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.
From the list of words or group of wordslettered A to D, choose the one that is mostnearest opposite in meaning to the underlined word or group of words and that will, at the same time correctly fill in the gap in the sentence.
The economist argued that the apparently inconsequential rise in the price of petrol had a _________ effect on thecost of living
Options:In many places in the world today, the poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer and the programmes of development planning and foreign aid appear to be unable to reverse this trade. Nearly all the developing countries have a modern sector, where the pattern of living and working are similar to those in developed countries. But they also have a non-modern sector where the patterns of living and working are not only unsatisfactory but in many cases are even getting worse.
What is the typical condition of the poor in developing countries? Their work opportunities are so limited that they cannot work their way out of their situation. They are underemployed or totally unemployed. When they do find occasional works, their productivity is extremely low. Some of them have land but often too little land. Many have no land and no prospect of ever getting any. There is no hope for them in the rural areas and so, they drift into the big cities. But there is no work for them in the big cities either-and of course no housing. All the same, they flock into cities because their chances of finding some work appear to be greater there than in the village, where they are nil. Rural unemployment then produces mass migration into cities, rural unemployment becomes urban unemployment.
The problem can be stated quite simply: what can be done to promote economic growth outside the big cities, in the small towns and villages which still contain 80 to 90% of the total population? The primary need is workplace, literally millions of workplaces.
Migration to the city among villagers is caused by Options:Choose the word that has the same CONSONANT SOUND as the one represented by the letter(s) underlined.
wash
Four persons accused with currency _____ are being held by the securing agents.
Options:For these questions, choose the most appropriate stress pattern from the options. The Stressed syllable are written in capital letter (s):
inoffensive
Options:Farming is the most important aspect of agriculture that has attracted attention within the last few years. Agriculture has several other aspects like fishery, livestock and poultry. All these are also important in that they have to do with the production of food items which human beings consume for survival.
In many parts of world today, farming has been regarded as the mainstay of the economy. Crops such as cocoa, rubber and cotton have been produced in such commercial quantity that they are sold to other countries. Some countries have a better comparative advantage in producing certain farm crops than other countries. In these other countries, there is the need to spend a lot of money on agriculture, particularly farming. Most farmers use outmoded tools. A lot of them have no place to store their crops, most of which are always destroyed by insects and pests before harvest time. All these have adverse effects on their productivity.
The government can do a lot to help farmers. Farmers’ co-operative societies can be encouraged and loans can be made available to farmers through government institutions, like banks and finance corporations. Farmers can be taught how to build good storage structures for their produce. All these and a lot more can help to improve the condition of farming in these countries.
In order to help improve the state of farming, the government should Options:The obvious function of a daily paper is to give news to the people, but this, at the moment, may be done in three ways, which are not all equally laudable. First, there is the paper which set out to give a brief resume of the news and backs this up by well-written articles on the current affairs by leading writers and experts. Secondly, there is the ‘daily’ which caters for popular taste, and contains only the most sensational and exciting bits of news, supporting them with comic-strips, pictures children’s corners, women’s sections and readers’ letters on anything but weighty topics. Thirdly, there is the propaganda type of paper, which presents only those versions of the news which agree with its own particular political outlook. All this gives news in different ways; but what deeper function can the ideal daily paper have?
In the case of the Nigerian daily newspaper, the first type gives the thinking reader an unbiased view of the world situation, so that he can judge the importance of recent events for himself, but it does not indicate to him what he ought to think. The drawbacks to this is that semi-literate or uneducated find it dull or difficult and so are discouraged from reading such a paper regularly, because it demands too much thought and effort from them. The main advantage of this type of paper, however, is its soundness, excellent English expression and general effect of widening the readers’ knowledge on a variety of subjects.
The second type interest the majority and give them more striking items of news in an easily comprehensible way, accompanied by lavish photographs and usually with some slight political bias towards the left and the interests of the working class, from which most of its readers come. The drawback of this type is that there is not enough solid thinking mater and the English is often faulty in style – tending towards ‘journalese’. The advantage is that it is quickly and easily read, on the bus or train or over the breakfast table, and gives a superficial knowledge of current affairs to people who would not have the time or inclination to read ‘heavier’ literature. Also, it is a ‘family’ paper, which every member of the household can enjoy, since there is something to please all their tastes.
The third type to some extent, appeals to emotion, not reason. It instruct the reader in exactly what that particular editor believe he ought to think, and does not give him a chance to have a mind of his own by letting him hear the other person’s point of view. The drawback is that it prevents people from thinking for themselves, and causes political hysteria rather than logical thinking. the only advantage is that it does represent the ‘freedom of the press’ to publish whatever it likes, and allows discontented people to air their grievances instead of letting them smoulder underground.
From these examples, it should be clear that the ideal function of a daily paper would be to present the news clearly and simply, and to support it with articles in good English which shows the points of view of various competent people of different outlooks on current problems. The reader could then choose which line of thought appealed to him most. Women’s and children’s sections would be good so long as they did not grow so out of proportion that the paper depended solely upon them for its popularity. Good pictures would add to the paper’s instructive value as well as to its interest; and advertisements, kept in bounds, might be helpful, both as shopping guides and as a financial help to the paper itself. All these points seem to be desirable in a daily paper now that the radio helps in giving news headlines.
The phrase political hysteria, as used in the passage means Options:Questions below are based on Bolaji Abdullahi's "Sweet Sixteen"
The fact that Aliya wanted to be a pilot, then a musician, a songwriter, doctor and later a lawyer points to the
Options:Choose the option that has the same consonant sound as the one represented by the letter(s) underlined.
bushes
Options: