END TERM 2 EXAMINATION
INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
Answer all the questions as instructed.
1. FUNCTIONAL WRITING (20 MARKS)
Imagine your friend is celebrating her birthday. She has requested you to attend and also give her instructions on how to bake a cake. You cannot attend her birthday. Write a letter to her explaining why you cannot attend and give her instructions on how to bake a birthday cake.
2. COMPREHENSION
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday confirmed some of the worst fears about Internet – connected devices, saying that technology presented serious data security and privacy risks and urged companies to make data protection a top priority.
While the agency noted the potential benefits for owners of smart devices like connected fitness bands, regulators also said that technology generated enormous amounts of personal data that could be misused or obtained by hackers.
Many of us are using these devices, Edith Ramirez, the chairwoman of the FTC, said in a telephone interview. But, she said, ‘if consumers feel that their information isn’t protected, they won’t have the confidence level to embrace them.’
In a staff report, the agency urged companies to institute basic data security measures when they develop such devices and sensors, rather than as an afterthought. It also encouraged companies to develop new ways to communicate their data collection and handling practices even if they market sensors that are too small to contain digital information displays for consumers.
“We are still at a time when we can have an impact on how the internet of things evolved,’ Ramirez said in the interview, referring to an array of connected devices. ‘These important privacy principles still have a place in today’s world.’
Although the report highlights the issues that the agency intends to monitor and underlines the best practices regulators hope companies will adopt, it does not carry the weight of enforceable regulations. The agency has urged congress to enact baseline federal consumer privacy law. But such legislation is unlikely to pass with congress controlled by republications.
Still, data security and privacy experts predicted at least larger-well known technology companies would take the agency’s data security recommendations into account if only to reduce the business risk of federal investigations.
Around 4.9 billion connected items for consumers, enterprises, manufacturing and utilities will be in use this year according to estimates from Gartner, an information technology market research firm. That number is expected to rise to 25 billion by 2020, center for Democracy and Technology, a non – profit group in Washington said. One concern that comes with all these devices, the FTC report noted, is that hackers could potentially hijack and misuse intimate information recorded by the technology, perhaps even creating physical safety risks for consumers.
Last year, for instance, an electronics company that marketed what it said was “secure” internet connected cameras, allowing parents to remotely monitor young children at home, settled a complaint by the FTC that lack security practices had exposed its customers to privacy invasions. A security fear allowed anyone with the cameras interrupt addresses to view, and in some cases hear, what was happening in customers’ homes, the agency said. The FTC report recommended that companies consider putting limits on the volume of information their devices collect from consumers and on the amount of time they retain those records. But companies may be reluctant to adopt those practices because data storage costs are decreasing and the ability to quickly analyze huge data sets is increasing.
Even so, regulators said they would be keeping watch to see that makers of connected devices limit the potential security and privacy risks of their products for consumers. For companies, it will be to their detriment if they don’t heed the issues we flag in the report,” Ramirez said. New York Times.
i) According to the first paragraph, what fears did the Federal Trade Commission confirm?
ii) What does the acronym F.T.C stand for?
iii) Provide a suitable title for the passage?
iv) Why is the word “secure” written in quotation marks?
v) What is the meaning of the following underlined words as used in the passage?
a) Hackers
b) Institute
c) Settled
d) Limit
vi) It does not carry the weight of enforceable regulations. (add a question tag)
vii) In note form, summarize the points of what the agency in a staff report urged companies to implement.
viii) Around 4.9 billion connected items per consumer, enterprises, manufacturing and utilities will be in use this year according to estimates from Gartner, an information technology, a non- profit group in Washington said.
Begin: According to estimates….
ix) Why is it that companies would be reluctant to adopt the practices recommended? ………
3. POETRY (20marks)
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.
A child is like a rare bird.
A child is precious like coral. A child is like brass.
You cannot buy a child in the market. Not for all the money in the world.
The child you can buy for money is a slave. We may have twenty slaves.
We may have thirty labourers, Only a child brings us joy.
One’s child is one’s child.
The buttocks of our child are not so flat
That we should tie the beads on another child’s hips It may have a watery head or a square head.
One’s child is ones child.
It is better to leave behind a child Than let the slaves inherit one’s house.
One must not rejoice too soon over a child. Only the one who is buried by his child,
Is the one who has truly borne a child. On the day of our death, our hand cannot hold a single cowry.
We need a child to inherit our belonging.
Questions
1. Explain what the poem is about. (2 mks)
2. Who is speaking in the poem? (2 mks)
3. Identify three reasons given in the poem for treasuring children. (3 mks)
4. What is the meaning of the following lines:
(a) “Only the one who is buried by his child, is the one who has truly borne a child.’(2mks)
(b) ‘On the day of our death, our hand cannot hold single cowry’.(2mks)
5. What three stylistic devices has the poet used in this poem? (6 mks)
6. With illustrations, identify the attitude of the persona towards ‘a child’ as expressed in the 1st six lines of the poem. (2 mks)
7. Give this poem a suitable title. (1 mk)
4. GRAMMAR (20 MARKS)
(a) Rewrite the following sentences according to the instructions given after each. (5 mks)
(i) a, grey, horse, racing, Atieno, small, young, bought. (Rearrange the words to make a meaning sentence)
(ii) He was kept awake all night by the barking of dogs. Change the sentence into active voice)
(iii) Peter is renovating his house so that he may sell it. (Rewrite using: ‘with a view…)
(iv) Brookhouse is the cleanest school in Kenya. (Rewrite using ‘cleaner’ instead of ‘cleanest’.)
(v) We can control the spread of cholera by educating the public. (Begin: the spread of …)
(b) Complete each of the following sentences by using the correct form of the word in brackets. (6 mks)
(i) Saving the baby from the burning bus was a act. (hero)
(ii) The Minister expressed doubts about the of showing the film on children’s television. (suit)
(iii) The student usually write their in the afternoons. (compose)
(iv) That must be your (brother-in-law) house.
(v) These (teacher) phones were stolen.
(vi) Since some students were late for supper, they got the (little) share.
(c) Rewrite the following sentences to remove gender bias. (3 mks)
(i) My brother was appointed the chairman of the Board of Management in my school.
(ii) A teacher should give his students opportunities to develop their skills.
(iii) The fireman ran out of water at the scene of the fire.
(d) Fill in the blank spaces with the appropriate auxiliary verbs. (3 mks)
(i) The child not play in the streets. (permission)
(ii) I not sleep five days ago. (past ability)
(iii) All students revise their roles regularly if they want to pass well. (compulsion)
(e) Rewrite the following sentences as instructed. (3 mks)
(i) Mary will not be granted permission if she does not tell the truth. (Begin: Unless…)
(ii) She is very pretty. Begin: How…
(iii) Since she excelled in the National exanimation, the school should award no one else but………………… (fill in the blank with the appropriate pronoun).