SECTION A: ESSAY WRITING

Answer only ONE question from this section.

Your answer should not be more than 1 1/2 pages long.

1. You were an eye-witness to a fight in your classroom between two of your classmates in which one of them sustained a deep cut on his or her left eye and your class teacher had threatened to punish all of you unless the cause of the fight was made known to him. Now, write what actually happened.

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2. There is an essay competition in a children’s magazine titled, “How I spent my last Holidays ”. Write your contribution.

SECTION B: COMPREHENSION

Read the passage and answer the questions on it.

Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children. Perhaps down in his heart, Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo ’s fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear if himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.

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Even as a little boy, he had resented his father ’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. That was how Okonkwo first came to know that ‘agbala ’was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken no title. And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion –to hate everything his father, Unoka, had loved. One of these things was gentleness and another was idleness.

Frim: Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe. ( Heinemann, 1958)

1. Why were Okonkwo ’s wives and little children afraid of him? ____________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What dominated Okonkwo ’s whole life? ____________________________________________________________________________________________

3. What incident gave rise to his fear? ____________________________________________________________________________________________

4. What did Okonkwo finally resolve to do? ______________________________________________

5. “…a heavy hand ”, what does it mean? ______________________________________________

6. For each of the following words, find another word or phrase that means the same and can replace it as it is used in the passage.

i. cruel __________________________

ii. whole _________________________

iii. resemble  _____________________

iv. resented  ______________________

SECTION C: VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

From the alternatives lettered a –d, choose the one that is most suitable.

1. The ___________ is the smallest social unit of people in a community or society. (a) school  (b) peer group (c) family (d) society

2. The dowry is provided by the _______________ (a) groom (b) groom ’s family (c) wedding guest  (d) bride ’s family

3. Ebun ’s sister-in-law is her _________________ (a) husband ’s brother  (b) husband ’s wife  (c) husband ’s sister  (d) step sister

4. Members of one ’s extended family are referred to as  (a) relations  (b) relating  (c) next of kin  (d) ancestors

5. A girl who is your father ’s daughter, but not your mother ’s daughter is your _____________ (a) step sister  (b) aunt  (c) cousin  (d) sister

SECTION D:

6. He asked me for ________ advice, but then rejected it. (a) some  (b) an  (c) a  (d) the

7. After Mr. and Mrs. Udoh had moved into their new flat, they went and bought _________ furniture. (a) some  (b) an  (c) a  (d) The

Choose the correct part of speech for the word in italic from the options provided for each of t
he following:

8. He was told that the captain could man
the school gate. (a) verb (b) noun (c) adverb (d) adjective

9. Daniel is a fast
runner. (a) adverb (b) verb  (c) adjective (d) pronoun

10. All his _________ were packed in ten boxes. (a) baggages (b) baggage  (c) luggages  (d) ten luggages

11. The ________ always neglected. (a) poors is  (b) poor are  (c) poor is  (d) poorers are

12. This
is incredible. (a) noun  (b) preposition  (c) pronoun  (d) verb

13. He writes legibly
. (a) adjective  (b) adverb (c) preposition  (d) interjection

14. Swimmin
g is my hobby. (a) verb (b) noun  (c) adjective (d) adverb

15. The _________ his unruly behavior causes me every day in the presence of his colleagues is becoming unbearable. (a) embarrasment  (b) embarrassment  (c) embarrassment  (d) embarrassment

16. The __________ set up to look into the cause of the problems has not come with its report. (a) comittee  (b) commitee  (c) committee  (d) committe

17. I would like to choose a ________ in  banking. (a) carrear  (b) carrier  (c) career  (d) career

18. __________ promotion was given to Ojo because of his outstanding performance. (a) Automattic  (b) Automatic  (c) Automatic  (d) Automatic

19. Their ___________________ started the war. (a) adversary  (b) adversary  (c) advisory  (d) adversary

20. Put the book on the table over _________(a) their  (b) dear  (c) there  (d) there