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 1001:

  This question is based on THE SONG OF THE WOMEN OF MY LAND.

  Use the excerpt to answer this question

  "they sang in the forlorn fields
  about their lives; songs
  of how they ploughed the terrain of their landscape
  for memories of lyrics lost in the vast void of time,
  in those days when a song beheld their lives;
  when servitude cuffed the ankles of their soul,
  and dereliction decapitated the epic of their lives."

  The theme of this excerpt is____

  Options:
  A) All of the above
  B) the oppression of women
  C) Joys of motherhood
  D) colonization
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 1002:

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

  The major thematic preoccupation of her play is

  Options:
  A) the constraintic on parental obligations
  B) the problems of class and English mannerisms
  C) the presentation of a mannerless society
  D) changing the traditional view about English comedy
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 1003:

  Use excerpt below to answer questions

  "Now, by yond marble
  heaven,
  In the due reverence of a sacred vow
  I here enrage my words." (Shakespeare's Othello)

  ---

  
  The prevailing activity in the extract is

  Options:
  A) the vow of revenge and pledge of loyalty by Iago to Othello
  B) evident of the conspiracy between Iago and Othello
  C) the vow by Iago to revenge upon Othello
  D) reflective of Othello's rage
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 1004:

  A woman cried out.The policeman who was edging nearer had been joined by another.Both were edging nearer.Carefully and slowly.But it was not that that had made the woman cry out.She had seen one of the men's hand slip.He was now holding on by one hand only.The crowd was tense.This was the Kill.Automatically they moved forward in a body.The doctor was in the lead.

  The author of this passage creates in the reader

  Options:
  A) disbelief
  B) a feeling of nostalgia
  C) a feeling of light hearted relaxation
  D) suspense
  E) unconcern
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 1005: Which of the following is central to narrative friction ? Options:
  A) Verisimilitude
  B) Dialogue
  C) Objectivity
  D) Subjectivity
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 1006: In As You Like It Orland's defeat of charles, the Duke's wrestler made his brother Oliver Options:
  A) decide to reconcile with him
  B) plan to kill him
  C) hate him more
  D) ask the servant, Adam to drive him away
  E) give him his deserved inheritance.
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 1007:

  Brenda suddenly stiffened in her chair and half turned her ear to the window, silent like an animal waiting to spring, an alertness that transformed her face to temporary ugliness. Arthur noticed it,

  'He's coming', she said 'i heard the gate open.'In this short passage, the writer succeeds in creating

  Options:
  A) anti-climax
  B) pity
  C) comic relief
  D) suspense
  E) characters.
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 1008: Based on George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four, To drop his philosophy of life and imbibe the tenets of the party, Winston is subjected to all forms of torture and inhuman treatment by Options:
  A) O'Brien
  B) thought police
  C) Big Brother
  D) Goldstein
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 1009:

  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.

  Wordsworth's 'The Solitary Reaper' is preoccupied with the

  Options:
  A) relieveing effect of the song on the reaper's
  B) enduring impact of the reaper's song
  C) sweetest human voice of the poet ever heard
  D) similarity between the voice of the reaper and the cuckoo-bird
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 1010:

  This question is based on General Literary Principles.

  The term given to a type of incident or device which recurs frequently in Literature is

  Options:
  A) motif
  B) ritual
  C) myth
  D) concept
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .