SUMARY, COMPREHENSION AND GRAMMAR
1. Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow:
The compound was crowded with people and I slipped unnoticed amongst them. Neighbors always gather to show their sympathy with the family of one who dies, but it seemed to me that this gathering was larger than usual and more tense. There were grave discussions among the old as well as customary exchange of greetings. There were women talking in angry angry tones as well as those who were weeping. Tona lay on her mat. They had dressed her in a more beautiful cloth than she had ever worn when she was alive. She did not look like Tona. She had already gone. I stood looking at her and did know what to do. My mother saw me and led me to greet the head of the family, Tona’s grandfather.
The old man looked at me thoughtfully. “Kofi,” he said. “He also shines at school.” He turned his gaze to my mother. “Be careful,” he warned her. “Do not arouse the enmity of those who are jealous.” My mother nodded her head and we left the compound.
“What did he mean?” I asked her but she shook her head and asked me instead why I was not at school. I told her I had a headache. Her eyes filled with fear, she felt my skin and hurried me home.
“What made Tona die?” I asked her but she would not answer me.”Do not speak of it,” she said.
Tona was buried that afternoon and almost the whole town was there. I stood outside out house knowing that the coffin must pass me on its way to the cemetery. I heard the procession approaching but he sounds that accompanied it frightened me. Instead of the usual singing, there was an angry roar. People shouting and wailing. Four men carried the coffin but they were behaving in alarming manner. They crossed and recrossed the road, sometimes running forward, sometimes backward, sometimes standing quite still for a minute or two so that the procession made very little progress. People danced and shouted around it. In the midst of them was a young priest, obviously afraid. When he saw my father, he left the crowd and joined us outside our house.
“Headmaster,” he said, “What is it? Are these men drunk?”
“No,” my father answered. “They are bewitched.”
The coffin reached us. The four men appeared to be in a trance. Although the movements of the coffin were so irregular, the men acted in perfect accord with it.
“What does it mean?” the priest asked.
“The child will not go to the cemetery,” my father told him. “She did not die a natural death. She wishes to be avenged”.
“They will bring her back to the cemetery in the end”, my father told him. “But now she goes to show them the witch.”
I began to understand. Tona had died but her body refused to rest until she had shown us her murderer. A great horror came over me. Someone lived who hated Tona enough to kill her. But who would hate Tona? Who would kill Tona? My fear turned to fury. The witch who killed Tona should herself be killed. I knew now why the women talked in angry voices, why the men danced and shouted. I was with them. My heart was filled with vengeance.
(From: The witch by Francis Sclormey)
a) Why was the compound crowded with people?
b) Why were the women crying in angry voices?
c) i) Why did Kofi and his mother leave the compound after talking to Tona’s grandfather?
ii) Why did Kofi’s mother get scared when he told her he was not at school because he had a headache?
d) What are your feelings towards Tona’s death?
e) Briefly explain the meaning of the following words or phrases as used in the passage.
i) …grave discussions…
ii) … cemetery…
f) …trance…
g) …vengeance…
2. Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow:
Mental illness is a common condition with various forms of social consequences. The world-over, mental disorders account for about 12 percent of the global burden of disease. This makes mental disorder only second to infectious diseases. Considering that infectious diseases are currently being tackled aggressively, we can as well project that in future mental disorders will overtake all others to become the world’s biggest cause for burden of disease. It is therefore important that strategies are put in place to help the promotion of mental health and prevention of psychiatric disorders.
Many countries have moved a long way in developing strategic plans for control of mental illness. Clear policies have been developed and services organized to address the problem together with provision of the required human resource.
IN Uganda, psychiatric disorders are very common. Depression and anxiety are some of the commonest problems especially in primary health care setting. Epilepsy, alcohol and drug abuse are also particularly common in almost all areas.
Considering the rather limited number of mental health professionals, it is hard to envisage how all such patients can access mental health care. Because mental illness disables socially and impoverishes people, it is important that the available mental health services in addition, be affordable, acceptable and accountable.
In Uganda, the basic strategy has been the integration of mental health in general health care at all levels. Such strategy ensures that the relatively available general health care providers can also be used to offer mental health care services. This strategy also has the advantage that it is a t the general health clinic where the majority of patients go for health care hence even the mentally sick can be identified and treated.
With the adoption of the policy of integration of services, all general health care workers are now trained in mental health care as well. Every effort has also been made to ensure that even those qualified before such a policy was adopted have had a chance for in –service training in the area of mental health care.
The implication of this is that such a resource that exists at the various health facilities needs to be used. People with patients suffering with mental illness should be able to help them get to any of the existing lower level health facilities. Where there is need for referral to the next level, the attending health workers will be able to advise appropriately.
At another level, the government of Uganda has further been able to improve the existing specialized mental health units at the regional hospitals and also modernized Butabika, the National Referral Mental Hospital. These facilities have specialized mental health professionals who in addition have the duty of supporting the lower health professionals who in addition have the duty of supporting the lower health units.
It is our hope that as more and more patients are managed at the lower levels, Butabika will then be left to handle only the very difficult cases, offer more super specialized services, engage in research and also make contribution in training of the required mental health human resource.
(Adapted from the Weekly Observer Feb 1-7, 2007)
Select The Best Choice
a) The passage suggests that mental illness.
A. does not contributr greatly to the burden of disease
B. is on the increase
C. is the biggest cause for burden of disease
D. makes the victims social outcasts.
b) There is hope that mental illnesses can be treated because
A. many countries are being affected.
B. specialized professionals have been trained
C. strategic plans for prevention have been laid
D. clear policies to deal with the problem have been put in place.
c) Mental illness commonly manifests itself as
A. depression and disability
B. depression and anxiety
C. alcohol and impoverishment
D. epilepsy and infectious disease
d) The major obstacle to accessing mental health care in Uganda is
A. the small number of mental health professionals
B. lack of integration
C. absence of accountability among professionals
D. that the drugs are expensive
e) The main advantage of integration is to
A. minimize costs
B. equip general health care workers with knowledge and skills
C. utilize the available trained human resource
D. reduce stigma among the mentally sick
3. Re-write each item in 3.1 to 3.10 according to the instructions. Do not change the meaning of the original sentence.
3.1 My aunt is very ill. She cannot be allowed to go home.
(Join into one sentence using…too…)
3.2 “That fruit is mine,” said John, “and I will be gald if you return it at once.”
(Re-write using reported speech)
3.3 They told us to stop singing. They would not let us play the tape-recorder.
(Join the two sentences using neither)
3.4 As they were moving along the main road, a signpost near the hospital showed that there was a bridge ahead (Begin: Moving…)
3.5 He gave his son an allowance because he wanted the boy to learn how to handle money sensibly.
(Re-write the sentence using…in order to..)
3.6 The thief failed to know that it was all a trick. He was not wise.
(Begin: Not being…)
3.7 He was very strong. Consequently, it was easy for him to lift the weight.
(Join into one sentence using enough)
3.8The foreman did not appreciate how often he had used his tractor until it broke down.
(Begin: It was not…)
3.9 The moment the clock struck midnight, all lights went off.
(Re-write beginning: If only…)
3B Complete the sentences 3.11 to 3.20 with the most suitable answer among the given alternatives. Put a ring around your best choice.
3.11 If the stomach hadn’t bulged we………………she was pregnant
A. would never know
B. may never know
C. would never have known
D. may never have known
3.12 When somebody asked him how he had come……………the money, he said he had sold his car.
A. on
B. by
C. at
D. into
3.13 Hardly had the midwife left the labor suite…………… Mary gave birth.
A. when
B. than
C. then
D. and
3.14 There was ………traffic, so the journey did not take long
A. few
B. a few
C. little
D. a little
3.15 The man was found on his bed where he had……….. for a week
A. lied
B. laid
C. lay
D. lain
3.16 His bull is……….., …………. and………..
A. stocky, strong…. Young
B. young, stocky…strong
C. young, strong…stocky
D. strong, stocky…young
3.17 Most flowers hav delight fragrance. The underlined word means
A. scent
B. smell
C. aroma
D. odour
3.18 The teacher told both…….. to clean up the classroom.
A. I and Asa
B. Asa and I
C. Me and Asa
D. Asa and me
3.19 You won’t bathe if the water is cold,…..?
A. will you
B. won’t you
C. would you
D. wouldn’t you
3.20 He brought her a…… on her birthday.
A. cheap, cotton, yellow dress
B. cheap yellow, cotton dress
C. yellow, cheap, cotton dress
D. cotton, yellow, cheap dress