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.
Recent literary researches reveal that Nigerians hardly have time to read . In essence, the reading culture in Nigeria is now at a low ebb. It is disturbing, however, that few Nigerians that read concentrate more on foreign books than indigenous productions. Most Nigerian authors of novels,storybooks, fictions and non-fiction series have decried, on different, occasions, their woes. The were bitter at the way most owners of bookshops and publishers treat them. It was gathered to stock foreign books. when contacted by DAILY INDEPENDENT, the general manager of a popular bookstore on Lagos lsland declared that most of the bookshops preferred to stock foreign books because of higher demands for them. The question that bothers most Nigerian authors is , while their overseas counterparts are being rewarded with great international honours, why are Nigerians not according them such recognition in their own country?
Recently, "Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, won the 2007 Orange Prize Award, the literary world's top award for fiction in English written by women. The award carries a prize tag of $30,000 it was reported in Publishers Weekly, Half of a Yellow Sun, the book that earned her the award, was profoundly gripping. According to the reviewer, the book is a transcendent novel of many descriptive triumphs, most notably its diction of the impact of war brutalities on peasants and intellectuals alike. It is searing history in fictional form, intensely evocative and immensely absorbing. Chinua Achebe, 'Father of Modern African Literature, also won the second ever Man Booker International Prize of £60,000 with his first novel Things Fall Apart, published in 1958. When Professor Wole Syinka won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, the fame confirmed the relevance of Nigerians in the world of classical excellence. Ben Okri won the 1991 Booker Prize with his work, The Famished Road, and the world celebrated Nigeria as the giant of Africa.
It was also , gathered that most of the publishers hurriedly produce books and in the process marred their good contents. Most of the books are not properly edited and eventually become substandard when compared with foreign products. The extent to which book publishing standard has fallen in Nigeria alarming. Often Nigerian publishers have been blamed for this. It is instructive that none of the books mentioned had been published in Nigeria. It was discovered that most students in tertiary institution depend on dictations from their lectures and /or handouts. A science lecturer in one of the Nigeria universities, who had been a victim of handout sales scandal, told DAILY INDEPENDENT the reality of campus challenges in relation to books; I was forced to dictate notes slowly to students who hung on my every word in the absence of textbooks in a library that had, to all intent and purpose, stopped buying new books when the local currency was devalued. But what other alternative does one have?
Adapted from DAILY INDEPENDENT, Monday, 20 August, 2007
The reason for lack of indigenous books in most renowned bookshop, according to the passage, is
Options:In order to approach the problem of anxiety in play, let us consider the activity of building and destroying a tower. Many a mother thinks that her son is in a ‘destructive stage’ or even has a ‘destructive personality’ because after building a big, big tower, the boy cannot follow her advice to leave the tower for Daddy to see, but instead must kick it and make it collapse. The almost manic pleasure with which children watch the collapse in a second of the product of long play-labor has puzzles many, especially since the child does not appreciate it at all if his tower falls by accident or by a helpful uncle’s hand. He, the builder must destroy it himself. This game, I should think arises from the not so distant experience of sudden falls at the very time when standing upright on wobbly legs afforded a new and fascinating perspective on existence. The child who consequently learns to make a tower ‘stand up’ enjoys causing the same tower to waver and collapse; in addition to the active mastery over a previous passive event, it makes one feel stronger to know that there is somebody weaker-and towers, unlike little sister, can’t cry and call ‘mummy’
In the passage 'manic pleasure' means Options:Select the option that best explains the information conveyed in the sentence.
Most of the time, their presence is a menace?
Options:Answer the following question, choose the option nearest in meaning to the word or phrase underlined:
The athlete is proud to be in the vanguard of sports development.
Options:Fill each gap with the most appropriate option from the list following the gap.
Those men helped Duped and _____ ?
Options:In the past, famine, various types of diseases and natural disasters checked population growth in many countries. At that time, man had not learnt to till the soil sufficiently to improve and increase her yield. Man was unable to do much to conquer these diseases and natural disasters were regarded as a curse of the gods for which man had no answer. Thus famine, diseases and natural disasters remained a nightmare to mankind.
With the present development in technology and modern agriculture, one would have thought that the problem of starvation should have been solved. But starvation still stares man in the face. The increase in population now accounts for the consequent scarcity of food experienced in many parts of the world. However, in some countries, man’s advancement in technology and medicine has rapidly increased the population while improved methods of agriculture and food preservation have caused steady rise in food production. Also, man can now effectively prevent and cure most diseases in the world.
Unfortunately, the working population engaged in agriculture is so small that it cannot produce enough to satisfy the gaping mouths to be fed. In various parts of the world, man has engaged himself in various jobs in order to adjust the food production to match the growing population so his zone, but population growth continues to outstrip food production measures. Incidentally, the source of food and food preservation measures can be limited unlike population growth which may not be effectively checked. Perhaps the only effective checks to population explosion may be the drastic birth control measures. But many religious sects the world over are opposed to many to these birth control measures.
'But starvation still stares man in the face' means starvation Options:Fill in the gap with the most appropriate option from the list following the gap.
The old man couldn't help _____ at his grandson's babbling?
Options:In the question below, choose the option nearest in meaning to the underlined:
The salesman tried to pull the wool over by the eye. This implies that the salesman tried to
Options: