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.
At the time of trouble in Ireland, a priest said, ‘Man is half beast’, A diplomat replied, ‘Yes. And the beast is the half I like the best’. The priest meant that beasts behave as badly as man when man makes up his mind to behave badly. If you look at the folly and cruelty of today’s world, it is hard to disagree with the diplomat or the priest. But human nature can be changed. Anybody, if that is what they most want to do, can change the most difficult person they know. The art of changing people has been lost in the modern world. That is why the modern world has lost its way.
There are two ways of looking at human nature. One is to make the best of it and it is assume that it is the raw material of life which cannot be altered. That is what most people in the free world to today. In these circumstances, if you expect the worst, you are seldom disappointed. Faith today has become irrelevant to the everyday needs, of so many people in positions of responsibility because they do not expect faith to change men.
Another way of dealing with human nature is to exploit it. All materialistic s, whether of the right or the left, do this. All over the world vanity, fear, ambition, lust and greed are used to control the life of men; and if the control breaks down, man does not hesitate to use force, or to destroy life. The end, he says, justifies the means and men are only of value in so far as they are a means towards the achievement of his ambition. If they cannot be bribed or forced to play their part, then they must be liquidated.
What most people do in the free world today is to Options:You all know how friendly we are with Okperi. Do you think that any Umuaro man who goes to prison there will come back alive? But that apart, do you forget that this is the moon of planting? Do you want to grow this year’s crops in the prison house in a land where your fathers owe a cow? I speak as your elder brother. I have travelled in Olu and I have travelled in Igbo and I can tell you that there is no escape from the white man. He has come when suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat left for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool. The white man is like that. Before any of you here was old enough to tie a cloth between the legs I saw with my own eyes what the white man did to Abame. Then I knew there was no escape. As day light chases away darkness so will the white man drive away all our customs. I know that as I say it now it passes by your ears, but it will happen. The white man has power which comes from the true God and it burns like fire. This is the God about whom we preach every eighth day………..
Unachukwu’s opponents were now shouting that this was a meeting of an age group that they had not assembled to join with him in chewing the seed of foolishness which they called their new religion.
‘We are talking about the white man’s road’ said a voice above the others.
‘Yes, we are talking about the white man’s road. But when the roof and walls of a house fall in, the ceiling is not left standing. The white man, the new religion, the soldiers, the new road-they are all part of the same thing. The white man has a gun, a machete, a bow and carries fire in his mouth. He does not fight with one weapon alone’.
Unachukwu's speech in this passage shows that he Options:Choose the word that has an opposite meaning to the one in bracket for questions below.
When it comes to playing the piano, I am a complete [ignoramus]
Options:May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding month. The days are long and humid. The river shrinks and black crows gorge on bright mangoes in still, dust green trees. Red bananas ripen. Jackfruits burst. Dissolute blue bottles hum vacuously in the fruity air. Then they stun themselves against clear windowpanes and die, fatly baffled in the sun. The nights are clear but suffused with sloth and sullen expectations.
But by early June the southwest monsoon breaks and there are three months of wind and water with short spells of sharp, glittering sunshine that thrilled children snatch to play with. The countryside turns an immodest green. Boundaries blur as tapioca fences take root and bloom. Brick walls turn mossgreen. Pepper vines snake up electric poles. Wild creepers burst through laterite banks and spilt across the flooded roads. Boats ply in the bazaars. And small fish appear in the puddles that fill the PWD potholes on the highways. It was raining when Rahel came
back to Ayemenem.
Slanting silver ropes slammed into loose earth, ploughing it up like gunfire. The old house on the hill wore its steep, gabled roof pulled over its ears like a low hat. The walls, streaked with moss, had grown soft and bulged a little with dampness that seeped up from the ground. The wild, overgrown garden was full of the whisper and scurry of small lives.In the undergrowth, a rat snake rubbed itself against a glistening stone. Hopeful yellow bullfrogs cruised the scummy pond for mates. A drenched mongoose flashed across the leaf-strewn driveway. The house itself looked empty. The doors and windows were locked. The front verandah bare. Unfurnished.
But the sky blue Plymouth with chrome tail fins was still parked outside, and inside, Baby Kochamma was still alive. She was Rahel's baby grand aunt, her grandfather's younger sister. Her name was really Navomi, Navomi Ipe, but everybody called her Baby. She became Baby Kochamma when she was old enough to be an aunt. Rahel hadn't come to see her, though.
Neither niece nor baby grandaunt laboured under any illusions on that account. Rahel had come to see her brother, Estha. They were two-egg twins. "Dizygotic' doctors called them. Born from separate but simultaneously fertilized eggs. Estha Esthappen-was the older by 18 minutes.
Rachel had come to see_______.
Options:Choose the word or phrase from options A - E which has the nearest in meaning to the underlined word or words in each sentences:
Shade is to come home tomorrow
Options:fill in the blank spaces in the following sentences making use of the best of the five options :
_____ Several bad air-crashes recently.
Options:Attitudes towards the smoking of cigarettes and the consumption of alcohol may be used to illustrate typical African ethics. Apart from the fact that smoking has now been linked with the lung cancer disease, the African moralist has always regarded smoking as an indication of moral degradation. A number of people have accepted the moralist ideaon smoking. Some have refrained from smoking and those who could influence others, such as parents and religious leaders, have also exerted their influence to prevent others from smoking. On the other hand, a good many people have remained indifferent to the moralist view and have continued to smoke. The same argument has been applied to the consumption of alcohol. The African moralist, basing his judgement on the behaviour of a few alcoholics, tends to regard the habit of taking alcohol as a sign of wretchedness. The moralist holds the view that anybody who forms the habit of consuming alcohol will never do well in life. While this may be true in respect of a few people in the society, the fear of the moralist has not been justified. However, the economist is primarily interested in the habit of smoking and the consumption of alcohol and alcohol in so far as they give satisfaction to smokers and drinkers and so generate supply of and demand for tobacco and alcohol. The economist is interested in knowing how many packets of cigarettes are consumed and to what extent an increase or fall in consumption could affect production that is, supply. Similarly, he is interested in how much beer is consumed and how the supply of beer will adjust to the demand for it. He examines the habits and the pressures which can lead to the readjustment of wants and the reallocation of resources to cover the wants.
Some moral principles associated with religion tend to lead on to economic problems. Followers of certain religions are expected not to consume pork, take alcohol or smoke tobacco. Devotees of some religious groups, on the other hand, can eat pork, while others are expected to abstain from alcohol and smoking. Strict observance of these moral rules could cripple the breweries, the cigarette factories and some businesses however, there seems to be a growing number of alcohol consumers and cigarette smokers- a development which should be of interest to the economist.
Choose the correct word to fill the space in the following sentences:
It is difficult these days to get a seat _____ the plane in spite of a confirmed booking
Options: