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.
After many weary weeks of matching . Nzinga and her attendants arrived at the white wall of Luanda. The guards at the city gates led them through the winding streets and up to the governor’s palace. A pompous courtier, sweating and dirty in his thick clothes ordered them to wait amongst a crowd of people who had come to beg favours of the governor.
Nzinga waited patiently, ignoring this insult to her royal dignity. She knew that her chance would come. The hot sun beat down on the white walls of the palace, yet Nzinga stood straight and proud as the crowd of Portuguese merchants mopped their sweating faces with damp lace handkerchiefs.
Much later the courtier came back. He knocked on the floor with his staff, and then announced in a loud voice, ‘His Excellency Joao Correia de Souza, the Governor in Angola of His Most Royal and Catholic Majesty, the king of Portugal’. The tired soldiers stood to attention and the courtiers and merchants bowed.
Nzinga became very impatient. Was she to stand here like a servant all day, waiting for this man to make up his mind to hear her? She stepped forward, walked into the middle of the room and faced the governor. The guards and the courtiers were so amazed that they could o nothing but gasp in amazement at this boldness. ‘Well, ‘murmured one of the merchants to his neighbor. ‘Now she will learn what trouble is! Don Joao will be very angry. It is an insult to his dignity’. ‘What do you mean by this, asked the governor when he had recovered from his surprise. ‘Who are you? Come, woman, state your business!’
But Nzinga was not afraid. In a clear, calm voice she answered him. ‘My first business is a chair,’ she said. The governor laughed. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked. ‘You are seated, ‘she replied, ‘And you are only a governor, a slave of your king. I am a princess and men do not sit where I stand. I will state my business seated!’
But Nzinga had learnt the strength of her enemy. She knew that she was already winning this contest of wills. E
Whatever happens now, this man would not think that she has been sent by a beaten people to beg favours. Without another word, she turned and made a sign to her maid. When the girl came to her, Nzinga ordered her to kneel down. Then, with a flash or triumph in her eyes, Nzinga sat down on the girl’s back, Nzinga got her treaty. Pride in herself and in her people had saved the day for the Mbundu.
Who did Nzinga want to see? Options:Nigeria is currently faced with two major problems which necessitate the use of the broadcast media to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for qualitative education in the country. These are population explosion and debilitating mass poverty. Population explosion in the country has greatly increased the need for more schools so much that demand now far outstrips provision of education opportunities, particularly at the post-secondary level. In addition, the Nigerian society is currently handicapped by a crippling economic crisis which has forced many people out of school as a result of growing inability to meet the cost of training, like tuition fees and board charges.
A way out of these problems lies in the provision of educational opportunities through the use of radio and television broadcast. Only when radio and television are fully utilized for teaching and learning can the foundation be laid for mass education in the country. Besides, using radio and television to transmit educational programmes can cut the cost of education as boarding and tuition will become unnecessary for most beneficiaries. At the moment, many Nigerians are unable to enrol to stay on in school because of the high cost of education and because government is unable to provide the staggering amount needed to finance mass education via the traditional school system.
Also of importance is the fact that radio and television will offer good opportunities for the standardization of education in the country. At the moment, the best school in terms of facilities and qualified teachers are concentrated in the urban centres to the detriment of the rural areas. This has given rise to imbalance and uneven distribution of qualitative education in the country, so much so that experienced and qualified teachers often reject posting to rural schools, while over-concentration leads to under-utilization of capable hands in urban schools. Since educational broadcasting involves the best brains producing and broadcasting educational materials from one central location and reaching out simultaneously to scattered audience in the rural and urban areas, the quality of educational provision will be made even throughout the country.
The usual argument against the use of radio and television for teaching is the absence of immediate feedback which is thought to be essential for learning. But this handicap is more than compensated for by the listener’s or watcher’s ability to record and play back as often as he or she likes, any part of the lesson he or she may find confusing or difficult to understand. Besides, support facilities like telephone and postal services may be used to clarify difficulties or answer students’ questions. In addition, since Nigeria is still largely an ornate society, using radio and television for direct teaching will not pose a serious communication problem. A beginning must therefore be made to promote aggressive school broadcast in the country.
Which of the following can be concluded from the passage? Options:From the options lettered A-D, choose the option that is most nearly opposite in meaning to the underlined word.
Last Easter was an austere period.
Options:Choose the option that complete the gap(s).
The politician _____ the family of the deceased?
Options:Fill the blank spaces with the most appropriate of option A - E:
After the 1980 Ogunpa floods, our association received many letters from those adversely affected and we resolved to _____
Options:Use the passage to answer the questions below
Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
The victory of the small Greek democracy of Athens over the mighty Persian Empire was furious because Athens had interceded for the other Greek city-states in revolt against Persian domination. In anger, the king sent an enormous army to defeat Athens. He thought it would take drastic steps to pacify the rebellious part of the empire.
Persia was ruled by one man. In Athens, however, all citiens helped to rule. Emboldenedby this participation, Athenians were prepared to die for their city-state. Perhaps this was the secret of the remarkable victory at the marathon, the Persians tried to fool some Greek city-states by claiming to have come in peace. The frightened city of Delos refused to believe this. Not wanting to abet the conquest of Greece, they fled from their city and did not return until the Persians had left. They were wise, for the president next conquered the city of Eritrea and captured its people.
TinyAthens stood alone against Persia. The Athenian people to their sanctuaries. There they prayed for deliverance. They asked their gods to expedite their victory. The Athenians refurbished their weapons and moved to the plan of Marathon where their little band would meet the Persians. At the last moment, soldiers from Plataea reinforced the Athenian troops.
The Athenian army attacked and Greek citizens fought bravely. The power of the mighty Persians was offset by the love that the Athenians had for their city. Athenians defeated the Persians in both archery and combat. Greek soldiers seized Persian sheepand burned them and the Persians fled in terror. Herodotus, a famous historian, reports that 6400 Persians died, compared to only 192 Athenians.
The Athenians were__________ by some soldiers who arrived at Plataea
Options:Rufus Okeke – Roof, for short – was a very popular man in his village. Although the villagers did not explain it in so many words, Roof’s popularity was a measure of their gratitude to an energetic young man who unlike most of his fellows nowadays, had not abandoned the village in order to seek work, any work, in the towns. Roof was not villages tout either. Everyone knew how he had spent two years as a bicycle repairer’s apprentice in Port-Harcourt and had given up of his own free will a bright future to return to his people and guide them in these political times. Not that Umuofia needed a lot of guidance. The village already belong en masse to the People’s Alliance Party, and its most illustrious son, Chief the Honorable Marcus Ibe, was Minister of Culture in the outgoing government (which was pretty certain to be the incoming one as well). Nobody doubted that the Honorable Minister would be elected in his constituency. Opposition to him was like the proverbial fly trying to move a dung-hill. It would have been ridiculous enough without coming, as it did now, from a complete nonentity.
As was to be expected, Roof was in the service of the Honourable Minister for the coming elections. He had become a real expert in election campaigning at all levels – villages, local government or national. He could tell the mood and temper of the electorate at any given time. For instance, he had warned the Minister months ago about the radical change that had come into the thinking of Umuofia since the last national election
Rufus Okeke was very popular with people because he Options:In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fills(s) the gap(s):
He _____ by now, i can hear all the people shouting
Options:A British electronics manufacturer has built a factory in which quartz crystals can be grown in 3 weeks. The natural growth of quartz takes 3 million years, and very often the crystals are not sufficiently pure to satisfy the precise needs of science. However, the manufactured crystals are exceptionally pure, and this is important because quartz, in transistors is used in an astonishing number of devices where constant accuracy is required: radio and television transmitters and receivers, space satellites and computers are familiar examples. In order to make artificial quartz, very small pieces of the natural crystal imported from Brazil are placed in long, narrow, steel cylinders. A high pressure and a high temperature are maintained within the cylinders for 3 weeks, and at the end of this the small fragments have grown to the required weight of one pound. The quartz is then ready to be made into the tiny transistors that have replaced the much larger thermionic valves.
Artificial quartz is produced Options: