1. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
I was brought up in a medium-sized town, with a younger brother and sister. When we were young I had my own bedroom, and I still love having my own space. I was allowed to read for hours at night, because I wasn’t disturbing anybody. But when we got a bit older, my brother had to have his own room, and I had to share with my sister. I resented it at the time, and I think I still hold it against him a bit, even now.
My mother managed brilliantly on a school teacher’s salary producing the most delicious meals out of scraps and leftovers. But we could never afford large joints of meat, and to this day I cannot eat a lot of meat. I am much happier eating vegetables, eggs, rice and so on. We were all made aware of the value of money at an early stage, and because of that I am careful with money, even now.
I went to the local girls’ grammar school. Everyone agreed it was the best school for miles. I certainly thought it was, at the time. I loved everything about it; the bottle-green uniform, the currant buns at break, the rules, the teachers, and the damp smell in the basement, the hockey field and the school song… I was intently proud to be part of it, and studied my way eargerly up the school, and doing in every way, what was expected of me.
It was only when I went to University that I began to challenge some of the doctrines I had been taught at school, and to realize that learning to think for oneself is more important than learning what someone in the past though. These days I do not conform to the rules of society quite so slavishly and prepared to question a decision or stand up for a principle.
It was all in all, an extremely happy childhood, which I think has given me a pretty balanced and positive outlook on life.
Adapted from : Recycling Advanced English by Claire West
a. Why does the author resent her brother?
b. What job was the author’s mother doing?
c. What three things did the author learn in her childhood that can still affect her even today?
d. Mention four things that the author liked about her school.
e. Explain the meaning of these words as used in the passage.
i) my own space
ii) still hold it against him
iii) scraps
iv) slavishly
2. Read the following passage carefully and summarize it in Rough & Fair Copy in the Question that Follow.
The existence of the Billingham plant and others likr it, suggest a very substantial market for their nitrogen-containing fertilizers. Why is this so? We have known for many years these essential nutrients. These nutrients include nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, which are particularly important in promoting the growth of agricultural crops, as well as a number of other elements some of which are required onlyin very small quantities. These include calcium, magnesium, sodium, sulphur, copper, iron, zinc, manganese and boron. Adding manure and compost to the soil is one important way of returning to the soil some of the nutrients used by plants as they grow. However, the intensive cultivation of crops developed to feed a rapidly growing world population often removes nutrients from the soil more quickly than they can be replaced by natural means. Artificial fertilizers are therefore added to the soil to make sure that they can continue to support the growth of crops. Artificial fertilizers may also, of course, enable plants to be grown on land previously unable to support the growth of crops because it lacked some, or all of the essential nutrients.
If artificial fertilizers are not used properly, problems can arise. For example, an excess of nitrates in the soil can be washed by rainfall, into rivers, streams or lakes, thus disturbing the natural balance of the source used as part of a domestic water supply.
The ever growing use of fertilizers is not without its problems. For example, finite natural resources such as natural gas are being used up in the manufacture of fertilizers. Additionally, it has been estimated that some fifteen large plants for ammonia synthesis will need to be built annually to keep pace with demand. We are also becoming increasingly aware of possible effects of the high rates of fertilizer application to the land. This can particularly affect lakes and rivers. The wash off of fertilizers particularly nitrates and phosphates affect other plants. The rapid growth of algae is often referred to as a bloom! Such blooms can severely upset the natural balance of the lakes and streams. As the algae die and decay oxygen is removed from the water and no normal aquatic life can survive. There are also worries about the effect of agricultural fertilizers, especially nitrates, on the quality of public water supplies.
Yet nitrogen is abundant in nature, particularly in its free form in the atmosphere, close to 80% of the air we breathe is made up of nitrogen. Could this nitrogen be used to supply the needs of plants? This is what the researchers in many countries are attempting to discover.
The problem is that neither plants nor animals can directly use free nitrogen. It must be first converted into nitrates by micro-organisms in the soil. If this conversion occurs slowly, the soil is poor and must be fertilized.
A kind of bacterium, the rhizobia, has long been known to be capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen in a form usable by plants. Penetrating into the roots of legumes, (beans, soya, peas, Lucerne, clove), it forms nodules. There, it fixes atmospheric nitrogen for use by plants and in return revives nutritional elements, chiefly carbohydrates such as sugars.
Adapted from: Chemistry for First Examinations by Wilford
Question:
In about 120 words, summarize the uses of artificial fertilizers and the associated problems.
3. Read the passage below carefully and answer the questions that follow.
My ten years in America had been happy and eventful, but at the same time they had been remarkably strenuous. Life would have been so much easier if I could have devoted all my time to study. As things were, however, I was always in need of money and had to work out ways and means of earning my livelihood.
On one occasion I found a job in a soap factory. I had imagined that I would leave work each day exuding the scent of roses or honeysuckle but this was far from the case. it turned out to be by far the filthiest and most unsavory job that I ever had. All the rotting entrails and lumps of the fat of animals were dumped by lorries into a yard. Armed with a fork I had to load as much as I could of this reeking and utterly repulsive cargo into a wheelbarrow and then transport it, load after load, to the processing plant. As the days went by, instead of being steadily toughened, I had the greatest difficulty in trying not to vomit the whole time. At the end of two weeks I was almost fit to be transformed into a bar of soap myself. A doctor friend of mine advised me strongly to leave the job. If I did not, he said, I would certainly never complete my education in America.
Taking his advice I began to look for other work. I decided to go to sea, and was lucky in getting a job aboard the SHAWNEE, a ship plying between New York and Vera Cruz in Mexico. The pay was reasonably good and we were always a most haunting feeling of loneliness, not just being without companions, but of being nobody’s concern. Many times as I walked in the streets of Vera Cruz in other foreign ports the thought struck me that anybody could have set upon and killed me and nobody would have missed me unduly.
I learned too, that to sleep under the stars in my native Africa was, in spite of the raiding mosquitoes, a far happier prospect than sleeping out in cities of America. When I first visited Philadelphia with a fellow student neither of us had any money for lodgings and, as we had nowhere else to go, we walked back to the railway station and sat on one of the benches intending to pass the night there. We had not reckoned with the ubiquitous American police. At about midnight we were rudely shaken out of our doze and greeted by a firm but not unkind voice saying ‘Move on, chums, you can’t sleep here.’ Thereafter I devised another plan. For a nickel I bought a subway ticket and boarded a train plying between Harlem and Brooklyn. With this ticket I travelled backwards and forwards on the train the whole night, getting what sleep I could. It was, of course, a very disturbed night, for every time the subway reached its destination I go out and changed coaches in case the guard became curious about me being in the same coach for so long.
Adapted from Kwame Nkrumah’s Autobiography ‘Ghana’
Identify the Correct Answer
a) According to the first paragraph, the writer would have liked his stay in America better had it not been for
A. his being busy with his studies
B. the lack of exciting events
C. the high cost of living
D. having to work to maintain himself
b) According to the writer, his job in the soap factory was the… he had ever done.
A. first job
B. best of jobs
C. worst job
D. least paying of jobs
c)The writer though that if he stayed longer at the job in the soap factory he would
A. become disabled
B. get used
C. be sick more often
D. give up
d) The writer says he was lucky to get the job on the SHAWNEE because it
A. offered betterremuneration
B. provided him with company
C. enabled him to travel to European cities
D. was less dangerous
e) In the streets of Vera Cruz, the writer often felt
A. free
B. comfortable
C. out of place
D. ignored
4. A Re-write each item in 3.1 to 3.10 according to the instructions. Do not change the meaning of the original sentence
1 He could not risk entering the cave. (Use ‘dare’ in place of ‘risk’)
2 They were very similar in appearance, but everyone could tell one twin from the other (Re-write beginning: “In spite of…”)
3 Mukisa has not paid me. Okoth has also not paid me. (Combine into one sentence to end: “…Okoth.”)
4 “I am sorry I failed to meet you yesterday as I had promised,” said the teacher to the student. (Re-write beginning: The teacher apologized…)
5 A football team is made up of eleven players. (Re-write using “comprises”)
6 As soon as he entered the hall, the students gave him a thunderous applause. (Re-write beginning: “No sooner…”)
7 It would be better for you to revise for the test rather than just sitting and doing nothing. (Re-write using “wish”)
8 The weather was unfavorable. Kyate didn’t hate the idea of helping his father to wash the car. (Re-write as one sentence using “mind”)
9 Mutyaba rises early, except when he is seriously sick. (Re-write beginning: “Only…”)
10 This year’s maize harvest is poor. The price of maize is high. The maize farmers are getting a lot of money. (Re-write as one sentence without using “and”)
5. Complete the sentences 3.11 to 3.20 with the most suitable answer among the given alternatives. Put a ring around your best choice.
a) My brother has now retired and lives… a meager pension
A. from
B. on
C. with
D. for
b) She could not give me some of the money, as it was not her’s…
A. giving
B. for giving
C. to give
D. to give it
c) Choose the correctly punctuated sentence.
A. May I see you, please?
B. May I see you, please.
C. May I see you? Please.
D. May I see you please?
d) The girls in upper school heard the teacher suddenly… loudly in pain.
A. scream
B. screaming
C. screamed
D. to scream
e) ..… driven more carefully, he would not have crashed.
A. Had he
B. If he has
C. If he have
D. Unless he has
f) The school is hidden… view by a clump of trees.
A. in
B. off
C. behind
D. from
g) Change the sentence below into indirect speed. “You must see the doctor tomorrow!” he said.
A. He said that you had to see the doctor tomorrow
B. He said that we must see the doctor tomorrow
C. He said that I had to see the doctor the following day
D. He said that you have to see the doctor the following day.
h) Mr. Mukasa… to Mombasa by October
A. will go
B. will have gone
C. will be going
D. will be gone
i) The choir is singing in…
A. concord
B. concert
C. unison
D. unity
j) Dorcas …, she joined another company.
A. no more works here
B. doesn’t still work here
C. still doesn’t work here
D. doesn’t work here anymore