BOTSWANA EXAMINATIONS COUNCIL

Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education

English Language 1234/02

INSERT For Examination from 2025
SPECIMEN PAPER 2 hours

This document consists of 5 printed pages and 3 blank pages.

© BEC 2025 1234/02/INSERT/O/N/2025 [Turn over

 2

Passage A [10 marks]

Read passage A and answer question 1 (a) to (h) on the question paper.

Let the games begin

1 GABORONE – The African Youth

Games are finally here. When
Botswana announced its intention to
host the games, the country was
actually making a pledge to delight the
continent because Africans delight in
sports.

2 This is the time to deliver on that

promise. Congratulations to all the
men and women who spent sleepless
nights to ensure a successful
provision of the games.

3 Starting from today, the athletes, the

people who really matter, take over
from the organisers. It is no longer
about the business side of sports, but
about enjoyment of sport.

4 As the young athletes go onto the field, they have a heavy burden of giving spectators enjoyment.
They have a duty to their countries to compete fairly, with respect for their opponents and should
demonstrate grace and humility in victory and defeat. Great athletes treat the people they play with
and against the way they would like to be treated, walking away from arguments, and answering
aggression with the meekness of a sheep. Through these games, we should learn what
sportsmanship is all about.

5 We show good sportsmanship by treating others with respect, including coaches on both sides,
referees, judges, and officials. This is also African, and it is African to extend a hand to a triumphant
opponent. Africans know how to celebrate with their successful neighbour and the triumphant
neighbour knows better than to scorn the less fortunate neighbour. Let the games begin.

Adapted from: Daily News, May 22, 2014.

© BEC 2025 1234/02/INSERT/O/N/2025 [Turn over

 3

Passage B [10 marks]

Read the article about Rolling away stress provided below then answer the question 2 (a) to (h).

Rolling away stress the Mozambique style

1 The acacia trees blooming with orange in Maputo, Mozambique's capital city, cast shadows over
street names commemorating a history of African liberation and African socialism. The gridded
lanes of the downtown metropolis include the names of dozens of Mozambican freedom fighters,
African leaders, and the occasional international socialist for example, the Karl Marx Avenue. The
immortalisation of this socialist past stands in contrast to the movement towards a free market
economy in recent decades. In Maputo, where property was once nationalised and housing
cooperatives flourished, apartment blocks are shooting up, generating soaring real estate prices.

2 However, the streets these days are experiencing a different type of movement--that of
skateboarding. Isard Pindula describes how groups of young skaters get together accompanied
by war chants. Skateboarding allows them to 'take back' the city that is pushing out most young
people. One of the reasons for this is the lack of opportunities for the rapidly growing youth
population. Around 87% of Mozambican young people are employed in vulnerable jobs, most of
which are either in subsistence agriculture or in the informal sector.

3 Beneath all the statistics are the thousands of individuals who are dealing with the daily struggle
of uncertainty which requires survival skills. A young skater in his early 20s, Teotonio, says,
"People don't look at the emotional state of the citizen. It needs to be stabilised politically, socially,
and economically." In response to this situation, community organisers like Pindula and hip-hop
artist Simba Sitoi have decided to develop skateboarding projects in the city to engage with
disenfranchised youth.

4 Isard describes how there's a "duality in the city"--an ever-growing division between the rich and
poor. In the 1990s, Mozambique was heralded as having an exemplary economy with an average
growth of 7% per annum over several years. However, this growth has not translated into the
creation of jobs in either the formal or informal sectors.

Adapted from: New African April 2017

© BEC 2025 1234/02/INSERT/O/N/2025 [Turn over

 4

Passage C [40 marks]

Read passage C and answer question 3 (a) to (i) on the question paper.

BIG FEET

1 David came back from the forest, where he worked as a woodcutter, with a strange story. “You
know,” he said, “I saw something on Friday which made me think my eyes were deceiving me.
When we were coming back from Gouna through that particularly dense stretch of bush, I told
the others to go ahead; I wanted to walk through Stinkwood Kloof to see what we could fell
next week. The wood buyer was grumbling about stinkwood again. When we cut stinkwood, 5
it was yellow-wood he wanted and when we cut yellow-wood, it was kamasi he wanted.
Anyway, as you know, there is a footpath down in Stinkwood Kloof and one up on the hill going
over into Brown’s Kloof.”

2 David continued, “I know that footpath at the top. It may be a short cut into Brown’s Kloof, but
it can be a very dangerous one when it rains. I took the bottom path. And as I came to the 10
waterhole beneath the rock cliffs, I thought I heard big feet, but I knew in my heart it could not
be, for no elephant would dare go into Stinkwood Kloof down those gorges and ravines. But
then something made me look up and, as I did so, I saw six elephants coming up the footpath
at the top. It was right there where the path comes round the front of the hill to the precipice
before it swerves away with that very sharp bend to go down into Brown’s Kloof. I stopped 15
there, thinking that the elephants would be in real trouble.

3 In my mind’s eye, I could already see the one in front falling over the precipice. The one in
front got to the bend, but he did not fall. He extended his trunk and curled it round a tree and
moved his body round, backside to the cliff’s edge, shuffling round the bend while he kept
holding on to the tree. One after the other they followed the example of the first elephant and 20
safely got down the other side.” It was quite a story, we all thought!

4 When Elias went to bed that night, David’s story stuck in his mind. The longer he thought
about the story the more he liked it, until a temptation crossed his mind and refused to go
away. He asked his wife to pack him some food that would last him for about five days because
he wanted to have a look at the wood in Gouna bush. 25

5 He travelled to Stinkwood and was there by Monday. On his back he carried a cross saw, a
hatchet, ox reins, a blanket, and enough food for a week. The only trouble he foresaw was
that he might have to borrow extra oxen to haul out the tusks, and he did not want to do that
because he would have to give up a tusk in return.

6 After careful searching he found the tree; it was exactly where David had said it would be. The 30
excitement of expectation suddenly stirred in Elias. No elephant falling there would get to the
bottom alive. He had to work carefully and ensure that no hand or shoulder touched the tree.
He did the sawing skilfully, from the back and about calf-high from the ground, till there was
just enough wood and bark left at the front to keep the tree upright. He found himself a shelter
of branches. He slept badly that night. 35

7 Three days passed without a sign of the elephants. On Friday, a slight movement on the hill
caught his eye. When he looked up, his heart missed a beat! He watched carefully as three
elephants were coming up the path. They were approaching slowly. It was like watching a
dream come true.

© BEC 2025 1234/02/INSERT/O/N/2025 [Turn over

 5

8 Slowly, step by step, they moved along. The steeper and narrower the footpath got, the slower 40
and closer together they walked. They took the last few steps like old people. He watched in
fascination as the trunk of the leading elephant started feeling for its grip around the tree, while
the two at the back came to a standstill. Elias realised his chest had gone tight when the trunk
started curling round the tree. Then the elephant suddenly lowered its trunk and just stood
there. 45

9 As if in thought, all three stood there frozen, their trunks drooping. He could not understand
why the elephant did not put his trunk round the tree and hold on! The rascal could not have
known that the tree had been tampered with. They stood there for almost an hour before they
very carefully started stepping backwards. It took them till dark to find a place where they
could turn their heavy bodies round. It was too late for Elias to walk home. 50

10 The next morning, as he was climbing the last slope at the upper end of Stinkwood Kloof, he
would have been a dead man but for the grace of God. Quiet as cats, the elephants had taken
cover in the thickets ahead of him. The first indication of their presence was the ears flapping
among the foliage. All he could do was to throw away the knapsack and then run for dear life.
He could not tell how many they were and did not care; he only knew that the undergrowth 55
kept breaking right behind him, and that death was breathing down his neck.

Adapted from: Fiela’s Child by Daniel Mathee.

© BEC 2025 1234/02/INSERT/O/N/2025 [Turn over

 6

BLANK PAGE

© BEC 2025 1234/02/INSERT/O/N/2025 [Turn over

 7

BLANK PAGE

© BEC 2025 1234/02/INSERT/O/N/2025 [Turn over

 8

BLANK PAGE

Permission to reproduce items where third party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (BEC) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included,
the publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

© BEC 2025 1234/02/INSERT/O/N/2025 [Turn over