Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it.
Part of my one-year study programme in Britain involved visiting several places of historical importance, especially those related to precolonial African history on which I was researching One was the home of William Wilberforce, the 19th century anti-slave trade statesman. The house had been turned into a museum by one of the several organizations that fought the scourge Among the most outstanding features of the museum were the several statues of slaves in different postures black slaves being captured in their native homes, being chained together, being led to the port for sale, on the slave ship and being forced to work on plantations The sculptures were particularly remarkable in that they illustrated very movingly the bane which Wilberforce threw himself against.
As a black man I could not help shedding tears when going from room to room on the two floors. Then, there was a period of pandemonium which I. unwittingly, caused. I was on the first floor, about to cross the lobby, when I came face to face with another visitor. a white man. When he saw me, a wave of fright swept through him. His eyes were immediately bloodshot. He shouted out of fright and ran back. Quickly, he made for the staircase, sped down to the ground floor, and took to his heels.
All this while. I remained still, at a loss as to the cause of his action. He stopped shouting only when he got into the bus that brought his group. Meanwhile. others around him. realizing the cause of his fright, came to tell me that I was
the cause. They laughed it off when they told me that he had thought I was one of the statues and. had left suddenly turned into a human being. I discovered the reason for his fright when I entered the room which he had just left and found that It one of the statues looked exactly like me. Whoever did the wax model perhaps had my picture. was my height, my shape, my complexion, indeed the exact replica of me.
I realized what had happened. I was the only black present in the building. The man had not expected a live black person to be in the museum. Thus, the sudden sight of a black person moving around, with the stature and face of one of the statues, should certainly frighten him. I wondered what could have happened if I had pursued him down the staircase.
(a) In what capacity did the writer visit the museum?
(b) For what was William Wilberforce famous?
(c) Why did the writer stand out among the visitors in the museum at that hour?
(d) Why was the other man frightened?
(e) by had the man assumed that the writer was a statue that had come alive?
(f) “a wave of fright swept through him…” (i) What figure of speech is contained in the expression above? (ii) What does it mean?
(g) “…that brought his group…”
(i) What grammatical name is given to this expression as it is used in the passage?
(ii) What is its function?
(h) For each of the following words, find another word or phrase which means the same and which can replace it as it is used in the passage: (i) organizations; (ii) remarkable; (iii) pandemonium; (iv) replica; (v) pursued.
Explanation
(a) He visited the museum as a research student/researcher
(b) Wilberforce was famous for fighting/opposing slave trade.
(c) He was the only black visitor at the museum at that hour/then. (d) He thought that one of the statues had turned into a human being.
(e) He thought so because he had just seen a statue which looked exactly like the writer
f(i) Metaphor (ii) It means that he became frightened.
(g)(i) Adjectival/Relative clause (ii) It qualifies (the noun) bus'
(h)(i) Organizations: bodies, movements, groups (ii) remarkable: striking, notable, outstanding (iii) pandemonium: chaos, commotion, uproar, confusion (iv) replica: model, likeness, resemblance, image (v) pursued: run after, chased (after), gone after, followed