English is the study of the English language. The goal is to improve communication skills by practicing listening, speaking, reading, writing, and understanding language rules like pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.
Choose the appropriate stress pattern from the options. The syllables are written in capital letters.
meditative?
Options:Choose the option nearest in meaning to the underlined word(s).
Lantana dwelt in a ruined cottage on the hillside.
Options:When I set out for London, little did I suspect that I was not on a journey to God’s own city where harmony reigned supreme. So used to the frenzied life of Lagos was I that I had come to associate that city with everything that was chaotic, and there was no doubt in my mind that Lagos was one giant symbol of our backwardness. As the plane taxied its way out of the tarmac of our national airport, of our national airport, I heaved a sigh of relief, not so much because I was leaving my own country as that I was being relieved of the tension that had possessed me during those tense hours in the untidy lounge. I had felt so uneasy, my thoughts racing from one uncertainty to another. But at least I was air-borne, moving away from the whole uncertainty, from the whole load of fear towards a place which I supposed would be El Dorado.
Everything that happened in the plane passed through my eyes like pictures on the screen. The white air hostess who instructed me on how to use the safety belt was an angel, what with her beauty, her pretty blue dress, and her ever-smiling face. The same lady of the air served me snacks and supper. Another angel, whose queenly voice through an invisible public address system, dished out occasional information on the progress of our journey. I had never felt so relaxed, and my jolted heartbeats each time the plane took what appeared like a sudden brief descent, did not matter. When eventually we were set for landing, the anxiety that came over me was almost thrilling. What was the wonderland going to be like? So overwhelmed was I that I almost lost consciousness of what happened thereafter.
But I would never forget the shock that greeted me when we arrived in the tube station and boarded a train to behold the sea of white faces and furtive glances from apparently indifferent co-passengers. I believe that the nostalgic feeling for Lagos which later became part of my life all my days in London began at a point.
When the plane took off the writer felt happy because Options:With the most profound respect to the members of the senate, I do not think that it is within the competence of that………16…….[A. executive B. judicial C. administrative D. legislative] body to pass a motion to……..17…….[A. enforce B. nullify C. modify D. order] the executive action of the president. The senate is……..18…….[A. a wing B. a portion C. an anchor D. an arm] of the National Assembly. But it is not by itself alone the National Assembly. One can imagine the confusion which would be created if the……..19……..[A. House of Representative B. Judiciary C. National Assembly D. Executive council] were to take a view dramatically opposed to that reflected in the senate resolution. The strongest objection to the action of the senate is passing the resolution is the fact that it constituted itself the………20…… [A. litigant B. defendant C. plaintiff D. attorney] as well as the judge of the constitutionality of the action of the president. The function of the senate is to…….21….. [A. enact B. create C. compose D. annul] laws. But the senate has no authority or…….22…..[A. might B. power C. dynamism D. strength] to control the President in the exercise of his…….23……[A. official B. authoritative C. judicial D. executive] powers. It cannot by a mere resolution or motion give any direction to the president regarding the exercise of his powers or can it undo what the president has done in the executive of those powers. The only way in which the exercise of the powers of the president can be……..24…….[A. modified B. standardized C. regulated D. ordered] is by……..25……[A. an act B. a decree C. a motion D. a bill] of the National Assembly.
There is a joke in a country that the closest anyone will come to experiencing eternity is the country’s court system. The problem is a strange aversion to settling cases. Judges pass them along to somebody else and rarely dismiss lawsuits, no matter how frivolous. The country’s lower courts have a backlog of about 20 million civil and criminal cases. An additional 2.3 million cases are pending before the high courts, while the Supreme Court has about 20,000 old cases on the docket. Many of those cases will take far longer than 16 years to resolve.
But now, experts say, the country’s new Prime Minister is committed to fixing the problem. And the judiciary itself, long criticize as insular and resistant to change, seems finally to have concluded that changes are needed. The chief Justice of the Supreme Court has declared that soon the country will reduce its massive case backlog. After that, ‘there will be no place for any corruption or indolence in the system’. His choice of words was telling. Whatever moral imperative exists, the chief reason that the country is getting serious about streaming the legal system is economic. Dysfunctional courts increase the risk of foreign investors, tortuous rules slow the rise of new enterprises and murky laws regarding land ownership and other issues stifle the growth of industries like construction and retail. The country’s business is lobbying for change; its Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, for instance, recently published a report that bemoaned the regulatory maze that confronts every commercial project, contributing to delays and cost overruns and providing one explanation why it receives only a tiny fraction of the foreign direct investment deposited in a neighbouring country. ‘Speedy judicial resolution will be one of the keys to making the country a competitive economy, conducive to growth and foreign investment,’ says an observer.
The reasons for the country’s judicial debacle are legion. For one thing, it has fewer judges per capital than almost any other country in the world. In 2007, it had fewer than three judges per 100, 00 people. And the state itself, which account for 60 per cent of court cases, is overly litigious.
we can infer that the neighbouring country has more foreign investments because it Options:In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fills(s) the gap(s):
_____ his uncle helped him or not, he would still not be able to do it
Options:When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the American Declaration of independence that ‘all men are created equal’, he was not seeking to describe men’s endowments, but their political and legal rights. He was not saying that men do not differ from one another in the powers and dimensions of their bodies, minds and characters. He was asserting that despite variations and differences, they all possessed the right to equal political and legal treatment. We must however, ask of what real values are political and legal equality to a man who has no bread to eat , no clothes to wear, no roof to shelter him, no chance to earn a livelihood? What we understand as a democratic society must provide for its citizen’s minimum status protection in his deprivation, losses and fears.
In our time, the nations of the democratic world have installed elaborate system of social security and welfare, ranging from compensation for industrial accidents to subsidize housing, unemployment insurance, old age pension, psychiatric care and national health services. It is encouraging that the democratic nations are making a serious effort to provide against the characteristic losses and disasters of human life.
The evolving status of the Negro in America is attracting the attention of the champions of equality. Much has been written on the wrongs, injustice and inequalities of the coloured citizen of the USA and much remains to be said because the history of this struggle for human rights is still unfolding.
From the passage, it is obvious that Options:In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fill(s) the gap:
Ladies and gentlemen, our guest speaker, Dr. Oni _____ also a resident doctor at the teaching hospital.
Options:Choose the option that best completes the gap(s).
He ______ the picture on the table?
Options:After many weary weeks of matching . Nzinga and her attendants arrived at the white wall of Luanda. The guards at the city gates led them through the winding streets and up to the governor’s palace. A pompous courtier, sweating and dirty in his thick clothes ordered them to wait amongst a crowd of people who had come to beg favours of the governor.
Nzinga waited patiently, ignoring this insult to her royal dignity. She knew that her chance would come. The hot sun beat down on the white walls of the palace, yet Nzinga stood straight and proud as the crowd of Portuguese merchants mopped their sweating faces with damp lace handkerchiefs.
Much later the courtier came back. He knocked on the floor with his staff, and then announced in a loud voice, ‘His Excellency Joao Correia de Souza, the Governor in Angola of His Most Royal and Catholic Majesty, the king of Portugal’. The tired soldiers stood to attention and the courtiers and merchants bowed.
Nzinga became very impatient. Was she to stand here like a servant all day, waiting for this man to make up his mind to hear her? She stepped forward, walked into the middle of the room and faced the governor. The guards and the courtiers were so amazed that they could o nothing but gasp in amazement at this boldness. ‘Well, ‘murmured one of the merchants to his neighbor. ‘Now she will learn what trouble is! Don Joao will be very angry. It is an insult to his dignity’. ‘What do you mean by this, asked the governor when he had recovered from his surprise. ‘Who are you? Come, woman, state your business!’
But Nzinga was not afraid. In a clear, calm voice she answered him. ‘My first business is a chair,’ she said. The governor laughed. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked. ‘You are seated, ‘she replied, ‘And you are only a governor, a slave of your king. I am a princess and men do not sit where I stand. I will state my business seated!’
But Nzinga had learnt the strength of her enemy. She knew that she was already winning this contest of wills. E
Whatever happens now, this man would not think that she has been sent by a beaten people to beg favours. Without another word, she turned and made a sign to her maid. When the girl came to her, Nzinga ordered her to kneel down. Then, with a flash or triumph in her eyes, Nzinga sat down on the girl’s back, Nzinga got her treaty. Pride in herself and in her people had saved the day for the Mbundu.
Who did Nzinga want to see? Options: