WAEC SSCE WASSCE 1998 Comprehension passages

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COMPREHENSION PASSAGE I

Read the passage below carefully and answer the questions on it.

speaking broadly, there are three types of leaders. There are those who lead from the front, those who lead from the rear, and those who live from afar off - absent from their flock. Leaders who position themselves right in the front are rare. They do not only give orders and directives, but also assume responsibilities themselves. Detox themselves as much as, if not much more than they tax orders. They think, plan and take decisions for the common good. They set examples and thus ensure that there are disciplined as they want others to be. Thus, you will not hear them merely demanding that others must be punctual; they are actually among the first to be at work.

Perhaps no other historical figure exhibited this leadership characteristic better than Richard the Lionhearted, the 12th century English king, who always led his army personally into battles, always maintaining the front position. Staying squarely there, fighting like any other common soldier, he set standards and thus commanded respect. His men had no choice but to exert themselves to the outpost. No wonder he won virtually all his battles, even when he set his forces against much larger armies in seemingly impregnable castles. Almost all kings of his time fought battles personally, but none other than he stayed in the front.

Then there are leaders who lives from the rear, in the metaphoric sense. These leaders give orders and follow up to ensure their execution. But they insulate themselves from the center of activity. Because of their style of leadership, giving orders but not personally setting standards, they are feared rather than respect it. They achieve results, but often at the expense of the love of their followers. They are slave drivers who never share the rigours of the work involved.

Finally, there are those who vacate their leadership posts almost entirely. They are absentee leaders who directed by remote control, if they try to direct at all. The leave instructions about punctuality, neatness, steadfastness, and hard work and so on, but they do not practice any of these. Their deputies thus have to use their initiative to decide how best to achieve results. In such a situation, failure is not uncommon.

One may then ask why a leader would choose to be absent from his post. The fact is that there are many leaders who want the position just for the honour but are not prepared to exert themselves. They are only interested in reaping the fruits of leadership. They enjoy the title, the financial and non-monetary rewards, and being worshipped by others, but they shy away from the arduous task of thinking, planning and deciding for other’s welfare. Sadly, there are many more of such leaders than we often realize.

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)    assume
        (ii)    exhibited
        (iii)    insulate
        (iv)    achieve
        (v)    arduous

b)    Give two interpretations of what the writer means by leading from the front.

c)    Why are those who lead from the front most likely to succeed?

d)    What do those who lead from behind have in common with those who lead from the front?

e)    What is the relationship between the second type of leaders and their followers?

f)    Give one word or expression that best describes the attitude of an absence leader to his job?

g)    …reaping the fruit of leadership
  What figure of speech is used in the above expression?

h)    …personally into battle
        (i)    What grammatical name is given to the above construction?
        (ii)    What is its function in the sentence.

COMPREHENSION PASSAGE II

Read the passage below carefully and answer the questions on it.

Our daily experiences shape our character. Strangely, we can acquire certain enduring habits from very embarrassing situations, such as this one, provided we are ready to learn our lessons.

It was the tradition in my college that every final year literature student should give an oral presentation to the class on a topic of his choice. On the first day of the presentation, I had hoped desperately that Mr. Nyamekye will not notice me. I therefore moved to the back of the class and hid behind a burly boy. I looked everywhere except towards the front of the room, not wanting to meet his glance. But all my ploys were unsuccessful; I was first on his list.

I was very much displeased at hearing my name and concluded that Mr. Mitchell really disliked me. My heart started pounding furiously and I developed goose pimples all over my body. “don't get nervous, be a man”, I tried to encourage myself as I got up. With sweating hands, I gathered my notes which I had tucked away in my notebook. He watched me with that familiar half smile office which seemed to say he knew I was as usual not well prepared and was about to make a fool of myself.

It was not that I did not have ample time to prepare for the presentation. It was no surprise assignment. For weeks we had gone over the fundamentals of writing a research paper. But I had typically waited until the last few days before working on the assignment after thumbing through an encyclopedia for a suitable topic, I settled on William Blake, a poet whom I knew nothing about. When three short days were over my paper was finished. Never had I written a paper so quickly or one with so little content.

As I stood on the podium, I was confident that all would be over in a matter of minutes because my mates would not ask many questions since they were ignorant of the topic as myself. I only steeled myself for the rebuke from Messiah Mitchell who never countenance ill prepared papers such as the one I had written. But how wrong I was!

After my hurried and short presentation my mates bombarded me with several questions, which exposed my scant knowledge of the topic. What a shame it was to learn for the first time that Blake was one of the poets recommended for our study and was treated in class the previous week! My whole body shook uncontrollably as I tried to answer questions. I became very downhearted and wished that Mr. Nyamekye would step in and end my humiliation at the hands of my mates.

That day his attitude surprised me that day his attitude surprised me. Instead of admonishing me for my poor performance he drew our attention to the few salient points raised in the discussion and asked the next speaker to present his paper. Perhaps he had concluded that I would never reform, so he did not want to flog a dead horse.

However, I turned over a new leaf after this bitter experience. The incident killed me of procrastination and for the rest of my college life, I submitted well-researched papers to my teachers. To the surprise of everybody, I was top of the class in our final examination. what I cherish most is that I no longer underrate the intelligence of anyone.

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)    enduring
        (ii)    tradition
        (iii)    furiously
        (iv)    ample
        (v)    downhearted

b)    Why did I writer try to dodge the presentation on the first day?

c)    Give two words or expression of your own that describe the writer's state of mind after the teacher called him?

d)    What made the paper he presented different from others he had ever written?

e)    What did the writer expect when he stood in front of the class?

f)    ... he did not want to flog a dead horse!
What does this expression mean as using the passage?

g)    who never countenanced ill- prepared papers?
What is the full grammatical name giving to this construction?

h)    State two changes that occurred in the writer’s life as a result of the incident.

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