English-Language Exam Past Questions and Answers | JAMB, WAEC and NECO

English is the study of the English language. The goal is to improve communication skills by practicing listening, speaking, reading, writing, and understanding language rules like pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.

• Question 1971:

  In the question below choose the most appropriate option nearest in meaning to the word(s) or phrase(s) underlined:

  Ator led a dog's life for twenty years he stayed in the United Kingdom

  Options:
  A) lived a dirty life
  B) was promiscuous
  C) was domesticated
  D) led an unhappy and troubled life
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 1972:

  It is said that experience is the best teacher, but to learn consciously through wisdom may even be a better and more convenient way. T learn by experience is to learn from mistakes. It means you have burnt our fingers and now your eyes are open'. This is a tough, costly and inconvenient way to learn. Rather than leaving our learning to experience, why do we not learn consciously going out way to acquire knowledge and wisdom rather than leave our learning to chance.

  Surely, we can learn from mistakes but why wait till when we make mistakes before we lean? We should give more premium to learning by wisdom than by experience.

  This will involve one making up ones mind to be decisive in learning. We must decide to learn consciously and not necessarily from negative experiences. The first step is to realize that life is simply the outcome and outplay of decisions. Our life now is the sum total of our decisions and our future will be determined by our decisions. Our life now is the sum total of our decisions and our future will be determined by our decisions of today. If we decide to learn today we are not likely to make mistakes and when we do not make mistakes, experience need not be our best teacher.

  To avoid making experience our best teacher will take more than a decision. We must couple our decision with a complete and -wholehearted devotion. We must be resolved, resolute and resilient in our bid to learn by wisdom and not necessarily by experience. This is crucial because situations and circumstances will want us to make a detour and leave our learning and life to chance. We must therefore be disciplined to remain with our resolve to make a clean break with experience as our best teacher. Disciplined in this regard means learning something new everyday by wisdom rather than rather than experience. It

  means consciously getting better by the day in your chosen field. Discipline will demand taking advantage of every learning opportunity that comes our way. It will mean we must pay the price for learning by wisdom -invest in books, magazines, seminars and other means by which we may become wiser.

  It is much easier and cheaper to learn consciously by wisdom than to learn by experience. When we learn by experience , the deed is done and we are just picking up the pieces-learning in regret how to avoid such predicament next time. Consider the child who grapes a burning coal, he has learned the hard way through the painful experience, but his fingers will remain burnt. Thus the saying, that experience is the best teacher, may not be justifiable after all.

  Adapted from Sunday Tribune , July 2007

  According to the passage, we must be disciplined to Options:
  A) make experience our best teacher in reality
  B) learn from our experiences in future
  C) choose the learning opprtunity that come our war
  D) decide agains making experience our teacher
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 1973: Fill each of the gap with the appropriate option from the list following the the gap.In moments of serious economic hardship, many people are _____ to turn to God? Options:
  A) concerned
  B) inclined
  C) disposed
  D) propensed
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 1974: Choose the option nearest in meaning to the underlined word(s).Tortoises need cool climates and must have places where they can hibernate? Options:
  A) reproduce
  B) hide at night
  C) sleep deeply
  D) relax
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 1975: Choose the option opposite in meaning to the underlined word or phrase. The young girl was taken aback by her father's gift of a car. Options:
  A) Nonplussed.
  B) Shocked.
  C) Unmoved.
  D) Surprised.
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 1976:

  Choose the option nearest in meaning to the underlined word(s).

  Ugo's is eligible for the post of secretary.

  Options:
  A) nominated
  B) invited
  C) qualified
  D) intelligent
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 1977:

  In the question below choose the word or phrase which best fills the gap in each sentence:

  On the orders of the steward, the cook rushed _____ the market

  Options:
  A) to
  B) at
  C) for
  D) in
  E) against
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 1978:

  In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fill(s) the gap:

  I would have been off to see Biola at Festac Town by the time you _____ tomorrow

  Options:
  A) returned
  B) return
  C) are returning
  D) would return
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 1979:

  In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fill(s) the gap:

  A number of teachers in secondary schools are not so well disposed to _____ these days, _____ they?

  Options:
  A) teach/aren't
  B) teaching/are
  C) teach/do
  D) teach/are
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 1980:

  So far I have been speaking of science in its universality, viewed from the perspective of the world at large. For the context of our own country and our sister developing countries, many of the factors mentioned earlier are not very important. For example, pollution, deterioration of the environment and population explosion are not yet serious problems for us in this country.

  Let me now turn to a more specific area, namely the question of scientific choice for developing countries. There is no doubt that role which science s and technology have played in the upliftment of the material and economic well-being of the developed nation will, and does, influence the criteria that the Third World nations must choose in order to establish their science policies and priorities.

  But the criteria to be used by this nation do not have the same as those which have brought the developed countries to their present stage of evolution. For while human beings have the same problems, their solutions, to be meaningful will have to be sought within some relevant frame of reference, such as the available resources and expertise, social values, place and time in the historical scale.

  According to the passage, the basic consideration for developing science and technology should be three of the following.

  1. Technical know-how

  2. availability of raw material

  3. atmospheric pollution

  4. the people's tradition and beliefs

  5. population

  6. capital

  Options:
  A) 2,1 and 6 only
  B) 3,2 and 4 only
  C) 5,3 and 6 only
  D) 6,5 and 4 only
  E) 5,2 and 6 only
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .