English Language Paper 2

This paper consists of three parts; A, B and C. Answer three questions in all; one question from
Part A and all questions in Part B and Part C. Answer all the questions in your answer booklet.

PART A
ESSAY WRITING
[30 MARKS]

JUST IN- RME Question for all BECE Candidates to practice before Monday

1. Write a story that illustrates the saying: “A good name is better than riches”

2. You are the main speaker in an essay in an inter-school debate. Write your speech for or against the motion: “Corrupt Public Officers Too Deserve Capital Punishment”

3. You have completed your basic school education. Write a letter to your Member of Parliament requesting for a scholarship package to enable you access Second Cycle Education.

PART B
COMPREHENSION
[30 MARKS]

4.   Read the following passage carefully and answer all the questions which follows.
The drums and the dancing began again and reached fever-heat. Darkness was around the comer, and the burial was near. Guns fired the last salute and the cannon rent the sky. And then from the centre of the delirious fury came a cry of agony and shouts of horror. It was as if a spell had been cast. All was silent. In the centre of the crowd, a boy lay in a pool of blood. It was the dead man’s sixteen-year-old son, who with his brothers and half-brothers had been dancing the traditional farewell to their father. Okonkwo’s gun had exploded and a piece of iron had pierced the boy’s heart.
The only course open to Okonkwo was to flee from the clan. It was a crime against the earth goddess to kill a clansman, and a man who committed it must flee from the land.
That night he collected his most valuable belongings into headloads. His wives wept bitterly and their children wept with them without knowing why. Obierika and half a dozen other friends came to help and to console him.
As soon as the day broke, a large crowd of men from Ezuedu’s quarter stormed Okwonkwo’s compound, dressed in garbs of war. They set fire to his houses, demolished his red walls, killed his animals and destroyed his barn. It was the justice of the earth goddess, and they were merely her messengers. They had no hatred in their hearts against Okonkwo. His friend, Obierika, was among them. They were merely cleansing the land which Okonkwo had polluted with the blood of a clansman.
Obierika was a man who thought about things. When the will of the goddess had been done, he sat in his obi and mourned his friend’s calamity. Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offence he had committed inadvertently? But although he thought for a long time, he found no answer. He was merely led into greater complexities. He remembered his wife’s twin children he had thrown away. What crime had they committed? The Earth goddess had decreed that they were an offence on the land and must be destroyed. And if the clan did not exact punishment tor the offence against the great goddess, her wrath was loosed on the land and not just on the offender. As the elders say, “if the finger brought oil it soiled the others.”

Now Answer These Questions

a) Why did the writer say the men had nothing against Okonkwo?
b) Why did Okonkwo have to flee from the clan?
c) What was the consequence of not carrying out the will of the earth goddess?
d) State a word or a phrase that you will use to describe Okonkwo in view of what happened in paragraph one.
e) State four things that showed the actual carrying out of the will of the Earth goddess.
f) What was Obierika’s attitude towards the customs of the land?
g) Explain the following expressions in your own words:

i. …. around the corner
ii. …. a cry of agony
iii. As soon as the day broke ….
iv. ….they were merely her messengers
v. He was merely led into greater complexities.

h) For each of the following words, give another word or phrase that means the same, and can fit into the passage: 
i. salute;
ii. pierced;
iii. belongings;
iv. bitterly;
v. stormed;
vi. will;
vii. exact;
viii. great.

https://ghanaeducation.org/2023-bece-best-apor-topics-to-watch-out-in-all-subjects/

PART C 
LITERATURE 
[10 MARKS]
Answer all the questions in this part.

SACKEY J.A.  and DARMANI L. (COMP.): The Cockcrow

5. Read the following extract carefully and answer questions a – c.

CHARLES DICKEN’S: Oliver Twist
I can teach the boy to be a chimney sweeper’, he told Mr. Limbkins. But that’s a nasty job for a boy. The child could die with all that smoke and dust going into his lungs. (Page 104)
a. Identify the one referred to as “he” in the extract.
b. The extract brings out the theme of … .. . in the novel.
c. How was Oliver saved from becoming a chimney sweeper?

Read the following extract carefully and answer questions d – f.

AMA ATA AIDOO: The Dilemma Of A Ghost
X: Hureri. Hmm. All the time I have been quiet as if I were a tortoise. But I have been watching, hoping that things would be different, at least, in this house.
(Act 3. Page 54)
d. Write the name of the speaker represented X in the extract.
e. Why did the speaker make the above speech …?
f. State the figure of speech in as if I were a tortoise.

Read the following extract carefully and answer questions g – h.

EVELYN TOOLEY HUNT: Mama Is A Sunrise
When she comes slip footing
through the door, she kindles us.
Like lump coal lighted ……….. (Page 184)
g. The extract is from the poem titled…..
h. What is the theme of the poem?

Read the following extract carefully and answer questions i – j.

KAAKYIRE AKOSOMBO NYANTANKYI: The Generous Hunter
Odeneho and my elders, the herb is ready. But it has to be mixed with the blood of a slanderer.” A loud silence suddenly enveloped the entire gathering. (Page 168)
i. What had happened at that moment?
j. The figure of speech used in loud silence is …………..