English is the study of the English language. The goal is to improve communication skills by practicing listening, speaking, reading, writing, and understanding language rules like pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.
The appearance of comparative peace which Max’s house presented to me that morning proved quite deceptive. Oh perhaps some of Chief Nanga’s ‘queen bee’ characteristics had rubbed off on me and transformed me into an independent little nucleus of activity which I brought with me into this new place. That first night I not only heard of the new political party about to be born but got myself enrolled as a foundation member. Max and some of his friends having watched with deepening disillusion the use to which our hard-won freedom was being put by corrupt, mediocre politicians had decided to come together and launch the Common People’s Convention.
There were eight young people in his room that evening. All but one were citizens of our country, mostly professional types. The only lady was a very beautiful lawyer who, I learnt afterwards, was engaged to Max whom she had first met at the London School of Economics. There was a trade-unionist, a doctor, another lawyer, a teacher and a newspaper columnist
Max introduced me without any previous consultation as a ‘trustworthy comrade who had only the other day had his girlfriend snatched from him by minister who shall remain nameless’. Naturally I did not care for that kind of image reputation. So I promptly intervened to point out that the woman in question was not strictly speaking my girlfriend but a casual acquaintance who both Chief Nanga and I knew.
‘So it was Chief Nanga, yes?’ said the European and everyone burst out laughing.
‘Who else could it be?’ said one of the others.
The Whiteman was apparently from one of the Eastern Bioc countries. He did not neglect to stress to me in an aside that he was there only as a friend of Max’s. He told me a lot of things quietly while the others were discussing some obscure details about the launching. I was as much interested in what he said as the way in which he said it. His English had an exotic quality occasionally – as when he said that it was good to see intellectuals like Max, myself and the rest coming out of their ‘tower or elephant tusk’ into active politics. And he often punctuated whatever he was saying with ‘yes’ spoken with the accent of a question.
The only lady in the gathering Options:Every artist’s work unless he be a hermit, creating solely for his own satisfaction and with on need of sales, is to some extent ‘socially conditioned’, He depends upon the approval of his patrons. Social conditioning is of course part of the field of study of the social anthropologist, yet I am not aware that the social conditioning of artists has ever been seriously studied. That such study is needed for the proper appraisal of traditional African art is evident enough when we note the ingenuous assumption, current in many writing on the subject, that the carver’s hand is so closely controlled by the custom of centuries that the credit for any creative imagination which is apparent in his work is due not to him but to the long succession of his predecessors. Of course, there is an element of truth in this view of the tribal as copyist; but it is hardly more valid for the Africa than for the European artist. In both cases the work of art is the outcome of a dialectic between the informing tradition and the individual genius of the artist, and in both the relative strength of these two forces may vary almost infinitely. To assess the personal ingredient in an African carving is no easy matter, especially if one is confronted with a rare or unique piece in an unfamiliar style; but the considerations involved are much the same as those employed in European art criticism.
Most artists are strongly influenced by the Options:From the alternatives provided in the question below select the one which most appropriately completes the sentence:
The boys are very naughty. They have started fighting again _____
Options:Choose the option nearest in meaning to the word underlined.
His discovery of the vaccine became a quantum leap in search for a scientific cure for the illness?
Options:Select the option that best explains the information conveyed in the sentence.
My father is one of the vociferous few challenging the company's appointment of the manager?
Options:In 1973 a Japanese sericulturist arrives in Malawi with a batch of 40,000 silkworm eggs. They were taken to the Bvumbwe Agricultural Research Station in Thyolo District. In this station, work is being done to determine favourable silkworm rearing conditions and areas where mulberry trees, leaves the worms feed on, could grow well. According to researchers, the silkworms- which eventually develop into cocoons from which raw silk is produced – do well with warm climatic conditions.
Silk is one of the strongest of fibers. Infect, for thousands of years, silk fabrics have been regarded as the most beautiful and durable materials woven by man. Many people call silk the cloth of kings and queens’.
The weaving of silk originated in china. An old Chinese book believed to be written by Confucius, tells us that the wife of Emperor Huang ti was the first person fabrics of silk. Around 2640 B.C Emperor Huang ti asked his wife His Ling-shih to study the worms that were destroying the mulberry trees in his garden. The Empress took some of the cocoons into the palace to see what they were made of. She dropped one of the cocoons into a bowl of boiling water and was amazed to see a cobweb-like tangle separate itself from the cocoon. She picked up the gauzy mass and found that one of the threads could be unwound almost without end from the cocoon. His Ling-shih had discovered silk. She was delighted with the discovery and even wove a ceremonial robe for the Emperor out of the cocoon threads. After that, the officials in the Emperor’s court wore brightly dyed silk robes on important occasions.
People in other countries regarded the new fibers as something rare and beautiful. A few traders went to China to learn about making cloth from silk, but the Chines kept their silkworm a closely guarded secret.
According to sericulturist, silkworms Options:I was on top of one of my palm trees yesterday, tapping the tree and collecting the wine for the morning when I saw two soldiers at the foot of the tree. They made signs at me, so I concluded that they wanted my palm wine. On descending from the tree I gave them the wine to sample, as is customary. Not only did they drain all the wine in the calabash, they said they had come to conscript me into the army. I ask them weather they wanted me or somebody else, and they said they had come for me. I asked them weather an enemy sent them or they came on their own. To cut it short, they said i was wasting their time s they had to catch twenty men that day. Only a foolish man willingly disobeys armed soldiers. I told them I had something very important to say.
‘Say it, then’ one of them cut in impatiently, looking at his watch. It was approaching midday, by which time it was considered unsafe to drive around in a car for fear of enemy planes which had learnt to strafe individual vehicles on the highway.
‘Yes, what I want to say is simple’ I said, ‘My first son, the boy who should have succeeded me when I died, joined the army voluntarily with my full backing. He was a brilliant boy, always first in his class. He was in his last year at school when the war began. He was killed. The two children who came after him are girls. The next boy is still in primary school. If he were old enough, I would have asked him to join the army not, minding that the fact that my first son’s head had already been sacrificed to the same war. For no person who breathes, will say that he has no part in this war.
‘But let me add this: - If this war has reached the stage when a man of my age is given a rifle by force and sent to the war fri9ont, then the time has come for you to blow the whistle and end the war. That is all I want to say!’.
The army was short of personnel because the soldiers Options:In the question below choose the option nearest in meaning to the word(s) or phrase(s) Underlined:
I shall be with you presently
Options:In the question below, fill the gap with the most appropriate option:
The secretary was blamed _____ the untidy state of the office
Options: