Read the following passage carefully and answer, in your own words as far as possible, the question that follows.
Poverty! Can anyone who has not really been poor know what poverty is? I really doubt it. How can anyone who enjoys three square meals a day explain what poverty means? Indeed can someone who has two full meals a day claim to know poverty? Perhaps, one begins to grasp the full meaning of poverty when one struggles really hard to have one miserable meal in twenty-four hours. Poverty and hunger are cousins, the former always dragging along the latter wherever he chooses to go.
If you were wearing a suit, or a complete traditional attire, and you look naturally rotund in your apparel, you cannot understand what poverty entails. Nor can you have a true feel of poverty if you have some good shirts and pairs of trousers, never mind that all these are casual wear. Indeed, if you can change one dress into another, and these are all you can boast of, you are not really poor. A person begins to have a true feel of what poverty means when, apart from the tattered clothes on his body, he doesn’t have any other; not even a calico sheet to keep away the cold at night.
Let us face it, how can anyone who has never slept outside, in the open, appreciate the full, harsh import of homelessness? Yet that is what real, naked poverty is. He who can lay claim to a house, however humble, cannot claim to be poor. Indeed, if he can afford to rent a flat, or a room in town or city, without the landlord having cause to eject him, he cannot honestly claim to be poor. The really poor man has no roof over his head, and this is why you find him under a bridge, in a tent or simply in the vast open air.
But that is hardly all. The poor man faces the world as a hopeless underdog. In every bargain, every discussion, every event involving him and others, the poor man is constantly reminded of his failure in life. Nobody listens attentively when he makes a point, nobody accepts that his opinion merits consideration. So in most cases, he learns to accept that he has neither wisdom nor opinion.
The pauper’s lot naturally rubs off on his child who is subject not only to hunger of the body but also of the mind. The pauper lacks the resources to send his child to school. And even in communities where education is free, the pauper’s child still faces an uphill task because the hunger of the body impedes the proper nourishment of the mind. Denied access to modern communications media, the poor child has very little opportunity to understand the concepts taught him. His mind is rocky soil on which the teacher’s seeds cannot easily germinate. Thus embattled at home and then at school, the pauper’s child soon has very little option but to drop out of school.
That is still not all. Weakened by hunger, embattled by cold and exposure to the elements, feeding on poor water and poor food, the pauper is an easy target for diseases. This is precisely why the poorest countries have the shortest life expectancy while the longest life expectancies are recorded among the richest countries. Poverty is really a disease that shortens life!
(a)In six sentences, one for each, summarize the problems of the poor man.
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it.
Are you scared of speaking before a large audience or even making a few suggestions in public? This need not be. You can make effective speeches in public. Here are a few pointers. Perhaps the most important step is to be sure of what you are going to say. This sounds obvious enough, but it is amazing how many people get up to speak when, in fact, they have very little to say. After one inconsequential point, they discover they have run out of steam. So to ensure you can speak well, the more conversant you are with them the more confident you will be.
How do you present your speech? Certainly, before you begin, you will be a little uneasy. Even the most experienced speaker feels the same way before beginning his speech. This is not bad; in fact, it is a good tonic for a successful speech. To overcome this, do not rush headlong into the task. Rather, it pays to breathe in and out, heavily, deeply calmly. Then begin the speech, slowly, calmly. carefully, with a clear, confident voice. This is when you are going through the introduction. "The Chairman, Honourable Guests of Honour, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen..." By the time you finish this and go through the usual ritual of stating that it gives you "great pleasure to stand before this august gathering to discuss a few points....," you would have reached a point of emotional equilibrium. You should now be sufficiently calm to go on with the speech.
Somewhere at the beginning, and at strategic points in your speech. you should introduce flavour into what you are saying. You would not want to serve tea without sugar after all. So, you should inject some humorous remarks once in a while. But this calls for skill. To start with, you cannot introduce humour indiscriminately, otherwise you might sound like a jester. Experienced speakers most often introduce humour early in their speeches, presumably to ease the tension in the hall. But these jokes must be brief. purposeful and closely related to the point.
Many speakers are scared by the countenances of the listeners. Not all their looks are friendly. However, there are bound to be a few friendly ones, and it is advisable to pick them out, look at them from time to time, and ignore the hostile ones. Looking at the friendly faces keeps you at ease.
You are advised to write out your speech in full after which you should read it several times before the day. You couldn't get a willing listener to criticise your delivery. Do this several times until you can almost recite it. Notice that we are not advising you to memorise it, because you could forget vital areas due to anxiety. Writing out and practising the speech would make you much familiar with the content, indeed with every word.
Speech-making is an art. While it is true that some are gifted in speech-making, it is more correct that anyone who doesn't suffer from speech handicaps can learn to deliver effective speeches. And you can become a master in this art.
(a) In one sentence state the intention of the writer
(b) In five sentences, one for each summarize the five steps for making a good speech and the reason for each step.
