Compilation of Possible Excerpts Based Questions Likely to be Examined in English Paper 2.
POSSIBLE KCSE EXCERPT 6
Read the excerpt below and answer the questions that follow (25 marks)
Forty-nine foreign heads of state were in Banjul for the summit. All looked happy, and whynot? Had they not escaped from troublemakers in their home countries? They saw a stay free from trouble ahead of them here, in the Gambia, a country everyone kept calling ‘the land of Kunta-kinteh’. All hoped to get from their stay as much rest as possible. Of course, at some point, they would each other take the flow and, as fans back home expected, address the summit, but this was something that they could do with little or no effort at all. For Gambians, though, the presence of so many visiting dignitaries was not fun. True,
forty-nine heads of state could give a hosting country good publicity, but heads of state area huge inconvenience. So, this publicity comes at a high price.
Nowhere is the price higher than it is in Africa. Here, before the dignitaries arrive, bulldozers dispatched at night in slum-clearance ‘exercises’ demolish roadside kiosks on which whole families depend for their livelihood. This way, the dignitaries will see that a few streets once had sidewalks. Roads get rare layers of tarmac at times of maximum traffic. This way, motorists come to a standstill when it really hurts. Checkpoints sprouteverywhere. This way, guards get even more bases for extorting bribes from passers-by.When the dignitaries finally arrive, water taps at which whole neighborhoods’ queue toget just buckets of water dry up because now all water has to go to new water fountains built to mesmerise the visitors.
QUESTIONS
- Explain what happens immediately before this extract (3mks)
- Identify and explain two styles used in the excerpt. (4 marks)
- Identify and illustrate three thematic concern evident in this extract (4mks)
- What does the author mean when he says, “Had they not escaped from troublemakersin their home countries”? (4 marks)
- Explain the meanings of the following vocabulary used in the excerpt. (4 marks)
- Mesmerise
- Demolish
- Extort
- Summit
POSSIBLE KCSE EXCERPT 7
Read the excerpt below and answer the questions that follow (25 marks)
“Mother thinks that’s big-big enough. Are you ready for tomorrow?” “As ready as I ever will be, I guess, mother.” He went and sat beside her.”And do you still think the summit will adopt Way Omega?” “Only twelve hours to go before we find out.”
“Sorry. Is it just me or has it actually got colder over the past two days? You don’t sound soupbeat today as you did two days ago.” “Only twelve hours. We can wait.”
“By the way, guess who I ran into downstairs? Someone by the name of Longway. I wastracking down a man they call their guide and thought this fellow might be him. Do youknow him?”
Dr Abiola did not answer.
“Well, do you know Mr Longway or not?” “Yes, Ms McKenzie, I do. You might as well know this now: I am their guide.” What “Promise you will keep that to yourself, okay?””I promise.”
“Apart from Mr Longway, whom you know, there are four other people I’m working with onthe periphery. Instead of adopting Way Omega, this group wants the summit to adopt Path Alpha.
“It wants the summit to adopt what instead?”
“Path Alpha – it’s a rival to Way Omega. The trouble there is that Path Alpha isn’t even on thesummit’s agenda.” “So, Mr Longway and company want me to help them put it there.”
“Wait a minute. Only two days ago you said you were to help heads of state adopt Way Omega. Now you ay other people want you to help them adopt Path Alpha, a rival to WayOmega. What’s going on here?”
“Here is what’s going on. I came to advocate for Way Omega, and I will.”In doing that I’ll draw on other alternatives, including Path Alpha.”
“You will? Then remind me: /AVfiy did I promise to keep your identity to myself?” “Because I’m hiding from Way Omega my links to Path Alpha. Look. Some heads of state —not all, but some
— believe I should be focusing exclusively on Way Omega. If they heard about my links to Path Alpha, they would demand my scalp.
QUESTIONS
- Place this excerpt to its immediate context. (4 marks)
- Identify and illustrate two-character traits of Abiola and one character trait of FionaMcKenzie in the excerpt. (6 marks)
- Discuss two themes evident in the excerpt. (4 marks)
- (i) Instead of adopting Way Omega, the group wants the summit to adopt PathAlpha.(Replace “instead” with a complex preposition). (1 mark)
(ii) Wait a minute. (Add a suitable question tag)
iii) So, Mr Longway and company want me to help them put it there.(Report)
- Pick and illustrate two stylistic devices used by the author in the excerpt. (4 marks)
- Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases used in the excerpt. (4marks)
POSSIBLE KCSE EXCERPT 8
Read the excerpt below and answer the questions that follow (25 marks)
First, there was a loud crash. Some moving object had hit another moving object. A trailerhooked to a truck negotiating a turn at a roundabout had broken free, spun outward, and ended up on top of a minibus in an adjacent lane. The drivers of both vehicles had then runaway. They had done so to avoid mob justice.
Now the passengers in the unlucky minibus were struggling to get out, except for one—a woman trapped in a seat. A man had seen her on his way out. He tried to go back in and get her out, but all doors had jammed. He pulled a mobile phone out of his pocket and called themystical number
— 999 — to report distress and request help. The hour was ten in the morning.
Onlookers started arriving. First, they only gawked, fascinated by the spectacle of a trailer sitting on top of a minibus. Goodness, how did it get there! Later, their attention moved downto the woman trapped inside the minibus. “Look,” said one onlooker. A beautiful girl was trapped in her seat. She was still conscious. “She is fine, then,” said another onlooker. “Comeon,” said the first onlooker. “A heavy trailer is sitting on her minibus, so how can she be fine?” When the onlookers became a crowd, they tried to push the trailer off the minibus.
They failed. Then a big van appeared…
QUESTIONS
- Put this extract in its immediate e) context. (4 marks)
- Give the character traits of the following:
- The man
- The onlookers
- The drivers (6 marks)
- From elsewhere in the novel, how does conflict arise between Kimani and Asiya overthe death of their daughter? (4 marks)
- How is dialogue significant in this excerpt? (4 marks)
- Explain one stylistic device used in the extract. (2 marks)
- “The hour was ten in the morning.” Rewrite this statement beginning with (1 mark)
- Explain the meanings of the following words as used in the excerpt. (3 marks)
- Gawked
- Fascinated
- Conscious
POSSIBLE KCSE EXCERPT 9
Read the excerpt below and answer the questions that follow (25 marks)
The door to the bathroom opened. Fiona emerged and started walking but stopped. Her eyeshad not adjusted to the darkness in the living room. “Where are you?” she asked.
“Over here” he said. “I have taken a couch in the living room. Go take the bed in thebedroom.” “You’re acting as if you might have a wife,” she said, “Do you?””No, she divorced me last year.”
“Did she?” “Yes”
“Let’s see now. You studied in America at a marriageable age.”
“So let me guess.” “Go ahead.”She is American.” “Who? Pamela?”
“Yes, it is. And, yes, she is American. Enough about me now. Let’s turn to you. Shouldn’tyour name still be Fiona McKenzie?”
“Who told you it might hye changed?” She started walking to khe bedroom. Her eyes hadadjusted to the only light.
“Why was the Liberian Mauler calling you Joy instead?””It’s local slang for a streetwalker.” “He was calling you a streetwalker?”
“Yes. Do you want me to draw a picture for you? Where are you from anyway? Mars?”No: Nigeria.
Married?” “Me?”
The phone rang. He rose and answered the landline by the couch. When he ended the call, hismood had darkened.
“What’s the matter?” she asked him. “You seem upset all of a sudden. Who was on thephone?” “One Chineke Chiamaka,” he said. “The man was claiming that I chided him for being drunk,when
all he had had was a”Péisi.” He wriggled in his improvised bed to protest hisinnocence against that claim. “It beats me how he got my suite phone number in the firstplace,” he added. “Anyway, I did not chide him. Why do people like to tell lies?”
QUESTIONS
- Place the excerpt to its immediate context. (4 marks)
- Discuss two-character traits of Abiola and one character trait of Fiona McKenzie. (6marks)
- (i) Why do people like to tell lies? (Report) (1 mark)
- (ii) The phone rang. (Add a question tag) (1 mark)
iii) No, she divorced me last year.(Rewrite in the passive) (1 mark)
- Highlight two themes raised in the excerpt. (4 marks)
- Identify and illustrate two features of style used in the excerpt. (4 marks)
- Explain the meaning of the following words and phrase as used in the excerpt. (3marks)
POSSIBLE KCSE EXCERPT 10
Read the excerpt below and answer the questions that follow (25 marks)
“Believe me, officer,” he told the youth. “Without this medicine, I couldn’t live a day.”
“Is that right?” The youth yawned, making even more obvious his indifference to what he hadjust heard.
“I wouldn’t know, sir,” he added, meaning he could not be any less interested, his interestbeing zero already. Then, suddenly, he snapped to alert. He had remembered something. “Hey! You could hurt other people with that.”
“With this needle?” “Yes, with that needle.”
“And what would I use for my next shot?” “Just as I thought. What next shot?””Officer, let me ask you something. How old do you think I am? seventy?” “Yes, plus or minus five.”
“That’s correct. Now, out of every one hundred people in that age range, thirty of us are diabetic.
We are unable to regulate the sugar level in our blood, and that kills most of us. Thismedicine is what keeps those of us who survive alive.” He brandished his cellophane pouch again. “We
shoot it into our veins with needles like that one.”
“That may be so, sir. But you cannot take that stuff in. Leave it here with me.””I’ll do no such thing if I have to wait here until the cows come home.”
“What cows? Sir, you are holding up the line.” “This needle is my life, officer.”
QUESTIONS
- Place the excerpt in its immediate 4 marks
- Discuss three major issues in this excerpt 6 marks
- Discuss two-character traits of Comrade Melusi in this excerpt. (4 marks)
- “I wouldn’t know, sir.” Add a question tag. (1 mark)
- Discuss any three aspects of style in this excerpt. (6 marks)
- Explain the meaning of the following expressions from the excerpt. (4 marks)
- Yearned
- Brandished
- Holding up
- Indifference
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