WAEC Sample Comprehension Questions and Answers (Part 3)

Passage 24

Please, feel free to write your own comprehension answers to any number of questions in the comment box below the passage. Remember that there can never be a single perfect answer for a WAEC/JAMB/NECO/SHS comprehension question.

The comprehension passage below is a past question from the May/June 2015 WASSCE English Language paper. You will find the recommended answers right after the comprehension questions.

2015 MAY/JUNE WASSCE Comprehension

The mansion by the roadside in my village reminds me of a similar sight in the state capital three decades ago. Standing conspicuously by the highway in the heart of the city, the mansion posed a bold challenge to road users. It belonged to Chief Koko who was regarded as untouchable in his community. Nobody dared step on his toes. Motorists had learnt to steer clear of it. It was generally assumed that moving close to it could cost one one’s life.

SEE ALSO: How to Answer Comprehension Questions

Then came a governor who decided to widen all the major roads in the capital city. He stressed that this would involve the demolition of buildings that fell within twenty metres from the centre of the road. However, although the governor also stressed that compensations would be paid, Chief Koko was not impressed. He made it clear that nothing should tamper with his mansion, warning that whoever defied him risked dire consequences.

Not long after the governor’s official proclamation, newspaper reporters had a field day speculating on the unprecedented confrontation with Chief. With time, news filtered out that he asserted that whoever dared him would certainly end up where others like them had gone. The message was clear – defiance meant death! So, reporters were pleading for a new route to circumvent the mansion. However, the governor made it clear that there would be no retreat.

Before long, work started on the project. One of the first casualties was a post office that was just some metres within the specified distance. It was cut into two. Soon, the frontage of a school nearby also followed. But it was assumed that things would be different with the mansion whose owner tolerated no effrontery. Day by day, the project moved closer to the mansion with the heavy machine levelling one structure after another. Then, when it was clear that the mansion was next in line, the driver of the bulldozer requested to go on leave. This got to the governor who ordered the driver to first do his duty. He sent emissaries to the governor to spare his life since his children were all still very young.

The following morning, people got a shocker. The governor himself showed up at the site and asked for the key to the bulldozer, ready to assume the driver’s seat. The driver, surveying the possible consequences, tearfully climbed up and pleaded that the governor should please care for his children after his demise. The governor announced that if anything was to happen, he, not the driver, would be the target.

So the driver got to work, and the mansion collapsed like a pack of cards. Press photographers went to town with their cameras, hoping to capture Chief Koko in action. But nothing unusual happened and soon the whole structure became rubble.

The aftermath? Everybody thought either of both men would soon belong to the great beyond. But this much I know: that the governor is still around and so is the driver.

Questions

a. What opinion did people have of Chief Koko?

b. What does the expression unprecedented confrontation tell us about the governor?

c. Why was it necessary to demolish buildings?

d. The driver said that his children were still very young. What did he imply?

e. People got a shocker. Why was the governor’s action a shocker?

f. What did people expect Chief Koko to do after the demolition of his mansion?

g. Not long after the governor’s official proclamation…

i. What grammatical name is given to this expression as it is used in the passage?

ii. What is its function?

h. Quote a simile used in the sixth paragraph of the passage.

i. 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. assumed

ii. retreat

iii. specified

iv. showed up

v. collapsed

Recommended Answers for Passage 24

a. They believed that Chief Koko was a dangerous man.

b. The governor was fearless to have done what no other person had done before.

c. The buildings had to give way for the proposed widening of the major roads in the capital.

d. He feared that he might die and leave his young children behind to suffer.

e. The people could not believe that a man of his standing would make the choice to drive a bulldozer knowing he was sacrificing his life for doing so.

f. They expected him to cause the death of either the driver or the governor or both.

g. i. Adverbial Phrase

ii. It is modifying the verb, ‘had’.

h. ‘the mansion collapsed like a pack of cards’

i.i. assumed = thought

ii. retreat = going back/surrender

iii. specified = stated

iv. showed up = appeared

v. collapsed = went down/fell