WAEC SSCE WASSCE 2003 Comprehension passages
Read the passage below carefully and answer the questions on it.
The rain that fell that day began in the small hours of the morning when many of the inhabitants of the city were still asleep. The preceding night was oven-hot and drove the majority of the people out of their narrow rooms into the compound where they slept stretched on their mats in the open air. One would have thought the unexpected rain would rouse the people, but it rather sank them deeper into sleep.
Akua suddenly jumped to her feet when she felt something wet under her. She gave her drunken husband a kick, believing he had wet the bed. Mike got up quickly and angrily glared at his wife, fists raised to strike her. But he immediately dropped his hands, disarmed by what he saw. Right in front of him was rushing water snaking its way towards the mats on the floor. He quickly rolled these up and dashed with them into his room.
Akua was already there; desperately hurling through a window whatever she thought could be salvaged from the pool she stood in. Mike joined in the rescue.
Pots and pans buckets and beds, whatever they could lay their hands on, were either thrown or carried outside. But when the water rose to waist level, they both waded outside only to find their belongings were all gone.
They were found floating on what, a few minutes earlier, was a little pond now swollen into a flood. The raging water was carrying their belongings out of the house through the open gate into the big gutter just in front of it. Mike rushed to retrieve whatever he could but found himself on unsteady legs; he had to clinge to the gatepost to save himself from being washed away. He looked out and what he saw was a wide expanse of water stretching as far as his eyes could reach – the biblical deluge must be here again! There stood his house like an island in this wide sea.
As he plodded back into his house, Mike vividly remembered the warning of the town planning officers. They had told him the main causes of the yearly flooding in the city were illegal development along the natural courses of the waterways and reduced drainage capacity of the overdeveloped areas. He nevertheless went ahead and built his house at the present site and now this has happened. H e saw his wife standing alone in the centre of the house and walked slowly to her. Their eyes met and they held hands as tears streamed down their faces.
The flood had done its worst.
Questions
a) For each of the following words underlined in the passage, give another word or phrase that means the same and which can replace it in the passage:
(i) preceding
(ii) strike
(iii) belongings
(iv) raging
(v) vividly
(vi) illegal
b) Why did Mike stopped at hitting his wife?
c) How did Akua and Mike feel after the rain?
d) When did the couple rush back to the compound?
e) Why was Mike’s house flooded?
f) Why should Mike regret the loss of their property?
g) “Pots and pans, buckets, baskets and beds”.
What literary device is used ion the above?
h) “there”
(i) What part of speech is it?
(ii) What is its function?
You Might Also Like
SSCE - 1998 Antonyms for SSCE
.webp)
No comments: