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 2111:

  fill in the blank spaces in the following sentences making use of the best of the five options :

  We talked quietly …. waked the baby.

  Options:
  A) So that not
  B) In order to
  C) So as to
  D) So as not to
  E) So not.
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 2112: Identify the word that has the stress on the first syllable. Options:
  A) competent
  B) misread
  C) resign
  D) compel
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 2113:
  A British electronics manufacturer has built a factory in which quartz crystals can be grown in 3 weeks. The natural growth of quartz takes 3 million years, and very often the crystals are not sufficiently pure to satisfy the precise needs of science. However, the manufactured crystals are exceptionally pure, and this is important because quartz, in transistors is used in an astonishing number of devices where constant accuracy is required: radio and television transmitters and receivers, space satellites and computers are familiar examples. In order to make artificial quartz, very small pieces of the natural crystal imported from Brazil are placed in long, narrow, steel cylinders. A high pressure and a high temperature are maintained within the cylinders for 3 weeks, and at the end of this the small fragments have grown to the required weight of one pound. The quartz is then ready to be made into the tiny transistors that have replaced the much larger thermionic valves.
  Transistors have Options:
  A) helped to rodce quartz
  B) made radio and television inaccessible to the working populace
  C) made transmitters and receivers smaller and lighter
  D) retarded progress in electronics
  E) made transmitters and receivers bigger and heavier
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 2114:

  In time past in Nigeria, being a secretary was perceived with utter disdain by many people. Other professionals such as teachers, lawyers, engineers, surveyors, estate officers and architects were revered. Many issues readily come to mind concerning the old perspective of secretaries as professionals.

  One, they were regarded as people with little or no education. Indeed, many of them were said to be mere typists who learnt how to punch keys on the typewriter. They hardly had any formal education but obtained doubtful certificates. This was made possible because anyone could easily learn to be a typist under the shade of a tree or in a personal office of a retired secretary or a chief typist from any business organization. As long as a short piece of work could be typed almost accurately and in record time, one then became a secretary. This unrealistic practice – to call an unqualified person a secretary – might have been introduced and sustained by people who did not know who a secretary was. The educated secretaries obtained a minimum of the Ordinary National Diploma (OND) or its equivalent from institutions in and outside Nigeria, particularly Great Britain, Canada or the United States of America.

  Two, they were mostly women and very few male secretaries, who suffered more humiliation than their female counterparts. They were regarded as men who did not succeed in life and did the work that normally women were supposed to do.

  Three, and deriving from the second reason, secretaries were, as a matter of fact, very close to their bosses. Most people, including husbands of secretaries, regarded such a mode of interaction as tempting – a kind of constant closeness which might engender a deliberation or unintentional amorous relationship between superior and subordinate officer. Quite often, such a situation could not be ruled out when body contacts was established inadvertently or deliberately between two people of opposite sex especially when either one or both people were attractive and attracted to each other.

  Moreover, we often talk of the devil and the havoc he is capable of causing in the lives of people, particularly the unguarded ones.

  In today’s world, these points of view concerning secretaries are fading fast. Now, there is a clear distinction between a typist and a secretary. Modern secretaries are trained in polytechnics and universities. Gone are the days when secretaries were taught only the art of punching the typewriters and various filling systems. They are also encouraged to take training courses other than secretarial duty. Many secretaries have had their training in faculties of business administration, law, art and mass communications of universities. They take relevant courses in administration and other social science departments that enhance their personality, carriage, interpersonal relations and office management.

  Obviously, secretaries, including the male ones, are more important and well respected today than in the past.

  the writer seems to suggest that Options:
  A) secretaries were best trained by retired chief typists
  B) there was nothing wrong in having males as secretaries
  C) the Ordinary National Diploma was sufficient for secretaries
  D) only graduates who studied abroad were secretaries
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 2115:

  In the question below, choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fills the gap(s).

  Owing to the constant harassment of the populace by armed robbers, all night guards have been instructed to shoot _____ every moving thing.

  Options:
  A) At sight
  B) By sight
  C) In sight
  D) Off sight
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 2116:

  choose the option that has the same consonant sound as the letter(s) underlined from the options lettered A-E

  King

  Options:
  A) that
  B) think
  C) thine
  D) tongue
  E) tone
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 2117:

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

  How i wish i _____ my mother's advice

  Options:
  A) had heeded
  B) have heeded
  C) heed
  D) will heed
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 2118:

  Fill the gap with the most appropriate option from the list following the gap.

  Measles _____ no longer impossible to manage these days

  Options:
  A) is
  B) are
  C) were
  D) was
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 2119:

  Choose the option nearest in meaning to the underlined.

  The exhibition was an eye opener to all.

  Options:
  A) style
  B) examination
  C) dispatch
  D) display
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 2120:

  The word in capital letters has the emphatic stress. Choose the option which the given sentence relates.

  LAM called Uche a pilot?

  Options:
  A) What did Lam call Uche?
  B) Did Okoro call Uche a pilot?
  C) Did Lam call Uche a driver
  D) Did Lam wish Uche to be a pilot?
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .