Read the following passage carefully and then answer the questions on it.
The death last month of Chief Dende has opened my eyes. Throughout his life, we were very close friends. We grew up together, attended the same primary and secondary schools, and joined the civil service the same day. Although we benefited from different in-service training programmes and at different times during our respective careers, we were never too distant from each other And we were installed chiefs the same day. Above all, his wife, Adanma, and minehave been good friends over the years.
All these years, I believed that my friend kept no secret from me. I could, and did occasionally, defend his integrity. Anywhere people discussed him in my hearing, I was ready to take up his case vehemently. Predictably, people stopped discussing him any time I was around. I had assumed, erroneously as it turned out, that people had stopped discussing him because they were sufficiently educated and sincerely convinced about his integrity. Happenings . have since shattered that assumption:
The first shock came the day after his death. The major national newspapers carried his obituary, as advertised by ‘his wife Ngozi Dende, and her three children.’ If the timing of the advertisement, a day after the event was strange, particularly more puzzling was the advertiser. All my life, I had known only Adanma as his wife and her five children. Besides, the names of ‘his’ three children in the advertisement were entirely different from those of his five children by Adanma.
Before I recovered from the first shock, the next bombshell fell. Members of the Apata Fraternity, a most dreaded secret cult, which Dende and I had despised while he lived, announced in the dailies that they had the exclusive right to bury their ‘departed colleague’. The announcement warned all uninitiated persons to keep off In their own interest’. And so it was that members of the fraternity, supporting their claim with a hand-written will by Dende, collected his body from the hospital, performed the last rites on him and buried him in their sacred grove.
I have learnt, and I am still learning. I have reached the unpleasant conclusion that his critics were most probably right after all.
(a) Why was the writer always defending Chief Dende?
(b) Why was the writer puzzled about the advertisement by Ngozi Dende?
(c) Why was he also surprised about the advertisement by the Apata Fratenity?
(d) What lesson can we learn from this passage?
(e) the next bombshell fell. (i) What figure of speech is the above expression? (ii) What is its meaning?
(f) ……that his critics were most probably right after all (i) What grammatical name is given to the above expression?
(ii) What is its function in the sentence?
(g) For each of the following words, find another word or phrase that means the same and can replace it as used in the passage.
(i) careers; (ii) integrity; (iii) vehemently, (iv) erroneously; (v) shattered; (vi) exclusive.
Explanation
(a) The writer was always defending Chief Dende because he believed he would never keep any secret from him or He thought he knew everything about him.
(b) He only knew Adanma Dende as his friend's wife.
(c) The writer and Chief Dende had always despised the Apata Fraternity while Dende was alive.
(d) One should never trust a friend completely or one should not put one's trust in people.
(e)(i) Metaphor (ii) Another shocking news came.
(f)(i)Adjectival / Relative clause (ii) It qualifies the noun, "conclusion".
(g) (i) Careers - Professions, (ii) Integrity - honour, (iii) vehemently -strongly
(iv) erroneously - wrongly, incorrectly, (v) shattered - dashed, destroyed (vi) exclusive - sole