Use Of English 2011 Jamb Examination

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.

Believe it or not, change is to human existence what the blood is to the human body. We live in an era of amazing ____16____ change spawned by advancing technology and industrialization. However, man’s ____17____ promoting and defending change in a deliberate effort to establish ____18____ that stimulate advancement for man’s concern is proving unfavourable to the climate with threatening ____19____.

Human-induced climate change has awakened widespread concern across the globe. As a matter of fact, climate change is now ____20____ global issue. It is a major test of Africa’s ____21____! The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed that human actions are changing the earth’s climate and creating major disturbances in human ____22____ and ecosystems. The IPCC reports that the world has warmed by an average of 0.76°C since pre-industrial times. The rising global ____23____ for energy and the adverse changes in the climate put the earth and its inhabitants in a catch-22 situation.

Again, if the effects of climate change on each were commensurate with the level of greenhouse ____24____ it spews out, perhaps Africa would have been spared and would probably be just an amused spectator. But this is not the case. Here again, we see well-meaning global citizens appealing for the rest of the world to take responsibility for the problems of Africa, a strategy that cannot, thus far, be termed ____25____.