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

Literature in English is the study of works written in the English language. It includes all forms of writing, such as novels, plays, short stories, and poetry. This subject involves exploring and analyzing these texts to understand their themes and meanings.

• Question 1:

  ''Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind" illustrates_________

  Options:
  A) inversion
  B) paradox
  C) humor
  D) mood
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 2:

  This question is based on Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer.

  X: I am told he's a man of an excellent understanding

  Y: Is he?

  X: Very generous.

  Y: I believe I shall like him.

  X: Young and brave.

  Y: I'm sure I shall like him.

  X: And very handsome.

  Y:....,I'll have him.

  Who are the speakers X and Y and about whom are they speaking ?

  Options:
  A) Neville and Kate about Hastings
  B) Kate and her mother about Marlow
  C) Miss Hardcastle and Mr. Hardcastle about Tony
  D) Mr. Hardcastle and Kate about Marlow
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 3: This question is based on Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbrvilles.
  Mrs.Joan Durbeyfield is portrayed as Options:
  A) reticent and deeply emotional
  B) strong-willed and boisterous
  C) pretentious and calculating
  D) fastidious and overbearing
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 4: 'The gates of polished reed closes behind them and the west is let in.'The above are the last two lines of David Rubadins ' Stanley meets Mutesa' and they suggest that Options:
  A) the sun setb after the arrival of Stanley
  B) Stanley was shut out of Western civilization
  C) Stanley symbolizes the advert of colonization
  D) Stanley was very well recieved
  E) Stanley thought he would be eaten up by the natives.
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 5:
  From the novel; The Wives' Revolt

  This question is based on J.P Clark's The Wives Revolt.

  
  Characterization in the play is

  Options:
  A) economical but effecive
  B) economical and effective
  C) elaborate but ineffective
  D) elaborate and effective
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 6:

  This question is based on Literary Principles

  ''They came on like a whirlwind, and dashed over the line snorting, kicking, squealing in a compact, pie bald tossing mob of bay,brown, grey backs, eyes staring, necks extended, nostrils red,long tails, streaming. As soon as they had leaped upon the road the thick dust flew upwards from under their hoofs, and within six yards of Glorgio only a brown cloud with vague forms of necks and cruppers rolled by, making the soil tremble..

  Joseph Conrald: Nostromo

  The passage above describes a troop of

  Options:
  A) cows
  B) elephants
  C) camels
  D) horses
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 7: These question is based on General Literary Principles.Action without speech in a play is Options:
  A) epilogue
  B) mime
  C) soliloquy
  D) aside
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 8:

  This question is based on selected poems from Wole Soyinka (ed.) Poems of Black Africa and D.I. Nwoga (ed.) West African Verse.

  '...these white lilies tossed their little heads then

  In the moon-steeped ponds;

  There was bouncing gaiety in the crisp chirping

  Of the cricket in the undergrowth,...

  These lines from Kwesi Brew's 'The Executioner's

  Dream suggest that

  Options:
  A) even nature rejoices at human sacrifice
  B) nature is indifferent to man's predicament
  C) there is harmony in nature
  D) there is a lot of activity in the undergrowth
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 9:

  This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.) A Pageant of Longer Poems.

  The persona in 'My Last Duchess' regards the painting as

  Options:
  A) a perfectly realistic representation of the Duchess
  B) not quite capturing the Duchess emotions
  C) his most highly prized item
  D) something he is willing to pay dowry for
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 10:

  'what happens to a dream deferred?

  Does it dry up

  Like a raisin in the sun?

  Or fester like a sore-

  And then run?'

  In the above lines, the poet achieves special effect by the use of

  Options:
  A) transferred epithet
  B) synecdoche
  C) alliteration
  D) simile.
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .