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.
There are one or two things this country can teach others, one of them is the art of writing obituaries. One suspects that the reason why some of our newspapers still manage to break even is because of the great amount of revenue they derive from obituaries. It is not unusual for about one quarter of the volume of an average daily to be constituted of obituaries and in in memorial alone. One possible explanation for this, it has been argued, is that Nigerians value their dead greatly. And there is a saying amongst us that you do not say evil things against the dead. This is obviously the philosophy behind the large dose of encomiums with which our dead are bestowed. From evidences of these obituaries and in memorial, every dead Nigerian must have been something of a saint while alive. This would explain why the death of most Nigerians is attributed to the evil Machinations of the wicked. Only very few people in our country die natural death, and even when they do, the obituaries, etc always give the impression that such deaths constitute the saddest loss to befall the deceased family. And that is why writers of these obituaries and their allied advertisements are experts on ‘mortuary stylistics’. This ‘mortuary stylistics’ the study in the art of eulogizing the dead and making their loss sound so heart breaking, is one of the commodities we can export to other countries.
One suspects that the reason why some of our newspaper still manage to break even _____suggests that some Nigerian newspapers Options:Choose the one nearest in meaning to the word(s) in bracket
This type of response is [typical] of a lazy teacher
Options:From the words lettered A to D, choose the word or group of words that best completes each of the following sentences.
This class __________students and teachers
Options:Complete the sentences with the correct options from the list below:
He reported to his manager that he _____ overseas
Options:In 1951, the Government decided to start a Pottery Training Centre where new and more advantaged technical methods, especially glazing, could be taught. The centre was intended to serve the whole of the defunct Northern Region, and there were several reasons for choosing Abuja . The first was the excellence of the traditional pottery made in the Emirate. Secondly, firewood is plentiful; this is a most important consideration, because in the making of glazed pottery, more firewood than clay is required. Thirdly, there are good clays, and good local sources for the raw materials needed for the glazes. Fourthly, water, which is another important raw material, is plentiful. Finally, Abuja is in a central position for the whole region and is a town where learners from many different parts can find a congenial temporary home, and where the Emir and his Council are actively interested in the project.
Nearly all the making is done by a process called throwing;, so called because the lumps of clay are thrown the potter onto a wheel-head. They are weigh out so that each pot will be roughly the same size; for example, for making pint-sized jugs, the lumps of clay will be one and a half kilogrammes. The potter sits on the saddle of the wheel and spins it by pushing a pedal with his left foot. He has a bowl of water, a loofah, a bamboo knife, a pointed stick or porcupine quill, a wooden-smoothing tool which potters call a rib, and a piece of wire-like object that is used for wedging. He makes the wheel-heal slightly damp, and throws the lumps into the middle. The first work is to force the lump to the centre, then he presses his thumb into the middle of the lump, using water to keep it slippery. When the bottom is of the right thickness, he begins to draw up the walls until they are of the right height. Then he shapes the belly and shoulder of the pot. He trims off any waste clay. In this way, a small and medium-sized pot can be made quickly and accurately.
Adapted from Robert, J.M.E and Smith, L.E.M (1978) Testing English language, AUP
Which of the following is true according to the passage? Options:The emergence of a standard dialect produces the phenomenon known as ‘accent’ which is quite different from dialect. In the process of learning a foreign language, it is normal to transfer the patterns of an indigenous language to those of the foreign language. With time, however those of form and most of orthography and phonology gradually get eliminated. This is because these can easily be identified and corrected. They are easy to correct because they do not involve patterns of muscular movement. It is necessary to correct them because otherwise they could seriously impair intelligibility.
With phonetic patterns, on the other hand, there is a great deal of intelligibility tolerance because muscular patterns are involved thus making correction difficult when observed. Besides, phonetic patterns do not impair intelligibility much. Hence the transference of phonetic habits from one language to another is both easier to tolerate and more difficult to avoid than transference at the lexico-grammatical level. It follows that a speaker who is learning a second dialect does so with an accent since the muscles of his speech organs would have crystallized in response to the phonetics of his native language which he learnt first. The speaker therefore speaks the second dialect with the phonetic features of his native dialect. The learning of a standard language is simply the learning of a second dialect- that which has been standardized.
Members of a language community control at least two dialects and use both dialects in different situations. In the rural areas, the native dialect is used in most situations since there is less movement. Therefore, rural dwellers tend to be parochial and maintain the homogeneity of their dialect. In the urban community, on the other hand, there is more demand on the standard dialect than on the rural one. This is because people from different regions converge here. In order to ensure mutual intelligibility resulting from the pressure of communication, a great deal of demand is made on the standard dialect which now becomes the lingua frenca amongst them.
The importance of the code theory in education lies in the fact that the school system requires the use of an elaborated code but not all students have access to it. The importance of this theory to sociology lies in the fact that the differential access to the elaborated code does not occur randomly but rather is controlled by the class system. Lower working-class urban children tend to have a restricted code. Middle-class children possess both a restricted and an elaborated code. The two groups enter into different types of relationship and learn to express themselves in different ways through language. They do not use language for the same functions, some of which it seems are necessary for the school situation. When the lower working-class child is expected implicity to exploit language for functions, he normally does not express verbally a discontinuity is created between his home and his school environment. He has learned to verbalize certain range of meanings in his home and when he enters school, another range of meaning is required. There is then a very subtle but nonetheless very real, sense in which what is taught is personally irrelevant for this child. The school system does not talk to him. Middle class children possessing both codes experience no such discontinuity. They can use languages for these functions required by the school.
'The school system does not talk to him' means that the Options: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.
the writer seems to suggest that Options:In the question bellow choose the expression or word which best completes each sentence:
What do you want me to do now? I'm _____ withdrawing and keeping quiet
Options:This question is from the novel The Last Days at Forcados High school.
Someone called Jimi after he left his food and got outside the gate of his house, Who is it?
Options: