COMPREHENSION Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it. The case of Dr. Akide drives home the point that nobody would be written off as long as he has not died. As far as I can recall, he was one of the weakest in class throughout our primary school career. Right from the secondary school grade, he was butt of most of our jokes. Indeed, whenever a teacher referred a question to him. Most of us waited eagerly to have a good laugh. But we all admired him for two things. For one thing, he was the only one who never wrote with the right hand as he was a complete southpaw. Then, he endured all the jokes cheerfully and indeed referred to him as 'Mr. Why Hurry.' Forever sociable, he was a friend to everybody who came close though. Not surprising, we left him in the primary school as he could not get admitted to any of the secondary school. I lost contact with him nor did any of my mates whom I closely associated with ever mention meeting him anywhere. As far as most of us were concerned, David has faded away into obscurity. I imagined that he must have ended up in one of the low-grade vocations since he was at least good in handicraft. Then, a few months ago, thirty-eight years after I last saw him in the primary school, while I was watching a 9 0'clock television network programme. I saw David being interviewed by a team of reporters. He was introduced as a specialist surgeon who had made his mark in the heart of surgery in the nation's leading teaching hospital. The questions were on his recent feat in his successful correction of abnormality in the heart of patient who had been written off by most other specialists. The patient fully recovered and was now back in his vacation as a mechanic. I was amazes, I was pleasantly surprised from the interview, it became clear that he had experienced a surge in intellectual prowess late in his secondary school career and zoomed into and through the university as a medical student. Thereafter, it had been one major achievement after another for him in his chosen field. (a) What evidence is there that the writer is not a young person? (b) For what two things was David Akide admired by others in the primary school (c) Why could he not move to secondary school then along with the others? (d) What did the writer assume had been the fate of David after leaving the primary school? (e) Why was the writer amazed? (f) For each of the following words, find another word or phrase that means the same and which can replace it in the passage. (i) cheerfully (ii) sociable (iii) imagined (iv) vacation (v) achievement (g)... while I was watching a 9 0'clock television network programme...? (i) What is the grammatical name used to describe the above expression, as used in the passage? (ii) What is the grammatical function of the expression in the passage"
