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.
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.
What rubbed itself against a glistening stone?
Options:Where did Salma and Ummi first meet?
Options:The endeavor to maintain proper standard of fairness in journalism must be pursued. It is fatally easy for the journalist to deviate from the straight path. There is his natural desire to ‘make a story’ and insidious temptation to twist facts to square with his paper’s policy. Both are as indefensible as the framing of misleading headlines for the sake of effect. The conscientious journalist must check any tendency to bias, and guard against the dangers inherent in personal antipathies or friendships, and in traditional oppositions between rival schools of thought. When a political opponent, whose stupidity habitually provokes attack, makes an effective speech, honesty requires that he be given credit for it. Where personal relationships might make it easier and more congenial to keep silent than to criticize, the journalist must never forget his duty to the public and the supreme importance of recording the truth
'insidious' (line 2)means Options:Setting up a news paper involves a lot of preparations. The __11__ has to employ a lot of people. Other people working with him are cartographers, editors, typesetters, readers, who work in various ways to produce the text of the newspaper, __12__, who go out and collect story and items of news, and __13__, who specialize in one kind of topic. Another important person who works closely with the Editor-in-Chief is the __14__, who has to choose the most important stories__15__ go through stories sent to them and make necessary adjustments.
The Editor-in-Chief could determine for instance, whether a particular journalist should write articles daily or weekly in a particular column. Such a journalist is known as __16__The editorials of the news paper will be coordinated by __17__. The publisher could decide to establish __18__ which would be on sale weekly, fortnightly, or monthly,__19__ the eyes catching, screaming headlines and captions of newspapers on sale everyday from the __20__.
Choose the most appropriate option for the gap labelled 20. Options:Choose the option that has the same consonant sound as the one represented by the letter(s) underlined.
bushes
Options:In question below fill the gap with the appropriate option:
My experience in Lagos last week was _____ about
Options:Choose the option nearest in meaning to the underlined word(s).
The director's remark was extremely opposite to the issue being discussed.
Options:The main source of -1- (A. Production B. Revenue C .development D. capital) to the government is -2-(A. planning B. budgeting C. Taxation .investment),which can be direct or indirect. while the former is based on one’s -3-(A. income B. profits C. services D. wealth),the latter is imposed on goods and -4-(A. re-numeration B. surpluses C. resources D. services) and it is paid only we these are -5- (A. supplied B. produced C. distributed D. bought) other sources includes -6- (A. compensation B. Benefits C. gratitude’s D. loyalties) such as those paid by mining companies, and sales of -7- (A. charges B. duties C. bills D. licenses ) for dogs,guns,hotels, etc .another major source is -8- (A. investment B. banking C .interest D. borrowing ) which is different from the other because it as to be repaid. From these and other sources, government is able to raise -9-(A. loans B. capitals C. money D. grant) with which it carries out its -10- (A. jobs B. necessities c. investments D. functions), which include administration and the -11- (A. settlement B. provision C. embarking D. commitment) of social services. Besides, it is able to control the country’s -12- (A. accounts B. budgets C. prices D. economy) by imposing taxes sometimes to prevent -13-(A. deflation B. monopoly C. inflation D. depression) or by altering pattern of -14- (A. consumption B. production C. development D. growth) through the raising of -15- (a. subsidy B. discount C. commission D. duty) against certain foreign goods.
Select the option that best fills the question labeled 10 in the above passage. Options:Choose the option that has the same vowel sound as the one represented by the letter underlined.
Odour.
Options:The appearance of comparative peace which Max’s house presented to me that morning proved quite deceptive. Oh perhaps some of Chief Nanga’s ‘queen bee’ characteristics had rubbed off on me and transformed me into an independent little nucleus of activity which I brought with me into this new place. That first night I not only heard of the new political party about to be born but got myself enrolled as a foundation member. Max and some of his friends having watched with deepening disillusion the use to which our hard-won freedom was being put by corrupt, mediocre politicians had decided to come together and launch the Common People’s Convention.
There were eight young people in his room that evening. All but one were citizens of our country, mostly professional types. The only lady was a very beautiful lawyer who, I learnt afterwards, was engaged to Max whom she had first met at the London School of Economics. There was a trade-unionist, a doctor, another lawyer, a teacher and a newspaper columnist
Max introduced me without any previous consultation as a ‘trustworthy comrade who had only the other day had his girlfriend snatched from him by minister who shall remain nameless’. Naturally I did not care for that kind of image reputation. So I promptly intervened to point out that the woman in question was not strictly speaking my girlfriend but a casual acquaintance who both Chief Nanga and I knew.
‘So it was Chief Nanga, yes?’ said the European and everyone burst out laughing.
‘Who else could it be?’ said one of the others.
The Whiteman was apparently from one of the Eastern Bioc countries. He did not neglect to stress to me in an aside that he was there only as a friend of Max’s. He told me a lot of things quietly while the others were discussing some obscure details about the launching. I was as much interested in what he said as the way in which he said it. His English had an exotic quality occasionally – as when he said that it was good to see intellectuals like Max, myself and the rest coming out of their ‘tower or elephant tusk’ into active politics. And he often punctuated whatever he was saying with ‘yes’ spoken with the accent of a question.
Would you say that Chief Nanga, according to the peolpe in that gathering was Options: