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The title Blossoms of the savanna appropriately represents the essence of the story in
which the hardness and harshness – produced and reproduced by the Maasai culture – of
the coming-of-age of two girls is described.
With this novel he reveals the importance and significance of Maasai culture for
the Maasai themselves. It shows how extremely important Maasai culture is in maintaining
rules and regulations in order to nurture and bind the Maasai together. In acknowledging
this importance of culture the author is, however, not blind to the fact that culture is not a
static state but rather a dynamic ‘process’ that should undergo changes, especially when it
involves practices that have outlived their usefulness.
He reveals that Maasai culture is
characterized by specific beliefs and social institutions which go together with the
conviction that any proposal that questions these established norms is considered to be
against the whole Maasai culture. This situation causes – within the Maasai community –
a clash of perceptions and attitudes between those who want to uphold their traditions and
others who have embraced modern culture and consequently question certain aspects of
culture which they consider unnecessary in modern-day society
Anganifelix answered the question on April 13, 2018 at 17:21
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Date posted: April 6, 2018. Answers (1)
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Name three types of oral narratives.
Date posted: April 6, 2018. Answers (1)
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Highlight 10 Maa cultures portrayed in blossoms of the Savannah.
Date posted: April 5, 2018. Answers (1)
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Date posted: March 21, 2018. Answers (1)
- Is oral literature important or useful in modern society? Using specific examples demonstrate your view either for or against the statement.(Solved)
Is oral literature important or useful in modern society? Using specific examples demonstrate your view either for or against the statement.
Date posted: March 17, 2018. Answers (1)
- Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow:
BEGGAR IN THREE PIECE
My jumbo
Shot its way
Across the sky
To distant lands
Across blue seas.
I descended the...(Solved)
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow:
BEGGAR IN THREE PIECE
My jumbo
Shot its way
Across the sky
To distant lands
Across blue seas.
I descended the ladder
To a waiting ribbon
Of blood-red carpet
A quick glance at my
Three piece suit
And the tie
That beautifully strangled my neck.
On my left hand hang
My beaded knobkerrie
On my right clutched
My rusty inter-Nation begging Bowl
On my face I wore humility and need
And of course dignity.
Sir, the dearth of food
Has rendered by people thin
And hungry
Scoop us a little
You know,
Just a little,
To keep them till next rains’
‘But Sir, beggars
In three piece
Are a rare sight
But your suit is beautiful
- Honestly
Now my suit
Which cost me a fortune
In a Parisian Textile
Has denied me a fortune
And my countrymen, lie.
L.O. Sunkuli
Questions
a) Who is the persona in this poem?
b) What is the subject matter of this poem?
c) Explain the satire in this poem and comment on its effectiveness.
d) Describe the tone of the poem.
e) Explain what the last stanza implies.
f) Explain the meaning of the following lines as used in the poem.
i) My Jumbo
Shots its way
Across the sky
ii) That beautifully strangled my neck.
iii) To keep them till next rains.
Date posted: March 16, 2018. Answers (1)
- COMPREHENSION
Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.
A boy learns from his father without even realizing that he is learning. He...(Solved)
COMPREHENSION
Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.
A boy learns from his father without even realizing that he is learning. He associates with his father’s masculinity and learns what it entails.
Children are always making decisions. They watch what happens around them and decide what to do to find belonging and connection. They do not automatically mimic the behavior and values of their parents as they are thinking and feeling people who decide for themselves what works.
A father’s role in raising children has changed dramatically with modernization of the society. In past generations, sons were groomed to follow their father’s footsteps, apprenticing at work and adopting their outlook to life.
Nowadays, fathers go out to work wherever their skills take them or where work can be found. Many boys grow up yearning for the closeness with their fathers.
The father is someone who comes to eat, sometimes looks over homework, hears about the son’s infractions of the day and watches television then goes to bed.
Parenting has become a mother’s business while father is out there eking a living. Research shows that fathers are an integral part of their son’s healthy emotional, physical and cognitive growth.
Boys whose fathers love them can demonstrate that love in consistent caring ways, have fewer problems later in life with their peers or in their studies and do not display delinquent behavior.
But teaching a young man how to become a man involves more than just being there. It is a conscious process of mentoring, training and connection that creates a desire for a boy to become the kind of a man we hope he will become.
Many factors come into play, especially in the boy’s formative stage. Recently, I was speaking to a gentleman who in retrospect ascribes his violent behavior to anger brought about by the ill treatment of his mother by his father.
One of the most important influences a father can have on his son is largely through the quality of relationship with the mother. A father who relates well with the mother of his children is more likely to have sons who are psychologically and emotionally healthier. Fathers who treat the mother of their sons with respect and deal with any conflict within the relationship in an appropriate manner are more likely to have boys who understand how women should be treated. They are less likely to be aggressive towards women.
Children with involved, caring fathers have better education outcomes. Fathers often push for achievement, while mothers stress on the boy’s well-being, both of which are important for healthy development.
A study of children of school-going age found that boys with involved fathers have fewer social behaviour problems and are likely to have good emotional health, to be high achievers and avoid drug use, violence and delinquent behavior.
(Adapted from the Standard Sunday Magazine 29th June, 2014)
a) Mention any two things that show that a father’s presence is important in a boy’s life.
b) How does a boy learn from his father?
c) How do children find belonging and connection?
d) Make notes on the ways in which a father can positively influence his son.
e) Many factors come to play (Supply a question tag)
f) Nowadays many fathers go to work wherever their skills take them.
(Rewrite in the present perfect continuous tense)
g) What does teaching a young man involve?
h) Give the meaning of the following words as used in the passage.
1) Mimic
2) Masculinity
3) Groomed
4) Retrospect
i) Supply a suitable title for the passage.
Date posted: March 16, 2018. Answers (1)
- Read the extract below then answer the questions that follow.
“Father! Mother! Come quickly! Tony is dying! He burst into their room throwing his manners...(Solved)
Read the extract below then answer the questions that follow.
“Father! Mother! Come quickly! Tony is dying! He burst into their room throwing his manners completely to the wind. Elizabeth was already on her way across the room. Like all mothers she slept without sleeping and Tony’s screams had brought her to consciousness and to her feet before Aoro started out of the room. Mark struggled to wake up and saw his wife streaking out of the room.
“What the heck is going on?” He asked the empty room. There was of course no answer, but the panicked sounds in the boys’ room were enough to direct him.
Tony was writhing on the floor; clearly the boy was very sick. Mark rushed to the neighbours to ask for transport. Those were the days before people learned to barricade themselves behind their doors for fear of thugs masquerading as people in distress. The neighbour who owned a VW rushed the sick boy who held on his mother’s lap in the front seat with his father in the back, to the general hospital.
Doctors who stare death in the face on daily basis are never in as much a hurry as relatives would like them to be, but eventually the boy was seen and a diagnosis of acute appendicitis was made. He was scheduled for an emergency operation, but since there was one apparently more serious case before him, it wasn’t until the early hours of the morning that they took him to the theatre, where an ugly inflamed appendix was incised and removed.
Back at home, Aoro was climbing walls with fear and worry. His sisters with the death like slumber of the young had managed to sleep throughout the whole commotion. At dawn he decided enough was enough so he went to their room and shook them awake.
“What is it?” She asked alarmed.
“Tony is sick. He was rushed to hospital at night and they haven’t come back.” He could not add the unspeakable – the fear that his brother was dying or dead.
“Why didn’t you wake us up you idiot?” Asked Vera annoyed such a thing could have happened without her knowing it; so she took it out on her brother. Becky continued to lie in her bed. Few things bored her as much as sickness, suffering and death. She simply could not identify with them. At sixteen she was a breathtaking beauty and had a horde of admirers and aspiring boyfriends none of whom she had yet shown interest in. She did not believe in wasting time. Besides, her sister was always with her and she knew her parents would not take kindly to such goings on. She stretched luxuriously in bed, enjoying the feel of her young lithe body. Aoro, tired of being called names retired back to his room. Vera looked questioningly at her sister, and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. She was beginning to have doubts about the young lady.
Questions
a) What had happened shortly before the excerpt?
b) Father! Mother! Come quickly! Tony is dying. (Rewrite in reported speech)
c) How does Tony’s sickness and treatment affect Aoro’s future life?
d) Contrast the characters of Becky and Vera according to their reaction towards their brother’s sickness.
e) Why had Becky not shown interest in any of her boyfriend?
f) Identify and illustrate any evident theme in the extract.
g) What in the extract shows that Elizabeth is a caring mother?
h) Identify and illustrate any evident style in the extract.
i) Give any two phrasal verbs used in the extract.
j) Explain the meaning of the following words as used in the extract.
1) Writhing
2) Masquerading
3) Appendicitis
4) Incised
5) Commotion
Date posted: March 16, 2018. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow.
Follower
My father worked with a horse plough
His shoulders globed like a full...(Solved)
Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow.
Follower
My father worked with a horse plough
His shoulders globed like a full sail strung
Between the shafts and the furrow
The horses strained at his clicking tongue.
An expert. He would set the wing
And fit the bright steel-pointed sock
The sod rolled heading, with single pluck
Of reins, the sweating team turned round
And back into the land. His eye
Narrowed and angled at the ground,
Mapping the furrow exactly.
I stumbled in his hobnailed wake
Fell sometimes on the polished sod
Sometimes he rode me on his back
Dipping and rising to his plod.
I wanted to grow up a plough,
To close one eye, stiffen my arm,
All I did was follow
In his broad shadow around the farm.
I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,
Yapping always. But today
It is my father who keeps stumbling
Behind me, and will not go away.
Questions
a) Describe what the poem is about.
b) What is the persona’s attitude towards his father?
c) Identify and illustrate any two literary devices used.
d) What is the mood of the poem?
e) Describe two character traits of the father.
f) What is the irony in the last stanza?
g) Which word can replace ‘yapping’?
h) Identify the two different aspects of the title ‘follower’.
Date posted: March 16, 2018. Answers (1)
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Date posted: March 15, 2018. Answers (1)
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What is the importance of oral literature?
Date posted: March 12, 2018. Answers (1)
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Help can come when least expected. Discuss with illustrations from Blossoms of the Savannah.
Date posted: March 6, 2018. Answers (1)
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Gender inequality is tantamount to violation of human rights. Write an essay in support of the assertion drawing your illustrations from Blossoms of the Savannah.
Date posted: March 6, 2018. Answers (1)
- Bad decisions can adversely affect our lives. Write an essay in support of the statement with illustrations from the novel Blossoms of Savannah (Solved)
Bad decisions can adversely affect our lives. Write an essay in support of the statement with illustrations from the novel Blossoms of Savannah
Date posted: March 6, 2018. Answers (1)
- “The strong bond between Resian and Taiyo contributes significantly to their triumph.” Write an essay in support of the statement.(Solved)
“The strong bond between Resian and Taiyo contributes significantly to their triumph.” Write an essay in support of the statement from Blossoms of Savannah.
Date posted: March 6, 2018. Answers (1)
- “Though Resian goes through the valley of death, her determination leads her to a victorious life.” Write a composition to show the validity of...(Solved)
“Though Resian goes through the valley of death, her determination leads her to a victorious life.” Write a composition to show the validity of this assertion from Blossoms of Savannah.
Date posted: March 6, 2018. Answers (1)
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