WAEC SSCE WASSCE 1997 Comprehension passages
COMPREHENSION PASSAGE I
Read the passages below carefully and answer the questions that follow.
It happens on the streets of many cities in Accra. A shabbily dressed man, clutching a purse or a money belt, races through crowds of pedestrians. An enraged mob follows hard on his heels, screaming, “Catch him! Kill the thief!” They trap the man in an alley and begin kicking and punching him. If he is lucky, the police will come to his rescue. But more often than not, the thief is beaten to death or burned alive.
Although mob justice is a common phenomenon in sub-Saharan Africa, there are fewer countries that experience it with such regularity or such brutality as Kenya.
There, between nine and eleven people, most of the petty thieves are executed every week across the country. That number is rapidly growing. In 1992, 432 people were murdered by mobs, in 1994, the figure rose to more than 500. They are put to painful death.; stabbed, slashed with machetes, stoned, kicked or trampled upon.
Some psychologists generally ascribe the resort to violence to the exposure to violence and instant justice on the screen, but in Africa, much of the street justice is a reaction to the ineffectual criminal justice system. Not only do the police lack essential equipment like radios and vehicles to carry out their work efficiently and quickly; they are so poorly paid that they demand and readily receive bribes from criminals. Even when cases end up in court, it takes too long a time for judgment to be handed down.
And it desperately exasperates many a layman when a thief caught in the act is set free to walk away from court with his booty. No wonder many now have accepted mob justice as the only effective way to punish thieves.
Critics also say the vigilantes, who usually dispense the justice in the streets take their cue from politicians, particularly those in power. Government-sponsored thugs are often accused of burning homes and beating up members of the opposition in full view of the police. In an African country, the secretary-general of a political party warned that his opponents would receive another beating if they dared visit his home constituency again, and other officials openly supported the assault.
Wherever politics remains steeped in violence, citizens seemed likely to follow suit.
It is a very sad reflection on African countries that such developments stand in the way of their march to democracy. Many African politicians regard being in government not as an opportunity to serve their country but as a means of making a fortune and living well.
Hence, they regard opponents as enemies who must be crushed by any means possible. Some men, however, know that violence begets more violence, unleashing chaos and undermining the rule of law. No matter how inadequate a country’s institutions, there can be no justification for violence and, in particular, mob justice.
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) phenomenon
(ii) ineffectual
(iii) exasperates
(iv) assault
(v) unleashing
b) What does the writer say about Kenya?
c) According to the writer, what is the main cause of mob justice in Africa?
d) What do politicians do that encourage the actions of vigilantes?
e) In the writer’s opinion, why do Africans generally enter politics?
f) What does the writer mean by “violence begets more violence”?
g) If he is lucky…………
(i) What grammatical name is given to the above construction?
(ii) What is its function in the sentence?
h) (i) What is the writer’s attitude to mob-justice?
(ii) Quote a sentence or phrase from the last two paragraphs to support your answer.
COMPREHENSION PASSAGE II
Read the passages below carefully and answer the questions that follow.
World peace is threatened by the numerous racial conflicts around the globe. Most situations today seem to involve a characteristic confrontation. Generally, these situations emanate from accumulated experiences and memories of the past and frustrations and grievances of the present; these are the two main things, which determine the mood in which people meet and give birth to prejudices and attitudes, which get in the way of mutual understanding.
The most common conflict situation is the only which one group, convinced of its superiority, suppress another come on usually minority group. Its members tend to assume that their dominance is ordained by heaven and, therefore, unchangeable. On the other hand, and the minority group of in feels it has been deprived of his rights and tries to reestablish them.
It is usually excluded for more positions of honor in the community and relegated to menial tasks. His self-confidence is systematically sealed and sometimes undermined. Faced with such flagrant abuses minority groups have reacted to their conditions, in a number of ways. In North America for example, apart from resisting slavery, the African American developed group consciousness, which provided a basis for a kind of Black nationalism.
This consciousness is a rebellion against the white man's religion and civilization that is regarded as part of an arrangement to enslave and humiliate the black man. There have been two trends in this Black Nationalism. One school of thought, championed by Frederick Douglas, sought to secure the rights of the black man in a multiracial society. The other movement, whose major adherents included Marcus Gavey and Delaney, aimed at building a black society in isolation.
Another situation, which is not puzzling but also explosive, is that in which there exists an unbridgeable gap between races that have lived together for long periods. Over the years, resentment has built up to the point of hatred. time, one would think, should enable people to come together to be adjusted to the strangeness of each other’s culture, in to accommodate themselves to social and psychological conditions that new contacts create.
Yet when one looks at the enigmatic situation in former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and even Northern Ghana, one finds that members of the same community are in fact separated by an invisible but real and palpable barrier. What else other than the attitude that altogether exclude the desire to coexist can cause this? And this being so, it becomes almost impossible for the races to see one another, as they really are. This antagonism has led to the disintegration of nations and societies.
One should however not despair because the international community knows the answer to the problem of hatred and intolerance that is tearing some nations apart. It knows that the solution is to be found in a society of free men and equal opportunities for everyone to exercise their abilities.
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) emanate
(ii) abuses
(iii) puzzling
(iv) resentment
(v) disintegration
b) State causes of racial conflict.
c) According to the passage, which notion drives one race to oppress another?
d) Give two ways in which minority groups are oppressed.
e) State the difference between the two trends in the Black Nationalism.
f) According to the passage what should people do to prevent racial conflicts?
g) ………invisible
(i)What part of speech is this word?
(ii)What is its function in the context?
h) From your reading of the last paragraph, what is the writer's attitude towards a problem of racial conflict?
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