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.
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 .
One of the most difficult and confusing aspect of English language is its spelling system. There is often ….16…. [A. discrepancy B. discord C. a similarity D. concord] between the punctuation of a word and its spelling. One cannot always tell how to spell a word ….17…. [A. throughout B. by C. as to D. as from] its pronunciation.
In order to understand the peculiarity of English spelling ….18….[A. difficulty B. confusion C. system D. code], it is good to know something about the history of the language. First, it is helpful to realize that English was originally spoken by people who could neither read nor write. While the ….19…. [A. middle-class B. educated C. less enlightened D. uneducated] people spoke English, the literate upper classes spoke French and wrote in Latin, later when English became a ….20…. [A. literary B. romantic C. written D. coded] language, there was no system for spelling its words. Moreover, the first writers of English were French speaking ….21… [A. newscasters B. scribes C. orators D. interpreters] who knew English only slightly: therefore, they carried many French spelling ….22…. [A. habits B. attitudes C. idiosyncrasies D. mannerisms] into English. In addition, these first writers of English, who were used to writing in Latin, often ….23…. [A. inserted B. interjected C. interpolated D. juxtaposed] letters into words even when they were not pronounced because the ….24…. [A. antecedent B. opposing C. corresponding D. synonymous] word in Latin was spelled that way. Finally, the confusion increased when the ….25…. [A. diction B.morphology C. orthography D. pronunciation] of certain words changed while the spelling remained the same.
In question number 16 choose the best option from the letters A-D that best completes the gap Options:Choose the most appropriate option opposite in meaning of the underlined word.
In the opinion of most observers, it was a disinterested decision?
Options:By 1910, the motor car was plainly conquering the highway. The private car was now part of every rich man’s establishment, although its price made it as yet an impossible luxury for most of the middle class. But for the adventuresome youth, there was the motor cycle, a fearsome invention producing accidents and ear-splitting noises. Already the dignified carriages and smart pony-traps were beginning to disappear from the roads and coachmen and grooms unless mechanically minded, were finding it more difficult to make a living.
The roads which had gone to sleep since the coming of the railway now awoke to feverish activity. Cars and motor cycles dashed along them at speeds which rivalled those of the express trains and the lorry began to appear. Therefore, the road system was compelled to adapt itself to a volume and speed of traffic for which it had never intended. Its complete adaptation was impossible, but the road surface was easily transformed and during the early years of the century, the dustiness and greasiness of the highways were lessened by tar-spraying. To widen and straighten the roads and get rid of blind corners and every steep gradient were tasks which had scarcely been tackled before 1914. the Situation was worst of all in towns where not only was any large scheme of road widening usually out of the question, but also where crowding and danger were all too frequently increased by the short-sighted eagerness of town authorities in laying down tramlines.
Yet, it was not only the road system that was in need of readjustment; the nervous system who used and dwelt by the road suffered. The noises caused by the conversion of the roads into speedways called for a corresponding lightening up of the nerves and especially I the towns, the pedestrian who wished to preserve life and limb was compelled to keep his attention continually on the stretch to practise himself in estimates of the speed of approaching vehicles and to run or jump for his life if he ventured off the pavement.
Answer the following question below and choose the option nearest in meaning to the underlined word or phrase in.
Mariam looks rather furtive to Shehu.
Options:From the options lettered A-D, choose the option that is most nearly opposite in meaning to the underlined word.
My father is parsimonious.
Options:Primitive man was probably more concerned with fire as a source of warmth and as a means of cooking food than as a source of light. Before the discovered less laborious ways of making fire, he had to preserve it and whenever he went on a journey he carried a firebrand with him. He discovered that the firebrand, from which the torch may well have developed, could be used for illumination was probably incidental to the primary purpose of preserving a flame.
Lamps too probably developed by accident. Early man may had his first conception of a lamp while watching a twing or fibre burning in the molten fat dropped from roasting carcass. All he had to do was to fashion a vessel to contain fat and float a lighted reed in it. Such lamps which were made of hollow stones or sea-shells have persisted in identical form up to quite recent times.
Primitive man was least concerned with fire as a Options:In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fill(s) the gap(s):
Our manager has instructed that _____ of customers must be barred from our bank
Options:In each of the following sentences, the word that resolves the emphatic stress is written in capital letters. From the options letters A to D, choose the one to which the given sentence is the appropriate answer.
Daddy plays TENNIS on Saturday afternoons
Options:Choose the option nearest in meaning to the underlined word(s).
Isa and Ilu ate sumptuous meals on their brother's wedding day.
Options: