Literature in English JAMB, WAEC, NECO AND NABTEB Official Past Questions

1
From the novel; The Trials of Brother Jero

This question is based on Wole Soyinka’s The Trials of Brother Jero.

Amope is dissatisfied with her husband’s status as a

  • A. bicycle owner
  • B. chief clerk
  • C. chief messenger
  • D. deputy to Jero
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
2
From the novel; The Trials of Brother Jero

This question is based on Wole Soyinka’s The Trials of Brother Jero.

Brother Chume as a member of Jero’s congregation is

  • A. an informed disciple
  • B. a messenger to Brother Jero
  • C. a loyalist and a good husband
  • D. a disgruntled and gullible follower
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
3
From the novel; She Stoops to Conquer

This question is based on Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops To Conquer.

‘If my dear Hastings be out constant, i make no doubt to be too hard for her at last. ‘
The lines above in the play are delivered by

  • A. Kate
  • B. Tony
  • C. Marlow
  • D. Constance
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
4

This question is based on Literary Principles.
‘And why must we be sad When the messiahs are with us to hound us and butt-gun us into greater tomorrow.’
Odia Ofeimun, ‘ The Messiahs’
The tone of the lines above is

  • A. satiric
  • B. sarcastic
  • C. indicting
  • D. self-pitying
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
5

This question is based on Literary Principles.
‘They came for him that Sunday. He had just returned from a night’s vigil on the mountain. He was resting on his bed, Bible open at the Book of Revelation, when two police constables, one tall, the other short, knocked at the door.’
Ngugi, ‘Petals of Blood’
The writer of the passage above arrests the interest of the reader by employing

  • A. a suspenseful opening
  • B. an appropriate setting
  • C. short clear sentences
  • D. images of violence
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
6

This question is based on Literary Principles.
‘The strong desire he felt for her fade away. As he had done the previous night, he tried desperately to excite himself mentally. Not a nerve in his body responded. He felt ill. He perspired. He, the stallion who usually flung himself at women, was like pulp.’
Sembane Ousmane, ‘Xala’
The terseness of the prose above is employed to

  • A. capture a climax
  • B. depict tension
  • C. condemn the man
  • D. sympathize with the girl
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
7

This question is based on Literary Principles.
‘El – Hadji Abdou Kader Beye was received in princely style at the girl’s home. The food was exquisite and the scent of incense filled N’Gone’s small wooden room. Nothing was omitted in the careful process of conditioning the man.’
Sembane Ousmane, ‘Xala’
The writer suggests in the passage above that El-Hadji is

  • A. a prince
  • B. a food lover
  • C. being entertained
  • D. being manipulated
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
8

This question is based on Literary Principles.
‘At the start of the winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera.
But it was checked and in the end only seven thousand died of it in the army’.
Hemingway ‘Farewell to Arms’
The passage above is an example of

  • A. hyperbolism
  • B. juxtaposition
  • C. understatement
  • D. didactism
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
9

This question is based on Literary Principles.
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore so do our minutes hasten to their end.’
In the lines above, Shakespeare is thinking of the

  • A. passing of time and shortness of life
  • B. swift passing of waves from shore to shore
  • C. passing of time from hours to minutes and second
  • D. movement of pebbles to the shore
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
10

This question is based on Literary Principles.
‘If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs
Making their mock at our accursed lot.’
Claude Mickay, ‘If We Must Die’
The mood in the lines above is one of

  • A. disgust
  • B. indignation
  • C. fear
  • D. sorrow
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
11

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
‘One man with a head
shaven clean as a potato
whispered to the rising sun,
a red eye wiped by a tattered
handkerchief of clouds.’
Mtshali, ‘Men in Chains
The figures of speech employed in the lines above are

  • A. metaphor and onomatopoeia
  • B. simile and metonymy
  • C. metaphor and simile
  • D. personification and onomatopoeia
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
12

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
‘The woman whose breasts I sucked is gone to the worms’.
Oculi, ‘Orphan’
These lines illustrate the use of

  • A. sadism
  • B. sophism
  • C. satire
  • D. euphemism
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
13

This question is based on General Literary Principles.

Romantic poetry emphasizes

  • A. the beauty of nature
  • B. intimate relationships
  • C. the love in human nature
  • D. the romance in human aspirations
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
14

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
In drama, a conspicuous weakness in the character of the protagonist contributing to his downfall is referred to as

  • A. an anagnorisis
  • B. a tragic flaw
  • C. a catharsis
  • D. a catastrophe
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
15

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
A melodramatic play is based on

  • A. a melodious manipulation of events
  • B. ingredients that mllow down events
  • C. sensational plot and characters
  • D. the playwright's didactic overtones
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
16

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
‘If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
Shelly”Ode to the West Wind’
The literary device used here is

  • A. an apostrophe
  • B. an allegory
  • C. a poetic license
  • D. a rhetoric
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
17

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
When two statements or comparisons are apparently contradictory, we have an example of

  • A. irony
  • B. paradox
  • C. contrast
  • D. parallelism
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
18

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
Poems that are not written in meter or regular line length are called

  • A. short verses
  • B. rhythmic verses
  • C. free verses
  • D. irregular verses
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
19

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
An elegy is a poem that morns for the

  • A. deceased
  • B. beeaved
  • C. accused
  • D. king
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
20

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
The three main unities in drama are those of

  • A. action, time and place
  • B. time, space and action
  • C. place, time and space
  • D. space, action and time
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998
21

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
Persona refers to the

  • A. central character in a play
  • B. voice of the character
  • C. the image a character presents
  • D. the personality of a character
View Answer & Discuss JAMB 1998