Waec English language 2011 Past Questions and Answers

Question 106:

• WAEC 2011

Write a story to illustrate the saying: A stitch in time saves nine.

Question 107:

• WAEC 2011

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it.

As I watched Musa step out of the plane, I concluded that diligence, intelligence and luck had turned Musa from the rustic pauper of thirty years earlier to a highly successful professional. Here was a village boy of yesteryear, an orphan from early life, cheated out of his heritage by his half-brothers and uncles whose actions forced him to fend for himself. So, how did he become an internationally acclaimed computer wizard?
When his well-to-do father died three years after his mother, he had just gained admission to a fee-paying secondary school. Had his parents lived, that would not have been a problem. But his closest relatives were more interested in sharing assets than handling liabilities. They shared the three buildings in the city, as well as several cocoa plantations with hundreds of oil palms. None considered it right to take on the care of the poor boy.
Left in the lurch, he clung on to a classmate who had longed to work in the city as a petty clerk. They moved to the city. Both were engaged by a big-time retailer in all sorts of goods. which he gave out to the boys to hawk on the busy roads.
There were no salaries; all they had were commissions from each day's sales. Musa and his friend could be out in the street from 6.00.a.m. till almost midnight. That way. they were able to keep body and soul together.
But Musa soon decided that his returns could cater for a little more than that. His yearning for education still very keen, he cut short his daily schedules at 4.00 p.m to attend an evening school organized by some secondary school teachers. And he made very rapid progress. Often, after classes, he would return to the streets. He never fared worse than any of the other learners, most of whom attended classes after normal school In time he sat for and passed all his school certificate papers with flying colours . Indeed. his results were among the best in the country.
An oil company which had a policy of sponsoring the university education of the best students in the various disciplines awarded him a scholarship. Thus, his university education in computer science was fully sponsored. Eventually he emerged as the best graduate in the university. The training made him a top 3-D computer programmer in engineering and architectural designs. So, as he stepped out of the plane, returning from one of his several international conferences, I could not but reach the conclusion I had made earlier.
(a) Where was the writer when he arrived at the conclusion with which he opened the passage?
(b) What tragedy had beset Musa early in life?
(c) What worsened Musa's plight?
(d) How did Musa solve the problem of acquiring secondary education?
(e) What element of luck contributed to Musa's success?
(f) "... keep body and soul together."
(i) What figure of speech is contained in this expression?
(ii) What does it mean?
(g) '... who had longed to work in the city..."
(i) What is the grammatical name given to this expression as it is used in the passage?
(ii) What is its function?
(h) For each of the following words or phrase. fine another word or phrase which means the same and which can replace it as it is used in the passage: (i) fend for; (ii) considered: (iii) engaged; (iv) yearning (v) eventually:

Question 108:

• WAEC 2011

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it.
Although rural people needed kerosene for lighting, they relied on it more for cooking. However, persistent fuel scarcity had made the commodity hardly affordable where it was available. Fetching dry wood from the forest became inevitably the order of the day.
Early one morning Jojo and I. armed with cutlasses and axes, joined other young people, who were more conversant with the forest, in search of dry wood It soon dawned on us that this "essential commodity" had been driven so far away that we had to wander into the heart of the forest before we could fine a huge branch of tree that looked dry. Convinced that it was. we went into action. each cutting from his own side.
Scarcely had we started when Jojo suddenly jumped up from her position and exclaimed "Goodness!" When I inquired what had happened. she explained that the ground on which she was standing was lifting her up This sounded weird and I went closer to examine the ground. It appeared level and was full of dry leaves. There was no sign of anything other than the bare ground. Mockingly, I asked her to return to work, adding that her phobia about the forest was changing into an illusion. Nevertheless. I struck the ground with my cutlass cutting through it to reassure her that there was nothing to fear. But before I could leave we noticed blood trickling out of the cut on the ground and we scampered away, developing goose-flesh.
As we watched from the distance, we observed that there was a writhing movement and gradually. a curled creature stretched into full length of about three and a half feet. The earthy but splendid design of the skin became visible and it started what was like its last struggle away from the spot Its pace was decreasing with every effort to crawl on while more blood was being lost as a result of the deep cut it had received.
Whether it was shock or fear that prevented me from finishing up what I started, I cannot say. But though we accomplished our aim of going to the forest that day. I was haunted by the guilt of an unwilling murderer many days after.
(a) Why was kerosene important to rural people?
(b) State two reasons why the people sought an alternative to kerosene
(c) What lifted Jojo up?
(d) What did the narrator start that he could not finish?
(e) " the heart of the forest (i) What figure of speech is contained in this expression? (ii) What does it mean?
(f) "As we watched from the distance (i) What is the grammatical name given to this expression as it is used in the passage ? (ii) What is its function?
(g) 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 (i) persistent (ii) inevitably, (iii) weird; (vi) mockingly;
(v) splendid;
(vi) accomplished.