Read the following passage carefully and answer all the questions which follow.

One major cause of environment degradation in Ghana is gold mining. In the name of natural resource development, land is given to mining companies owned by foreigners. These foreigners milk the country dry and destroy the heritage of the people.

From the vast concessions granted them by the government, they extract the gold, destroy the rivers and other water bodies in the communities before going home, leaving the land worthless. Yet their operations are legal.

Approved mining is, however, not the sole gold mining activity. There is also what is regarded as unauthorized mining, called galamsey. In this enterprise, adventurous Ghanaians set out to do private mining as a livelihood. They dig up the earth with tools that are not as sophisticated as those of foreigners who also dig for the precious metal.

Mining activities destroy the environment. So far, it appears that nothing can be done to reclaim the land degraded by miners; the damage is irreversible. Vast tracts of arable land have become desolate mounds because of gold digging. Nothing can grow where galamsey has taken place.

Besides, the main water sources of communities have been polluted by the activities of both legal and illegal miners. The gold extracted from dirt requires cleaning with chemicals and rinsing in water. By the time the gold searchers succeed in producing a glittering handful, large stretches of rivers, ponds of water and some lakes have become poisoned.

Pollution leaves little drinking water for man and beast. Fishes die and human contract various diseases.

(a) Name the types of mining activities discussed in the passage.

(b)I. Which groups of people engage in mining?

(b)II. Why does government give licences to miners?

(c) How are the people and the land affected by the mining activities?

(d)I. How does the writer feel about mining?

(d)II. Why does the writer think that nothing can be done about the effects of mining?

(e) Explain the following expressions in your own words:

I. milk the country dry;

II. leaving the land worthless.

(f) For each of the following words, give another word or phrase, that means the same, and can fit into the passage:

I. vast;

II. sole;

III. reclaim;

IV. mounds;

V. glittering.

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