COMPREHENSION AND WRITING SKILLS

Content

The Procedure

Useful Hints

The Test: Summary section seeks to test the candidate’s ability to extract or pick relevant information from a longer passage and present that information in clear, concise language.

The Procedure

Read over the passage once or twice for thorough understanding

Read the questions based on the passage

Read the passage once again making notes or jotting down points that will help you to answer the questions.

Write out your answers.

Read over the questions and your answer to ensure there is no error.

EVALUATION

Read the passage on page 77 of Effective English and answer the summary questions on page 79

SPELLING: PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES

Content

Prefixes

Suffixes

Prefixes are words or syllable placed before a root-word to form another word; e.g. un, non, dis, mis, super, trans, ex e.t.c

Prefixes

Root

New words

happy

faithful

unhappy

unfaithful

dis

appear

respect

disappear

disrespect

non

sense

existence

non-sense

non-existence

mis

lead

direct

mis-lead

mis-direct

mal

treat

practice

maltreat

malpractice

out

wit

run

outwit

outrun

trans

plant

transplant

inter

denominational

state

interdenominational

interstate

post

war

independence

post war

post independence

SUFFIXES are words or syllables placed after a root word to form another word e.g. –ness, -ment, er, ship, -ation, ant, less, e.t.c.

Suffixes	Root words	New-words
ness	happy	happiness
ment	punish	punishment
ship	apprentice relation	apprenticeship relationship
ation	found associate	foundation association
ant	inhabit serve	inhabitant servant
hood	boy child	boyhood childhood
less	child guilt	childless guiltless

EVALUATION

Form five new words by adding prefixes to the root words.

Look up the meaning of each of the following morphemes and form five words with it.

Pseudo-

Across-

Intra-

De-

Dis-

Hyper-

Hypo-

ADVERBIAL AND PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

Content

Adverbial Phrases

Prepositional Phrases

Adverbial Phrases: The main function of adverbs and adverbial phrases is to modify verbs, answering the following questions

How? When? Why? Where? To what extent?

They also modify adjectives, other adverbs and prepositional phrases. Any group of words containing no verb and performing those functions is an adverbial phrase.

Types of Adverbial Phrases

Adverbial phrase of manner e.g.

He does the work with zeal/ very well.

Adverbial phrase of time e.g.

I saw him in the morning.

Adverbial phrase of place e.g.

I met him at the supermarket

Adverbial phrase of contrast

Despite her promise, she behaved differently.

In spite of the good advice, she did not change her behaviour.

His strength notwithstanding, he lost the fight.

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE

A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and ends with a noun phrase or pronoun e.g.

To him

For the man

At the bank

About what he did

Functions of a prepositional phrase:

The prepositional phrase is used

(i)As an adverbial phrase e.g.

The police caught the thief in the garden.

At a later date, we confronted him.

(ii)As an adjective:

The man with a hat is our teacher.

The news of his death shocked everyone

(iii)As complement of a verb

We believe in what he says.

(iv)As complement of an adjective

We are sure of his arrival.

EVALUATION

Indicate the adverbial phrases in the following sentences.

The car moved slowly towards the church.

My sister eats more slowly.

For all his experience, he was easily deceived by the students.

He worked hard to pass the examination.

GENERAL EVALUATION/ REVISION QUESTIONS

From the words lettered A to D, choose the word that best completes each of the following sentences.

I have —– some money for my surgical operation next month (a) put out (b) put in (c) put by (d) put down
I am much —– to listen to you now. (a) busy (b) too busy (c) more busy

(d) extremely busy

—– can all come to the party (a) you two (b) the three of you (c) both of you

(d) Simbo and Jide

She advised her son against ———- (a) goodwill (b) haggling (c) insubordination (d) obedience ( e) subordination
The Governor paid a ——– call on the Oba. (a) courtesy(b) crank (c) farewell (d) roll (e) wake up

WEEKEND ASSIGNMENT

Choose the option nearest in meaning to the underlined words

They decided to turn him down (a) refuse him (b) deny him (c) discredit him
She gave her candid opinion on every issue (a) good (b) frank (c) vague
The commentator described the recent event as catastrophic (a) disastrous (b) unfortunate (c) evil
The boy was proficient in whatever he did (a) inept (b) skilled (c) contented
I was warned against his erratic nature (a) immoral (b) insane (c) unpredictable