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 2021: Choose the option opposite in meaning to the underlined word(s).The dictator wanted tractable men in his cabinet? Options:
  A) reliable
  B) intelligent
  C) tough
  D) unruly
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 2022:

  In each of the following sentences, the word that receives the emphatic stress is written in capital letters . From the options lettered A to D, choose the one which the sentence is the appropriate answer.

  She WORKS at the hospital.

  Options:
  A) Who works at the hospital?
  B) Where does she work?
  C) Does she work at the hospital?
  D) What does she do at the hospital?
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 2023:

  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 2024: Choose the option opposite in meaning to the underlined word(s).The President gave another extemporaneous speech last Friday? Options:
  A) unprepared
  B) fascinating
  C) planned
  D) unfavourable
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 2025:

  The endeavor to maintain proper standard of fairness in journalism must be pursued. It is fatally easy for the journalist to deviate from the straight path. There is his natural desire to ‘make a story’ and insidious temptation to twist facts to square with his paper’s policy. Both are as indefensible as the framing of misleading headlines for the sake of effect. The conscientious journalist must check any tendency to bias, and guard against the dangers inherent in personal antipathies or friendships, and in traditional oppositions between rival schools of thought. When a political opponent, whose stupidity habitually provokes attack, makes an effective speech, honesty requires that he be given credit for it. Where personal relationships might make it easier and more congenial to keep silent than to criticize, the journalist must never forget his duty to the public and the supreme importance of recording the truth

  A journalist would be able to uphold the tenets of his profession if Options:
  A) he seeks publicity
  B) he tries to achieve popularity
  C) he resists temptation to bias
  D) he canmanipulate his story to lease his employers
  E) he trie to protect his friends
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 2026:

   The emergence of a standard dialect produces the phenomenon known as ‘accent’ which is quite different from dialect. In the process of learning a foreign language, it is normal to transfer the patterns of an indigenous language to those of the foreign language. With time, however those of form and most of orthography and phonology gradually get eliminated. This is because these can easily be identified and corrected. They are easy to correct because they do not involve patterns of muscular movement. It is necessary to correct them because otherwise they could seriously impair intelligibility.

  With phonetic patterns, on the other hand, there is a great deal of intelligibility tolerance because muscular patterns are involved thus making correction difficult when observed. Besides, phonetic patterns do not impair intelligibility much. Hence the transference of phonetic habits from one language to another is both easier to tolerate and more difficult to avoid than transference at the lexico-grammatical level. It follows that a speaker who is learning a second dialect does so with an accent since the muscles of his speech organs would have crystallized in response to the phonetics of his native language which he learnt first. The speaker therefore speaks the second dialect with the phonetic features of his native dialect. The learning of a standard language is simply the learning of a second dialect- that which has been standardized.

  Members of a language community control at least two dialects and use both dialects in different situations. In the rural areas, the native dialect is used in most situations since there is less movement. Therefore, rural dwellers tend to be parochial and maintain the homogeneity of their dialect. In the urban community, on the other hand, there is more demand on the standard dialect than on the rural one. This is because people from different regions converge here. In order to ensure mutual intelligibility resulting from the pressure of communication, a great deal of demand is made on the standard dialect which now becomes the lingua frenca amongst them.

  Phonetic patterns allow for intelligibility tolerance because Options:
  A) they are involved and difficult to avoid
  B) they involve muscular patterns which later crystalize
  C) they give rise to the phenomenon of accent which is easy to tolerate
  D) transference is both difficult to avoid anf easy to tolerate
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 2027:

  For this question, select the option that best explains the information conveyed in the question.

  Olu and Ado are about to come to blows.

  Options:
  A) They are about to agree with each other
  B) They are about to accept other people's opinion
  C) They are about to hit each other
  D) They are about to disagree with other people's
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 2028:

  Choose the option that has the same vowel sound as the one represented by the letter(s) underlined.

  Cock

  Options:
  A) cop
  B) cope
  C) cork
  D) cup
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 2029:

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

  The new singlet factory is built on the _____ of Aba township

  Options:
  A) outstretch
  B) outskates
  C) outskirts
  D) outskirt
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 2030: This question is based on the novel, The Life Changer.

  Ummi's husband always wanted to study?

  Options:
  A) accounting
  B) pharmacy
  C) Linguistics
  D) Law
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .