GCE O level English Paper 1 Reading Comprehension

Are you ready to tackle the GCE O' level English Paper 1 Reading Comprehension? Here's a sample question for you: This is a task designed for students from grades 9 to 11. Take a moment to read the passage provided and think about your responses to the questions that follow. Remember to take your time, focus on the details, and express your thoughts clearly. Let's dive in and make this reading comprehension exercise a breeze!

Buffalo

We had stopped in a small, sandy clearing surrounded by thick acacia thorn and were all well away from the truck when it happened. Sebe, the driver, had gone off on his own, at a tangent to all the others, and had vanished into the thick bush. Subconsciously I had noticed him go, but was busy on my own hands and knees when there was a blood-curdling yell and the confused patter of feet, accompanied by the sand-muffled thunder of hooves.

My own reaction was completely instinctive. I was on my feet, springing for the truck, and the rifle, before I had had time to think out the cause of the alarm. The rest of the gang emerged from the bush like rabbits popping out of holes, each one frightening everyone else into greater efforts as the bush crashed and flying feet hit the ground. As I reached the truck, snatched the rifle out of the cab, ran a round up the breech and turned to see what had caused the fright, Sebe broke cover. I would never have believed he could run like that, but he had good reason. Two yards behind him was a big, old buffalo bull with blood in its eye! They were both moving at about the same speed, very fast, and intent only on one another. Sebe was ducking and dodging in and out of some small trees, little more than scanty bushes, and the buffalo was following as though tied to him by a string.

I realized that I was faced with a very difficult shot. The buffalo was either half hidden by the bushy trees or right behind Sebe. When the buffalo was momentarily clear for a fraction of a second and I was all set to take the trigger back that fragment of space that would let the bullet loose, Sebe would instantly appear over the foresight and I would have to release the pressure. Finally, he went on one side of a large bush and the buffalo hesitated and ducked round the other side and I let him have it. It wasn’t a very good shot but it brought him down. He rolled over and over, quickly, twice and I knew I had hit him in the foreleg with a nine-five bullet. I tried to get another shot in as his big black body bucketed in the dust, but that damned fool, Sebe, reappeared around the bush at exactly the wrong moment. I roared at him to get out of the way, but he either didn’t hear me because of the shouted advice from his pals, all of whom were either on or under the three-ton truck by now, or he was being stupid. During the delay, when I didn’t dare risk a shot, the buffalo rolled to its feet, and half hidden in dust, bolted back into cover. He gave a curious sort of moan, angry and surprised, ending in a bellow – and I must say it was too much for me. I could hardly see for dust, including my own, for I ducked unhesitatingly into the cab and slammed the door. As I did so the other door slammed, and there was Sebe!

“Oh, Morena!” he gasped.

We sat and waited until the dust had settled, for I had long learned the knack of doing nothing when in doubt.

“We have to kill the buffalo now. I am not looking forward to it,” I complained.

“Leave him to die,” said Sebe feelingly.

“With a broken leg?” I asked.

“Why not?” countered Sebe.

“No!” I answered shortly. “The buffalo would finish you off. You should know that very well. He wouldn’t stop trampling and going until it was impossible to tell which was you and what was your boiler suit.”

He sat and considered this. “For vengeance,” he said at last.

“We shall kill him for pity,” I said firmly, beginning to open the cab door.

Sebe shook his head in a puzzled sort of way. It was evident that he could not understand me or my philosophy of life.

“Sebe,” I said, “your education has been neglected. We are now going to find and kill a wounded buffalo – and, what is more, YOU are going to help! Get your rifle and come with me.”

He looked at the ceiling for some reason, and seemed to be wrestling with something in his mind. Finally, he seemed resigned to what had to be done.

Sebe’s rifle, a badly-worn Lee-Enfield 303, but still quite accurate at short range, for I had tested it, was the only other weapon. Also, I knew Sebe to be a good shot. We got out of the cab and stood in the hot morning sun. There was deadly silence. The almost noontide sun, glaring down on bush and beast alike, gave a wilted look even to the acacia leaves, while the hard white light bounced back from the gleaming sand. The thin buffalo bull had vanished into a growth of saplings of some unfamiliar kind. They were thin of trunk and growing close together – dreadful cover out of which to winkle a bad buffalo. A bullet would not be able to travel two feet before striking one of them, while none would prove an obstacle to a determined rush on the part of an animal weighing up to fifteen hundred pounds. He could come through them like a tank through a cornfield – and as fast. It would be madness to go in without, at least, knowing exactly where he was. The thing to do was to make him come out to us, if possible, like an enraged lion. – but did buffaloes do that sort of thing? I didn’t know enough about them, or the species in this country, at the time, to be sure. Somehow it seemed out of character. I had shot several buffalo in East Africa and know how sullen and surlily dogged they could be. It would be characteristic for a bull to wait – to wait for us to come upon him in his chosen hide-out. Good, sound, intelligent strategy ….. his choice of battleground … something any soldier must appreciate. Only a lion or perhaps a leopard would allow his temper to bring him out of safe cover and a good ambush.

• What did the writer do ‘instinctively’ as soon as he heard the shout?
• Like rabbits popping out of holes’. How does this comparison illustrate how the men were behaving?
• What is the author trying to convey when he describes the buffalo as having ‘blood in its eye’?
• Why does the author describe the buffalo when he is chasing Sebe ‘as though tied to him be string’?
• The author gives two possible reasons why Sebe didn’t hear his call to get out of the way. What are they?
• What was the ‘knack’ which the author used if he wasn’t sure of something?
• The writer and Sebe both agreed that the buffalo must be shot but for different reasons. What are they?
• Why was the buffalo’s hiding place described as ‘dreadful’?
• ‘Like a tank through a cornfield’. How does this comparison emphasize the effect of the buffalo’s charge?
• What was ‘good, sound, intelligent strategy’?
• How do lions or leopards differ from buffaloes?
• “The almost noontide sun, glaring down on bush and beast alike, gave a wilted look even to the acacia leaves, while the hard white light bounced back from the gleaming sand.”
  What is the meaning and effect of this sentence?

Answer Scheme

• The author ran to the truck to get his rifle.
• The men were jumping out of the bushes very fast.
• The buffalo was very angry.
• The buffalo was chasing Sebe along the path he took and keeping the same distance from him.
• Sebe didn’t hear the author either because of the shouted advice from his friends or because he was being stupid.
• The knack was of doing nothing when in doubt.
• Sebe wanted to kill the buffalo for vengeance, but the author wanted to kill him out of pity.
• The saplings were growing close together and a bullet would hit one of them instead of the buffalo.
• The buffalo will destroy everything in its path.
• The good, sound and intelligent strategy was for the buffalo to wait for the hunters to come upon him in his chosen hide-out.
• A lion or leopard will be too angry to wait for the hunters to go to them. They will charge out of a safe cover. But a buffalo will wait for the hunters to go to him.
• The meaning is that it was hot and very sunny. The effect is that the reader feels that it was a very harsh environment.