SECTION A
COMPOSITION
[20 MARKS]
Answer THE question in this Section. Your essay should be about 250 words.
You have been attacked by the members of the community where you teach for disciplining some
students. Write a letter to your Director of Education requesting for a transfer from your station.
SECTION B
COMPREHENSION
[10 MARKS]
Read the passage below and answer the questions which follow.
There was some silence. The clergyman adjusted the wick of the lantern hanging on a nail in the
wall. He stalked a mosquito that was taking liberties with his ankle and murdered the offending
insect in an explosion out of all proportion to its size.
“Pastor”, the old man said, startled. “You educated people are funny. Killing a mere mosquito as if
you were killing an elephant! Why, why don’t you let the little insect alone? How much of you can
it bite to make any difference to you, pastor?”
Josiah Olaiya was a little embarrassed at having been caught by a member of his flock. In an
unguarded moment. “But chief”, he said, “that insect is dangerous. It carries death from one person
to’ another.
“Death from one person to another?” Chief Momo said most astonished. “That thing carrying
death”? He said incredulously, pointing an incredulous finger at the destroyed corpse which but a
moment before was inflated with a milligram of Olaiya’s blood.
“Mosquitoes bite people,” the clergyman explained. The old man nodded. “When a mosquito bites a
man with malaria, it sucks malaria germs from his blood.” The old man frowned, showing that he
had started to lose the thread of understanding. «When the mosquito bites another man, it transfers
the germs of malaria into the body of the other man. And that other man gets malaria. You
understand, Chief?”
“Understand what, Pastor? That you will now get malaria because that thing bit you?” He again
indicated with his finger the battered corpse of the mosquito. “White man’s folly!” Here he spat in
the middle of the room.
“Pastor”, the old man said after a silence. “I want you to tell me one thing. The white man. He is a
funny man. He is full of wisdom. Plenty of wisdom. And he is full of folly, plenty of folly. You hear
my word?” Josiah Olaiya nodded.
“My son wrote on a piece of paper a long, long way away. The paper is brought here. You were not
there when the paper was written by my son. Yet, you here read the words of my son from this
paper. That is wisdom. It is magic. White man’s magic.”
“But you see that thing there’, continued Chief Momo, “that one carrying disease, that is white
man’s folly. That is woman talk. Rubbish! Like what the lean white farmer said about cocoa trees
being sick because the trees pass disease to one another. Pastor, the white man who come to us these
days do not know their work properly. The good ones have left the country.”
Ogundipe and Tregido: Practical English.
a.) Explain what is meant by “he stalked a mosquito”? [1 mark]
b.) What does the expression “taking liberties with his ankle mean”? [1 mark]
c.) How did Chief Momo show his rejection of “the mosquito malaria theory”? [1 mark]
d.) What service had the pastor performed for Chief Momo in recent times? [1 mark]
e.) What did ‘the mosquito theory’ remind Chief Momo of? [1 mark]
f.) What was the connection between the two? [1 mark]
g.) Explain the following words as used in the passage: [4 marks]
i. startled
ii. embarrassed
iii. thread
iv. battered
SECTION C
GRAMMAR
[30 MARKS]
Answer ALL the questions in this Section.
Question 1
A. Change the following from Passive to Active voice. [5 marks]
i. The customer was being helped by the security man when the thief came into the
store.
ii. The letters must be delivered by the messenger.
iii. Adjoa should have made the cake for the party.
iv. I am going to prepare the food.
v. The enemies were being fired at by the soldiers.
B. Change the following from Active to Passive voice. [5 marks]
i. The teacher reads stories to the students.
ii. I am going to pick up my sister from school.
iii. We have watched that movie before.
iv. The soldiers built a bridge over the river.
v. The class has already discussed the book.
Question 2
A. Change the following sentences from Indirect to Direct speech. [5 marks]
i. Kwame said that they had taken the exercise
ii. John said he rang the bell and my friend let him in.
iii. Afia said she would be visiting her mother tomorrow.
iv. The customers told the manager that they had been waiting for two hours.
v. The director said that they had cancelled the performance.
B. Identify the structure of the following sentences (simple, compound, etc.) [5 marks]
i. We went to the market and bought some food items but we did not cook.
ii. Although my friends begged me, I still refused to attend the function.
iii. Adio and Yao missed the last train.
iv. Because he paid attention in class, Ali got an A and he was very happy
v. Since Kwabena was not familiar with the route, he drove very slowly
Question 3
A. Read the following passage and correct any concord error identified. [5 marks]
The musician always come from his village to do this work. He carry a huge alarm clock
on his shoulders. He have a stick which he use to beat the drum. He always have a gourd
full of rum under his armpit.
B. Rewrite the following sentences correcting all ambiguities or dangling modifiers if
any.
i. Moving towards the hall of residence, the goat hit the car.
ii. Grace wants to work in a canteen in a company with modern equipment.
iii. The guests who witnessed the hall durbar frequently commended it.
iv. We saw a huge crocodile, driving to the Elmina Castle.
v. Teenagers who stay out all night sometimes should be punished.
