5 minute read
Life in Bonasika...
FROM PAGE VI have a cockle infestation, resulting in the eating away of all the young plants and trees.\
Ramlakhan stated that he is working with representatives from NAREI to try newer drugs to combat the disease that is overtaking the farm presently.
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With all these challenges, the couple cannot employ workers as they used to, so they have to do all the work themselves.
Apart from working on the farm and doing chores, Rampattie Sanicharia would make pointer brooms from branches sourced from the coconut trees on their farm to sell.
“With children to send to school, the cost of fuel, the increase in food items things haven’t been as viable as it used to,” she said.
Omar Hussain, the citrus farmer
As a father of three, Omar Hussain’s only source of income is farming and he has five acres of ground provisions, cash crops and citrus.
The 53-year-old has lived all his life in the creek and a typical day starts at 05:00hrs daily when he would be on the farm, tending to crops before sunrise and he would usually have to walk to get there.
He reported that the only job in that part of the country is farming and he grew into it since he came from a family of farmers and today, although they don’t have a lot of things, they live in quiet peace in a creek, which is very expensive to commute and buy essentials.
“This place nice but there is nothing for the youths to do. They drop out of school due to poverty and left to do whatever and most of them end up abusing alcohol and illegal substances and become a nuisance to society,’ he said.
Hussain pointed out that there is a great need for a place to have skills training and other remedial programmes to give them a second chance at careers and futures.
He added that only GTT has a fair signal in Bonasika Creek and the cellphones would have to be placed at a certain point to get signals to make and receive calls, their only connectivity to the outside.
Ramkumar Singh, the farmer
The 54-year-old farmer described life as fair in Bonasika Creek, Essequibo River, but as it relates to his farm at High Level Canal, he is denied access due to illegal dumping of waste.
Often his crops are left to rot because he cannot get to the farm and he would incur a lot of losses that cannot be regained.
He has crops of ground provisions and citrus on a fouracre plot. He reported that farming is an expensive venture from sowing to harvesting and they are happy they received cash grants and a boost to the drainage and irrigation network to reduce flooding.
Singh told the Pepperpot Magazine that small-scale farmers like himself suffer a lot of loss and the vegetation that is being cleared in Bonasika needs to be disposed of properly so he can get to his farm at any given time.
Thought For Today
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. JOHN MILTON (1608-1674) Paradise Lost
Study Success
Dear Student, Welcome dear friend.
If you have to introduce a speaker at any level, make it an admirable performance. Cite a few brief important facts about him to boost his confidence and presentation,
May 07, 2023
and prepare the listening audience. Let your speech resonate sincerity; forget flippancy. Open by saying, “It is my pleasure to introduce ….” or something equally simple. Conclude graciously - face the speaker and beckon him forward to take his place. When he comes return to your seat. Love you.
Improving Reading
Choosing the sentence nearest in meaning to the original one
Instructions: Each sentence in this section is followed by four sentences A, B, C or D. Choose the one nearest in meaning to the original sentence.
1. Frank did not attend the memorial service because his wife, who had promised to accompany him, changed her mind at the last minute.
(A) At the last minute, Frank’s wife who had promised to accompany him to the memorial service changed her mind, so he did not attend.
(B) Frank would have attended the memorial service if his wife had not changed her mind at the last minute as she had promised.
(C) Since Frank did not attend the memorial service, his wife changed her mind at the last minute, although she had promised to accompany him.
(D) At the last minute, Frank did not attend the memorial service, because his wife who had promised to accompany him had changed her mind.
2. In 2002 Brazil became only the second country in the world to print anti-smoking pictures on cigarette packs.
(A) Although in 2002 Brazil printed anti-smoking pictures on cigarette packs, there were others who had done this previously.
(B) Brazil printed anti-smoking pictures on cigarette packs in 2002, thereby becoming the second country to do so.
(C) If Brazil had printed anti-smoking pictures on cigarette p acks in 2002, it would have been the second country to do so.
(D) Some countries printed anti-smoking pic - tures on cigarette packs and Brazil is one of them.
3. You have become tardy in your preparations for your examination during the last two months, so you must burn the candle at both ends if you want to succeed.
(A) If the candles are not burnt at both ends, as you prepare for your examinations this week, you will fail because you have been tardy during the last two months.
(B) During this week if you want to succeed you must burn two candles in preparing for your examination, since you were tardy during the last two months.
(C) If you want to pass your examination during this week; you must work doubly hard, since you wore tardy during the last two months.
(D) Since you have not done much preparation for your examinations during the last two months, this week you must work doubly hard if you want to succeed.
Improving Reading
Instructions: Read the following poem carefully and then answer items 1-5 on the basis of what is stated or implied in the poem.
Taste of Endless Fruit
When a single kite is left in evening sky and I stand black against its saffron pulling in the night-covers with a single thread I think of you.
When chickens search the warmth of a hen’s wings;
When bats break a calm lake like scissors on a warm fabric where a lone fisherman waits alone, on the hill, I think of you.
1. There is a single kite (line 1) left in the sky MOST likely because
(A) night covers have descended
(B) the other kite flyers are asleep
(C) The lone fisherman waits
(D) It is late
2. What aspect of the sky does the poet focus on?
(A) Size (B) Shape (C) Distance (D) Colour
3. Of whom is the poet MOST likely thinking in the poem?
(A) A lonely old man (C) Someone he/she loves
(B) An enemy in hiding (D) An artist at work
4. “When bats break a calm lake, like scissors on a warm fabric) (lines 10-11) is an example of
(A) onomatopoeia (B) assonance (C) simile (D) personification
5. Which word BEST describes the poet’s tone?
(A) Nostalgic (B) Serene (C) Serious (D) Caring THE PASSAGE
Comprehending the passage
Read the following extract carefully and then answer all the questions that follow.
Country Baskets
“Hard Life” was an ill-mannered visitor who came to call on you in order to search up your cupboard when your back was turned so that it could go and tell everyone how things were bad with you. Hard Life would have trapped you if it were not for your own strength, and for the ties of blood, the generosity of some relatives who, as soon as they heard you were living hard life in the city, began to send you regular food baskets.
(a) State ONE action from the paragraph which shows that “Hard Life was an ill-mannered visitor” (line 1) (1 mark)
(b) Why can the writer of “Hard Life” be viewed as ironic? (2 marks)
(c) What is the writer’s purpose in this passage? (2 marks).
