- Read the extract below then answer all the questions that follow.
2.
(The procession turns into the gateway. Again the ADJUTANT lingers behind. He waits. Enter the...(Solved)
Read the extract below then answer all the questions that follow.
2.
(The procession turns into the gateway. Again the ADJUTANT lingers behind. He waits. Enter the wounded RIDER from the doorway. Two IRONSHIRTS of the Palace Guard have taken up positions by the gateway).
ADJUTANT (to RIDER): The Governor does not wish to receive military news before dinner-especially if it's depressing, as I assume. In the afternoon, His Excellency will confer with prominent architects They're coming to dinner too. And here they are! (Enter three gentlemen through the doorway). Go to the kitchen and eat, my friend. (As the RIDER
goes, the ADJUTANT greets the ARCHITECTS)4. Gentlemen, His Excellency expects you at dinner. He will devote all his time to you and your great new plans. Come! ONE OF THE ARCHITECTS: We marvel that His Excellency intends to build. There are disquieting rumours that the war in Persia has taken a turn for the worse.
ADJUTANT: All the more reason to build! There’s nothing to those rumours anyway. Persia is a long way off, and the garrison here would let itself be hacked to bits for its Governor. (Noise from the palace. The shrill scream of a woman. Someone is shouting orders, Dumbfounded, the ADJUTANT moves toward the gateway. An IRONSHIRT steps out, points his lance at him) What’s this? Put down that lance you dog.
ONE OF THE ARCHITECTS: It’s the prince! Don’t you know the princes met lasts night in the capital? And they’re against the Grand Duke and his Governors? Gentlemen, we’d better make ourselves scarce. (They rush off. The ADJUTANT remains helplessly behind). ADJUTANT (furiously to the palace Guard): Down with those lances! Don’t you see the Governors life is threatened? (The IRONSHIRTS of the palace guard refuse to obey. They stare coldly and indifferently at the ADJUTANT and follow the next events without interest.)
SINGER:
O blindness of the great!
They go their way like gods.
Great over bent backs,
Sure of hired fists.
Trusting the power
Which has lasted so long.
But long is not forever.
O change form age to age!
Thou hope of the people!
Enter the GOVERNOR through the gateway, between two SOLDIERS armed to the teeth.
He is in chains. His face is gray.
Up, great sir, deign to walk upright!
From your palace the eyes of many foes follow you!
And now you don't need an architect, a carpenter will do.
You won’t be moving to a new palace
But into a little hole in the ground.
Look about you once more, blind man!
The arrested man looks around.
Does all you had please you?
Between the Easter Mass and Easter meal
You are walking to a place whence no one returns.
The GOVERNOR is led off. A horn sounds an alarm, noise behind the gateway
When the house of the great one collapses
Many little ones are slain.
Those who had no share in the good fortunes of the mighty
Often have a share in their misfortunes
The plunging wagon
Drags the sweating oxen down with it I
nto the abyss.
The SERVANTS come rushing through the gateway in panic
a) Identify the setting of this extract? (2marks)
b) What has Natella blamed the governor for just before this extract? (2marks)
c) For what reason did the princes holds a meeting in the capital and how will this
affect the governor later in the play? (3marks)
d) Identify a dominant theme that has been highlighted in this extract. (2marks)
e) Explain any two instances of irony in this extract. (4marks)
f) Pick any four phrases from this extract that the singer uses to foreshadow the tragic end of the governor.
Write your answer in note form. (4marks)
g) Basing your answer on what happens in this extract and elsewhere in the play, justify why it is right for the singer to refer to the governor as a blind man. (4marks)
h) He will devote all his time to you and your great new plans. (Begin: All his time ) (1mark)
i) Explain the meaning of the following as used in the extract (3marks)
i. Confer…………………………………………………………….
ii. Disquieting ………………………………………………………
iii. Make ourselves scarce…………………………………………..
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- Read the passage and then answer the questions that follow;
1.
Two weeks before the fateful examination began; I was indiscreet enough to fight the principal’ s...(Solved)
Read the passage and then answer the questions that follow;
1.
Two weeks before the fateful examination began; I was indiscreet enough to fight the principal’ s son. He was a fellow fifth former with whom, up till then , I had no quarrel at all. He was inclined to be a little overbearing at times ;but then a flint needs contact with another flint in order to spark, and I had been forced to develop from the start an easy-going and tolerant disposition . I suppose as the examination drew nearer, our nerves became tauter and our tempers shorter .When, during a discussion in our classroom about careers Samuel declared unnecessarily loudly that he believed all persons who came from North should return to it to find employment , I suddenly felt my anger rising like a column of mercury. I asked him why, in as calm a voice as I could assume. He replied with a sneer by quoting a Sagroson proverb whose meaning was roughly that even a man who does not know where he is going to ought, at least, to know where he has come from: and the gentle laughter, which greeted it brought my temper to boiling point. I was tall and well built, but so was he. Three strides took me beside him and by the time the class prefect succeeded in separating us, Sagrosan blood and Lokko blood had mingled on the floor. Moreover, as is the custom with us, the fight was as much verbal as physical and a torrent of abuse directed mainly against the other's antecedents was flowing out of each battered mouth.
We were bloody, sweaty, and dusty when it was over but still only partly through our respective stocks of abuse. Nothing more than a heighted respect each for the other might have come out of the fight, had Samuel been a boarder. Unfortunately for both of us, however, he lived very much under his august father's eye and the marks I had succeeded in leaving on his face were too distinctive to be hidden by any sort of artifice. I prepared for the worst (prepared in spirit that is, for physical preparations were known to be unavailing at such times). The summons to the principal's office duly came after lunch the same day. He was quite impartial, I'll say that for him. We were both arched over his desk and inscribed across our rumps with two dozen strokes of a bamboo four-footer. Then we were made to shake hands with each other and sent off for walk together along the beach and back (this was the principal's usual way of dealing with a pair of fighters, and one which usually made bosom friends of them).That thrashing and the walk which followed, gave me the moments of deepest mortification I have experienced, and drove home to me the utter futility and wastefulness of making issue of tribal divisions, in a land where much else required our attentions and our energies. Having heard from us how the fight started, the principal might so early have wasted our time and his reading us along patriotic sermon on the essential brotherhood of all the people of Songhai. Such a theme would have made him appear to me hypocrite and to Samuel a traitor -for we both knew only too well that the difference between us were real, if not deep. Instead, we were made to share a fellowship of misery and humiliation which linked us together more effectively than any half – believed fiction about cultural or ethnic affinities could have succeeded in doing.
QUESTIONS:
a) What was the cause of the fight? (2marks)
b) Show how the statement “A flint needs contact with another flint in order to spark”
is applicable to this story? (2marks)
c) With illustrations, show the difference in character between the narrator and his classmate? (4marks)
d) What is the narrator’s attitude towards the head teacher? (3marks)
e) Identify three phrases in the passage to describe the fierce nature of the fight? (3marks)
f) Identify two images that are used to show the extent of the narrator’s anger? (2marks)
g) Explain the punishment that was meted to the by their principal. (2marks)
h) Explain the meaning of the following phrases as used in passage: (2marks)
i) Bosom friends
ii) Patriotic sermon
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- The River and The Source – Margaret Ogola
“The African – pre-colonial past was unfair to women.” Basing on the novel “The River and the Source.”...(Solved)
The River and The Source – Margaret Ogola
“The African – pre-colonial past was unfair to women.” Basing on the novel “The River and the Source.” Write a composition in support of this statement.
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- Explain the meaning of each of the underlined idioms in the sentences below i) Maranda School’s commitment and prayers paid off in last year’s...(Solved)
) Explain the meaning of each of the underlined idioms in the sentences below
i) Maranda School’s commitment and prayers paid off in last year’s KCSE exams.
ii) She spilled the beans when she was promised an irresistible present.
iii) The members of the Fourth Estate must uphold high level of integrity as they execute their duties.
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- Fill in the blank spaces with the correct form of the verb in the brackets.
i) …………………….(Be) it not for the help he received...(Solved)
) Fill in the blank spaces with the correct form of the verb in the brackets. (3mks)
i) ………………………….(Be) it not for the help he received from his uncle, he would be unable to continue with his studies. ……………………
ii) If only we (listen)………………………..to such bad advice everything would have been alright. …………………………………………………
iii) No sooner……………….(finish) his speech than the audience broke into enthusiastic applause. ……………………………………………………
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- Fill in the blank spaces with the most appropriate form of the word in brackets (3mks)
i) The head teacher was surprised at the ………………..from the...(Solved)
Fill in the blank spaces with the most appropriate form of the word in brackets (3mks)
i) The head teacher was surprised at the ………………..from the boys. (reveal) ii) It was the most ……………………….journey as we suffered many accidents on the way. (event) iii) Messis’ five goals against a helpless Chelsea goalkeeper were…………..spectacle)
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- Rewrite the following sentences by replacing the underlined words with the correct phrasal verb formed from the words in brackets. (3mks)i) The teacher scolded us...(Solved)
Rewrite the following sentences by replacing the underlined words with the correct phrasal verb formed from the words in brackets. (3mks)
i) The teacher scolded us for being late (tell)
ii) I liked our new neighbours from the start. (take)
iii) He tend to be scornful of people who are poor. (look)
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- Rewrite the following sentences as instructed. (3mks)
i) Mary says she has two brothers and sisters. (Rewrite in direct speech).
ii) The girl lost her father....(Solved)
Rewrite the following sentences as instructed. (3mks)
i) Mary says she has two brothers and sisters. (Rewrite in direct speech).
ii) The girl lost her father. She was involved in a road accident. (Rewrite as one sentence beginning; Not only…………….)
iii) People in our village still have to carry water up from the river.
(Rewrite in the passive voice)
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow
3.
FOOT PATH
Path –let……..leaving home. Leading out.
Return my mother to me.
The sun is sinking and darkness...(Solved)
Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow
3.
FOOT PATH
Path –let……..leaving home. Leading out.
Return my mother to me.
The sun is sinking and darkness coming Hens and cocks are already inside and babies drowsing,
Return my mother to me. We do not have firewood and I have not seen the lantern,
There is no more food and the water has run out, Path-let I pray you, return my mother to me,
Path of the hillocks, path of the small stones, Path of slipperiness, path of the mud,
Return my mother to me, Path of pypyrus, path of the rivers,
Path of the small forests, path of the reeds, Over – trodden path, newly made path,
Return my mother to me,
Path, I implore you, return my mother to me
Path of the crossways, path that branches off,
Path of the stinging shrubs, path of the bridge,
Return my mother to me,
Path of the open, path of the valley,
Path of the steep climb, path of the downward slope,
Return my mother to me, Children are drowsing, about to sleep,
Darkness is coming and there is no firewood, And I have not found the lantern:
Return my mother to me.
Stella Ngatho
a) Who is the persona in this poem? (2mks)
b) What does the persona want the path to do, and why? (4mks)
c) The persona addresses the path as if it could hear and respond. What is given to
such feature and what is its effect in this poem? (4mks)
d) Where do you think is the mother? (2mks)
e) Identify and explain any three feelings experienced by the persona in this poem. (6mks)
f) What is the tone of the poem? (2mks)
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- Read the extract below and then answer the questions that follow.
Old Man: Milk? We have no milk. The soldiers from the city have our goats....(Solved)
Read the extract below and then answer the questions that follow.
Old Man: Milk? We have no milk. The soldiers from the city have our goats. Go to the soldiers if you want milk.
Grusha: But grandfather, you must have a little pitcher of milk for a baby?
Old Man: And for a God- bless – you, eh?
Grusha: Who said anything about a God – bless – you? (She shows her pursue.) We’ll pay like princes. “Head in the clouds, backside in the water.” (The peasant goes off, grumbling for milk.) how much for the milk?
Old Man: Three piasters. Milk has gone up.
Grusha: Three piasters for the little drop? (Without a word the OLD MAN shuts the door in her face.) Michael, did you hear that? Three piasters! We can’t afford it! (She goes back sits down again, and gives the CHILD her breast), Suck. Think of the three piasters. There’s nothing there, but you think you’re drinking, and that’s something. (Shaking her head, she sees that the CHILD isn’t sucking any more. She gets up, walks back to the door, knocks again.) Open, grandfather, we’ll pay. (softly.) May lightning strike you! (when the OLD MAN appears) I thought it would be half a piaster. But the baby
must be fed. How about one piaster for that little drop?
Old Man: Two.
Grusha : Don’t shut the door again.(She fishes a long time in her bag.) Here are two piasters. The milk better be good. I still have two day’s journey ahead of me. It’s murderous business you have here – and sinful, too!
Old Man : Kill the soldiers if you want milk.
Grusha : (giving the CHILD some milk): This is an expensive joke. Take a sip, Michael, it’s a week’s pay. Around here they think we earned our money just sitting on our behinds. Oh, Michael, you’re a nice little load for a girl to take on! (uneasy, she gets up, puts the CHILD on her back, and walks on. The OLD MAN, grumbling, picks up the pitcher and looks after her unmoved.)
Singer : As Grusha Vashnadze went northward The Princes’ Iron shirts went after her.
CHORUS: How will the barefoot girl escape the iron shirts, The bloodhounds, the trap – setters? They hunt even by night. Pursuers never tire. Butchers sleep little. Two IRONSHIRTS are trudging along the highway.
Corporal: You’ll never amount to anything blockhead, your heart’s not in it. Your senior officer sees this in little things. Yesterday, when I met the fat girl, yes, you grabbed her husband as I commanded, and you did kick him in the belly, at my request, but did you enjoy it, like a loyal Private, or were you just doing your duty? I’ve kept an eye on you blockhead, you’re a hollow reed and a tinkling cymbal, you won’t get promoted.(they walk a while in silence.) Don’t think I’ve forgotten how insubordinate you are, either. Stop limping! I forbid you to limp! You limp because I sold the horses, and I sold the horses because I’d never have got that price again. You limp to show me you don’t like marching. I know you. It won’t help. You wait. Sing!
a) Explain what happens just before this extract. (3mks)
b) “Michael, you’re a nice little load for a girl to take on!” Give a brief explanation of an
earlier incident in the play when Grusha took on Michael. (4mks)
c) “and for a God-bless-you, eh?”What does the old man mean by this? (2mks)
d) What signs exist in this extract that show that times are hard as a result of the revolt? (3mks)
e) i) “….(softly) may lightning strike you!”
Identify the feature of style employed in this statement. (1mk)
ii) What one theme is depicted in this extract? (2mks)
f) Identify and illustrate two character traits of Grusha brought out in this extract. (4mks)
g) Identify and explain any two figures of speech used in this extract. (4mks)
h) i) The Princes’ Ironshirts went after her. (Change into an interrogative statement). (1mk)
ii) They even hunt by night. ( Add a question tag) (1mk)
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
-
Read the passage below and then answer the questions that follow
The galloping increase in rural poverty is hitting women hardest. Sixty per cent of poor...(Solved)
Read the passage below and then answer the questions that follow
The galloping increase in rural poverty is hitting women hardest. Sixty per cent of poor are women, and their numbers have jumped by 50 per cent from the 1965 -70 level, as opposed to a 30 per cent increase for men during the same period. Of the 550 million women in the world, 76 million households.
The largest portion by far of female – headed households -31 per cent is in sub- Saharan Africa, ranging from 5 per cent in Burkina Faso to 60 per cent in Mozambique. In Asia, by contrast women are principal source of support for 9 per cent of rural families; in Latin American and Caribbean the figure is 17 per cent.
Although women produce half the developing world’s food supply – as much as 80 per cent in Africa- they have far less access and other vital resources. Although prime producers, women have difficulties obtaining plots even in land reform programmes where their share is, mandated by the law. In Gambia, where a rural distribution programme was closely monitored to ensure women’s rights, they still came way empty – handed, or with 13 per cent worldwide.
IFAD stress that the remedy to reducing rural poverty is enabling small farmers to dramatically increase the production of staple crops, arguing that growth based on the production of goods for export is unattainable for most of the developing world. The agency notes that economic and political conditions that sparked rapid expansion in some newly industrialized Asian countries during the 1960s and 1970s were unique and do not apply in Africa today.
IFAD also questions adjustment as a path to reduced poverty, saying that such programmes “focus on the non-poor and merely provide welfare support “to those mostly affected by the inflation, devaluation and loss of subsidies that generally accompany adjustment. “Safety nets” to lessen the hardship are “less relevant in most rural areas, where the long – term economic future of the poor is linked to the development of their own productive resources”
a) Who is most affected by the increase in poverty. (2mks)
b) By what percentage do women exceed men in terms of jumping from the 1967 -70 level? (1mk)
c) Explain the irony presented in paragraph 3 of the passage. (3mks)
d) What according to the author, is the key to reducing rural poverty. (2mks)
e) Why shouldn’t Africa be compared to some newly industrialized Asian countries. (2mks)
f) What reason is given by the author for rejecting structural adjustment programmes (2mks)
g) In not more than 50 words summarize the author’s argument on how to reduce poverty in Africa. (4mks)
h) Explain the meaning of the following words as used in the passage
i. Galloping
ii. Barren
iii. Sparked
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- Explain the different meanings expressed in the sentence below. (2mks)
Flying planes can be dangerous.(Solved)
Explain the different meanings expressed in the sentence below. (2mks)
Flying planes can be dangerous.
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- In the sentences below complete, the idioms already started for you. (2mks)i. He can write me letters till he’s blue………………………., I’m not going to reply.ii....(Solved)
In the sentences below complete, the idioms already started for you. (2mks)
i. He can write me letters till he’s blue………………………., I’m not going to reply.
ii. She is as blind………………………………….without her glasses.
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- Fill in the blank spaces with the correct forms of the words given in brackets. (2mks)
i. The……………………………………(broad) of the material could not easily be established.
ii....(Solved)
Fill in the blank spaces with the correct forms of the words given in brackets. (2mks)
i. The……………………………………(broad) of the material could not easily be established.
ii. The ……………………………………of the matter brought the District Commissioner to their village. (grave)
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- Insert the most appropriate prepositions in the blank spaces.
i. Her performance was amazing any standards.
ii. Since he no longer runs the business, he has been(Solved)
Insert the most appropriate prepositions in the blank spaces. (3mks)
i. Her performance was amazing…....any standards.
ii. Since he no longer runs the business, he has been reduced…begging.
iii. Traffic was moving……a snail’s pace.
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- Replace the underlined words with appropriate phrasal verbs formed from the words in brackets. (3mks)
I. John’s car which an accident was completely destroyed. (write)
II. The...(Solved)
Replace the underlined words with appropriate phrasal verbs formed from the words in brackets. (3mks)
I. John’s car which an accident was completely destroyed. (write)
II. The teacher could not tolerate the new student’s rudeness (put)
III. I am surprised you cannot discover the deception in the lies he tells you. (see)
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- Rewrite the sentences below according to the instructions given. (3mks)
i. She will receive a rousing welcome if she arrives before dark. (Begin: should….)
ii. Wafula had...(Solved)
Rewrite the sentences below according to the instructions given. (3mks)
i. She will receive a rousing welcome if she arrives before dark. (Begin: should….)
ii. Wafula had never undergone such an experience before. (Begin: Never…)
iii. I have never seen a more beautiful girl. (Rewrite beginning: This is..)
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- Read the narrative below and then answer the questions that follow:
Snake, Millipede and Centipede were born triplets to a caring old couple in a far...(Solved)
Read the narrative below and then answer the questions that follow:
Snake, Millipede and Centipede were born triplets to a caring old couple in a far off country. The couple had tried to get children for years but to no avail,
The arrival of the triplets was, therefore, the cause of great joy in the whole village. With the little energy left, they struggled with the day-to-day hustles of new parents. They doted on their little ones and ensured that they got everything they needed. They grew up to be three beautiful daughters and were the envy of the entire village.
Millipede was the eldest and naturally acted as the leader. She was courageous, caring and fiercely protective of her siblings, not one animal dared across her path because of strength and fighting skills she learnt for her father.
Centipede was born second. She often ran into trouble with the neighbours but was always confident that big sister would always come to her rescue. Her mother always had cases to settle with her friends. No one day passed without Centipede being scolded about her carefree lifestyle. Snake, the lastborn, was her mother’s favourite and always got away with mischief, however grave. She was the most beautiful of the sister’s and always got extra attention from parents.
As the sisters grew, the snake got really proud and wanted everything for herself. She often wondered how different life would have been had she born an only child.
She always schemed ways of getting her siblings into trouble and always got away with it.
One day, as they were at the river fetching water, they heard screams from upstream.
“Somebody help me please! I am trapped!”
The girls stopped in their tracks and cocked their ears. They rushed to the source of the cries and to their amazement; they found a man stuck to the waist, mud all around him as the river raged by. When he saw the three sisters, he was much relieved that help has finally arrived.
“Please girls, help me out of here, I’m going to drown,” he pleaded. Millipede and Centipede threw their hands to the poor man and struggled to pull him out. Little beads of sweat formed –on their foreheads as they struggled . “Come on and help” they told snake. “No way! I cannot dirty my delicate hands trying to save such a soul”, she sneered. Akimbo, she watched, bemused that her sisters would waste their time panting and heaving to wriggle the man out of the mud. Once out on dry ground, the man wiped the mud off his tired body and, as a way of appreciation asked the girls to make two wishes each. He told them that he was a genie who had been trapped for hundreds of years in the mud.
Snake was really excited when she heard about the wishes. She requested to be the firsts to make a wish. The sisters agreed but their hearts were heavy because they knew how malicious their sister was. Snake closed her eyes and silently made her wishes, for a big beautiful body and lovely legs millipede was next to make her wishes but because she knew her sister’s heart, she wished for a million of what snake had asked and a small body to go with it.
Centipede was the last to make her wish because of the admiration she had for her sister, wished for half of what her brave sister asked for. The man waved his magic band five times and bang! The sisters’ wishes came true.
Like a flash. Snake’s legs disappeared and her body grew twice its original size. Millipede got a million legs and her sister thousands, while their bodies shrunk to half their original sizes. They were all dismayed but on looking around, the man had disappeared. Snake was really sorry because she knew that she was the reason her sisters acted the way they did.
With shame, and tears streaming down her face, she glided away into the bushes and up to today , still holds a grudge against man for changing her fortunes. She always bites his ankle whenever they meet.
The other sisters accepted their wishes and continued with their lives happily, often helping man to aerate his farm by burrowing into the soil. (Adopted from Sunday Standard December 2006)
a) What type of narrative is this? Give a reason for your answer. (2mks)
b) Identify one social activity of the society in the narrative. (2mks)
c) Which features peculiar to oral narratives are evident in the narrative? (4mks)
d) Identify one character trait of the snake. (2mks)
e) What type of audience would be the target of such a narrative and why? (2mks)
f) “Please girls, help me out of here, I’m going to drown,” he pleaded. (rewrite in reported speech). (2mks)
g) If you were send to the field to collect the above narrative, mention any two method(s) you would use to collect the narrative. (2mks)
h) What is the moral lesson in the above narrative? (2mks)
i) What is the meaning of the following word and phrase as used in the narrative? (2mks)
i)dotedon
ii)dismayed
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- The play. The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Brecht Bertolt.
2.
Read the following extract and answer the question that follow.
LAWYERS (approaching AZDAK, who stands up, expectantly): A quite...(Solved)
The play. The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Brecht Bertolt.
2.
Read the following extract and answer the question that follow.
LAWYERS (approaching AZDAK, who stands up, expectantly): A quite ridiculous case, Your Honor. The accused has abducted a child and refuses to hand it over.
AZDAK (stretching out his hand, glancing at GRUSHA): A most attractive person. (He fingers the money, then sits down, satisfied.) I declare the proceedings open and demand the whole truth.
To GRUSHA:) Especially from you.
FIRST LAWYER: High Court of justice! Blood, as the popular saying goes, is thicker than water. This old adage…
AZDAK (Interrupting): The court wants to know the lawyers’ fee.
FIRST LAWYER (surprised): I beg your pardon?
(AZDAK, smiling, rubs his thumb and index finger.) Oh, I see, five hundred piasters, Your Honor, to answer the Court’s somewhat unusual question.
AZDAK: Did you hear? The question is unusual. I ask it because I listen in quite a different way when I know you’re good.
FIRST LAWAYER (bowing): Thank you, Your Honor. High Court of Justice, of all ties, the ties of blood are strongest. Mother and child –is there a more intimate relationship? Can one tear a child form its mother? High Court of Justice, she has conceived it in the holy ecstasies of love. She has carried it in her womb. She has fed it with her blood. She has borne it with pain. High Court of Justice, it has been observed that the wild tigress, robbed of her young, roams restless through the mountains, shrunk to a shadow. Nature herself…
AZDAK (interrupting to GRUSHA): What’s your answer to all this and anything else that lawyer might have to say?
GRUSHA: He’s mine.
AZDAK: Is that all? I hope you can prove it. Why should I assign the child to you any case?
GRUSHA: I brought him up like the priest says “according to my best knowledge and conscience”. I always found him something to eat. Most of the time he had a roof over his head. And I went to such trouble for my own comfort. I brought the child up to be friendly with everyone, and from the beginning taught him to work. As well as he could, that is. He’s still very little.
FIRST LAWYER: Your Honor, it is significant that the girl herself doesn’t claim any tie of blood between her and the child.
AZDAK: The Court takes a note of that
FIRST LAWYER: Thank you, Your Honor. And now permit a woman bowed in sorrow – who has already lost her husband and now has also to fear the loss of her child-to address a few words to you. The gracious Natella Abashwili is…
GOVERNOR’S WIFE (quietly) : A most cruel fate, sir, forces me to describe to you the tortures of a bereaved mother’s soul, the anxiety , the sleepless nights, the…
SECOND LAWYER (bursting out): It’s outrageous the way this woman is being treated! Her husband’s palace is closed to her! The revenue of her estates is blocked, and she is cold-bloodedly told that it’s tied to the heir. She can’t do a thing without that child. She can’t even pay her lawyers!!(To the FIRST LAWYER, who, desperate about this outburst, makes frantic gestures to
keep him from speaking:) Dear Illo Shuboladze, surely it can be divulged now that the Abashwili estates are at stake?
a) Describe the events leading to this extract. (2mks)
b) Identify and illustrate any two themes in this extract. (4mks)
c) Describe one character trait for each of the following characters. (4mks)
i) Azdak
ii) Grusha
d) “And I went to such trouble for my own comfort”. From your knowledge of the play explain the trouble that Grusha is referring to. (5mks)
e) Identify one aspect of style in this extract. (2mks)
f) “Can one tear a child from its mother?” Rewrite in reported speech. (2mks)
g) Make notes on the first lawyer’s defence for Natella’s custody of the child. (4mks)
h) What is the meaning of the following words as used in the passage? (2mks)
i)Ecstasies.
ii)Divulged.
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)
- Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
The post-Moi years, in particular, highlighted the country’s resilience and ability to grow, despite its difficult...(Solved)
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
The post-Moi years, in particular, highlighted the country’s resilience and ability to grow, despite its difficult past.
But the post-election violence of 2007 and 2008 shocked everybody. It tore apart the nation. When a power-sharing agreement was finally reached, the government was able to restore hope by publicly committing to the need for thorough investigations in the aftermath of the violence.
Only by establishing the truth, and delivering justice and reparations to the victims, could Kenya begin to heal and turn the page.
At Amnesty International, we have just released a report highlighting the testimonies of victims of the violence. One woman we spoke to from Nairobi’s Mathare settlement, told Amnesty International, how she and her husband had been attacked by men wielding machetes. She was fleeing from them when a police officer on patrol offered to take her to his home to get assistance from his wife. When they arrived to an empty house, the police officer raped her. She is now living with HIV.
This woman knew the police officer who had raped her – he is still working at a nearby police station. But she gave up on reporting the crime to the police because, whenever she tried, she was asked to pay bribes or provide original documents as evidence.
The victims fell disillusioned and shut out from the justice system for a wide range of reasons: some have been told that they do not have the right papers, while others have been ‘turned away’ by the police and many more fear repercussions if they talk. While it is important to recognize that the government has provided support for some internally displaced people, this has been limited and has reached too few. Kenya’s justice system has failed to address the needs of the hundreds of the thousands of victims of the post-election violence.
Amnesty International is now urgently calling on the government of Kenya to fulfill its obligations to provide truth, justice and reparation, and ensure that all victims of the violence have their voice heard. As at a first step, the government must conduct further investigations into the 4,000 cases that the director of public prosecutions has stated lack of sufficient evidence to proceed to trial; prioritizing investigations into crimes committed by the police and other security services.
This would at least help send a signal to Kenyans that there is a genuine political will for justice. Secondly, the government should act now to set up the committee for the implementation of the Recommendations of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation commission and implement a national framework for ensuring victims of the violence get reparations they are entitled to.
Thirdly, we are calling on the government to fully cooperate with the International Criminal Court. Nearly all of the 49 victims interviewed by Amnesty International supported the ICC’s efforts to investigate and prosecute the crimes committed in the post-election violence. Their chance to receive justice must not be obstructed. Finally, the government must do everything it can to ensure the protection of victims, witnesses and human rights defenders working on cases of post-election violence and international justice. It is unacceptable that people are feeling increasingly afraid of reprisals in today’s politicized environment.
a) What does the writer appreciate about the post Moi era? (1mk)
b) Despite the shock of the post election violence, the writer offers hope. Give a statement that captures this optimism. (1mk)
c) What evidence does the writer give to show that little has been done about the post election violence victims? (2mks)
d) Why according to the passage, are victims of violence unable to access justice? (2mks)
e) Explain the writer’s attitude towards Kenya’s justice system. (2mks)
f) “At Amnesty International, we have just released a report highlighting testimonies of victims of the violence”. (Rewrite in the passive) (2mks)
g) In not more than 85 words, summarize the steps Kenya should take to ensure all victims of violence have been addressed. (7mks)
h) What is the meaning of the following words and phrases as used in the passage? (3mks)
i) obligations
ii) disillusioned
iii) reprisals
Date posted: January 23, 2018. Answers (1)