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.
In time past in Nigeria, being a secretary was perceived with utter disdain by many people. Other professionals such as teachers, lawyers, engineers, surveyors, estate officers and architects were revered. Many issues readily come to mind concerning the old perspective of secretaries as professionals.
One, they were regarded as people with little or no education. Indeed, many of them were said to be mere typists who learnt how to punch keys on the typewriter. They hardly had any formal education but obtained doubtful certificates. This was made possible because anyone could easily learn to be a typist under the shade of a tree or in a personal office of a retired secretary or a chief typist from any business organization. As long as a short piece of work could be typed almost accurately and in record time, one then became a secretary. This unrealistic practice – to call an unqualified person a secretary – might have been introduced and sustained by people who did not know who a secretary was. The educated secretaries obtained a minimum of the Ordinary National Diploma (OND) or its equivalent from institutions in and outside Nigeria, particularly Great Britain, Canada or the United States of America.
Two, they were mostly women and very few male secretaries, who suffered more humiliation than their female counterparts. They were regarded as men who did not succeed in life and did the work that normally women were supposed to do.
Three, and deriving from the second reason, secretaries were, as a matter of fact, very close to their bosses. Most people, including husbands of secretaries, regarded such a mode of interaction as tempting – a kind of constant closeness which might engender a deliberation or unintentional amorous relationship between superior and subordinate officer. Quite often, such a situation could not be ruled out when body contacts was established inadvertently or deliberately between two people of opposite sex especially when either one or both people were attractive and attracted to each other.
Moreover, we often talk of the devil and the havoc he is capable of causing in the lives of people, particularly the unguarded ones.
In today’s world, these points of view concerning secretaries are fading fast. Now, there is a clear distinction between a typist and a secretary. Modern secretaries are trained in polytechnics and universities. Gone are the days when secretaries were taught only the art of punching the typewriters and various filling systems. They are also encouraged to take training courses other than secretarial duty. Many secretaries have had their training in faculties of business administration, law, art and mass communications of universities. They take relevant courses in administration and other social science departments that enhance their personality, carriage, interpersonal relations and office management.
Obviously, secretaries, including the male ones, are more important and well respected today than in the past.
Which of the following statements can be deduced from the passage concerning the old perspective of secretaries? Options:Read each passage carefully and answer the questions that follow it.
It was summer, early afternoon. Jim ran into the station. The 4.30 train was about to leave. As he ran along the platform he saw a girl just ahead of him. She was young-about his age. He followed her into a carriage and set down opposite her. She took out a magazine and was reading it. He took out a book and pretended to do the same. After a minute he looked up and smiled at her. She didn’t smile back but gave him an encouraging look. Both returned to their reading but this time she was pretending too.
He found her attractive and wanted to see her again. But how to arrange it? _____ He had an idea. He took an old envelope out of his pocket and wrote the following wrote the following words: ‘Hello! My number is 123-4567 and my name is Jim. I would very much like to see you again. Ring me at nine.
The train arrived at the terminal. Without looking at the girl, he handed her the envelope or rather threw it at her and jumped off the train.
When he got home he made himself a cup of coffee and wondered …perhaps she was one those naturally friendly people who smile at everybody. He was listening to the radio when the telephone rang……..it was only Umaru. Nine o’clock arrived, then 9.30- and no telephone call from the girl. Feeling miserable he went to bed early.
It was a foggy morning. ‘Hello, is that Jim? This is Joan. You……it was two minutes past nine
That evening he had a telephone call from Options:In the question below, choose the expression or word which best completes each sentence:
The commission was set up to enquire _____ the general conditions of child abuse in such institution
Options:In the question below choose the option nearest in meaning to the word(s) or phrase(s) Underlined:
The boss made a clean sweep of all old hands in the office
Options:In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fills the gap(s):
We must not take with us the feelings of inadequate _____ experienced during preparations for the debate
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.
Business executives selling industrial and high price-tag customer goods have come to the……16…..[A. realization B. conclusion C. level D. point] that there should be a better approach to buyer-seller……17……[A. relationship B. existence C. agreement D. friendship]. In Nigeria, a new brand of salesmanship is emerging. Today, such……18….[A. concepts B. words C. clauses D. definitions] as consultative selling, relationship marketing and value-added selling have become common catchphrases with professional salespeople. Salespeople are now….19….[A. emerging B. reversing C. dangling D. shifting] from pushy, hard selling to consultations, playing business advisory and problem-solving roles for their customers. Customers ….20….[A. interest B. awareness C. view D. service] has assumed a higher dimension. Salespeople and their companies are beginning to realize that the only want to stay in business and possibly be ahead of….21….[A. distribution B. competition C. consumption D. production] is to give adequate attention to the needs of customers. Salespeople and business executive beginning to understand that customer….22….[A. respect B. dignity C. loyalty D. obedience] is what ensures a robust bottom line. The only way to do this is to give special attention to the needs of customers. First time purchase is the beginning of a relationship. We now have a very…..23…..[A. tangible B. rowdy C. sensitive D. desirable] marketplace in which people feel a need for personal intimacy and excellent service. In fact, some customers want to be pampered. They want customized service. They want a salesperson who comes to them with a…..24….[A. prior B. full C. biased D. simple] knowledge of their needs and has ready-made solution to their problems. The ability to….25….[A. analyse B. present C. organize D. discuss] the needs of the customer and provide adequate information that helps the customer to make informed purchase decision are attributes that the modern customer respects and appreciates a good professional salespeople.
In question number 25 above, choose the best option from letters A-D that best completes the gap. 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 army was short of personnel because the soldiers Options:Choose the most appropriate option nearest in meaning to the underlined words.
There are many venal judges in our law courts today?
Options:In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fills(s) the gap(s):
I would have been surprised if you _____ the orange
Options: