English Paper 2 Questions and Answers - MECS Cluster Joint Mock Examinations 2022

QUESTIONS

1.      
   1. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
      In case you’ve ever wondered how much time your daughter spends taking selfies, a poll in 2015 found that the average woman between 16 and 25 years old spends over five hours a week. It sounds like a lot unless you’ve tried to take selfies yourself and know what an elaborate process it can be. Women take an average of seven shots to get one image, according to the poll; Kim Kardashian said it takes about 15 to 20. Then there are the filters, not to mention real-life alterations like changing lighting or touching up makeup. There are also apps you can use for more drastic procedures like changing your bone structure, slimming your waistline, erasing pimples, and more.
      Selfies can be silly and lighthearted, of course, notes Alexandra Hamlet, a psychologist at the Child Mind Institute. But she also recognizes the darker side, when photos become a measure of self-worth. “With make up, with retouch, with filters, with multiple, multiple attempts, it’s almost like you’re never going to stack up,” says Dr. Hamlet, “And that is where I think it gets dangerous.”
      We’re used to worrying about how girls will be affected by seeing too many air-brushed images of models in magazines or movies. But now young people themselves are the models and they’re wielding their own image-editing software. This leads to a lot of self-scrutiny as they try to perfect their own images, and comparisons to the pictures their peers are posting. Experts are understandably worried about what this means for kids’ self-esteem
      If you’ve been telling your daughter that she’s beautiful just the way she is, she’s getting a different message when she opens up Snapchat and sees filters and lenses that alter appearances. Pictures used to be final; now we have post-production.
      Dr. Hamlet acknowledges that some of the filters are fun and distort in amusing ways, but also points out there’s a so-called “pretty filter” on Instagram and Snapchat. Beautifying filters are used almost reflexively by many, which means that girls are getting used to seeing their peers effectively airbrushed every single day online. There are also image altering apps that teens can download for more substantial changes. Facetune is one popular one, but there are many, and they can be used to do everything from erase pimples to change the structure of your face or make you look taller. One app called RetouchMe gives your photo a “professional retouch” using a photo editing team for under a dollar. The possibilities can be overwhelming, particularly since girls know they are scrutinized on their appearance — as, of course, they are scrutinizing their peers.
      Self-esteem often takes a hit when you start comparing yourself too much to other people, which is something social media seems to be made for. One study found that frequently viewing selfies led to decreased self-esteem and decreased life satisfaction. Another study found that girls who spend more time looking at pictures on Facebook reported higher weight dissatisfaction and self-objectification.
      Parents who want to provide a healthy counterbalance to the pressures of social media can start by evaluating how they use social media themselves. Make sure you aren’t talking too much about the pictures you post or see, or ask your children to take too many pictures. The occasional photo is fine, of course, but make a point of prioritizing being in the moment, too. “If you’re taking your kid to a concert, don’t allow them to film the whole thing and see it only through the eyes of the camera,” says Dr. Hamlet. “That’s reinforcing this concept that just being here is not good enough.”
      1. What shows that women take selfies seriously? 2mks
      2. Mention two drastic procedures that you can use to alter your image 2marks
      3. Explain how selfies become harmful to those who take them. 3mks
      4. What do you think is the different message one’s daughter gets when she opens Snapchat? 3mks
      5. Explain the relationship between self-esteem and social media. 3mks
      6. Dr. Hamlet acknowledges that some of the filters are fun and distort in amusing ways, but also points out there’s a so-called “pretty filter” on Instagram and Snapchat. (Replace the underlined words with suitable word. (1 mark)
      7. From the passage identify two apps mentioned that can be used to alter image (2marks)
      8. Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases as used in the passage: 4mks
         1. stack-up 
         2. overwhelming
         3. self-esteem 
         4. self-objection
   2. EXCERPT: BLOSSOMS OF THE SAVANNAH
      Mama Milanoi wondered where that culture had fled to. Was there no one to tame the likes of Oloisudori? Had the culture become moribund, useless and impotent? Another husky whisper told her the Maa culture had gone nowhere. It was still there and it was intact. It was like the waters of Nasila and all other rivers of Maa.
      Nasila river had been there as far back as Nasila people could remember. It had sustained the life of man and beast from time immemorial. But Nasila water was no longer the water she drew when she was a little girl. It was no longer the water she and her friends scooped up with their hands and drank happily to quench their thirst after a long hot day in the fields. No, the water was no longer the same. The water had been polluted. In those days the water was so clean and clear that the pebbles on the riverbed were visible. Even the mudfish and the crab-like creatures called enkileleo were so clearly visible in the water one would have thought they were in a clear glass container.
      That was no more. Upstream, people were washing vehicles, they were washing smelling hides and skins, they were emptying sacks of agricultural chemicals and other offending and poisonous pollutants into Nasila river. It would not be long, Mama Milanoi reasoned sorrowfully, before the life-giving water of Nasila began to sicken and kill.
      And so was Nasila culture. The founder had intended that the culture would regulate the lives of the people, and indeed it did. It charted out the way for everyone, from cradle to the grave. It defined relationships, it created laws that governed ownership of property and settled disputes. It did not discriminate, it did not favour anyone over the others, it gave everyone a chance to live a full life; it protected everyone within its confines and provided cleansing procedures for those who defiled it. It was simply a cherished way of life for all the Maa people, including those in Nasila. It was no more. It was now defiled and polluted by the likes of Oloisudori. Yes, the old Nasila culture had become mutable and it now contained defiant mutants that it could not regulate and which were above Nasila Laws.
      She thought of her own house. Yes, change was creeping in. Her daughters were different. They had gone through a school system that intermingled them with children from other cultures. They knew very little of Nasila culture. They were children of a new undefined culture. Theirs was a mutant of another kind.
      Her daughter Resian, Mama Milanoi thought sadly, as she turned once more on her bed, was a hard nut to crack. She was obstinate and defiant. She certainly epitomized the new undefined culture. She knew she had an independent mind and she was not easy to handle. If her father thought she was docile and that he would just call her and hand her over to Oloisudori, he was in for a rude shock. No amount of intimidation or threats could easily break her. She always said she knew her rights and would not allow anyone to trample on them.
      1. What happens after this excerpt? (3mks)
      2. How could the culture, Mama Milanoi is thinking about, come to her rescue in her current predicament basing your answer from elsewhere in the text(2mks)
      3. Explain the relationship between the current state of the Nasila river and the Nasilian culture 3mks
      4. Explain one way the Kaelo family find themselves at conflict with the Nasilian culture. 2mks
      5. What do we learn about Resian  and Mama Milanoi from this excerpt? 4mks
      6. Explain the major issue emerging from this excerpt? 2mks
      7. What is the prevailing mood in this excerpt? 2mks
      8. Illustrate two stylistic devices evident in this excerpt. 4mks
      9. In those days the water was so clean and clear that the pebbles on the riverbed were visible.(Rewrite the sentence starting with; So…) 1mk
      10. Explain the meaning of the following word and phrases ( 2 marks)
          1. inter-mingled
          2. hard nut to crack
2. Read the poem bellow and then answer the questions that follow. 20 MARKS
   My grandmother
   She kept an antique shop – or it kept her.
   Among Apostle spoons and Bristol glasses,
   The faded silks, the heavy furniture,
   She watched her own reflection in the brass
   Salvers and silver bowls, as if to prove
   Polish was all, there was no need for love.
   
   And I remember how I once refused
   To go out with her, since I was afraid.
   It was perhaps a wish not to be used
   Like antique objects. Though she never said
   That she was hurt, I still could feel the guilt
   Of that refusal, guessing how she felt.
   
   Later, too frail to keep a shop, she put
   All her best things in one long, narrow room.
   The place smelt old, of things too long kept shut,
   The smell of absences where shadows come
   That can’t be polished. There was nothing then
   To give her own reflection back again.
   
   And when she died I felt no grief at all,
   Only the guilt of what I once refused.
   I walked into her room among the tall
   Sideboards and cupboards – things she never used
   But needed: and no finger-marks were there,
   Only the new dust falling through the air. 
   - Elizabeth Jennings 
   1. Identify the persona in the above poem. (2 marks)
   2. In note form, summarize what each stanza is talking about. (4 marks)
   3. Identify and briefly explain the use of any two images in the poem.(4 marks)
   4. What does the persona feel towards the grandmother? (2 marks)
   5. What do the following lines mean in the poem? (2 marks) 
      1. “too frail to keep a shop”
      2. Only the new dust falling through the air”
   6. Describe the tone the persona uses in the second stanza  (2 marks)
   7. Explain the paradox in the line: (2 marks)
      things she never used
      But needed:
   8. Explain the persona’s sense of guilt. (2 marks)
3. GRAMMAR (15 MARKS)
   1. Fill in the blank space with the correct form of the word in brackets (4mks)
      1. The prices of the items were not____________________. (negotiate)
      2. The students were quite_______________ to the new teacher. (receive)
      3. The case received a just verdict because the judge is____________. (corrupt)
      4. The students’ _______________ of staying in school to going home for half term was welcome. (prefer)
   2. Fill in the blank spaces with the correct preposition  (3mks)
      1. We danced________ the rhythm of their drums.
      2. I have placed the coffee table __________ the shade of that tree.
      3. The thief dashed__________ the house when he saw the police officers.
   3. Fill in the blank spaces with a suitable phrasal verb formed from the word in brackets.
      1. We surely cannot _____________________such insults. (put)
      2. The captain _________________________ his crew throughout the trial. (back)
      3. Students have to work very hard to____________________ for lost time. (make)
   4. Combine the following sentence using a participle phrase  (1 mark)
      I had seen the photographs of the place, I had no desire to go there.
      Supply a question tag to the following statement   1 mark
      John hardly ever studies
   5. Rewrite the following sentences accordin g to the instructions given. (3mks)
      1. As soon as the students completed the exams, they returned all the books to the library (Begin:  No sooner).
      2. If you invite him, he will come to the party (Rewrite.............. unless....................)
      3. My class teacher intervened.  I was not sent home (combine into one sentence using ‘but for’)

MARKING SCHEME

1.    
   1.    
      1. According to a poll in 2015, the average woman between 16 and 25 years old spends over five hours a week. Also women take an average of seven shots to get one image
      2. Bone structure, slimming your waistline, erasing pimples
      3. When they become a measure of self-worth. Use of make up and multiple attempts one feels like they’re not going to stack-up. It also leads to a lot of self-scrutiny as girls try to perfect their own images and make comparisons to the pictures their peers are posting
      4. That they’re not as beautiful the way they are when she sees images of her peers that have used lenses that alter appearances seem more beautiful than she is. 
      5. Self-esteem often takes a hit when one starts comparing themselves too much to other people, which is something social media seems to be made for. A study found that frequently viewing selfies led to decreased self esteem and decreased life satisfaction/and another showed higher weight dissatisfaction and self-objectification
      6. Alter
      7. Instagram
         snapchat
      8. It lends support to the writer’s argument and shows that other people hold the same view
      9.    
         1. stack-up – measure up
         2. overwhelming – vey great or intense
         3. self-esteem – confidence in one’s worth; self respect
         4. self-objectification – when people view themselves as objects for use.
   2.      
      1. Mama Milanoi wondered how they would have handled the question of Resian’s circumcision. She also wondered how Oloisudori would react when Resian rebuffed him. She feared for her daughter’s life. 
      2. Culture would not have allowed Oloisudori, who was the age of her husband, be her son-in-law. She would have appealed to the elders court which certainly would have ruled her husband out of order and possibly fined him together with his purported son-in-law. Culture-abusers and their collaborators would have been shamed through a public rebuke and a cleansing ceremony. Also, culture gave her room to call for mass action which was swift, vindictive and decisive
      3. Both the Nasila river and Nasilian culture have been polluted. Mama Milanoi says that the water was no longer the water she drew when she was a little girl…the water had been polluted. And so was Nasila culture…it was now defiled and polluted by the likes of Oloisudori
      4. The intoiye nemengalana status of ole kaelo’s daughters, Resian and Taiyo. The girls had delayed in undergoing the circumcision against the society’s expectation. Ole Kaelo’s monogamous marriage.
      5. Assertive/Self-assured/Confident/Bold – no amount of intimidation or threats could easily break her/she knew her rights
         Observant
         Informed
         Realistic
      6. Change - But Nasila water was no longer the water she drew when she was a little girl. / Yes, change was creeping in. Her daughters were different. They had gone through a school system that intermingled them with children from other cultures  
      7. Melancholic - It would not be long, Mama Milanoi reasoned sorrowfully, before the life-giving water of Nasila began to sicken and kill./ Her daughter Resian, Mama Milanoi thought sadly, as she turned once more on her bed, was a hard nut to crack
      8. Rhetorical questions - Was there no one to tame the likes of Oloisudori?
         Simile
         Local language
         Resian was a hard nut to crack
      9. So clean and clear was the water that the pebbles on the riverbed were visible.
         1. Intermingled
         2. Hard nut to crack
2.      
   1. The persona is a grandchild “My grandmother” (2 mks)
   2.         
      • Stanza 1: describes her grandmother (1x4 mks)
      • Stanza 2: describes the incident which causes guilt
      • Stanza 3: shows her grandmother in retirement
      • Stanza 4: after her grandmother has died, the persona reflects on her grandmother’s life and her own memories
   3. Simile  - “like antique objects” to show persona’s objection to the way she was treated by the grandmother (2 mks)
      Metaphor – “the smells of absences; the place smelt old” (2 mks)
   4. The persona feels indifferent towards her grandmother. “and when she died I felt no grief at all” (2 mks)
   5. Symbolic of her death and absence. (2 mks)
   6. The persona uses a regretful tone. “I still could feel the guilt …Of that refusal, guessing how she felt” (2 mks)
   7. It means that the grandmother was attached to the things she had but she really didn’t use them. They did not have any value to her apart from being attached to them. (2 mks)
   8. The persona feels guilty for having failed to accompany his/her grandmother out, because he/she didn’t want to be used as one of the antique item. (2 mks)
3.        
   1.      
      1. The prices of the items were not negotiable (negotiate)
      2. The students were quite receptive to the new teacher (receive)
      3. The ease received a just verdict because the judge was incorruptible (corrupt)
      4. The students’ preference of staying in school to going home for halfterm was welcome (prefer)
   2.    
      1. We danced  to rhythm of their drums
      2. I have placed the coffee table in the shade of that tree
      3. The thief dashed into the house when he saw the police officers.
   3.      
      1. We surely cannot put up with such insults (put)
      2. The captain backed up his crew throughout the trial (back)
      3. Students have to work very hard to make up for lost time (make)
   4. Combine the following sentences using a participle phrase
      Having seen the photographs of the place, I had no desire to go there.
   5.    
      1. Rewrite the following sentences according to the instructions given.
      2. No sooner had the students completed the exams than they returned all the books to the library.
      3. He will not come to the party unless you invite him.
      4. But for my class teacher’s intervention, I would have been sent home.