English Paper 3 Questions and Answers - Maranda Mocks 2021/2022 Exams

ENGLISH
PAPER 3

Instructions to Candidates

• Answer three questions only
• Question one and two are compulsory.
• In question three choose only one of the optional texts you have prepared on.
• Where the candidate presents work on more than one optional text, only the first one to appear will be marked.
• Each of your essays must not exceed more than 450 words.
• Candidates should answer the questions in English.

Questions

Answer three questions only.

1.  Imaginative composition (Compulsory) (20marks)
   Either
   
   1.  Write a story ending with the following words.
      …and that is the last time I saw my father.
      Or
   2. Write a story to illustrate the saying:
      “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”
2. Compulsory Set Text (20marks) Henry R. Ole Kulet, Blossoms of the Savannah
   “When faced with challenges in life, help comes at a time that it is least expected.” Citing evidences from Henry Ole Kulet’s Blossoms of the Savannah, write an essay in support of this statement.
3. The Optional Set Texts (20marks) Chris Wanjala (Ed.), Memories We Lost and other Stories.
   “Pahom's downfall is as a result of his insatiable fixation.” Write an essay to support this proposition drawing close reference to Leo Tolstoy’s ‘How Much Land Does Man Need?’

Marking Scheme

Question 1

1. Must be a story, if not, deduct 4mks AD.
   • Must end with the statement given, if not, deduct 2mks AD.
   • Length; Accept up to 2pgs, if not deduct 2mks AD.
   • The candidate should bring out a situation in which the encounter with the father becomes the last time. It could be death, disappearance, abandonment, or travelling never to come back.
2. Must be a story, if not, deduct 4mks AD.
   • The story should bring out the meaning of the proverb. Expect no explanations of the meaning. If so, give the linguistic mark but treat as a weak essay/candidate. The candidate should bring out a story to demonstrate that people who have faults should not criticize other people for having the same faults.

Question 2: Compulsory Set Text

Introduction

• Most people reach the end of the tether in difficult situations and are just about to give up when help comes suddenly. Most instances of help in Blossoms of the savannah appear coincidental but nonetheless; they change the course of life of the characters as well as shaping the rest of the novel. (Accept any other relevant introduction)
  
  
• Olarinkoi seems to be at the right place at the right time. He happens to be the savior of Resian and Taiyo when they need help most. He comes to the rescue of the two girls when they are coming from their father’s shop and are about to be raped by two men, the vagabonds. Olarinkoi single handedly saves the girls by fighting the men. Resian and Taiyo are much grateful and would not want to imagine what would have happened if he had not come at that time, even fearing that they would have been infected with HIV. The incident also made the two girls build up their trust in Olarinkoi, (Pg. 140-143).
  
  
• Olarinkoi again comes to the rescue of Resian when she discovers her father’s betrayal by planning to marry her off to Oloisudori. Resian confronts her father at the shop and realizes she has been ‘sold’ to the monster Oloisudori. Her father is hostile to her and beats her up and she runs away. He comes to her rescue when she is even contemplating committing suicide by drowning herself into the Nasila River. At the same time, Oloisudori and his men are looking for her to abduct her. Olarinkoi promises to take her to Minik whom she had been yearning to meet someday. Although the help turns disastrous with Olarinkoi turning against her, she is able to escape the current wrath of Oloisudori. It is while at Olarinkoi’s hut that Nabaru becomes of help and eventually escapes with her to Minik’s Ranch. She also escapes the knife remaining intoiye nemengalana.
  Olarinkoi’s help then is a blessing in disguise, (Pg. 204-2011, 224, 237, 244-249).
  
  
• Taiyo is rescued from the hands of her circumcisers by Minik’s men. Minik’s rescue team in coordination with Joseph Parmuat use tricks to rescue her from the well-guarded home which she would not have escaped in her sickly state. Were it not for Minik’s intervention, Taiyo would surely have been forcefully married off to Oloisudori after healing. The rescue gives Taiyo a new lease of life, reunion with her sister and of course quicker physical and emotional recovery. Their dream of joining Egerton University is equally realized after the recovery, (Pg. 270-274).
  
  
• Minik’s help to Resian and Taiyo at the most challenging moment perhaps is the most important event that completely changes their lives. She gives refuge to the girls in her Ranch hence protecting them from the marauding men like Oloisudori and Olarinkoi. She gives Resian a job in the ranch hence giving her something to live on and promises her a scholarship from the Ranch. Most importantly, she is able to have the two girls enrolled at Egerton University, their dream university. These kind gestures create a happy ending in a novel that has been dominated by sad events, (Pg. 261-262, 264-267, 279,281-284).
  In conclusion, people are about to despair, that is usually the point when help comes. No matter how belated characters like Resian and Taiyo get help, their lives are greatly impacted on and changed by those interventions. (Accept any other relevant conclusion)

Question 3: Optional Set Text

• Intro.
  • Pahom's mind is completely filled with an abnormal desire to acquire land. This excessive preoccupation with acquiring a larger piece of land leads to his downfall when he loses everything and ends up dead. (Accept any other relevant introduction).
    
    
• Pahom has a large piece of land, but he keeps thinking of how he can have more land.
  • He owns 123 acres of land and pasture. He also owns a big house where he lives with his family members. He is, however, not contented with this possession. He desires wider and more fertile land to farm and keeps his livestock. He keeps on asking himself how he can get more land. Par. 1. He is strongly attracted when a passing dealer tells him about how he acquired 13 000 acres of land from the Bashkirs. In his pursuit for more land, he dies of exhaustion and loses all his property.
    
    
• Pahom is so obsessed with the land that he hopes to get the largest and best land above all the people.
  • He started to walk towards the meadows as soon as the sun appeared above the rim. He does not even take breakfast. He even has to take off his outer coat and shoes. He walks for as long that the hillock is scarcely visible, and the people look like black ants. He feels he is in sweat and is thirsty. He only turns when it's noon. The heat from the sun does not make him stop. He takes his lunch, bread, and water while standing to save time. After walking for a long time, it was terribly hot and he feels sleepy. The heat makes the air hazy that the people on the hillock can barely be seen. He says it is better to suffer for an hour and live for a lifetime. He equates the acquisition of land to eternal life. Pahom feels serious pain, but he pressures on. He walks with difficulty. His bare feet are cut and bruised. His legs begin to fail but due to his obsession, he does not rest. He is so exhausted that he throws away his outer coat, shoes, flask and cap. He only keeps his spade to use as a support. His mouth is parched. His breast works like a blacksmith’s bellows and his heart beats like a hammer. Even after he feels like he could die of strain, he does not stop. Eventually, he dies of exhaustion and loses everything. Six feet under is all he needed.
    
    
• Pahom is preoccupied with the land issue so much that he is forced to entice the dealers and the Bashkirs with gifts so as to pave way for his acquisition of more land.
  • This fixation with acquiring more land makes him buy many presents for the Bashkirs and take a seven-day journey to the land of the Bashkirs, with a view of acquiring a bigger piece of land. The gifts work wonders because the Bashkirs are so amused and encourages him to cover as large a piece of land as he could manage. He instead loses everything when he walks for the whole day, hoping to get the land for 1000 roubles a day.
    Lastly, Pahom is so obsessed with acquiring land that he can barely sleep. He lies on his bed
    but cannot sleep. He thinks about walking the whole day to mark off a large tract. He lays awake all night and dozes off only before dawn. The next morning his eyes glisten when the chief shows him the land. He could see that it is all virgin soil at a glance. He is told that all he has to do is circumnavigate before the sunsets. Due to his fixation, Pahom walks the whole day, thus becoming totally exhausted and eventually dying due to exhaustion. He loses all the land he had gained and is buried in a six feet piece of land.
    
    
• Conclusion
  • In conclusion, preoccupation of any kind is dangerous. Pahom’s downfall is surely due to his lack of contentment and preoccupation with acquiring a lot of land.