GCE O Level New Syllabus English Paper 1 Reading

The GCE O’ Level New Syllabus English Paper 1 Reading is designed to challenge and improve your comprehension skills. This long passage with comprehension questions mirrors the format of the updated syllabus for GCE O’ Level English Paper 1 – reading. Dive into the passage, navigate through the questions, and put your critical thinking hat on to ace this section. Remember to read carefully, analyze the content, and provide thoughtful responses. Good luck!

Snake Slayers

1. The mongoose as generally regarded as a sort of dedicated Dragon Slayer with regard to the snakes. This reputation is deserved, though there are others, including meercats, muishonds, polecats and many others which are just as formidable, if not more so. The mongoose depends (apart from its knowledge) entirely on its quickness. And it is quick. A friend of mine and myself, in Rhodesia, came upon a hole in the ground which we thought might contain a mongoose. My friend suggested catching it. Knowing how a mongoose can bite I was not a very enthusiastic participant in what followed. My friend got bis blanket from his horse and laid it on the ground by the hole. Then he cut down a long, thin branch from a tree and trimmed it, leaving a leafy bit at the top. This he thrust it into the hole and twisted round. Presumably he thought the mongoose would walk out and surrender. What emerged from that hole was something like a shell from a gun. A misty grey streak shot through the air, alighted farther away, and disappeared. That's a mongoose, that was, we decided, but we had not been able really to see if it were a mongoose or not.

2. So quick is the mongoose that with most snakes it does not really need to take any precautions at all. One bound lands it just behind the head, and a crushing bite to the neck finishes the snake. With snakes like the cobra, however, different tactics are called for. When on the defensive the head of a cobra and about third of its body are poised erect. The erect position is like a steep string that can shoot out like lightning speed. The blow is aimed with such force that after it has been made the snake is flat on the ground. In a split second, however, the cobra is back in its normal defensive position. The mongoose dances about in front of the cobra and encourages it to strike, but its timing is so good that when the strike comes the mongoose is always about an inch away from the snake's head. Snakes, as we know, are not possessed of great stamina. The cobra tires, and as times goes on the raising from the horizontal position to the erect becomes more and more of an effort. The mongoose is waiting for this and at the right time makes a quick dart in, and all is over.

3. There are certain snakes that defend themselves less conventionally and can strike sideways. Against these the mongoose is not so successful. I know of no fights between mongoose and a mamba ...

4. I recently read about an island in the Pacific. It was a pleasant place and fertile but it had one drawback; it was infested by snakes. Snakes were everywhere and the people were almost in a state of terror. All around them were snakes in different colors and sizes: green, red, yellow and black striped, brown and dotted. All of them looked as though they were harbingers of something sinister. As though they were the membrane to a more menacing world. Everywhere they looked they saw a labyrinth of snakes. Snakes infested their fields, their fruit trees, their gardens, their playgrounds, even their houses and their schools. Snakes of different sizes and shapes and breed were all around the island. They were a reality of life for people; as close to them as their own shadow. They used to implore any sailors in ships that visited them to bring them some mongooses, for they had heard what proficient snake killers these were.

5. One day they actually got their wish, for a ship arrived with a cage full of mongooses brought by some sailors specially for them. The sailors were suitably rewarded and the mongooses let loose. They were a terrific success; the place suited them, they bred, and they lived on snakes. The snakes, in fact, were easy meat for them; all that had to be done was to dart in and bite their necks.

6. Even with the best possible motives the introduction of new species of fauna and flora into strange places does not always turn out to be as beneficial as might have been expected. Look at rabbits and prickly pears in Australia!

7. But the islanders were very happy. The scheme had worked well, the snakes were disappearing and at the same time the mongooses were multiplying. There were none of their natural enemies on the island, so there was no check to them. Then the obvious came to pass. With diminishing snakes and increasing mongooses, food for the latter grew scarcer. Soon it was a common sight to see two mongooses fighting for the possession of one snake, and before very long the snakes were practically exterminated. The mongooses had to do something about it and did. The islanders went in for chickens on a pretty large scale. Chicken and eggs were their main standby. Soon these became the main standby of the mongooses also ... the last state of these islanders was worse than the first. No doubt they are now trying to import some animals that kill mongooses. And if they do, they will probably land in another mess.

• Why does the author repeat the point ‘and it is quick’ (paragraph 1)
• Give a phrase from the first paragraph which shows that the writer had doubts about the method to be used to catch the mongoose.
• ‘My friend got bis blanket from his horse and laid it on the ground by the hole.’ (paragraph 1) What was the blanket for?
• ‘like a shell from a gun’ (paragraph 1). Why is this an appropriate expression for the mongoose’s actions?
• Why doesn’t the mongoose have to take any ‘precautions’ (paragraph 2) with most snakes?
• What sort of movements is the writer suggesting the mongoose makes when he writes he ‘dances’ in front of the cobra (paragraph 2)?
• What weakness in a cobra makes it easy for a mongoose to kill it?
• Why does the writer think that the mongoose will have little chance against the mamba?
• identify one example from the text below of how the writer uses language effectively to describe the villagers experience of snakes around them.
  
  “All around them were snakes in different colors and sizes: green, red, yellow and black striped, brown and dotted. All of them looked as though they were harbingers of something sinister. As though they were the membrane to a more menacing world. Everywhere they looked they saw a labyrinth of snakes. Snakes infested their fields, their fruit trees, their gardens, their playgrounds, even their houses and their schools. Snakes of different sizes and shapes and breed were all around the island. They were a reality of life for people; as close to them as their own shadow.”
  
  Explain the impression the writer creates in the example you have identified.
  example ………………………
  explanation .............................................
• “they will probably land in another mess.” What is the author referring to?

Answer Scheme

• The author has seen the Mongoose being very quick and can confidently say that it is quick.
• ‘not a very enthusiastic participant’
• The author’s friend had thought that the mongoose would emerge slowly from the hole and then he can wrap it in the blanket and secure it.
• The mongoose jumped out very fast like a shell form a gun.
• The mongoose is very quick and can jump on the back of the snake and with a quick bite can kill it.
• The ‘dance’ means the mongoose moving around in front of the snake provoking it.
• The cobra does not have much stamina and thus cannot go back to erect position easily after being flat on the ground, after a certain time.
• Mamba can defend themselves less conventionally and can strike sideways.
• (1) Example: ‘All of them looked as though they were harbingers of something sinister.’
  explanation: The snakes are compared to harbingers of something sinister. Harbingers mean people or things that announces or signals the approach of another. In this case, snakes signals death because they are poisonous.
  (2) Example: ‘membrane to a more menacing world’
  explanation: a barrier between the peaceful world of the villagers and the dangerous world of death. Snake bite, being poisonous, can land a villager in death.
  (3) Example: ‘labyrinth of snakes’
  Explanation: a lacework of snakes. It means that the snakes were so numerous that they were intertwined everywhere like lacework.
  (4) Example: ‘as close to them as their own shadow.
  Explanation: a shadow is always with a person. Snakes were always present in the lives of people
• If animals eating mongooses are imported, mongooses will disappear, but those new animals will multiply and look for food among farm animals.