JAMB Literature in English 2014

25 reviewed questions with answers and explanations.

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Question 6

In The Tempest, which role identifies Ariel among these choices?

  1. Leader of the spirits
  2. Prospero’s daughter
  3. Alonso’s wife
  4. Assistant to Sycorax
Answer and explanation

A: Leader of the spirits

Ariel is a spirit serving Prospero and organising other spirits in his tasks. Miranda is Prospero’s daughter; Ariel is neither a human wife nor Sycorax’s willing assistant.

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Question 7

In The Tempest, how long have Prospero and Miranda lived on the island before the opening shipwreck?

  1. two decades
  2. twelve years
  3. forty days
  4. eighteen months.
Answer and explanation

B: twelve years

Prospero tells Miranda that twelve years have passed since he was Duke of Milan and they were driven away. This establishes the length of their residence before the play’s shipwreck.

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Question 8

In The Tempest, what motive does Caliban state for his attempted assault on Miranda?

  1. destroy the Island
  2. compete with Ferdinand
  3. populate the Island with Calibans
  4. marry her.
Answer and explanation

C: populate the Island with Calibans

Caliban says that, had Prospero not stopped him, he would have populated the island with Calibans. That admission identifies the motive stated in the dialogue.

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Question 9

Which character is described as savage by Miranda in The Tempest?

  1. Ariel
  2. Stephano
  3. Caliban
  4. Ferdinand
Answer and explanation

C: Caliban

Miranda and Prospero use language of savagery and brutishness about Caliban. The answer identifies their portrayal in the play, rather than endorsing those judgements as an objective description of a people.

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Question 10

In The Tempest, how does Prospero describe his priorities before losing Milan?

  1. Full of mistrust for everybody
  2. More interested in studying than in governance
  3. Dependent on spirits for survival
  4. Eager to conquer the world
Answer and explanation

B: More interested in studying than in governance

Prospero explains that he devoted himself to study and delegated government to Antonio. This neglect of political administration helped his brother seize power.

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Question 11

Which theme is explored through Pokuwaa’s central struggle in Asare Konadu’s A Woman in Her Prime?

  1. exploitation of the African woman
  2. sex discrimination in Ghana
  3. women liberation in Nigeria
  4. child quest of an African woman
Answer and explanation

D: child quest of an African woman

Pokuwaa’s desire to have a child drives the central struggle in A Woman in Her Prime. Her success as a farmer does not remove the pressure she experiences from a community that places great value on motherhood.

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Question 14

In Purple Hibiscus, which change does Father Benedict introduce at St. Agnes’ church?

  1. there must be fasting every month
  2. the Credo must be recited in lgbo
  3. the Kyrie must be rendered only in Latin
  4. everyone must take holy communion
Answer and explanation

C: the Kyrie must be rendered only in Latin

Father Benedict insists on Latin for the Kyrie and Credo, while allowing Igbo for offertory songs. The requirement for the Kyrie therefore matches the change described in the opening of the novel.

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Question 15

How is Eugene Achike portrayed in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus?

  1. a soft and gentle husband
  2. an uncompromising traditionalist
  3. a fanatical Catholic adherent
  4. a tough retired soldier
Answer and explanation

C: a fanatical Catholic adherent

Eugene combines strict Catholic observance with a violent response when Jaja refuses communion. This religious rigidity supports the description of him as a fanatical Catholic adherent, rather than a gentle husband or a defender of traditional religion.

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Question 17

In Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, what fish does Santiago catch after his prolonged struggle?

  1. shark
  2. iris
  3. marlin
  4. geisha
Answer and explanation

C: marlin

Santiago hooks and struggles with a large marlin. Sharks attack the captured fish later, so they should not be confused with the fish at the centre of his long struggle.

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Question 18

Which broad human struggle is exemplified by Santiago’s endurance in The Old Man and the Sea?

  1. attempt to catch fish
  2. desire to understand life
  3. influence of the sea on man
  4. struggle of man against-defeat
Answer and explanation

D: struggle of man against-defeat

Santiago persists through exhaustion, pain and the loss inflicted by sharks. His endurance gives the fishing struggle a wider meaning as resistance to defeat, beyond the practical attempt to catch a fish.

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Question 19

Which description best fits Santiago’s frequent feelings of kinship towards sea creatures in The Old Man and the Sea?

  1. cautious and sceptical
  2. hostile and callous
  3. careless and indifferent
  4. warm and friendly.
Answer and explanation

D: warm and friendly.

Santiago often regards sea creatures with affection and kinship, even while catching them for a living. This sympathetic relationship best fits warm and friendly among the offered descriptions.

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Question 23

In Sola Owonibi’s Homeless, Not Hopeless, what does the persona explain about street beggars?

  1. always worry about heaven
  2. rarely sleep and dream
  3. attend conferences in towns
  4. are concerned with their daily needs.
Answer and explanation

D: are concerned with their daily needs.

The beggars pack their belongings and seek enough alms to sustain them for the day. Their immediate concern is daily survival; the poem also says they sleep and dream, contradicting the claim that they rarely do so.

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Question 25

Jared Angira is an African poet from which country?

  1. Sierra Leone
  2. Kenya
  3. South Africa
  4. Ghana
Answer and explanation

B: Kenya

Jared Angira is a Kenyan poet, born in the Siaya district of Kenya. His work belongs to East African literature; the other countries listed are not his country of origin.

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Question 27

Which device describes the direct address to the sun in Donne’s The Sun Rising?

  1. invocation
  2. ellipsis
  3. enjambment
  4. apostrophe
Answer and explanation

D: apostrophe

The speaker directly addresses the sun as though it could listen and answer. Address to this nonhuman object is apostrophe, rather than omission of words or a line-break technique.

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Question 28

In Raleigh’s The Soul’s Errand, how is the soul portrayed?

  1. friend of suffering masses
  2. fearless message-bearer
  3. restorer of lost glory
  4. messenger of hope and peace
Answer and explanation

B: fearless message-bearer

The speaker sends the soul to expose falsehood in powerful institutions and tells it not to fear confronting the influential. That makes it a fearless bearer of an unwelcome message, rather than a messenger promising peace.

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Question 29

The allusion in Hughes's The Negro Speaks of Rivers is mainly

  1. biblical
  2. historical
  3. classical
  4. literary
Answer and explanation

B: historical

The poem connects rivers with ancient civilisations, the building of pyramids and Abraham Lincoln’s journey. These references place the speaker’s collective memory within history.

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Question 30

Fletcher's Upon An Honest Man's Fortune encourages people to

  1. Condemn soothsaying
  2. Move in the direction of God
  3. Accept soothsaying
  4. Accept life as it is
Answer and explanation

A: Condemn soothsaying

Fletcher challenges astrologers’ claims to predict a person’s fate and stresses honest conduct. Rejecting soothsaying therefore fits his argument better than accepting its predictions.

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Question 31

An action in a play that stimulates the audience to pity a character is

  1. pathos
  2. parody
  3. pyrrhic
  4. props
Answer and explanation

A: pathos

Pathos is the quality that evokes pity or sympathetic sorrow. A parody imitates for comic effect, and props are physical objects used during a performance.

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Question 32

Purgation of emotion, pity and fear is

  1. epilogue
  2. exposition
  3. catharsis
  4. catastrophe
Answer and explanation

C: catharsis

Catharsis names the purgation or clarification of emotions traditionally associated with tragedy, especially pity and fear. An epilogue is a concluding speech rather than this emotional effect.

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Question 37

In literature, a flat character can be described as one who

  1. dies abruptly
  2. achieves greatness
  3. is undeveloped
  4. undergoes changes
Answer and explanation

C: is undeveloped

A flat character is presented through a limited range of traits rather than complex psychological development. Undeveloped is the closest option; becoming great or dying does not define flatness.

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Question 39

The speech made at the end of a dramatic performance is generally called

  1. a dirge
  2. a monologue
  3. a prologue.
  4. an epilogue
Answer and explanation

D: an epilogue

An epilogue follows the main dramatic action and provides a concluding address or comment. A prologue precedes the action, while a dirge is a lament.

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Question 42

He is a faithful liar The above is an example of

What figure of speech does the phrase exemplify?

  1. epigram
  2. oxymoron
  3. euphemism
  4. antithesis
Answer and explanation

B: oxymoron

Faithful usually suggests trustworthiness, while liar denies truthfulness. Bringing these apparently opposing qualities together creates an oxymoron in this reading of the phrase.

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Question 45

(1) Lift not the painted veil which those who live / (2) Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there, / (3) And it but mimic all we would believe / (4) With colours idly spread,—behind, lurk Fear. — P. B. Shelley.

What is the four-line verse unit called?

  1. Quatrain
  2. Sonnet
  3. Couplet
  4. Sestet
Answer and explanation

A: Quatrain

A quatrain is a group of four verse lines. The supplied four-line unit is a quatrain even though it comes from a complete sonnet, which contains fourteen lines.

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Question 49

You Your head is like a drum that is beaten for spirits. You Your ears are like the fans used for blowing fire. The lines above are a good example of

What technique creates this exaggerated physical portrait?

  1. caricature
  2. ridicule
  3. satire
  4. lampoon
Answer and explanation

A: caricature

The comparison exaggerates the head and ears into conspicuous objects. This distorted physical portrait is caricature; ridicule describes its effect more generally.

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Question 50

'This thing you are doing is too heavy for you, he said. I went to school only a little but I have killed many many more years in this world than you have'. G. Okara: The voice It can be inferred from the passage above that the

What can be inferred about the speaker?

  1. The listener is wise
  2. The speaker is a porter
  3. The listener is more experienced
  4. The speaker is more experienced
Answer and explanation

D: The speaker is more experienced

The speaker contrasts limited schooling with having lived many more years. He is claiming greater experience of life, rather than greater formal education or a job carrying loads.

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