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Homabay English Paper 2 Question Paper
Homabay English Paper 2
Course:Secondary Level
Institution: Mock question papers
Exam Year:2008
101/2
ENGLISH
Paper 2
(Comprehension, Literary appreciation and grammar)
July / August 2008
2 ½ hours
HOMA BAY – SUBA DISTRICT MOCK EXAMINATION - 2008
Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (K.C.S.E)
101/2
ENGLISH
Paper 2
(Comprehension, Literary appreciation and grammar)
July / August 2008
2 ½ hours
INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES:
• Answer ALL the questions in this question paper.
• All your answers must be written in the spaces provided in this question paper.
FOR EXAMINER’S USE ONLY
QUESTION MAXIMUM SCORE
1 20
2 25
3 20
4 15
TOTAL 80
This paper consists of 12 printed pages
Candidates should check the question paper to ensure that all the printed pages are printed as indicated and no questions are missing.
Q. 1. Read the following passage and then answer the questions that follow.
Late in January, the government in measures contained in the national policy framework of early childhood Development, ruled that boarding schools and holiday tuition for children below eight years of age had been abolished. The government’s ruling aside one wonders how a sane parent would opt to delegate parenting to a teacher or a boarding school. At this age, many parents (at least those who accept their parental responsibilities) want to monitor their child’s development, and to counter inevitable, negative peer influences, while influencing their children in their own way.
There are various reasons why a parent would want to release his or her underage child to a boarding school. Perhaps the most important is poor parenting skills, observing the development in their child of unwelcome character traits, parents can feel overwhelmed . When this happens the first impulse may be to cast the burden to a distant land, where the parent does not need to be reminded every other day about a wicked child he or she has brought up. But seeking the easy way out often backfires.
Also important is the myth of raising super kids. Perhaps moved by boarding schools (the academies),parents quickly conclude that boarding schools are their salvation. Many times they fail to realize that some boarding schools hunt around for the best students meaning that the schools do not necessarily produce good grades out of their own efforts, they perform well often because they clearly surround themselves with the best pupils.
Admittedly some boarding schools can and do honestly post impressive grades, especially when compared with overcrowded under resourced public primary schools. Juxtaposed with the potential long term harm to a child, however, one is left wondering whether the little academic gain sometimes made is worth the effort.
Parents must remember that, at various stages of development, the child’s brain has great capacity for rapid learning. Past a certain age, unlearning what was internalized becomes a problem.
This observation should be reason enough for parents to be cautious. Beyond a certain age, attachment with the little known parent may be difficult. Remember also that schools are formal institutions where fond attachment with the primary care giver ( the teacher in this case) is almost impossible. This being the case, there is a real danger that the child may grow up knowing only the academic way of life, but having almost zero social skills. Now those who have hunted for jobs or worked in corporate settings know that landing a job or surviving psychologically in the often ruthless corporate world is no academic matter. The declaration that children under age eight cannot now enroll in boarding school or go for holiday tuition should not be a public relations affair by government. This must be enforced.
(i) Give reasons why parents release their underage children to boarding schools. (3mks)
(ii) Why do boarding schools perform well according to the passage? (2mks)
(iii) What is author’s stand on the enrolment and tuition in boarding schools for underage children? (2mks)
(iv) Seeking, the easy way out often backfires. (Begin: What often………) (1mk)
(v) Pick out at least three sentences which show the writer’s disapproval of enrolling underage children to boarding school. (3mks)
(vi) The child’s brain has great capacity for rapid learning. (Re-write this sentence adding the right question tag) (1mk)
(vii) Outline reasons why parents should be cautious with the upbringing of children up to eight years. (3mks)
(viii) What is E.C.D? (1mk)
(ix) Explain the meaning of the following words as used in the passage. (3mks)
(a) A sane parent ………………………………………………………………………………..
(b) Monitor ………………………………………………………………………………………
(c ) Backfires ……………………………………………………………………………………..
(x) Provide a suitable title for the passage. (1mk)
Q. 2. Read the extract below and answer the questions that follow
She liked Martin, who was a bit soft, and kept in reserve the possibility of really marrying him, since there was some mystery about his first wife and they had no children. On the other hand he was quite old now and might not get much more promotion and people warned her she would be expected to learn Luo and have dozens of babies. And surely, Nancy thought, a pretty girl these days could at least expect a car before being burdened with a big family. Martin was still doling out the housekeeping money at ten things a time and going with her to buy a dress or a handbag in case she should be cheated if the quality or add a margin to the price. But today she was really mad at him, sitting there over that radio as though he were going to cry and taking no notice when she pulled rapper tighter and made ready to go out.
Three Luo men trooped in. They shook hands, barely speaking, and huddled over radio also. At last there was a low moan. She was rattling water in a tin basin outside and barely understood who had made the sound but the import was clear. The man had died and they sat there staring at one another like mad things.
"Wawuok mondi," said Martin abruptly and had to pull himself together to repeat in swahili the common refrain of the Luo husband, "We are going out for a bit. This will be a bad day," he added. "Do not go out at all. Bolt the doors. If we need beer we will buy it when we come. Do not go out, mind you."
They filed out without even formal farewells. Their minds were far away. These Nyanza people, she saw, could never pass up a funeral. She would be in for it now - beer drinks, collections, long faces, crowds to feed. "Not go out" indeed. Who was he to give her orders? What was she in the house - well, after all, what? She had not been asked to be a wife. She had not been asked to be a servant. It was something like, "she can go and give hand while you are moving." She had cooked and washed, scrubbed the floor and fanned his bed. She did not go out visiting with him or put herself forward when his friends came. Well, what future was there in that? A couple of dresses and some strings of beads, that was all she had made out of it. Well, food and bear, true enough, and a few for the house. But come here, go there, lock up, take care, that was just like being at school and for more than a year no one had talked about going back to school. The noise increased outside. There was weeping and wailing in Luo. She knew it enough to recognize that, but others were crying also and in a house across the valley a couple of people were shouting.
Nancy made haste. Her dresses, her 'jewellery', her little bit of make-up, her spare slippers were all bundled into one of the sheets. They had bought the sheets to use together, after all. And the cloths? She would surely be justified in taking one of each kind. And the money market tomorrow? She would need that, of course, for the bus fare to get to her ,mother’s she wanted to be fair. She bolted the back door and slammed the front door Yale lock. He would have a key, surely? If not, he would have to break a window. Let no one say she had left the house unguarded. He had not treated her badly. But a Luo was a Luo and herself she was a new Kenyan.
(i) Who had died in this extract? (1mk)
(ii) Name another prominent character in the novel who dies under similar circumstances. (1mk)
(iii) Nancy is really annoyed with Martin. Give FOUR reasons that justify her annoyance. (4mks)
(iv) She had not been asked to be a wife. She had not been asked to be a servant. (Rewrite into one sentence using neither ………… nor …………..) (1mk)
(v) In note form, state the reasons why “Nancy kept in reserve the possibility of really marrying Martin”. (4mks)
(vi) Explain the significance of the phase “……… she can go and give you a hand while you are moving”. (2mks)
(vii) In this extract, we are told that Nancy wanted to be fair to Martin. What shows that she was fair? (4mks)
(viii) “ We are going out for a bit. This will be a bad day,” he added. (Rewrite in reported speech). (1mk)
(ix) Quote another part of the novel that suggests, as Nancy has, that Luos can never pass up a funeral. (1mk)
(x) Explain TWO themes highlighted in this extract. (4mks)
(xi) Describe Martin’s character as portrayed in this extract. (2mks)
3. Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow.
PRIME MINISTER
Slowly he ticks off their names
On the long list
All the young politician men.
As he was once himself
He thinks how he despised the others
- the apolitical
the English – Educated,
the students he called “white ants”
In the ivory tower.
Not so long ago, in fact,
He coined that happy phrase, “white ants”
How he despised them, all they cared for
Was lectures, essays and a good degree.
A small thing these days
he tells himself
to be arrested
incredulously he remembers
not once was he arrested, somehow.
Slowly he ticks off the names
On the list to be arrested
Tonight, isn’t it? Yes
Between 2 and 4 when the blood runs slow.
The young political men,
Full of fine, hot-blooded
-for a moment,
He thinks he sees his own name there
“Red ants,” he hisses,
Thrusting the list at a waiting policeman.
i) What is the Prime Minister doing? (2mks)
ii) What is his attitude towards the “young political men”? (2mks)
iii) What is the tone of this poem? (2mks)
iv) How did he differ from his contemporaries. (2mks)
(v) a) Comment on the image of the “White ants” (2mks)
b) Why does it become “red ants” at the end of the poem? (2mks)
(vi) What is implied in: - “For a moment, He sees his own name there”? (2mks)
(vii) Explain:” Incredulously he remembers /not once was he arrested, somehow” (4mks)
(viii) What is the theme of this poem? (2mks)
4. (a) Rewrite the following sentences according to the instructions given after each. (3mks)
(i) I was offended. (Rewrite to end with ‘me’)
(ii) She had many ways of winning him over. All of them failed. (Begin: All ………….)
(iii) Fortunately the police rescued him. (Rewrite as a negative statement)
b) Fill in the blank spaces with the most appropriate prepositions. (3mks)
(i) My brother insisted……………………………. carrying with me.
(ii) The accident victim writhed …………………………… terrible pain in the ambulance as we rushed him to hospital.
(iii) I attribute my recovery ………………………….. my doctor.
c) Supply appropriate collective nouns in the spaces provided. (3mks)
(i) A ……………………….. of judges will decide on the winning entry
(ii) You have to go up a ………………………………. of stairs to reach the bedrooms.
(iii) A ……………………….. of bees stung the boy to death.
d) Replace the underlined words with a phrasal verb.
(i) The authorities should abolish some of the colonial rules.
(ii) He looks sickly.
(iii) This kind of work demands a lot of concentration.
(e) Fill in the blanks using the correct form of the word in brackets given at the end of each sentence. (3mks)
(i) Although she was very wealthy she dressed very ……………………………………….. (expensive)
(ii) It is unwise to appear for an interview ………………………………(appropriate) dressed.
(iii) The driver was not very keen on the ………………………….. of the vehicle (maintain)
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