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.
One day, Alan, a friend of mine, who likes country life, was fishing in a river, when he caught a trout. He tried to put fish in but it slipped off the hook, flew over his head and landed in a field behind him.
Alan put down his rod, went through the gate and started searching for his trout. Some people, obviously from the city were having a picnic in the field. One of the men shouted. ‘What on earth are you doing? Thinking that it was a silly question because they could see how hews dressed, Alan replied ‘Fishing’.
‘Don’t be silly, the fish are down in the river’, answered the man, ‘Fish don’t live fields! He turned to his friends, laughing, thinking that he had made a good joke.
Oh, but they do, ‘said Alan, They jump out of the river to look for flies and I catch them with my hands. At that moment he found his trout in the grass and picked it up and showed it to the picnickers. He put it in his basket and bent down, as if he was hunting for another one. The picnickers, no longer laughing, spent the rest of the day searching the field.
Where was Alan looking for his fish? He was looking for the fish Options:Choose the option opposite in meaning to the underlined word.
As a public officer, he should act with scrupulous honesty at all times.
Options:Answer the following question below and select the option that best explains the information conveyed in the sentence.
The landlord is fond of throwing his weight about.
Options:In the question below select the option which best express the meaning of the phrase or word underlined:
The president stood his ground because the committee member would not be persuaded to arrive at a compromised on the issue being debated
Options:Choose the the appropriate stress pattern from the options. The syllables are written in capital letters.
Ceremoniously?
Options:In the question below, fill the gap with the most appropriate option:
When the teacher asked him to join the queue outside, he considered it _____ to his dignity
Options:This question is based on the novel, The Life Changer.
Omar's admission signals________
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:Choose the option that has the same vowel sound as the one represented by the underlined letter(s).
Bean
Options: