English - 2017 E.C (2024/2025) Ethiopian University Entrance Exam (EUEE)

EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT AND EXAMINATIONS SERVICE (EAES)

ETHIOPIAN SECONDARY SCHOOL LEAVING CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION (ESSLCE)

English, Sene, 2017 E.C./June/July, 2025 G.C.

NUMBER OF ITEMS: 100

SUBJECT CODE: 01

TIME ALLOWED: 2 HOURS

BOOKLET CODE: 214

I. COMPREHENSION

Directions: There are two passages in this section. Read each of them carefully and answer questions 1 - 18 according to the information given. From the four choices A-D given for each question, choose the correct answer

Section One: Reading Passage I

1. Homeless people are everywhere-on the street, in public buildings, on the evening news and at the corner parking lot. You can hardly step out of your house these days without meeting some haggard character who asks you for a cigarette or begs for "a little change". The homeless are not just constant symbols of wasted lives and social programs-they have become a danger to public safety.
2. What is the root of the homeless problem? Everyone seems to have a scapegoat. Advocates of the homeless blame government policy; politicians blame the legal system; the courts blame the bureaucratic infrastructure; the Democrats blame the Republicans and the Republicans blame the Democrats. The public also blames the economy, drugs, the "poverty cycle", and "the breakdown of society". With all this finger-pointing, the group most responsible for the homeless being the way they are received the least blame. That group is the homeless themselves.
3. How can I say this? For the past two years I have worked with the homeless, volunteering at the Salvation Army and at a soup kitchen in Austin, Texas. I have led a weekly chapel service, served food, listened, counseled, given time and money, and shared their struggles. I have seen their response to troubles, and though I would rather report otherwise, many of them seem to have chosen the life styles they lead. They are unwilling to do the things necessary to overcome
4. Let me qualify what I just said. Not everyone who finds himself out of a job and in the street is there because he/she wants to be. Some are victims of tragic circumstances. I met many exhausted, sensible people during my time working with Austin's homeless: the single father struggling to earn his working his Austin's homeless: the single father struggling to earn his bread and be a role model for his children; the woman who fled a good job in another city to escape an abusive husband; the well- educated young man who had his world turned upside down by divorce and a layoff. These people deserve every effort to help them back on their feet.
5. But they are not the real problem. They are usually off the streets and resuming normal lives within a period of weeks or months. Even while "down on their luck", they are responsible citizens, working in the shelters and applying for jobs. They are homeless, true but only temporarily, because they are eager to reorganize their lives.
6. For every person temporarily homeless, though there are many who are chronically so. Whether because of mental illness, alcoholism, poor education, drug addiction, or simply laziness, these homeless are content to remain as they are. In many cases they choose the streets. They enjoy the freedom and consider begging a minor inconvenience. They know they can always get a job for a day or two for food, cigarettes and alcohol. The sophisticated among them have learned to use the system for what it is worth and figure out that a trip through the welfare line is less trouble than a steady job. In a society that has mastered a dodging responsibility, these homeless prefer a life of no responsibility at all.

(Source: Critical Thinking, Thoughtful Writing: A Rhetoric with Readings by Chaffee, J. U.S.A (1999) (P.374-375).