Three hours
Answer all FOUR questions. Each question carries 10 marks.
You are reminded of the necessity for good English and orderly presentation in your answers.
SECTION A – CONTEXT QUESTIONS
Read the following extract from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and answer the questions that
follow it.
HAMLET:
Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou comest in such a questionable shape 5
That I will speak to thee. I’ll call thee Hamlet,
King, Father, Royal Dane. O, answer me!
Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell
Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death
Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre
Wherein we saw thee quietly inurned,
Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws
To cast thee up again! What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel
Revisit’st thus the glimpses of the moon, 15
Making night hideous, and we fools of Nature
So horridly to shake our disposition
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Say, why is this? Wherefor? What should we do?
(GHOST BECKONS HAMLET) 20
HORATIO
It beckons you to go away with it,
As if it some impartment did desire
To you alone.
MARCELLUS:
Look with what courteous action
It waves you to a more removed ground 25
(a) Put the italized lines in good modern English prose
(i) “Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned (line 2) (1 mark)
(ii) “It waves you to a more removed ground” (line 25) (1 mark)
(b) (i) Give one adjective that describes Hamlet’s attitude in this passage and justify your
choice. (1mark)
(ii) What advice do Hamlet’s friends give him when the Ghost beckons? (1 mark)
(c) Comment on one major theme in the play that is introduced in this passage and show how it is
developed in one other instance. (2 marks)
(d) Pick out Two metaphors from the extract and comment on their effective use. (2 marks)
(e) Imagine you are a newscaster who is reporting the incident in this extract;
(i) Provide a catchy caption for your news report.
(ii) In about five (5) lines, report the incident as you would read it over the airwaves.
(0.5+1.5 marks)
- Read the following extract from William Congreves’s The way of the world, and answer the questions that follows it
MIRA:
Oh raillery, raillery! Come. I know thou art in the women’s
Secretes. What , your’re a cabalist; i know you Stayed at Millamant’s last
NIGHT AFTER I WENT. WAS THERE any mention made of my uncle or me?
Tell me; if thou hadst but good nature equal to thy wit, petulant. Tony
witwoud. who is now thy competitor in fame, would show as dim by
thee as a dead whiting’s eye by a pearl of orient; he would no more be 5
been by thee than mercury is by the sun: come. I’m sure thou wo’t tell
me
PET: If I do will you grant me common sense, then, for the future?
MIRA: Faith. I’ll do what I can for thee, and I’ll pray that heav’n may grant it thee in
the meantime 10
PET: Well, harkee
FAIN: (Mirabell and Petulant talk apart)
Petulant and you both will find Mirabcll as warm a rival as a
lover
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WIT: Pshaw, pshaw that she laughs at Petulant is plain. And for my 15
part, but that it is almost a fashion to admire her, I should – harkeeto tell you a secret, but let it go no further between friends, 1 shall
never break my heart far her
FAIN: How?
WIT: She s handsome; but she’s a sort of an uncertain woman. 20
FAIN: I thought you had diedfor her.
WIT: Umh-no
FAIN: She has wit
WIT: ’Tis what she will hardly allow anybody else. Now, demme I should hate
that, if she were as handsome as Cleopatra. Mirabcll is not so sure of he as he
thinks for.
FAIN: Why do you think so?
WIT: We stayed pretty late there last night, and heard something of
an uncle to Mirabcll, who is lately come to town, and is between him
and the best part of his estate. Mirabcll and he are at some distance, as 30
my Lady Wish fort has been told; or than a fishmonger hates a hard frost.
Whether this uncle has seen Mrs. Millamant or not, I cannot
say; but there were items of such a treaty being in embryo; and if it
should come to life, poor Mirabcll would be in some sort
unfortunately fobbed, i faith. _
PAIN: “Tis impossible Millamant should hearken to it. 35
WIT: Faith, my dear, 1 can’t tell she’s a woman and a kind of humorist.
MIRA: And this is the sum of what you could collect last night.
PET: The quintessence, Maybe Witwoud knows more; he stayed longer.
Besides, they never mind him; they say anything before him. 40
(a) Give the meaning of the following expressions as are used in the extract
(i) cabalist (line 2)
(ii) I’ll pray that heaven may grant it thee (line 9-10)
(iii) 1 shall never break my heart for her (line 17-18 )
(iv) Stayed pretty late (line 28) (2 marks)
(b) Bring out Mirabell’s character in this extract and state if and how it changes as the
play unfolds. (2 marks)
(c) Identify two aspects of style in this extract and bring out the effectiveness of each
(2 marks)
(d) What is the name of the “uncle” mentioned in lines 3 and 32 above and what is the
quality of the relationship between uncle and nephew? (2 marks)
(e) (i) Cite the stage direction found in the extract.
(ii) What characteristic of Restoration England readily comes to your mind from
what the stage directions describe? Bring out another instance from the play
where this characteristic is manifested.
(0.5 + 0.5 marks)
SECTION B – PROSE APPRECIATION
- Read this passage and then answer the questions that follow it.
White as a sainted leviathan, but too huge for even God to have imagined it, the liner played
eastward easily. It swam at a much greater speed than appeared, for it was alone in open
ocean, and there were only the waves to pass.
Everyone on board was comfortable, even satisfied. The sea was a light summer one, still blue, although
the sun was far gone toward the mountain range of fog on the 5
horizon astern. Its swelling, and the rippling of the swells, could not give the slightest motion to the vessel, whose long
hulk glanced through warm an even air. The sense of well being in the passengers was mad firm by the knowledge that
their fate was somebody else’s responsibility for the next three days. There was nothing an ordinary mortal could do
about a ship like this; it was as far out of his realm as the mechanics of heaven. He could talk about it 10
as he might about one of the farther galaxies, in order to experience the almost extinct pleasure of
awe, but he could not do anything about it, and what was even more comfortable, he could not be
expected to do anything about it.
Even the crew shared this un-Olympian calm, for the liner was a self-sufficient
creature who, once put upon her course, pursued it independently, with gently rhythmic joy 15
The wheel took care of itself; the fuel sped upon quick wires; the warm and supple steel
joints rose and fell, self-oiled to perfect limberness. More like a white Utopian city than any
the earth will ever bear, she parted the subservient waters and proceeded.
A school of flying fish, which looked like dragonflies from the upper deck, broke
water for an instant and fled back, no more than a brief proof of the pace of the liner. 20
The tall man in the gray topcoat stopped his circumambulation and peered toward the smoke of dusk
rising out of the ocean. The woman in white flannel paused impatiently
beyond him.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“What?” 25
“There, ahead. No, a little more to the right. Like a log or something. See?”
“No.”
“Well, look. There.” He leaned over the rail and pointed.
“No. Oh, yes. Seaweed, suppose.”
“No, that wouldn’t show; not so far. It sticks up.” 30
The man’s gesture drew other passengers to the rail. A boy in a white jacket was moving
through them, clinking a musical triangle and intoning, “First call to dinner, first call
to dinner,” but they were impressed by the pointing finger and remained at the rail.
“What is it?” asked the stout, mustache man in linen knickers.
“1 don’t know,” said the tall man, not looking around because his discovery was so small 35
on the darkening sea.
“There’s something, though,” he added, and pointed again.
The other passengers also leaned over and peered hopefully. Those too far along to
have heard the tall man’s explanation looked at the sea vaguely, then at the people who were
nearer the tall man, then at the sea again 40
.
“He says there’s something,” the fat man informed them.
Then, “Oh, yes, see it now.” He pointed also. “There. See it? Still too far away to tell what
it is, though.” He appeared to think for a moment, and produced an original idea.
“We ought to pass it pretty close,” he said, protruding his lower lip and puckering his mouth
as a sign that he was considering carefully. “Pretty close, o should say, as we’re going 45
now.”
The passengers exclaimed gratefully, and were able to look intelligent when they returned
to peering. They felt better. Anybody could see by their backs that they felt better,
much more decisive. As landsmen they were grateful for the discovery. Other walkers,
coming to the side of the vessel, asked questions and were almost told what the fat man had 50
said. But there was never any citation of authority or any admission of the pioneering of the
tall man. The reputation for discovery was not easy to resign.
The latecomers remained until the entire rail was lined, and the number of the gathering
excited each individual in it; the expected event attained mythological proportions.
This scene was reenacted on the other three decks, although the watchers were fewer 55
because the decks were close and all the watching had to be done from portholes. Children
jumped up and down behind their parents, inquiring in exasperated crescendos. Occasionally
a beleaguered lather or mother offered an unsatisfactory explanation, or held a child up to see
that there was only water. The entire starboard wall of the gliding city was crowded with 60
curious people, and their curiosity was toughened by their desire to be first in stating the
nature of been made, it was now accounted common property, and recognition of the object
Seemed more important. The first idle speculation died, as meriting scorn; most to the watchers
were quiet were quiet and intent.
The young man with fine blond hair left the rail land returned almost at once with a
Victorious air and a pair of binocolulars. These he fixed to his eyes, turned upon the focal 65
point and began to manipulate with nimble fingers. At, once others whose chins were Close
also got, binoculars. they appeared determined, as if to say the original inspiration was not
what matters here but the use made of itThose who either had no binoculars or had to go
too far, to get them, divided their attention between the ocean off the starboard bow and the
blond young who had taken on the shining aspect of the clairvoyant. The, watched his,
face minutely for signs of recognition and were, affected by his slightest movement. He bore
their worship grandly, almost with an air of not suspecting it. 70
“what is it?” they asked.
“I can’t make it out yet.” He continued to adjust the binoculars.
When he ceased lingering and held the glasses steadily, they asked again, ‘What is it?” ’ and
“Can you see it now?” 75
Yes, he said. “I think I can.” But he withheld the information, as one who will not
be pressed onto a hasty, and therefore possibly erroneous, conclusion. He fingered the
binoculars just the perfect trifle more. Even the tall man in the gray coat abandoned 85his
scrutiny and turned a tanned and bony face, drawn by staring, toward the blond young man.
The object was now close enough so that its location could be clearly marked by 80
everyone at the moments when it appeared on the crest of a billow and balanced before
beginning the long, gentle descent into the concealing trough. It might have been a great,
triangular fin, if it had been much closer.
“Whatever it is, it had better look out. We’re going right for it.”
The fat man’s suggestion that it might be a portion of the superstructure of a derelict
caused a pleasant worry.
“I’ve heard,” said the man with spectacles and a checkered cap over a big nose, “I’ve 85
heard they’re often heavy enough below water to sink a good large boat.” He spoke with
quiet joy. 90
The tall man, who had been thinking about the fat man’s suggestion, snore.
‘What part?” he challenged.
But, although the fat man was no insensible of the challenge, it was neglected because
the blond young man had become signally rigid behind his binoculars.
He overplayed his pause, however, and a square, masculine young woman said factually 95
and loudly, “It’s a boat,” and held her glasses a moment longer before lowering them to accept
adulation in person.
“Yes,” admitted the young man. “I was just going to say it’s a boat.” He added, “That thing that
sticks up is a sail, a kind of triangular sail,” and felt that his remark justified his lowering his
glasses also and looking around. 100
By now the boat was near enough so that the pace of the liner made it appear to draw
nearer very rapidly. Since it was known to be a boat, and everyone could see it lay directly in the
path of the liner, the guesses about what a small boat could be doing in mid-ocean gave way to
irritation because it was doing nothing to save itself.
“We’d make match wood of it”, stated the fat man angrily. 105
“It would go to the bottom,” declared the young man violently, “to the bottom, like a
plummet.”
The masculine young lay disagreed. “Not to the bottom; it would reach a level of
suspension much sooner. The water is over three thousand feet deep here.”
The other passengers rebuke her heartlessness with silence.
“Well, I do wish he’d wake up. I wish he’d get out of the way,” complained the matron 110
whose twin six-year-olds were extending her by their attempts to see over and under the rail. The
passengers warmed to her humanity, and, understanding that the young woman was quelled, all
leaned over the rail and stared anxiously ahead.
- Give the meaning in context of the following expressions:
(i) She parted the subservient waters and proceeded (line 18)
(ii) A man’s gesture drew other passengers to the rail (line 31)
(iii) Mythological proportions (line 54)
(iv). Exasperated crescendos (line 57) (2 marks)
- In not more than 100 words summarize the first impressions created about the
physical appearance and the movement of the ship. (2 marks)
- “The reputation for discovery was not easy to resign”. How does this statement reflect
the author’s use of suspense in this passage? (2 marks)
- Pick out two figures of speech from the passage and show how these have been
effectively used. (2 marks)
- Write a short paragraph on what you imagine happens after this passage. (2 marks)
SECTION c- POETRY APPRECIATION
Read the folloing Poem carefully and then answer the questions below
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That float on high o’er vales and hills
When all at once I saw a crowd
A host of golden daffodils
Beside the lake beneath the trees 5
fluttering and dancing in the breeze
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way
They stretched in never ending line
Along the margin of the bay
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly
Dance
The waves beside them danced but they
Outdid the sparkly waves in glee
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company
I gazed -and gazed-but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood, 20
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils
(W, Wordswoth).
(a) Say in about 150 words what you consider to be the meaning of the poem.
(2 marks)
(b) Give the meaning in context of the following words and expressions
(i) “vales” (line 2)
(ii) “milky way” (line 8)
(iii) “jocund company (line 16)
(iv) “pensive mood” (line 20)
(2 marks)
(c) Comment on the effective use of any two literary devices
(2 marks)
(d) Transform the following verbs into the infinitive
(i) Wandered
(ii) Saw
(iii) Dancing
(iv) Stretched
(2 marks)
(e) Paying regard to diction, theme, structure, and tone say whether you consider the poem to be
successful or not. (2 marks)
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