of the plow greatly increase the output from a given plot of land. But plowing left soil vulnerable to erosion, prompting the agriculture historian Daniel Hillel to observe that “the plowshare has been far more destructive than the sword.” The industrial revolution enabled a single farmer to cultivate more land – with proportionate increases in energy consumption and air pollution. In the 1960s the new plant varieties and agrochemicals of the green revolution yielded huge increases per acre, but many fertilizers and pesticides left toxic residues behind. Despite innovations – and sometimes because of them – soil and water degradation threaten agricultural output worldwide.
7 Still, improvements in agriculture have kept food supplies high enough to meet the growing world demand. What Malthus called “the power of population” has been matched and exceeded by the power of innovation. Global food production today is sufficient to provide everyone on Earth an adequate diet.
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8 And yet hundreds of millions of people do not get the 2,200 calories per day generally accepted as the nutritional bottom line. About 20 percent of the developing world’s population is chronically undernourished; 30 years ago the percentage was twice that high, so we’re making progress. But why must anyone go hungry?
9 The problem is not production but distribution. Local food supply often has little to do with natural conditions. Some of the best-fed people live in countries – Japan, for example – that don’t have enough land to grow their own food. Some people who live in green meadows washed by regular rainfall are hungry. A major reason for the disparity between haves and have-nots is politics. Most of the world’s governments have the political will to assure their people the basic elements of a reliable food supply. But some don’t.
a) State the simple controversy that relates to the onset of farming. [3 marks]
b) What does the author mean by “Our Species’ existence”? [3 marks]
c) How did ancient civilization emphasize the significance of grain to humanity? [3 marks]
d) What do you think the author means by the expression “the ancients were quite onto something”
(paragraph 2)? [3 marks]
e) Briefly explain the single most important reason behind the world’s widespread cultivation of grain. [3 marks]
f) To which two economic activities does the author attribute the spread of grain from the middle east valley. [4 marks]
g) State two byproducts of farming from the passage. [3 marks]
h) Global food production is sufficient yet millions of people do not get the required daily calorie intake. Explain. [3 marks]
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Q2. TRANSCODING/GRAPH INTERPRETATION (FOR BOTH SIGHTED AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED STUDENTS) – [15 MARKS]
Read the table below and answer questions that follow.
PERCENT VOTING – AUGUST 1980
AGE
MALE
FEMALE
18 to 24 years
38.5
41.2
25 to 34 years
53.2
55.8
35 to 44 years
62.7
66.00
45 to 54 years
67.3
67.6
55 to 64 years
72.6
70.2
65 to 74 years
72.7
66.7
75 years and over
65.7
52.9
(Source- Gold. B. Fundamental Reading and Study Skills 1980)
(a) In what form is the age and gender voting pattern presented in the table? [2 marks]
(b) Which age category has the widest disparity in male-female voters and by how much?
[3 marks]
(c) Which female age segment recorded highest vote? [2 marks]
(d) Which two male voter categories had least significant voting difference? [3 marks]
(e) In three grammatical sentences, compare and contrast voting behavior between age
categories 18 years and over for both male and female. [5 marks]
Q3. LIBRARY SKILLS – 20 MARKS
a) Arrange the bibliographic details of the two reference sources below in a conventional
style. [6 marks]
(i) Kimani Njogu/Edinburgh/pp 124 – 138/In/Rekindling Efficacy: Storytelling for
Health/Edinburgh University Press; Kimani Njogu and John Middleton
(ii) Translation Review/28/Lowry Nelson/Literary Translation/1989/17-30/.
b) Using author names only write the references and they would appear in a bibliography.
[2 marks]
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c) Identify the type of reference sources in (i) and (ii) of (a) above. [4 marks]
d) Koto’s essay topic for the UCU 100 writing project is “Improving farming technologies
in Africa.” The problem is that Koto has no idea of how one can use the card catalogue to locate a book when no title or author is known. Outline the key steps that Koto will need to follow to access some books for her topic. [8 marks]
Q4. STUDY SKILLS – (10 MARKS)
a) By referring to the experience gained from the UCU 100 study group you formed at the
beginning of this semester or any other study group, briefly state five factors that can contribute either to group success or failure. [5 marks]
b) “A University student should aim at becoming an independent learner fully responsible for his/her academic success.” State five study activities you have engaged in with the aim of achieving academic independence. [5 marks]
……………….
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