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THYOLO DISTRICT EXAMINATIONS

2023 MALAWI SCHOOL CERTIFICATE OF EDUCATION MOCK EXAMINATION

ENGLISH
Subject Number: M052/III
Wednesday, 22 March Time Allowed: 2 hours
(2:00pm-4:00pm)

PAPER III
(70 marks)
Instructions
1. This paper contains 9 pages. Please check. Question Tick if Do not write
Number answered in these
2. This paper has two sections: columns

(i) Section A contains two compulsory contextual 1.

questions. Therefore, you are required to answer
both questions in this section.

(ii) Section B comprises essay questions. Answer 2.

one question on each book.

3. You should spend the first 10 minutes reading all the

questions and planning your answers to the questions 3.
you choose.

4. You should make sure that you indicate very clearly the
4.
number of the question you are answering. Marks will
be lost for failure to do so.

5. Write your Name on each page of your Answer Book. TOTAL

© 2023 THYOLO DISTRICT MOCK Turn over/…

Page 1 of 11
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Section A (30 marks)

1. THE UNSUNG SONG – An Anthology of Malawian Writing in English edited by Reuben

Chirambo.

TRAIN TO BALAKA by Zondiwe Mbano

A train puffs round

And up the slopes A fruit thriving in the wild,
Lord, where is the sower
Its stubborn will, steel
Wheels that carry it along The roving sower who never
Designs to come back and tend.
So many wheels squeak *****
Under its millipede body!
***** To love someone
A boy sits, sucking mango What a commitment!
After mango, while belching
Christ on the ancient tree
And green flies swarm Have patience with us
The coach: so noisome!
***** For days are so many
A young woman scrambles in Fewer the hairs of a bull.
Her beauty drowned in poverty
One day we shall know;
Only a worn out wrapper Then love shall drive us
From breast to above knees.
And love shall steer us
In her hands, a smiling baby Like wheels of a train
Nude and round like a pumpkin:

a. Describe the personification used in second stanza.

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b. Give one example of rhyme used in the poem.
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c. Describe the character of the following:

(i) The ‘boy’ mentioned in the fourth stanza.
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(ii) The ‘roving sower’ mentioned in tenth stanza.

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d. Stanza 8 ‘In her hands, a smiling baby’. Explain the irony ‘Nude and round like a pumpkin’
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e. Describe two themes portrayed in the poem.
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f. In what way is the imagery in the last stanza portraying a picture of hope in the persona.
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2. SHORT STORY

THE TORN VEIL

by Mable Dove-Danquah
Unscrupulous as he was, Kwame Asante had a qualm as he looked at the woman sitting on the African
stool near the bed. He had called her and yet when she came he did not quite know how to begin the
conversation. “Akosua, how would you like fifty pounds to start a small business of your own – selling
cloths, or perfume and powder?” The woman smiled nervously; ten years of married life had made her
wary of her husband’s fits of generosity.

‘Would you like fifty pounds? Asked Kwame again. ‘I could make it a hundred. You have been a very
good wife to me, Akosua.’

Did the truth begin to dawn on the woman’s consciousness? No, she thrust the thought away from her:
‘He could not do it.’

Kwame cleared his throat – after all he might as well get it off his chest; hadn’t she noticed that the
whole relationship had become impossible? A cloth woman was all right when one was young and
struggling, she could be so useful, a general servant, and yet a wife. And Akosua was so gentle, and
even quite refined, but a man needs a change. He had just completed his two-storied building, and he
had been made a committee member of an important club. The other day his Academy had conferred on
him an Associateship, and his University had given him a coveted degree. He had at last achieved his
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ambition and had become an important man in the community. He was thinking seriously of entering
the Town Council.

‘Fancy being addressed Councillor Kwame Asante, O.B.A., A.S.S.’ He smiled inanely to himself.
Akosua looked at him in wonder.

‘Er… er … Akousa…er, I want to tell you I am going to marry a lady; you will be paid off with a
hundred pounds.’

The woman answered never a word.

‘A … frock … lady … um … er … of course you can read and write Ga and Twi but my friends will call
you an illiterate woman.’

‘Did you consult your friends before you married me ten years ago?’ The voice was cold and calm, yet
the words cut like a whip.

‘If you are going to be impertinent, I shall not discuss the matter further.’ He got up and walked up and
down the room.

‘How many men in the Gold Coast will pay a woman off with one hundred pounds. You are only
entitled to twenty-five pounds, and here I am out of kindness offering you a hundred. Show some
gratitude, Akosua.’ She looked at him and stark misery was in her eyes.

‘I shall send the children to Achimote College.’ There was a whining note in his voice; ‘I am only doing
this because of my position in society. You see I may be called to Government House and other
important places … say something, Akosua.’

‘I say you can keep your twenty-five pounds, fifty pounds or hundred pounds, I will have nothing to do
with it, I will not be paid off.’

‘What! What! Come! Don’t do anything rash.’

‘If you dare touch me I shall strike your face.’

‘Strike your master, your husband, are you mad?’

‘I shall leave this house.’

‘If you dare to disgrace me by leaving the house before I am ready for you to go, there will be trouble. I
do not intend to put up with a wilful woman. What is my sin after all? I only want to become a decent
and respectable member of society. If you leave this house without my knowledge and permission, I
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shall claim every penny I have spent on you since I married and lived with you these ten years; and not
only that but I shall claim all the presents I have given to your parents and other relations. You know
our Native Customary Law.’

‘Yes, I know your Native Customary Law is a grave to bury women alive, whilst you men dance and
beat tom-tom on top of the mound of earth.’

‘You are absolutely impossible,’ and Kwame strutted out of the room looking very much like an
offended turkey-cock.

Akosua rushed to her bedroom, locked her door, flung herself face downwards on the bed and wept as if
her heart would break.

‘I must go, I must go,’ she muttered. Akosua’s mother was dead but her father, Kofi Asare, was alive.
He was a well-to-do cocoa farmer and had six transport-lorries. He doted on the daughter who had made
a good match and married a ‘scholar’.

‘I wonder what he will say,’ thought the poor girl. ‘Crying won’t help, I must do something.’ She got
up from her bed, her eyes swollen and moist. She feverishly packed her belongings and those of her
children. In a short time the three tin boxes, two baskets and two brass pans were neatly done up.

‘The children will soon come from school and when he leaves for Kumasi tomorrow, we will go away.’

Kwame was still in a mood of righteous indignation when he took the train for Kumasi the next day. He
thought: ‘I have brought her to her senses; what is the world coming to when a cloth woman begins to
get indignant because a Christian gentleman and a scholar wants to marry a frock lady in church.

Kwame Asante, like many of our men, had floundered in his sense of value; the western impact on his
mentality had sent it all askew. He would have been very much surprised if an outspoken friend had told
him that he was neither a Christian nor a gentleman, and that Akosua had far finer instincts and culture
than he; but fortunately for him his friends could not see farther than himself – so he was happy in his
good opinion of himself.

His nephew Quao, who met him at the railway station three days later, on his return to Accra, gave him
the news that his wife had gone away with the children.

Kwame felt a fool and he intensely disliked the feeling. He sent two telegrams to his father – in – law
asking that Akosua should be sent back immediately. Not the slightest notice was taken of him; then he
sent two middle-aged women to go for her, but they returned without her.
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His friends, over drinks and local cigars, consoled him: ‘Don’t worry, man, a woman, a cloth woman,
they are so many; and even if she were a frock lady – what is a woman?’ squawked Wilson-Addo, a
notorious ‘woman-chaser’, who spent all his savings paying out ‘pacification’ monies.

‘I can’t understand Akosua’s behaviour at all; I was only teasing her that I might marry a lady one of
these days, but nothing serious at all,’ lied Kwame. It is amazing what lies husbands tell at the expense
of their wives.

‘Of course, if she doesn’t return I shall have to marry, for I certainly cannot live without a woman in the
house.’

Kwame Asante made a long bill to his father-in-law, claiming all the monies he had spent on Akosua
since he married her, as well as the presents given to her parents: it came to three hundred and fifty
pounds. He thought better of the matter next day.

‘After all Akosua is a woman and women are always weak; after my marriage I can soon coax her round.
I can then have one wife in Akwapim and another in Accra – after all, monogamy is all humbug. There
is a ratio of about eight women to one man; when I marry one and keep to her alone, what happens to the
seven?’

Martha Aryeetey, Kwame’s second choice a school teacher, was a pleasant looking girl, plump and
cheerful, and extremely proud of herself of having secured Kwame Asante. He had just built and
furnished a house at Adabraka, and ever since he fell in love he had been giving her three pounds a
month pin-money, and provisions as well; and besides, she was earning seven pounds a month. In fact,
she was one of the happiest girls in Accra. Did she think of the women whose place she was going to
occupy? Not at all, after all she was only a cloth woman.

The great day arrived. Holy Trinity Church was packed with guests and gate-crashers – for many people
make it a habit to attend weddings without being invited. According to custom the relatives of the bride
and bridegroom were in white.

Kwame and Martha looked well, and radiantly happy. The service was fully choral. It was soon over
and a grand reception took place at the Rodger Club. The bride and bridegroom, together with the best
man, Yaw Asante, and the bridesmaids and pages, sat on the dais.

It was 10 p.m. when the newly –married couple found themselves alone. After a hurried dinner Mrs
Asante could hardly keep her eyes open; she went straight to bed. Mr Asante sat on the verandah for a
little fresh air; he dozed off. Suddenly he woke up with a start. Did he hear footsteps? He rushed to the
sitting-room.
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Was that Martha, sitting with bowed head on the settee in all her bridal finery? ‘Martha, my dear, why
my dear, why haven’t you gone to bed?’

She lifted her head. Asante blinked rapidly. He rubbed his eyes. Was he drunk or dreaming? Akosua
was looking at him shyly. He remembered that look; it had charmed him again and again. He moved
towards her: ‘Akosua, what are you doing here at this hour of the night? She did not answer; but she got
up from the settee. Lovely she looked in her white brocaded silk cloth; the long bridal veil, held by a
wreath of orange blossoms, was nearly sweeping the floor. She moved away from him. He rushed after
her. She eluded him, a mocking smile on her lips. The warm blood throbbed in his veins: ‘How
maddeningly beautiful she looks!’

Had he really left this cameo in ebony for that other common-place girl?

‘I must have been mad.’ He stretched out his arms: ‘Akosua forgive me.’

She smiled and beckoned to him. He ran towards her. She ran away from him. Round and round the
sitting –room table they went; at last he got hold of the evil and held fast to it. The leg of the table
tripped him up and he fell, knocking his temple on the table’s edge.

Asante’s younger brother, Yaw the best man, was the one to awaken the household the next day. They
found the bridegroom sprawling on the sitting-room floor, a flimsy bit of torn bridal veil tightly clenched
in one fist. Joy was in his countenance. Dr Adjaye, who was called, said he had been dead for some
hours.

No one could give an account of the torn fragment, for there was no tear in Mrs Asante’s veil.

‘We have not even gone through the telegrams of congratulations; I rushed here early so that we could
read them through,’ said young Asante, the best man, his eyes filled with tears. Carefully he drew the
telegrams from his coat pocket. Casually the doctor looked through. He gave a sudden start:

‘Hello! What’s this, was Mr Asante a married man?

‘Oh, he was only married to a cloth woman according to native Customary Law,’ carelessly replied
young Asante.

‘Well, here is an important telegram from Akwapim.’ Dr Adjaye cleared his throat, ‘Its date is yesterday
and it reads:

To Kwame Asante, Adabraka,

Your wife Akosua died 10 a. m. to – day. Come at once. Kofi Asare

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Questions
a. Why has the relationship between Akousa and her husband changed?
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(2marks)
b. Describe one character of each of the following:
(i) Kwame
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(ii) Akosua
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(2 marks)
c. Describe the geographical setting of this story.
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(2marks)
d. What shows that Kwame regrets his wife’s departure?
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(2 marks)
e. Describe how the following themes are portrayed in the story:
(i) Pride___________________________________________________________________
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(ii) Male Chauvinism_________________________________________________________

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(4marks)
f. The story ends in suspense. Support this statement with an example from the story.
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(2marks)
g. In what way can this story be described as a tragedy?
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(2marks)
Section B (40 marks)

Answer both questions 3 and 4 in this section. Choose either question a or b in each case and not both.

3. THE PEARL by John Steinburg

EITHER
a. With clear examples from the book The Pearl, discuss how the pearl portrays an element of evil
in the novel. (20 marks)

OR
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b. Discuss how the following themes are portrayed through the actions of different characters in the
book “The Pearl”

(i) Solidarity
(ii) Hypocrisy (20 marks)

4. MACBETH by William Shakespeare

EITHER

a. With clear examples from the play Macbeth, explain how the death of King Duncan would have
been avoided. (20 marks)
OR

b. With examples from the play Macbeth, discuss the character of the following individuals:

(i) Ross
(ii) Gentlewoman (20 marks)
END OF QUESTION PAPER

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