From the words lettered A to D below each of the following sentences, choose the word that is nearest in meaning to the underlined word.

Theincessant chatter of the pupils irritated the visitor.

• A. unceasing
• B. meaningless
• C. excited
• D. loud

Choose from the options nearest in meaning to the word underlined.

Some actions of the Nigerian youth havealienated them from those who were sympathetic to their cause?

• A. endeared / kindly
• B. confronted / ill disposed
• C. separated / opposed
• D. estranged / well disposed

Choose the option that best completes the gap(s). Yesterday, my mother asked me...... ?

• A. are you tired?
• B. are you tired?
• C. whether was I tired?
• D. if i was tired?

May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding month. The days are long and humid. The river shrinks and black crows gorge on bright mangoes in still, dust green trees. Red bananas ripen. Jackfruits burst. Dissolute blue bottles hum vacuously in the fruity air. Then they stun themselves against clear windowpanes and die, fatly baffled in the sun. The nights are clear but suffused with sloth and sullen expectations.

But by early June the southwest monsoon breaks and there are three months of wind and water with short spells of sharp, glittering sunshine that thrilled children snatch to play with. The countryside turns an immodest green. Boundaries blur as tapioca fences take root and bloom. Brick walls turn mossgreen. Pepper vines snake up electric poles. Wild creepers burst through laterite banks and spilt across the flooded roads. Boats ply in the bazaars. And small fish appear in the puddles that fill the PWD potholes on the highways. It was raining when Rahel came back to Ayemenem.

Slanting silver ropes slammed into loose earth, ploughing it up like gunfire. The old house on the hill wore its steep, gabled roof pulled over its ears like a low hat. The walls, streaked with moss, had grown soft and bulged a little with dampness that seeped up from the ground. The wild, overgrown garden was full of the whisper and scurry of small lives.In the undergrowth, a rat snake rubbed itself against a glistening stone. Hopeful yellow bullfrogs cruised the scummy pond for mates. A drenched mongoose flashed across the leaf-strewn driveway. The house itself looked empty. The doors and windows were locked. The front verandah bare. Unfurnished.

But the sky blue Plymouth with chrome tail fins was still parked outside, and inside, Baby Kochamma was still alive. She was Rahel's baby grand aunt, her grandfather's younger sister. Her name was really Navomi, Navomi Ipe, but everybody called her Baby. She became Baby Kochamma when she was old enough to be an aunt. Rahel hadn't come to see her, though. Neither niece nor baby grandaunt laboured under any illusions on that account. Rahel had come to see her brother, Estha. They were two-egg twins. Dizygotic' doctors called them. Born from separate but simultaneously fertilized eggs. Estha Esthappen-was the older by 18 minutes.

What was Baby's real name?

• A. Navomi Ipe
• B. Estha
• C. Rachel
• D. Kochamma

Choose the best option that best completes the gap(s) The crops the farmer planted will be ____ in three months time.

• A. sold
• B. weeded
• C. uprooted
• D. harvested

After each of the following sentences, a list of possible interpretations of the sentence is given. Choose the interpretation that you consider most appropriate for each sentence.

When Eunice was discharged from hospital she was a shadow of her former self. This means that she

• A. looked like a shadow
• B. was withdrawn
• C. had changed a little
• D. was thin and weak

Food and the sensation of taste are central to Monique Truong’s novels. In The Book of Salt, for example, the exiled character of Bình connects to his native Saigon through the food he prepares, while in Bitter in the Mouth, the character of Linda ______ a form of synesthesia whereby the words she hears evoke tastes. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• A) experienced
• B) had experienced
• C) experiences
• D) will be experiencing

Fill in the gap(s) with the most appropriate option from the list following the gap(s).

He was ...... weak .... he could now boast of more .....?

• A. so / that
• B. too / that
• C. very / that
• D. so / when

From the words lettered A to D, choose the one that has the correct stress

effeminate

• A. e-FFEM-i-nate
• B. e-ffem-i-NATE
• C. e-ffem-I-nate
• D. E-ffem-i-nate

CHOOSE THE OPTION THAT IS NEAREST IN MEANING TO THE WORD(S) IN BRACKET, FOR QUESTIONS below. We must not [foreclose] reconciliation as the purpose of his trip

• A. exclude
• B. consider
• C. underestimate
• D. forgo