WAEC English Language 1991 Past Questions

A youth club in your country is organizing an essay competition for final year Senior Secondary School students on the topic: The lingua franca question: problems and prospects. Write your entry.

There was a terrible storm in your town during which houses were destroyed. Your family house was among those affected. Write a letter to your uncle working overseas describing the disaster and requesting for his help in reconstructing the house.

Write an article suitable for publication in a foreign magazine on the traditional marriage system of your people.

The transistor radio you bought from a department store with a two-year guarantee developed a fault after six months. You took it to the technical section of the store where the foreman refused to accept it, alleging that the guarantee did not cover the fault reported. Write a letter to the General Manager of the store lodging your complaint, explaining the nature of the fault and requesting the store to fulfill its guarantee.

Tell a story that ends with the words: It was a bitter experience, but I learnt my lesson.

You have just ended your tenure as the president of the youth club in your community. Write a speech which will be delivered at the last general meeting before you leave office, recounting your achievements and expressing your hopes for the future of the club.

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

      It has been found by researchers in education that the odds are stacked high against the learner from a deprived socio-economic background. A learner, whose parents are illiterate, whose. parents earn poor income, who has no access to the electronic media of information, and who has no educated siblings or peers to learn from, faces an uphill task in his educational career. The task is even more difficult if the learner lives in an obscure rural area for he is then cut off from modern civilization.

      The learner from an academically enriched background, whose parents are highly learned and financially stable, and who has constant access to the electronic media, has a head start over his deprived counterparts from the village. Therefore, it is unfair that learners from different backgounds should face the same competition for admission into higher institutions or for employment opportunities since nobody determines their background.

      Unfair as the practice may be, it is not easy to work out an alternative system. n e first place, distinguishing between students from academically enriched and those from educationally deprived backgrounds and reserving some places for the latter, would amount to double standard. Indeed, such a policy would inevitably engender a number of malpractices on the part of candidates. Moreover, formulating a policy by which learners from educationally deprived background are given special employment opportunities would tend to play down the practice of selection on the basis of merit.

      It does appear that the way out is to minimize the odds against which the less advantaged learners have to struggle. If rural communities are improved, and if conscious efforts are made to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, much would have been done to help the socio-economically disadvantaged learners overcome some of the odds against them.

(a) Mention three factors that distinguish the two classes of learners described in the passage.

(b) Which word in the first paragraph shows that the writer based the article on facts and not on speculation?

(c) Why does the writer say that the present practice is unfair?

(d) Give two reasons why the writer thinks that there is no alternative to the present practice.

(e) Whose parents are highly learned and financially stable?

(i) What grammatical name is given to the expression?

(ii) What is its function as used in the sentence?

(f) Give one word or phrase which can replace each of the following words as used in the passage:

(i) deprived; (ii) career; (iii) counterpart; (iv) practice (vii) distinguishing.

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

      With some ten hours' journey before them, the professor and his men at first thought of heeding Pa Chukwuka's advice that they should stay till Monday morning. But the professor knew that his department would almost be paralysed for a whole day if he and his colleagues should stay on. That he did not like. So, the journey commenced and, a little later, the heavens were let loose.

      Stubbornly, the five cars ploughed through. The Niger was crossed a little after 4p.m., and Asaba was soon behind the travellers. In front was the departmental car with the professor, his two kinsmen, and his bride. Their mission was the formal traditional marriage ceremony. At the rear was the secretary's car. Stealthily, against all odds, the convoy crept on. Yet, for hundreds of kilometres, the rain persisted: lighter in some places. heavier in others but present in one form or the other throughout.

      Darkness descended with a gentle suddenness over the landscape. The dark arrow of finality nearly struck Dr Stephen Dimgba a few kilometres outside Aba. The on-coming heavy truck dazzled him with its powerful headlights. As it roared towards him, his bespectacled eyes were momentarily blinded. He swerved off the road for the devil of the long lorry. The muddy, side gutter help turn the swerve into an exaggerated skid. By the time the monster roared past, Stephen and his four fellow travellers were struggling to get off the inferno that started after the accident.

(a) What had the travellers been told before the journey?

(b) Why did the professor and his colleagues decide to travel all the same?

(c) (i) What was the mission of the travellers? (ii) Quote the sentence that tells you this.

(d)(i) Where did the accident occur? (ii) Give two reasons why the accident occurred.

(e) (i) What figure of speech is the expression, "the heavens were let loose."

(ii) Give the meaning of the expression as used in the passage.

(f) Give another word or phrase that can replace each of the following words as used in the passage:

(i) heeding; (ii) kinsmen (iii) odds; (iv) roared; (v) monster; (vi) inferno.

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

      It is now fashionable to hear discussions centering on the disproportionate representation of males and females in the population. it is indeed not uncommon to hear people say that for every man there are about two or three women; so, every man can marry more than one woman. This theory is, of course, more popular among adherents who favour the seeming glamour of the polygamous way of life. The big question is: 'How correct is this theory?' And what are the facts?

      The stark reality is that in any normal population out of every one hundred conceptions, about fifty-three to fifty-five are for boys, and about forty-five to forty-seven are for girls. So, there are potentially more boys than girls in any normal population. However, because of many factors, some of which are not fully clear, the foetus of a boy is far more fragile than that of a girl. So, there are more miscarriages of male children than of female ones. So, by the time the children are born, the ratio between boys and girls has been reduced to about fifty-two boys to forty-eight girls.

      As infants, boys are more delicate than girls. Boys are less resistant to certain killer diseases and girls thus have a higher chance of survival. The result is that before adolescence, at about the age of between nine and eleven years, boys and girls are virtually at par in the population.

      Throughout adolescence, from the age of twelve to nineteen years, boys continue to fall victim of many ailments at a much higher degree than girls do, Besides, boys' tendency to be more adventurous, more daring and more risk-taking, expose them far more to mishaps. Some of these do reduce their representation in the population. So, by the end of the age of adolescence, there are slightly more girls than boys. The reduction, thereafter, in the number of males continues progressively. Men are the breadwinners, the soldiers and the travellers. It is during their middle age that very many men die tragically, as soldiers in their boots, so to say. The net result of this is that by the time they are in the mind-thirties and forties, there are more women than men.

      Finally, in their late forties and fifties, far more men than women die of cardiac diseases like hypertension. heart-attack and anxiety. This is the period when there are clearly more widows than widowers.

      On the whole, therefore, there are more females than males but certainly not in the proportion claimed by adherents of polygamy. During their marriageable years, there are about eleven wives to ten husbands-that is husbands and wives of the same age. That in some communities one man could marry as many as fifteen wives is a result of the fact that men normally marry from among the ladies younger than they are. This, more than any other factor. allows some men who are inclined to polygamy to have their way.

(a) In five sentences, one for each factor, summarize the factors responsible for the progressive reduction in the number o' f males as against females from conception to adulthood.

(b) In one sentence, state why some form of polygamy is possible in a normal population.

After the sentence, a list of possible interpretations of all or part of the sentence is given. Choose the interpretation that you consider most appropriate for the sentence.

The peace meeting nipped the crisis in the bud. This means that