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 141:

  A poem of 14 lines is known as__________

  Options:
  A) sonnet
  B) octave
  C) sestet
  D) quatrain
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 142:

  This question is based on Literary Principles.

  'My first interview with the manager was curious...

  He was commonplace in complexion, in feature, in manners and in voice. He was of middle size and of ordinary build. His eyes, of the usual blue were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe'.

  Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

  In the passage above, the manager is described as being

  Options:
  A) determined
  B) warm
  C) sociable
  D) hostile
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 143:

  Criticism is a literary activity which seeks to

  Options:
  A) Find faults in a literary work
  B) Analyze and evaluate a literary work
  C) compare and contrast novels
  D) Discover the beauty of a literary work.
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 144:

  This question is based on selected poems from Ker, D, et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa; Syinka, W. (ed.): Poems of Black African; Senanu, K.E. and Vincent, T. (eds.): A Selection of African Poetry; Umukoro, M. et al (eds.): Exam Focus: Literature-in-Enghish; Eruvbetine, A. E. et al (eds.): Longman Examination Guides and Nwoga, D. I. (ed.)west African Verse.

  Arthur Nortje's Nightfall is written against the backdrop of

  Options:
  A) apartheid
  B) revolution
  C) celebration
  D) violence
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 145:

  'For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn or busy housewife ply her evening care: No children run to lisp sire's return, Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share'.

  In these lines from Gray's 'Elegy Written in a country churchyard' the poet is referred to

  Options:
  A) a ployman and the herd
  B) the rich people of the village
  C) the congregation of the church
  D) the politicians
  E) all those buried in the graveyard
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is E .
• Question 146:

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

  The lesson learnt from 'The Fulani Creation Story' is that Doondari cannot tolerate

  Options:
  A) man
  B) blindness
  C) sleep
  D) pride
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 147:

  This question is based on Literary Principles

  ''It is a beauteous evening, calm and free The holy time is quiet as a Nun Breathless with adoration; the broad sun Is sinking down in its tranquility; The gentleness of heaven broods O'er the sea: Listen! the might Being is awake And doth with his eternal motion make A sound like thunder-everlasting'.

  W. Wordsworth: It is a Beauteous Evening

  The rhyme scheme of the stanza above is

  Options:
  A) cbba cdda
  B) bbac ddac
  C) ddca bbca
  D) abbc addc
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 148:
  From the novel; Twelfth Night

  This question is based on William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

  The significance of the sub-plot dealing with Feste, Toby and Maria is the expression of life's

  Options:
  A) fragility
  B) pleasure
  C) comedy
  D) romance
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 149: This question is based on Bayo Adebowale's Lonely Days.Kufi is a Options:
  A) Christian community
  B) pagan society
  C) Muslim community
  D) traditional society
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 150:

  This question is based on General Literary Principles.

  The arrangement of incidents in a novel in which one action precipitates another is called

  Options:
  A) sub theme
  B) chronology
  C) suspense
  D) causality
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .