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.
Fill each gap with the most appropriate option from the list provided.
The candidate's charisma should be a _____ factor in winning the election?
Options:Choose the appropriate stress pattern from the options.The stressed words are in capital letter(s)
Fluency
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.
Drought is a word that invokes strong emotions. This is not surprising as the...16...[A. ideology B. phenomenon C. idea D. component] is usually accompanied by a number of unpleasant developments. These developments have ……..17…..[A. feedback B. results C. implication D. outcomes] for all citizens, starting from the peasant farmers to the state and federal governments which may be plunged into emergency and crisis situation which, if not successfully ……18…..[A. managed B. manipulated C. examined D. studied] could result in social unrest.
The timeliness of the onset of the rains in various regions of the country and their adequate distribution thereafter have become…..19…..[A. objects B. subjects C. issues D. topics] of considerable anxiety to all people. The fact, however, is that periodic reduction in the normal…..20…..[A. amount B. supply C. size D. flood] of rainfall in the country is not new.
Since large areas of the country are drought prone, the consequence are ……21…..[A. effective B. disastrous C. evident D. inevitable]. Dry spells could be very severe. There are two aspects of coping with drought. One has to do with emergency measures and the other with ……22…..[A. routine B. organized C. urgent D. delayed] measures. An immediate consequence of any drought would be famine. In addition, where whole populations are forced to abandon their lands or pastures in search of food, there are bound to be other lasting and…..23…..[A. longitudinal B. objective C. simultaneous D. parallel] consequences such as distress, sales of cattle by livestock owners in order to buy food.
Government should provide farmers with agricultural inputs and ensure that they have easy access to these inputs under the relief…..24…..[A. action B. process C. scheme D. plan]. Emergency measures will be much more……25…..[A. normal B. correct C. idealistic D. effective] if a mechanism is established to ensure adequate preparedness and defence against the occurrence of drought.
In question number 22 above, choose the best option from letters A-D that best completes the gap. Options: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.
The writer, on getting into the train, was shocked because Options:Where did Salma and Ummi first meet?
Options:In the question below choose the option opposite in meaning to the word(s) Underlined:
The western allies frowned at their enemies indiscriminate bombing of their territory
Options:Read the following passage and answer the questions below:
Christopher Marlowe, the son of Marlowe who is described as the clerk of St Mary's in the city of Canterbury, was born in 1564. He received his early education at The King's School in that city. He took the degrees of B.A. and M.A. in 1583 and 1587 respectively from Cambridge University. He started writing poems and became a renowned dramatist in the Admiral's Company.
Marlowe is known as one of the university wits, a group of dramatists along with Robert Greene, Thomas Nash, and George Peele. Marlowe is considered the greatest precursor to Shakespeare. When Marlowe came upon the English stage, the nature of drama was undeveloped. The verses in the dramas were lifeless. But Marlowe gave English drama an appropriate meter, diction, and method. It is really a matter of speculation what kind of greatness he would have achieved if his life had not been terminated (C++) in a duel after a brawl in a tavern (inn).
The literary life of Marlowe had a short span, from 1587 to 1593. During this period, he wrote five plays which were all tragedies as he had no comic vein. His tragedies like Dr Faustus, The Jew of Malta, and Edward Il are rated as some of the best works of the Elizabethan age. He also wrote an unfinished poem Hero and Leander and translated some parts of Ovid's (a Roman Poet) elegies.
Marlowe's subjects are mostly heroic which appeals to the imagination of the play-goers. His heroes epitomize the spirit of the Renaissance. Each of them embodies a passion and tries to achieve lies in his development of the blank verse. He put it at any cost. But Marlowe's chief contribution aside from the old rhyming lines then employed in the plays and used blank verse. Thus, the language of drama was brought closer to real life and drama was made ready for Shakespeare (1564-1616) to improve upon it. It is rightly said, "No Marlowe, no Shakespeare".
How long was Christopher Marlowe's literary life?
Options:Politics in pre-colonial times did not involve the partisan type of electioneering campaign that we now have. The society was ruled by a king or an emir and his traditional chiefs or by the council of elders or clan heads. Where there existed the hierarchical system as in the Yoruba and Hausa kingdoms, succession to throne was mainly patriarchal. A recorded exception was the case of queen Amina of the Zazzau Empire who ruled in the 15th century AD.
A host of unsung and unrecorded women regents and at the times women village rulers abound, especially the present Ondo state where some influential female chiefs and regents still exist. In Ibadan, the famous Efunsetan Aniwura held political as well as economic sway and it took a lot of drive, brain work and political engineering for the then King and his council chiefs to subdue her. The history of the various towns and villages of the period could boast of such women who were actively engaged in the running of government.
In the Igbo society, a rise to leadership position was through demonstrated ability in fostering societal survival rather than heritage. Women’s voice in the politics of each clan is given focus either through the guild of wives, the guild of daughters, or the market women’s guild. Women, through these organs, could make their feelings known on any issue affecting their community as a whole or females in particular, Thus, unpopular edict or ‘decrees’ could be revoked or revised as a result of mounted pressure from any of these female associations. No decision was usually taken by the man without prior consultation with the leaders of the women’s groups.
It must however be emphasized that the degree of women participation in politics was yet much limited when compared to that of men.
‘Political engineering’ in the passage means Options: