WAEC SSCE WASSCE 1996 Comprehension passages
COMPREHENSION PASSAGE I
Read the passages below carefully and answer the questions that follow.
The world is witnessing confrontation between the young generation and adults about the place and role of the former in the decision-making process. To the older generation, youth is a time of obedience. Therefore, the moment when the young person may be admitted to the decision-making process should be postponed as long as possible. On the other hand, the young have always processed pressed for a voice in affairs at the family, institutional and national levels.
Much of adult intolerance of the young stems from misinterpretation of the action and conduct of the youth. It is true that youngsters may be hasty and inexperienced; but basically they are right. Thus the answer to the generational squabbling is not to be sought in the reform of the youth, but instead in the reform of society. Rather than dismiss the youth as intemperate or naïve the society would be better off if it enlisted them in the struggle to build a better world. The real answer to the frustration of the young is to be found in their involvement in productive ventures.
Young idealism represents one of the great untapped resources of modern society. The young can be enlisted in literacy campaigns, taking census and as school teachers where qualified instructors are lacking. What the young need most of all is to feel involved in the process by which they can help make their own ideals come true in their society. Hence, a National Youth Service is not only the means of engaging the youth on development projects but also a critical avenue through which they may express their commitment to social progress.
The logical response of the young to the society’s persistent and stubborn denial of their participation in the decision-making progress is dissatisfaction and sometimes rebellion. It would be unwise to argue for unlimited involvement of the youth in the decision-making process. What is needed is realistic adaptation to new circumstances like bringing down the voting age to eighteen
Unfortunately, this seems to be the only area where the youth rub shoulders with the older generation. Political parties and other institutions should push this further by creating avenues through which the young can contribute their talent for the benefit of society. By their insistence on getting involved in the responsibility for decision making, the young are saying that they are prepared for the realities of adult life. Above all, the earlier the exposure to decision making the better the preparation for the management of the institutions of society.
Questions
a) For each of the following word underlined in the passage, give another word or phrase that means the same and which can replace it in the passage:
(i) postponed
(ii) hasty
(iii) squabbling
(iv) untapped
(v) talent
b) State the conducts adults expect of the youth.
c) Using three adjectives, describe the reaction of youngsters to their being denied a place in the decision-making process.
d) Give two ways in which the youth could contribute to the development of society.
e) State the only time youngsters are allowed to participate in decision-making.
f) Using your own words as far as possible, state the writer’s solutions to the conflict between the young and the old.
g) i) What is the writer’s attitude towards the youth?
iii) Quote from the passage the sentence or phrase from which you derived your answer.
h) Stubborn
(i) What part of speech is this word?
(ii) What is its function?
COMPREHENSION PASSAGE II
Read the passages below carefully and answer the questions that follow.
When I was a little boy, I had been playing in the streets of Vimili one day with other boys about my own age. Full of cheerful bounce, we went scampering past the hospital. Right opposite this hospital, on the other side of the road, a convict gang was pulling down some clay-brick buildings under military supervision. The buildings were badly constructed too narrow and far too high and were being demolished for their materials. It was a dangerous job for workers who lacked both experience and proper equipment – country boys, most of them, who might have been gaoled only the week before.
They were using heavy boards of timber as battering-rams, since they had no ladders, they attacked the walls at ground level knocking hole after hole through the clay till the entire wall came, crashing down. We found them busy demolishing a building even taller and narrower than the rest. As soon as I took in the spectacle of these young boys toiling away with their rams against that puddle clay wall, I was struck all of a heap; I stood there, petrified, rooted to the spot.
In this instant – despite the tumbled ruins on the other side,which suggested the prisoners had already demolished several other houses unharmed – I knew that something terrible was going to happen, something so serious that I would never forget if I saw it. My friends first tried to drag me away, then gave me up and stayed there with me.
As the work went on, a horrible impalpable fear rose and spread throughout my entire being. It was akin to the feeling you get when you are reading a detective story written by a cold sadistic author, expert at twisting the last drop of suspense and horror out of his material. The walls were intact on the upper floors but grew weaker at their foundations. The beaten earth flaked away, revealing a core of puddle of clay bricks. The whole building looked like a giant who was having the flesh torn from his bones leaving only a huge skeleton behind. Suddenly the guard shouted to the prisoners; “Look out! Get away quickly!” The prisoners darted away into the courtyard, bouncing like bullfrogs. It all happened in a flash. The wall came down with a dull roar and a crash; and instantly we heard an indescribable shriek. One of the men had not gotten clear in time.
What sticks in my memory, what I shall never forget as long as I live especially when I witness any accident, or any more than momentary demonstration of unhappiness – is that shriek of a trapped man, calling out (or trying to) not so much for help as in protest against the whole ghastly injustice of life. That cry of mingled agony and defiance will always ring in my ears.
Questions
a) For each of the following word underlined in the passage, give another word or phrase that means the same and which can replace it in the passage:
(ii) gaoled
(iii) a horrible
(iv) a cold
(v) expert
b) What was the feeling of the boys as they played in the street?
c) Give one reason why the buildings were being pulled down.
d) State two reasons why according to the passage the job was dangerous.
e) Using two adjectives, describe the feeling of the writer when he saw the men destroying the building.
f) What happened when the building collapsed?
g) Full of cheerful bounce………………………
(i) What is the grammatical name given to this construction?
(ii) What is its function?
h) the whole building looked like a giant………………
What figure of speech has been used in the above expression?
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