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ENGLISH PRACTICE QUESTIONS

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COMPREHENSION

1.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it

A line in one of the songs by the late raggae musician, Bob Marley is "Where there's a will, there's always a way." The legendary musician may be long dead and gone but every day people continue to demonstrate by ther determination that indeed there is always a way out of any problem once the will to tackle it is there. The meaning of this line became even clearer to me when I was teaching in a village school.

The school was in its third year and it had a population of a little more than five hundred students and fifteen teachers. As part of its free education programme, the state government provided furniture, textbooks and notebooks for students. Sport was however not catered for. The principal had to stretch the meagre grant to provide the stationery needs of the school. Students hardly engaged in sports except for occasional running around the field and some acrobic exercises. This near lack of sporting activities resulted in the school performing poorly in inter-school competitions. This gave the principal a lot of worry and he asked the teachers for suggestions on how to solve the problem.

The issue was tabled in one of the staff meetings. Some suggested that the Parent Teacher Association be approached to render some assistance. This did not sail through as it was pointed out that the Association was already taxing its members to build a science laboratory block. Another suggestion that teachers should be levied was also rejected as it was argued that it would not be proper to run the school on teachers' salaries. A third suggestion was that since the school had many acres of virgin land, students could be made to cultivate a few acres and plant corn and cassava. Proceeds from the farm would be enough to procure the necessary sports equipment. This idea was unanimously accepted and an ad hoc committee was set up to work out the details and see to the implementation.

The committee got some migrant palm wine tappers to uproot all the palm trees on the land. They were to sell the wine they got from the trees and keep the money as payment for the service. Students made brooms and baskets from the fronds and generated enough money with which the school bought three footballs and table tennis equipment.

It was the beginning of the rainy season and planting had been done. The crops sprouted and were a beauty to behold. The harvest was bountiful. The huge amount of money realized from the sale of the farm produce was invested in the purchase of all the sports equipment needed by the school. One year later, the school made us proud when it swept the board in the annual inter-school competition.

(a)

What two indications are there in the passage that the government funding of the school was insufficient?

(b)

Why was the principal not happy with the lack of sporting activities in the school?

(c)

State two contributions made by the students to generate funds for the school.

(d)

Why was the suggestion to tax teachers rejected?

(e)

How was the effort of the committee rewarded?

(f)

... swept the board ...

What does this expression mean?

(g)

Proceeds from the farm ...

(i)

What is the 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, find another word or phrase that means the same and which can replace it as it is used in the passage.

(i)

demonstrate;

(ii)

meagre;

(iii)

virgin;

(iv)

procure;

(v)

migrant;

(vi)

bountiful.

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