WAEC English Language 2019 Theory Past Questions

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5, Alimaso Street, Off Latunde Avenue, Ring Road, Ibadan, Oyo State. August, 26, 2020. Dear William, I'd been planning on writing you before I received your letter, knowing that you've not been finding your studies easy, my intention was to ask you about the results of your last semester exam, which I'd expected would improve. I'm sorry I delayed my reply. Recall in your previous letter you were disheartened by your inability to concentrate on your studies due to a number of distractions you highlighted. Upon receiving your new letter which reads about your sudden decision to abandon schooling for business, I know it is about time I replied and advised you against quitting your studies this time. William, you're almost completing the third year of a four year course. I know you're studying Chemistry - a course you never liked in the first place. However, dropping out at this time, when you should be planning on rounding off, only shows you lack optimism, tenacity and the ability to face challenges head on, and succeed. Problems are everywhere, but we shouldn't quit trying; we shouldn't give up because of a bag of challenges. You only need to change your approach to your studies, put on the optimistic cap, put in the real work, halt your distractions, concentrate more and get your goal of bagging a B.Sc accomplished. While business is a good idea, you may be dabbling into it the wrong way. Come on, William! If you start a business now, and then some years down the line, many foreseen challenges stir you in the face, are you going to quit again? What you need is the ability to solve problems, and not run away from them. Also, you should rather complete your degree programme even if you want to go into business afterwards. This is because you never can tell what the future holds in the world of business. Nigeria has a very poor enabling environment for new businesses to thrive. More than 30% of business fail after their first five years, does statistics say. While I'll never pray that yours should fail, it's good to be realistic that you can always dust your degree certificate and hunt for employment elsewhere. If by fate your business fails in your future, at least you can work with it and raise some capital again. Besides, I'll also want you to consider the huge sum of money that has gone into your yearly school fee, accommodation, transportation, food stuff and other resources. Sending a child to an expensive private university like Bowen university, is a huge investment on the part of our Dad and Mum. It'll be very disappointing and unforgivable that their first child wasted their investment and resources. Even Biola and I, your younger siblings are really looking up to you; the entire family is. Please, take courage and do us proud. We're praying that you finish the programme strong. Take good care. Yours sincerely, Lekan.

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The Importance of Promoting Good Reading Habits in Students Reading is a language skill through which one primarily acquires knowledge. It is the way to enlightenment, the doorway to knowledge and the secret of true education. In fact, the more skilled one is in the art of reading, the easier one's quest for knowledge will be. Unfortunately in Nigeria today, the failure of students in their academics can be considerably blamed on their poor reading habits. Since habits are what one does repeatedly without awareness, reading habit denotes reading voraciously. One cultivates reading habits by regular and keen reading of various reading materials such as books, magazines, novels, newspapers, online articles and blogs. Reading habits are a flair one develops from consistently reading books, enjoying interaction with pieces of writing and seeing reading as pleasurable and funfill. Considering the poor performance that many Nigerian secondary schools have been recording for some years now, the government, school administrators, ministry of education, parents and other stakeholders in education must put all hands on deck to rescue our schools. They need to provide initiatives that will promote good reading habits in students. There is need to implement programmes that will improve reading culture. There should also be conscious effort to resuscitate our national, state and school libraries. TV shows and book festivals where novels, historical archives and scientific writings can be discussed will suffice. Book readings debates and book clubs, when revived in our schools, will equally promote good reading habits. In Nigeria, the Reading Association of Nigeria, the Nigerian Book development Council and Nigerian Library Association have once initiated one intervention or the other to help develop good reading culture in students. There is need to revive these initiatives and introduce more sustainable ones in order to promote good reading culture. Promoting good reading habits is essential because it can help build vocabulary. It will by extension improve spelling, writing skills, fluency, proficiency and language generally. This will further help students attain success in their academic endeavours, expand horizons, improve their knowledge and avoid costly mistakes. Besides, promoting good reading culture will enhance students' self-confidence, moral and sense of good/value judgement, critical thinking and emotional intelligence. In fact, the more one gets glue to reading, the more exposed one is to knowledge, and consequently, the wiser one is likely to become. Lastly, the experience one gains from reading habitually makes one acquire cultural understanding, social norms, traditions, expected social behaviour and good human relations. These thus make one communicate better, relate better as well as handle conflicting matters better.

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Greenfield Comprehensive College, 1, Asukoro Road, EKPO, Benin City, Edo State. August 26, 2020. The Principal, Greenfield Comprehensive College, Ekpo. Dear Sir, Students' Bad Practices and Teachers' Expected Habits As expected of a Senior Prefect of your school, I find it dutiful to point out some negative practices I have observed among the students for sometime now. These untoward practices have started threatening the reputation the school had sustained with years of commitment and hardwork. The school authorities therefore need to urgently address them. Bullying and fighting are one worrisome practice that has become rise. Many cases have received teachers' attention, wherein some senior students both-male and female — extort, bully and harass the junior ones unnecessarily. The other day a parent came with complaint that her daughter had returned home with bruises. The daughter had narrated how Yemi Osunade, a student in SS2B beat her, parted with her pocket money and threatened her to never tell anyone. Parents and guardians are beginning to worry about the safety of their children. Since safety is the first rule of living, parents might begin to consider withdrawing their children to elsewhere if nothing is done about this issue of bullying. I also notice that dating, especially among senior students, is now the order of the day. It is not uncommon to see an SS3 boy befriending an SS2 girl. Many instances of two opposite sex students meeting at rendezvous within the school premises, usually go unnoticed. Many times, I have bumped into opposite sex students kissing and fondling each other. I am afraid the school authorities might begin to receive bad news of unwanted pregnancies among the girls if nothing is done swiftly to arrest this unnecessary romance distracting students from learning. Yet another practice, especially among boys is gambling. Whenever boys engage in football, dicing or table tennis, senior boys usually stake some money on the game, rather than play and enjoy the game as a form of social recreation. This often causes fight over who wins or who does not. It is also important that I discuss the habits that need to be promoted among teachers in order to curtail these anomalies. Teachers should develop concerned and keen interest in their students. Where teachers have keen interest in the affairs of their students, aside from the classroom activities, they will discover and be able to talk students out of these negative practices. Another is that the school authorities should promote alternative disciplinary measures among teachers. The usual correctional method of using strokes on student is becoming unproductive as it no longer deters students. I believe alternative correctional measures that leave students with positive impact, will open doors for a better teacher-student relationship. It is therefore hoped that the school management will look into the matters I have pointed out here. Yours faithfully, Ugomma Peace.

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A Speech Delivered by Emeka and Nnanna at the Welcome Party Organised for the New Principal, Mr Adebayo Kola The chairman, Parents, Principal, Teachers, Distinguished Guests and Fellow students, I count it a rare privilege for me to present a welcome speech in honour of Mr. Adebayo Kola, the in-coming principal of Gbadebo College. I say this because I had my Junior Secondary Education at Great Brain College, Epe where Mr. Adebayo was once a principal and I can testify to the effective administrative system he ran while I was a student there. My parent's relocation to Surulere brought me to Gbadebo college and I'm glad seeing you again. Sir, I've so much confidence that your tenure will usher in unprecedented progress in this school. I appreciate God for giving us a leader like you in a time our school needs to step up in order to consolidate its achievement and reputation. While our school hasn't been doing badly before your arrival, I needn't shy away from a number of problems we are facing as students. It's thus our hope that the new leadership will live up to expectation by resolving these challenges as this will aid our learning and performance. Sir, one of the problems is power supply that has been annoyingly epileptic. This is affecting our studies in a number of ways: the electronic boards the school authorities bought to aid teaching have been redundant after their installation. Boarding students also find it difficult reading at night in their hostels, because there is no means of seeing through the pages of books without putting off the candle. The generator lacks the capacity to power the entire hostel. The other day, a student slept off with the candle. The flame burnt the reading table and spread to the wooden wall. Save for quick intervention, we'd be here talking about loss of lives and property. We count on your regime to champion a solution to this challenge. Sir, I should also inform you that our library has remained almost empty after the looting incident that occurred here. It happened during the last term holiday when the fence behind the library building collapsed. Looters came to cart away virtually all the newly bought books. We've tabled this before the representatives of the PTA, but haven't got their response so far. It's our hope that the new administrative will facilitate this. The only way we complement what we learn in the classroom is by exploring knowledge through reading in the library. Reading is very instrumental in academic activities in our academic performances. Another challenge is that the number of students we have in our class is unbearably high - about 55 students in each class. Our classes are too crowded. This affects learning as there is no adequate attention from teachers, especially on the less brilliant students. Building more structures/classrooms will solve this problem as each class will now have arms. Most times, when two subjects — say, chemistry and literature — are to be held simultaneously, the Arts students would leave the class for the science ones, and go to the school hall or elsewhere where there are benches, instead of chairs, lockers and board. This is not convenient, I must say. I pray that as your administration will be working towards the progress of the school, your stay here will be memorable, and your labour in this service will not be in vain. Once again, on behalf of teachers, parents and students, I welcome you sir.

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I Had Never Felt So Embarrassed in My Life I remember how I fell into the horrible hands of pickpockets. It was an incident I'd never forget in a hurry. I left home for Badagry. I had planned attending the yearly Arts Festival organized to promote arts and culture. As a lover of fictions, sculptures and movies, I wanted to enjoy myself to the brim. I wore the New African Regalia I had been gifted two months before. It was grandma who brought it from her trip to the outskirts of Nupe. It had sketches of the Nok rafters. I had reserved it for the day; it would somewhat fit the tempo of the day. Mum had warned me to beware of snatchers in Lagos, especially places of crowded people - event centres, bus-stops. She had narrated her ordeal - how some unknown boys snatched her handbag at Ojuelegba and vanished into thin air, before she could say Jack Robinson. I had held that lesson tight, but never thought I would fall victim somehow. I had never gone about with a bag or pulse, except at school. And I had always moved about suspiciously, particularly when in a strange place. 'Deji, make sure you return early, and use the ATM card on the table to withdraw N80,000 for me while coming back. You know my usual pin right? Don't take my money to the festival. You heard me?' Mum had instructed before leaving home that morning. At noon, I left home early enough, but felt I should ignore mum's warning and withdraw her money before heading for Badagry. I had envisaged the event might end very late in the night. In that case, the ATM would have been emptied. And I did not want to leave in the heat of the show. I thought 'I'll be careful with the money. No one knows I'm here with something big'. I kept everything on me in the same nylon. The festival was strikingly enlivening — so many crafts, so many exhibitors, so many recreations. The premiered film was incredibly interesting. I was buried in the movie. I forgot time flew. What jotted me up was the chaos and mayhem that tormented after the first winner of the exhibition claimed a sumptuous prize of two million naira. Before I could realize anything, it was late. Something big had been robbed off me. I could not find the pickpocket. I lost everything except me. I regretted taking the money along. I was lost in thought 'how do I return home? Where do I get transportation fare?' I resorted into begging in public places. I begged for fare to return home. People avoided me. Nobody could believe my story; an able young man begging alms? It was ignominious. I received insults. I felt ashamed of my life. I had never felt so embarrassed.

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(a) She thought there would always be a member of the family at home (to welcome her). (b) She chatted heartily with a passenger in the bus. (c)(i) Mama did not meet any member of family at home; (ii) She did not have enough money for the taxi fare; (iii) She had challenge communicating effectively with the watchman. (d) The taxi driver left with one of Mama's bags because she could not pay the complete fare. (e) The meal was of unusual for her/Mama was not used to having such a meal. (f)(i) It is a relative clause. (ii) It modifies the noun, 'passenger'; it means what appeared to be a very long time. (g) It means what appeared to be a very long time. (h) She learnt that she should inform her children before visiting. (i) Word replacements: i. Unimaginable - unthinkable, unbelievable. ii. Heartily - excitedly, warmly, cheerfully, happily. iii. Outrageous - unreasonable, exorbitant, very high, excessive. iv. Numerous - very many, frequent, many. v. Frantically - very hard, with much effort. vi. Fraudulent - deceitful, dubious, dishonest.

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(a) Benefits derived from forests (any three, one sentence each): i. Forests protect lands against erosion. ii. Forests provide wood used for building houses. iii. Wood got from forests is used in producing paper. iv. Forests provide food for man and animals. (b) Measures to control deforestation (any three, one sentence each): i. Laws mandating tree planting must be enacted and enforced. ii. Everyone must endeavour to go forest reserves and protect them. iii. Paperless society should be encouraged (soft copies of books should be preferred to hard copies, reducing the demand for paper and thereby forest exploitation).