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

3886

The antagonist in a tragedy is

  • A. any character in the tragedy
  • B. the wife of the protagonist
  • C. the character who provides comic relief
  • D. the character set in opposition to the main character
  • E. the leading chorus.
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3887

Point out the odd term

  • A. Enjambment
  • B. Rhyme
  • C. Alliteration
  • D. Assonance
  • E. plot.
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3888

A Sonnet is a poem of

  • A. seven lines
  • B. three lines
  • C. four lines
  • D. fourteen lines
  • E. twelve lines.
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3889
From the novel; Things Fall Apart

The novel Thin gs Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe was first published in

  • A. 1948
  • B. 1952
  • C. 1958
  • D. 1960
  • E. 1962
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3890
From the novel; Things Fall Apart

The title of Achebe Things Fall Apart is taken from poem written by

  • A. T.S Eliot
  • B. William Shakespeare
  • C. William Wordsworth
  • D. Wole Soyinka
  • E. W.B Yeats.
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3891
From the novel; Things Fall Apart

‘…No, my friend, he is not too young. A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches. i have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man, but there is too much of his mother in him.’
The truth, which Okonkwo knows but cannot bring himself to state, is that Nwoye is what he is because there is in him too much of

  • A. his father
  • B. his grandfather
  • C. Ikemefuna
  • D. his grandmother
  • E. Ezinma
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3892
From the novel; Things Fall Apart

Artistically, Okonkwo’s seven years’ exile is a device used by Achebe to

  • A. to introduce comic relief
  • B. keep Okonkwo at a distance from the movement of the mind of Umuofia
  • C. serve as a warning to other members of the Umuofia community
  • D. shows that wilful crime does not pay
  • E. de-emphizes the role of Okonkwo in the novel
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3893
From the novel; Things Fall Apart

Which of the following adjectives best describes the character of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart?

  • A. Gentle
  • B. Quick tempered
  • C. Considerate
  • D. Meek
  • E. Wicked
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3894
From the novel; Animal farm

You would often hear on hen remark to another,
Under the guidance of our leader, Comrade Napoleon, i have laid five eggs in six days’. or two cows, enjoying a drink at the pool, would exclaim,
‘Thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon, how excellent this water taste!’

It is obvious from this passage that the narrator

  • A. agrees with the animals good opinion of Napoleon
  • B. thinks the hen are correct while the cows are wrong
  • C. agrees with the cows and dissagree with the hens
  • D. feels it is not possible to know the truth
  • E. its being ironic since neither the cows nor the hens are correct
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3895
From the novel; Animal farm

‘No sentimentality, comrade! War is war. The only good human being is a dead one.’
This statement in Animal Farm was made by

  • A. Squealer
  • B. Boxer
  • C. Major
  • D. Snowball
  • E. Benjamin.
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3896
From the novel; Animal farm

‘Nine hens had died in the meantime. Their bodies were buried in the orchard, and it was given out that they had died by coccidiosis.’
In the passage taken from Animal Farm, the truth is that the

  • A. cause of the hens' death is unknown
  • B. official explanation given is unacceptable
  • C. issue is not worth considering
  • D. official explanation is acceptable
  • E. hens died of old-age.
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3897
From the novel; Animal farm

In Animal Farm, Boxer represents the dedicated worker who serves the revolutionary cause to the best of his ability and is

  • A. gently consigned to obscurity in the end
  • B. justly rewarded in the end.
  • C. unfairly, ruthlessly treated in the end
  • D. given national honours in the end
  • E. allowed a graceful retirement in old age.
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3898

The overall mood conveyed in Wole Soyinka’s poem,’Night’, can be accurately described as

  • A. calm
  • B. agitated
  • C. cheerful
  • D. aggressive
  • E. uneasy.
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3899

‘The Fence’ (Lenrie Peters) is a

  • A. lyrical poem which celebrates the beauty of fences
  • B. dramatic poem in which the poet demostrates how to overcome problems
  • C. moral poem which deals with the poet's dilemma
  • D. free verse which teaches us how to sit on the fence
  • E. free verse which says sitting on the fence is admirable.
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3900

In the poem, ‘The Cathedral’, Kofi Awoonor expressed

  • A. sorrow at the disappearance of his village
  • B. his feeling about traditional religion
  • C. disapproval of the change from Africa's past life to the present modern
  • D. anger at life slavery and colonialism
  • E. his approval for the building of a cathedral in his village
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3901

In ‘Fulani Cattle’, the poet expresses

  • A. his belief that cattles are meant to be slaughtered by men
  • B. regret that there will soon not be enough cattle to go round
  • C. the idea that cattle are created strong to enable them endure the long journey from the north to the south
  • D. sympathy for the cattle that are driven from the north to the south of Nigeria to be slaughtered
  • E. admiration for the sharp knife with which the cattle are slaughtered.
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3902

The run on’ lines in J.P Clark’s poem, ‘Night Rain’, suggest the

  • A. poet's ignorance of punctuation rules
  • B. long duration of that night
  • C. intensity of the darkness of that night
  • D. deep, soothing sleep of the poet under the night rain
  • E. continuous pouring down of the night rain
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3903

The Yoruba incantatory poem, ‘When a Strainer Takes in Water’, is meant to be recited in order to

  • A. excape capture
  • B. promote sales
  • C. ensure good harvest
  • D. escape retribution
  • E. prevent road mishaps
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3904

We sang that song before
In the thousand seasons of good harvest
And full fish fo0llowing our father’s footprints
On the long shores.

A poetic device consciously used by Awoonor in these lines (from more message) is

  • A. apostrophe
  • B. alliteration
  • C. simile
  • D. onomotopoeia
  • E. personification.
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3905

In addition to describing scenes of an African village night, Senghor’s poem, ‘Nuit de Sine’ makes a definite statement about

  • A. black soldiers killed in Europe
  • B. fishermen diving in the sea
  • C. technological development in Africa
  • D. population movement fron rural to urban centres
  • E. communicating with dead ancestors.
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3906

The poem ‘When a Strainer Takes in Water’ is

  • A. a dirge
  • B. an incantation
  • C. an ode
  • D. a lullaby
  • E. a ballad.
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