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KCSE CLUSTER TESTS 20

English Paper 3

1. CREATIVE COMPOSITION (20 Marks)

1.

(a)

- Must be a story, if not deduct 4 marks AD.

- The story must start with the input statement

- The statement should not appear elsewhere

- The ensuing scenario must be logically tied to the sentence given.

(b)

-Must be a discursive or explanatory essay detailing benefits of the Constituency Development Fund.

-If not, treat as irrelevant and deduct 4 marks AD.

20 marks

2.NOVEL (20 Marks)

The River Between -Ngugi wa Thiong o
2.

According to Mugo wa Kibiro's ancient prophecy, a messiah was to come from the hills to liberate the people from the yoke of colonialism. That savior was Waiyaki. He was supposed to unify the people of Makuyu and Kameno to drive out the white man. However, his efforts bear no fruit due to a number of reasons. Content

  • The two ridges are antagonistic because each jealously claims divine mandate to leadership.' ... They faced each other, like rivals ready to come to blows in a life and death struggle for the leadership of the isolated region." (pg 1) This made it hard for Waiyaki to reconcile the two because he came from Kameno. The leadership rivalry is seen between Kabonyi and Waiyaki. Kabonyi fears Waiyaki might be the sent one and therefore undermines Waiyaki. He opposes Waiyaki's elevation to be clerk of the Kiama.
  • The new Christian faith and tribal beliefs are opposed to each other, Makuyu in the centre of Christianity and Kameno is the home to traditionalists. The two hate each other and this makes it hard for Waiyaki to fulfill his messianic call. Muthoni tries to marry the two but ends in death.
  • Waiyaki's involvement in Muthoni's death makes him unacceptable among the traditionalists and they therefore refuse to acknowledge his efforts of reconciliation, "... Muthoni. She was not clean. You are not ignorant and you know what this means to the tribe." (pg 125-126) circumcision and death of Muthoni heightens the differences between the two ridges thus hampers Waiyaki's unity call. It caused more divisions.
  • Waiyaki was too trusting and naive. He failed to see the true interests of Kabonyi and Kamau. He forgot that Kamau had an old grudge against him and takes him for a friend. He fails to detect Kabonyi's trap in the Kiama oath that he takes. This is what finishes him later. He alienates him from Christians. His association with Nyambura, an uncircumcised girl, infuriates the elders who denounce him for betrayal. He is branded a traitor, not a savior.

Waiyaki is obsessed with the building of schools that he fails to recognize the people’s suffering under the white man. People wanted freedom (pg 138) Education contributes to the conflict. Children of the traditionalists are expelled form Siriana mission school hence hostility between Christians and traditionalists. This makes it difficult for Waiyaki to reconcile the two groups.

  • Colonialists took advantage of the division caused by Christians to make it hard for any efforts at reconciliation. The children of those who defied the laws of the church and continued with the tribal customs would have to leave Siriana (pg 60). This caused further division and made it easy for the colonialists to entrench themselves (pg62-65). Colonialists introduced hut tax, forced labour and grabbed people's land. People wanted action now, yet Waiyaki was obsessed with education hence his failure.
  • Fate - for instance, Kabonyi's malice, his falling in love with Nyambura going to Siriana for teachers, his youthfulness and inexperience in leadership, the coincidence of going to warn Joshua and his followers and Kamau's visit to Joshua's place to get Nyambura. Conclusion The student can conclude by giving a recap of the main points and by trying to prove how Waiyaki fails to reconcile the community.
  • Marks Introduction: contextual or general if relevant 2mks Content: mark any 4 well illustrated points 3:3:3:3 = 12 mks Grammar: 4mks Conclusion: drawn from content 2mks Total: 20mks Q3(a).
  • Short Stories: When the sun goes down and other

20 marks

3.SET TEXTS (20 Marks)

3.

“And where there was guilt there was opportunity” Write an essay to validate this assertion basing your illustrations from “The Guilt”by Rayda Jacobs. Introduction (2 marks) -

Accept either general/contextnalised introduction.

-Explain what guilt & /cause of it is. example. of an introduction

The whites in South Africa just after the end of apartheid were shot by guilt and even felt afraid in their own homes. The blacks on their part were aware of the guilt the whites felt because they had taken advantage of the previous regime to acquire so much wealth. They thus made good of this guilt that the whites were accused of having. Points of reference in the body. 12 marks

(i). William Sidlay a young man from Transkei comes to Lilian Thur good’s fortified home doubley prepared to either get work or a donation. (p2-5). He asks Lilian whether she has any work and she says she doesn’t. (pg 2). He then produces a dogeared letter on a homemade letter head claiming he is collecting money/donations on behalf of some organization. Lilian gives him five rands because she does not have change (pg 5). He insists on working for it but an hour later he demands to be paid more. (pg 5 – 7).

(ii). An African woman with two children knock at Lilian gate late at night asking whether Lilian has garbage bags. She exposes Lilian to attack because it is late in the nights. Lately the papers have been full of stories of people getting killed in their own gardens and houses (pg 3). It makes Lilian feel insecure and afraid in her own house.

(iii). The woman selling geranium plants also take advantage to benefit from Lilian’s feelings of guilt. She begs Lilian to buy eight plants for four rand and even offers to plant them. Feeling sorry for the woman Lilian opens the gate and goes to the side of the house only to return and find she has planted thirty plants and now demands for twelve rand.(pg3– 4)

(iv). There was the man who had rang persistently at Lilian gate. He asks for money for bus as he did not know how he was going to get home. When told by Lilian, she has no money, he asks for clothes, and when she says she has none, he asks for food but not brown bread. He prefers a tin of fish. (pg 4) Conclusion 2 marks -Recap of the argument/ any relevant. Introduction – 2 marks (Accept any 4 well illustrated points) Mark - 3 3 3 3
Introduction -2 mks Conclusion -2 mks Language -4mks 3.

(b) SHREDS OF TENDERNESS

Introduction A shred is a tiny bit of something. Tenderness is a degree of concern or kindness bestowed on someone. Human beings are social beings who are supposed to illustrate the virtue of being tender to others. However, some people especially those who are callous fail to demonstrate any shred of tenderness to others. Insensitivity to some extent manifest itself when somebody is at a more advantaged position that another on or when one is given a more favourable consideration than another.

This condition of callousness may even have adverse effects like, we can see in John Ruganda’s “Shreds of Tenderness” Content -Wak who has hitherto been alleged to have died comes back to his country from exile. Odie is much worried and all his attempts to make him open up fail. He sorts to some sadistic antics aimed at experimenting on how his brother would open up. He uses ticks and termites as a symbol of Wak and torture them. The termites are enclosed in a bottle perfect –detention –as he call it and he demonstrates how it tumbles down to the base of humiliation all the way from the tower of ambition.

This is done to humiliate Wak. He uses the most ingenious torture mechanism like pesticides, aimed at freezing him to death. When all this does not work he intends to use a Bunsen burner to heat the termites up. All these experiments meant to extract information from Wak illustrate no shred of tenderness on the part of Odie whose existence and survival hangs in the balance as Wak bounces back. -Odie accords Wak the most cold reception ever. He admits his contempt when he saw Stella and Wak hugging each other like frenzied baboons in a dionysan trance.

He tells his sister Stella to warn Wak about his extravagant lifestyle at home. He says, “You’d better tell him to go slow on the toilet paper and the water. He doesn’t have to go to the loo five times a day. Nor does he have to swim in a bath tub twice a day.” -He is shocked and petrified. Suspicious even when Wak comes back from exile. Wak could feel the wildness of ten years in the limp hand shake that Odie had offered. The cold and callous hand that sent frozen shivers down his spine. He looked at his meager luggage intently and asked. “Is that all you’ve brought back from wherever?” Odie applies scathing remarks towards his step brother. In a conversation with Stella, he brands him a traitor who deserves to be shot. He accuses him of spying the house and that since he returned, he had been wining and dining in expensive tourist hotels. He refers to Wak as a parasite, a pest who deserves to be sprayed with pesticides. He swears that he won’t sit at the same table with anything or anybody who smells of cowardice or wears a tag that directly or indirectly alludes to cowardice. He calls him a guerilla and a war monger who is not bothered by the fighting going on. That he simply twitched his antennae in concealed flight and went back to sleep in the face to encounter. Odie sarcastically insults Wak. “Returnees are itching to reconcile, reconstruct and rehabilitate.” (pg 53) “One would have thought you drained barrels and barrels where you’ve been hibernating since you returned.” (pg 54) I don’t have foreign currency like some people we know.” (pg 54) “The drinks are not running away, like some people we know” (pg 54) -Even when Wak marvels at Katikawe’s wealth, Odie floors him by saying, “He didn’t take to the bush like some people we know after the first bullet was shot.” (pg 56). He puts some sarcastic remarks about his reasons for coming back.....Mr. Hero (pg 74) Wak confesses that Odie has all along been callous, hard hearted, thinking about money and all the time harbouring a curious grudge against him. -Odie betrays his brother at the university he calls the State Research Bureau (SRB)and informs on him. He requests to be put through the major general since he has a case with one Wak Witur his brother. He informs on him being a nuisance since he is threatening to give a talk on democracy. He labels him a Marxist who is always seething with discontent and that he is extremely dangerous, that Wak has said terrible things about the boss saying that he is ignoramus, infact a village pumpkin who has dragged the economy to the doldrums.

He further asserts that the boss has illegally acquired another skyscraper offices block in the city centre and a vast farm in western region and has deprived nationals staple food by selling it to the Boers in South Africa. He also accesses him of trafficking in slave trade with Arabs. He attributes the recent riots in the city and the attacks on the barracks and police stations to him. The results of these treasonous accusations lead to Wak’s aborted attempts to be arrested and his subsequent flight for self exile. -Odie outrightly dismisses Wak’s offers in the game of primier e.g. when Wak proposed A- for Africa, Odie dismisses it as a popular entry in any other primier. There is a fierce struggle when Odie’s offer of A- for autocry is dismissed by Wak as radiocrity. Odie bears up Wak and labels him sarcastically as the die-hard nationalist, the unflinching patriot. He deliberately topples Wak from the chairmanship that he had democratically won in an election. From then on, Odie dictates the game devoid of any respect to both Stella and Wak who have now withdrawn from the game. -Odie’s late father gives Wak 1500 acres of land and a title deed is written in his favour. Odie informs Wak who subsequently flees to exile. Barely more than a year late he is killed. Conclusion Q3C. The Whale Rider Traditions are a source of male chauvinism (prejudice against women) and should be condemned. Write an essay to agree with this statement referring closely to leadership in Maori of Witi Ihimaera’s. The Whale Rider Introduction 2 marks -Expect general/contextualized introduction. Should be the first paragraph. -Example -Male egoism has existed in this world since time immemorial. The Christian Bible advocates for it, but since change is inevitable and ladies have shown a lot of leadership qualities, this should be condemned. A good reference is that of Kahu, a young Maori girl, who is determined for greatness on her ruthless guest to show her great –grandfather, the leader of the tribe, that culture and traditions should not hinder the gender equality. Body

(i). Birth of Kahu When Porourangi’s wife, Rehua, became pregnant, there was a lot of anticipation that a boy would be born for continuation of leadership lineage, because in Maori, leadership was patrilineal. Unfortunately, when the phone rang, Koro Apirana, the great grandfather, said disgusted, “A girl, I will have nothing to do with her. She has broken the male line of descent in our tribe” pgl0. This male chauvinism should be condemned because towards the end of the novel, the same girl saved the tribe.

(ii). Maori Leadership Koro Apirana could not reconcile his traditional belief about Maori leadership and rights with Kahu’s birth.Even when all signs showed that Kahu was the chosen one, (pg 67,68,71,101), Koro believed that Maori’s leadership was hereditary and normally the mantle of prestige fell from the eldest son to the eldest son. Thus when Kahu was born, he kept on muttering, ‘she won’t’ be any good to me. “I won’t have anything to do with her” This egoism is bad since at the end, the leadership mantle was handed to the same girl, Kahu. (pg 117, 118)

(iii). Naming Tradition When Porourangi rang to say he would like the baby named Kahu, Koro Apirana fought restlessly. Kahu comes from Kahutia. Te Rangi, a man’s name, more still, he was the ancestor of the village. Apirana felt that naming a girl-child after the founder of the tribe was belittling Kahutia Te Rangis prestige. Little did he know that Kahu would ride on the whale just like Kahutia Te rangi did, and save the tribe later on. N/B after the founder of the tribe was belittling (iv) After birth and birth –curd. Porourangi called again saying that his wife Rehua, wanted Kahu’s after birth to be put in the earth in Maori. This is because she feared she may not survive after birth, and she wanted to honour her husband and
the child be linked to her father’s people and land. This did not auger well with Koro Apirana, in fact, he did not even participate (pg 16 -17).

This is because Koro felt the girl is of no use to the tribe, but later on. She saves the community. (v). Traditional teachings. When Koro Apirana finds there is no hope in getting a leader in his lineage, he decides to go for a cultural school for the village boys, hoping to make a new leader. This annoys Koro when he realizes that none of the boys is catching up (pg 26, 30, 36, 38). When the real test comes of the traditional task of recovering the whale tooth, a mission which would prove one of the boys was a leader, none succeeds but Kahu (p70-73). This should have proved to Koro Apirana that Kahu was the chosen one, but he was blinded by traditions and male egoism.

(vi). Kahu’s achievement in school Kahu ,in an attempt to bridge the rift that was formed between her and Koro, invites Koro to be her guest of honour at a concert of Maori chants, that her school is putting on. She is the best in these chants and are dedicated to Koro, but simply because Kahu does not find any place in Koro’s heart, he refuses to attend. This is male chauvinism and should be condemned.

(vii). Riding on the Whale Several whales are beached on the sand. Several villagers try to coax and drag them back into the water, but all is fruitless. Koro sees this as a sign of his failure and despairs further. He admonishes Kahu against touching the largest whale, because it traditionally belongs to the legendary Paikea.Little does he know that Kahu is descendant of Paikea, and she would successfully ride on the whale, and everyone is worried. When she is brought back to the land and taken to hospital, Koro declares her the leader and asks for forgiveness. He swallows his pride when he finds that Kahu has saved the tribe.

Conclusion (2 marks)

From the above illustrations, it is clear that we should abandon traditions that are against equality, or the ones which are of no use to us. (Accept any other relevant (conclusion).

Intr 2 marks Content

Accept any 4 well illustrated points. Mark 3: 3 : 3: 3= 12 mks Language: (4 marks)

20 marks

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