Arabic Paper 2, Part 2, May/June 2012

Questions:	Part I	1	2	3	4	Part II	1	2, 4, 5 & 8	3	6	7	Main

General Comments
Weakness/Remedies
Strength
Conclusion

Part II Question 2, 4, 5 & 8
QUESTION 2 Write short notes on the following characters in the play “Why do they hate us?’’ (a) Adam (b) Hamzah (c) Zaynab QUESTION 4 Give a biographical account of Ahmad Shawqī in brief. This question which was on the biography of Ahmad Shawqī, a poet in Modern Period of Arabic literature, was answered by many candidates. They did well also by mentioning his date of birth, genealogy, education, marriage and literary activities which contributed in no small measure to the growth and development of Modern Arabic Literature. QUESTIONS 5 and 8 These two questions were the most answered of all the questions by the candidates because they were on literary appreciation of poetic excerpts from the poetry of the Islamic Period and the Pre-Islamic Period respectively. Candidates with good background in Arabic Language did well because answering the questions required mastery of Arabic Language.
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Observation
Candidates who chose this question on Arabic drama were able to write briefly on these three characters: Ẵdam who was a messenger in the office of the Dean for almost 12 years; Hamzah who was a young articulate man with proficiency in English Language despite his specialization in Arabic and Zaynab the niece of Hamzah who was beautiful with noble characters. She was a graduate of Government College of Arabic Teachers, Kano. Generally, candidates’ performance was fairly good. .