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.
The root of problem which bedevil rural dwellers in Nigeria can be traced to the sad fact that work opportunities are so restricted that they cannot work their way out of poverty and misery. Though a great number of Nigerians still live in the villages and small towns, work opportunities exist mainly in the big cities where development efforts are concentrated. The reason usually given for his obvious lapse is that it is easier to establish industries and to find finance and markets to keep them going in the big cities and towns than in the rural areas where productivity is low because of mass illiteracy and poverty.
As capital is the product of human work, rural dwellers who are desperate enough to overcome poverty often leave the villages in search of some kind of existence in the big cities and towns. Therefore, rural unemployment in Nigeria produces mass migration into the cities, leading to a rate of urban growth which seriously taxes the resources of even the biggest cities like Ibadan, Lagos, Abuja and Kano. Form the sad experience of these cities; it is easy to see how rural unemployment can become urban unemployment with the attendant social problems like robbery, overcrowding and the growth of shanties or slums.
Such problems cannot be wished away but will remain with us until deliberate efforts are made to bring health to economic life outside the big cities in order to check the migration of destitute rural dwellers into town and cities that cannot absorb them.
It is necessary; therefore, that at least an important part of the development effort should bypass the bid cities and be concerned with the provision of viable infrastructure in the small town s and villages. In this connection, it is necessary to emphasize that the primary need is workplaces. The task should be to bring into existence thousands or millions of new workplaces in the rural areas and small towns in order to maximize work opportunities for rural dwellers.
For this proposition to make sense, first, the work opportunities should be created in the rural areas where the majority of the people live, not where they tend to migrate for lack of opportunities. Second, the production method employed must be relatively simple, so that the demands for high skills are minimized not only in the production process itself but also in matters of organization, raw material supply, financing, marketing and so forth. Third, production should be mainly from local materials and for local use. Lastly, rural workplaces should be cheap enough so that they can be created in large numbers. These four requirements together meet the description of what is usually called ‘cottage industry’. Millions of them are needed for rural transformation in Nigeria and to check the dangerous process of mutual poisoning between urban and rural areas in the country.
In the first sentence of the passage, the word work, used differently can be explained as Options:Choose the option that best fills the gap.
They _____ our donation with thanks.
Options:In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fills(s) the gap(s):
_____ him in the crowd, i would have told you at once
Options:Choose the option opposite in meaning to the underlined word(s).
The witness decided to conceal the evidence?
Options:Boxing is sometimes called' the noble art of self defence'. According to some people, boxing appeals to the lowest instincts in the ...11... who have come to watch blood flow and their fellow human suffer Boxers who are medically fit appear in the ...12... The referee sometimes allows the...13... to go on for long so that one of the ...14... is reduced to a human punch bag.It may happen that the boxers are not well ...15... one being much stronger than the other, as a result of which he so much...16... his opponent that he wins ...17... Many boxers have suffered permanent brain...18... in the ...19... of punches that have been thrown at them during their ...20...
Choose the most appropriate option for the gap labelled [...18...] above. Options:In the question below choose the option nearest in meaning to the word(s) or phrase(s) underlined:
Statesmen are revered for their objectivity
Options:All too often, there is deference between what we say and what we think we have said, and between how we feel we have handled people and how they think they have been treated. When such ‘gaps’ occur between the intent and the action, it is often stated that there has been ‘a break- down in communication ’. Sometimes the break – down is allowed to become so serious that the gap becomes a chasm, relatives in family ceasing to speak to one another, managements and trade unions refusing to meet, government recalling ambassadors when relations between states reach a low ebb.
In fact, sometimes when people communicate, either as individual or within groups, problems inevitably occur; instruction maybe impossible to carry out, offence is taken at a particular remark, a directive is ambiguously phrased or people’s attitudes are colored by jealousy, resentment or frustration.
During the past fifty years, industrial, commercial and public service organization have grown prodigiously to meet the needs of advanced technological societies. Sometimes as many as 10,000 people work on one site, or one company employs more than 50,000 people. Clearly, good communications are essential to the efficient operation of any organization, and vital to the fulfillment of al those who commit their working lives to it.
For this reason, management specialist and behavioral scientist have devoted much thought and energy over recent years to analyzing the problems caused by bad communication practices, and creating good communication climate and systems.
As a result of the current structure of societies and economies, most of us spend our working lives in an organization that we become good communicators with social skills.
According to the passage, which of the following are NOT likely to contribute to a break down in communication? Options:The passage below has gaps numbered 16 to 25. Immediately following each gap, four options are provided. Choose the most appropriate option for each gap. Each question carries 2 marks.
Believe it or not, change is to human existence what the blood is to the human body. We live in era of amazing …. 16…. [A. well-defined B. fast-paced C. favourable D. social] change spawned by advancing technology and industrialization. However, man’s …17…. [A. knowledge of B. attitude to C. commitment to D. opinion of] promoting and defending change in a deliberate effort to establish…18… [A. customs B. companies C. trade-zones D. variations] that stimulate advancement for man’s concern is proving unfavourable to the climate with threatening ...19… [A. repercussions B. clouds C. pressure D. implication].
Human-induced climate change has awakened widespread concern across the globe. As a matter of fact, climate change is now 20 [A. an acceptable B. a foremost C. the only D. the last] global issue. It is a major test of Africa’s ….21…. [A. popularity B. energy C. ingenuity D. incapability] ! the fourth Assessment Report {AR4} of the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed that human actions are changing the earth’s climate and creating maker disturbances in human ….22…[A. geography B. societies C. systems D life] and ecosystems. The IPCC reports that the world has warned by an average of 0.76oC since pre-industrial times. The rising global …23…. [A. command B. demand C. warming D. supply] for energy and the adverse changes in the climate put the earth and its inhabitants in a catch -22 situation.
Again, if the effects of climate change on each were commensurate with the level of greenhouse …24 …. [A. structure B. paints C. emulsion D. emissions] in spews out, perhaps Africa would have been spared and would probably be just an amused spectator. But it is, this is not the case. Here again, we see well-meaning global citizens appealing for the rest of the world to take responsibility for the problems of Africa, a strategy that cannot, thus far, termed ….25…. [A. notable B. liable C. credible D. flexible]
In question number 23 above, choose the best option from letters A - D that best completes the gap. Options: