TABLE OF CONTENT

Page

Table of Content - - - - - - - - i

Preface - - - - - - - - - - 1

Sentences and their Kinds - - - - - - - 1–7

Understanding Phrases - - - - - - - 7 – 13

Understanding Clauses - - - - - - - - 13 – 19

Paragraph Development - - - - - - - - 19 – 25

Essay Writing - - - - - - - - - 25 – 35

Letter Writing - - - - - - - - - 35 – 42

Comprehension - - - - - - - - - 42 – 52

Summary - - - - - - - - - - 52 – 56

Comprehension Passages - - - - - - 56 – 61

Summary Passages - - - - - - - - 61 – 66.

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 PREFACE
English language can be tedious to master as we try to learn it. However, this pamphlet
was written to be easily accessible of English to pupils and students at various institutional
levels as a second language. The Contemporary English is designed to help beginners and
intermediate level learner in their grammatical skills and composition.
As you progress this pamphlet, you will find that your confidence in using English is
growing with the numerous examples provided. Therefore, by time you finish it, you will be
major step closer to university, being a fluent speaker and writer.

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 SENTENCES AND THEIR KINDS
WHAT IS A SENTENCE: A sentence is usually consists of a subject and a predicate and it
express a complete thought. Sentence is the basic unit of writing, and a good writing begins
with sentences that are grammatical and clear. Examples:
 My sister wrote me an interesting letter.
 All the students have paid their fees.
 The cat in the garden belongs to me.
KINDS OF SENTENCES
Sentences may be divided into four main types, each type serving a different purpose:
declarative, imperative, interrogative and subjective.
1. DECLEARATIVE SENTENCE: these are sentence that make statement and has a
position. The speaker is informing the listeners that a state of affair is so, is becoming
so, will be so, and has been so. The subject usually comes before the predicate and
ends with a period. Examples:
 I will pay you tomorrow.
 The children have eaten their food.
 She may not come to night.
 That is your book.
2. IMPERATIVE SENTENCE: These are sentences that give command or more make
request. They are sometimes followed by explanation marks. The subject “you’’ is
usually understood. Examples:
 Quit out(command)
 Please lend me your pen (request)
 Leave this room immediately (command)
 Help me carry this load, please. (request)
3. INTERROGATIVE SENTENCE: These are sentences that ask question or to supply
information about the state of affairs. Interrogative could be sub-divided into three
and ends with a question mark.

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 i. ‘’ WH’’ interrogative, e.g.
 What is your name?
 Why are you crying?
 Who is over there?
 Whose book is this?
ii. ‘’ yes’’ or ‘’no’’ interrogative, e.g.
 Are you going home? (answer: yes or no)
 Is that your car? (answer yes or no)
iii. Tag interrogative e.g.
 You didn’t go there, did you
4. SUBJECTIVE SENTENCE: these are sentence that indicate a wish or prayer
examples:
 If I was a rich man, I will rescue beggars from the street. (wish)
 Help me God.(prayer)
 I wish I had a scholarship. (wish)
 May God bless you. (prayer)
SENTENCE STRUCTURES
Sentences are classified according to the number and kind of clauses they contains. There
are four kinds which are classified according to their structures. These includes: simple
sentence, compound sentence, complex sentence and compound complex sentence.
1. SIMPLE SENTENCE: A simple sentence is a sentence that contains one independent
and no subordinate clauses.
Examples:
 Janet went to the market.
 My sister wrote me an interesting letter.
 The candidate is my brother.
COMPOUND SENTENCE: A compound sentence consists of two or more independent
clauses that are joined by coordinate conjunction such as: and, but, nor, or, for and yet.
The two clauses are often separated by common which proceeded by coordinate
information. Examples:

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  John took the ball and give it to James
 I rang the door bell several times, but no one answered
 The tires should be inflated or they will wear out
3. COMPLEX SENTENCE: A complex sentence comprises of one independent clause and
one or more subordinate clauses. Examples:
a. Her autobiography, which was published in 2012, still sells well.
b. The iron will shut off automatically, if it is left standing for five minutes.
c. Frederick Douglass, who fought to end slavery, was a leader in abolitionist
movement.
d. He entered to the North in 1838, where he changes his name to avoid being caught.
4. Compound Complex Sentence: A compound complex sentence is made up to two or
more independent clauses and one or more subordinate clauses. Examples:
i. When I got to our house, I rushed into the yard and called out to her, but no answer
came.
ii. I had a dream about the school, but I didn’t tell my friends, because was
embarrassed.
iii. After the show was over, we decided to visit our brother but we had a break down on
the road.
iv. When we reached the hospital, the doctor was in the theater and we could not see
him on time.
COMPOUND COMPLEX SENTENCE: A compound complex sentences is made up of two or
more independent clauses: Examples:
 When I got to our house, I rushed into the yard and called out to her, but no answer
came
 I had a dream about the school, but didn’t tell my friends, because I was
embarrassed
 After the show was over, we decided to visit our brother and we could not see him on
time.
SENTENCE COMPONENTS

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Every sentence has a subject and predicate. A subject can be a person or thing the
sentence is about. The predicate is what said about the subject and will be a verb or verb
phrase.
Simple Subject: The simple subject is the noun or pronoun that tells who or what the
sentence is about. The simple subject does not include any modifiers. Examples:
 The boy is sleeping
 The spider scared the children
 It rained heavily last night
Simple Predicate: The simple predicate is a verb or verb phrase that describes the action
or state the condition of the subject. The simple predicate does not include modifies and
the words that complete the meaning of the verb. Example:
 Susan took the money to the bank
 The Sewa river flows into the Atlantic ocean
 Most Europeans drive small cars
Compound Subject: A compound subject is a simple subject that consists of two or more
nouns and pronouns which joined by conjunction. Example:
 Tom and I cleaned the room
 Neither Chris nor Juan shares her interest
 Tall trees, large plants and exotic fruit grow in the jungle
Compound Predicate: A compound predicate is a simple predicate that consists of two or
more verbs or verb phrase joined by conjunction. Examples:
 The custom officer opened the package and carefully inspected the contents.
 The teacher failed the pupils and punished them to study hard.
 A flock of birds swooped behind the hill but reappeared above the trees.
Complete Subject: The complete subject consists of the simple subject and all of the words
that modify it or identify it. Examples:
 The noisy children were playing football.
 The girl in African dress sang a lullaby
 A small red fox walked by

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Complete Predicate: The complete predicate consists of the simple predicate and all of the
modifiers and words that complete the meaning of the verb. Examples:
 The child molded the clay put quickly and carefully
 Mike practices on his tuba every day
 The rain fall in torrents

DIRECT AND INDIRECT OBJECT

Direct Object: A direct object is a noun or pronoun that receives or follows an action verb
and answers the question ‘’ what?’’ or ‘’whom?’’ examples:
 Drought destroyed the crops (destroyed what?)
 I received a package yesterday (received what?)
 Salamatu called me at noon (called what?)
 The journalist interviewed the president before and after the fight (interviewed
whom?)
Indirect Object: Indirect object is a noun or a pronoun that comes before the direct object
and the direct object and named the person or thing ‘’ to whom ‘’ or ‘’ for whom ‘’ an action
is done. Examples:
 MR. Sillah bought Amanita a watch (bought for whom?)
 The traffic officer gave us very clear direction (gave to whom?)
 The students ask the teacher several questions (asked for whom?)
 The principal showed our class a video about Sierra Leone war.(showed to whom?)
SUBJECT AND OBJECT COMPLEMENTS
Complements: A complement is a word or a group of words that complete the meaning of
the predicate. Complements are always part of the complete predicate. Example
 Safiatu performance amazed every one (every one is a complement)
 These orange taste sour (sour is a complement)
 Subject Complement: A subject complement is a noun, a pronoun or an adjective
that gives information about the subject. Examples:
 Rats are extremely destructive (the adjective – destructive describes the subject Rats)

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 There are two kinds of subject complements. That is, predicate adjective and predicate
nominative.
(i). Predicate Adjective: The adjective describe or modifies the subject. Example:
 The president was loyal
 The swimmer was so powerful
 The two boys were angry about getting caught sleeping.
(ii) Predicate Nominative: The predicate nominative is a noun or pronoun that indentifies
or renames the subject examples:

 The new vice chairman is Alien

 Elizabeth remains my friend
 The mysterious stranger in black was I
Objective Complement: An object complement is a noun, a pronoun or an adjective that
indentifies or describes a direct object example:

SUBJECT VERB DIRECT OBJECT OBJECT COMPLEMENT

We Elected Finda Class prefect
The judge Pronounced Him A free man
She Found The play Boring
They Considered You A hero
I Named The dog Blackie

UNDERSTANSDING PHRASES
A phrase is a group of words that are used together in a sentence that does not contain a
finite verb. A phrase can be represented by one word. A phrase is also a group of related
words that is used as single part of speech and that does not contain both a verb and
subject. Observe the following words-groups:
1. Under the table
2. At –mid-day
3. In a hurry
4. Out of sight

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Does each of these word-groups give meaning? Yes, it does give meaning but not complete
meaning. The words in each of these groups are in proper order but they do not express a
complete thought. Each word-group needs some more words to be completely meaningful.
Moreover, it lacks the most important of words-the verb.
Such word-groups fail to give complete meaning due to the absence of some necessary
words. They are called.

PHRASES
In a word to find more meaning to the words-groups above, the following questions be
asked, examples
 What is under the table?
 What is happen at mid-day?
 Who is (was) in a hurry?
 What is (was) out of sight?
In this unit, we will learn about six types of phrases: noun phrases, adjectival phrases,
prepositional phrases, adverbial phrases, verbal phrases, and verb phrases.
NOUN PHRASES
Noun phrases do the same work as a noun in sentences, so far as they appear in these
parts of sentence (i.e. subject, object, complement) where a noun can occur. A noun phrase
can be represented by a noun or pronoun. Again, a noun phrase is a phrase that has a
noun or pronoun as its head word. It could be pre-modified by articles, possessive,
demonstrative pronoun and adjectives. In the following sentences, the underlined words are
noun phrases.
 The girl and her friend ate many oranges.
 Short people are dangerous.
 A faithful servant deserves an honor.
 Our teachers are hard working.
 This lemonade is very sour.

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 NOUN PHRASE FUNCTIONS AS SUBJECT
 My book was stolen from the bag.
 One of my brothers has suddenly turned a computer literate.
 Irresponsible secondary students do not perform well at examinations.
 Students in house two of MASTECH emerged champions of the competition.
NOUN PHRASE FUNCTIONS AS OBJECT OF A VERB.
 Someone has certainly taken my novel.
 The spectators watched the match.
 He made a thoughtless contribution at the meeting
 She came from a God- forsaken village famous for witchcraft.
 He destroyed our chair.

NOUN PHRASE FUNCTIONS AS COMPLEMENT OF PREPOSITION
 The nice girl in the garden is my sister.
 He always thinks of the man he met.
 She gave her love to the boy.
Noun Phrase Function as of Sentence (Either Subject Complement or Object
Complement)
-Subject complements identify or describe a subject while object complements
identify or describe a direct object.
 The girl is my sister (subject complement)
 John is a student (subject complement)
 He declared his wife a rogue/ rascal (object complement)
 The mayor appointed ken a treasurer (object complement)
PREPOSITIUONAL PHRASES
A prepositional phrase consists of the proposition, the object, and the modifiers of that
object, examples:
 There are deep cracks in the moon surface.
 The preposition is “in’’
 Object of the preposition is “surface’’

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  The modifies is “the moon”
 We questioned the scientist repeatedly about her discovery.
 The preposition is “about’’
 Object of the preposition is “discovery’’
Modifier is “her’’
I brought back film footage of the horrible storm.
- The preposition is “of’’
The object of the preposition is “Storm”
The modifier is “the horrible”

Preposition Phrase Functions As an Adjective

A prepositional phrase functions as an adjective when it modifies a noun or pronoun. Such
phrases are sometimes called adjectival phrase. Adjectival phrases answer the same
questions answered by adjective i.e. which? What kind? How many? Examples:
 The cargo on the ship was unloaded
 Rosalie is someone with great talent
 David tried every pair of skills in the lodge
 The sound of the trumpet filled the hall
 My sister took her book off the table
 Susan promised me for her recipe for stew
The Following List is of the Most Common One-Word Preposition
 About beside into till
 Above between like to
 Across beyond near toward
 After but of under
 Along by off underneath
 Amid concerning on until
 Among down onto unto
 At during out upon

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  Before except outside with
 Behind for over within
 Below from post without
 Beneath in since through
Compound Preposition are Those Consisting of More Than One Word.
 According to by way of on account of
 Along with in addition to out of
 Aside from in front of together with
 Because of in spite of together with
 By means of in steal of with respect to
Prepositional Phrase Functions As an Adverb
A prepositional phrase function as an adverb when it modifies a verb, an adjective or
another adverb. Such phrases are called adverbial phrase. They answer the same question
answered by adverbs. How? when?, how often?, to what extent degree?
In the following list however do not end in “ly”
Again even now soon
Almost ever often still
Alone everywhere outside there
Already here quite too
Also just rather very
Away late seldom not
Down never sometimes yet
MODIFIES VERB
 The team ran around the field you can come o the party
 The scout matched over the hill.
 Dereck look behind the garage
 The package shared arrive before this weekend
 The mole burrowed under the lawn
MODIFIES ADJECTIVE
 The child is skillful with a paint brush

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  Our team is great at defiance
 Elizabeth sat motionless for a long time
 He played a tricked on his customers
MODIFIES ADVERB
 We should meet late in the day
 He studied hard, and his grades are always above average
 They practiced early in the morning
 People talked loudly until the end of the show
ADJECTTIVAL PHRASES
An adjectival phrase usually follows the noun it qualities. It is often notable that an
adjectival phrase stands very close to the noun it qualifies, examples:
 The beautiful lady in the office won the prize
 I recommended the dug on the table for him
 The suitcase with the broken handle is mine
 The box under the table contain jewels
 The president is the tallest man in the crowd (qualifies the noun president)
 No one in the class has seen the movie yet
ADVERBIAL PHRASES
An adverbial a verb, an adjective and an adverb making it meaning more specific. A
prepositional phrase that modifies a verb, adjective or an adverb is called an adverb phrase.
An adverbial phrase may be placed near the word it modifies or may be moved to the
beginning or end of a sentence.
ADVERB MODIFIES VERB
 The bird perched on the tree branch
 The fox jump over the lazy dog
 Susan frequently during dinner tells amusing stones
 The book was placed at the end of the shelf
 England had not yet prepared for war.
ADVERB MODIFIES ADJECTIVE
 Althea Gibson was graceful on the tennis court

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  Very few thing in life are completely perfect
 Her sadly beautiful face
 John always ready smile
 The evening have become rather chilly
ADVERB MODIFIES ADVERB
 The child speaks quite clearly for a two-year-old.
 Jennifer had a very difficult time after the accident
 Don t stay out in the sun too long
 I have seen Alison at the missing very often
 The child speaks amazingly well

VERBALS AND VERBAL PHRASE

Verbal are forms of verbs that function as nouns, adjectives, or adverb. For instance, a
verbal may be the subject of a sentence, or it may be the subject of a sentence, or it may be
a predicate nominative. Even though verbal’s function as other part of speech, they have
some of the properties of verbs. For example, the express actions, and they may take
indirect objects, indirect objects, predicate nominatives, or predicate adjectives. When you
use a modifier or a complement with a verbal, you form a verbal phrase.
There are three kinds of verbal: Participles, gerunds, and infinitives.

VERB PHRASES
A verb phrase is a group of words composed of a main verb and one or more helping verbs
that together act as the main verb in a sentence.
 Kelly must have been wondering about us.
Aux / v m/v

 The students are reading in library

Aux/v m/v

 Kelly will wonder about us

Aux/v m/v

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  The children have been playing football
Aux/ v m/v

 They were wondering about us

Aux/v m/v

 Tom should have been studying Biology

Aux/v m/v

Note: A verb phrase consists of the main and all it auxiliary verbs.
 Verb to be: am, is, are, was, were, being, been
 Verb to Have: has, have, had
 Other Auxiliaries: Can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, do, does, did,
and must.

UNDERSTANDING CLAUSES
A clause is a group of related words that contains both a subject and a predicate. These are
two kinds of clauses:
Independent and Subordinate Clauses.
To determine whether a group of words is a clause or a phrase ask if the group of words
contains both a subject and a verb. If both a subject and verb are present, the group of
words is a clause.
INDPENDENT CLAUSES: A clause that can stand alone is called an independent clause
because it can express a complete thought by itself. Every sentence must contain an
independent clause.
 The team ran out on to the court for the game
 The fans cheered wildly
 We were going to a movie last might
 The car couldn’t start
 The wind was blowing hard
 The drifts were six feet high.
Each of the preceding sentences is really an independent clause, standing by itself.
Independent clauses can be joined together by the coordinating conjunctions, and, but, or

15
nor, for, so and yet. When two independent clauses are joined into one sentence, the
result is called a compound sentence.
 The team ran out onto the court for the game, so the fans cheered wildly
 We were going to a movie last might, but the car couldn’t start.
 The wind was blowing hard, and the drifts were six feet high.
SUBORDINATE CLAUSES
A subordinate clause is a group of words that has a subject and a predicate but cannot
stand by itself as a complete sentence because it does not express a complete thought.
Subordinate clauses are sometimes called dependent clauses. A subordinate clause may
come either before or after an independent clause.

Independent Clause Subordinate Clause

 I like the book Because it was exciting
 I vacuumed the rug While my sister raked the leaves
 Mrs. Dimas gave us a ride home When we asked for one
SUBORDINATE CLAUSE INDEPENDENT CLAUSE
 When the package didn’t arrive We were puzzled
 After the pearls were recovered The detective claimed a large reward
 If you want to be on time You need to hurry
 Because the store had no paint Idriss bought green paint.

A subordinate clause may also, appear in the middle of an independent clause. In the
following sentences the subordinate clauses are underline.
 The dog that bit me was a poodle
 The person who sells the most wins a prize.
 The place where we shop is smith’s enterprise
The subject of a subordinate clause may be either a noun or a pronoun. In addition to such
pronoun as he, she and it many subordinate clause use another kind of pronoun for a
subject (s) words such as who, whose, whoever, what, which and that.

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  We saw the movie that was filmed in Antarctica
s
 The lawyer examined the evidence that seemed most crucial to her
s
Client’s defenses
 A “Trekkie” is a fan Who is devoted to star trek
s
One peculiarity of the subordinate clause is that it may sometimes begin with a pronoun
that is not the subject(s), but the direct object (D0), as the following sentences illustrate.
 We listen to the new records that Liz got
DO s v
 Mother Teresa is a person whom many people admire for her Courage
DO S V
and compassion
 These must be the keys that Nickie Lost
DO s v

KINDS OF SUBORDINATE CLAUSES

A subordinate clause may function as an adjective an adverb or a noun.
ADJECTIVE CLAUSE
A subordinate clause functions as an adjective if it modifies a noun or pronoun. Such
clause are sometimes called adjective clause. Many adjective clauses begin with a relative
pronoun.
Relative pronouns are the word whom, who, whose, which and that. These elative
pronouns are closely related to the word that modify because they relate that word. Notice
that the adjective clause does not always come directly after the word it modifies.
 The people at the party who saw the UFO were interviewed by the Air Force. (Modifies
the noun “people”)
 This is the watch that I get for my birthday (Modifies the noun “watch”)
 Is she someone whom you’re wondered for? (Modifies the pronoun “someone”)
 At the party John wore a tie that lit up. (Modifies the noun “tie”)
 The state where the largest scout camp is located is new Mexico. (Modifies the noun
“State”)

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  Seth missed his home town, which was near Kukuna (Modifies Pronoun “town”)
 We met an astronaut who had walked on the moon (Modifies noun astronaut)
 Isn’t Maferen Sillah the girl whose sister won the first prize? (Modifies the pronoun
“girl”)
ADVERBIAL CLAUSES
A subordinate clause functions as adverb if it modifies a verb, an adjective or an adverb.
Such clauses are sometimes called adverbial clauses.
Note that the first word in an adverbial clause is usually a subordinating conjunction,
which joins the adverbial clause the adverbial clause to a word or words in the main clause.
Subordinating conjunctions perform two functions: they link the adverbial clause to the
main clause of the sentence, and they show the relationship between the two clauses.
The following words are commonly used as subordinating conjunctions. Some consist of
more than one word. This compound subordinating conjunction function as a unit, working
in exactly the same way as one-word subordinating conjunctions.
After even though
Although if until
As far as in order that when
As if provided that wherever
As long as since where
As though so that wherever
Because than whether
Before that while
 The hogs ate as if they wanted to set a record for greediness (modifies the verb’ ate’)
 Before the tornado struck, the air grew still and oppressive, (modifies the verb ‘grew’)
 Donna sounds as if she has caught a cold (modifies the verb ‘grew’)
 Will you move so that I can see (modifies the verb will ‘move’)
 As long as he start early, he will arrive on time (modifies the verb ‘will arrived’)
Adverbial Clauses Can Also Modify Adjectives and Adverbs
 This pizza is spicier than you like (modifies the adjectives ‘spicier)
 The team played harder than they ever had before. (Modifies the adverb ‘harder’)

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  Your stereo is louder than I can see. (Modifies the adjectives ‘louder)
 Andrew can type faster than anyone else in his computer class can. (Modifies the
adverb ‘faster ‘)
 Salima was proved that the volley ball team chose her. (Modifies the adjectives
‘proud’)
 She threw the ball farther than he did (modifies the adverb ‘father’)
 Kim was glad that you like person (modifies the adjectives ‘glad’)
 Randy spoke his line humorously so that even the director laughed (modifies the
adverb’ humorously’)
NOUN CLAUSES
Some subordinate clauses functions as nouns in sentence. Such clauses can be referred to
as noun clauses.
A noun clause may function as a subject, or predicate nominative, a direct object, an
indirect object, an object of a preposition, or an appositive.

i. Subject:
 whenever donate to the fund gets an inscribed plague.
 That he is sincere is evident
 What I need is my own room
ii. Direct Object:
 The mechanic didn’t know what the problem was.
 I don’t know where the Mr. Gondo is
 She believes that lost time is never fund again
iii. Indirect Object:
 Grandfather will give whatever is robbing the hen house a load of buck shot.
 Give whoever is calling a message
 We will give whoever wins the contest a prize
iv. Predicate Nominate:
 The executive’s problem was that she hated to fire anyone
 That is what we decided

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  The happiest time in my was when we went to costa Rica for the summer
v. Object of a Preposition:
o I wouldn’t want to guess about what will happen
o I was praised for what I did
o She has written an article about how she was elected to the senate
vi. Appositive:
 The subject of my address, that taxes should be lowered, was well received
 The biggest trophy goes to the champion team, whoever wins the conference title.
NOTE: Noun clauses usually introduce or begin with one of the following words: who,
whoever when, whomever, whomsoever, what, whatever, that, which, when, how, where,
wherever, whether, whichever, or why. Sometimes, the introductory word serves merely as
a conjunction to join the noun clause to the main clause of the sentence. Other times,
however, the introductory word may function as the subject, direct object, or modifier
within the noun clause itself.
 I knew that she called . (She is the subject of the noun clause; that serves only to join
the rest of the sentence.)
 I know how we are accomplishing the task. (We is the subject of the noun clause;
how is an adverb modify can accomplish.)
When the conjunction serves only to join the noun clause to the remainder of the sentence,
it can usually be dropped without changing the sentence's meaning.
 We knew (that) we should leave early
 We knew we should leave early
 He told us (that) attendance is improving
 He told us attendance is improving
 The judge mentioned (that) she was born in Kukuna
 The judge mentioned she was born in Kukuna

PART TWO
PARACRAPH DEVELOPMENT
A paragraph is a series of sentence that develop a single idea or topic. Also, a

20
Paragraph is usually described as a unit of thought. Paragraph used for several other
purposes, and this includes the following:
i. Paragraphing is used to show a change in speaker. This is used in writing, dialogue,
wherein we used a paragraph indention
ii. Paragraphing is used to make the paragraph more readable. It is often very difficult
to read and understand stretches of sentences without indention.
iii. Paragraphing is used to indicate a shift in action, time, or setting. The use of indicate
usually shows that a new action is developing; a change in action has taken place.
This is used both functional and factual narrative.
NOTE
 A good paragraph should start with a capital letter.
 A good paragraph should be indicated or slanting.
 A paragraph should discuss only one main point that is fully developed (to have unity
of idea)
 Any illustration or example to support a point should be included in the same
paragraph.
 As much as possible, it is advisable to start your paragraph with a topic sentence. A
topic sentence is a sentence that contains a summary of all you intended to discuss
in that paragraph. Other sentences are to discuss the topic or the key sentences of
the paragraph.
 Your paragraph should neither be too short. If it is too short, it gives the examiner
the impression that you do not know what you writing about. On the other hand, if it
is too long, it will probably contain more than one important point or some irrelevant
details which the examiner will frawn at.
 Points you present should be properly linked through paragraphs for a logical
presentation.
 The last paragraph of the letter is usually the conclusion, and this is an informal
letter is the summary of the points you have discussed earlier.

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A paragraph has unity when each sentence in it clearly contributes to the unity by saying
something about the topic. To write a unified paragraph, you must know when to include
a detail and when to unit it.
a) Topic Sentence: A topic sentence states the idea that unifies the details in the other
sentences of the paragraph. Your topic sentence should be neither too general nor too
narrow. A topic sentence is too general if it is only partly developed by the details in
the other sentences of the paragraph. An example of too general a topic sentence is
“There are several seasons why it pays to get a college education’’ followed by
sentence. That discuss only one reason, a topic sentence is too narrow if it states
only part of what is discussed in the other sentences. An example of a too narrow
topic sentence is “High school rallies can be enjoyable’’ followed by sentence that
discuss not only rallies but also sport events.
b) Supporting Sentences: The supporting sentences of a paragraph provide the details
that explain the topic. The kind of support that need depends on your topic sentence
and the purpose of your paragraph. The basic kinds of support are facts, examples,
and reasons. You may develop a paragraph with only one kind of supporting detail,
or you may use any combination of the three kinds.
 Facts: The most common kind of supporting sentence that you can is the
statement of fact. A fact is something that you know with certainty. Facts are
such things as events, characteristics of something, physical observations and
statistics.
 Examples: Another way to support your topic sentence is to give examples. An
example is something that is typical of a whole group. An example helps
readers to understand the characteristics of a group. You will notice that facts
can serve as examples.
 Reasons: A third kind of supporting sentence that you can use is one that
gives a reason. A reason is a statement that explains or justifies another
statement. A reason answers the question ‘’why?’’ for your reader why did that
event occur? Why is this the way it is?, why should I believe that that remark?
Why should I perform that action? Facts can serve also as reasons.

22
In some paragraphs each supporting sentence offers a different reason that explains what
is said in the topic sentence. In other paragraph only one or two supporting sentences
actually offer reasons: the remaining supporting sentences further explain those reasons.
C). Concluding Sentence: After you have composed a topic sentence and supporting
sentences, you will sometimes want a concluding sentence that summarizes your thoughts
and brings your paragraph to a close. You will often need a concluding sentence when the
paragraph stands by itself instead of forming part of a longer piece of writing.
A concluding sentence can restate your topic sentence or can offer a final comment about
the topic. By restating the topic sentence, you remind your reader of the main point. Such
a restatement, of course, should be worded differently from the topic sentence. The
concluding sentence ought to say the same thing but in a fresh way.
Instead of restating the topic sentence, you may offer a final comment about the topic in
the concluding sentence. Your final comment may take many forms. You can state a logical
conclusion, give a personal impression or feeling, pose a question, and recommend a
course of action, and so on. However, your final comment must meet one important
requirement; it must be based on what has already been said in the paragraph.

ORDER OF IDEA IN A PARAGRAPH

There are four ways in which we can arrange ideas in a paragraph. The kind of order
depends upon the structure of the paragraph.
1. Chronological Order: This is a way of organizing events according to the time in
which they happen. When you use chronological order, you begin with what is oldest
or happens first, and you and with what is newest or happen last. Also, the details in
a paragraph may be arranged in chronological order. This kind of order deals with
paragraph development and those that explain the steps in a process. It is also used
in narrative essay wherein events are told in order they occurred. There are some
transitional words and phrases that you can use to indicate a chronological
arrangement of ideas. The following are among the most common:
After earlier next

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 After awhile eventually now
After that finally second
As soon as first since
At first in the end since then
At the same time later ` soon
Before meanwhile then
You can also show chronological order with time –related words that specify a particular
time, Date or period. Examples are at five o’clock in the morning, January 6, and for five
years.
2. Spatial Order: It is the order of position and often followed in descriptive writing.
Although it is usually wise to make a selection of details in description, the simplest
way to do this is to set up a logical plan that will enable you to move naturally from
one part of the sentence, to another. To use spatial order, you begin at a certain point
and direct the reader’s attention from one item to the next. The direction in which
you move depends on your topic and your topic and your desired effect. For instance,
if you wise to stress the great height of an object, you could describe it from bottom
to top. Similarly, you can stress width by describing from side to side, and stress
dept by describing from foreground to back ground. There are hundreds of words and
phrases that you can use to show spatial order. The following are among the most
common:
Above beneath on
Across beside outside
Alongside between over
Among beyond to
Around down to the side of
At in front of towards
Before inside under
Behind in the middle underneath
Below off up

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 3. Order of importance: The defiles in a paragraph may be arranged in the order of
importance. In explanatory or argumentative essays. You may choose to put your
facts or reasons in order of their important ones. In general, it is good idea to begin
with the least importance details and build up to the most importance ones.
Thus, achieving a vigorous conclusion. In some sentence, however, it may be
appropriate to do just the reverse that is, to give the most compelling facts or reasons
first, and then to support them with least importance ones. In either cases, the
relative importance should be clean to the reader. The order has to determine by the
writer.
You can also use such translational words phrases as compare to, furthermore,
moreover, lest importance, most importance, in the first place, finally, of major
concern, and of minor concern.
4. Comparison and Contrast: you can organize a paragraph through comparison,
contrast, or a combination of the two. You can sometimes use comparison to help
readers understand something that may be unfamiliar to them. We can use
transitional words and phrases such as the following to help you show a comparison:
Alike like
Also the same as
Both similar
Compared to similarly
You can develop same paragraph by contrast, which shows how two or more items differ.
Therefore, when you develop a paragraph by contrast, you concentrate on the differences
between things, not on their similarities. Of course, you can contrast only items that are
alike in some way. You can use transitional words and phrases such as the following to
help you show a contrast:
Although In contrast unlike
But never the less while
Different on the other hand yet
However

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 Coherence in a Paragraph: Make your paragraph coherently by clearly linking the
sentences from one sentence to another. Coherent in paragraph is easy to read. The
relationship between the paragraphs is clear and line of thought can be easy and natural
from one sentence to another.
ESSAY WRITING
Essay writing is the process of building larger and larger unit of the thought. A sentence is
used to express single though, whereas a paragraph consists of a combination of related
sentence that develops one central idea. Generally an essay comprises of the main points.
Introductory paragraph is the fish paragraph of an essay. This opening paragraph uses
some type of attention in other to get the
Reader’s interest. It is also states the controlling idea is expressed in a single sentence that
should always be in the introductory paragraph.
The body contains supporting detail sentences which back-up or support the idea
presented in the topic sentence make up the body of the essay.
The conclusion summarizes or relates the controlling idea of the essay
ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
Your attitude to the topic must be revealed in what you say, therefore, you need to set
clearly and logically the arguments in support of your stand i.e. whether you are in support
or against the motion
As a good debater, it is important to present some possible views of your opponents, given
reasons why they are unable by given examples to develop solid points
As good debates are meant for delivery, you are expected to deliver the appropriate register
and the use of contrast forms of the verb. The choice of vocabulary and variety in sentence
pattern contributes to your success by using vocative expected should be maintained

NOTE:
 Take a side whether you are talking for or against the motion.
 The title always comes in the introductory paragraph.
 If you are talking or writing for the public, you address people according to the level
of importance starting from the high to the low rather than low to high.

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  As you present your points the paragraphs keep on making reference to the
chairman, audience and fellow debaters to create awareness.
 Try to capture the minds of the audience to gain support by using various
experiences example, as you all know …., you will agree with me that …, it is
naturally true that…, we all have the believe that …e .t c.
 Quotations are necessary. This quotations must be apt and to the point in relation to
the subject matter. One can quote from books and saying of important people.
 Use some mathematics in your presentation to buttress your point’s examples, in
1960…, 2,000 people…., at 12 noon …. Etc
 To gain more mark, start by attacking your opponents point as if you are supporting
him by pointing out 1, 2, or 3 points mentioned.
 Give reasons to disprove or kick against that.
 Give your own points to weaken his.
Do not forget to note that one can only persuade others by putting up an argument
including this, that is, each and every paragraph carries one point of which you support or
against.
In general, writers use two basic methods of persuasion:
1. An appeal to reason or logic and
2. An appeal to emotion.
In a logical argument your approach is to present the readers with clear and sufficient
reasons supporting your point of view. For example ’’corporal punishment should be
abolished in schools’’. The writer can therefore say that it is too late for the schools in
Sierra Leone to abolish corporal punishment and that going through will be expensive on
the schools, extremely in convenient and confusing. In logical argument especially, writers
used the device of mentioning opposing ideas or counter arguments that might occur to the
reader. However, the writer accepts the point from the beginning against his/her argument
and deals with it by stating that the enormous crime rate and expense outweighs the
benefit of abolishing the punishment. In your own writing try to anticipate criticism or
counter argument by dealing with them in your paper. Few essays are based entirely

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analogical argument. Writers usually introduce emotional appeals as part of a logically
agued paper.
SAMPLE QUESTIONS.
You are the main speaker in a debate on the topics:
i. ‘’woman’s place is in the house’’.
ii. ‘’should co education be universal?’’.
iii. ‘’it is better to be born cleaver or rich’’.
iv. ‘’Do you agree that school holidays are much too long?’’.
v. Which is more important in primary schools ‘’knowledge of English or knowledge
of hygiene?’
DESCREPTIVE ESSAYS
When you describe the characteristics of a person, place or thing, you are using
description. Descriptive writing falls into two categories: factual descriptive which record
only what is seen and imaginative descriptive which express the writer’s feeling and
reaction to what he sees.

STEPS IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE

When you write a Descriptive:
Step One: Make up your mind what impression you want your reader to have it all
(impression) i.e. decide on the main idea, the dominant impression which you want to
convey to the reader.
Steep Two: Select the details which will make this impression vivid (selection) i.e. select the
significant details which wear out or illustrate the dominant impression.
Steps Three: Arrange these details so that the reader will see and feel what you see
(pattern), and used words which appeal to the reader’s sense i.e. arrange the details in and
appropriate pattern.
A descriptive essay involves the descriptive of a person, place, and idea emotion or objects.
To create a picture in the mind’s eye of the reader, the choice of words must cater for the
human sense, that are sight, smell, taste or tough and hearing. For instance to describe a
particular food the writer could simply employ terms that depict taste to explain the

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delicacy of the food. For instance you could say succulent and aromatic, the idea of tasting
is being created.
The correct use of adjective helps to give a vivid description of every detail that make seen
real. If any writing lacks the appropriate use of adjectives, that writing would be boring
rather than being apt. However, over –using adjective such as cute, rate, fantastic’s etc. can
impair your writing.
Again, in any description the writer must know what the description points. If for instance
the description is that of a house, our looking out the in interior or exterior? In the case
where the description is that of a person, we must take notice of physical taints,
educational background if necessary, behavior, social outlook. On the whole the discretion
must be objective rather than subjective
SAMPLES QUESTION
1. Someone has asked you how to get from your home to a place about an hour’s work
away. Give this person clean directions on how to get there, mentioned some of the
land marks that should be noticed on the way.

NARRATIVE ESSAYS
The purpose of narration is story telling. The simplest kind of story is single paragraph that
narrate one incident–a series of related actions that take place within a short space of time.
Stories about longer or more complex events may contain many paragraphs. Nonfictional
narratives, such as autobiographical and biographical writing, are based on fact. Factional
stories, on the other hand, came directly from the author’s imagination.
Choosing a Topic: choosing a suitable topic is the first step in writing a narrative about an
incident –a series of connected actions that occur within a few hours or on a single day.
Choose an incident that is simple enough to be told in one paragraph. You may decide to
narrate a time incident. In that case, you will write about actions that really happened and
about the real people who performed the actions.
On the other hand, you may choose to narrate a fictional incident, for which you will invent
the action, the people, or both. Fictional actions and people do not have to come solely from
your imagination, however. They may come from one of your own experiences, which you

29
can narrate as fiction by changing details as you wish. The actions of other people may also
help you to think of a fictional incident. For examples, if you see an athlete winning the
discus throw, you may imagine what would have happened if the athlete had lost the
contest, or you may imagine what happened the first time the athlete tried to throw the
discus.
Strategies: As you write your narrative about an incident. Keep in mind the following
guidelines.
1. Present the subject in a topic sentence, usually the first sentence.
2. Include information about the people and the setting early in the narrative. With
such information readers can clearly understand the incident. However, do not
include more information than the reader needs.
3. Tell the actions in chronological order, according to your list.
4. Use transitional words, such words as first, soon, next, and later are like sign posts
for your reader.
5. Write a concluding sentence to bring the incident to a writer recalls a true incident.
Planning the Narrative: After you have chosen your topic, plan the narrative carefully. An
incident must have (a) a beginning g (b) a high point and (c) an end.
(a) The beginning introduces the situation. In it you present both the character –the
people who perform the actions –and the setting –the time and location of the action.
(b) The high point is the action that creates the most excitement or suspense.
(c) The end contains the final action of the story.
Point of View: you can write a narrative from one of two point of view: from the view point
of a participant or from the view point of an outsider
When you narrate an incident in which you have participated, you use first –person
narrative. You are the ‘I’ who tells the actions. Autobiographical narratives –narrative
about events in your own life– are written in the first person. You can also write fiction in
the first person.
The other type of storytelling is third– person narrative. As you tell a true incident or
fictional story in the third person, you use the pronoun he, she and they to refer to all of
the people in the narrative when you do not use their names. Biographical narratives –

30
narrative about other people’s lives – are written in third person. The following examples
illustrate the difference between first– person and third– person narrative.
 First – person narrative: Rising at seven to find the dark clouds gathering outside my
window, I thought nature was warning me that this might be a stormy day.
 Third – person: Rising at seven to find the dark clouds outside her window, she
thought nature was warning her that this might be a stormy day.
You must keep your point of view consistent throughout any paragraph or composition. If
you begin a narrative in the first – person, use that form throughout. Similarly, if you begin
a narrative in third – person, you may use the pronoun I only in direct quotation.
Sample Question
1. Write a story to illustrate the saying :The devil makes work for idle hands
2. Write a story ending with the expression: At last we arrived safely.
SPEECH WRITING
A speech is an oral, or spoken, presentation in which you give some information or explain
your ideas on some subject to particular audience. The speaker usually reads from a
prepared text. Let us look at some guidelines on how you could write a speech you would
deliver on a prize- giving day or speech at your school in your capacity as a senior prefect.
The style of writing and the general approach taken in these types of speeches. When
writing a speech for day, you should:
1. Be sure to greet those present, example Mr. Chairman, distinguished visitors, the
principal, members of the staff, fellow student….
2. Use a courters opening example, it is a privilege for me to be here today to
acknowledge you about…..
3. Give a general overview of the year example there was generally good progress despite
a few problems.
4. Review some of the highlights of the school year examples
 Academic: improvement, award
 Sports: inter- house, inter- school
 Clubs and societies: special new project, educational tours.

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 5. Discuss some problems that came up and explain how they were dealt with example,
disciplinary problems – crackdown by the principal, trouble getting certain books – a
special order from Freetown
6. Give an expression of thanks to:
 The ministry of education and your parent for school financing.
 The principal and teacher for their instruction and guidance.
 Your fellow students for sharing the learning experience with you.
7. Look to the future example, I will be proud to be a graduate of this school. I hope
other will carry on and build on the present foundation to make the school even
better in the future.
SAMPLE QUESTION
1. Your principal sis due for retirement at the end of the academic year. As the senior
prefect, write a speech which you will deliver to honor him/ her at a send – off party.
2. Write a speech, to be delivering to the parent – teacher association of your school and
suggest how it can be prevent.
3. You have just been elected president of a society in your school or locality after a long
election campaign. Write the speech you will make accepting the education and
scoffing out the programmed you intended to follow.
4. Write the speech which you have seen asked to make a meeting of your village
community association giving your opinion on the topic: ‘should girls be given the
same opportunity to get a formal education as boys have?’’
5. A group of local business men meets once a month and always invites a guest
speaker on some topic of general interest. They have invited you as a representative
of the students at your school to speaker o n the topic: ‘’ what young people expect
from life nowadays ‘’.

ARTICLE WRITING
This aspect of essay writing most time baffle students. Most of them take it to bee a letter
wherein it is not an aspect of continuo writing.

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Article are piece of writing wherein express his / her opinion on a particular thing to the
public. Most question asked therefore goes like this “write an article for publication in one
of the local newspaper on the high rate of abortion among school going children”.
This is not a letter. It has no address and salutation as you do in letters to edition for
publication. Chose a suitable title from the question and underline or write them in block
letters. Start with god introductory paragraph which support the point you are going to
write on. From this introductory paragraph, one can develop his ideas in paragraph by
supporting them up with strong paragraph and points.
In most articles written, one is expected to give support to the point’s raison even though it
may be pointed directly. This can also go in a set of paragraph until you make a concluding
paragraph which gives a summary of the above.
Most times also, one is expected to write his name in case one may want to respond to your
article. You are warned not to give long unrelated materials that do not have any sequence
in the presentation. Your points must be clearly point out, with examples from content,
situation or event i.e. daily happenings.
SAMPLES QUESTION
Write an article for publication in a national newspaper or in a foreign magazine
1. ‘’ vocational training is the answer to unemployment youths’’.
2. ‘’On the high rate of abortion among school going children’’.
3. ‘’ Three taboos of your people, you may agree or disagree with the general attitudes to
these taboos’’.
4. Write an article for publication in one of your national newspapers, discussing the
poor sanitary conditions in your town or village.
5. Write an article suitable for publication in a national newspaper, discussing two
major problems facing your country and suggesting ways of solving them.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Your purpose in writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper is to tell the readers of the
newspaper what you think about some controversial issue that is a question that many
people are arguing about either in conversation or in the press itself. When writing a letter
to the editor, you should:

33
1. Distinguish clearly between a letter to the editor of a newspaper and an article for a
newspaper or magazine. The letter is an essay and not be written in the form of a
letter.
2. Set out your letter using the standard form for a formal letter i.e. using two
addresses. ‘’ Dear sir’’ and “yours faithfully’’
3. Go straight to the subject after the salutation. Do not waste words, for example,
asking for “some space in your widely-read newspaper’’.
4. State clearly the problem on your mind and discuss its effect on the public. For
example: “our sporting activities have become mined by violence to an alarming
degree. Spectators sometimes don’t even get to see the end of the match because it is
disrupted by violence”.
5. Discuss the cause(s) of the problem. For example: “one of the most important causes
of the food shortage in this country is the migration of young people from the rural
areas to towns, cities and diamond mining areas’’. Do not just give a series of
unexplained causes. Provide a clear explanation for each cause. For examples: “the
mass exodus of youths from the rural areas is occurring because farming is not
attractive, social amenities are inadequate in rural areas etc’’.
6. Suggest possible solutions to the problem you have stated. Try to stress the
practicability of your solutions. For example, if you feel that one way to curb violence
in supports is to educate the spectators and players, you should discuss how to
educate them, where to get the money to finance the campaign etc.
7. Make sure that if you refer to a previous letter or article. You give the date where
that letter or article was published.
8. Understand clearly that the newspaper editor should not be asked to solve the
problem you are discussing. He does not have power to do that. His role is to publish
your letter and make the public aware of the problem.

SAMPLES QUESTIONS

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 1. Write a letter to the editor of the national newspaper discussing the problem of
high unemployment among young people in your country and suggesting some
ways in which the situation could be improved.
2. Write a letter to the editor to a national newspaper in your country discussing one
social evil planning your society (e.g.) robbery with violence, smoking of India
hemp, bribery and corruption etc) and suggesting some ways in which the evil can
be eliminated.
3. Write a letter to the editor of a national newspaper developing the recent trend
towards violence in sports pointing out its causes and suggesting some possible
solutions.
4. Write a letter to the editor of one of the national newspaper in your country
expressing your concern about the problem of leakage of
WASSCE papers in different parts of West Africa in recent years. In your letter tell
what you think has caused this problem and suggest what should be done to
solve it.
LETTER WRITING
Letter writing is a form of written communication between two people who are separated by
distance. When we write a letter, we only write down what we ought to say to the person
who expected to listen to us. Owning to the fact that our relationship with the people are
different, the way we address and talk to them will be different. For example, the way I
address and discuss with my friend will be different from the way I address and discuss
with the governor of my state. My discussion with my friend would be informal or personal.
While my discussion with the governor of my state would be formal or impersonal or
official.
It is a result of these differences in relationships that letter writing has been divided into
three broad categories. They are: (i) formal letter (ii) semi-formal letter (iii) in formal letter

INFORMAL LETTER

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This is a personal letter written to a person very close to the writer. The writer is expected
to know much about the person he is writing to. As a result, no formality is required.
Examples of informal letters are to your father, mother, parents, friends, cousin, nieces etc.
it is divided into following
 Address
 Salutation
 Introduction
 Body of the letter which is divided into paragraph
 Conclusion
 Concluding salutation
1. Address: There are two main ways in which your address could be written. They are:
(a) the block form (b) the slanting or independent form. Your address should be
written at the top right hand Conner of your answer script.
22 Black Hall Road,
Freetown.
16th March, 2017.

6 Pakuma Street,
Lunsar
3rd May, 2016.
The first example of address above is called the block form while the second address is
slanting or indented form. Note that the first address is written on a straight vertical line
looking like a block; “no”, “#” is not written before the address because it is not necessary;
Black Hall Road, Freetown, March all start with capital letters. Only the first letters are
required to start with capital letters while others are written in small letters.
Note also that the date is written as 16th with the ‘th’ being on the same horizontal line with
‘16’. After March, there is a comma and 2017 is written in full. After 2017 there is a full
stop.
However, another form of address is one that is written without punctuation marks.
4 Siaka Steven Street

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 Freetown
25th April 1997
Note that you are not allowed to abbreviate ‘1997’ as ‘97’. The following are accepted date
patterns. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd. If the letter is to be written to somebody
outside the country, you should take the following step.
2 Sillah Lane,
Kukuna,
Bramai Chiefdom,
Kambia District,
Northern Province,
Sierra Leone,
West Africa.
24th July, 2017.
2. Salutation: the salutation is written on the next line after your date but at the left hand
side of your answer script without leaving a paragraph. For an informal letter, the
salutation will be:
*Dear Father, *Dear Mother,
*Dearest Mary, *My dearest uncle James,
Again, note that ‘Dear’ starts with a capital letter while ‘father’ and ‘mother’ start with small
letters this is because they are common nouns. In the third example ‘Mary’ starts with a
capital letter because it a proper noun. In the last example, ‘My’ starts with a capital while
‘dearest’ starts with small letter and ‘Uncle James’ starts with capital letter. When a
question requires you to write a letter to your friend, uncle brother, sister, aunt, friends,
niece, cousin or pen friend, it is proper to use specific name instead of friend, sister, e t c
3. Introductory Paragraph: The first paragraph and will generally outline the purpose of
the letter and the reason the letter is been sent this can address any issues that are
outstanding and it is used to set the tone for the entire rest of the letter. In this first
paragraph, the summary of the letter can be found and the intention which will be
displayed through the rest of letter should be outline. From the first paragraph of the letter,
the introductory paragraph, the individual should be able to note the tone of the letter.
Note that the introductory paragraph begins beneath the comma of the above salutation of
your letter.

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4. The Body of the Letter: The body itself is considered as the life of the letter and the style in
which it is written will depend upon the kind of letter one wishes to write. Like, the style of the
letter to be written to a friend will be entirely different from the style of the letter to be written to
an official and so on. But few points that one has to keep in mind irrespective of the style while
writing the bodies of the letter are:
 Divided the letter into paragraphs, to mark changes of subject matters etc.
 Use simple and direct language in short sentences. It will make the message clear and to the
point. Avoid long sentences that will lead you grammatical errors.
 Always try to be complete. For this think out what you want to say before the beginning of
writing of letter, and put down all the point in logical manner.
 Write neatly to avoid in convenience to the examiner or reader because of your bad
penmanship.
 Take care of the punctuation and be consistent with it, incorrect punctuation may alter the
whole meaning of the sentence.
As well as outward presentation, it is important to determine the tone which will be written in the
letter, including a professional tone or a tone that will be taken with friends or family members in
a more informal setting. Read through the letter once it has been completed to ensure that the
tone remains the same. The tone can be adjusted based on the language which is used through
the letter.
5. The Conclusion: in the conclusion of the letter, the individual will close the letter and finish
any thoughts that have been mentioned. It is acceptable to give news and views in your
concluding paragraph.
Lastly, the subscription or concluding paragraph should be according to the staring of the letter.
A letter must not end abruptly as this would look rude. So certain forms of polite leave taking are
prescribed. That should be written after the last words of the letter on the right hand side corner
of the answer script after the body. It should start with a capital letter and end with a comma.
Yours affectionately,
Lamin.
Yours truly,
Sillah.

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 Yours sincerely,
Abdulai.
Note: never used apostrophe (‘) with yours in the subscription. Also, a woman should prefix to
the name ‘Miss’ or’ Mrs’ or Ms. in brackets before her name like – (Mrs.) Sillah.

SEMI-FORMAL LETTER
A semi-formal letter is the type of letter you would write to a person you knows reasonably
well but not intimately. Such a letter might be written for example, to your uncle or your
pen friend overseas. This is an ‘’in-between’’ letter. It should be mere formal or serious in
tone than a friendly letter, but it is not as formal as an official letter. When writing a semi-
formal letter, you should remember to:
1. Put your address and the date in the top right hand corner. But do not write the full
name or the address of the person to whom you are writing.
2. Begin your letter with an appropriate salutation, or greeting such as: Dear Uncle Joe,
Dear Peter (a pen friend) etc.
3. Chose an appropriate tone for your letter. For example, in a friendly letter to a close
friend you might Wright: “hi; how are things going?’’ and a similar tone might be
suitable in a letter to a pen-friend with when you have corresponded for a long time.
But in a letter to your uncle such tone would not be appropriate to write.
4. Use appropriate closing. If you feel you know the person quite well, use a friendly
ending such as ‘’ yours affectionately’’ or “your friend’’ and sign your first name only.
But if you feel you don’t know the person that well, use a more formal endings such
as “yours sincerely’’ and sign your full name. But don’t use “yours faithfully’’ because
it is too formal for a semi-formal letter.
INFORMAL AND SEMI-SAMPLE QUESTION
1. Your father has just built a know house for the family. Write a letter to your elder to
your brother who lives abroad, describing the new house and the prestige it has
accorded you family.

39
 2. A friend of yours who is also old student of your school has written to you asking
about some of the changes noticeable your school over the past three year. Write
back to him or her describing these changes and showing how far they have affected
life in the school.
3. Your time at senior secondary school is over and you recently received over and you
received a letter from your uncle or aunt in another town asking in what ways you
feel you have benefited from your four years at senior secondary school. You were
also asked about future plans. Write a reply to this letter.
4. You recently received a letter from your pen-friend overseas in which he or she
asked you tell about some traditional ceremony or festival that is celebrated in your
home town or village. Write a reply to this letter.
FORMAL LETTER
These are letters written to an authorities. It is very important, therefore, that your letters
have the desired effect on the reader. In order to achieve this, they could be:
 In the correct format
 Short and to the point
 Relevant
 Free if any grammatical or spelling mistakes
 Point, even if you are complaining.
 Well presented
If you are replying to a letter it can be a good idea to note how that letter has been
formatted and expressed.
- Your address, but not your name, usually goes in the top night hand corner.
- The address to the person you are writing to goes in below this, and the left. It you
don’t have a specific name, always at a particular person if at all possible.
- The salutation at the beginning of the letter depends on wetter or not you have the
name of the person. If you do, write Dear Mr. Sillah, Dear Mrs. Sillah. It is possible to
write Dear Robert Sensei or Dear Alison Kamara, but many people consider this and
ward. If the person has a specific title, use this, Dear Dr. Hammil. If you don’t know

40
 the name of the person, you would traditionally write Dear Sir. This clearly somewhat
sexist, so many people prefer Dear Sir/Madam.
- It is common now to put the subject of the letter directly below the salutation the
world be in bold or underlined. The purpose is to give the reader an idea of what the
letter is about before realign it, and to be able to pass it on to a mere appropriate
person if necessary. If you are replying to a letter which had a reference an it, you
should repeat this on your letter, probably on the side of the page. Write your ref:
xxx.
- The content of your letter should be as short possible, divided into short, clear
paragraphs.
- To conclude the letter, you would normally write yours sincerely if you have started
the letter with the name of the person, or your faithfully it you have started with
something like Dear Sir.
- Sign your name directly blow this and then print it below the signature.
SAMPLE QUESTION
The elasticity supply in your school has been irregular. as the senior prefect write a letter to
the chairman of the parent –teacher association (P.T.A) teaching his about the effect of this
on the school and the need to provide a stand –by generator for the school.
WHAT IS COMPREHENSION?
Comprehension is a process of reading, understanding what is written in a passage. For
every comprehension exercise, there must be a passage to be read. The purpose of
comprehension exercise is to test students’ understanding of a give passage. In
comprehension, the thoughts of the writer are presented to student for reading,
understanding and explaining.
TACKLING THE COMPREHENSION PASSAGE
To do well in any exercise involving a comprehension passage, you need to read fast. This is
necessary if you hope to read the passage at least twice and still have enough time to
analyze the text and answer the questions.

41
Secondly we focus attention on the need to develop an effective reading technique for a
comprehension task. As you would have know by now, it is important for an army to train
for a battle, but is equally important for an army to adopt a good strategy for the battle. It is
not bravery alone that wins a war, what methods are adopted is also important. That is
why we need to consider different techniques for teaching the passage.

CONTINUATION (26-27)
Finally, we focus attention on the types of questions usually asked and how you should
attempt them. This should prepare you adequately and reduce your anxiety.
READING SPEED
One of the greatest problems a student can have is the inability to read fast enough.
Examination purposes apart, the ability to read fast is a great asset because it enables one
to cover a much wider ground than a slower reader can do. Think of the many books, news
paper, magazines, journal etc. which each our attention or which we are required to read
for some purposes or other. Right now, the world is hit not only by population explosion
but also by information explosion.
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR READING
The average American readers about 80 pages an hour, the average Sierra Leoneans read
less than 30 pages an hour. Why are Sierras Leoneans such poor reader? And how can we
improve on our reading? Studies in reading effectively have showed that to become a good
reader, you have to take note of the following:
 Do not move the hand from one side to the other as you read across the page
 Do not move your lips as you read. That is, do not pronounce silently. Read silently
in every sense of the word. That is, read-only with your mind and note your lips
 Do not read the sentences would buy word. Rather focus on a group of words at a
time. Try to make your eyes see at least three or four words at a time i.e., you will
read in groups of words rather than would by word.
 Never fixed your eyes for long or any word, no matter how strange the word looks to
you. If the word looks rather queer, do not because of that waste time on it. Leave it
alone and move on ready.

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  Do not regress. That is, do not go back to a word you have passed over earlier. Some
have this habit of going back to a word, a phrase or paragraph they have read eelier
on. This merely wastes your time and remembers there is only one direction in
reading.
 Forward, never traced the meanings of the line with your finger. The finger merely
slow you down, for the simple reason that the eyes tend to stay where the finger is
and the finger can touch only one word at a time.
 Try to work out the meanings of words as you read rather indulge in the practice of
consulting your dictionary frequently. If you are an active reader, you will be able to
work out the meanings of difficult words merely from the context in which they are
used.
TECHNIQUE OF READING
Whether it is for comprehension exercise or summary writing, the learner should develop a
workable technique of approaching passage.
Generally, it pays best to read through the passage first at a fairly rapid rate, without
looking at the questions and without worrying too seriously about the difficult words.
During the first reading, interest in what the author means to say should be the main
objectives. So, the reading rate should be pretty fast. The advantage of this first reading is
that it should give the leaner a general view of the passage.
After the first reading, to ask yourself, “what is the author’s message?” “What information is
he trying to convey to the reader?” ‘You should be able to say, in general terms, what the
purpose of the passage I s to direct your focus much more, you may now go to the
questions, and read them through. But you should try to answer them yet. This is not the
time for that. You should go over the question only to guide you towards the main points in
the passage. Now, when you are sure you have understood the questions, go back to
passage and read through more thoroughly.
In the second reading, fairly slower reading should be more through. This time, with the
question at the back of your mind, you will be able to decide what to look for, where to look
for it, which idea to bring together etc. During this reading, you might mark off the points

43
which might be used in answering the question. This should help you sort out the words to
use, the points to mark etc.
Should you know attempt the questions? Well, much depends on the nature of the passage
and the questions. If the passage is simple and the questions are straight forward, you
might be able to answer the question now. But a difficult passage with difficult questions
may demand more work. So, it is often better to study the question carefully. Go back to
the passage and study it a little more before you begin to answer the question. This implies
that you would be you would be better off with three reading of the passage. In fact, after
the questions have been completed, you might read over the passage once more and revise
your answers so that you can be very accurate.

TYPES OF PASSAGES AND QUESTIONS SET.

The passage used is of different types. We are not talking of length or difficulty level. Rather
we are referring to the content and the subject matter. Just as there are different types of
essays and specific approaches to each type, so also there are different subject matters
discussed in comprehension passages and each types demands a different approach. Let us
discuss the main types and how we should handle them.
NARRATIVE TYPES
This is the kind of comprehension passage in which a story is told. A story is usually made
up of a series of events and the purposes of the narrator is usually to make you see a point
of view more clearly even though in the process you are entertained or amused. So, one of
the cardinal test for the reader of a narrative passage is to be able to (i) indentify the
various event in the story and (ii) see the factors which explain these events. Thus,
following a narrative, you would usually have a question asking ‘’what happen,’’ ‘’who did
what,’’ “where something happen”, “you will also have questions asking you ‘’how’’ and’’
why’’ something happened.
EXPOSITORY TYPES
This is the type of passage in which the reader is told or thought how something is done or
how something happen. No story is told here, but one is given an explanation of how a

44
system works. It is important that, one should carefully master how the various
components work together. When we speak of system, we are not necessarily limited to
objects such as machines engines etc. nor are we limited to simple concepts like how a
house is built, how a poultry farm is managed etc. Rather, the system may be that of the
human society, the animal kingdom etc. How should you tackle this kind of passage? You
would need to understand each of the components discussed. You would also need to
understand how all the different components work together.
CURRENT ISSUES
There are many passages nowadays which deal with what happening around us. In such a
passage, one is made to (I) listen to the thoughts of a philosopher or (ii) a thinker who is
observing human society. Quite often, such thought contain specific point to drive-home a
particular point of view. Argument for and against may be advance within the same
passage. You must be very careful to note the various points. Where one ends and another
one begins, and how opposing ideas are advanced against one another.
THE CATEGORIES OF QUESTIONS USED
Broadly speaking, there are categories of questions used in a comprehension exercise.
1. First, there are questions of comprehension that is; those that seek to measure
how of the passage you understand. The seek to find out whether or not you
understand what is going on. Question of this kind can be answer successfully if
you read the passage twice or thrice and you understand the contents of the
passage.
2. The second types of question are those that assess your mastery of the vocabulary
and figurative expressions. There are always items requiring to finding other
words or phrases which mean nearly the same as some of the words in the
passage. When you have to replace a particular word, you should be very careful
in two respects. First, you have to be sure that the other word you have found
means almost the same as the one in the passage. To arrive at the right word, you
will need to take the steps we advised in the last chapter. You may have to break
the sentence down into smaller bits so as to master it through and understanding
of it root. Or, you may have to study the context or situation in which the word is

45
 used. Note the sentences occurring before and after that in which the word
appears, and you are likely to know what the word means. You also need to take
note of the part of speech of the word as it accrued in the passage. For example, if
the word is a verb and it is in the past tense, it the verb is in the present tense,
your new words must be in the present tense. If it is a noun, your own
replacement must be a noun. Watch out also for whether the noun you are to
replace is singular or plural. If singular, you must replace it with singular and if
plural you substitute must be plural. However, if a noun is used as an adjective,
you must find out and adjective to replace it. For example, in the passage below,
the word SAGE occurs ordinarily, sage is a noun. But study the way it is used,
‘’And if the sage elder in office who all day long tired to bring the warring factions
of the ruined nation together and failed each time could not save her; what did
Daku think he was.’’ In this case, sage is used as an adjective. So, only words like
‘’wise.’’ ‘’know –ledgeable’ “learned” ‘’intelligent’’ etc would do.
3. The types of questions are those that are on the grammatical structures. In most
cases, a sentence or a part of it from the focus of the question. For instance, the
word group underlined may be a clause or a phrase and your first task would be
indentifying it as such. Then you are to say what its function in the sentence is.
You should say whether it is the subject of a verb or it is an adverb modifying a
verb or an adjective question.
QUESTIONS ON GRAMATICAL NAME AND FUNCTION.
These questions often ask you to state grammatical name and function of and underline
expression. You are expected to mention first grammatical name and then the grammatical
function.
The first thing to do when you see this type of question is to decide whether the underlined
expression is a clause or a phrase. Remember that when a group of words have a subject, a
finite verb makes sense, it is a clause. It is a phrase when the finite verb is missing. You
already know that the subject is the person or thing that performs the action of the verb.
Or, the subject is the person or thing about whom something is said. A finite verb as you

46
will have known is a word that can change its tense as used within a sentence. Consider
these examples.
*The girl – dance party (clause)
(Sub) (finite verb since it can change form as action of the verb-to ‘’dance or will ‘dance’)
*The girl- at the party phrase
(Sub) (No finite verb)
When you know the grammatical name or term and its function, make sure that you state
them clearly starting with the grammatical name. You have to say whether the expression
underline is a noun clause or phrase, an adjective clause or phrase, an adverb clause or
phrase. It is enough to simply say that the expression is a clause or phrase. You have to
state the type. Study these examples.
(i) What is the grammatical name of each underline expression?
(ii) What its function?
(a) Although they could give her a mop, she could do her work standing brought dignity
to night-time mineral work.
(b) Today, most of the western nations which fall under the capitalist umbrella, style
themselves the first world nations in the eastern block as second world nation and
others as the third world countries.
The answer may be represented briefly like this:
(ai) Adverbial Clause of Reason (Purpose)
ii. It modifies the verb “could give’’
(bi) adjectival clause
(ii) It qualifies the noun “western nations’’
The underline expressions in example (a) is a clause because it has a subject ‘she; a finite
verb “could do’’ and makes sense. It tells us why the action of the verb “give’’ in the main
clause takes place. Since it answers the question’’ why?; we say that the underline
expression is an adverbial clause of reason.
Similarly, the underline expression in (b) is a clause because it contains a subject. The
subject is ‘which’? Remember that ‘which’ is a pronoun and pronoun can be subject or
object of verbs, like the noun they represent. In this case “which” is a relative pronoun and
subject a verb? “fall’’ is a finite verb because it can change to ‘’fell’’ in the sentence. The
clause does the work of an adjective. It tell us more about the noun “western nation,’’ so it

47
qualifies the noun western nation, it is an adjective. Note that adjectives are also relative
clauses.

TYPES OF COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

We identified three categories of questions used in the last section and we said those
testing your understanding of the passage in the first category. We should now focus on the
specific types of comprehension question set. That is, we are now going to deal much more
with the first category of questioned used. The purpose of doing this is to help you know
how you can prepare adequately for the different forms the questions may take. So, what
forms are they?
(a) Some items test your understanding what is explicitly stated in the passage. Items of
this kind ask what you can find differently from the passage. All you need to do is to
identify them in the passage and recast the information in your own words. This type
of question is the least demanding, but you must be very careful not to miss it by
expressing yourself poorly.
(b) Some items test candidate ability to make deductions what is explicitly stated. There
are questions which require you to make some references. You have to read what is
not directly stated. This is called reading between the lines. You will know by now
that very day life, it is not everything that is explicitly stated. Many times, one is told
so much and is expected to understand so much more.
(c) Sometimes test your ability to find out the author’s stand. Quiet often, an author
makes his personal stand in an issue known. This is usually when he is discussing
an issue in which there are various opinions expressed. He may present the opinion
and let the readers known where he stands. Sometimes this may be done directly by
simply stating what he believes, but very often the author’s standing may be
indirectly and subtly stated.
(d) Some items test your ability to discover the author purpose. This is similar to (c). The
difference lies in the fact that while the farmer calls on the reader to discover the
felling or opinions of the author on an issue, the latter calls on the reader to find out
the purpose or intention of the author as this can be judged from the passage.

48
 (e) Some items demand that you recognized the various certificating ideals and match
them one against the other. This is usually or more demanding task, you are
supposed to identify the different points, bring them together, and present them in a
sentence.
USEFUL HINTS IN COMPREHENSION
Comprehension is to test students’ understanding of the passage. After reading the passage
in your own words. It is when you do this that you can claim to have understood the
passage. Although you are at liberty to make use of words from the passage, you must be
careful not to be too reckless in copying down the parathion of the passage which you fell
as the answer of the question.
Always restrict your answer to your understanding of the passage. No one is interested in
your personal opinions on the topic discussed on the passage. In addition to this, yam is
not concerned with the correctness of the facts or information in the passage. Yam should
not allow your beliefs or opinion to affect your reactions or answers to the passage.
SET – BY STEP APPROACH TO COMPREHENSION
Comprehension demands a careful step-by-step approach. Majority of the students who
fails comprehension exercises because they are in hurry to answer without taking time to
understand the passage. The suggested steps are the followings:
1. Read the passage very careful and make sure that you understand the passage. This
may take you more than one reading, depending on your skills and ability to read
and understand the matter in the theme of the passage. The first readings will
intimate you with the subject time and take note of the attitude of the author of the
passage in order to know the main points emphasized in the passage. Then go for the
third reading of the passage and note the significant points that answer the questions
on the passage.
The reading of the passage must be done quickly with full attention in other to have a
total understanding of the passage. It is after understanding the passage that you
can now go back to the questions and start answering them.
2. In putting down your answers, they need to be written in sentences, unless otherwise
stipulated, but make sure that you give only one answer to a question.

49
 3. Though you are free to use the words from the passage in your answers, you must be
able to use your own words or expressions to show your understanding of the
passage.
4. Where your answer should show comparison between two or more things mentioned
in the passage, your answer must indicate or show the comparison.
5. Where you are asked to substitute a word or phrase in place of some underlined
works in the passage, the word must fit in perfectly in terms of meaning and
collocation.
6. When you are substituting a word or phrase with another word or phrase, if the word
or phrase is an adjective or noun or in a particular tense, your answer should be in a
similar form
7. Your answer, if taken as a whole, must make sense before any part of it is accepted
for securing
8. You must take paints to spell your words correctly. Though you may be pardoned for
wrong spelling of words in comprehension answer, except if it is woeful, it shows
diligence if you spell your words correctly
9. Your answer must be error grammatically, too.
CAUSES OF LOSS OF MAKES IN COMPREHENSION
i. Writing two answers to a question: You are expected to give one answer to a
question. Where a student gives two answers to a question and one of them is
wrong. The mark will be zero. You can only get full marks where you give two
answers and both them are correct.
ii. Giving wrong synonyms to replace underline words and phrase: Where words or
expressions are expected to be given to replace words or expression used as
replacement must fit in perfectly in terms of meaning collocation (that is, the
words used in replacement must not disturb the arrangement of the word or
words that follow the replace word(s).
iii. Grammatical and Expression Errors in scoring Answer: A deduction of one –half
mark from the stipulated marks for a scoring answer is the penalty for every
grammatical and expression error.

50
 iv. Using different grammatical form and tense from the form of the word or phrase to
be substituted or replaced: You are expected to use the same grammatical form as
the given word or phrase when asked to explain the meaning of a word or phrase.
Similarly, when you are asked to substitute a word or phrase in place of some
underline words, you are expected to use the same tense form. For example, if the
word or phrase to be replaced is a noun, the replacement must also be a noun.
Also, if the word to be replaced is in past tense, the word to replace it must be in
past tense. Example (i) “Puzzlement” (ii). Can be replaced with amazement,
wonderment, or be wilderment which are all nouns (iii). The word “Realized” which
is the past tense form can be replaced with words like learnt, discovered, found, or
known which are all in past tense form.
v. Giving answer out of the context of the passage: You will not score any mark for
writing answers which are not contained in the facts or information provided in
the passage. Don’t input facts or answers that are not in the passage.
WHAT IS A SUMMARY?
Summary involves writing down a brief and concise account of a long passage. In other
words, summary can be described as a shortened form of a long passage after removing all
irrelevant points from the main points and giving a short account of the passage using our
own words.
In any summary exercise, there is always a piece of written prose which students are
expected to read and understand. The ability of students to comprehend and report
accurately the main points in a passage is always tested through the summary questions
set on the passage. There are four main things students have to note in order to write a
good summary. These are:
1. Brevity: This demands that they must be brief and concise in their answers. There is
no room for the use of flowering language or any other additional information aside
from the main points.
2. Relevance: This calls for a candidate answer to be relevant to the points mentioned
in the passage. Students are not expected in summary writing to give any fact or
point outside the passage, however relevant they think the fact or point is.

51
 3. Proper Coverage of the Passage: This demands that students must read and
understand every aspect of the passage. This calls for proper understanding of the
passage since the passage is unlikely to lend itself so easily to them.
4. Clarity: This means that students are expected to put down their answers clearly.
HOW TO WRITE A GOOD SUMMARY
It is possible to score all the marks in summary in WASSCE and in any other examination,
and it is also very easily to score zero. Students’ success in summary depends on how well
they follow the procedure given to them or how to write a good summary.
A student who fails to take step – by – step approach to summary writing may end up
flopping the whole exercise. You are advised to take the following approaches in summary
writing.
Read the passage very carefully. Most students fail summary simply because they fail to
read the given passage carefully to understand it. You cannot write a good summary if you
don’t understand the given passage. Most students feel that they can have a look at the
question first before reading the passage. This approach is wrong as this may tempt you to
start reading the passage piecemeal within paragraphs, searching for where the answers
are and thereby putting it down verbation or word for word.
Writing a good summary demands that you read the passage very well so as to have a
proper understanding of it, before attempting to put down your answers. Having said this,
reading and understanding the passage may take more than one reading.
Firstly, reading the passage very quickly to know the subject matter of the passage.
WASSCE summary passages are never titled. This is deliberate as it is meant to make
students read the passage and to forestall students’ attempt to guess at answers to the
questions.
After the first reading, you can read the passage once again to intimate yourself better with
the subject matter of the passage. After the second reading, you can then proceed to read
the questions as this will provide an insight to what you will now focus your attention on
when you are reading for the third time.

52
Re-read the passage for the third time and can now underline or note where the required
information for answering your questions are. Of course, after the third reading, you should
be ready to go back to the questions, and answer them.

HOW TO PUT DOWN SUMMARY ANSWERS.

1. Write In Sentences: Summary answers should be written in sentences. When the
student writes a preamble (a kind of introduction to his sentence) to his answers, the
preamble must flow into the sentences.
For example, in a question where the student is asked to summarize the factors
responsible for different levels of achievement in schools, the student will need to
write a preamble to all his sentences. The preamble will be: “The factors responsible
for different levels of achievement in schools are........” This can be followed by his
sentences summarized the factors. Example, the factors responsible for different
levels of achievement in schools are:
i. Where the schools are located
ii. Some schools are located in privilege areas while others are not.
The above sentences are complete sentences because they have their distinct subjects and
verbs and other elements of a sentence. Another important thing is that you should not
write more than the number of sentences you are asked to write. Where you are asked to
write two sentences, don’t write one sentence or three sentences.
2. Short and Concise Answers: Summary answer should be short and exercise. Avoid
the inclusion of irrelevant/ extraneous materials in every scoring answer. Limit your
answers only to information available in the passage.
3. Use Your Own Words: In writing down your answers, make use of your own words
and expressions as much as possible. You are not expected to engaged in mindless
lifting of words and expressions from the passage
4. Use Good Grammar: Summary answers should be written down in good grammar
and expression. Make sure that your answers are devoid of grammatical and
expression errors.
CAUSES OF LOSS OF MARKS IN SUMMARY WRITING

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Students lose marks heavily in summary exercises because they fail to adhere strictly to
the principles and procedures guiding the practice of summary. A careless student will lose
marks because various penalties are imposed on every carless presentation of summary
answers. The causes of loses of marks in summary writing are:
a. Mindless Lifting Words From The Passage: This is grievous offence in summary.
Mindless lifting of a passage means copying down answers verbation, using the exact
words and expressions of the writers of the passage. Firstly, it shows poor
understanding of the passage and secondly, it means that the student cannot put
down another person thoughts, points, and ideas in his/ her own expression.
Indiscriminate lifting does not merit marks in a summary test; it only attracts zero
b. Absence of Conciseness and Relevance: Conciseness and relevance are rigidly
demanded in summary. In conclusion of irrelevant or extraneous and unnecessary
materials in every scoring answer will attract the penalty of deduction of one mark.
c. Phrases and Incomplete Sentences: In summary, you are expected to write your
answers in complete sentences with subject verbs and probably other elements of a
sentence present in them. When a student writes phrases where complete sentences
are demanded, the examiner will award 2 ½ marks instead of a mark of 5 for each of
the scoring answers.
COMPREHENSION PASSAGES
PASSAGE ONE (April, 2017)
Reading the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it.
When I was in primary four, thirty – five years ago, schools closed for the day at 1:30 pm.
My two friends and I would then proceed for full recreation as we either playing football in
hidden neighborhood or went downstream to swim till dusk. The reprimands and
occasional sparking we got from our mothers could not deter us. Our grateful adventurous
spirit would not be suppressed. We are resolute in our desire to be free of what we thought
were too many cheers. As far we were concerned, that should be the preserve of the female
gender.
One day we went fishing in a stream on the outskirts of the village after we had our fill of
entertainment playing football. We caught some fish but were not satisfied; we wanted

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crabs which we could sell on our way back home to augment the meager money for recess
that each of us got when going off to school every day. We caught two big crabs from the
first two holes we dug before going for a third. Convinced that we had dug deep enough, the
eldest of us dipped this light hand into the hole that was about three –quarters filled with
water and soon reported excitedly that he had made a big catch. As he dragged it to the
surface, we screamed in sudden terror. The big catch was the fleshly middle part of a
shimmering black snake! No one waited for the other as we scrambled for splashed
frantically through the waste, falling over twice before reaching us on the bank of the
stream. None of us ventured back, more for fear of the snake than the dusk that had
suddenly descended on the village.
When I got home, I met mother, my sibling and some anxious relations at the doorstep.
They were previous search to my school, my mates, homes and the few playgrounds in the
village had been futile. The concerned look on mother’s face told me I had stirred up a
harvests nest and should be prepared for the sting. My muddy legs and hands betrayed the
lie I had hurriedly cooked up. I get the beating of my life, first from mother and then father,
who came into the house and upon being told what had happened, went straight for the
thick rubber he had wounded his bicycle carrier for typing loads.
a. State two reasons why the writer and his friends always came home late.
b. Why did the boys get home late on that fateful day?
c. Why the boys did not realized that it was getting dark?
d. In what two ways was the writer unlucky on that day?
e. How does the writer mother usually demonstrate her disapproval of his behavior?
f. “.......I had stirred up a hornets ‘nest and should be prepared for the string”
i. What figure of speech is used in this expression?
ii. What does it mean?
g. “As he dragged it to the face....”
i. What grammatical name if given to this expression as it is used in the passage
ii. What is its function?
h. For each of the following words, find another word or phrase which means the same
and which can replace it as it is used in the passage;

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 i. Deter ii. Preserve iii. Augment iv. Ventured v. Concerned
PASSAGE TWO (June 2014)
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it.
The case of Dr. David Akide drives home the point that nobody should be written off as a
failure as long as he has not died. As far as I can recall, he was one of the weakest in class
throughout our primary school career. Right from the second grade, he was the butt of
most of our jokes. Indeed, whenever the teacher referred a question to him, most of us
waited eagerly to have a good laugh. But we all admire him for two things. For one thing, he
was the only one who never wrote with the right hand as he was a complete southpaw.
Then, he endured all the jokes cheerfully and indeed referred to himself as “Mr. Why Hurry”
forever sociable he was a friend to everybody who came close enough.
Not surprising, we left him behind in the primary school as he could not admitted to any of
the secondary schools to which he took an admission examination. That was why, from the
time I entered secondary school, I lost contact with him. Nor did any of my mates which I
closely associated with ever mention meeting him anywhere. As far as most of us were
concerned, David has faded away into obscurity; I imagined that he must have ended up in
one of the low – grade vocations since he was at least good in handicraft.
Then, a few months ago, thirty –eight years after I last saw him in the primary school, while
I was watching a 9:”O” clock television network programme. I saw David being interviewed
by a team of reports. He was introduced as a specialist surgeon who had made his mark in
heart surgery in the nation’s leading teaching hospital. The questions were on his recent
feat in his successful correction of abnormality in the heart of a patient who had been
written off by most other specialists. The patient fully recovered and was now back in his
vocation as a mechanic.
I was amazed. I was pleasantly surprised. From the interview, it became clear that he had
experienced a surge in intellectual progress late in his secondary school career and zoomed
into and through the university as a medical student. Thereafter, it had been one major
achievement after another for him in his chosen field.
a. What evidence is there that writer is not a young person?
b. For what two things were David Akide admires by others in the primary school?

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 c. Why could he not move into the secondary schools than along with the other?
d. What did the writer assume had been the late of David, after learning the primary
school?
e. What is establish by the flat that David Akide was being interviewed by a panel of
reporters on the nation’s network programme
f. Why was the writer amazed?
g. “......While I was watching a 9:00 “O” Clock television network programme...”
i. What is the grammatical name given to this expression as it is used in the
passage?
ii. What is its function?
h. ....Zoomed into and brought the university...”
i. What figure of speech is used in this expression?
ii. What does it mean?
i. For each of the following words, find another word or phrase which means the same and
which can replace it as it used in the passage
a. Cheerful b. Sociable c. Imagined d. Vocation e. Achievement

PASSAGE THREE (April, 2017)

Read the following passage careful and answer the questions on it.
Years ago, news went round in Aerogun that a famous, crowd pulling magician would be
performing for three days. However, news spread that an up-coming magician would also
be around at the same time. The Oba, who granted permission each, did so without much
reflection. He should have known from experience that two magicians could hardly perform
without clashing with dive consequences. Everyone looked forward eagerly to the arrival of
the magicians: farmers, artisans and schools pupils.
Then, the performers arrived. Each took a position at opposite ends. Drumming went wild
from the respective positions. Report of their exploits soon spread. In particular, the wild
acrobatic displays by the younger magicians spread like a wild fire. He had stuck a fall
bamboo pole into the ground, climbed it and there danced to the drumming. He was a
spectacle to be hold as he seemed to defy the laws.

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Soon news reached the spectators of the older magicians whose antics appeared too tame.
Even when he “poured” biscuits from his bare hands, most were not impressed people
started drifting away from him and only a handful remained. Finally, the older magicians
gave up and also move to the other end of the town. There, he joined the crowd to watch
the wondrous feats on top of the bamboo pole. Nodding, he mused. “All right”
Minutes later, wild bees in their murderous thousands attacked the young performer, and
quickly covered his whole body. To this, young man had no clue. Down he fell and with him
the bees, which stepped up the attack. At first, the spectators assumed that this was
another magical act. But when he started rolling in the dry sands they new this was not a
joke. He cried, “Bees are killing me, all because I knew not Olubale my father. “The older
man listened, mouth agape.
“Did you mentioned Olubale?” he asked.
“Yes, that was my father”
“Where are you from?” the older man asked.
“Ubangi” was the reply.
Revelation! Shock! Ubangi! Was where Olubale started his magical career, got married to a
young woman but fled when the pregnant woman’s earlier suitor surface with a machete,
threatening thunder and brimstone. The woman had thoroughly educated her son about
the rear in visibility of his father and the boy had sworn to e like him. “I ‘m Olubale”, the
older man said, “New, bees, back to your home”.
Order given, the bees abandoned their task. The young man was free they would perform as
one group.
a. Why was the Oba’s decision unwise?
b. What two indications are there that the two was very small?
c. What was the older magician’s in tension causing the bees to attack the younger
man?
d. What saved the younger man from the continued attack of the bees?
e. Why did the older man reverse his action?
f. Drumming went wild...
i. What figure of speech is used in this expression?

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 ii. What does it mean?
g. ......Which stepped up the attack?
i. What grammatical name is given to this expression as it is used in the passage?
ii. What is its function?
iii. For each of the following words, find another word or phrase which means the
same and which can replace it as it is in the passage.
a. Dive b. Tame c. Wondrous d. Murderous e. Abandoned

SUMMARY PASSAGES
PASSAGE ONE (2017)
Reading the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it.
Young people are usually faced with several challenges as they grow up. These challenges
have increased dramatically as a result of the present impressive advances in science. The
internet and the noble phrase, for instance, have indeed reduced the whole world to a
global village and given birth to social media. Social media itself has made possible for
anyone to instantly keep abreast with happenings all round the world.
But many people are worried that a lot of youths use social media in various negative ways
that tend to ultimately increase the challenges they face in life. First, internet chatting and
dating have become common among youths. They spend valuable time in internet cafes or
glued to their smart phones with the hope that through shype or facebook “Luck” would
come their way. The time wasted in this way could have been spent on studying and
helping their parents with household chores.
Another downside of social media is the easy access to pornography that I offer. Attack like
grants to bright light at night, many youths spend hours wasting pornography. This has
the inevitable effect of corrupting their minds. In the fantasy world that pornography
plunges them into, they care little for anything else. In the end, the casualties are their
studies and their morals
Again, youths are often driven by the “get rich quick” syndrome as they observe successful
and affluent members of the society all around them who flaunt their wealth by driven
expensive cares and living ostentatious lifestyle. Because many youths are seized by the

59
irresistible desire to become like these people overnight, they readily resort to any available
means to succeed, including cyber crime. Since face – to – face contact is not involved, it is
easy for these misguided youths to plan and executive all manner of scams on social media.
What can be done to risqué the youths from these influences? First, parents have a crucial
to play. Many youths have improper home training and most parents leave their children to
learn life’s lessons on their own. They allow them to find solutions to their problems with
minimal guidance. The reality is that the sooner parents change their method of raising
children, the better.
Teachers also have to play a crucial role. Teachers should realize that just as parents take
over the responsibility of teaching when their children are at home, they in turn become the
youth’s parents at school. They should therefore ensure not only that the right skills are
taught the youth, but also the right attitudes are in skilled in them.
The society at large should also realize that at their impressive able age, youths are simply
influenced by what they observe happening around them, whether good or bad. So, instead
of emphasized materialism and fanning of wealth society’s responsibility towards the
youths should be mainly to instill in them its norms, custom and values through proper
role modeling. Then the world will become a better place for the youth, because they will be
able to control their own destiny.
a. Om three sentences, one for each, summarize the negative influences of social media
on youth
b. In three sentences, one for each, summarize what must be done to rescue the youths
from these influences.
PASSAGE TWO (September, 2017)
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it.
Meat is a high-protein food of animal origin which is widely consumed by many people. The
consumption of meat in developing countries still remains below the food Agriculture
Organization (F.A.O.) standard because meat is an expensive commodity. Unfortunately,
many consumers seem to be more concerned about the quantity rather than the source
and quality of the meat buy. This is because most of these consumers are poor, illiterate
and ignorant about the ill-effects of consuming unwholesome animal products.

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The safety of food depends on a chain of wants from the production to consumption. None
of the steps in this chain can be overlooked if the health of the consumer is to be stage
guarded. The consumption of contained food can result in nausea, vomiting and diarrhea
which are harmful to health.
Although slaughter facilities are provided by local governments, it is common conditions, in
some cases, the slaughter facilities have become outdated. Floor slabs in most abattoirs
have become sources of contamination and infection. It is common to find dronish
carnivores and rodents, which are vectors of numerous diseases in vading, these abattoirs.
Slaughter areas are often littered with waste and ding which attract swarms of flies.
The boots of cars and vans are used in transporting the meat from abattoirs to the markets.
Fresh meat is sold in the open in the markets which have very few storage facilities. The
high temperatures is these markets and stalls allow the bacteria to multiple very quickly.
Future more, most meat handlers have not been medically certified to handle food. Their
hands are sources of contamination as they scratch their skin and hair and pick their
noses while working. The scales, knives and other processing equipment are hardly cleaned
and sterilized. The knives are wiped on the dirty clothing of the butchers. It is very
important that all slaughter houses are well equipped to enable meat handlers to good
meat handling practices.
The meant we neat should make us healthy, not sick. We need to conserved our mega
foreign exchange and use it in more productive sectors of the economy rather than spend it
on in parting drugs for preventable food poisoning communities should be assisted by the
governments, non-governmental organizations and even concerned citizens to provide basic
slaughter facilities in every part of the country. Regulatory bodies such as the food and
drugs boards (FDB) should strength the inspection of imported and locally produced meat
and the storage facilities. The food and drugs boards should also keep a register of certified
meat handless in order to regulate their activities.
All hands should be on deck to rid our markets of unsafe meat. The public Health
Directorate of the various communities should weed illegal meat handling practices from
the society. The consumers also have a very vital role to play. They should buy meat from

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only certified meat handlers who operate under hygienic conditions. We should all insist on
quantity and not quality.
a. In three sentences, one for each, summaries why meat sold in our markets is unsafe.
b. In three sentences one for each, summarize how meat sold in our markets can be
made safe.
PASSAGE THREE (June 2014)
Read the following passage carefully and answer the question on it.
Have you ever considered the vast differences between the conventional desktop telephone
and the modern handset telephone? The desktop telephone has one district function: that
of making and receiving calls.
Apart from that, perhaps the other use is aesthetic –adding some beautify to the furniture
pieces in the room. The conventional telephone set was status symbols, as only the rich
and highly privilege could afford it. To obtain it, one had to fill many forms and have three
well known citizens to attest to one’s sterling qualities as a highly responsible member of
the society. Then, after paying several fees, one had to wait for several months before the
telecommunications department officials would crime to install the wires, in order to get
one’s set connected to the national grid. After that, the application might count himself
among the privilege ones in the community. But he must not have a sigh of relief yet. His
problem may just be beginning. The inclement weather may remind him that his use of the
facility is at its mercy.
A rainstorm or even a strong wind can destroy some of the wire-bearing poles, thus cutting
him off from telephone users. Besides, a vehicular accident may knock down a pole or
several of them. It is not even uncommon for term to render wooden poles useless. Finally,
there are the problems of the communications department officials who are noted for
brining bills latte, and cutting off wires for failure to pay up promptly. Most often, the bills
bear little resemblance to actual consumption. Thus, the telephone is not always there at
one’s service.
Like the conventional desktop telephone set, the handset has the primary function of
making and receiving calls. Beyond that, there are vast differences between them. To begin
with, the small handset is not much of a status symbol now; it is very easy to carry about

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and it can be used everywhere by all sundry. The telephone service providers have flooded
the market with lines at very low prices, such that most users can boast of two or more
lines. Gone are the days when one had to apply for a set and wait for months. Today, all
that it takes it to purchase the handset, which could be very cheap or very costly depending
on one’s preferences and purse. Once it is purchased, its user could have access to dozens
of functions. Apart from making and receiving calls, one could send text message and
receive responses within minutes. The set could be used to take pictures which could be as
clear any taken with a professional camera. One could also connect to the internet to read
news papers and send mail. Besides, the set could be used to store songs; it could also be
used as a radio receiver. One could use the handset to programme schedules of activities.
The reliable timepieces on it could be used as water. Young ones play games on their
handsets and store pictures of loved ones on them.
However, with these advantages, the handset has one obvious shortcoming; it can easily be
lost or stolen. This is where the conventional desktop telephone is not vulnerable.
a. In three sentences, one for each, summarize the problems associated with owning the
desktop telephone.
b. In three sentences, one for each summarizes the advantages which the handset
telephone has over the desktop telephone.

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