.jpg) |
| The Life Changer |
In my own way to help you prepare for the possible questions, I've carefully extracted 90 questions from past years based on the text. Correct answers have equally been provided to the questions.
Therefore, in this post, you'll not only read the 9 chapters of The Life Changer, but you'll also see 10 questions at the end of each chapter and right after that the answers.
This post's intention is for educational purposes. You may be lucky to see the same questions in JAMB - it's merely a coincidence.
CHAPTER FOUR
Salma casually walked into the office holding her registration files firmly across her chest. She was barely twenty years old then and doubtless in the prime of her youth. Endowed as a woman and willing to flaunt her elegance, she always dressed in tight-fitting jeans trousers and body-hugging tops that stopped just short of being indecent. Salma was a reckless dresser, fully aware of the femininity she exuded and the effect it had on members of the opposite sex. She reveled in the hunger she saw in the eyes of men as they shamelessly ogled her body when she walked past them. This was freedom, she thought. The university had a lot of this, and no one could reprimand you for daring to dress the way you wanted as long as your attire stopped just this side of decency.
Doctor Dabo was a highly disciplined lecturer who had never been heard to engage in any form of underhandedness with any female student, or any student for that matter. Today, however, as Salma walked towards him with her registration files across her chest, he felt a lump rise in his throat. He had never seen a girl look so alluring and beautiful. He swallowed hard and chided himself not to disgrace himself. He must not put his reputation on the line. Having been in the university for more than a decade, with many students graduating under his tutelage, they all had singular respect for him. He treated his students justly and was a stickler for time, always punctual to lectures. His rule was very simple: "Don’t come in after me." If he entered the class before you, you did not bother entering. His punctuality was so renowned that graduating students warned the incoming ones about the no-nonsense lecturer who never allowed students into his class once he was there before them.
As for consorting with female students, God banish the thought. It had never happened. So, when Salma walked into his office looking seductive, Dabo could not explain the sudden palpitation of his heart. The weather was cold outside, but he was sweating inside. What was happening to him? He asked himself. He cleared his throat and promised himself to dispose of her registration case as quickly as he could before he did something he would regret for the rest of his life.
“What can I do for you?" he asked briskly.
“I am a 100-Level student coming for registration. They said you are the Level Coordinator and that you are to sign my forms.” Dabo marveled at the confidence of the girl. 100-Level and she was exuding such confidence. She must be a special breed. Almost sassy, he thought inwardly. Dabo’s heart was still beating fast.
“Yes. I am the Level Coordinator. Have you been screened?”
“Yes, sir. I was screened. It was from there that they directed me to your office."
“All right then. Let's see if the forms are complete."
She handed him the forms, and he studied them carefully. They were complete. He signed the appropriate columns on the forms and reluctantly pushed the files to Salma. She hesitated before standing up and walking towards the door. It could have been her sheer beauty, her physical appearance, or some other inexplicable signal the devil had sent to Dabo’s mind. Whatever it was, instead of allowing her to go, Dabo heard himself say, “Wait.”
She turned slowly and faced him.
“Sit down, please. Just want to ask you a few questions." Surely, that last sentence was not complete. But he wasn't bothered. Salma sat down.
“Where are you from?”
“I am from the north. Is there a problem, sir?”
“No,” Dabo said and hesitated. It was not normal for him to be short of words. But he seemed suddenly tongue-tied today. The girl waited.
“May I know you, please?" he said. Even to his ears, that sounded clumsy.
“I am a student here, sir. I think that should be knowledge enough."
“I mean, I want to know you more intimately.”
Salma instinctively knew all along that this was coming. Why it had to come from this sleazy-looking lecturer who had nothing to offer was what surprised her. Indeed, it made her angry. What kind of intimate nonsense was he talking about? University lecturer? From what she heard about the man, they said he was highly disciplined and serious. It was never in his character to have anything to do with his students, particularly the female students. So why her? And for God's sake, why now? Well, you never know with men.
“What do you mean more intimately?”
“Don’t get me wrong. I simply mean I want us to be friends."
“It most certainly didn't come out like that.”
“I know," he said. “So can we be friends?"
“No, sir. With all due respect, that is not what my parents sent me here to do. In fact, you should be ashamed of yourself for asking me out. You are old enough to be my father. So, what kind of morality are you guys inculcating in your students when you cannot see a beautiful girl pass by without making advances at her?"
Dabo was pained beyond measure. He hated himself for his display of masculine weakness and hated her even more for reminding him of that weakness. But the fault was his.
"I am sorry," he said.
"You had better be," Salma hissed and added, “Even if the world is bereft of men, I would never go out with a man such as you. What kind of girl do you think I am?" She stormed out of the office, leaving him in confusion.
Dabo was in deep thought long after Salma had left. "What kind of trial was this, oh God? Something I have never done! What drove me into disgracing myself like this?" He pondered. For more than ten years, he had struggled and overcome this temptation, and now, a young girl was sent to test him. "What kind of life is this? Please, God, let this cup pass over me. Please, God, let her not talk." She was so cheeky, this girl. She could do almost anything. Luckily, Dabo thought, he had not done anything that would warrant serious chastisement from the school authority. "I didn't even ask her out," he told himself. He just said he wanted to be friends. What was wrong with that?
Everything, an inner voice answered him. Then, he remembered he used the word intimacy. That was serious. "How do you defend yourself before a committee when they ask you to explain what you meant by wanting to know someone more intimately? God, please, let it never come to this. What kind of devil prompted me to let my guard down so?"
But the insult... The insult was painful. It was deep and painful. But he had it coming. If the bird chooses to fly in cloudy weather, it should expect its flight to be cut by the rain. For a long time after Salma left, Dabo was lost in supplication. "Please, God, clothe me in the garb of your holy prophets. Let not this mishap have an impact on my life. If you guard me from this, Lord, I promise to be more dedicated and pious in the discharge of my duties and responsibilities as a moral custodian of our children here. Now and in the future. Thank you, Lord, for answered prayers."
On her part, Salma did not even spare a thought to the fumbling old man who could not articulate himself properly when trying to ask a girl out. He did not belong to her class. People with no confidence in themselves hardly fit the category of those she would consider her friends. So, as she left Dabo's office, so did his thought leave her head. She walked briskly to the hostel and concluded her accommodation registration.
The registration for the hostel accommodation itself had its own problems. She discovered she did not take to any of her three roommates at the beginning. There were four girls in the room: Salma herself from the North, Tomiwa from the West, specifically from Ibadan, Ngozi from Umunze in Imo State, and Ada from Benue State or the Middle Belt as she insisted people called her place of birth.
In the beginning, Salma did not want to stay in the room. No, it wasn't because the hostel was not beautiful; it was the most coveted. It was the famous Queen Amina Hall, every female student's dream. It housed girls with savvy. Happening babes, as they called themselves. Sophisticated ladies. It was not the hostel she did not like. It was the room.
What Salma particularly did not like about the room she was allocated was the composition of her roommates. It was as if there was a deliberate design to offend every ounce of her accommodating sensibility.
So, understandably, when her accommodation registration was done, she was wondering what accursed devil chose her roommates for her. She hated chance and happenstance, but she knew that no one deliberately worked out whom she should share her room with. The room allocation procedure was simple really. The student was required to make the payment online and indicate their chosen hostel depending on availability and their chosen room. You just clicked the yes button on your chosen room. And the computer screen would show "transaction completed" if you secured a room, or "transaction cancelled" if the rooms were occupied. It followed then that the roommates were not any the wiser whom they had chosen by that simple click to be their roommates. Therefore, you were stuck with whoever you chose for the next two semesters. At least. By the time she brought her things into the hostel and the school calendar resumed in earnest, Salma discovered that her roommates were not so disagreeable after all.
Tomiwa was the brightest in the room and perhaps in her class. She was also the cleanest. Tomiwa's ambition was to become a singer. So she was always abreast with the latest information on the musical and the entertainment scene in general. She was in the know of the latest and craziest fashion outfit. Salma became close to her.
Ngozi, on the other hand, was quiet and reticent. She appeared to have never left her village, spiritually speaking. She was always reserved and withdrawn. But she was also generous to a fault. She would never cook food just for herself alone. Whether her roommates ate or not, she would still invite them to come and join her while she was having dinner. Sometimes they would decline, other times they obliged her. When they saw that this attitude of sharing her food with them would not stop, they gave in and they started cooking as one small family. This cemented their relationship, and they became their sisters' keepers. "Sisters" was the correct expression here.
They were cooking in turns. The day it was Ada's turn to cook for the first time, Salma said she wanted to see all the ingredients she was going to use to make the indomie jollof. This indomie jollof was a sort of staple food among students, irrespective of sex or parental status. It was a noodles meal prepared in such a way that within ten minutes, it was ready for consumption. Because it was easy to prepare and cheap to acquire, it became students' favourite.
"There is nothing special that we are using," Ada said.
"You don't understand," Salma said, "we do not want to find a leg of rat in our indomie."
All of them laughed it off, and Ada knew that Salma was teasing her as rat is her people's delicacy. It was their loss, she said.
Tomiwa, on the other hand, asked if they would like her village food for the kings.
"What is that?"
"Snail."
"Snail? You mean you people eat snails?"
"It is not the kind of infantry snail you see up north. In the west, they grow real big. And they are a special delicacy. We actually farm them."
Ngozi said, "We eat snails where I come from too."
"Well, in this room, no one eats snail. But we can do it this way, any day any one of you misses home and she feels like eating mama's food, you can warn us in advance so we would make our own arrangement for feeding that day."
They all agreed to this.
As God would have it, and as time went on, the only thing they as a group did not gang up to eat was rat, which in any case was never readily available in the school. As for the snail, they all indulged in its delicacy whenever Tomiwa's parents came visiting. Again, that was also not frequent, because she was from Oyo State, more than eight hours drive from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Salma, on her own, only introduced them to the danwake delicacy, which was delicious and also easy to prepare. It was a special delicacy of the Hausa uplanders. All you need is flour, the normal flour they used for bread, be it from wheat or maize, mash it into a paste using ground baobab leaves to mix, then you drop it into boiling water in small balls where it would harden, and a few minutes later, it was ready for eating. You could use either groundnut oil or stew to eat the danwake with.
It sounded strange and looked even stranger to the eyes of her roommates. But the day Salma prepared the dish, they knew that sometimes there was no proportional relationship between what the eyes saw and what the mouth tasted. That northern delicacy was delicious. Food was therefore the common factor that strengthened the bond of friendship between Salma and her friends. In spite of their diversity, they came to discover that there was more in their humanity that held them together than those things that pulled them apart. Salma and Tomiwa were Muslims while Ada and Ngozi were Christians. But this was never an issue. They did everything as one. Of course, there was the funny incident that happened that almost separated the intimacy Salma shared with Tomiwa. But on the intervention of Ada and Ngozi, it was resolved amicably.
Salma was coming back from home one evening. It was actually late in the evening, around eight o'clock. There were no vehicles. A black Mercedes Benz car slid to the sidewalk where Salma was standing and stopped. Salma did not budge from where she was standing. The driver engaged the reverse gear and came to a stop just beside Salma. He pressed the control button, and the passenger window slid down. “Are you going our way, beautiful?”
Salma saw that there were two men in the car, and she was not comfortable. It had nothing to do with their dressing. They looked decent and affluent. Indeed, if they had not stopped to offer her a ride, she would have said they were almost responsible. Still, she was not very comfortable. If it was just one man in the car, maybe... maybe... just maybe. But this one that there were two of them? Well, thankfully, the distance from here to the school was not far. They could not try anything. She had nothing to lose. She shrugged. “I said, are you going our way, princess?"
When there are two men in a car and one appears too voluble, you can rest assured of two things; either he is the one who has the car, or he is the one who is interested in you. They would have discussed that before they stopped. Salma did not answer. She just opened the door behind the passenger seat and entered. She closed the door gently behind her, “Good evening, gentlemen,” she said. “I do not know where you are going. But this is Kwangila, and I am going to my school, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.”
“Then it is our way you are going. My name is Labaran,” the man behind the wheel said, as he changed gear to drive and move on. “You have not told us your name.”
“I will tell you when I am getting off.”
About ten minutes later, the car stopped at the Main Gate of Ahmadu Bello University. “Or would you prefer we take you right in?"
“Sure. If you do not mind, that is."
“Habib, what do you think?”
"By all means, let's take her in."
Habib appeared to be less voluble than Labaran, and Salma instantly decided if any of them was the owner of that car, it must be Habib. Not that she was particularly thrilled by the prospect of being asked out by a Benz owner. But it would certainly be a story worth telling that a certain big man in a big Mercedes Benz had asked her out and she declined. That would make an additional name in the entries of the influential people she had consciously turned down. So now, it was immaterial who asked her out, she knew she would say no. To hell with their flashy and expensive car. What kind of girl did they think she was? You just gave someone a ride and you were looking for a relationship that would last eternity? Big deal.
The Benz pulled to a stop outside Queen Amina Hall, but none of the male occupants attempted to step out and open the door for Salma. This bravado, stupidity actually, that exemplified who the gentleman was in Europe, had no place in Africa. How can a lady whose limbs are in perfect working condition wait for someone to step out of a car, come around to open the door for her before she steps out? The whole thing smacks of a waste of time. In any case, Salma was not expecting them to open the door for her. She was actually in a hurry to get out and meet her roommates.
"You promised to tell us your name before alighting?" Habib's tone was calm and gentle.
"My name is Tomiwa," Salma heard herself say.
"I am pleased to meet you. My name is Habib."
"It's okay."
"May I have your number?"
Again without hesitation, Salma called out Tomiwa's number offhand.
"You are too fast," Habib said. "Call the number again."
She did, and Habib saved the number on his phone. He attempted calling, but there was no response.
"It is telling me the line is switched off."
"I left the phone in the hostel. Maybe the battery has run down."
"Okay. We will be here tomorrow at about this time. Would you be in?"
"Yes," Salma replied curtly as she stepped out of the car. She heaved a big sigh of relief when the call to Tomiwa's did not go through. It wouldn't have been a nice experience. She needed a little time to warn Tomiwa on what to say. If the strange men insisted on coming tomorrow, let them. It was none of her business.
They had fuel to burn and time to waste. And come to think of it, they were all old enough to be her fathers. The men had no shame. Men had no shame. Or, maybe it was us girls who were irresponsible.
"Goodnight, Tommy." Habib was waving his hand as she walked past the car into the hostel.
She waved and disappeared into the hostel.
As soon as she sat by the edge of the bed, which incidentally was where Tomiwa was sitting, she began narrating her story. Their room was a compact affair, like most rooms in Amina Hall. The rooms were originally designed to accommodate just two students per room. But with the student population explosion, the allocation was now officially four to a room. The school authority had changed the twin beds into double bunks that would adequately take care of the four people.
Luckily, in this room, perhaps because they were all new students, they didn't have what they called squatters. Usually, these were less privileged students who were not able to secure accommodation for themselves but would pay half the money for a room and be allowed to squat. This means that they would stay in the room but would have no privileges, except sleeping rights. Only sleeping rights.
As you entered the room, Salma and Tomiwa's bed was on the right while Ngozi and Ada's double bunk was on the left. In between, you had the two reading tables at the end of the wall facing the window.
"Wakabout. Where have you been?" Tomiwa had asked Salma by way of welcome.
"Where you sent me, Oduduwa Pikin," Salma said.
Tomiwa laughed a gentle laugh and let the remark pass. She knew that if she retaliated and called Salma Bayajidda Pikin, which was their standard joke, a long argument would ensue and no one would know the end of it. History had it that the Yoruba people were all descendants of Oduduwa while the Hausa people take their lineage from Bayajida. Both mythical figures claim their origin from the Middle East. Whether the legend was true or not was left for the historians to confirm. But for these students of ours, the myth provided an inexhaustible source of banter and ancestral pokes.
"I got a boyfriend for you," Salma said without preamble.
“What?”
“Boyfriend.”
“Did I tell you I need male company in this university? The male students here cannot even take care of themselves, let alone a girlfriend." Tomiwa didn't know whether Salma was serious or joking. For certain, though, this was the first time she had broached such a topic.
“Calm down, my friend. At least ask me what kind of person I have for you before you go on chastising our poor male students. If they were to hear you, I swear they would skin you alive.”
“Let them come and try. Anyway, tell me. What happened?”
“Some guys gave me a ride from Kwangila to the school.”
“Ehn, so what is new about that? And how does that translate into me having a boyfriend?”
“My God, you are the kind of woman who would get her tongue scalded due to frequent tasting of the undone stew. You simply do not have patience."
“Okay, Aristotle. I am now ready for the quotation. Patience is a virtue, possess it if you can. Seldom found in a woman but never in a man. Who the hell said that anyway?"
“You just did," Salma said. Obviously, she did not want to be digressed.
“These two buffoons gave me a ride. And less than fifteen minutes later, they were asking for my number.”
“I fail to see what is strange there. If you liked them, you gave them the number; if you didn't, you gave them a wrong number."
“I did neither.”
“What do you mean?"
“I gave them your number.”
Tomiwa stared at Salma with the eyes you would look at a fly that just landed in your soup.
“I should kill you for this,” she said through a constricted voice.
“I know," Salma said, unruffled. “I also know that you are the only one who is single in this room.”
“Did I ever give a hint that there is a lacuna in my cup of happiness which I need men to fill?”
“No.”
“So why?"
“Please don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.”
“You made the molehill out of nothing in the first place."
“See? These guys are not even sure they would come tomorrow. They attempted calling you but luckily your line was switched off.”
“I was charging the phone then,” Tomiwa said.
“Well, it's really that simple. If they call tomorrow, you are free to answer or reject the call. They will be here around eight o'clock in the evening."
“I see.” Tomiwa did not see anything.
“If, on the other hand, your curiosity gets the better of you, you can go out for the adventure. Go and pretend to be me the way I pretended to be you. It should be an interesting experience.“
“I don't know anything about that.”
“Don’t worry yourself. Let tomorrow come first."
“So tell me. What were they like?”
“Stingy, for sure. One is called Labaran, the other is called Habib. It was Habib who collected my number. You cannot miss him. He talks very little. The owner of the car is Labaran. That one is overconfident really. He is so damn sure of himself.”
“I dislike him already.”
“Just wait for tomorrow.”
“All right.”
As they paused, suddenly the door opened, and Ngozi and Ada walked in.
“Can you hear what Salma did?”
“What did she do?" they asked in unison.
“Tell them, Salma. Tell them.“
“I just got Tomiwa here a boyfriend,” Salma said, matter-of-factly.
They laughed.
But it was true in a sense, for this was how it happened.
CHAPTER 4: Expected Questions and Answers in JAMB UTME
Based on the excerpt from "The Life Changer" Chapter Four, below are 10 questions along with the correct answers.
- How did Salma feel about the attention her dressing style received from men? A) Uncomfortable B) Annoyed C) Flattered D) Indifferent
- What is Dr. Dabo known for among his students? A) Being lenient with grades B) His punctuality and discipline C) Giving easy exams D) Favoritism towards female students
- How did Dr. Dabo react internally to Salma’s presence in his office? A) Indifferent B) Annoyed C) Attracted D) Suspicious
- What was Salma’s response to Dr. Dabo’s attempt to know her more intimately? A) She agreed to be friends B) She reported him to the authorities C) She was offended and rejected the proposal D) She ignored the question
- How did Salma feel about her initial roommates in Queen Amina Hall? A) Excited B) Disappointed C) Indifferent D) Suspicious
- What common factor strengthened the bond between Salma and her roommates? A) Sports B) Music C) Food D) Fashion
- What did Salma use Tomiwa's name for during her encounter with two men? A) To avoid giving her real name B) As a joke C) To get out of an uncomfortable situation D) All of the above
- What unique feature did Queen Amina Hall have according to the narration? A) It was the oldest hostelB) It was the most luxurious C) It housed sophisticated ladies D) It had the best view
- What was Tomiwa’s reaction to Salma giving out her number? A) She was amused B) She was angry C) She was excited D) She was in different
- What did Salma pretend to be interested in to deceive the men who offered her a ride? A) Seeking a jobB) Looking for directions C) Needing a ride D) Making new friends
CHAPTER 4: Answers
- C) Flattered
- B) His punctuality and discipline
- C) Attracted
- C) She was offended and rejected the proposal
- B) Disappointed
- C) Food
- D) All of the above
- C) It housed sophisticated ladies
- B) She was angry
- D) Making new friends
.jpg)
.jpg&description=The Life Changer: Questions To Expect in JAMB (Answered!)){kind=link}
No comments:
Post a Comment
Just type your comment and post it. It will not appear until it is checked by admins. Check back to see your comment live.
If you want an immediate reply, you can request a reply @ #1000 through WhatsApp only at (08065152292). No call, please!