2016_english_olevel_nov_paper2IN

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Far Performasce Menvrement

ZIMBABWE SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS COUNCIL

General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level

ENGLISH LANGUAGE 1122/2
PAPER 2 INSERT
NOVEMBER 2016 SESSION
2 hours

Comprehension passage insert
The insert should not be posted to ZIMSEC with the answer booklet.
Allow candidates 5 minutes to count pages before the examination.

TIME 2 hours
INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES

Check if the insert has all the pages and ask the invigilator for a replacement if there are
duplicate or missing pages.

Read the following passage very carefully before you attempt any questions.

Answer all questions in the spaces provided using black or blue pens.

Shape all your letters very clearly.

INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES

The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.
You are advised to spend 1 hour 30 minutes on Section A and 30 minutes on Section B.
Mistakes in spelling, punctuation and grammar may be penalised in any part of the paper.

This insert consists of 4 printed pages.

Copyright: Zimbabwe School Examinations Council, N2016.

©ZIMSEC N2016 [Turn over]

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SECTION A (40 MARKS)

Read the following passage very carefully before you attempt any questions.

Answer all the questions in the spaces provided on the question paper.

Mistakes in spelling, punctuation and grammar may be penalised in any part of the paper.
Man-Eater

1 Stalking a leopard or a tiger on its kill is one of the most intriguing forms of sport
I know, but it can only be indulged in with any hope of success when the
conditions are favourable. The conditions were not favourable for the bush
was too dense to permit a noiseless approach. Returning to the village, I had
breakfast and then called the villagers together, as I wanted to consult them about 5
the surrounding country. It was necessary to visit the kill to see if the leopard had
left something for me to sit over, and while doing so I would not be able to avoid
disturbing the leopard. What I wanted to learn was whether there was any other
heavy cover within a reasonable distance to which the leopard could retire on being
disturbed. I was told that there was no such cover nearer than two kilometres and 10
that, to get to it, the leopard would have to cross a wide stretch of cultivated land.

2 At midday, I returned to the patch of the bush and, a hundred metres from where
the leopard had killed the goat, I found all that the leopard had left of the goat —
its hooves and horns. As there was no fear of the leopard leaving the cover at
that time of day for the jungle two kilometres away, I tried for several hours to 15
stalk it, helped by various birds — bulbuls, drongos, thrushes and babblers — which
give warning signals to the jungle folk upon seeing a member of the cat family.
They kept me informed of the leopard’s every movement. I did not collect men
from the village to drive the leopard out onto the open ground because that could
not have been attempted without grave danger to the beaters. As soonashe found 20
he was being driven towards the open, the leopard would have broken back and
attacked anyone in his way.

3 On my return to the village after my unsuccessful attempt to get a shot at the
leopard, I went down with a bad attack of malaria and for the next twenty-four
hours I lay in a stupor. By evening of the following day, the fever had left me 25
and I was able to continue the hunt. On their own initiative, the previous night,
the men had tied out the second goat where the first had been killed but the
leopard had not touched it. That was all to the good, for the leopard would now
be hungry, and I set out on that third evening full of hope.

4 On the near side of the patch of the thicket, there was an old oak tree. That tree 30
was growing out of a two-metre bank between two terraced fields and was leaning
away from the hill at an angle that made it possible for me to walk up the trunk in
my rubber-soled shoes. On the underside of the trunk and about five metres from
the ground, there was a branch jutting out over the lower field. That branch, which
was about half a metre thick, was hollow and rotten. However, as it was the only 35

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branch on the tree, and as there were no other trees within a radius of several hundred metres, I decided to risk sitting on it.

As I had every reason to believe that the leopard I was dealing with was the Panar
man-eater, I made the men cut a number of long black thorn shoots. After I had
taken my seat with my back to the tree and my legs stretched out along the branch, 40
I made the men tie the shoots into bundles, lay them on the trunk of the tree and

lash them to it securely with a rope. To the efficient execution of those small

details, | am convinced I owe my life.

Several of the black-thorn shoots, which were from ten to twenty metres long,
projected on either side of the tree. As I had nothing to hold onto to maintain my 45
balance, I gathered the shoots on either side of me and held them firmly between

my arms and my body. By five o’clock, my preparations were complete and I

was firmly seated on the branch. The goat was tied to a stake in the field, thirty
metres in front of me, and the men were sitting out in the field smoking and

talking loudly. 50

Up to that point, all had been quiet in the patch of brush. Then, a babbler gave

its piercing alarm call, followed a minute or two later by the chattering of

several white-throated laughing thrushes. Those two species of birds are the

most reliable informants in the hills, and on hearing them I signalled to the men

to return to the village. That they appeared to be very glad to do, and as they 55
walked away, still talking loudly, the goat started bleating. Nothing happened

for the next half hour and then, as the sun was fading off the hill, above the

village, two drongos that had been sitting on the tree above me flew and started

to bait some animal on the open ground between me and the thicket. The goat,
while calling, had been facing in the direction of the village, and it now turned 60
round, facing me and stopped calling. By watching the goat, I could follow the
movements of the animal that he was interested in and that animal could only be

the leopard.

Again, nothing happened for many minutes and then I felt a gentle pull on the
black-thorn shoots I was holding onto and blessed my forethought in having 65
had the shoots tied to the leaning tree for I could not turn round to defend myself.
There was no question then that I was dealing with a man-eater and a very
determined man-eater at that. Finding that he could not climb over the thorns,

the leopard, after his initial pull, had then got the butt ends of the shoots between

his teeth and was jerking them violently pulling me hard against the trunk of the 70
tree. I remained calm and expectant.

The last of the daylight had faded out of the sky and the leopard who did all his
human killing in the dark, was in his element and I was out of mine. In the dark,

a human being is the most helpless of all animals — and speaking for myself — his
courage is at its lowest ebb. Having killed four human beings at night in the 75

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10

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past, the leopard was quite unafraid of me. That was evident from the fact that
while tugging at the shoots, he was growling loud enough to be heard by the men
anxiously listening in the village. While that growling terrified the men, as they
later told me, it had the opposite effect on me, for it let me know where the

leopard was and what he was doing. It was when he was silent that Iwas most 80
terrified, for I did not know what his next move would be. Several times, he

had nearly unseated me by pulling on the shoots vigorously and then suddenly
letting them go, and I felt sure that if he sprang up he would need only to touch

me to send me crashing to the ground.

After one of those nerve-wracking periods of silence, the leopard jumped down 85
off the high bank and dashed towards the goat. In the hope that the man-eater

would come while there was still sufficient light to shoot by, I had tied the goat
thirty metres from the tree to give me time to kill the leopard before it got to the
goat. However, since it was now dark, I could not save the goat which, despite
being white, I could only just see as an indistinct blur. I therefore waited until 90
it had stopped struggling and then aimed where I thought the leopard would be

and pressed the trigger. My shot was greeted with an angry grunt, and I saw a

flash of white as the leopard went over backwards and disappeared down another
high bank into the field beyond.

For ten or fifteen minutes, I listened anxiously for further sounds from the 95
leopard and then the men called out and asked if they could come to me. It was
quite safe for them to do so, provided they kept to the high ground. I therefore

told them to light pine torches and come.

After a lot of shouting and running about, some twenty men, each carrying a

torch, left the village. Following my instruction, they circled round above the 100
terraced fields and approached my tree from behind. The knots in the ropes

securing the black-thorn shoots to the tree had been pulled so tightly by the

leopard that they had to be cut. After the thorns had been removed, the men

climbed up the tree and helped me down.

Adapted From: ‘Men Eater’ by Jim Corbet (1947) in The Man-Eating
Leopard of Rudraprayag, Oxford University Press, London

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