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The rainmaker (faiseur de pluie)
The other day I came across a little boy who could make the rain fall when he wanted.
He did not to use his power except when there was a real need for it. On this occasion, something
had happened and the felt called upon the exercise his powers.
I had gone to visit dele, the day was very hot, and the month was December; December
when the Harmattan is at its worst. Everywhere dry leaves and drier grase spoke of its strength.
We sat on the veranda shivering in a gust of cold wind and, as we talked, our teeth chattered.
Suddenly we heard a sound like a machine-gun on the root. Dete lowered the book he
had been trying to read and looked at me with shining eyes.
‘’Is that rain?’’ be asked, after listening for a while. ‘’That’s impossible’’ Together we
sprang up and walked across the floor mats to the open window. Overhead the sky was black.
Rain poured down. The wind howled among the trees. The birds, disturbed, flew at random all
over the sky. Loose thatch fell from the houses in the village, It would develop into a tornado.
‘’Isn’t it queer?’’ I said. ‘’It only December now.’’
‘’And in the Harmattan, too,’’ Dete frowned. Flash after flash of lighting split the black
skies, and the thunder growled, grumbled, roated and broke out in low bangs that made us grip
the wall with fright and run indoors for protection.
From the Rainmaker and other stories,
By Cyptian Ekwensi (Nigeria)
English Teacher: Mr. TUNDWA KYAPI Marcel
English Teacher: Mr. TUNDWA KYAPI Marcel
2
TONA
I fell in love with a girl named Tona. She waited until I came out of the classroom, and we
snatched a few minutes’ conversation. I don’t know what we talked about. I know that on the days I
didn’t see her I was restless and miserable. Every Saturday I asked permission to go to the mission for
confession, and every Sunday evening I said I was going to benediction. Instead of going I sat in the
fork of a tree near the chapel, and Tona swung on the branch below, and we talked. It was from her
that I received the first letter I had ever had in my life, It said, ‘’You are the only one I think about’’. At
the end of the year we both got the first prize for our school work, she in her class and I in mine.
We met in our tree and promised each other that we would study harder than ever. We would
win scholarships, go to college, travel all over the world, come back rich, do great things and have
wonderful times. We would help each other. There was nothing we could not do together. But we hadn’t
thought about the witch.
One night I heard my mother call out. « Look, a witch’’ We saw a small dark bird that glowed
with an unearthly light. The light came and went alternately in light and darkness, and then the witch
bird flew towards the other end of town.
‘’Where is it going?’’ I asked my mother. ‘’What will it do?’’
‘’ It will suck the blood of some poor soul,’’ she said. It is the spirit of a witch. While her body lies
asleep on her bed, her spirit in the form of a bird goes out to kill her enemy.’’
‘’Who is it, mother?’’ I asked,
‘’Who knows?’’ She answered. ‘’If a hunter had killed it, the witch would have been found
dead on her bed, a body without a soul. But it is protected by witchcraft.’’
The next day Tona was not in school. She was sick. The day after that her death was announced
at the morning assembly, I felt nothing but shocked disbelief at first, but during the lesson that followed,
I burst into tears. My teacher asked what the matter was, and I told him that I had a bad headache, and
he sent me home. I went to Tona’s house.
From some distance away I could hear the women wailing. The compound was crowded with
people and I slipped in without being noticed. Tona lay on her mal. They had dressed her in a
more beautiful cloth than she had ever worn when she was alive. My mother saw me and took me to,
greet the head of the family, Tona’s grandfather. The old man looked at me thoughtfully. ‘’Koffi,’’ he
said, ‘’he also shines at school.’’ He turned his gaze to my mother.
‘’Be careful,’’ he warned her. ‘’Do not make enemies of those who are jealous.’’
Adapted from The Narraw Path,
By Francis Selormey (Ghana)
English Teacher: Mr. TUNDWA KYAPI Marcel
English Teacher: Mr. TUNDWA KYAPI Marcel
3
‘’I Have a Dream’’
MARTIN LUTTER KING, JR
I’m happy to join with you to today in what will go down in history as the greatest
demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the
Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to
millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a
joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free; one hundred years later, the life of
the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination;
one hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of
segregation and the chains of discrimination ; one hundred years later, the Negro lives on a
lonely island of property in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity; one hundred years
later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile
in his own land. […]
Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed
to blow off steam and will now be content, will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to
business as usual. ‘’There will be neither rest not tranquility in America until the Negro is
granted his citizenship right. The whirlwinds of the revolt will continue to shake the foundations
of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges…’’
There are those who are asking the devotees of Civil Rights, ‘’When will you bed Satisfied?’’
we can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of
police brutality; we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of
travel, cannot gain lodging in the motel of the highways and the hotels of the cities; we cannot
satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from as smaller ghetto to a larger one; we
can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their
dignity by signs stating ‘’For Whites Only’’; we cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro in
Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
No! No, we are not satisfied until ‘’justice rolls clown like a mighty stream.’’
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some
of you have come fresh from marrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your
quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of
police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the
faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi. Go back to Alabama. Go
back to South Carolina. Go back to Georgia. Go back to Louisiana. Go back to the slums and
ghetto of our northern cities, knowing that somehow the situation can will be changed. Let us
not wallow in the valley of despair.
English Teacher: Mr. TUNDWA KYAPI Marcel
4
‘’I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow,
Is still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American meaning
Of its creed, ‘’we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’’ I have
a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia; sons of former slave owner will be able to
sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of
Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of
freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by color of their skin, but the content of their character.
‘’I have a dream today!’’
I have a dream a dream that one day down in Alabamawith its vicious racists, with its
governor having his lips dripping with the work of interposition and nullificationone day
right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little
white boys and white girls as sisters sand brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day ‘’every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall
be made low. The rough places will be made plain, the crooked places will be made straight,
the glory of the lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.’’
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this fait, we shall be
able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brother hood.
With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to
go jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day, This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing
with new meaning, ‘’My Country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of tree I sing. Land where
my fathers died, and of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring. ‘’And
if America is to be a great nation, this must become true….
So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring from
the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania: let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom
ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that. Let freedom ring from Stone
Mountain of Georgia: let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee; let freedom
ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens and when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every
village and every hamlet, from every state ad every city, we will be able to speed up that day
when all God’s children, black men and white men. Jews and gentiles, Protestants and
Catholics, will be able to join hand and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘’Free
at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.’’
English Teacher: Mr. TUNDWA KYAPI Marcel
English Teacher: Mr. TUNDWA KYAPI Marcel
5
Glory & hope
BY NELSON MANDELA
Your majesties, your royal highnesses, distinguished guests, comrades and friends:
Today, all of us do, by our presence here, and by our celebrations in other parts of our Country
and the World, confer glory and hope to newborn liberty.
Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long must be born a
society of which all humanity will be proud.
Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that
will reinforce humanity’s belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human
soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.
All this we both to ourselves and to the peoples of the World who are so well represented here
today.
English Teacher: Mr. TUNDWA KYAPI Marcel
English Teacher: Mr. TUNDWA KYAPI Marcel
6
Ba Moussa and the strangers
One day three strangers came to stay for a while at the village chief's house. A few
days after their arrival they said to him:
‘’Great chief, please help us to solve these problems. We don't know how to answer
them."
They asked him the questions, but he could not answer them either. He sent for his
sorcerers and their apprentices. It was no use. They could not answer the questions either. It
was then that one of the people watching spoke of a very wise man. He was called Ba Moussa,
and he would be able to help. The chief sent for him immediately. In a little while he came. He
got off his mule and greeted all the people.
"I'm very happy to meet you, O great chief. What can I do for you?" Ba Moussa asked.
"Try to answer the strangers’ questions, "replied the chief. "Where is the navel of the
earth?’’ asked the first man. Pointing his stick at his mule, Ba Moussa answered: ‘’There,
just under the right forefoot of my mule."
The stranger seemed not to believe it, so Ba Moussa added.
"If you aren’t sure, measure all around the earth. You can kill me if I'm not right."
The man was surprised, but what could he do? He had to give up. "How many stars
are there in the sky?" asked the second stranger.
"As many as there are hairs on my mule,’’ Ba Moussa answered immediately. The
stranger asked Ba Moussa to prove it.
"That's easy," Ba Moussa replied. "All you have to do is count my mule's hairs. Then
you'll be sure." "I'd never be able to count your animal's hairs. That's impossible."
"Congratulations," Ba Moussa said. "I can see that you're learning. It's also impossible to
count all the stars in the sky." "How many hairs are there in my beard?" the third stranger
asked.
"Let's see," Ba Moussa replied, looking carefully at the man. "There are just as many
hairs in your beard as there are hairs in my mule's tail.’’
The third stranger knew that Ba Moussa would ask him to count all the hairs in the
mule's tail if he was not satisfied with the answer. He was ashamed to show that Ba Moussa
had beaten him, too. However, he could think of nothing to say.
The chief was proud to have such a wise man among his people. He thanked Ba
Moussa very much and promised to have a great feast. Ba Moussa looked at the sly strangers
once again. He smiled, got on his mule and rode back to his house.
From Malian Stories, compiled
By I.P.N, Bamako
English Teacher: Mr. TUNDWA KYAPI Marcel
7
The football match
Gilbert and Sunday were happy to see each other, and they soon started talking about
old times.
‘’Do you still play football?’’ Sunday asked.
‘’I don’t play any more. When you leave school, you hardly do any of the things you
were doing when you were at school. Even if I had wanted to play, people would have laughed
at me. And some would even attribute it to irresponsibility.’’
‘’I continued with my football in the army.’’
‘’Your own case is understandable. I don’t know how to play now. I would give
anything to live that life again. Do you still remember that match we played against Amuku?’’
Both men began to laugh.
‘’What didn’t we do to win it?’’ Sunday asked.
‘’I still remember the night the captain and I went to see the dibia who gave us a talisman
each for the team’’
‘’The talisman did not work. We were beaten hollow.’’
‘’Do you remember our goal-keeper?’’
‘’I remember,’’ Sunday replied. ‘’He complained that several times in the goal mouth
he saw over twenty balls without knowing which one to catch. And of course be always caught
the wrong one. And so we were beaten by, I think, four goals to one.’’ ‘’Yes, four goals to one.
And you remember that we were all searched by the referee before the match started.’’
‘’The referee saw nothing, since we buried the charm the dibia gave us at night’’
‘’And where did we bury it? Can you remember?’’ ‘’In the centre of the field. The
charm was to demoralize our opponents and confuse them.’’
‘’Despite all this, we were beaten. Our supporters were very sad. Some of them
attributed our defeat to the cry of a strange bird that flew past just before we started the
match.’’
‘’But our captain excelled himself that day. He was simply wonderful. He played better
than he had ever played before. The gods were against us. We were not destined to win.’’
‘’And where is he now?’’ Gilbert asked.
‘’Our captain, Eric the field; so we nicknamed him in those days. He was a wonderful
centre-half. His shots were terrific. No goal-keeper could keep them out. He had a style all
his own. He joined the army, and now that the war is over he has a good job. I saw him when
I was returning from Lagos. His wife cooked a most delicious lunch for me.’’
Adapted from Efuni
By Flora Nwapa (Nigeria)
English Teacher: Mr. TUNDWA KYAPI Marcel
8
TEXT COMPREHENSION
Title: Patrick and Lucie
Patrick is a lawyer and he lives in a small town near the city of Madrid. He is not
Spanish by birth. He is 40 years old and he is not yet married.
He speaks fluently Spanish and French but he has difficulties in speaking English. He
has a girlfriend who does not live in the same city. Her name is Lucie and she is German.
They love each other a lot but both are facing a very big problem. They have a
communication issue because they speak different languages.
Patrick Is planning to shift to Germany soon and he is going to join a language center
to learn German.
Everyone is hoping for the best for both of them and wish that they live a happy
married life.
Answering the following questions:
1. Is the above text talking about a movie?
Answer:
2. Who is Patrick?
Answer:
3. Is Patrick a doctor?
Answer:
4. Does Patrick speak fluently Italian?
Answer:
English Teacher: Mr. TUNDWA KYAPI Marcel
9
5. What languages does Patrick speak correctly?
Answer:
6. Is Patrick married?
Answer:
7. How many children does Patrick have?
Answer:
8. Where does Patrick’s girlfriend live?
Answer:
9. Do you feel pity on Patrick and Lucie?
Answer:
10. Where is Patrick going to settle down?
Answer:
11. Is Patrick going to face difficulties there?
Answer:
12. Is Lucie a French girl?
Answer:
13. Does Lucie live in Portugal?
Answer:
14. Do you think that Lucie is the perfect choice for Patrick?
Answer:
15. What would you do if you were Patrick and Lucie?
Answer:
English Teacher: Mr. TUNDWA KYAPI Marcel
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16. What can you give as an advice to these two lovers (Patrick and Lucie)?
Answer:
English Teacher: Mr. TUNDWA KYAPI Marcel
