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

22

Read the extract and answer the question

And can you, by no drift of circumstance,
Get from him why he puts on this confusion,
Grating so harshly all his days of quiet.
With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?
(Act 111, scene one line, 1-4)

The character being discussed is

  • A. Voltimand
  • B. Hamlet
  • C. Ophelia
  • D. Rosencrantz
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23

Read the extract and answer the question

And can you, by no drift of circumstance,
Get from him why he puts on this confusion,
Grating so harshly all his days of quiet.
With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?
(Act 111, scene one line, 1-4)

The speaker is

  • A. Gertrude
  • B. Ophelia
  • C. Claudius
  • D. Polonius
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24

Read the extract and answer the question

If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me;
That may be any good thing to be grace to me,
Speak to me;
If thou art privy to thy country’s fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak!
Or if thou has uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death
Speak of it:
(Act 1 scene one, lines 129-139)

During the speech,

  • A. the palace soldiers arrived
  • B. Hamlet attacked the speaker
  • C. the queen fainted
  • D. the cock crowed
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25

Read the extract and answer the question

If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me;
That may be any good thing to be grace to me,
Speak to me;
If thou art privy to thy country’s fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak!
Or if thou has uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death
Speak of it:
(Act 1 scene one, lines 129-139)

The speaker’s mood is one of

  • A. anger
  • B. reget
  • C. anxiety
  • D. disappointment
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26

Read the extract and answer the question

If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me;
That may be any good thing to be grace to me,
Speak to me;
If thou art privy to thy country’s fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak!
Or if thou has uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death
Speak of it:
(Act 1 scene one, lines 129-139)

The speech is made after

  • A. the killing of Polonius
  • B. Hamlet's arrival at the palace
  • C. the arrival of the players
  • D. the appearance of the ghost
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27

Read the extract and answer the question

If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me;
That may be any good thing to be grace to me,
Speak to me;
If thou art privy to thy country’s fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak!
Or if thou has uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death
Speak of it:
(Act 1 scene one, lines 129-139)

The character being addressed is

  • A. the queen
  • B. the ghost
  • C. Bernado
  • D. Reynaldo
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28

Read the extract and answer the question

If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me;
That may be any good thing to be grace to me,
Speak to me;
If thou art privy to thy country’s fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak!
Or if thou has uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death
Speak of it:
(Act 1 scene one, lines 129-139)

The speaker is

  • A. Hamlet
  • B. Mercellus
  • C. Horatio
  • D. Claudius
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29

Read the extract and answer the question

Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to what thy almost blunted purpose
But, look, amazement as thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul:
(Act 111, scene four, lines 107 -110)

”fighting soul” implies

  • A. clear conscience
  • B. hope
  • C. fear
  • D. guilty conscience
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30

Read the extract and answer the question

Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to what thy almost blunted purpose
But, look, amazement as thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul:
(Act 111, scene four, lines 107 -110)

”blunted purpose” implies

  • A. inactivity
  • B. blindness
  • C. happiness
  • D. tiredness
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31

Read the extract and answer the question

Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to what thy almost blunted purpose
But, look, amazement as thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul:
(Act 111, scene four, lines 107 -110)

The speech is made in the

  • A. Queen' s closet
  • B. Queen's room
  • C. hall
  • D. palace
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32

Read the extract and answer the question

Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to what thy almost blunted purpose
But, look, amazement as thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul:
(Act 111, scene four, lines 107 -110)

The character being addressed is

  • A. Polonius
  • B. Laertes
  • C. Ophelia
  • D. Hamlet
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33

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet

Read the extract and answer the question

Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to what thy almost blunted purpose
But, look, amazement as thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul:
(Act 111, scene four, lines 107 -110)

The speaker is

  • A. Claudius
  • B. Ghost
  • C. Gertrude
  • D. Horatio
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34

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet

Read the extract and answer the question

Your leave and favour to return to France;
From whence though willingly I came to Denmark,
To show my duty in your coronation.
Yet now, I must confess, that duty done.
My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
(Act 1, Scene two, Lines 51 -57)

The other character present at the scene is

  • A. Rosencrantz
  • B. Ophella
  • C. Guildenstern
  • D. Polonius
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35

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet

Read the extract and answer the question

Your leave and favour to return to France;
From whence though willingly I came to Denmark,
To show my duty in your coronation.
Yet now, I must confess, that duty done.
My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
(Act 1, Scene two, Lines 51 -57)

The speaker intends to return to

  • A. the seaside
  • B. the warfront
  • C. denmark
  • D. france
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36

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet

Read the extract and answer the question

Your leave and favour to return to France;
From whence though willingly I came to Denmark,
To show my duty in your coronation.
Yet now, I must confess, that duty done.
My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
(Act 1, Scene two, Lines 51 -57)

”Duty” in the extract refers to

  • A. job
  • B. fath
  • C. loyalty
  • D. task
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37

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet

Read the extract and answer the question

Your leave and favour to return to France;
From whence though willingly I came to Denmark,
To show my duty in your coronation.
Yet now, I must confess, that duty done.
My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
(Act 1, Scene two, Lines 51 -57)

The speaker is addressing

  • A. Hamlet
  • B. Claudius
  • C. Horatio
  • D. Marcellus
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38

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet

Read the extract and answer the question

Your leave and favour to return to France;
From whence though willingly I came to Denmark,
To show my duty in your coronation.
Yet now, I must confess, that duty done.
My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
(Act 1, Scene two, Lines 51 -57)

The speaker is

  • A. Laertes
  • B. Polonius
  • C. Hamlet
  • D. Claudius
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39

Read the passage and answer the question

Here in the station it is in no way different save that the city is busy in its snow. But the old men cling to their seats as though they were symbolic and could not be given up. Now and then they sleep, their grey old heads resting with painful awkwardness on the backs of the benches
Also they are not at rest. For an hour they may sleep in the gasping exhaustion of the ill-nourished and aged. who have to walk in the night. Then a policeman comes by on his rounds and nudges them upright.
”You can’t sleep here”, he growls.
A strange ritual then begins. An old man is difficult to wake. One man after a slight lurch, does not move at all, droning centre of the hive rather than in some lonely room fulfilled.

”droning” and ”have” illustrate

  • A. anecdote
  • B. epigram
  • C. allusion
  • D. epitaph
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40

Read the passage and answer the question

Here in the station it is in no way different save that the city is busy in its snow. But the old men cling to their seats as though they were symbolic and could not be given up. Now and then they sleep, their grey old heads resting with painful awkwardness on the backs of the benches
Also they are not at rest. For an hour they may sleep in the gasping exhaustion of the ill-nourished and aged. who have to walk in the night. Then a policeman comes by on his rounds and nudges them upright.
”You can’t sleep here”, he growls.
A strange ritual then begins. An old man is difficult to wake. One man after a slight lurch, does not move at all, droning centre of the hive rather than in some lonely room fulfilled.

”,….gasping exhaustion of the ill-nourished and aged….” infers

  • A. helplessness
  • B. slowness
  • C. sadness
  • D. tiredness
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41

Read the passage and answer the question

Here in the station it is in no way different save that the city is busy in its snow. But the old men cling to their seats as though they were symbolic and could not be given up. Now and then they sleep, their grey old heads resting with painful awkwardness on the backs of the benches
Also they are not at rest. For an hour they may sleep in the gasping exhaustion of the ill-nourished and aged. who have to walk in the night. Then a policeman comes by on his rounds and nudges them upright.
”You can’t sleep here”, he growls.
A strange ritual then begins. An old man is difficult to wake. One man after a slight lurch, does not move at all, droning centre of the hive rather than in some lonely room fulfilled.

The passage conveys a mood of

  • A. defiance
  • B. hope
  • C. fear
  • D. despair
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42

Read the passage and answer the question

Here in the station it is in no way different save that the city is busy in its snow. But the old men cling to their seats as though they were symbolic and could not be given up. Now and then they sleep, their grey old heads resting with painful awkwardness on the backs of the benches
Also they are not at rest. For an hour they may sleep in the gasping exhaustion of the ill-nourished and aged. who have to walk in the night. Then a policeman comes by on his rounds and nudges them upright.
”You can’t sleep here”, he growls.
A strange ritual then begins. An old man is difficult to wake. One man after a slight lurch, does not move at all, droning centre of the hive rather than in some lonely room fulfilled.

”…. on the backs of the benches” illustrates

  • A. synecdoche
  • B. epithet
  • C. assonance
  • D. personification
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