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 1701: This question is based on selected poem from Ker, D. et al (eds.):New Poetry from Africa; Soyinka, W. (ed.):Poems of Black Africa; Senanu, K.E. and Vincent, T. (eds):A selection of African poetry; Umukoro, M. et al (eds.): Exam Focus Literature in English; Eruvbetine, A.E. et al (eds.); Longman Examination Guides; Nwoga, D.I.(ed.); West Africa Verse and Adeoti G.: Naked Soles
  'The silence of the battlefield heralds the widow's anguish.'
  The widow in the lines above in Launko's End of the War is in anguish because of the
  Options:
  A) confirmation of her husband's death
  B) uncertainty over husband returning alive
  C) delay in the husband's return from the battlefield
  D) death of all the soldiers in the battlefield
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 1702:

  This question is based on Camara Laye's The African Child.

  The father permits his son to go to Paris because he

  Options:
  A) sees no future in traditional African ways
  B) is encouraged by the missionaries
  C) wants him to be future leader
  D) wishes to free him from blacksmithing
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 1703:

  This question is based on General Literary Appreciation

  For a play to be successful on stage, it must not be short of

  Options:
  A) audiences
  B) speeches
  C) actions
  D) characters
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 1704:

  This question is based on THE LION AND THE JEWEL.
  Sidi insisted on the payment of her bride-price because it indicates that she_____

  Options:
  A) is a virgin
  B) has a wealthy family
  C) is of marriageable age
  D) is free from her family
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 1705: In the poem 'Piano AND Drums' Okara uses the drums to symbolize Options:
  A) source of poetic inspiration
  B) traditional African ways of life
  C) the complex rhythms of human life
  D) festivals which are held annually
  E) the noisy pastimes of hunters.
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 1706:

  This question is based on zaynab Alkali's The Stillborn.

  The major concern of the novel is the

  Options:
  A) promotion of simple, rural existence
  B) need for women to assert themselves
  C) clash of the old and the new
  D) corrupt nature of urban life
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 1707:

  This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.

  When a character in a literary work exists primarily to enhance, through contrast, the portrayal of the personal traits of another character is a

  Options:
  A) protagonist
  B) antagonist
  C) mirror character
  D) foil
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 1708:

  This question is based on General Literary Principles.

  A complex plot can be described as the plot structure that has

  Options:
  A) multiple scenes
  B) strands of events runnings concurrently
  C) well-developed characters
  D) an abstract subject and setting
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 1709:

  This question is based on selected poems from Wole Soyinka (ed.) poems of Black Africa, E.K. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.) Selection of African poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.) A Pageant of Longer Poems.

  'There where the need for good and ''the doing good'' conflict.'

  In these two lines from Lenrie Peters' The Fence', the speaker says that

  Options:
  A) ''doing good'' is the opposite of the need for good
  B) he cannot do good deeds
  C) action often conflicts with knowledge
  D) he lies on the fence between good and evil
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 1710:

  She said you just had to make an emotional commitment in marriage. It was like skiing, you could not see in advance what would happen but you had to let go. Maybe that was why I failed, because I didn't know what I had to let go of. For me it hadn't been like skiing, it was more like jumping off a cliff. That was the feeling I had all the time I was married, in the air, going down, waiting for the smash at the bottom.

  The passage indicates that the author's experience in marriage was

  Options:
  A) exhilarating like skiing
  B) steeped in boredom and monotony
  C) full of fear of the unknown
  D) fraught with grief and despair
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .