WAEC WASSCE 2016 Comprehension passages

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 WAEC 2016

WASSCE ENGLISH

COMPREHENSION PASSAGE I

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

For months, the robbers had ravaged neighborhood. One household after another had been visited by the gang, night after night. Soon, their strategy was almost predictable. They would announce their arrival with shots fired into the air and call on their choosing host for the night to behave himself by opening the door. Then, they will cart away their loot just before the break of day. They generally did not harm anyone who cooperated with them. For three months, they paid their regular visits to the neighborhood.

Thus, Jagun knew that sooner or later, he will be an unwilling host. He decided to prepare for their visit though when that would be he could not say. He chose not to take things lying down, but he kept his strategy close to his chest.

The robbers turned up at last. They called him by name and ordered him in his own interest to open the door. He hushed his wife and children and directed them to the toilets upstairs. They hack down the main door. He had double plated the metal door. The door resisted them. Well, they had brought machetes and a pickaxe. But their tools bounced off the door.

Jagun then heard them deciding to make a hole in the wall. So, he waited with a heavy razor-sharp axe for that action. The robbers’ task with an old pickaxe in the machetes was a tortuous one. At last, they made a hole large enough to let a human head in. Patiently, he waited. The leader of the gun decided to go through, but first, he had to clear the debris of the broken blocks. As soon as his hand came through, Jagun hacked it off at the wrist, with just one stroke. The amputated hand was quickly withdrawn. The man kept mum. He announced that everything was well and that his second in command should follow suit. Jagun waited. And again, a second hand came through with the same result. The handless arm was quickly withdrawn. A third hand met the same fate. When the fourth robber, a young man, lost his hand, he screamed in anguish. The others tried to hush him up, but he cried the more. It was time to beat a hasty retreat. By then only the driver, who was waiting in the get-away vehicle, was spared the gory ordeal. At daybreak, the police arrived at the scene and got enough information to hunt down the robbers.

Questions

(a) Why was jagun able to prepare adequately for the robber’s visit?

(b) What two steps have Jagun taken to confront the attackers?

(c) Why did Jagun succeed in chopping off so many hands?

(d) What saved the driver from the gory ordeal?

(e) Why did the robbers beat a hasty retreat?

(f) "… he kept his strategy close to his chest." What does this expression mean?

(g) "...who was waiting in the getaway vehicle."

        i.) What is a grammatical name given to this expression as it is used in the passage.

        ii.) What is its function?

(h) For each of the following words of fries, find another word of freeze which means the same in which can replace it as it is used in the passage:

             i.) ravaged;

            ii.) harm;

            iii.) barked out;

            iv.) predicted;

            v.) hacked;

            vi.) anguish

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