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.
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:Choose the one opposite in meaning to the word(s) in underlined.
I abhor a traitor
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.
Which of the following was NOT a quality of Zacharia''s character Options:If we examine the opportunities for education of girls or women in less developed countries, we usually find a dismal picture. In some countries, the ratio of boys to girls in secondary schools is more than seven to one. What happens to the girls? Often they are kept at home to look after younger siblings and to perform a variety of domestic chores. Their education is not perceived as in any way equal in importance to that of boys. When a non-literate or barely literate girl reaches adolescence, she has little or no qualification for employment, even if her community provides any opportunity for the employment of women. The solution is to get her married as soon as possible, with the inevitable result that she produces children too soon, too often and too late. With no formal education, she is hardly aware that there is any alternative. In a study made in Thailand, it was noted that the literate woman marries later and ceases childbearing earlier than her non-literate counterpart. But the latter is so chained to her household by the necessities of gathering fuel, preparing food and tending children that she is very difficult to reach, even if health services, nutrition, education, maternal and child health centres are available in her community. She does not understand what they are intended to do.
The phrase 'too late' in the passage implies that the woman Options:In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase which best fills the gap(s):
Peter was such a skillful boxer that he was not afraid to take _____ anybody.
Options:This questions is base on Jerry Agada's The successes
From the novel, David thought Ifenne should be involved in politics because he wanted him to
Options:Like a clock with the pendulum in full swing, the mind moves as fast as time. But we ought to mind our thoughts, for if they turn to be our enemies. They will too many for us and will drag us down to ruin.
But some people may say that they cannot help having bad thought even though they sting like vipers. That may be son, but the question is do they hate them or not? We cannot keep thieves from looking in at our windows, but if we open our doors to them and receive them joyfully, we are bad as they. We cannot help the birds flying over our heads; but we may keep form building their nests in our hair. Vain thoughts will knock at the door but we must not open to them.
Though bad and evil thoughts rise in our hearts, they must not be allowed to reign. He who turns a morsel over and over in his mouth does so because he likes flavours, and he who meditates upon evil, loves it, and is ripe to commit it. think of the devil, and he will appear, turn your thoughts towards will and your hands will soon follow. Snails leave their slime behind them, and so do vain thoughts. An arrow may fly through the air, and level no trace, but an evil though always leaves a trail like serpent.
Where are is much traffic of bad thinking, there will be much mire and dirty. Every wave of wicked thought adds something to the corruption which rots upon the shore of life. It is dreadful to think that a vile imagination. Once indulged, gets the key of our minds, and an get in again very easily, whether or not we let it in, and what may follow, no one knows,. Nurse evil on the laps of thought, and it will grow into a giant.
Therefore, there is wisdom in watching every day, the thoughts and imaginations of our hearts. Good thoughts are blessed guests and should be welcomed, well fed, and much sought after, but bad thoughts must fly out as swiftly as they moved in.
Which of the following represents the writer's view in the passage? Options:choose the option nearly opposite in meaning to the word(s) underlined
The incumbent president conceded defeat before the final result was announced.
Options:I was on top of one of my palm trees yesterday, tapping the tree and collecting the wine for the morning when I saw two soldiers at the foot of the tree. They made signs at me, so I concluded that they wanted my palm wine. On descending from the tree I gave them the wine to sample, as is customary. Not only did they drain all the wine in the calabash, they said they had come to conscript me into the army. I ask them weather they wanted me or somebody else, and they said they had come for me. I asked them weather an enemy sent them or they came on their own. To cut it short, they said i was wasting their time s they had to catch twenty men that day. Only a foolish man willingly disobeys armed soldiers. I told them I had something very important to say.
‘Say it, then’ one of them cut in impatiently, looking at his watch. It was approaching midday, by which time it was considered unsafe to drive around in a car for fear of enemy planes which had learnt to strafe individual vehicles on the highway.
‘Yes, what I want to say is simple’ I said, ‘My first son, the boy who should have succeeded me when I died, joined the army voluntarily with my full backing. He was a brilliant boy, always first in his class. He was in his last year at school when the war began. He was killed. The two children who came after him are girls. The next boy is still in primary school. If he were old enough, I would have asked him to join the army not, minding that the fact that my first son’s head had already been sacrificed to the same war. For no person who breathes, will say that he has no part in this war.
‘But let me add this: - If this war has reached the stage when a man of my age is given a rifle by force and sent to the war fri9ont, then the time has come for you to blow the whistle and end the war. That is all I want to say!’.
The soldiers had come to Options:In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fill(s) the gap:
If you want a successful marriage , you _____ pray for it
Options: