English Paper 2 Kenya High Post Mock Exams 2020 - Questions and Answers

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES

• Answer all the questions in the question paper

1. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
   
   At length the air began to grow grey with light, then swift golden arrows came slashing across the snow, and at last the glorious sun peeped up above the lava wall and looked upon – frozen forms and upon Vent Rogel, sitting there among us stone dead. No wonder his back had felt cold, poor fellow. He had died when I heard him sigh, and was now almost frozen stiff. Shocked beyond measure we dragged ourselves from the corpse (strange, the horror we all have of the companionship of a dead body), and left it still sitting there with its arms clasped round its knees. By this time the sunlight was pouring its cold rays (for here they were cold) straight in at the mouth of the cave. Suddenly I heard an exclamation of fear from someone, and turned my head down the cave.
   
   And this is what I saw. Sitting at the end of it, for it was more than twenty feet long, was another form, of which the head rested on the chest and the long arms hung down. I stared at it, and saw that it too was a dead man, and what was more, a white man.
   
   The others saw it too, and the sight proved too much for our shattered nerves, one and all we scrambled out of the cave as fast as our half-frozen limbs would allow. Outside the cave, we halted, feeling rather foolish “I am going back’” said Sir Henry. “Why?” asked Good.
   
   “Because it has struck me that – what we saw – may be my brother. This was a new idea, and we re-entered the cave to put it to the proof. After the bright light outside, our eyes, weak as they were with staring at the snow, could not for a while pierce the glooms of the cave. Presently however we grew accustomed to the semi-darkness, and advanced on the dead form, Sir Henry knelt down and peered into its face
   
   “Thank God”, he said, with a sigh of relief, “it is not my brother”. Then I went and looked. The corpse was that of a tall man with aquiline features, grizzled hair, and a long black moustache, the skin was perfectly yellow, and stretched tightly over the bones. Round the neck hung a yellow ivory crucifix. The corpse was frozen perfectly stiff.
   
   Who on earth can it be? Said I. “Can’t guess?” asked Good. I shook my head. ‘Why, the old Don Jose da Silvestra, of course who else?”
   “Impossible, ‘ I gasped, “He died three hundred years ago,”
   “And what is there to prevent his lasting for three hundred years in this atmosphere. I should like to know?” asked Good. “If only the air is cold enough, flesh and blood will keep fresh forever, and Heaven knows it is cold enough here. The sun never gets in here, no animal comes here to tear or destroy and no doubt his slave of whom he speaks on the map took off his clothes and left him. He could not have buried him alone. “Look here he went on, stooping down and picking up a queer-shaped bone scraped at the end into a sharp point, “here is the “clef-bone” that he used to draw the map”. We gazed astonished, for a moment forgetting our own miseries, at this extraordinary and, as it seemed to us, semi miraculous sight.
   
   ‘Ay’ said Sir Henry, and here is where he got his ink from, and he pointed to a small wound on the dead man’s left arm.
   ‘Did ever man see such a thing before?’
   There was no longer any doubt about the matter, there he sat, the dead man, whose directions, written some ten generations ago, had led us to this spot. There in my own hand was the rude pen with which he had written them, and there round his neck was the crucifix his dying lips had kissed.
   
   Questions
   1. From your reading of the passage how can you tell where the man spent the night (2mks)
   2. How can you tell that the writer had been together with Vent Rogel? (2mks)
   3. What caused the state of excitement or fear? (1mk)
   4. What hindered them from rushing out fast? (2mks)
   5. How according to the passage did the people know about the stare of the dead man (2mks)
   6. Identify and explain the significance of the figure of speech employed in paragraph one (3mks)
   7. Did the man ever see such a thing before? (Re-write the sentence beginning). He ……………….. (1mk)
   8. Give one synonym for the word ‘directions’ as it is used in the passage.  (1mk)
   9. What evidence in the passage suggests why the body of Dan Jose da Silvestra remained intact for ten generations? (2mks)
   10. Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases as used in the passage (4mks)
       1. shattered nerves_______________________________________
       2. clasped______________________________________________
       3. accustomed___________________________________________
       4. grizzled______________________________________________
2. BLOSSOMS OF THE SAVANNAH
   Read the following excerpts and answer the questions that follow
   
   Although Resian had a lot to complain and grumble about in life in their new environment, Taiyo found it tolerable. For instance, she gladly discovered that mornings in their new home began with a lively chatter of birds in the trees surrounding their house. That gave the home an atmosphere of tranquility and peace.
   
   However, one of the unpleasant aspects that the girls had to live with was the constant violation of their privacy. In Nasila, they soon discovered, the home belonged to all the clan members. It was not an unusual thing to get up in the morning to find the living room full of men and women who came early, not for any tangible business, but simply to share a sumptuous breakfast with their kith and kin. Taiyo and Resian were soon to get used to hearing an urgent knock at the door very early in the morning.
   
   On opening, they would invariably be met by a grinning group of men or women who would unashamedly ask them what they were doing in bed that late in the morning. They would proceed to take seats in the living room and order them to serve them breakfast. When they got used to what at first, they considered negative aspects of the Nasila culture, Taiyo and Resian adjusted accordingly and soon they began to live harmoniously with the people. Their father was out of the homestead most of the time working at the shop and organizing other business matters. His absence meant the absence of his irksome and corrosive remarks that always heightened tension in the house. In his absence, the house was a continuous joy with comfort and conveniences, and the girls found it pleasurable to keep it clean and well-arranged.
   
   Questions
   1. What happens immediately after this extract? (5 marks)
   2. Where had the family been living before and why did they move? (3 marks)
   3. Give the character traits of the following:
      
      1. Taiyo
      2. The people of Nasila (8 marks)
   4. Discuss a theme implied in the extract. (3 marks)
   5. Using the rest of the book, cite and explain one cultural aspect that had a life changing effect on the lives of the two girls (3mks)
   6. Explain a stylistic device used in the extract. (2mks)
   7. Taiyo and Resian adjusted accordingly? Add a question tag. (1mk)

3. POETRY
   Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
   
   THE BREWING NIGHT
   It was that memorable night when I heard it
   
   Yes, I heard it all
   That night sleep deserted me,
   Mocked at me and tantalized me,
   So I lay awake, sharp in all my senses.
   It was long past midnight:
   Time dragged on, the clock chime;
   The dog wouldn’t bark, nor the baby cry;
   It was a moonless and windless night;
   The whole universe seemed to stagnate
   In dark, dreary, dead slumber.
   What was amiss? I knew not.
   
   The dead quietness and solitude
   Seemed to be eternal, but
   Waves of babbling and muttering
   Began to trickle through the streets;
   A distant roaring of heavy trucks filled the air,
   Hurried footsteps eroded through the street.
   What was a miss? I knew not.
   
   I pulled my curtain
   And there I saw it all
   Heavy boots thick uniforms and solid helmets
   Dimly discernible under the pale street lamp
   The atmosphere stood stiff and solid with
   Brawny- faced and clenched –teeth determination
   
   The night had pulsed with passion high and wild;
   The streets were stained with new portraits framed;
   The wheel changed hands and new plans were filed.
   The morning saw the country strangely dresses
   And everyone attended the rally.
   To hear the eloquence from a strange face,
   And everyone quietly nodded and said, ‘yes’
   
   (By Yusuf O. Kassam, in Poems from East Africa.)
   
   Questions
   1. Explain what the poem is about. (3 mks)
   2. In what ways was the night described in the poem peculiar? (2 mks)
   3. What was a miss? I knew not. (rewrite as one sentence beginning I did……………) (2 mks)
   4. Paraphrase in one sentence what the persona saw when he or she pulled the curtain to see.
      (1 mk)
   5. What is the significance of stanza two? (3 mks)
   6. Identify and explain any one personification in the poem. (2 mks)
   7. Explain in your own words what happens in the last stanza. (5 mks)
   8. Explain the meaning of the title. (2 mks)
4. GRAMMAR
   1. Fill in the blank spaces with most appropriate words (3mks)
      1. My uncle, _____________ I am sure you remember, flew to Britain yesterday.
      2. The Principal, ___________ is out at the moment, will see you when he comes back.
      3. ______________ of the students is brighter?
   2. Rewrite the following sentences according to the instructions after each. (2mks)
      1. He was the wisest man (Rewrite using “wiser”)
      2. There is no excuse for rudeness. (Rewrite to end with ‘exclusable’)
   3. Fill in the blank spaces below with the correct form of the verb in brackets (3mks)
      1. The team was __________________ for coming late (qualify)
      2. They were ____________ attacked by the gangsters (vicious)
      3. The ___________________ of the matter brought the president to their county. (grave)
   4. Use the correct collective nouns in the following sentences  (3mks)
      1. The evening party was beautiful by the __________ of colours.
      2. The guest of honour was given a ______________ of flowers.
      3. She put a ___________________ of salt in her food.
   5. Complete the sentences below by changing the verb in brackets, in each case, into the form indicated in the instructions after each.
      1. ____________ (lie) to your parents is a bad practice. (infinitive)
      2. John considers ______________ (work) very seriously. (gerund)
      3. Farida expected ____________ find everyone settled. (infinitive)
      4. ________________(prefer) tilapia to mudfish is understandable in your circumstances (gerund)

MARKING SCHEME

1.  
   1. They had spent in the night in a cave, you can tell this by what the narrator says………………….. sun peeped above the lava wall pouring its cold…mouth of the cave
   2. He had heard him sigh
      He had felt vent Rogels back and it had felt very cold
      He was sitting there among them, stone dead
   3. Another dead body. This time of a white man
   4. There limbs were half frozen
      They were in a cave and it was not possible to rush out
   5. The presence of the clef bone which he hold used the draw the map
      The small wound on the dead man’s left arm
      He had yellow/ivory crucifix round his neck
   6.  
      • Personification – by penny it cold rays
        Golden arrows came slashing
        Glorious sun peeped. The sun came up slowly cutting through the cold morning
      • Idiomatic expression–store dead – he had been dead for quite some time
   7. He had never seen such a thing before
   8. Guidelines
      Instructions
   9.  
      • The cold
      • The sun never get into the cave
      • No animal ever got inside the cave
   10.  
       1. Very shocked
       2. Holding light
       3. Got used
       4. Partly grey
2.  
   1. The girls went ahead to mix with the women folk of the village. Many of the women folk had come to scout for spouses for their sons and husbands.
   2. They had been living in Nakuru. However, they had had to move to Nasila after their father was retrenched
   3.  
      1. taiyo
         • Laidback did not complain all the time like Resian.
         • Appreciative liked the new environment, especially the pleasant morning with the chattering birds.
      2. People of Nasila
         • Social— came to visit even at odd hours.
         • Conservative followed the culture of their people that dictated unlimited hospitality.
         • Friendly— called on the new arrivals regardless of the implied motives.
   4.  
      1. Culture
         • People were firmly rooted in their culture. There were some aspects that were not very pleasant, but they stuck to
         • Also, they believed in sharing and visiting each other.
      2. Hospitality
         • The people believed in sharing what one had. That is why they found nothing wrong with visiting Taiyo and her family
   5. The cultural activity is Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). The two girls were looked down upon because they were uncircumcised. There were even vagabonds who tried to rape them because they imagined that society would not mind. Taiyo was later circumcised and ended up sick and had to be rescued by Minik
   6. Description — the extract has a description of the early morning chatter. It also has a description of early morning calls by all sorts of people.
   7. Taiyo and Resian adjusted accordingly, didn't they?
3. POETRY
   1. The poem is about a coup that takes place at night. At the end, it is indicated that he people have to reluctantly accept the change.
   2. The night was silent dark and strange the clock wouldn’t chime
   3. I did not know what was a miss
   4. The persona saw soldiers in heavy boots, thick uniform and solid helmets walking in a determined way along the streets
   5. Stanza two sees the mood of the poem. Things are act happening in the real way and this prepares the stage for what we find in stanza threE
   6.  Sleep deserted me, mocked at me .... He personifies sleep as to have mocked him because he was not able to sleep that night.
   7. The last stanza gives the preparation for the inauguration of the new leaders. A rally is held where the new leaders give their speeches and the people accept the leaders.
   8. Brewing might refers to the night when something unpleasant, in this case, the coup was hatched up.
4. GRAMMAR
   1.  
      1. Whom
      2. Who
      3. Which
   2.  
      1. No one was wiser than he
      2. Rudeness is not excusable
   3. 1. Disqualified
      2. Viciously
      3. Gravity
   4.  
      1. Kaleidoscope
      2. Bouquet
      3. Pinch
   5.  
      1. To lie
      2. Working
      3. To find
      4. Preferring