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Bomet District English Paper 2 Question Paper
Bomet District 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
BOMET DISTRICT MOCK EXAMINATION
Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) 2008
101/2
ENGLISH
PAPER 2
JULY / AUGUST 2008
INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
? Write your name and index in the spaces provided above. Sign and write the date of examination in the spaces provided above.
? Answer ALL the questions in this question paper.
? ALL your answers must be written in the spaces provided in the question paper.
For Examiner’s Use Only
Question Maximum Score
1 20
2 25
3 20
4 15
Total score
This paper consists of 11 printed pages. Candidates should check the question paper to ensure that all pages are printed as indicated and no questions are missing.
1. Read the passage below and answer the question that follow. ( 20 marks)
THE BUSINESS OF MONEY
In theory, people could barter all their lives and never know the meaning of money. In practice, whenever a community needs to support any great volume of trade, some form of money develops as a means of simplifying exchange and reducing the problems of barter. Thus, a farmer who has a surplus of eggs but who needs an extra pig does not have to spend time looking for another farmer willing to exchange a pig for eggs, instead, he can sell his eggs to anyone who is willing to pay money for them. The farmer, having received his payment, can then look for someone willing to sell a pig for money.
The use of money in exchange helps to solve another problem of barter, that of deciding relative values of goods. The two farmers wishing to exchange eggs and a pig would have to decide how many eggs were equal to one pig in value, and if very few people were in the habit of trading eggs for pigs this decision might be difficult and time-consuming. If eggs, cows, pigs and beans are valued in terms of a common commodity-money-there is much less room for misunderstanding and trade can take place more quickly and freely. Similarly for someone who works for others. Payment of wages in money enables him to make comparisons between different opportunities and to calculate the value of his labour in terms of the ability it gives him to buy goods and services.
To be capable of fulfilling its essential functions effectively, money must be readily acceptable throughout the area in which it is used and it must maintain a reasonably consistent value. People must have confidence that at a definite date in the future a given unit of money will be exchangeable for a known quantity of goods or services. If, for any reason, people loose this confidence they will prefer to hold property instead of money and their monetary system may break down.
Although most communities develop some form of money, the form it takes depends on the most important functions it has to fulfill. If trade is limited and money is needed mainly for a store of value, articles which do not deteriorate, or which have other uses, can be adopted, for example land, jewellery, antiques, valuable paintings, etc. When, however, exchange or measuring value is important, the money must be capable of being divided into convenient units and must be available whenever it is needed by traders or other people wishing to exchange their goods.
Some precious metals possess properties which make them highly suitable for use as money, Gold and Silver, for instance are attractive in appearance and have been prized by many communities over the ages. They tend therefore to be readily available in most countries. Neither of these metals deteriorates, gold, in particular, retaining its attraction however long it is kept.
Both metals are easily divisible and may readily be fashioned into almost any shape. A gold bar, for example, can be used to produce large numbers of coins of varying sizes to denote various money units.
Until comparatively recent times these metals had few uses other than as money or as articles retained as symbols or as a store of wealth. There was no loss or harm to the community, therefore in preserving them as money. It was certainly better to use gold as money than, say, cows. If cows were hoarded as evidence of wealth the community would tend to keep more cattle than could be supported adequately by the available land. Cows hoarded in this way would soon cease to have much value as meat or providers of milk. The community would have more ‘money’ but less meat and milk. Its real wealth would thus decline in spite of the increased quantity of money, and the purchasing power of cows in terms of real wealth decreased. There would be a problem of rising prizes – an economic feature only too familiar to us today.
Few countries today would devote their energies to the production of gold and silver to the exclusion of producing goods such as houses, food and motor-cars.
Precious metals, especially gold, still appeal to many people as a most satisfactory form of money but there is just not sufficient gold available to meet ordinary day –to day trading needs, not would it be convenient to move large quantities of gold around. Gold is still used to settle some debts between large organizations and between some trading nations, but its importance even as a form of internationally acceptable money is tending to decline.
The very acceptability of gold is perhaps one of its major disadvantages today. It is rather too attractive to thieves, and when gold coins lose their value in one country they can quickly be transported to another, causing further disruption to prices.
It was partly the reluctance of many people to take the heavy risks of storing and transporting large sums of money which led to the widespread replacement of gold and silver by paper money.
From introducing Economics
By T.A.C. Shafto ( Nelson)
1. Briefly state the three main reasons why some kind of money is preferable to a system of exchanging goods in barter. (3mks)
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2. What qualities must money possess so as to fulfill its essential functions effectively? (2mks)
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3. Why should people want to store wealth by buying antiques, valuables paintings, etc instead of retaining it in the form of money? (2mks)
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4. What are the qualities of gold and silver which make them suitable for use as money. Write in note form. (5mks)
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5. What led to the replacement of gold and silver with paper money? (3mks)
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6. Re-write the last paragraph beginning:
“ Use of paper money.......... (2mks)
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7. Give the meanings of the following words as used in the passage. (3mks)
(i) deteriorate.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
(ii) hoarded............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
(iii) disruption............................................................................................................................................. .........................................................................................................................
2. Read the excerpt below and then answer the questions that follow.
Nobody ever questioned her about Simon, whom she referred to casually as ‘ my in-law’ if introductions were necessary. Perhaps some of the neighbours thought that he was her husband visiting from Kisumu, but many close to her knew that she was a wife of Gem and did not doubt that she lived alone on account of her childlessness. And some certainly knew Simon through his work or because of kinship, but they said nothing. Even the two saved women in the group were not unkind to her, though they told stories pointedly sometimes of broken marriages miraculously healed and children born after long years of waiting, for her ways were quite, like theirs, and Simon came and went so inconspicuously that no one was forced to challenge him.
After the third month she began to sew herself looser dresses. Simon was sated these days, and took her quickly and carelessly, and it was not till end of the fourth month that he asked her and she replied. He was glad, but he told her, and she already knew, that Martha’s people would not stand for his taking a second wife and that he himself did not want to get into conflict with Martin – after all, no one could blame him for wanting a fertile wife and he might even wish to claim the child.
They were speaking quietly in bed in the little house. It was hardly ten o’clock and there was still the noise of heavy traffic along the Kisumu road. Paulina had never felt more alert, more detached, more sure of herself. She stepped out of bed and put on a robe and a pair of rubber sandals.
I thank you for the child, Simon, ‘ she said. It is what I wanted. Whatever quarrels may come, no one can doubt the child is mine.
You also have had what you wanted, and there is no need to become involved in my quarrels. A child of mine does not have to look to a father who will not stand up for him. Go now. There will still be buses running. Tell my friend Martha that you were kept late by a workmate wanting to talk in a bar. She has been patient with you. She will not start to make a noise now. Repent towards your blessed in-laws if that will make things better for you. But go, just go now. I have a longing to be alone.
(a) In about 40 words write a summary of what happens before and after the excerpt. (6mks)
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(b) Describe the character of Paulina as potrayed in the excerpt. (4mks)
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(c) Identify and explain any one theme highlighted in the excerpt (4mks)
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(d) Explain the meaning of the following expressions. (2mks)
(i) ‘After the third month, she begun to sew herself looser dresses.’
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(ii) It was not till the end of the fourth month that he asked her and she replied.
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(e) Write notes on what has led Paulina to her present status (4mks)
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(f) Explain any one stylistic device used in the excerpt (3mks)
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(g) “ Nobody ever questioned her about Simon ( Rewrite beginning with, ‘
She..................’ (1mk)
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(h) ‘ You also have had what you wanted,’ What did Simon want? (1mk)
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Q3. Read the oral Narrative below and answer the questions that follow. (20 marks)
THE WARRIOR WHO HAD EIGHT LOVERS
A long time ago there was a warrior whose bravery and handsome looks made the girls of the village fall in love with him. Eight girls, at least, were known to want to marry the young warrior, for they had composed many songs in his praise.
Now, this warrior was one time getting ready to go on alone raid in faraway country. Before he set off for the raid, he called the youngest of his eight lovers and told her to put fresh milk in a small guard. He also instructed her to keep checking on the colour of the milk every day.” Should the milk turn red, “ the warrior told the girl, ‘ it would mean that I have been killed or I am seriously wounded.’
The young girl was so touched by the departure of her lover that she composed the following song for him.
My warrior whom I love
For whom I open the sweet curdled
Milk of my father’s herd,
And to whom I give fat rams
Of my father to slaughter,
To whom I give my slender
Thighs to lie on,
With whom are you going on a raid next?
It happened that many days after the departure of the warrior, the girl noticed that the milk was turning red. She wept bitterly, for she knew that her lover was either dead or dying in a faraway country. Without telling anyone, the girl set off to look for her dying lover.
For many days she traveled, and as she walked through plains and forests she sang the song she had composed for her warrior. She travelled on and as she travelled she checked the colour of the milk in the gourd. Each day that she saw the milk turn a little more red, she traveled faster. And each day she hoped that she would find her lover alive.
On the ninth day the girl sang louder and louder as she travelled. Each time she sang she would listen to hear if their was any reply. Any as she listened at one time, she heard a faint voice. There was no mistake about it. It was her lover’s voice. She ran and ran and after a while she found her lover. He was extremely weak and badly wounded. When the dying warrior saw her, he told her; ‘ When I am finished, you take my attire and weapons home. When you get a son give them to him And with that the warrior seemed to be dying.
But the girl did not listen to him, she quickly looked for water and washed his wounds. And after that she began to look for food for him. It did not take long before she saw a deer passing by. With her lover’s spear she killed it, and wasted the meat for her lover. For many months the young women washed the wounds of her lover and fed him until he was well again.
Back at home everybody thought that the young woman and her lover were dead, and they insisted that their death rites be performed. However, the father of the warrior kept postponing the death rites. But at last the old man agreed to perform the rites because his youngest son was to be circumcised, and could not be circumcised before the rites were performed.
So preparations for the death rites for the lost warrior were made. But on the morning of the day that the rites were to be performed, and as people were gathering, one of the people in the gathering heard a war song coming from the other side of the valley. He asked other people to listen. The father of the warrior could not mistake his son’s voice. He was almost crying as he gazed on the other side of the valley. The singing voice became clearer and before long the warrior and his lover emerged, driving a large herd of cattle. The bells that were tied around the necks of the oxen played to the tune of the war song.
There was great rejoicing as people ran to meet the lost warrior and his young lover. On their arrival back home a big bull was slaughtered and there was a great feast. People at and drank. And the warrior and his lover were married. The two became man and wife and lived happily. And my story ends.
From Oral Literature. A Junior Course
By A. Bukenya and M. Gachanja,
Longhorn Kenya.
Questions
1. What kind of a narrative is this? (2mks)
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2. Identify two instances of repetition in the passage (2mks)
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3. What are the character traits of? (4mks)
(i) the warrior
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(ii) the youngest lover
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4. Give two functions of the song. (2mks)
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5. Show instances of irony in the passage (2mks)
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6. What are the economic activities of this community? (2mks)
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7. Which devices have been used to start and end this story? What are their functions? (4mks)
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8. With one proverb, summarize the teaching or moral lesson in the story. (2mks)
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4. (a) Rewrite the following sentences according to the instructions, given without changing
the meaning. (3mks)
(i) The book is both informative and very interesting to read (Rewrite using. Not only............. but also................)
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(ii) I will not give you the dress unless you pay for it. (Rewrite using; on condition.....)
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(iii) You are asked not to make your work dirty (Rewrite using the word “dirty”, as a verb.)
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(b) Use the correct form of the verb in brackets (3mks)
(i) If I ......................................(be) you, I would not do that.
(ii) He ..............................(run) many races before he decided to go for Olympic games.
(iii) They........................................( swim) across the river in 30 seconds.
(c) Explain the differences between the sentences in each of the following
pairs (4mks)
(i) – She likes you more than he
- She likes you more than him
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(ii) She paid him to do the work
She paid him for doing the work.
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(d) Fill in the gaps in the sentences below with the most appropriate preposition (3mks)
(i) This year’s form fours are very good......................... languages.
(ii) Give us information................................. your courses
(iii) The principal wanted proof............................. their explanation.
(e) Choose the correct word from those in brackets (2mks)
(i) We were all visitors of...........................(him/his/he)
(ii) ( All over sudden / All of a sudden) There was a loud bang on the door.
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