2002 JUNE - COMPREHENSION PASSAGE 1
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
When health workers first came to the village and talked about family planning, no one took them seriously, including Amusa, whose young wife was then pregnant with their first baby. Had their fathers and forefathers before them not had as many wives and children as they desired? And have they not been able to take care of their families? So everyone shunned the family planning clinic which was established in the village shortly afterwards.
Twelve years later, Amusa was a clerical assistant in the city and lived with his wife and eight children in a single room because he could not afford larger quarters. For as long as he could remember, his large family had been going through difficult times, which appeared to be worsening lately. Only yesterday, his third child had been sent away from school because her parents could not replace her old torn school uniform. Last year, their first son could not proceed to the secondary school as the family could not afford the cost. Then recently, the landlord had announced his intention to increase the rent.
Amusa found himself thinking about the days when he himself was a young child. His own father had two wives and thirteen children, yet as far as he could remember, the family had not faced anything similar to what he was going through now. He suddenly realized that this was because the times had changed and that the requirements of modern living put great pressure on large family sizes.
His father’s time and age had been different: he had been a successful farmer in the village, had lived in his own house, employed members of his large family as farm hands and fed everyone from the abundance of the farm. On the other hand, Amusa lived in the city on a limited income. He had no farm land nor even a vegetable garden, and had to pay for everything, from his rented room to the smallest domestic needs of his family. And at four times what they cost a few years before!
It was then that he sadly remembered the health workers and their gospel of family planning. How he wished he had listened and taken their advice! Unfortunately, he had not. And what was even more unfortunate was that the millions in Amusa’s shoes became wiser only when it was too late.
Questions
(a) What advise do you think the health workers gave the villagers?
The health workers advised the villages not to have too many children.
(b) Give two reasons why the villagers did not take the health workers seriously.
1. They continued to have as many children as they wanted.
2. The villagers shunned the family planning clinic.
(c) Give two indications of Amusa’s financial difficulties.
1. He lived in a single room with his eight children.
2. He could not find the money to buy a new school uniform for his third child
(d) Mention any two differences between Amusa’s conditions and his father’s.
1. His father had been a successful farmer and fed his large family from the produce of his own farm but Amusa had no farm and had to buy all foodstuffs.
2. His father lived in his own house with his family while he Amusa was living in a rented room.
(e) And what was even more unfortunate.........
(i) What grammatical name is given to this expression as it is used in the passage?
Noun Clause
(ii) What does it mean?
It means that Amusa was not alone in that situation.
(f) And had they not been able to take care of their families?
(i) What literary device is used in this expression?
Rhetorical question.
(ii) What does it mean?
They had been able to take care of their families.
(g) For each of the following words or phrases, find another word or phrase which means the same and can replace it as it is used in the passage:
(i) shunned -- paid no attention to
(ii) established -- set up
(iii) announced -- given notice
(iv) going through -- experiencing
(v) limited -- meagre
(vi) shoes -- situation
