WAEC SSCE WASSCE 2005 Comprehension passages
Read the passage below carefully and answer the questions on it.
When the Titanic, on its maiden voyage to America hit an iceberg and sank less than a century ago, only about a third of the ship's passengers survived. Most of those who survived were women and children. It is now known that several male passengers refused to enter the lifeboats because the wearing show all the women were safely on board. Indeed, when one of the officers of the ship who survived was later asked whether “women and children first” what is the captain’s rule or the rule of the sea, he replied condescendingly, “It is the rule of human nature”.
The men who lived by that room will be a part to lender today the first sex is routinely verbally assaulted and that even women who are obviously pregnant at denied seats on trains another means of public transport. they would wonder how we fight to appoint a few women to higher offices in society and at the same time strip women in general of their right to move about freely and safely.
This erosion of civility is due in part to feminists who saw chivalry as tyranny dressed in kid gloves. But that is not the only reason. Since the 1960s, an entirely new generation has gleefully rejected Victorian manners as rigid and snobbish. It was not always so.
Victorians were stunned by the horrible evidence that, as Charles Darwin had recently pointed out, humans were not one step below the angels but a few steps above the lowest entities on earth. People took comfort in a greatly expanded code of etiquette, which proved they could rise above their roots. In our era, however, we have opted to replace that code of etiquette with another which is based on cultural anarchy. This encourages the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake and the disregard for the opinion of others.
People know that life a century ago could be tough, but it was safer and smoother. For example, in the city, custom confined rascals smoked to the east side of the street because the west side had fine ladies’ shops. If a man fails to bow his head to the lady of the house when raising his glass of wine at the dinner table, he might not receive another invitation.
We cannot recapture the past. But women can demand civility as well as civil rights. When men will learn respect for women in the self-restraint it implies come on violence against women with decline and everyday life will be a shade more pleasant.
Questions
a) Why did more women than men survive when the Titanic sank?
b) What why would men of the past century be shocked at the way women are treated now?
c) What encouraged men in the past to adopt their code of etiquette?
d) Give two reasons why women are now treated differently.
e) What is the writer’s attitude to men of today?
f) For each of the following words come up find another word or phrase that means the same and can replace it in the passage:
(i) gleefully
(ii) stunned
(iii) opted
(iv) confined
(v) civility
g) In our era…
i) What is the grammatical name for this expression?
ii) What is its function?
h) …tyranny dressed in kid gloves
What literary device is used in the above expression.
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