JAMB Literature in English 2010

23 reviewed questions with answers and explanations.

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Question 3

In J. C. de Graft’s Sons and Daughters, why does Maanan express dislike for Lawyer B?

  1. his condemnation of her choice of career
  2. his recent advances towards her
  3. the betrayal of her father's trust
  4. the betrayal of his wife's trust.
Answer and explanation

B: his recent advances towards her

Maanan resists Lawyer Bonu’s unwanted sexual advances. Her objection concerns his conduct towards her, rather than simply disagreement over her career or his obligations to other people.

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Question 7

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is predominantly written in which verse form?

  1. blank verse
  2. free verse
  3. metres
  4. foot.
Answer and explanation

A: blank verse

Much of Romeo and Juliet uses blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter. Free verse does not follow that regular metrical pattern, though the play also contains prose and rhymed passages.

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Question 8

In Romeo and Juliet, whom does Juliet describe as “O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!”?

  1. Juliet
  2. Romeo
  3. Tybalt
  4. Benvolio.
Answer and explanation

B: Romeo

Juliet speaks about Romeo after learning that he has killed Tybalt. The contrast between a beautiful face and a serpent’s heart expresses her shocked conflict about her husband.

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Question 9

What is the principal city setting of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet?

  1. Athens
  2. Verona
  3. Padua
  4. Venice
Answer and explanation

B: Verona

The central action and the feud between the Montagues and Capulets take place in Verona. Mantua is Romeo’s place of exile, rather than the main setting listed here.

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Question 10

In Romeo and Juliet, which action results in Romeo’s banishment?

  1. He kills Tybalt in a street duel
  2. He marries Juliet without parental consent
  3. He attends Capulet’s party uninvited
  4. He attempts to kill Paris, his rival
Answer and explanation

A: He kills Tybalt in a street duel

Romeo kills Tybalt after Tybalt has killed Mercutio. The Prince punishes Romeo with banishment; his secret marriage and attendance at the party are not the offence that causes this sentence.

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Question 17

In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Ministry of Peace concerns itself with making what?

  1. instruments
  2. weapons
  3. wars
  4. reconciliation
Answer and explanation

C: wars

The Ministry of Peace handles war. Its reassuring name contradicts its activity, illustrating the Party’s manipulation of language and the novel’s system of doublethink.

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Question 18

Which option best names the central political system explored in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four?

  1. totalitarian dictatorship
  2. exploitation and cruelty
  3. retributive justice
  4. class segregation.
Answer and explanation

A: totalitarian dictatorship

The Party exercises pervasive political control through surveillance, censorship and repression. Totalitarian dictatorship names that central system, while exploitation and cruelty describe some of its effects.

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Question 19

What concrete act begins Winston’s private written rebellion near the opening of Nineteen Eighty-Four?

  1. Engaging in anti-party activities
  2. Keeping a private diary
  3. Starting a secret affair
  4. Spying on the Party
Answer and explanation

B: Keeping a private diary

At the start of the novel, Winston privately begins a diary despite the danger of discovery. His affair comes later; the diary gives his private opposition a concrete written form.

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Question 22

In Rubadiri’s An African Thunderstorm, what happens among the children and women in the village?

  1. women cook their food
  2. children play in the rain
  3. children are delighted while women move in and out
  4. both women and children are delighted.
Answer and explanation

C: children are delighted while women move in and out

The village stanza describes delighted children and women darting in and out with babies on their backs. The children’s excitement contrasts with the women’s hurried activity.

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Question 27

The poet persona in Marvell's To His Coy Mistress is willing to praise the lady's eyes for

  1. thirty thousand years
  2. six decades
  3. two centuries
  4. a century.
Answer and explanation

D: a century.

The speaker imagines spending one hundred years praising her eyes and gazing on her forehead. One hundred years is a century; the larger numbers refer to other imagined acts of praise.

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Question 28

In Lawrence's Bat, the poet persona mistakes the bats for

  1. owls
  2. swallows
  3. pipistrello
  4. sparrows
Answer and explanation

B: swallows

The speaker initially identifies the flying creatures as swallows, then recognises bats. That change in identification accompanies a shift from admiration to distaste.

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Question 29

Which animals carry the travellers in T. S. Eliot’s Journey of the Magi?

  1. Donkeys
  2. Horses
  3. Camels
  4. Chariots
Answer and explanation

C: Camels

The poem describes the camels and the camel drivers struggling through the harsh journey. Those details identify the animals used by the travelling Magi.

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Question 32

In conventional dramatic plot structure, which feature belongs to both comedy and tragedy?

  1. happy ending
  2. climax
  3. tragic hero
  4. stanza
Answer and explanation

B: climax

In conventional dramatic structure, both comedy and tragedy build towards a climax, the high point of conflict. They differ in typical outcomes, and a stanza is a unit of verse rather than a dramatic requirement.

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Question 34

The narrative style in which the hero tells his own story directly is the .

  1. Objective
  2. Subjective
  3. First-person
  4. Third-person
Answer and explanation

C: First-person

A first-person narrator tells events using a personal perspective, commonly with I or we. When the hero narrates their own story directly, that is first-person narration.

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Question 35

The physical, historical or cultural background of a literary work is referred to as

  1. episode
  2. plot
  3. time
  4. setting
Answer and explanation

D: setting

Setting includes where and when events occur and their social or cultural surroundings. Plot instead concerns the sequence of events and an episode is a particular incident.

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Question 37

Pun as a literary device deals with

  1. placing two opposite phrases
  2. placing words side by side
  3. playing on words
  4. arrangement of words
Answer and explanation

C: playing on words

A pun plays on a word’s different meanings or on similar-sounding words. Merely arranging words side by side does not create the double meaning that makes a pun.

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Question 38

In a narrative poem, the poet attempts to

  1. summarize a story
  2. describe a place
  3. preach a sermon
  4. tell a story
Answer and explanation

D: tell a story

A narrative poem tells a story through verse, presenting events and often characters. Description or reflection may appear within it, but storytelling defines the narrative form.

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Question 39

The account of experiences of an individual during the course of a journey is known as

  1. a travelogue
  2. an autobiography
  3. a catalogue
  4. a memoir
Answer and explanation

A: a travelogue

A travelogue records a traveller’s experiences on a journey. An autobiography covers a life more broadly, while a catalogue lists items rather than narrating travel.

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Question 41

Basha: “You dumb skull of a bone head ... you will face court martial for this. You look everywhere? You search inside toilet bowl?” — Wole Soyinka, King Baabu. Which listed role is indicated by the threat of a court martial?

  1. soldier
  2. student
  3. domestic servant
  4. lawyer
Answer and explanation

A: soldier

The threat of a court martial points to military discipline. Among the options, a soldier is the person whose role fits that disciplinary threat.

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Question 42

Basha: “You dumb skull of a bone head ... you will face court martial for this. You look everywhere? You search inside toilet bowl?” — Wole Soyinka, King Baabu. What tone does the speaker convey?

  1. enraged
  2. lackadaisical
  3. elated
  4. happy.
Answer and explanation

A: enraged

The insults, threats and repeated accusatory questions convey intense anger. They do not suggest happiness, excitement or a casual lack of concern.

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Question 43

'That year the harvest was sad, like a funeral, and many farmers wept as they dug up the miserable yams. One man tied his cloth to a tree branch and hanged himself'. Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart The mood conveyed in the excerpt above is one of

  1. sadness
  2. frustration
  3. sympathy
  4. dilemma.
Answer and explanation

A: sadness

The funeral comparison, weeping farmers and miserable harvest create a mournful atmosphere. Sadness is the mood most directly reinforced by the repeated language of grief.

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Question 44

Read these four lines: (1) That age is best which is the first, / (2) When youth and blood are warmer, / (3) But being spent, the worse, and worst / (4) Time still succeed the former. What is the rhyme scheme?

  1. bbaa
  2. aabb
  3. abab
  4. abba.
Answer and explanation

C: abab

The first and third line endings, first and worst, rhyme; warmer and former link the second and fourth. Alternating these two sounds produces the pattern ABAB.

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Question 45

But the towering earth was tired sitting in one position. She moved, suddenly, and the houses crumbled, the mountains heaved horribly, and the work of a million years was lost. The subject matter of the extract above is

What is the subject matter of the passage?

  1. storm
  2. sea waves
  3. house movement
  4. earthquake.
Answer and explanation

D: earthquake.

The sudden movement of the ground, collapsing houses and heaving mountains describe an earthquake. The personified earth does not change the physical event being represented.

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