ST MARYS HIGH SCHOOL MUKUNIKE
END OF TERM 2 EXAMINATIONS
ENGLISH FORM 3
NAME,...,.............,..................................................................................ADM.
NO.........................CLASS........
QUESTION MAXIMUM SCORE STUDENTS SCORE
1 20
2 10
3 20
4 15
5 10
TOTAL 80
1. FUNCTIONAL WRITING (20)
Imagine you are the head of students’ council in your school. The school has not been
performing well .The principal has formed a committee of five members who include one
cook, two teachers and two students, you being one of them .You are the secretary to that
committee .you are to write a report after the committee investigates the causes of the poor
performance in the school and submit it to the principal within a month .write the report.
2. COMPREHENSION (10mks )
. Read the following passage and answer the
questions that follow.
The statements, events and reactions of the past couple of weeks surrounding the
perennially vexed subject of corruption makes me wonder. Are we on the cusp of the
challenge to and confrontation against corruption?
Certainly we have come a long way In identifying and isolating it. Let me give a small
example. Twenty one years ago, I wrote a piece for the Sunday Nation which was
entitled "Why Kenya's looting brigade now has its eyes on public land"
The main thrust of the article was that after the monetary excesses of 1992 and
1993, there was a growing penchant for Kenya's looting brigade to next move their focus
and activities to public land. The process was as simple and as was crude. A handful of
politically connected private individuals or entities would get allocated a prime piece of
public land for a nominal sum. A title would be processed and then it would be sold, in part
or whole, at a much higher price to a public institution that had the cash resources. It
became known as "land grabbing" and most Kenyans can give countless examples of
where this has taken place. It was double plunder because not only was the land grabbed;
it was often paid out of public resources or savings that were meant for other things.
Today, we talk about this activity and make reference to it with alacrity and in most
cases without fear. Not so in 1994.When I first wrote the piece and offered it to the
Sunday Nation, it passed the relevant tests of being well researched and factually correct,
but publishing it was another matter. There was a culture of fear that shrouded the whole
country and putting one's head above the parapet was regarded as dangerous and reckless.
The piece was pushed around a couple of editorial desks and the decision to publish was
deferred for a while I recall I was requested to "soften" the piece. When it did eventually
get printed, I was very much aware that I might get a backlash and braced myself
accordingly. Today, there is much less remaining of that culture of fear but as we have been
reminded several times recently, corruption at many levels continues unabated. The
Dossier compiled by the Ethics and Anti-corruption Authority (EACC) is evidence
enough. The stance made by the president on Thursday is also encouraging.
So where to now? There is no doubt that the public outrage the majority of the population,
who are mere victims, as opposed to beneficiaries, is gathering the momentum of landslide
proportions. We should not underestimate that growing anger. This is both unsurprising and
gratifying. For most of us, corruption just makes our lives much tougher, more fatiguing
and even expensive.
The big question is: how seriously will those who have been named take it? The norm in
many countries which aspire to high integrity standards is that when a person is named by
such a body as the EACC, then that person should step aside. The onus is on the relevant
bodies to complete investigations and prosecute as and when necessary and for the person
named to defend him or herself.
That is where we should be heading. The president should make it clear that all the people
named in the scandal should step aside. If we move down that road, then we are indeed
heading in the right direction. If we do not then this will just be another bout of public
gesturing of the bread and circuses variety.
Lastly, the EACC and in turn the Director of Public Prosecution, need to do some serious
ground work to fully support and, where applicable, prosecute what is being alleged. We
are watching and in a number of cases, rather sceptically.
Questions
a) According to the passage, what statements show that corruption has taken a long
time to be addressed? (2marks)
b) From the writer’s perspective, what is land grabbing? (2marks)
c) Why is it easier today to talk about land grabbing? (2marks)
d) What steps should be taken when suspects involved in corruption step aside?
Give your answer in note form. (3marks)
e) Provide a question tag (1mk) We should not underestimate that growing anger,
3.Read the following EXCERPT and attempt tjr following questions (20mks)
Montano: Tell me Alvita, what can we do as a society to ensure you have a good future? Right
now it seems extremely bleak. I shudder to think about it.
Alvita: How do you know my future is extremely bleak?
Montano: Well, yesterday I was seated under the tree behind the classroom, thinking.
Alvita: And then?
Montano: I travelled into the future about fifty years from now. And guess what? I saw you
working at a corner in a city as a cobbler. You looked severely battered and your nose
permanently running. If I remember well.
Alvita: Me a cobbler? Was it a night mare that you had or hallucination?
Montano: No, it is called travelling to the future. You close your eyes and try to figure out how
your future will look like, given past and current trends. You can also travel into the past.
One time I travelled into the past until I was back in my mother’s womb. And I sat there
mesmerized (Demonstrating folding his legs and arms in a foetal position).
Alvita: Oh, what a strange thing to do! But a cobbler you said?
Montano: You were actually fortunate to have a source of income as a cobbler. Millions of young
people were loitering aimlessly in the streets and villages without gainful employment. All
of them were poor, hungry and angry.
Alvita : You are rarely serious, Montano You mean with all my Education I couldn’t get a job?
Montano: You see Alvita ,our country has been and is producing more graduates each year than the
number of jobs its able to create .At this rate ,what do you think will be the situation over
a period of fifty years ? (Pauses ,then continues) I was in no better position. I was earning
my livelihood as a pannist with a not so popular tell hand at that time. But joblessness
was not even my main concern.
Alvita: What was your main concern?
Montano: The way your nose was running, as though you had a drum of fluids in the middle of
your head. I frankly didn’t think you would see another day!
Alvita: (Holding her nose) And why on earth was my nose running like that? This is unusual
Montano: I think it was because of the awful smelling the city that time, all cities had a bad stench
because cleaning water was very scarce.
Alvita: Why was there no water?
Montano: Climate change had occasioned unpredictable whether pattern, and it was hardly
raining any more. It was hardly raining any more. It was raining once in a year, at most
for only ten minutes, Alvita, the new climate could hardly support plant or animal life.
QUESTIONS
a. Put the excerpt in its immediate context (4mks)
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b. Identify and illustrate 2 stylistic devices evident in the above excerpt. (4mks)
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c. Discuss 3 thematic concerns evident in the above excerpt (6mks)
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d. Who is Montano and Alvita (2mks)
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e .Apart from Alvita and Montana ,mention other three characters and the positions
they hold in Maracas municipality.( 3mks)
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e. Provide the question tag (1mk)
I travelled into the future, .......................................................
ORAK SKILLS (20mkS)
A.ORAL POEM
Make me a grave where’re you will
In a lowly plain, or a lofty hill;
Make it among earth’s humblest graves,
But not in a land where men are slaves.
I could not rest if around my grave,
I heard the steps of a trembling slave;
His shadow above my silent tomb,
Would make it a place of fearful gloom.
1.Comment on the rhyme scheme of the above poem.(2mks)
2. How would you say the last line of the poem?(1mk)
3.what is the importance of repetion in an oral poem(2mks)
B.Read the coversation below and attempt the questions.
Secretary: (phone rings) Hello, Masomo Secondary School. How may I help you?
Caller: I want to speak to my mother.
Secretary: May I know who your mother is please?
Caller: (impatient and irritated) I have said I want to speak to my mother.
Secretary: Excuse me, I don’t know who your mother is. Could you please tell me her name?
Caller: (shouting) You have been working in that institution for the last ten years and you don’t know
Mrs.
Marita?
Secretary: (politely) oh, Mrs. Marita? She has just stepped out shortly. May I take a message for her
please?
Caller: (bangs the receiver).
i) Identify instances that show the caller’s lack of etiquette (2mks)
j) What shows that the secretary demonstrates professional conversational skills during the
telephone
conversation?(2mks)
C. Considering the stressed sound,identify the odd one out.(2mks)
a) Choir Charisma Chorus Chore
b) Chess Chef Shelf Sugar
D. Imagine you are to attend an interview for a job you had applied for.What are the things you
would do to make sure you succeed and get the job.
a) BEFORE.(3mks)
b) DURING(3mks)
E.Imagine you have been invited to a certain school to offer a talk on DRUG AND DRUG ABUSE.What
will you do as the speaker to make sure that your audience benefits from tahe talk (3mks)
GRAMMAR (10MKS)
a)Use the appropriate preposition to complete the following sentences. (3mks)
1.He is afraid..........................being punished.
2.Magufuli died ......................Cancer.
3. Our Country affected..................corruption.
b) provide the most appropriate pronouns in the following sentences.(3mks)
1.Between you and ..............who is wiser?(I,me)
2.It was .............that reported the matter to the area chief.(her,she)
3.She will do the work by (himself,him)
Complete the following sentences with correct form of( HAVE) and the correct form of the
VERB (2mks)
1.They ....................................................(finish) their work yesterday when we arrived there.
2.We .................................................(do) our assignment five minutes ago.
Provide the correct question tag.(2mks)
1. Ted and Mark live her.....
2.It will rain tomorrow,.....
