Waec English language Past Questions and Answers

Question 91:

• WAEC 1988

You and a group of school mates were returning from an excursion when the bus in which you were travelling broke down in an isolated place. Write a report for the principal on the events that followed and how you got out of the situation.

Question 92:

• WAEC 1988

One of your pen friends has written asking you to describe your favourite Nigerian dish to enable her to prepare it. Write back to her explaining how the dish is cooked.

Question 93:

• WAEC 1988

Read the following passage carefully and then answer the questions which follow.
At the beginning of the century also, the British administration, after the control of malaria by quinine and the resettlement of whites on high ground at Hill Station. decided to change its policy of appointing Krios to high posts and appointed Europeans instead. some of them with lower qualifications.
The religious societies also seemed to have lost faith in Krio leadership in the Church and sent out white missionaries to replace them in Sierra Leone and in Nigeria under the ageing black Bishop Crowther, the first black bishop since the Reformation.
Thus, with economic power lost to the British and Lebanese merchants. civil and religious leadership lost to the British and with a strained relationship between them and the provincial people. the Krios have been a beleaguered community since the 1900s. In 1926 they even lost the cherished control and mayoralty of Freetown which they had held since the 1790s regaining it only after about three decades of petitioning.
But their passion for education and Protestantism remained. Their teachers and clergymen at the Freetown secondary schools with degrees from Durham University with which the local Fourah Bay college had been affiliated in the 1870s maintained a high standard in Freetown and were in demand in neighbouring territories in the Gambia. Ghana and Nigeria, especially in northern Nigeria, where they served under Lord Luguard as both senior and junior officers. A clerk there was the main character in a novel Mr. Johnson written in that era by the late author Joyce Cary.
(a) Give one word that could replace each of the following in the passage. (i) ageing; (ii) beleaguered; (iii) cherished; (iv) petitioning; (v) affiliated; (vi) era
(b) In two sentences state why it is necessary to resettle the whites on the high ground.
(c) Give three areas in which the Krios found themselves discriminated against.
(d) Give two reasons which show that the Krios were determined people:
(e) Write down the clauses you can see in the first sentence of the passage.

Question 94:

• WAEC 1988

Read the following passage carefully and then answer the questions on it.
It was Kola's first day at work. That morning. he woke up at exactly five 0 clock. He had slept late the night before as he was getting ready for the D-day.
Securing a job was a relief to Kola and his parents. For two years. Kola had roamed the streets in search of work. He had finished his mandatory national youth service two years. service two years before after returning from America where he obtained his master's degree in Business Administration at the State University. During these years, he has been living on his parents. Of course they were happy caring for him as having him around was what mattered. They could not bear the pain of him returning to America after missing him for ten years. Kola detested this too much. He felt his freedom was being curtailed by his continued dependence on his parents for survival. There was nothing he could do for the moment. He was not then a man.
Kola arrived at the office of the secretary to the Managing Director of Friendly Construction Company that morning full of smiles. He was to start as the company's Personnel Manager. He was surprised to see the secretary already at her seat typing. She looked up from her typing with surprise. She wondered what could have kept the young man so late on the first day of his assumption of duties. She was sure the Managing Director would not take it lying down.
She was on the verge of asking him why he was late when the door to the Director's office opened and the director stepped into the secretary's office.
Good morning Sir', Kola greeted him.
"Morning, Mr. Kola", replied the Director. By my time he continued it is now two minutes after 9 o'clock. You are one hour two minutes late. This is a bad way to begin. Kola hurriedly checked his wrist watch, He wanted to speak, but he was stuck for words.
(a) Give one reason why Kolas securing of a job was a relief to his parents.
(b) In one sentence, explain what the writer meant by saying Kola had been living on his parents.
(c) Write a sentence to explain what you think prevented Kola from returning to America after waiting for two years without a job. (d) What in the writer's opinion was responsible for Kola's parents untiring care for him? Quote a sentence from the passage to support this.
(e) State in one sentence why Kola was then not a man.
(f) In one sentence or phrase. give the meaning of each of the following words or group of words as it is used in the passage
(i) D-day (ii) Roamed; (iii) Mandatory; (iv) Lying down; (v) Stuck for words.
(g) (i) What kind of grammatical structure is "with surprise" (ii) What is its function in the sentence?

Question 95:

• WAEC 1989

Instruction: Chose the word opposite in meaning to the underlined word.
One of the armed robbers was as daring in his words at the stake as the other was

A. Morose
B. Secretive
C. Reckless
D. Timid
E. Rational