English Language: Reading Passage 2

and Vocabulary Work 2

Comprehension: Of mothers and women

1. ‘A stern hand’ means under strict rules.

2. The two lights from the ruined huts made the narrator’s
mother ‘nervous of the night.’
3. a) The serious problem that the two women faced in their
farming were the wild pigs that which often came to eat the
green mealies.
b) The two women overcame the problem by going out in the
middle of the night to chase away the pigs.
4. The narrator handled the young men who tried to woo her by
5. The tall Southerner captured her interest because he was a
well-behaved gentleman.
6. Grandmother was keen for grandmother to get married
because she was defending her when the narrator’s uncle was
full of questions about the gentleman.
7. ‘That poured hot water over uncle’ meant that gave uncle
Ruben trouble or difficulty.
8. The problems that the children brought with them were more
room in the house, and money for school fees.
9. The similarities that were found between the mother and the
heroes/heroines were that they shared a sense of pathos and
resilience.
10. I think he obtained this information through stories that
he was told by either his mother, father or grandmother.
Vocabulary Exercise

1. After Grandfather’s death, the family separated.

2. She was a private girl.
3. She did not give any futile words on the young men.
4. He disliked beer, smoking and dicing.
5. He dressed customarily in the fashion of time.
6. Making signals and calling to his girl was not the idea of a
descent behaviour.
7. Grandmother reprimanded Uncle Ruben.
8. She waved emotionally at the bus and cried.