KCSE 2010 English Paper 2 Questions with Marking Scheme

QUESTIONS

1. Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.
   
   Moving to a new country can be exciting, even exhilarating experience. In a new environment, you somehow feel more alive: seeing new sights, eating new food, hearing the foreign sounds of a new language, and feeling a different climate against your skin stimulate your senses as never before. Soon, however, this sensory bombardment becomes sensory overload. Suddenly, new experiences seen stressful rather than stimulating, and delight turns into discomfort. This is the phenomenon known as culture shock. Culture shock is more than a jet lag or homesickness, and it affects nearly everyone who enters a new culture – tourists, business travelers, diplomats and students alike. Although not everyone experiences culture shock in exactly the same way, many experts agree that it is roughly five stages.
   
   In the first stage, you are excited by your environment. You experience some simple difficulties such as trying to use the telephone or public transportation, but you consider these small challenges that you can quickly overcome. Your feelings about the new culture are positive, so you are eager to make contact with people and try new foods.
   
   Sooner or later, the difference in behavior and customs become more noticeable to you. This is the second stage of culture shock. Because you do not know the social customs of the new culture you may find it difficult to make friends. For instance, you do not understand how to make “small talk,” so it is hard to carry on a casual, get- acquainted conversation. One day in the school cafeteria, you will overhear a conversation. You understand all the words but you do not understand the meaning. Why is everyone laughing? Are they laughing at you or some joke that you did not understand? Also, you aren’t always sure how to act while shopping. Is this store self-service or should you wait for a clerk to assist you? If you buy a sweater in the wrong size, can you exchange it? These are not minor challenges; they are major frustrations.
   
   In the third stage, you no longer have positive feelings about the new culture. You feel you have made a mistake in coming here. Making friends hasn’t been easy, so you begin to feel lonely and isolated. Now you want to be familiar people and eat familiar food. You begin to spend more of your time with students from your home country, and eat in restaurants that serve your native food. In fact, food becomes in an obsession, and you spend a lot of time planning, shopping for, and cooking food from home.
   
   You know that you are in the fourth stage of culture shock when you have negative feelings about almost everything. In this stage, you actively reject the new culture. You become critical, suspicious and irritable. You believe that people are unfriendly, that your landlord is trying to cheat you, that your teachers do not like you, and the food is making you sick. In fact, you might actually develop stomachaches, headaches, sleeplessness, lethargy, or of the physical symptoms.
   
   Finally, you reach the fifth stage. As your language skills improve, you begin to have some success in meeting people and in negotiating situations. You were able to exchange the sweater that is too small, and you can successfully chat about the weather with a stranger on the bus. Your self-confidence grows. After realizing that you cannot change your surroundings, you are able to accept the differences and tolerate them. For instance, the food will never be tasty as the food in our home country, but you are now able to eat and sometimes enjoy some dishes. You may not like the way some people in your host country dress or behave in public, but you do not regard their clothes and behavior as wrong – just different.
   
   In conclusion, nearly everyone moving to a new country some degree of culture shock. Symptoms may vary, and not all people experience all five stages. Newcomers with a strong support group may feel at home immediately in the new culture, while others may take months to feel comfortable. Staying in touch with friends and family, keeping a positive attitude and above all, learning the language as soon as possible are ways to overcome the difficulties and frustrations of adapting to life in a new land.
   
   From: Writing Academic English, Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue, Pearson Education, Longman (2006)
   
   
   
   1. According to the passage what is the meaning of culture shock? (2 marks)
      
      
   2. Identify three factors that can cause culture shock. (3 marks)
      
      
   3. What evidence does the author give to show to show “you understand all the words, but you do not understand the meaning”? (3 marks)
      
      
   4. Give any three features that characterize a person in the worst state of culture shock. (3 marks)
      
      
   5. In note form, give the difficulties experienced in the second stage of the culture shock. (4 marks)
      
      
   6. Why is making friends helpful in overcoming culture shock? (2 marks)
      
      
   7. Explain the meaning of the following words as used in the passage: (3 marks)
      Alive …………………………………………………………
      Obsession ……………………………………………………..
      Negotiating ……………………………………………………
      
      
   8. Staying in touch with friends and family, keeping a positive attitude, and, above all, learning the language as soon as possible are ways to overcome the difficulties the difficulties and frustrations and adapting the new life in a new land.
      (Rewrite the sentence above without changing the meaning. Begin: You …) (1 mark)
      
      
      
2. Read the excerpt below and then answer the questions that follow:
   
   Again Nyambura glanced over he shoulder in the direction of her home, she wondered whether to stop or to go on. She heard Waiyaki’s voice.
   
   “I am going to see Kamau.”
   
   “And I Johanna. My father has sent me to tell him to come to our home today.”
   
   “Then we can walk together,” he suggested.
   
   They moved on slowly. He was thinking of this girl. Muthoni had been the cause of their first meeting. Then Nyambura had been a fairly tall girl will well-formed features. Now she could see the woman in her under the bright moonlight.
   
   “What are you doing there?” she asked. Waiyaki thought: What am I going to do there? It was then that it occurred to him that he did not want to see Kamau. Not now. He too thought of the people and what they would say now if they saw them walking together. Above them the moon gaze and lit the whole land. Nyambura was not circumcised. But this was not a crime. Something passed between them two as human beings, untainted with religion, social conventions or any traditions.
   
   "Just to see Kamau and family."
   
   Nyambura felt a little angry. She thought; their activities. She came to a place where their ways parted. They stopped their and stood as if held by something outside themselves. Perhaps it was the magic of the moon that held them both rooted on the spot. Waiyaki wanted to dance the magic and ritual of the moon. His heart beat hard, beating out of the darkness. And Nyambura stood there looking as if she were the embodiment of the serene beauty, symbolized by the flooding moon and the peace around.
   
   Suddenly, Waiyaki felt as if the burning desires of his heart would be soothed only if he could touch her, just touch her hand or her hair. He controlled himself. A strange uneasiness began to creep though him.
   
   “Are you still teaching?”
   
   “Yes …”
   
   “I have not seen your school.”
   
   “You should come someday. And why not tomorrow afternoon just after school closes? I could take you around.”
   
   
   
   1. Why did Waiyaki want to see Kamau at that time of the evening? (2 marks)
      
      
   2. Muthoni had been the cause of their first meeting. Explain how Muthoni had been the cause of Nyambura and Waiyaki’s first meeting. (4 marks)
      
      
   3. What indicates that both Waiyaki and Nyambura are uncomfortable I the circumstances they find themselves in this excerpt? (4 marks)
      
      
   4. Identify and explain any two character traits that Nyambura and Waiyaki share in this excerpt. (4 marks)
      
      
   5. “What are you going to do there?” she asked.
      (Rewrite in reported speech) (1 mark)
      
      
   6. Briefly explain the aspects of the themes of the Novel that come though this excerpt. (6 marks)
      
      
   7. Identify and illustrate two aspects of style as used in the excerpt. (4 marks)
      
      
3. Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
   
   “Song of the wagon driver”. B.S. Johson
   
   My first love was a ten-ton truck
   They gave me when I started
   And though she played the bitch with me
   I grieved when we parted
   
   Since then I’ve had a dozen more,
   The wound was quick to heal,
   And mow its easier to say
   I’m married to my wheel
   
   I’ve trunked it north, I’ve trunked it south,
   On wagons good and bad,
   But none was ever really like
   The fist I ever had
   
   The life is hard, the hours are long
   Sometimes I cease to feel,
   But I go on, for it seems to me
   I’m married to my wheel
   
   Often I think of my home and kids,
   Out on the road at night,
   And think of taking a local job
   Provided the money’s right
   
   Two nights a week I see my wife
   And eat a decent meal,
   But otherwise, for all my life,
   I’m married to my wheel.
   
   (From The Earth is Ours: Poems for Secondary Schools
   Selected by Ian Gordon)
   
   
   
   1. Briefly explain what the poem is about. (2 marks)
   2. What is contradictory between the persona’s relationship with his first truck? ( 2 marks)
   3. The persona is facing a dilemma. Which is it? (2 marks)
   4. Identify and illustrate any two literary devices that the poet uses. (4 marks)
   5. What makes the persona’s job demanding?
      Give your answer in note form. (4 marks)
      
      
   6. Explain the meaning of the following lines.
      1. Sometimes I cease to feel (2 marks)
      2. Provided the money’s right (2 marks)
         
         
   7. Explain the meaning of the words below as used in the poem.
      1. grieved …………………………………… (1 mark)
      2. trunked ………………………………….. (1 mark)
         
         
4. 1. Rewrite the following sentences in direct speech. (2 marks)
      1. The tourist exclaimed that Kenya was a beautiful country.
      2. Halima told James to go where she was.
         
         
   2. Rewrite each of the sentence below to make it communicate more sensibly. (2 marks)
      1. They left the field full of sweat.
      2. Powerful and comfortable, the buyer really liked the car.
         
         
   3. Fill in the blank spaces with an appropriate pronoun. (3 marks)
      1. The children and ……………….. ought to leave immediately if we want to arrive before the dark.
      2. The organizers have invited Mwamburi and …………… but I don’t intend to go.
      3. Since she obtained the highest grade, the school should give the award to no one else but …………………………
         
         
   4. Fill in the blank spaces with the correct form of verbs in brackets. (3 marks)
      1. A flock of birds ………….. (fly) away from this lake every week.
      2. I wondered why they had ………………….. (sing) that particular song.
      3. The ball must have been ……………. (hit) too hard.
         
         
   5. Rewrite each of the following sentences as instructed. (3 marks)
      1. It is amazing that the couple takes care of so many orphans.
         (Begin: That …)
      2. What we need in Kenya is patriotism.
         (End: …….. in Kenya)
      3. My students don’t drink. My students don’t smoke.
         (Join into one sentence using ‘neither ….)
         
         
   6. Fill in each blank space with the appropriate word. (2 marks)
      1. I stopped the child fom chewing a ………………. of grass.
      2. The doctor told her to take the ……………….. of medicine according to the prescription.

Marking Scheme

1.                  
   1. Culture shock is the stress / discomfort/ sensory overload that a person experiences when he/she arrives in a new culture / environment / country. (2mks)
   2.                  
      • Food
      • language
      • varied ways of doing things / shopping/transport system /ring the telephone
      • social behaviour / customs
      • mode of dressing
      • seeing new sights
      • feeling a different climate
        (Any three - 3 marks)
   3.                    
      1. miss the jokes
      2. Can't make "small talk" / casual get acquainted conversation 
      3. can't shop efficiently
         (Any two = 2 marks)
   4. The person
      1. has negative feelings about everything / critical
      2. actively rejects the new culture/buspicians / that people are unfriendly / that your landlord is trying to cheat you/that your teachers don't like you 
      3. irritable / the food is making you sick / stomachaches / headaches / sleeplessness(3mks) 
   5.                          
      1. the challenge of making friends
      2. difficulty in making "small talk" / carrying on a conversation 
      3. difficulty in understanding how language is used / jokes 
      4. difficulty in shopping/understanding the shopping system. (4mks)
         NB: Instructions: Answers must be in note for. Use of arrows, letters, numbers, asterix or incomplete sentences. Deduct from total if answer is not in note form. Affix N to the penalized mark
   6. You are able to socialize easily i ask for help / learn the language / adapt quickly to new env/ have a positive attitude towards it (env.) / your confidence improves.
      Any one=2mks
   7.                         
      1. alive - alert/elated / excited / jovial / aware / responsive / rejuvenated / active / animated / having vigour / spirited 
      2. obsession - something you are crazy about / a preoccupation / an addiction / something you like a lot.
   8. You can / will overcome the difficulties and frustrations of adapting to life in a new land by staying in touch with friends and family, keeping a positive attitude, and, above all, learning the language as soon as possible. (1mk)
      OR
      If either or both commas are missing = penalize by Vzmk. You need / should / aught to stay in touch with friends and family. keep a positive attitude, and, above all, learn the language as soon as possible if you are to overcome the difficulties and frustrations of adapting to live in a new land.
2.              
   1. Waiyaki had been unable to sleep / sleeplessness /restlessness / many thoughts about his life passed through his mind. He felt that he needed to talk to someone / He decided to go to Makuyu and talk with Kamau (2 marks)
   2. Muthoni, Nyambura's sister had run away to her aunt's home to be circumcised (against her father's wish). After the circumcision her wound would not heal. Waiyaki used to visit her regularly and during one of these visits Muthoni expressed her wish to see her sister Nyambura. Waiyaki decided to look for Nyambura (and request her to try and see Muthoni on her sick bed. He sought her) and found / met her (drawing water from River Honia). (4 marks) Expect all the 4 points.
   3.                    
      • Nyambura keeps looking over her shoulder / in the direction of her home (fearing she might be seen talking to Waiyaki). Nyambura wondered whether to stop or go on.
      • Waiyaki kept on thinking about what people would say if they saw them walking together.
      • Waiyaki was at a loss and did not know what to say.
      • Waiyaki would have wanted to touch Nyambura (just touch her hand or her hair but he had to control himself) restrained
      • Waiyaki is said to feel a strange uneasiness His heart beat hard, beating out the darkness (any 4 instances 1 x 4 4 marks)
   4.                                
      • Both are cautious / precautious / sensitive / none wants to be seen talking to the other by people from their different camps.
      • Traitorous / disobedient / both are dis-loyal / they are against the beliefs of their leaders / Nyambura is dis-loyal to her father and his Christian beliefs / Waiyaki is dis-loyal to the people and the traditions of the tribe
      • Both are living and friendly "something passed between them"
      • Both are fearful - they don't want to be seen together (any two illustrated traits 
        2 x 2 = 4marks) 
        Identification Imk 
        No identification zero
   5.                              
      • She asked him what he was going to do there.
      • She asked (me) what I was going to do there
      • Nyambura asked Waiyaki what he was going to do (1 mk)
   6.                  
      1. The theme of love
         • In this passage the budding love between Waiyaki and Nyambura is witnessed. Although they do not declare that they love one another it is evident that they have deep feelings for one another. Waiyaki's heart beat hard, beating out the darkness and he looks at Nyambura as the embodiment of serene beauty / "something passed between them as two human beings, untainted with religion, social conventions or any traditions."
      2. Theme of Education
         • Education is an important theme in the novel. In this excerpt Nyambura asks Waiyaki whether he is still teaching / Waiyaki invites her to his school the following day after classes. "Are you still teaching."
         • Betrayal - both betrayed expectations of their sides by talking and falling in love
         • Alienation - Waiyaki says its not a crime for not to be circumcised
      3. Theme of conflict / Divisional / Disunity
         • The conflict between the Trationalists and the Christians. Waiyaki who is seen as the representative of the traditionalist is afraid that he might be seen talking to an uncircumcised girl while Nyambura is also uneasy about being seen talking with Waiyaki / she keeps glancing over her shoulder, afraid that her father might see her walking with Waiyaki.
           Expect any 3 total marks 6mks
           identification
           Illustration
   7.                          
      1. The author uses personification
         • The moon is said to be awake / gaze. These are attributes that are only associated with human beings.
      2. Dialogue / conservation / Direct speech
         • The dialogue between Waiyaki and Nyambura when she asks him whether he is still teaching and he replies that he is still teaching and invites her to his school
           This is used to create interest and make the story interactive 
      3. Omniscient narration
         • The author describes in detail what emotions go through both Nyambura and Waiyaki as they walk alongside each other. Nyambura for example thinks that Waiyaki wants to see Kamau so that they can discuss their activities while Waiyaki on the other hand is thinking of how he could touch her hand or her hair. "Again Nyambura glanced over her shoulder in the direction of home. She wandered to stop..."
      4. Vivid description
         • The author describes the effect of the moon on the lovers. The whole land is lit by the moon and seems to gaze at the two. 
      5. Metaphor
         • The woman is Nyambura 
         • Magic of the moon
      6. Symbolism
         • Magic of the moon 
      7. Irony
         • Waiyaki sees nothing wrong with Nyambura of being circumcised. Yet he is the representative of tradition
           Any 2 well illustrated points = 4mks
           Identification
           Illustration
           Illustration alone = zero 
      8. Authorial intrusion
         • "Above them the moon gazed and lit the whole land."
      9. Flash back
         • "Then Nyambura had been a fairly tall girl with well-formed features" Honourable - His heart beat hard, beating out the darkness
3.                        
   1. The poem is about a long distance truck driver who is tied to his job / grieves for his first truck / though the work is difficult, he is unable to leave and do something else/has inadequate time for his family (2mks)
      NB. Part 2 can score on its own
   2. The first trucks seem to have given the person a lot of trouble, yet he cannot get it out of his system. He says he grieved when he "lost" it cant forget (2mks)
   3. The dilemma is that his work is tough and it keeps him away from his family, but he is unable to choose something less stressful. Sustaining her job or quitting it and search for a local job (2mks)
   4.                                
      1. Personification. The persona refers to his first truck as his first love". The pronoun "she" is used to describe it and he talks about when we parted" as if he had been separated from another person. 'she played the bitch with me
      2. Metaphor: The persona describes his feelings about the loss of the first truck as a wound. It shows how sad he became when he could no longer drive that truck.
      3. Repetition: Repetition of the line :I'm married to my wheel" emphasizes his obsession with trucks. 'I have trunked' tranked' Synecdoche: wheel/truck
      4. Rhyme: lines two and four of each stanza are rhymed (b, d) wife, life: meal, wheel, started, parted, night, right
      5. Aliteration: ten-ton truck; when we were
         Both rhyme and alliteration enhance the musicality of the poem and contribute to emphasize of the message.
      6. Simile "But none was ever really like the first ever had
      7. Irony - the first truck gave him problems yet he grieved when they part
   5.                      
      1. travels long distances
      2. seems to dehumanize him "... I cease to feel"
      3. is sometimes lovely / think of his home/kids / out on the road at night 
      4. doesn't have proper meals 
      5. keeps him away from his family
      6. works long hours / forced to work at night 1 x 4-any four (4mks) refer to instructions for 1E
   6.                          
      1. Sometimes I am numb/I do things mechanically like a robot / I am robbed of my ability to sense and think. (2mks)
      2. If I can get good salary / it pays well or better (2mks)
   7.                      
      1. grieved - sorrowed (deeply) / saddened / moaned / mourned 
      2. trunked-driven / hauled /streered / drove NB overlook tense (2mks)
4.                    
   1.                               
      1. "What a beautiful country Kenya is!" the tourist exclaimed.
         The tourist exclaimed, "What a beautiful country Kenya is!"/
         The tourist exclaimed, "Kenya is a beautiful country!"
      2. "James, come here," Halima said / comma optional
         Halima said. "James, come here," "James," said Halima, come here" (2mks)
   2.                            
      1. Full of sweat, they left the field / sweaty / sweating,
      2. The buyer really liked the powerful and comfortable car./
         Powerful and comfortable, the car was really liked by the buyer.
         The buyer really liked the car powerful and comfortable
         The buyer really liked the ear because / since / for / as...
   3.                      
      1. I/we
      2. me / us * interpretation 
      3. her
   4.                        
      1. flies / has been flying/was flying / flew / had been flying/is flying
      2. sung / had been singing iii) hit wrong spelling = zero (3mks)
   5.                          
      1. That the couple takes care of so many orphans is amazing / that so many orphans are taken care of..
      2. Patriotism is what we need in Kenya iii) My students neither drink nor smoke (3mks) 
   6.                  
      1. blade
      2. dose / dosage (2mks)
         wrong spelling zero