Literature in English S5 Questions and Marking Guide
Literature in English S5 Questions and Marking Guide
Date: 28 / 06 /2022
HISTORY-GEOGRAPHY-LITERATURE (HGL)
LITERATURE-ECONOMICS-GEOGRAPPHY (LEG)
LITERATURE-FRENCH–KINYARWANDA (LFK)
LITERATURE-KISWAHILI-KINYARWANDA (LKK)
DURATION: 3 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS
1) Do not open this paper until you are told to do so.
2) Attempt ALL questions.
3) This paper consists of THREE Sections: A, B and C
Section A: Prose and Poetry (40 marks)
Section B: Plays (30 marks)
Section C: Novels (30 marks)
4) Use only a blue or black pen.
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Section A: Prose and Poetry
Prose
1) Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow. (25 marks)
Teenagers don't have the life experience or perspective to discern trouble the size of
an iceberg from an ice cube. No wonder so many parents enjoyed the Hollywood
version of Titanic – they can identify with it! The good news is that humankind can
learn to avoid making mistakes from historical disasters. It is the same with dealing
with teens. There is nothing better than educating and learning through experience.
So here are my top five parenting lessons from the movie Titanic.
On 10 April 1912, the Titanic left England for New York on its maiden voyage. It was
to be the safest ship ever built. Yet five days later, it lay in two at the bottom of the
Atlantic Ocean with over 1500 people dead. In the movie, the disaster was the fault
of lookouts who did not see the iceberg in time. But during the course of my
research, another reason was traced to the officer-in-charge who actually had
enough time to kill the engine and prevent the disaster. However, he thought he
could save time by steering around the tip of the iceberg with the engines still
running.
Many of the modern dangers our teenagers face are like icebergs. Teens think they
know the risks of drinking, taking drugs, sex and violence. They believe they can
steer round the risks and survive the challenges unharmed. However, they often fail
to see dangers behind the negative pastimes ad may land themselves in real trouble.
Part of our job, as a parent, is to teach them the real risks and slow down their
engines.
In "Active Parenting of Teens", a parent education video, parents are taught how to
be an effective provider of information. This means parents need to know what the
real risks are and then communicate with them in a way that will be accepted. This
means letting teens know you're concerned and not because you are judging them.
Teens will not listen to your advice so until they know how much you care. Instead,
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let your words and attitude say: "I love you so much that it would break my heart if
something bad happened to you." By doing so, you stand a good chance of being a
positive influence on the decisions they make.
Just as it's important for you to teach your teens the risks of dabbling in negative
pastimes, it is also crucial to discuss rescue plans for worst case scenarios. For
instance, what should your daughter do if her date has been drinking and wants
her to drive out with him for a burger? Take time to talk to your teens about various
situations and effective ways of handling them. Again, avoid sounding too
judgmental if she disagrees with you. She may only see your wisdom in retrospect
rather than during the discussion, which isn't a bad thing. The main goal is to start
your teen thinking.
Teens need to be aware that what they see and hear in music, movies and television
is not an accurate reflection of reality. Advertisements are designed to see things.
Beer ads may feature happy and attractive men and women but we never see them
binge drinking, dying from alcohol poisoning, or becoming alcoholics. Parents can
help their teens see through the hype and make informed decisions.
The captain of the Titanic chose to steer his course at a disastrous price. Changing
direction and cutting the engine was certainly a better option. But that's not to say
that change is a sure way of preventing disasters. The teenage years are a time of
experimenting and the need for adventure is high. We can help our teens find safe
ways to explore new positive ventures through sports, outdoor activities and special
interests. You have other truths to teach your teens, truths that offer ballast on a
stormy sea. You may need to change directions now and then or cut your engines
when an iceberg appears. After all, we don't want to repeat the mistakes of the
Titanic.
Questions
a) What misconception do teenagers have regarding drinking, taking drugs and sex?
(3 marks)
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b) What possible danger may this 'misconception' lead to? (3 marks)
c) Describe how parents can 'stand a good chance' of making their teenaged
children listen to them. (5 marks)
d) In the sentence "it is crucial to discuss rescue plans for worst case scenarios ...",
(i) Explain what is meant by 'rescue plans'. (3 marks)
(ii) Give one example of 'worst case scenarios'. (3 marks)
e) (i) Explain what is meant by 'Advertisements are designed to see things'.
(2 marks)
(ii) How can parents help their teens to be aware of what they see or hear in
advertisements? (2 marks)
f) We learn that parents need to help their teenaged children 'change directions'.
(i) When do they have to do so? (2 marks)
(ii) How can they help them make the change? (2 marks)
2) Read the following poem and answer questions that follow. (15 marks)
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They shall say, I know, who pick up my bones,
‘Poor chap, another victim to the ruthless machine’-
Concealing my blood under the metal.
Timothy Wangusa
Questions
a) Why must the taxi driver peer rather than look into the future? (2 marks)
b) What does he mean by‘this road’? (2 marks)
c) In your own words explain the following expressions:
(i) ‘the metallic monster I dictate’. (2 marks)
(ii) ‘docile elaborate horse.’ (2 marks)
d) (i) Explain three things the taxi driver does not care for. (3 marks)
(ii) What is his real reason for being a taxi driver? (2 marks)
(iii) Do you consider the driver ‘another victim of the ruthless machine’ or not?
Explain. (2 marks)
3) Choose ONE play and answer the question on it. (30 marks)
Either:
Discuss any five themes portrayed in the play The Caucasian Chalk Circle.
Or:
Describe the character traits of Dr Stockmann and Morten Kiil as depicted in the
play An Enemy of the People.
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Section C: Novels (30 marks)
4) Choose ONE of the two passages below; read it carefully and then answer
the Questions that follow as concisely as possible. (15 marks)
Nanga must have gone into politics soon afterwards and then won a seat in
Parliament. (It was easy in those days-before we knew its cash price.) I used to read
about him in the papers some years later and even took something like pride in him.
At that time, I had just entered the University and was very active in the Students’
branch of the People’s Organization Party. Then in 1960 something disgraceful
happened in the Party and I was completely disillusioned.
Then came the slump in the international coffee market. Overnight (or so it seemed
to us) the Government had a dangerous financial crisis on its hands. Coffee was the
prop of our economy just as coffee farmers were the bulwark of the P.O.P.
The Minister of Finance at the time was a first-rate economist with a Ph.D. in public
finance. He presented to the Cabinet a complete plan for dealing with the situation.
The Prime Minister said ‘No’ to the plan. He was not going to risk losing the election
by cutting down the price paid to coffee planters at that critical moment; the National
Bank should be instructed to print fifteen million pounds. Two-thirds of the Cabinet
support the Minister. The next morning the Prime Minister sacked them and in the
evening he broadcast to the nation. He said the dismissed ministers were
conspirators and traitors who had teamed up with foreign saboteurs to destroy the
new nation.
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I remember this broadcast very well. Of course no one knew the truth at that time.
The newspapers and the radio carried the Prime Minister’s version of the story. We
were very indignant. Our Students’ Union met in an emergency session and passed
a vote of confidence in the leader and called for a detention law to deal with the
miscreants. The whole country was behind the leader. Protest marches and
demonstrations were staged up and down the land.
It was at this point that I first noticed a new, dangerous and sinister note in the
universal outcry.
The Daily Chronicle, an official organ of the P.O.P., had pointed out in an editorial
that the Miscreant Gang, as the dismissed ministers were now called, were all
university people and highly educated professional men. (I have preserved a cutting
of that editorial.)
Let us now and for all time extract from our body-politic as a dentist extracts a
stinking tooth all those decadent stooges versed in text-book economics and aping
the white man’s mannerisms and way of speaking. We are proud to be Africans.
Our true leaders are not those intoxicated with their Oxford, Cambridge or
Harvard degrees but those who speak the language of the people. Away with the
damnable and expensive university education which only alienates an African
from his rich and ancient culture and puts him above his people…
This cry was taken up on all sides. Other newspapers pointed out that even in Britain
where the Miscreant Gang got its ‘so called education’ a man need not be an
economist to be Chancellor of the Exchequer or a doctor to be Minister of Health.
What mattered was loyalty to the party.
I was in the public gallery the day the Prime Minister received his overwhelming vote
of confidence. And that was the day the truth finally came out; only no one was
listening. I remember the grief-stricken figure of the dismissed Minister of Finance
as he led his team into the chamber and was loudly booed by members and the
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public. That week his car had been destroyed by angry mobs and his house stoned.
Another dismissed minister had been pulled out of his car, beaten insensible, and
dragged along the road for fifty yards, then tied hand and foot, gagged and left by the
roadside. He was still in the orthopaedic hospital when the house met.
That was my first – and last – visit to Parliament. It was also the only time I had set
eyes on Mr Nanga again since he taught me in 1948.
Questions
a) Where and when does the event in the extract take place? (2 marks)
b) Who is the narrator in this extract? (2 marks)
c) What are the character traits of Chief Nanga in this extract? (3 marks)
d) Compare the economic activity mentioned in the extract with the economic
activity in Rwanda. (2 marks)
e) Discuss literary techniques used in this extract to portray the message.
(3 marks)
f) Discuss the theme of corruption in this extract. (3 marks)
Around them, the street was alive. People moved up and down. Children played in
the gutters, and picked up dirty orange peels and ate them. The pulsating motion of
Malay Camp at night was everywhere. Warm and intense and throbbing.
People sang.
People cried.
People fought.
People loved.
People hated.
Others were sad.
Others gay.
Others with friends.
Others lonely. Some died.
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Some were born…
“You say you don’t know. I know, Xuma, I know.”
She looked at him and there was the shadow of a smile on her lips, but her eyes were
serious. “I know,” she whispered. Then she pulled herself together and her voice
changed:
“Listen to me Xuma. I will try again to make you understand. In the city it is like this:
all the time you are fighting. Fighting. Fighting! When you are asleep and when you
are awake. And you look only after yourself. If you do not, you are finished. If you
are soft, everyone will spit in your face. They will rob you and cheat you and betray
you. So, to live here, you must be hard. Hard as a stone. And money is your best
friend. With money, you can buy a policeman. With money, you can buy somebody
to go to jail for you. That is how it is, Xuma. It may be good, it may be bad, but there
it is. And to live, one must see it. Where you come from, it isn’t so. But here, it is so.”
Again, there was a long silence between them. The stars came out and twinkled
brightly in the sky. The moon came up, and chasing the Milky Way, travelled
eastward.
Rosita, who lived across the way, turned on her gramophone and came on her
veranda swaying her broad hips.
“Hello!” she called across to Leah.
Leah looked up, startled. Xuma too, was startled.
“We must go in,” Leah said. “Food will be ready.”
“My white man gave me a pound,” Xuma said. “Will you take some of it for my food
and my sleeping here?”
Leah got up. She stared down at him then turned away.
“No. You can pay me when you get paid properly,” she said gruffly. “Come.” They
went in.
A fire, made in a paraffin tin with holes in the side, stood in the centre of the kitchen.
And around it, of the floor, sat Ma Plank, Daddy, a man who was a stranger to Xuma,
the pale fat one called Drunk Liz, Lena the thin coloured woman, Johannes, and
another woman who was also a stranger.
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Questions
a) Where is the setting this extract? (1 mark)
b) Describe Xuma’s character traits in this novel. (3 marks)
c) Identify any literary devices used to portray the message. (2 marks)
d) How is Leah related to Daddy? (2 marks)
e) From the above extract, describe the life in Malay Camp. (4 marks)
f) Why is Xuma worried according to this extract? (1 mark)
g) What piece of advice did Leah give to Xuma? (2 marks)
5) Choose ONE novel and answer the question on it. (15 marks)
Analyse the seven commandments in Animal Farm and show their moral lesson in
daily life.
END
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Marking guide
Section A: Prose and Poetry
1) Prose
a) They think they know what they are doing and they can survive whatever risks
that they may face. (3 marks)
b) This misconception may land the teenagers in some big trouble or danger.
(3 marks)
c) They could do so by letting their children know how much they cared for them
and then advising them the real risks they would be facing. (5 marks)
d) (i) It means 'solutions or ways of solving the risks one is facing'. (3 marks)
(ii) It could be having to deal with a boyfriend who is drunk but wants to take the
girl out in his car. (3 marks)
e) (i) Advertisements are aimed at displaying the best side of things for us to see. We
don't get to see the reality of things. (2 marks)
(ii) They can tell their children that advertisements do not necessarily tell the truth
and cannot be relied on always. (2 marks)
f) (i) They have to do so whenever their children seem to head towards danger or
disaster. (2 marks)
(ii) They can help them find safe ways like involving in activities like sports to satisfy
their spirit of adventure. (2 marks)
2) Poem
a) Why must the taxi driver peer rather than look into the future? (2 marks)
The future is unknown. He cannot ‘look’ because he cannot see it clearly. He can
only ‘peer’ as though through a mist.
b) What does he mean by ‘this road’? (2 marks)
This way of life I have chosen
c) In your own words explain the following expressions:
i) ‘the metallic monster I dictate’ (2 marks)
This huge, strong, dangerous vehicle that I am driving
ii) ‘docile elaborate horse’(2 marks)
Obedient but complex means of transport
d) Explain three things the taxi driver does not care for. (3 marks)
• The journey of his passenger
• The profits of the taxi owner
• His own benefit
e) What is his real reason for being a taxi driver? (2 marks)
He wants to earn a living: he risks his life because he wants to get some little
more money.
f) Do you consider the driver ‘another victim of the ruthless machine’ or not? Explain.
(2 marks)
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He is not a victim of the machine, he is a victim of himself. He has the ability to
control the machine and drive safely but his desire to earn more money leads him
to over speeding. Driving at accelerating speed thrills him at the risk of killing
himself or being challenged by the police and sent to jail.
Section B: Plays
3) Choose ONE play and answer the question on it. (30 marks)
Bertolt Brecht: The Caucasian Chalk Circle
Themes in the play are:
The protagonist of the play, Stockmann is a doctor and family man. He is occasionally
naive and carried away by his passions, but he is fiercely dedicated to the
preservation of the truth regarding the Springs. He holds on to his view regardless of
how much he and his family are attacked
Morten Kiil
Catherine's father, he initially seems harmless but once he realizes his tannery is
causing the pollution, he behaves disreputably by buying up stock in the springs and
ordering Stockmann to clear his name.
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Section C: Novels (30 marks)
4) Choose ONE of the two passages below; read it carefully and then answer the
Questions that follow as concisely as possible. (15 marks)
Either: (A) CHINUA ACHEBE: A Man of the People
a) The event in the extract takes place in a parliamentary cabinet meeting. It is in 1960
when Nanga was a Member of Parliament. It was the time of financial crisis due to
fluctuation of coffee prices. (2 marks)
b) The narrator in the extract is Odili. (2 marks)
c) Chief Nanga is portrayed as a country’s minister of culture in the reigning POP political
party. He is Odili’s antagonist and competitor throughout the novel.
He is a power-hungry, selfish and corrupt politician. He wants to offer Odili a
scholarship to go abroad for further education. He betrays Odili by sleeping with Elsie,
his girlfriend, which resulted into revenge for Odili to sleep with Edna in turn, the
proposed second wife of Chief Nanga. (3 marks)
d) The economic activity in the extract is coffee growing/plantation. Coffee is a cash crop
commonly grown in Rwanda for its beverage, for export and source of employment. (2
marks)
e) Literary techniques used in this extract include:
Simile is a direct comparison of one thing with another using “as” or “like”
e.g. “Let us now and for all time extract from our body-politic as a dentist extracts a
stinking tooth all those decadent stooges”.
Irony: a difference from what one says or does and what one means.
e.g. The Prime Minister fires the Minister of Finance and other Cabinet members for
his own personal gain and ambitions so as to retain his position during elections.
Flashback: a reference to the past interrupting the plot in order to give earlier
information.
e.g. “It was also the only time I had set eyes on Mr Nanga again since he taught me in
1948”.
(3 marks)
f) Money and corruption: money is a prerequisite to power and Nanga was used as the
symbol of corruption. He was a man of the people because he had money, so even
though the people completely knew him as a fraudulent man, they continued to
worship him. In the story, money holds women, people and choices. The people knew
Nanga had money so it was easy to pretend since money can simply put aside anyone
who stands in Nanga way (as it is the case of Max)
(3 marks)
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Or: (B) PETER ABRAHAMS: Mine Boy
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5) Choose ONE novel and answer the question on it. (15 marks)
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• The Pearl of the world = destruction influence (possession + energies)
Greed, a destructive force
As Kino seeks to gain wealth and status through the pearl, he transforms from a happy,
contented father to a savage criminal demonstrating the way ambition and greed
destroy innocence. Kino’s desire to acquire wealth perverts the pearl natural beauty and
good luck, transforming it from a symbol of hope to a symbol of human destruction.
Furthermore, Kino’s greed leads to behave violently toward his wife. It also leads to his
son’s death and ultimately to Kino’s detachment from his cultural tradition and his
society.
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