MATETE JOINT EVALUATION TEST 2024
101/2: ENGLISH PAPER 2
MARKING SCHEME
Comprehension (20 Marks)
(a) What epidemic is the author talking about? (2 marks)
The writer is talking about laughter epidemic that was in Tanzania in 1962. It started in one
school and spread to about fourteen others.
(b) Why was the epidemic alarming? (2
marks)
It was alarming as it had lasted almost two and a half years. It was contagious. It had spread
to almost fourteen school.
(c) The author describes laughter as contagious, what does he mean? (2 marks)
Contagious means it is highly infectious from human to human. Anyone who was in
contact with somebody with the laughter epidemic also got it.
(d) What is the relation between laughter and social circles?
(2 marks) That laughter is a rich source of information about complex social relations.
Through observing people laugh one can gather information that explains their behavior.
(e) Why did the author engage the 72 volunteers? (3 Marks)
The 72 were student volunteers who the other picked to research on when and why the
laughed. They recorded their laughter and they laughed more when they were with others.
(f) In note form, identify what the author discovered about laughter. ( 4 Marks)
(i) The students laughed more when in the company of others than in solitary
subjects.
(ii) Most conversational laughter is not a result of jokes or humour.
(iii) Mutual playfulness, in-group feeling and positive emotional tone mark the social
settings of most naturally occurring laughter.
(iv) Most laughter occurs naturally as people interact with one another.
(g) What do we deduce from the 1,200 conversations? (2 marks) Laughter occurs
naturally not due to comedy or humour but as a way of sharing feelings in a conversation
or in speech.
(h) Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases as used in the passage.
(3 marks)
Fluctuating in intensity – to shift back and forth with power or more energy
Solitary subjects-alone with others in the study (72 volunteer students) involved in the study
Surreptitious- undercover/ secretive
1. EXCERPT: FATHERS OF NATIONS 25 Marks
Ms McKenzie’s taxi driver finally resurfaced. Wary and watchful, he was part of a growing
African phenomenon: taxi drivers with university degrees whom the local market had failed to
absorb in the professions that they had trained for. He located Ms McKenzie without difficulty.
“Ms McKenzie, let’s go!” he said, motioning her back into his taxi.
She got back in. “You were gone for two eternities,” she complained. “Did you have any
particular reason?”
“Yes, those bullies,” he said.
“I take it you’re referring to the guards. What did they do?”
“You mean what did they not do?” He drove off on screaming tyres. “Essentially, they wanted
something small.”
“Don’t you mean a bribe? Why did they want a bribe?”
“Ms McKenzie, be serious!”
“I am serious.”
“Then leave me alone.” He gave the car more petrol. It threatened to fly. He gave it less. It
slowed down. “Because my taxi has faulty brakes, they said.”
“Well, maybe it does.”
He braked to a screeching halt which nearly threw her out of her seat.
“So does it?” he asked her. “Have faulty brakes, I mean?”
“I guess not,” she conceded. “So what did you do? Give them something small anyway?”
“Leave me alone, I said.” Then he drove off again.
“Anyway, in case you bribed them, know that giving bribes is as much a crime as taking them.”
“Do you know what I’m going to do on my way back, Ms McKenzie? I’m going to ask the
guards I bribed to arrest me for bribing them.”
There is anger in that sarcastic remark, she thought. She decided to leave him alone.
Questions
1. Outline the events leading to this excerpt (3 marks)
Ms McKenzie has been called to the office by her boss. She takes a taxi and along the
way, they come across a roadblock. She is told to get out of the taxi and join pedestrians
on a queue. The taxi driver is subjected to interrogation by the guards.
2. To what extend has the author employed the use of irony in this excerpt? (4 marks)
It is ironical that the guards claim the taxi driver’s brakes are not working and yet he
applies them and they work perfectly.
It is ironical that the taxi driver holds a degree and yet cannot find gainful
employment.
(Any two well illustrated instances of irony, 2 marks each)
3. How have the following characters been portrayed in the excerpt: (4 marks)
a) Ms McKenzie
Inquisitive/ curious: Asks the taxi driver a number of questions to which she expects
answers
b) The taxi driver
Sarcastic: Do you know what I’m going to do on my way back, Ms McKenzie? I’m going
to ask the guards I bribed to arrest me for bribing them.
4. The taxi driver refers to the guards as bullies. From elsewhere in the novel, show how the
guards demonstrate that indeed they are bullies. (3 marks)
Comrade Melusi is harassed by a security guard before he is cleared to enter the venue
of the summit. The guard purports that Melusi’s needle is dangerous as it could be
used to hurt other people. He holds Melusi for quite some time before eventually
releasing him.
5. With sufficient evidence, identify any two issues brought out in the excerpt (4 marks)
Corruption: The guards are bribed by the taxi driver
Plight of taxi drivers: The guards bully the taxi driver and extract a bribe from him.
Unemployment: he was part of the growing African phenomenon: taxi drivers with
university degrees whom the local job market had failed to absorb in the professions
that they had trained for.
6. “There is anger in that sarcastic remark.” Rewrite adding a suitable question tag (1 mark)
There is anger in that sarcastic remark, isn’t there?
7. What happens immediately after this excerpt: (3 marks)
Ms. McKenzie reaches her office and goes to see her boss. He informs her that he had
decided to withdraw her from assignment to the summit at the Pinnacle because she
was proceeding on a two – year loan to the Voice of America.
8. Give the meanings of the following words as used in the excerpt (3 marks)
a) Wary: Cautious/ careful/ watchful/ on alert
b) Two eternities: A very long period of time.
c) Bullies: Oppressors
3 POETRY (20 Marks)
Read the poem below and answer the questions thereafter.
PUBLIC BUTCHERY
Some people fear death,
Others must face it before a crowd
Specially invited
To witness the ceremony to their last breath
Coups have succeeded elsewhere
And heads have rolled
And blood has flown,
Quite indiscriminately
But oh! Condemned conspirators,
Your fate is martyred while you watch,
Heads and hearts held high,
Dead defiance lurking still
In eyeballs bathed in sweat
As the judge performs the abortion
For your baby hatched in haste,
Before the mother was fully pregnant.
Once you were greeted
And treated
As VIPs.
Now there is a blank silence
As a crowd watches
Four hooded ministers
Hanging in the air
QUESTIONS
a) Briefly describe what the poem is about (4 marks)
The poem is about four ministers who have faced trial in a court of law. This is
because of trying to carry out a coup. They have been sentenced to hanging, a
punishment that is given in public.
b) Explain the imagery in the lines: (3 marks)
(As the judge performs the abortion
For your baby hatched in haste,
Before the mother was fully pregnant.)
Metaphors – The baby metaphorically represents the plan to overthrow the government
and abortion stands for the discovery of the plan before its execution.
c) How has the poet brought out contrast in the last stanza? (2 marks)
The ministers who are now hanging in the air were once treated with a lot of respect
but now they receive no such treatment as they have been sentenced to hang.
d) Describe the character of the ministers (3 marks)
Proud: despite the harsh sentence they are given, the have their heads and
hearts held high.
Defiant: Dead defiance lurking still.
e) “Once you were greeted and treated as [Link].” change into an interrogative sentence. (1
mark)
Were you once greeted and treated as [Link]?
f) Comment on the suitability of the title (3 marks)
The title PUBLIC BUTCHERY is relevant – The four ministers are cruelly murdered
in the open through hanging therefore subjected to public slaughter/ butchery.
g) Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases as used in the poem: (4 marks)
i. Heads have rolled: People have been killed/ executed.
ii. Baby: The plan to overthrow the government.
iii. Conspirators: coup plotters/ schemers
iv. Coups: Overthrow of governments.
4) GRAMMAR (15 Marks)
a) The following sentence has two meanings. Explain clearly the two different
meanings. (2 Marks)
The eggs were stamped with the date they were laid by the farmer
The farmer stamped the eggs.
The farmer laid the eggs
b) Rewrite the following sentences using one word to replace the words in italics.
(2 marks)
(i) The telephone rang without stopping
The telephone rang incessantly
(ii) The man who fells trees injured himself and had to be rushed to hospital.
The lumberjack injured himself and had to be rushed to hospital
c) For each of the following sentences, replace the words in italics with a phrasal verb
which begins with the word in brackets to convey the same meaning. (3 marks)
(i) A good student constantly revises his work in preparation for the examination
(go)
A good student constantly goes through his work in preparation for the examination.
(ii) Atieno is usually so smartly dressed that she is easy to notice in the midst of other
girls (stand)
Atieno is usually so smartly dressed that she stands out in the midst of other girls.
(iii) Peter was such an ambitious young man that his friends were amazed
when he firmly refused to accept the new position. (turned).
Peter was such an ambitious young man that his friends were amazed when he firmly
turned down the new position.
d) Fill in the blank spaces using the correct form of the word in brackets given at the
end of each sentence (3 marks)
(i) We had thought that the donors would be more generous (donation)
(ii) A lot of our school buildings are being modernized (modern)
(iii) Our mobility was greatly hindered by a flat tyre (mobile)
e) Fill in each of the blank spaces with an appropriate word. (2 marks)
(i) A short story revolves around a main character.
(ii) The teacher was grateful for the students' input.
f) Rewrite the following sentences according to the instructions given after each. Do not
change the meaning. ( 3 Marks)
(i) They will look after
Bakari. (Begin: Bakari...)
Bakari will be looked after (by them)
(ii) I know that one of your books has been
published. (Begin: I know that a...)
I know that a book of yours has been published
(iii) All of us want to pass our
exams. (Begin: None.........)
None of us wants to fail
