GREENHILL ACADEMY

S.5 LITERATURE IN ENGLISH

PROSE:
• Instructions
• Attempt all questions
• Mind your handwriting, grammar and spelling.
Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.
Uganda’s biggest tragedy: The rise of NRM and death of conscience, shame.(By Gawaya
Tegulle)
Last week, the General Court Martial(GCM) at Makindye, Kampala, for the third time,
refused to grant bail to 28 prisoners; young men and women of the National Unity
Platform(NUP). Their only crime, as everybody knows, was to oppose the current
government. That, in Uganda, is the worse than aggravated robbery and murder combined;
even with a violent rape thrown in somewhere in the mix!
The ruling completely ignored the law and the facts. How can there be “no merit” (as
the GCM ruled) in a bail application where we are talking about young people, who everyone
knows are being framed, and have been in jail for three years now?
Do the members of the GCM still feel able to eat their food with full appetite, and go to
bed and sleep soundly, even though they are perpetrating a manifest injustice against
helpless young people?
With all such known injustices typical of the military courts, how was the supreme court
able to sea stay of execution against the constitutional court order, which barred the military
from trying civilians in military courts? Wasn’t the honorable court alive to the fact that it was
in effect, giving license to the military to continue this manifest violation of human rights?
Again, you ask yourself, how are our leaders able to pick up fellow humans, take them
to dungeons run by military and intelligence agencies and torture them for extended periods,
without caring what the public thinks or says?
And how does a judicial officer, who looks at an accused person, all battered and
bleeding, because the military detained him for weeks and tortured him to the point of death,

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still feel able to remand such a person to prison, like was the case of our poor Kakwenza
Rukirabasaija, rejecting his pleas that he had been tortured?
How did we get to a level where the military quells a demonstration of unarmed civilians
by fatally shooting them, even as cameras are rolling, and the killers who are known, walk
scot-free?
How are our leaders able to gather at a “National Prayer Breakfast”, apparently to pray
to the Almighty God, and yet people are groaning and weeping helplessly as they are
tortured? How do they manage to clap and dance as they sing to God-while helpless
detainees spend years in jail without trail, because they dared to support a rival of the
President?
How can people live at peace with themselves even as they commit these grave
injustices? The answer is that it takes the death of conscience. And shame.
God gave each of us a conscience, as a moral compass to regulate human behavior,
so that one is able to clearly tell right from wrong; and stay on the right oath thereby. You hear
that gentle and tender inner voice, telling you that what you are doing is not right and guiding
you on what the right option is. But it is possible to silence the voice of conscience and what’s
more, it is even possible to kill the conscience by international rejection of its pleas. Repeated
transgression eventually kills the conscience, to the point that you are able to do what is wrong
and feel perfectly okay with it, and no shame at all. Uganda’s biggest tragedy, since
independence, is the coming to power of the National Resistance Movement(NRM), an
establishment that has killed the conscience at both individual and collective level. Ugandans
are now able to indulge in shameful acts with a clear conscience.
Citizens adopt the moral course charted by the leaders, corrupt leaders, corrupt
citizens; righteous leaders, righteous citizens. When the state openly tortures innocent
people, and we see it as normal and in fact, a prerogative of the state, you begin to see even
in homes, babies being tortured with no mercy and no shame.
You can recover money taken by the corrupt, but it is a difficult proposition, recovering
the collective conscience of a nation that has been intentionally systematically and repeatedly
violated over 40 years. Pray for this country.
([Link] is an advocate of the High Court of Uganda)
Questions
(a) What is the passage about? (04 marks)
(b) How appropriate is the title to the rest of the passage? (05 marks)
(c) What are the major arguments of the writer in this text? (05 marks)

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(d) The writer highlights gross acts of injustice against civilians in the text. What are
they? (05 marks)
(e) Do you agree with the arguments of the author? Give reasons for your answer (06
marks)
(f) What other social injustices exist in your society? (05 marks)
(g) How does this write-up make you feel? (05 marks)

POETRY

Title: “Echoes from the Inside”

🎭 SCENARIO:

Everyone has a voice, but not everyone gets a chance to speak it out loud. Sometimes, we
hold back our feelings about growing up, family, love, fears, friendship, failure, or even joy.
Imagine that your heart could speak in poems. What would it say? In this project, you will
explore the “echoes” of your emotions, thoughts, memories, and dreams through poetry. You
will use different poetic forms to express your inner world and connect with others who may
feel the same but can’t say it out loud.

📝 TASK: Create a Poetry Portfolio made up of five to seven original poems based on themes
from your own life. Each poem must follow a specific form or prompt listed below. The final
product will be presented in class; thereafter, it will be printed in a booklet.

1. Memory Poem (Inspired by your roots: places, people, smells, foods, sayings.)
📍 Prompt: Write about your background. Where are you really from, not just by
location but in spirit and story?
2. Self-Reflection Poem (Imagine you are talking to yourself in the mirror.)
📍 Prompt: What do you see that others don’t? What are you proud of, afraid of, or
growing into?
3. Metaphor Poem (Use extended metaphor.)
📍 Prompt: Compare your heart to something else (a drum, a suitcase, a locked
door, an insect, a butterfly, love, a flower, a lion, a bird, a sunrise, etc.) and describe
what it feels, carries, or hides.

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 4. Observation Poem (Explore something you love or hate about the world.)
📍 Prompt: It can be about nature, school, family, love, injustice, or beauty anything
that moves you.
5. Time Travel Poem
📍 Prompt: Write a poem as a letter to your younger self or your future self. What
advice or hope would you give?
6. Silent Feelings Poem
📍 Prompt: Write a poem about something you’ve never said to someone (a friend,
parent, teacher, or stranger). Use honesty but kindness.
7. Unity Poem
📍 Prompt: As a class, write a collaborative poem where each member contributes
a stanza based on a common theme (e.g., “Hope is…” or “Home feels like…”).

DRAMA

Read the play Oedipus the King by Sophocles and respond to the following tasks.
1. Analyze the plot of this text by acts and scenes.
2. Comment about:
a. Setting of the text.
b. Major themes in the text.
c. Major characters in the text and their traits
d. Lessons learnt from the text.
e. Any four dramatic techniques cited from the text and their significance.

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