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Peng 021: Communication Skills Question Paper
Peng 021: Communication Skills
Course:Certificate Of Pre-University English
Institution: Kabarak University question papers
Exam Year:2011
UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS
2010/2011 ACADEMIC YEAR
FOR THE CERTIFICATE OF PRE-UNIVERSITY ENGLISH
COURSE CODE: PENG 021
COURSE TITLE: COMMUNICATION SKILLS
STREAM: SEMESTER TWO
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Answer ALL the questions in the booklet provided.
2. Ensure that your work is neat.
QUESTION ONE 15 MKS
1. What do you understand by the term ‘noise’ in communication? Give three sources of
noise. 4 mks
2. List three variables that affect informative listening. 3mks
3. What is non- verbal communication? Give two examples. 4mks
4. Show the distinction between linear model and interactional model of communication
4 mks
QUESTION TWO 15 MKS
Write an essay on “five ways of improving listening skills” 15 mks
QUESTION THREE 20 MKS
a) Name two library classification system 2mks
b) Explain any 5 functions of an academic library 5 mks
c) Distinguish between note making and note taking? 3mks
d) Distinguish between reference and call materials in the library. 4 mks
e) Explain the meaning of the following:
1) Note making
2) References
3) Bibliography 6 mks
QUESTION four 20 MKS
Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow
In the eighteenth century, the field of science was virtually closed to women. In France, the
countess wrote a highly regarded book about Newtonian physics, but its very excellence spoke
against her. The manuscript was so good that it was widely assumed that it had been written
by the countess’s tutor rather than by the countess herself. Sadly enough, the tutor Samuel
Konig, did nothing to discourage the rumous about the book’s authorship. Instead, he took full3
credit for the countess’s efforts. In England, the leading nation in science, the situation was
worse. Women were strictly prohibited from admission to scientific societies. Indeed, the
English denied women access to all forms of scientific study.
Italy, however, was something of an exception to the general European rule, and a number of
provincial scientific societies did admit women. It is perhaps not surprising, them that the one
woman who crashed the barriers erected against her gender was an Italian, Laura Bassi (1711-
1778). Bassi actually became a respected scientific figure at a time when women were
generally thought to be too intellectually limited for the rigors of scientific study. By all
accounts, she thoroughly disproved the sexist notion that women and sciences were opposed to
one another.
Bassi was one of the lucky women of her era. Her father was an enlightened lawyer in
bologna, Italy, who believed that women should be educated. Thus, young Laura was schooled
by the family times, particularly Newtonian physics. Because her father encouraged her to
display her erudition at social gatherings, Bassi’s reputation as a learned woman grew. Tested
by a group of professors and scholars anxious to prove that a woman could not possibly be so
clever, Bassi astonished the skeptics with her intelligence, learning, and eloquence. Local
scholars were so impressed that in 17321 they invited her to join the Bologna Institute of
Sciences and to study for a degree at the University of Bologna. On May 12, 1732, Bassi
became only the second woman ever to gain an academic degree. A few months later, she
became the world’s first female professor.4
But despite her breakthrough, those in charge of the University of Bologna had very rigid ideas
about what Bassi could or could not do as a professor. For example, she had no say over her
schedule. To the University’s leaders, she was an intriguing oddity. They might trot her out
for display to curious visiting scholars, buttery would not let her lecture on a regular basis.
Nor, for that matter, could she pursue her own studies or research. Still , Bassi was not an easy
woman to control, and to a degree she managed to go her own way.
In 1749, to escape university restrictions, Bassi began offering private lessons in experimental
physics. She also began championing Newtonian physics at a time when it was relatively
unknown in Italy, and she promoted Newton’s findings about gravity even in the face of
widespread intellectual resistance. In addition, Bass corresponded wit the leading physicists of
the day. Thus, she kept her country a breast of new scientific theories
In 1776, when Bassi was sixty-five, the university acknowledged her contributions to scientific
thought by bestowing upon her an unheard of honour for a woman: She was appointed chair of
experimental physics, and her husband, the father of her eight children, was appointed her
assistant
Contrary to expectation, Bassi’s achievements did not pave the way for other women. This is
because many of her male colleagues had been disturbed by her extraordinary progress and
were reluctant to let any other female follow in her footsteps. After Bassi’s death in 1778, it
took more than a century, and the arrival of Marie Curie, for another woman to find herself at
home in the male-dominated world of science.5
a) Why was it widely assumed that the countess’s tutor had written the book on
Newtonian physics? (2 mks)
b) In what way was France better than England in the treatment of women
interested in the sciences? (3 mks)
c) According to the passage, what was a professor expected to do? (3 mks)
e) For what selfish purpose did the University of Bologna use Bassi? (2 mks)
f) What evidence is given to show that Bassi was difficult to control? (3 mks)
g) Why do you think the author mentions the fact that Bassi had eight children?
(3 mks)
h) Explain the meaning of the following expressions as used in the passage
(4 mks)
1) Skeptics
2) To a degree
3) Find herself at home
4) Reluctant
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