Use Of English 2011 Jamb Examination

Like a clock with the pendulum in full swing, the mind moves as fast as time. But we ought to mind our thoughts, for if they turn to be our enemies, they will be too many for us and will drag us down to ruin.

But some people may say that they cannot help having bad thoughts even though they sting like vipers. That may be true, but the question is do they hate them or not? We cannot keep thieves from looking in at our windows, but if we open our doors to them and receive them joyfully, we are as bad as they. We cannot help the birds flying over our heads; but we may keep them from building their nests in our hair. Vain thoughts will knock at the door but we must not open to them.

Though bad and evil thoughts rise in our hearts, they must not be allowed to reign. He who turns a morsel over and over in his mouth does so because he likes the flavour, and he who meditates upon evil loves it and is ripe to commit it. Think of the devil, and he will appear; turn your thoughts towards ill and your hands will soon follow. Snails leave their slime behind them, and so do vain thoughts. An arrow may fly through the air and leave no trace, but an evil thought always leaves a trail like a serpent.

Where there is much traffic of bad thinking, there will be much mire and dirt. Every wave of wicked thought adds something to the corruption which rots upon the shore of life. It is dreadful to think that a vile imagination, once indulged, gets the key of our minds and gets in again very easily, whether or not we let it in—and what may follow, no one knows. Nurse evil on the lap of thought, and it will grow into a giant.

Therefore, there is wisdom in watching every day the thoughts and imaginations of our hearts. Good thoughts are blessed guests and should be welcomed, well fed, and much sought after, but bad thoughts must fly out as swiftly as they moved in.

Like a clock with the pendulum in full swing, the mind moves as fast as time. But we ought to mind our thoughts, for if they turn to be our enemies, they will be too many for us and will drag us down to ruin.

But some people may say that they cannot help having bad thoughts even though they sting like vipers. That may be true, but the question is do they hate them or not? We cannot keep thieves from looking in at our windows, but if we open our doors to them and receive them joyfully, we are as bad as they. We cannot help the birds flying over our heads; but we may keep them from building their nests in our hair. Vain thoughts will knock at the door but we must not open to them.

Though bad and evil thoughts rise in our hearts, they must not be allowed to reign. He who turns a morsel over and over in his mouth does so because he likes the flavour, and he who meditates upon evil loves it and is ripe to commit it. Think of the devil, and he will appear; turn your thoughts towards ill and your hands will soon follow. Snails leave their slime behind them, and so do vain thoughts. An arrow may fly through the air and leave no trace, but an evil thought always leaves a trail like a serpent.

Where there is much traffic of bad thinking, there will be much mire and dirt. Every wave of wicked thought adds something to the corruption which rots upon the shore of life. It is dreadful to think that a vile imagination, once indulged, gets the key of our minds and gets in again very easily, whether or not we let it in—and what may follow, no one knows. Nurse evil on the lap of thought, and it will grow into a giant.

Therefore, there is wisdom in watching every day the thoughts and imaginations of our hearts. Good thoughts are blessed guests and should be welcomed, well fed, and much sought after, but bad thoughts must fly out as swiftly as they moved in.

In 1962, a team of scientists produced a special radio station that had a range of fifteen miles. Even though communication was being accomplished in space at a range of more than a million times this distance, the new radio station caused more excitement among scientists. The reason: its power supply was a ‘battery’ made of bacteria. For the first time, practical amounts of electricity were being produced by a form of life and put to use.

The ‘biocell’, the new power supply, had a liquid fuel containing tiny forms of life that changed the fuel directly into electric energy. This was far more than an interesting experiment. The biocell is being developed as a producer of electricity for radios, for signals to guide ships, for lighting and for other uses. Though the working biocell is only a few years old, some scientists feel that it will one day produce power as cheaply as is now being done by other methods, and that the biocell will use materials that would otherwise be considered waste. Early biocells were powered with sugar, but a wide range of fuels can be used. Work is being done using seawater to feed the bacteria.

Electricity from living cells is no new idea. Man experienced the strange ‘shock’ produced by some fish even before electricity was really discovered. Then in time, there were other discoveries. Benjamin Franklin found that lightning in the sky was electricity. Luigi Galvani found some electricity in the muscles and nerves of animals. But the African catfish produces far more electricity than most other living creatures. And another fish, the electric eel, is well named, for it has an even greater electric charge. Research workers also discovered that even humans produce small amounts of electricity in their bodies. Our hearts produce a very small amount that can be measured, and so do our brains. The biocell is completely new in the field of power production and, as yet, no mass-produced models have begun to replace the older types of batteries. It might be wondered, then, what the excitement is all about.