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.
His eyes widened as they fell upon something strange. Something was moving slowly and cautiously along the gutter. The pale yellow and brown of the snake’s body glistened like a stream of flowing metal. By what mistake had the creature strayed into this unlikely place? Impossible to say. Yet there it was and its slow movements betrayed uneasiness and confusion.
As he watched it, his instinctive antipathy melted away. He could understand so well what the snake was feeling. He entered into the cold, narrow intelligence and shared its angry perplexity. Its movement were cramped, its advance difficulty and it was in constant danger of slipping over the edge. Now and then it lay still in dull reflection, nursing a cold anger that could find no vent.
Meanwhile the little plant bent downward by every puff of wind was beating its thin twings against the gutter like a birch. The snake seemed not to see the plant. It moved forward until a light touch from the twings fell upon its head. At this, it stopped and lifted its neck; the plant was now doing no more than lightly sway and dip. The snake, its head still reared, waited, flickering tongue. One could feel the angry heaving and straining in the sluggish brain-the dull red anger waiting to explode. Then came a strong gust sweeping along the wall and at once the twings thrashed down upon the furious head-thrashed down and beat it with a movement that seemed to osun both comic and dreadful. In a flash, the head reared itself higher, the neck drew back and there was a lunge at the twings and the empty air. O fatal act! To strike, the snake had been obliged to coil and its coiled body could not support itself upon the narrow ledge. No recovery was possible; it overbalanced and fell with a thud upon a small flat roof fifty feet below. There, osun saw the creature begin to writhe in agony. It could do no more than twist and turn upon the same spot
Osun was trembling but beneath his agitation there was a deep trouble wonder. Here was the little plants now waving with kind of jaunty cynicism and here was the snake writhing in agony. The world unquestionably was a place of mystery and horror. This was revealed in the writhing of the crippled snake in the jaunty waving of the innocent plant in the wind.
The 'fight' between the plant and the snake was prompted Options:In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fills the gap(s).:
You can never find Okwu; he is a very _____ person
Options:Read the passage carefully and answer the question that follows.
Curiosity is as clear and definite as any of our urges. We wonder what is in a sealed telegram or in a letter which someone else is absorbed or what is being said in the telephone booth or in low conversation. This inquisitiveness is vastly stimulated by jealousy. Suspicion or any hint that we ourselves are directly or indirectly involved in. But there appears to be a fair amount of personal interest in other people's affairs even when they do not concern us except as a mystery to be unravelled or a tale to be told. The reports of a divorce suit will have news 'value' for many weeks, They constitute a story like a novel, a play or a moving picture. This is not an example of pure curiosity. However, since we readily identify ourselves with others' their joys and despair then become our own concern.
Adapted from Harris, W. and L.G Wilson (1963) The University Handbook,New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston
The fact that the bees landed on the blue paper showed that they? Options:This question is from the novel The Last Days at Forcados High school.
What is the name of Efua’s Aunt?
Options:Typical Zacharia! Devil-may are and irreverent as ever. No doubt he was just the same when he was cook to a Greek trader in the town. In fact, I suspect that to him the Reverend Father is just another sort of trader. Conceited ass, thinking himself superior to the Father! And in what is he superior? Success with women perhaps? Zacharia knows that they all admire him and is always striving for still more admiration. He dresses sharply and walks in a haughty manner that suits in his tallness. And then he feeds his pride on the swarms of girls who run after him. It’s maddening to him how little you need to attract them. I remember my mother coming home from market in the town, after selling her vegetables and cocoa. How indignant she was ‘It’s so shameful, ‘she cried,’ our best-looking and most respectable girls go to town and throw themselves at strangers as ugly as sin, speaking the most outlandish tongue. Men I can scarcely look at without shuddering! And why? Just money! Money! Ah, what a world! And my father replied in a buried voice, ‘It is the times!’ ‘the times!’ shouted mother ‘can you imagine my child Ann with creatures like those?
But perhaps the girls who chase Zacharia aren’t drawn by his tallness or his leather shoes. Perhaps they’re only after childish things, a bit of bread or a pot of jam, knowing that he’s a cook. My father often says women are like children in their desires. And after all, I too can boast a little. Plenty of women turn to look at me, especially when I’m dressed all in white! But I’m not vain enough to fuse over a little thing like that. Not like Zacharia, who doesn’t know women are simply children.
From the passage we can conclude that the young girls were Options:From the words lettered A to D, choose the word that has the same consonant sounds as the one represented by the letters underlined.
Zoo
Options:Choose the option opposite in meaning to the underlined word(s).
A cool bath in a hot weather can be truly invigorating?
Options:Choose the appropriate stress pattern from the option. The syllables are written in capital letters.
catholicism?
Options: