WASSCE 2024 Summary Passage and Questions (June)

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English Summary Passage for WASSCE 2024

SECTION C: SUMMARY

You are advised to spend about 40 minutes on this section.

7. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it.

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Ever since gold dealers from the big cities started buying gold in large quantities directly from the people of Osibua, the lives of the people there changed for the worse.

The dealers offered favourable and juicy prices for the nuggets. Soon, young men and women from the surrounding villages invaded the village of Mbebe to look for the precious metal. Hitherto, the villagers collected gold particles and small nuggets from the sand in the gullies after a heavy downpour. However, on Tuesdays, the villagers are allowed to look for gold in the small river called River Terra, their only source of water.

They send the gold to an assayer who examines its particles and nuggets and buys them.

The young men and women who invaded the village for the “gold rush” were not content with how the villagers collected gold from their small river. They therefore introduced more sophisticated equipment such as pick axes, shovels and bulldozers as well as other modern digging implements to mine the gold from the River Terra.

This boomed the gold business. However, as a result of the frequent mining of gold in the river, the water became polluted. They used chemicals that were dangerous to aquatic and human lives. Thus, the villagers could no longer use the water from the river for their chores.

Some young men and women looked for gold from abandoned mining pits, which was risky. Most of the young men plunged to their deaths in the open pits. To avoid the frequent deaths, some of the miners sought protection from the gods by offering schnapps to make libation. Others offered sacrifices in the form of goats and mashed yam for the gods before they embarked on each operation. Unfortunately, they continued to die. The open pits, which were death traps, became sources of water-borne diseases such as bilharzia, cholera and typhoid fever.

Drug pushers selling hard drugs literally took over Mbebe. Children as young as eight years started abusing hard drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin. These drugs destroyed the lives of many young men and women. Some school students, especially those in junior high school, abandoned school and joined the miners and drug dealers.

Some concerned citizens who were worried about the havoc gold mining had brought to the people of Mbebe, launched an educational crusade on the protection of River Terra, the only source of water for the villagers. The traditional leaders of the community introduced measures to curb the menace. Parents and guardians were fined heavily if their wards were found engaging in any of the social vices.

(a) In four sentences, one for each, state the negative effects mining had on the people of Mbebe.

(b)In two sentences, one for each, state measures that were taken to stop the negative effects of mining on Mbebe.