THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA

THE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE

REGIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENT SECONDARY SCHOOL

FORM FOUR EXAMINATION

LITERATURE IN ENGLISH
Time 3:00 Hours 2024

INSTRUCTIONS

1. This paper consists of sections A, B and C with a total of eleven (11) questions.
2. Answer all questions in sections A and B and two (2) questions from section C.
3. Cellular phones and any unauthorised materials are not allowed in the examination room.
4. Write your examination number on every page of your answer booklet(s).

SECTION A (16 Marks)

(Answer all questions in this section)
1. For each of the items (i) – (x), choose the correct answer from among the given alternatives
and write its letter beside the item number in the answer booklet provided.
(i) The following are the factors that make literature different from other works of art,
EXCEPT.
a) Literature has characters.
b) Literature uses language.
c) Literature has performance.
d) Literature has a specific setting.
e) Literature is divided in acts and scenes.

(ii) Kere read a play called “Kinjeketile” which addresses the event of “The Majimaji war” that
really happened in the history of the then Tanganyika involving the southern tribes under
the leadership of Kinjeketile Ngwale. What kind of a play did he read?
a) Melo drama. d) Historical drama.
b) Tragic comedy drama. e) Comedy drama.
c) Tragedy drama.

(iii) „He wasn’t slow to accept the offer‟ – meaning he was quick to accept the offer.
This statement best describes:-
a) A personification. d) An understatement.
b) An overstatement. e) An irony.
c) A litotes.

(iv) “Mary got pregnant the same day she got married. Nine months later she gave birth to
a healthy baby boy”. This statement describes a plot called:-
a) Foreshadowing.
b) Flash-forward. e) Climax.
c) Flashback.
d) Chronological plot.

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(v) Mahamood was reading “A walk in the night” and in page 20 he came across this
description “She had a heavy mouth, smeared blood-red with greasy lipstick, so that it
looked stark as a wound in her dark face”. This statement describes:-
a) Visual image (image of sight)
b) Olfactory image (image of smell)
c) Audio image (image of sound)
d) Tactile image (image of touch)
e) Gustatory image (image of taste)

(vi) One of the following statements represents a literary language as opposed to ordinary
language.
a) In my wedding I invited billions and billions of people.
b) Jesca is studying in the library.
c) Will you go to the cinema this evening?
d) They will be here any time from now.
e) The teacher is teaching Literature.

(vii) This is a story about a creature like a small person, who has magic powers usually for
children.
a) Tall tale
b) Fairy tale
c) Trickster tale
d) Folktale
e) Folklore

(viii) The type of a poem which is divided into two parts; the first 8 lines are called octet which
present a problem or question, and the final 6 lines are called sestet which offer a solution
or a reaction to the first part.
a) Narrative poem
b) Didactic poem
c) Sonnet poem
d) Lyric poem
e) Ballad poem

(ix)Poetic license is the freedom by which the poet is allowed to violate/break certain
grammatical rules to achieve a poetic effect. Which line has employed poetic license?
a) They‟ve just arrived.
b) I‟ll show you the way.
c) I saw twenty people at the market.
d) Ten thousand saw I at a glance.
e) Literature is enjoyable.

(x) “They sell the wedding bells.” this is an example of:-

a) Alliteration
b) Consonance
c) Refrain
d) Reiteration
e) Assonance.

i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x.

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2. Match the descriptions in List A with the corresponding type of item in List B by writing the
letter of the correct response beside the item number in the answer booklet provided.

List A List B
i. This is a work of fiction that is longer and more complex A. Prose fiction
than a short story and it has more than forty thousand
B. Short story
words
ii. This is a fiction work that is longer than a short story but C. Novelette
shorter than a novel.
D. Novella
iii. This is a short novel, typically one that is light and
romantic or sentimental in character. E. Novel
iv. This is a story usually about imaginative characters and
F. Autobiography
events that is short enough to be read from the beginning to
the end without stopping. G. Drama
v. This refers to any kind of writing that is not poetry or that
H. Biography
is not presented in verse form or stanza.
vi. A narrative in which one writes about his or her own life
history.

i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi.

SECTION B (54 Marks)

Answer all questions in this section

3. Imagine that you have gone home for the holiday and you meet your friend who is studying
PCB at Tarime High school. You tell her that you are studying Literature in English and she
says you are wasting your time.

4. Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.
WESTERN CIVILIZATION Augostinho Neto (Angola)

Sheets of tin nailed to posts

driven in the ground
make up the house

Some rags complete

the intimate landscape.

The sun slanting through

cracks welcomes the owner

After twelve hours of slave

labour.
breaking rock
shifting rock
breaking rock
shifting rock
fair weather
wet weather

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 breaking rock
shifting rock

Old age comes early

a mat on dark nights

is enough when he dies
gratefully
of hunger.

Questions

a) Who is the persona in this poem and how do you know?

b) Stanza five has only one verse which says “Old age comes early”. Why is it so and what
does it mean?
c) Find a stanza that has a personification and say why you believe it is a personification.
d) Suggest three main ideas that the poet wanted to communicate to his audience.
e) Do you think this poem is still relevant today? How?

5. With examples write short notes on the following literary terms.

(i) Modern poetry.
(ii) Narrative poem.
(iii) Art.

6. Which literary term(s) is being described by each of the following descriptions.

a. This is the point of the greatest emotional intensity, interest, or suspense in the plot of a
narrative.
b. John is complaining that he is so hungry that he can eat a whole cow. John‟s statement
is an example of a figure of speech called...
c. Before Dr Reginald Mengi passed away, he wrote a book on his own life and
experiences entitled “I can, I must I will. Such accounts are called……….
d. Muhogo Mchungu likes to use expressions that have meanings different from the
meanings of individual words. These expressions are called………..
e. It is a kind of literature that deals with non-factual materials or imaginary events and
characters.
f. Mother! When I grow up I will not carry a pen but a gun………
g. “I‟ve got just a little amount to sustain me for a week; only one billion” …………
h. “O stone, o might, o heart of man-made god, thou art the emblem of our hope” ………..
i. We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hollow this ground ………….

7. “Ihuoma belongs to the sea. When she was in spirit world, she was a wife of a Sea-King, the
ruling spirit of the sea. Against the advice of her husband, she sought the company of human
beings and was incarnated. The sea-king was very angry but because he loved her best of all
his wives, he did not destroy her immediately she was born. However, because of his great
love for her he is terribly jealous and tries to destroy any man who makes love to her.” (The
Concubine, p.195).

In the light of the surrounding atmosphere in which this statement was given,
a) Suggest three themes with evidence from the paragraph.
b) State three messages from the themes you have mentioned in (a) above.

8. Using your knowledge of poetry, you have learnt in this course;

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 a) Compose a sonnet poem.
b) Show two figures of speech you have used
c) Show two poetic devices you included

SECTION C (30 Marks)

Answer two (2) questions from this section.

9. Relate the content of the works you have read with their titles. Use two novels of your
choice from the list above.

10. Different playwrights in different plays have portrayed a woman differently. She is either a
pot full of poison or a beehive full of honey. Prove this statement by using “The dilemma of
a Ghost” by C. A.A. Aidoo and “The trials of Brother Jero” by W.Soyinka. use six points in
total.

11. In writing poems, poets teach and/or criticise the society. Use two poems to show what
the poets want their readers to learn from them.