Choose one of the following topics and write a composition of 500 to 700 words.
1. Write a story ending "It was only then that I realised I had been wrong; I apologised."
2. Write an imaginary story with the title "A strange Marriage"
3. Describe the career you hope to join, giving clear reasons for your choice.
4. Give the most common causes of students' misconduct in secondary schools and suggest some solutions
5. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of polygamous families.
6. What, in your view, are the causes of environmental degradation in your country?
7. Give your views for or against some of the traditional beliefs and customs in your culture.
SECTION B
Each of your compositions should be 250 to 300 words.
1. The Minister of Education and Sports is due to visit your school to open a new classroom block. As head prefect of your school, you have been included among the speakers for the occasion.
Do not forget to include, among others, details of
_ use of space in the school
_ number of students in school
_ academic requirements
_ financial needs
_ benefits expected from the building.
2. Write clear notes to present to group of visitors about the contribution that particular NGO has made to your local community
3. Your friend who left home to study abroad wants some advice about useful subjects. Write a letter to her in which you explain the value of some subjects especially for employment.
4. If you were the games patron, how would you organise games and sports in your school?
5. You have disappointed a close friend. Write an apology to him or her showing clearly that you are aware of his or her feelings and need his or her forgiveness.
6. Write clearly about what you would do if you caught a robber in your community.
7. What qualities would you insist on if you were electing an LC I Secretary for youth?
PAPER 2
1. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
Classification helps us find order in the world. Human beings spend a great deal of time classifying persons, places, and events. We separate people into classes. A relatively smaller class consists of those we can call our friends, a much larger class contains our acquaintances, another group- small, one hopes- is made up of those we dislike, and there is a huge, faceless class of people we don't know. Classification means putting people, places and events into classes or categories. Usually, we group things together because they have something in common. We often classify things unconsciously, as a matter of habit, to make life a little more orderly. Even simple acts like getting dressed in the morning are simplified by the human habit of classification. One trunk or one drawer seldom holds an entire wardrobe stuffed in at random. Rather, one drawer holds underwear, another might contain socks and another is reserved for sweaters or shirts. People may even arrange their clothes according to the season. Without some kind of organisation (at least a clean pile and a dirty pile) getting dressed in the morning could be a time consuming and frustrating effort.
A familiar example of how useful classification can be is the library. Without a system of classification, all the books in the library would be useless to us because we could never find one book among thousands randomly scattered on the shelves. Libraries classify books according to their subject matter: history, education, mathematics business, and so on. Each large category is itself divided into smaller classes: histories of Russia, , histories of United States, histories of Japan. As a result, the great store of information in a library becomes readily available to us after a glance into the card catalogue. Classification offers us systematic, orderly way of communicating information.
Classification demands a system of some kind. The choice of system depends on your purpose for writing and the type of information you are trying to organise.
Classification arranges ideas or things according to some principle of similarity. It is a method of putting facts into clear, recognisable order for the purpose of proper understanding. Classification breaks down a more complex object or group into parts. Classification arranges the material of existence into significant patterns discovered through careful observation and analysis. Even an apparently simple classification is the result of years of observation.
(Adapted from: Writing in An age of technology by Thomas .E. Kakonious and John Scally)
Question:
In not more than 80 words, explain the importance of classification.
2. Read this passage and then answer the questions that follow:
Unemployment is one of the most formidable problems facing developing countries. Ironically, the reason for this seems to be education.
For centuries, the hoe has supported an ever-increasing population in Africa. A peasant population, with the help of modern agricultural techniques could easily continue to support peasants. It is simply a matter of each family producing a little more from its ancestral plot. What it cannot do is produce food that penniless town dwellers can afford.
To an aspiring African, a paper qualification is a passport to the good things in life: after all, isn't that how the others got their solidly built bungalows with electricity, piped water supply, comfortable furniture, cars, and transistor radios? And where better to "acquire education" and be within reach of these attractions than in, towns? It is a very human recipe for disaster. In country after country in which the economy is based 80 or90 percent on agriculture, almost every young person is fired with the ambition to get away from the land.
Perhaps one in twenty finds a satisfactory job, which is not surprising when one knows that in Kenya, for example, there are fewer than 1 million jobs for the population of 10 million. But the next crop of youngsters notices only those who have made good, not the rest who have drifted into the slums-cauldrons of unrest which from time to time bubble over in violence.
The straight forward way out of such a dilemma would seem to be a widening of the economy and by industrialization to create more jobs in factories. This is not always easy in developing countries. Their products would have to complete in world markets with those from wealthier nations. And to do this successfully, they would have to employ modern industrial techniques- which are designing to save labour and not to create extra jobs! For example, a West African country secured a contract for supplying confectionery groundnuts to Holland. Soon a hundred or so women were finding welcome employment in sorting the ground-nut. Now someone has invented an electric device which does the job quicker. The women will soon be out once again
Cottage industries, i.e. small workshops run by a few individual craftsmen, are often encouraged in these countries but they operate on such a small scale that no appreciable results have yet been achieved. There remains agriculture. Politicians are coming to the unwelcome conclusion that in countries in which it is the major industry, it will still be so in twenty or thirty years. Providing an agricultural education, or an agricultural bias to a general education, has been wicked tried - but it is not very successful. One country set up an agricultural training college to provide a three- year course for youths who signed a document stating they would work on the land in their villages. Parents had to agree to provide the land. In their last term, some were asked if they were going to work on the land.
"Oh yes'" they agreed cheerfully, "but not just yet. First we have to go to the town to get a job to repay our parents for our education. "You see, we have young brothers to educate, too."
A high ranking official in the same country explained that once a boy is admitted to a school or college where agriculture is taught as a subject- with an examination at the end- he lost to the land forever. Agriculture for him becomes just another academic subject in which he can obtain a certificate or degree which will entitle him to white-collar job in a town.
The hard fact is that is these boys are lucky enough to get jobs as dock labourers, for two months a year they earn more than their brother who work on the farm all the year. Work on the land is still considered drudgery with a hoe. The smart lads are those who escape; the ones who remain are the failures. Nothing until this set of values is reversed.
(Source: Modem Method English by D.W. Grieve et all)
Questions:
1) In the sentence, "It is very human recipe for disaster." What does it refer to?
2) What according to the passage, is the meaning of the following phrases:
i. ...those who have made good.
ii. ...the straight forward layout of such a dilemma. What is a dilemma?
3) Why is it difficult for developing countries to widen the economy, establish industries and create more jobs in factories?
4) Give one disadvantage of cottage industries.
5) Mention three possible solutions to the problem of unemployment as discussed in the passage
3. Read this passage and answer the questions that follow.
I did most of the domestic work because my sister and brother were still small. My uncles were considered too big. I woke up 4:30 in the morning to make fire in a brazier formed out of old lavatory bucket. I washed, made breakfast coffee for the family and tea for my grandmother as she did not take coffee.
After coffee, which we often had with mealy- meal porridge from the previous night's leftovers, we went to school. Back from school, I had to clear the house as Aunt Dora and grandmother did the white people's washing all day. Fire had to be made, meat had to be bought from an Indian butchery in the Asiatic Reserve. We were so many in the family that we had to cook porridge twice in the same big pot. We hardly ever bought more than a pound of mutton in weight. On weekdays, supper was very simple, just porridge and meat. When there was no money we fried tomatoes. We never ate vegetables except on Sundays. We never had butter and custard except when we had a visitor. And then I don't remember ever seeing a pound of butter. We bought trickery's three pence worth - when we did. On such days we, the children, made a queue to have Grandmother smear a thin of butter on slice only of the bread.
At breakfast, bread was cut up. The grown-ups were given their first in saucers. Then I rationed the reminder in slices and bits of slices. Our youngest uncle, not older than I, picked his first which was the greatest quantity. Then I followed, and then my brother then my sister. We ate supper out of the same plate, we children; and meat was divided into varying sizes arid the ritual was repeated. We never sat at table. Only a visitor was treated to such modern ideas.
On Monday mornings, at about four O'clock, I started off for the suburbs to fetch washing for Aunt Dora. Thursday and Friday afternoons I had to take back the washing. If I was lucky enough I borrowed a bicycle from a tenant of ours. If I couldn't get a bicycle for the morning or afternoon I carried the bundles on my head and walked- about seven miles for a single journey.
When I came back, I went to school. I could never do my homework until ten o'clock at night when I had washed and everybody else had gone to bed. We all slept in the same room which had boxes of clothing and a kitchen dresser. My aunt and her husband slept in the room which had table and chairs.
Because we were so many in the family, there was only one bedstead- a narrow double bed occupied by Grandmother and Aunt Dora's children. The wooden floor of the room we slept in had large holes. There was always a sharp young draught coming in from underneath the floor. Coupled with this, our heads were play ground for mice, which also attacked food and clothing
(Slightly adapted from: 'Down Second Avenue' by Ezekiel Mphahele)
Answer questions by selecting the best of the four choices provided for each question.
1) The ritual mentioned in paragraph three was;
A. the order in which people got their food.
B. the cutting up of bread into varying size.
C. the dividing up of the meal into varying sizes
D. letting the younger uncle to get his food first.
2) They never sat on the table because
A. this was reserved for the grown-ups.
B. this was kept for special occasions only.
C. there were too many of them to fit round the table.
D. it was reserved for visitors.
3) The writer did his homework after 10 o'clock at night because
A. this was when he finished the washing up and had nothing else to do.
B. he had finished his domestic duties and everyone was out of the way.
C. there was not enough room until everyone had gone to bed.
D. there was too much noise until everyone had gone to bed.
4) The writer seems to suggest that he would have been more comfortable at night
A. if the holes in the floor had been blocked up.
B. if the mice had been kept out.
C. without the draught and the mice
D. in a proper bed
5) According to the passage, the writer
A. grumbles about his domestic duties
B. boasts about his domestic duties
C. enjoyed his domestic duties
D. accepted his domestic duties.
4. Rewrite the following sentences according to the instructions given in bracket without changing the meaning.
1) Umeme F.C scored three goals. Maji F.C scored two goals.
(Join the two sentences using "beat")
2) I am confident that I will pass English. I am not very confident that I will pass Maths. (Combine into one sentence using "more...than")
3) Jerry said he was sorry that he had broken the window.
(Replace 'sorry' with 'apologise')
4) It's time for us to stop talking and start doing something about the problem.
(Begin: It's time we...)
5) Do not come into the chemistry laboratory until you are told to do so.
(Replace "do not come" with "keep")
6) Who will the head master choose to represent the school? We must accept his decision. (Rewrite to form one sentence beginning: No matter...)
7) I was lonely, but I was never unhappy.
(Begin: Lonely...)
8) As there was no lift, I had to climb six flights of stairs.
(Rewrite beginning: ("There..." without using 'so' or 'and')
9) Need you bring up that topic again?
(Begin: "Is there...")
10) Do not be deceived by his polite manner.
(Use "taken" in place of "deceived")
5. Complete the sentences with the most suitable answer among the given alternatives.
1) The rat had been surrounded by driver ants and..............to death.
A. had bitten it
B. had bitten
C. bitten
D. bitten it
2) I'm sure he stole it. He.............., because he was the only on there.
A. must
B. must have
C. must do
D. must be
3) You will have to carry out the agreed programme...............your own personal feelings.
A. no matter
B. whatever
C. whatever are
D. however
4) You..............come to my house for the book. My sister will bring it to school.
A. needn't
B. had to
C. wouldn't
D. didn't need to
5) The students agreed that they ...............wear a white polyester shirt than none.
A. might
B. had to
C. could
D. would rather
6) People who steal regularly certainty............be caught sooner or later.
A. will
B. would
C. might
D. could
7) It is high time we..............the kitchen floor.
A. should scrub
B. scrub
C. scrubbed
D. must scrub
8) Because of the bomb scare, all residents of the area had to be evacuated. The underlined word means;
A. made redund.ant
B. expelled
C. deported
D. moved out
9) The boat capsized and several of us only narrowly escaped...........
A. drowning.
B. to drown
C. be drowned
D. being drowned
10) "I'm afraid he is not at home." Give the corresponding question.
A. Have you seen Juma?
B. Can I see Juma, please?
C. Is anyone at home?
D. How is Juma?
No comments:
Post a Comment