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.
Read each passage carefully and answer the questions that follow it
Olumba removed a small black amulet from his neck and substituted a bigger one. The former was for general protection at home, the latter for protection and luck whilst travelling. Ready at last he picked up his matchet and headed for the chief’s with Ikechi behind him.
Olumba worked ahead looking up as usual. Just what he was searching for in the sky Ikechi couldn’t tell. Perhaps his shortness accounted for his habit since, he often had to look up in the faces of his taller companions. What he lacked in height he made up in solid muscles and he looked strong. His wrestling pseudonym was Agadaga, a name which meant nothing but which somehow conveyed an impression of strength.
Eze Diali, the chief, sat at one end f his reception hall ringed by the village elders who he had called to a meeting. The rest of the hall was filled with much younger men.
‘People of Chiolu, the chief began’, I have learnt that poachers from Aliakoro will be at the Great Pond tonight. There is no doubt that they will try to steal from the Pond of Wagaba which as you know is rich in fish. Our plan tonight is to bring one or more of these thieves home alive and ask for very large ransoms. This line of action will have two effects. Firstly, it will prove our charges of poaching against the people of Aliakoro, and secondly, the payment of very large ransom will be a deterrent. We need seven men for this venture. I call for volunteers’
Who will head this party?’ the chief asked, looking round. Chituru, one of the elders, said’ ‘Eze Diali, let us not waste time. Olumba is the man for the job. We all know that he had led many exploits like this one’. We still need six men’, Eze Diali said. Eager youths came surging forward. Their well-formed muscle rippled as they elbowed one another. It was difficult to choose.
‘I suggest Olumba should choose his men He knows the boys very well and his judgment should be reliable’. It was Wezume, another village elder, who spoke.
The chief called meeting because Options:Choose the most appropriate option opposite in meaning of the underlined word.
The leader called for concerted efforts in order to get over the problems?
Options:This question is from the novel 'The Last Days at Forcados High school'.
What did papa Solade do after knowing that Wole and jimi still saw secretly?
Options:Choose the option nearest in meaning to the word underlined?
I visited Amina umpteen times in her college, but she never came to me?
Options:Answer the following question, choose the option nearest in meaning to the word or phrase underlined:
Nwankwo was on the verge of signing a two year contract with the club.
Options:The appearance of comparative peace which Max’s house presented to me that morning proved quite deceptive. Oh perhaps some of Chief Nanga’s ‘queen bee’ characteristics had rubbed off on me and transformed me into an independent little nucleus of activity which I brought with me into this new place. That first night I not only heard of the new political party about to be born but got myself enrolled as a foundation member. Max and some of his friends having watched with deepening disillusion the use to which our hard-won freedom was being put by corrupt, mediocre politicians had decided to come together and launch the Common People’s Convention.
There were eight young people in his room that evening. All but one were citizens of our country, mostly professional types. The only lady was a very beautiful lawyer who, I learnt afterwards, was engaged to Max whom she had first met at the London School of Economics. There was a trade-unionist, a doctor, another lawyer, a teacher and a newspaper columnist
Max introduced me without any previous consultation as a ‘trustworthy comrade who had only the other day had his girlfriend snatched from him by minister who shall remain nameless’. Naturally I did not care for that kind of image reputation. So I promptly intervened to point out that the woman in question was not strictly speaking my girlfriend but a casual acquaintance who both Chief Nanga and I knew.
‘So it was Chief Nanga, yes?’ said the European and everyone burst out laughing.
‘Who else could it be?’ said one of the others.
The Whiteman was apparently from one of the Eastern Bioc countries. He did not neglect to stress to me in an aside that he was there only as a friend of Max’s. He told me a lot of things quietly while the others were discussing some obscure details about the launching. I was as much interested in what he said as the way in which he said it. His English had an exotic quality occasionally – as when he said that it was good to see intellectuals like Max, myself and the rest coming out of their ‘tower or elephant tusk’ into active politics. And he often punctuated whatever he was saying with ‘yes’ spoken with the accent of a question.
The only lady in the gathering Options:If present trends continue, the world would face major crises by end of the century: insufficient cheap convenient energy. For without such energy, industrial production will fall, agricultural output will drop, transport will be restricted and standard of living in developed countries will plummet. At present, almost all our energy comes from fossil fuels. The earth’s reserves of fossil fuels have been formed from organic matter subjected to enormous heat and pressure of millions of years. But such reserves are finite. Because power demand is increasing very rapidly, fossil fuels will be exhausted within a relatively short time. We can estimate the amount of recoverable fuel under the surface of the earth and we know the rate at which it is being extracted. Fairly simple calculation can therefore determine its remaining life. If present trends continue, gas and oil reserves will be exhausted by the middle of the 21st century-about 70 years from now. Similar estimates for coal and wood reserves suggest a projected supply of 250-300 years. Of course long before fossil fuels are exhausted, demand will greatly exceed supply.
For too many years, the world has consumed fossil fuels with little thought for the future. In fact, world energy consumption increased almost 600% between 1900 and 1965 and it is projected to increase by another 450% between 1965 and the year 2000. Crude oil has been pumped out of the ground for about 100 years, but over half of it is been consumed in the past 18 years. Coal has been mined for over 800 years, but over a half of it has been extracted in the past 37 years. In sum, most of the world’s consumption of energy from fossil fuels throughout history has taken place within living memory.
The writer seems to suggest that developed nations should Options:Every artist’s work unless he be a hermit, creating solely for his own satisfaction and with on need of sales, is to some extent ‘socially conditioned’, He depends upon the approval of his patrons. Social conditioning is of course part of the field of study of the social anthropologist, yet I am not aware that the social conditioning of artists has ever been seriously studied. That such study is needed for the proper appraisal of traditional African art is evident enough when we note the ingenuous assumption, current in many writing on the subject, that the carver’s hand is so closely controlled by the custom of centuries that the credit for any creative imagination which is apparent in his work is due not to him but to the long succession of his predecessors. Of course, there is an element of truth in this view of the tribal as copyist; but it is hardly more valid for the Africa than for the European artist. In both cases the work of art is the outcome of a dialectic between the informing tradition and the individual genius of the artist, and in both the relative strength of these two forces may vary almost infinitely. To assess the personal ingredient in an African carving is no easy matter, especially if one is confronted with a rare or unique piece in an unfamiliar style; but the considerations involved are much the same as those employed in European art criticism.
The work of art is the outcome of a dialectic between the informing tradition and the individual genius of the artist' means that Options:These two factors the altitude and the weather, tend separately and together to defeat the climber. The height weakens, slows him down; it forces him to spend days and nights in the courses of his assault on the summit; the weather, besides adding to the demand of his energy and moral fortitude, conspires to deny him the time he needs to complete his mission. Whereas in lower mountains and on easy ground the weather may be no more than a handicap, in the high Himalayas it is decisive, regardless of terrain.
The deduction to be drawn from these two factors is was clear enough. We must either so fortify ourselves that we could continue, without detriment, to live and have our being above the limit of natural acclimatization, or, better still, we must solve the problem of speed. It was desirable; in fact, that we must meet both these requirements and thus give to those chosen to attempt the summit and to their supporting teams some measures of insurance against the vagaries of the weather, for safety in mountain climbing is as much a matter of swiftness as of sureness of foot. Either or both could be achieved only by the administration of oxygen in sufficient quantities to make up for the deficiency in the air, and for the duration of the upward journey above the limit of successful acclimatization
Which ONE of the following was NOT a reason for using oxygen? Options: