JSCE English Language 2023 Objective — Question 1

INSTRUCTION: Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Mr. Ekun had his reservation about the young girl that was standing before him and asking to enroll in science subjects at the T Triple S School. She was unkempt and melancholic. Her fingernails were long and dirty. Streaks of perspiration had dried up and made marks on her cheeks in visible contrast lines to her suntanned brown skin. Her shoes were certainly one size larger than her feet and were not appropriate as school shoes. Her school uniform was rough and could do with some cleaning. She had big, penetrating light-brown eyes and bushy, kinky ginger hair that she had not bothered to comb out. Her hair grew in a semi-concave curvature round her forehead, what was called a devil's peak in some cultures. She was a good mixture of tanned brown skin, just missing being an albino by a stroke of good proportion of a mixture of dark pigmentation. She had fleeks of brown love spots spattered across her oval face and chiselled checked bones. Behind her shapely lips hid a set of regular white teeth with a gap in the middle. There was a symmetry with the point where her brown hair met in the middle of her forehead and the gap between her front teeth. In a few words, Mr Ekun thought that Ginger, even at that tender age, was a stunningly pretty little girl. As she stood in front of Mr. Ekun that day, Mr. Ekun recognized that, despite her outward presentation, here was a girl exuding some innocent confidence that was certainly not based on her outward appearance but on some personality which came from within her as a natural gift. Mr. Ekun agreed to enrol Ginger, so called because of her reddish-brown hair and complexion. Within a few weeks of her joining his class, Mr. Ekun saw that he had made a grievous mistake about Ginger's personality. She was a perpetual latecomer on the few days she actually came to school. She was lazy and laid-back. She would not submit her homework. She would come into the classroom without her textbooks, paper, or something to write with. She would not mix with the other students and would sit alone in the class and not participate in class discussions. On a number of occasions, Mr. Ekun had tried to get her to participate in the classwork but she was generally withdrawn and would sit and gaze into empty space. The other students stayed away from her, they bullied her and called her names. One of the nicknames they called her was "Osuoyo", whatever that meant. At the end of the first term after science classes were started at T. Triple S, Ginger was below the bottom of the class in her performance. Ginger's story, however, ended on a happy note. When she found a conducive environment for learning, she turned a new leaf. She emerged as the best student in her set, proceeded to the university and became a teacher in her alma mater. (The Lonely Ones Among Us by Oluwole Komolafe) What does Ginger's storage [story] suggest about life?

• A. That Ginger did not complete her studies
• B. That circumstances can determine success or failureCorrect
• C. That Ginger disliked Mr. Eku
• D. That life is about studies