WAEC English Language 1999 Past Questions

You are in the final year in secondary school. Write a letter to your uncle, who is an influential person in the society, telling him what you intend to do next and asking for his assistance. 

You have just returned to the city from your village where you spent the last holiday. In an article suitable for publication in your school magazine, compare life in your village with that in the city.

There was a riot in your school resulting in extensive damage and the Ministry of Education ordered your school to be shut down. Write a letter to the Commissioner for Education, explaining the causes of the disturbance and appealing for the school to be re-opened.

As your contribution to a debate, write arguments for or against the proposition. "We are happier than our fore fathers".

Narrate an experience you have had or heard about that illustrates the saying: "Where there is a will there is a way"

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

      One of the puzzles to which I had no solution as a child was how my cousin could seal an envelope with his saliva. Each time he wrote a letter for my illiterate father, he merely ran his tongue over the inner edge of the flap of the envelope, folded it and then sealed it. Just like that! In my puzzlement, I tried the same trick repeatedly with two pieces of paper but my saliva failed to hold them together. I then theorized that my cousin's saliva must be gummy. If that was so, why wasn't mine? My studied search for a solution led to the very sound conclusion that my cousin's saliva was gummy because he was the only educated man in the family. By extension. I reasoned that all educated people had sticky saliva.

      But it didn't take me long to wonder why my cousin's lower jaw was not stuck to the upper jaw. Indeed. I wondered how morsels of food could roll down to his gullet without sticking to the tongue and the palate. Each time I was around when he ate, I watched him put one morsel after another into his mouth without experiencing any problem in getting it down.

      After many days, indeed weeks, of pondering over this thorny issue. I decided that while all educated men had sticky saliva, they had developed a special mechanism for neutralizing the stickiness when eating.

      My theory received a severe jolt one day when father had to get a letter written but my cousin was not around. Father sent to the next house for his niece. the nearest educated person around. After the lady had written the letter, father brought out an old envelope which had probably been lying forgotten for months on his cupboard. But, to my amazement, the flap would not stick well to the body of the envelope, no matter how many times she applied her saliva. In the end, father used some pap as gum. With this. my new puzzle was: "Why was the educated man's saliva sticky while the educated woman's saliva was not?" Before long, I decided that the woman's saliva was not so sticky because she was not as learned as the man. So, I updated my theory: the more learned a person was, the more gummy his saliva would be. Fine theory.

      The death knell sounded on my latest theory  one day when father sent me to buy an envelope from a nearby shop. Having bought it, I studied its flap closely and discovered that its inner edge had some glossy material. It felt sticky to my touch. Curious, I ran my tongue over it and I sealed the envelope. That was it! It got stuck, refusing to be parted no matter how much I tried. When I delivered it that way. father rightly guessed that I had tampered with it Although I received a spanking. I was consoled that at last, I had unravelled the mystery.

(a) State the writer's original theory.

(b) State the modification to the original theory.

(c) What incident gave rise to the modification of the theory?

(d) Why didn't the flap stick to the envelope when the woman tried to seal it?

(e) What lesson did the writer finally learn?

(f) "The death knell sounded on my latest theory"

(i) What type of figurative expression is this? (ii) What does it mean?

(g) "... which had probably been lying forgotten for months on his cupboard."

(i) What grammatical name is given to this expression? (ii) What is its function as it is used in the sentence?

(h) For each of the following words. find another word or phrase that means the same and can replace it as it is used in the passage:

(i) puzzlement (ii) thorny (iii) severe (iv) theory (v) unraveled

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

      The black ant is indisputably one of the smallest visible insects on earth Except with aid of a very powerful microscope, it is difficult if not impossible to locate the eyes, the mouth the nostrils (if it ever has any) or any other part of the body. An air of mystery surrounds the existence of this little creature.

      Have you ever taken time off your programme to watch these ants move in row? What gives them the sense of direction, we do not know. Indeed whoever sends them on an errand and how they even know their destination and the type of errand to run we are yet to be told. But they are an extremely well-organized lot.

      Certainly, there are no defined routes for them on walls or trees, yet they move in an orderly manner. almost in a straight line. The beautiful thing about these insects  is that even when their line of movement is disorganized. they soon regroup and connect themselves again end to end. If in the process. one of them is killed. they quickly recognize that fact from their various positions. Then. one sees them running helter skelter  with a seeming insistence on getting at the comrade to confirm its death.

      When this has been done, some of them run zigzag at a tremendous  speed to alert the others on the route. Soon, they disappear completely. Later. as if everything were over and forgotten they reappear and form a new route and continue their movement transporting food or going on one errand or the other as before Bring your ears close to them and you hear nothing and you wonder what their means of communication could be. Perhaps, most surprising is their high sense of understanding the weather and the climate They are just like men in this area.  They know when it is the rainy season and when the dry season comes. In fact, it is true to say that they prepare better for the future than man.

      During the dry season. they file out to different places gathering food which they store underground. At the slightest sign of the approach of the rainy season. they all get into the hole and seal it up. Surprisingly. they re-emerge when the dry season sets in. And whoever tells them that the dry season has come we do not know. You can now see the sense in the injunction, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard. learn her ways and be wise."

(a) Why does the writer regard the black ant as one of the smallest insects on earth?

(b) Give reasons why the writer thinks that the way ants live is ' interesting'?

(c) (i) What is the writer's attitude towards the black ant? (ii) Quote an expression from the passage to support your answer.

(d) When this has been done " What does 'this' refer to?

(e) "The beautiful thing about these insects ..."

(i) What grammatical name is given to this expression

(ii) What is its function in the sentence?

(f)What quality of the wins implied in the last sentence of the passage?

(g) For each of the following words or phrases find another word or phrase that means the same and can replace it as it is used in the passage: (i) indisputably; (ii) row; (iii) helter skelter, (iv) a tremendous (v) area (vi) approach. 

Read the following carefully and answer the questions on it.

      In all school systems of the world, some schools are considered 'better' than others. In fact, based on such a judgment parents often go to great lengths to have their children enrolled in one school rather than another. One yardstick for Furthermore, making this judgment is student achievement, especially general performance in public examinations. _ among some experts in education, opinions about schools are further narrowed down to subject areas. For example, one often hears that school A is better than B in Mathematics and Science while the latter is better than the former in English Language and the Liberal Arts. Whatever the focus of these comparative statements, there remains the fact that schools do vary in terms of average student achievement.

      Why is it then that some schools have high average student achievement while others have low average student achievement? The reasons are not far-fetched. The first reason is that some schools are located in privileged areas in the sense that the students come from homes where parents care about their children's education ensure that the children are well-fed, show interest in their school work and provide easy access to books in the home. On the other hand, there are schools which serve less privileged communities, and whose students come from homes where parents are unable to provide the necessary support services for good academic work. Students in the first type of school would generally have a higher rate of achievement than those in the second type.

      Another reason for the difference in academic achievement between schools is how well the schools are equipped. Schools that have good laboratories and libraries, ample space. places to sit and write for every student and optimum-sized classrooms usually record a higher standard of student achievement than those where the basic equipment is lacking or where the students are crammed into inadequate spaces.

      The quality of the teachers also has to do with the differences in student achievement between schools. A teacher that does not have a good grasp of his subject matter nor is committed to his job cannot produce an outstanding student. On the other hand students will generally attain a high standard where the teacher is an expert in his field, knows how to structure the material to be learned, demands a lot from his students and motivates them. Also, school management has been found to have a relationship with student achievement. Students perform better in schools where the leadership is enthusiastic and creative than in schools where the principals and teachers adopt a casual attitude to their job.

      Finally, discipline cannot be divorced from the learning process, and this is often seen from the perspective of general student behaviour. Where students show a disregard for the rules and regulations that guide good learning by disobeying their teachers, neglecting their homework or playing truant, they cannot make any reasonable academic progress. On the other hand, students who comport themselves well have laid a good foundation for academic success.

(a) In one sentence, summarize the yardsticks used to make a distinction between one school and another.

(b) In five sentences, one for each. summarize the factors responsible for the different levels of achievement in schools.

After each of the following sentences, a list of possible interpretations of the sentence is given. Choose the interpretation that you consider most appropriate for each sentence.
Before all the election results were announced it was clear that the leader of the opposition was home and dry. This means that the leader of the opposition