By Elimu Assistant Team Read the following excerpt and answer the questions that follow. (25 marks).
“ Yes dear. I’ve already spoken to the headmaster-so just get into the car and we’ll go right home”. Firm decisive Elizabeth was standing there looking confused and unsure of her next action. When they got home, she walked into the sitting room and again stood there. She had the most oppressive premonition of doom pressing in on her from all sides and she simply could not make any sensible move. So Mark took over, packed a few things for her, made arrangements with the neighbours to collect little Mary, put his wife in the car and drove off.
Most children have a father and a mother and Elizabeth had been no exception apart from the fact that her father had been a woman- her grandmother Akoko. Now her mother was ill, probably dying and she experienced completely different pain from the one she experienced at her grandmother’s death. There is a bond that exists between mother and child that is completely primeval in nature and only comes to the surface of the conscious mind in all its primitive force when either mother or child is in some sort of peril-not surprising considering that as a child lies in its mother’s womb, the first sound it hears is her heartbeat and the first human voice it recognizes is hers. For the next many months, the child’s most satisfying experience will be to lie to her heart, nursing at the breast-so that the powerful connection is not severed with the cutting of the cord.
Maria Nyabera had been a good mother to Elizabeth and her cousin Peter and in her own generous way, had given unstintingly of herself to them and to her own mother. Elizabeth remembered how tenderly she had looked after Akoko when she became old and ailing and she hoped with a sick despairing dread that she would get the same chance to show her mother how much she cared in spite of the distance between them.
“I have failed her”. These were the first words she had spoken since their departure from Nakuru and now they were approaching the outskirts of Kericho town. Mark cautioned himself to tread carefully for he remembered only too clearly how she had almost broken off their engagement at her grandmother’s death, blaming him for God alone knew what.
“How have you failed, dear?” he asked cautiously. “Don’t keep on calling me dear! You know very well I should have visited her more frequently- instead of just staying with you, who are young and healthy and don’t need me!”
Mark knew better than to point out that not more than two months had ever passed without Elizabeth dashing west to see her mother; or the great sacrifice they had both made in giving up two of their children to her. He knew her well enough to know that she would only bite off his head and he liked it well enough where it was-firmly attached to his body. He was lucky for he had many brothers staying at home with his own mother so he didn’t have to constantly worry on that score. He really understood her predicament.
“You don’t understand anything at all!” the lady declared as if reading his mind. “You don’t know how torn I’ve often felt, how I long to divide myself in two, so that I can be in both places at once!”
Mark said nothing but thought to himself that marriage was very useful: there was always someone to vent one’s fury on however and especially unjustifiably. Elizabeth kept on alternating between long silence and irrational self-accusatory statements until they were a few miles from Aluor. She then kept completely quiet. It was dark by then but when they approached the hut they found a crowd of people gathered there and both their hearts sank. She must be dead! The twins rushed out into their parent’s arms, and the people surrounded them; but Elizabeth had no eyes for anyone-she just walked into the hut. She had to see that beloved face one last time.
Questions
a). Place this excerpt in its immediate context. (4 marks).
b). Comment on any one stylistic device used in the excerpt. (3 marks).
c). Who are ‘the twins’ and why are they in Aluor? (2 marks).
d). What is the general mood prevailing in this excerpt? (2 marks).
e). Briefly explain any two themes present in the excerpt. (4 marks).
f). What premonition of doom did Elizabeth have? (1 mark).
g). Identify one character trait of Mark as seen from the excerpt. (2 marks).
h). Enumerate the things Mark did before they left for Aluor. (3 marks).
i). “How have you failed, dear?” he asked cautiously. (Rewrite into reported speech.) (1 mark).
j). Give meanings of the following as used in the excerpt. (3 marks).
- i) primeval
- ii) severed
- iii) sick despairing dread
