COMPREHENSION: Read each passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
PASSAGE I
Religion in its various forms is very strong in Nigeria. In other words, Nigerian people are very religious. Most of them believe that there is an unseen supernatural world, apart from the natural world we see around us.
This other world is inhabited by beings who are the source of our knowledge of good and evil. They watch and judge us, and if we offend them, they may have to be appeased with prayers and sacrifices.
Certain individuals in the natural world—priests, prophets, and diviners—are believed to be endowed with special powers to make contact with the other world. These individuals lay down ceremonies or rituals which must be observed if due honor is to be paid to the unseen beings.
The religious beliefs and practices of Nigerians can be classified under three main headings: Traditional Religion, Islam, and Christianity. In this passage, our focus is on Traditional Religion.
Traditional or indigenous religion continues to exert a strong influence on many people’s minds partly because of its association with their birthplaces and families. Each ethnic group has its own religious traditions, and these are often linked to some sacred spots in the ethnic homeland.
Yet, the various traditional religions have much in common: a remote but benevolent high god; under him, a number of lesser gods who interact with mankind; and below them, various spirits who inhabit natural objects (trees, streams, rocks, etc.); below them again, and closest to living men and women, the spirits of the ancestors.
In Yoruba tradition, for example, there are more than 400 lesser deities presided over by the high god, Olorun. Because he is remote from mankind, shrines are not built to him, and worship is not offered to him directly. The lesser gods, on the other hand, are the subject of special cults, each with its own priest and devotees: Eshu, the messenger of the gods; Ifa, the god of divination; Shango, the god of thunder, and so on.
Traditional religion was also strong in other parts of Nigeria.
In Igbo Traditional Religion, there were fewer gods. Although there was a remote high god, the most important figure was Ala or Ani, the goddess of the earth.
In Hausaland, traditional religion has largely gone underground owing to the influence of Islam, but belief in the existence of ‘Bori’ spirits and their power to possess people, especially women, is strong in some areas. Each spirit is associated with certain types of behavior, which are manifested by the possessed individual.
Divination—the discovery of what is unknown or yet to happen by supernatural or magical means—is an important element of traditional religion. It is often one of the functions of ‘medicine men’ or ‘herbalists.’ In Igboland, there also used to be several oracles which people consulted in order to seek solutions to their problems.
With the coming of Christianity, their influence has, however, waned, but in areas like Arochukwu and Okija, the influence of such oracles is still strongly felt.
(Adapted from Grant, Nnamonu, and Jowitt (1997), Senior English Project: For Senior Secondary School Students)
Answer questions 1 to 5 based on the passage.
PASSAGE II
Recently, literary research reveals that Nigerians hardly have time to read. In essence, the reading culture in Nigeria is now at a low ebb. It is disturbing, however, that the few Nigerians who read concentrate on foreign books rather than indigenous productions.
Most Nigerian authors of novels, storybooks, fiction, and non-fiction series have decried, on different occasions, their woes. They were bitter about the way most owners of bookshops and publishers treat them. It was gathered that most renowned bookshops in Nigeria hardly sell books written by indigenous authors. They prefer to stock foreign books.
When contacted by DAILY INDEPENDENT, the general manager of a popular bookstore in Lagos Island declared that most of the bookshops preferred to stock foreign books because of higher demand for them.
The question that bothers most Nigerian authors is: while their overseas counterparts are being rewarded with great international honors, why are Nigerians not according them such recognition in their own country?
Recently, Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won the 2007 Orange Prize Award, the literary world’s top award for fiction in English written by women. The award carries a prize tag of $30,000. It was reported in Publishers Weekly that Half of a Yellow Sun, the book that earned her the award, was profoundly gripping. According to the reviewer, the book is a “transcendent novel of many descriptive triumphs, most notably its depiction of the impact of war brutalities on peasants and intellectuals alike. It is a searing history in fictional form, intensely evocative and immensely absorbing.”
Chinua Achebe, the “Father of Modern African Literature,” also won the second-ever Man Booker International Prize of £60,000 with his first novel Things Fall Apart, published in 1958.
When Professor Wole Soyinka won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, the fame confirmed the relevance of Nigerians in the world of classical excellence. Ben Okri won the 1991 Booker Prize with his work, The Famished Road, and the world celebrated Nigeria as the Giant of Africa.
It was also gathered that most of the publishers hurriedly produce books, and in the process, mar their good contents. Most of the books are not properly edited and actually become substandard when compared with foreign products. The extent to which book publishing standards have fallen in Nigeria is alarming.
It is instructive that none of the books mentioned had been published in Nigeria.
It was discovered that most students in tertiary institutions depend on dictations from their lecturers and/or handouts. A science lecturer in one of the Nigerian universities, who had been a victim of a handout sales scandal, told DAILY INDEPENDENT the reality of campus challenges in relation to books.
“I was to dictate notes slowly to students who hung on every word in the absence of textbooks in a library that had, to all intents and purposes, stopped buying new books when the local currency devalued. But what other alternative does one have?”
(Adapted from DAILY INDEPENDENT, Monday, 20 August, 2007)
Answer questions 6 to 10 based on the passage.
PASSAGE III
It is said that experience is the best teacher, but to learn consciously through wisdom may even be a better and more convenient way. To learn by experience is to learn from mistakes.
It means you have burnt your fingers, and now “your eyes are open.” This is a tough, costly, and inconvenient way to learn. Rather than leaving our learning to experience, why do we not learn consciously through wisdom?
We can learn by consciously going out of our way to acquire knowledge and wisdom rather than leaving our learning to chance. Surely, we can learn from mistakes, but why wait till we make mistakes before we learn?
We should give more premium to learning by wisdom than by experience. This will involve making up our minds to be decisive in learning.
(Adapted from Sunday Tribune, July 2007)
Answer questions 11 to 15 based on the passage.
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