Use Of English 2014 Jamb Examination

Political change and social transformation in the form of revolutions have radically altered the course of human civilisation and history. Today, the world is witnessing political and social changes arising from the desire of people all over the globe for greater freedom, a voice in the way they are governed, and a better standard of living. Part of these struggles and processes have become more pronounced in the Third World since the end of the East–West Cold War in the late 1980s, and in the face of the challenges being posed by the ongoing process of globalisation.

While political and social changes may appear to be distinct phenomena, they are analytically inseparable. Political and social changes refer to alterations or transformations in human behaviour, norms, and politico-social institutions. Such changes are often a collective response to the need for reform, or a tacit recognition of a shift in the prevailing power relations in society. Therefore, the coming to power of a new set of rulers, or the establishment of new structures and processes of governance, broadly typifies socio-political change.

It is important to note that changes can be either positive or negative. In most cases, political and social changes are caused by certain factors or reasons. These push people to collectively organise themselves to struggle for a change in the existing power relations. Another reason is the desire to capture political power in the hope of making life better for the generality of the people. If politics is defined as who gets what, when, and how, then it implies that political change refers to an alteration in the form of power and the identity of the group or class that controls or wields state power.

Like all reptiles, snakes are cold-blooded, or more correctly, ectothermic—they cannot produce their own body heat. Instead, they rely on the sun to warm their bodies. Because they do not depend on energy from food to generate body heat, snakes can survive on an extremely meagre diet. Some wait for months between successive meals, and a few survive by eating a large meal just once or twice a year. When they do eat, snakes swallow their prey whole rather than biting off small pieces. Many snakes have specialised jaws that enable them to swallow animals far larger than their own heads. Although uncommon, some snakes, such as the African rock python, have been observed eating animals as large as an antelope or a small cow.

With over two thousand five hundred species belonging to more than ten families, snakes are a large and successful group. They owe much of this success to their versatility—snakes occupy habitats ranging from underground burrows to the tops of trees, and even to ocean depths as great as one hundred and fifty metres. They are found on every continent except Antarctica, and although they are most abundant in tropical areas, many survive in regions marked by extreme cold. The only places without snakes are parts of the polar regions and isolated islands, such as the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand, as opposed to places in Nigeria like Plateau and Gombe States in the northern part of the country, where there is a large population of snakes.