English Questions and Answers - Class 8 Mid Term 2 Exams 2023 Set 3

Read the passage below. It contains blank spaces numbered 1-15. For each blank space,choose the best alternative from the choices given.
         We come across___1__ People on daily basis. From the time you wake up to the to the time you___2__ bed, you meet people of different characteristics. Some of these are good people___3___they may not look so. They are focused and go___4__their businesses with full knowledge that they need to respect other people and their__5___. They do not___6__or destroy anything that does not belong to them. They also respect all other people they interact_____ in the course of doing their duties. When evening__8___ they peacefully__9___ back to their homes,___10__ with the little they have got for the day. These people respect children, just as much as their fellow adults. 

         On the other hand, we have another___11__ of people who look smart but in behaviour,are far from it. They steal, rob, harm and destroy__12___ does not belong to them. They are___13__ with everyone and do not spare even children or domestic animals. It is not__14__ to see them arrested from time to time for different crimes. That is why you should not trust___15__you meet when you are out there.

In questions 16 to 18, choose the alternative which means the same as the underlined expression.

16. The teacher advised the candidates to go over their Compositions after writing.
    1. revise
    2. proof-read
    3. study
    4. read
17. He was asked to look into the disappearance of exercise books.
    1. Investigate
    2. check
    3. solve
    4. discuss
18. After failing to complete the race twice, Maina decided to give up.
    1. stop
    2. succeed
    3. fail
    4. despair

In questions 19 and 20, choose the best arrangement of the given sentences to form sensible paragraphs.

19.  
    1. I treasured entertainment.
    2. It was interesting watching animals at play.
    3. I would spend hours and hours
    4. Whenever I had money, I would go to the zoo.
       1. (i), (ii), (iii), (iv)
       2. (i), (iii), (iv), (ii)
       3. (i), (iv), (ii), (iii)
       4. (ii), (ii), (iv), (iii)
20.  
    1. He keeps cows and goats.
    2. There are more goats than cows on his farm.
    3. He is a large scale farmer.
    4. Some of the goats were bought recently.
       1. (iii), (ii), (i), (iv)
       2. (iii), (i), (ii), (iv)
       3. (iii), (iv), (i), (ii)
       4. (iii), (ii), (iv), (i).

In questions 21 and 22, choose the alternative that means the same as the underlined sentence.

21. Should you start the journey late, you may reach Lamu in darkness.
    1. When you start the journey late, you will reach Lamu in darkness.
    2. You will reach Lamu in darkness if you start the journey late.
    3. It is likely that you will reach Lamu in darkness if you start the journey late.
    4. When you start the journey late, it is likely that you will reach Lamu in darkness.
22. We complained to him and he took no action.
    1. We needn't have complained to him because he took no action.
    2. It was needless to take action since we complained to him.
    3. It was useless to have complained to him since he took no action.
    4. No action was taken although we complained to him.

Read the paragraph below and answer questions 23-25.

Samuel, Kadhi, Wanyama and Patel went into a restaurant. Samuel ate rice with chicken curry. Both Kadhi and Patel ate chapati with mutton curry and also drank a glass of milk each. Wanyama ate ugali with chicken curry and had orange juice. Samuel took a soda and had a banana; and so did Patel. Kadhi had a mango.

23. Who of the boys did not eat any of these foods: chapati, mutton curry, soda and banana?
    1. Patel
    2. Samuel
    3. Wanyama
    4. Kadhi.
24. Which of the following groups of foods did Kadhi have?
    1. Chapatti, chicken curry, soda and banana
    2. Rice, mutton curry, milk, orange juice.
    3. Ugali, mutton curry milk, mango
    4. Chapati, mutton curry, milk, mango.
25. Which of the following statements is not true?
    1. Both Samuel and Patel had soda.
    2. Both Samuel and Kadhi had bananas.
    3. Both Kadhi and Patel had glass of milk each.
    4. Both Samuel and Wanyama had chicken curry.

Read the passage below and then answer questions 26 to 38.

Susa and Katina usually walked together to the market. Their talk, which was a punctuated with laughter, never seemed to end. They were so close that it seemed if a third person joined them, it would be an unwelcome move. Seasonally, Susa sold vegetables at the market while Katina went to do her business of selling dry maize at the grain's section. They seemed to rhyme so much that no one thought they could ever separate.

It was during the dry season and the price of maize had soared. This is because the maize was sought from far away and was delivered in lorries. On the other hand, Susa too had to contract people on bicycle to go far away to the villages located near the lake where fresh vegetables were still available. The ones she used to get from the farms along the rivers had since dried up. Only Katina's farm still showed some sign of life because she watered them every morning before sunrise. They maintained their fresh look but interestingly, the pluckable leaves never seemed to grow.

The two women were on their way to the market one afternoon when Katina confided in her friend that she felt like abandoning the farm till the onset of rains as she worked so hard but received nothing in return. She told her friend that the farm did not even produce
vegetables for her to cook at home while earlier, it was supplying a number of women with kales to sell at the market, Susa being one of them. Susa too said that she too felt hard hit for the cyclists she sent for vegetables charged for the transportation quite expensively. They left before dawn and returned around ten o'clock. After paying them and selling the vegetables, she hardly made any profit worth the input. Their conversation was more of lamentations to each other as Katina revealed to her that earlier, they thought someone could be stealing the vegetables at night but after hiring someone to watch over it for a whole week but returned frustrated, she gave up. By the time they reached the market, they were still in a dilemma.

Two days later, the quiet dark morning village was woken up by screams and shouts of men. This was rare as thieves and stock thieves never attacked the village at such risky hours. However, the men hastily dressed up, picked whatever weapons they could get and rushed out to join the rest. They took strategic positions where they believed the robbers would follow. The longer they waited, the more it looked as if it was a false alarm and by the time the sky was clearing in the eastern horizon, there was still no clue at all. The men started asking one another who had first raised the alarm but no one accepted to take responsibility and it was a matter of blame game here and there. The sky was by then clear and it was possible to identify a person walking a distance way. Then Hola, who had walked away from the others for a short-call, suddenly and loudly called the others to urgently join him where he was. The lead to the alarm was there, carefully hidden in the bushes: a green gunny bag and a bicycle with an inscription at the mudguard 'Survivor'. At once, everyone knew who the owner was; Luda! He was known to go far off on his bicycle in search of vegetables which he sold to the market women and Susa was one of them!

The gang immediately took the recovered items to the village elder's home. Another group went straight for him at his home but as expected, he was not there. The village elder asked the party to disperse for eventually, Luda would return home and be guided accordingly.

26. Susa and Katina usually walked together because
    1. their homes were not far apart
    2. both of them sold items at the same market
    3. they had almost similar daily programs
    4. they seemed to enjoy each other's company.
27. Why did Susa sell vegetables at the market seasonally?
    1. Vegetables were not available throughout the year.
    2. She had a variety of items to sell.
    3. There were too many other women selling vegetables there.
    4. She needed to take a rest during the drought.
28. The main reason why the price of maize had soared is that
    1. the maize had since dried up well
    2. the commodity had increased in demand
    3. many women did not like buying cheap maize
    4. there were too many women selling maize at that time.
29. The problem the two women faced at the same time was due to
    1. the diminishing number of customers
    2. the distance of their homes from the lake
    3. the weather condition at that time
    4. the choosy customers each of them had.
30. Katina felt like abandoning work on the farm due to
    1. demand
    2. frustration
    3. confrontation
    4. confusion.
31. The word 'dilemma' as used in the third paragraph means the two friends
    1. would discuss it later on
    2. decided to forget about the issue
    3. would soon abandon their businesses
    4. had not got a solution.
32. What made the morning alarm by the men rare?
    1. The time at which it was raised.
    2. The direction it was first heard.
    3. The people who raised it.
    4. The number of villagers who heard it.
33. Why were the men interested in who had raised the alarm?
    1. Very few people had responded to it.
    2. No one had reported losing an item.
    3. They didn't seem to see the reason for it.
    4. The person's voice was very strange.
34. The time at which the first alarm was raised is likely to have been
    1. shortly after midnight
    2. just before dawn
    3. at sunrise
    4. early in the morning.
35. It was easy to identify the suspect because of
    1. the inscription on the bicycle's mudguard
    2. the ideas presented by the people present
    3. where the bicycle was found
    4. those who were not at the scene.
36. Which of the following words best describes the recovered items in the passage?
    1. Tools
    2. Instruments
    3. Implements
    4. Exhibits.
37. The village elder asked the others to disperse because
    1. he did not want the women to know about it
    2. the crowd could easily scare Luda away
    3. it would not be a difficult case to solve
    4. he had worse cases awaiting him.
38. What lesson do we learn from this passage?
    1. The weather can make people change their behaviour.
    2. It's not possible to conceal a bad thing for long.
    3. People who live together must know one another.
    4. Identifying a thief in a society is easy.

Read the passage below and then answer questions 39 to 50.

Moles can be found everywhere in the world except in the Antarctica. Moles may resemble rats and mice but they are not rodents. Instead, they are insectivores and are more closely related to the bats. They survive mainly on insects and most of the time, the ones that live underground. Moles therefore spend most of their day digging in the soil for that is where their food is.

Moles can dig tunnels at a rate of up to fifteen feet per hour. That is as long as seven footsteps. There could be a variation to this, depending on the weather conditions. Just like pigs, male moles are called 'boars' and female moles are called 'sows'.

A group of moles, called a labour, may come together at certain times of the year for the breeding season. You have heard that moles live underground, but how? Well, they have unique adaptations in the blood that allow them to survive underground with low levels of oxygen and high levels of carbon dioxide.

When the weather changes to become cold or dry, moles often dig deeper into the ground, following their food source. If they find a 'path' that leads to a nest of insects, they will pause and eat. Some insects will not realise that they have been invaded and thus, the moles could feed well for a while until the number reduces then the digging resumes. Some nests contain insects that are very sensitive and the moment they are interfered with, they hurriedly scatter in different directions. This makes it difficult for the moles to feed as within a short time, the nest is left with voids and remnant scattering insects. The moles therefore have to dig deeper and longer.

Moles' tunnels often follow contours of man-made features, such as fences and building footings. They are also often blamed for eating of roots and seeds but this is not true.

A mole's saliva contains a toxin that paralyzes worms, allowing them to gather and store food for consumption later on. To get dirt out of a worm's stomach, a mole can squeeze an earthworm with its forepaws before eating it.

Moles are among the few species that can smell in stereo, meaning that each nostril smells separately. By doing so, they instantly pinpoint the source of odours and estimate their path.

39. According to the first paragraph, moles
    1. are found in a few areas of the Antarctica
    2. have similar characteristics to rodents
    3. live together with rats and mice
    4. are some of the most common creatures on earth.
40. The relationship between bats and moles could be due to
    1. the eating habits
    2. the way they look
    3. their manner of movement
    4. the size of their body.
41. If there were not insects completely
    1. all the moles would die
    2. the number of moles would increase
    3. moles would still find a way to survive
    4. all moles would come to the surface of the ground.
42. What could be the cause of variation in holes dug by moles?
    1. The quantity of food they get.
    2. The effect of nature on the soil.
    3. The number of moles digging the same hole.
    4. The temperature in the hole being dug.
43. Moles generally live
    1. a loner's life
    2. in different holes per family
    3. together in most cases
    4. in one big group.
44. What makes moles look unique among other animals?
    1. The speed at which their blood flows.
    2. Their characteristics resemble those of other animals.
    3. Digging deep in the ground almost throughout.
    4. Their ability to survive on low levels of oxygen.
45. Moles could feed well in a nest of insects
    1. if they get to it when they are very tired
    2. should there be some source of light there
    3. if the insects do not realise their presence
    4. if they intend to continue digging soon after.
46. The phrase 'different directions' as used in the fourth paragraph means the insects move
    1. in a helter-skelter way
    2. very fast into the nest
    3. in one specific direction
    4. then suddenly change direction.
47. Why do you think moles follow the man-made features?
    1. It is safer for them from falling objects.
    2. The areas are easier to dig.
    3. They try to dig as man did earlier.
    4. The holes are usually left unsealed.
48. The blame on moles regarding eating of roots and seeds is false as
    1. no moles have been found eating them
    2. its man who eats seeds and roots
    3. moles majorly eat insects
    4. insects do not live near seeds and roots.
49. Which of the following words means much the same as 'separately' as used in the passage?
    1. Once
    2. Straight
    3. Lonely
    4. Independently.
50. The best title for this passage would be
    1. The lifestyle of moles.
    2. Animals that live in the ground.
    3. Reduction of population of insects
    4. Effect of low oxygen on moles.

COMPOSITION

You have 40 minutes to write your composition.

Below is the beginning of a story. Write and complete the story making it as interesting as you can.

The moment we returned to school, our friends came running towards us. We had been away the whole day at the festival................

MARKING SCHEME

1. D
2. A
3. C
4. B
5. D
6. C
7. A
8. B
9. C
10. B
11. A
12. D
13. C
14. A
15. B
16. B
17. A
18. D
19. C
20. B
21. C
22. A
23. C
24. D
25. B
26. D
27. A
28. B
29. C
30. B
31. D
32. A
33. C
34. B
35. A
36. D
37. C
38. B
39. D
40. A
41. C
42. B
43. A
44. D
45. C
46. A
47. B
48. C
49. D
50. A