Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it.
As I watched Musa step out of the plane, I concluded that diligence, intelligence and luck had turned Musa from the rustic pauper of thirty years earlier to a highly successful professional. Here was a village boy of yesteryear, an orphan from early life, cheated out of his heritage by his half-brothers and uncles whose actions forced him to fend for himself. So, how did he become an internationally acclaimed computer wizard?
When his well-to-do father died three years after his mother, he had just gained admission to a fee-paying secondary school. Had his parents lived, that would not have been a problem. But his closest relatives were more interested in sharing assets than handling liabilities. They shared the three buildings in the city, as well as several cocoa plantations with hundreds of oil palms. None considered it right to take on the care of the poor boy.
Left in the lurch, he clung on to a classmate who had longed to work in the city as a petty clerk. They moved to the city. Both were engaged by a big-time retailer in all sorts of goods. which he gave out to the boys to hawk on the busy roads.
There were no salaries; all they had were commissions from each day’s sales. Musa and his friend could be out in the street from 6.00.a.m. till almost midnight. That way. they were able to keep body and soul together.
But Musa soon decided that his returns could cater for a little more than that. His yearning for education still very keen, he cut short his daily schedules at 4.00 p.m to attend an evening school organized by some secondary school teachers. And he made very rapid progress. Often, after classes, he would return to the streets. He never fared worse than any of the other learners, most of whom attended classes after normal school In time he sat for and passed all his school certificate papers with flying colours . Indeed. his results were among the best in the country.
An oil company which had a policy of sponsoring the university education of the best students in the various disciplines awarded him a scholarship. Thus, his university education in computer science was fully sponsored. Eventually he emerged as the best graduate in the university. The training made him a top 3-D computer programmer in engineering and architectural designs. So, as he stepped out of the plane, returning from one of his several international conferences, I could not but reach the conclusion I had made earlier.
(a) Where was the writer when he arrived at the conclusion with which he opened the passage?
(b) What tragedy had beset Musa early in life?
(c) What worsened Musa’s plight?
(d) How did Musa solve the problem of acquiring secondary education?
(e) What element of luck contributed to Musa’s success?
(f) “… keep body and soul together.”
(i) What figure of speech is contained in this expression?
(ii) What does it mean?
(g) ‘… who had longed to work in the city…”
(i) What is the grammatical name given to this expression as it is used in the passage?
(ii) What is its function?
(h) For each of the following words or phrase. fine another word or phrase which means the same and which can replace it as it is used in the passage: (i) fend for; (ii) considered: (iii) engaged; (iv) yearning (v) eventually:
Explanation
(a)The writer was at the airport.
(b) Musa (had) lost his parents
(c) His relatives deprived him of his inheritance/his father's wealth and did not take care of him.
(d) He attended an evening school.
(e) An oil company sponsored his university education/awarded him a scholarship.
(f)(i) Metaphor (ii) Manage to exist/live/survive
(g)(i) Adjectival/ Relative clause (ii) It qualifies (the noun) "classmate".
(h)(i) fend for - take care of, support, cater for, provide for. (ii) considered - thought, deemed (iii) engaged - employed, taken on, hired, recruited (iv) yearning - craving, desire, longing, hunger (v) eventually - finally, at last, in the end, at the end of the day