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 1981: A character whose name is also the source of the title of the narrative is called ___? Options:
  A) round
  B) eponymous
  C) flat
  D) tittled
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 1982:

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

  The story of the play would have been different but for

  Options:
  A) Miss Hardcastle's attitude towards her guests
  B) Mr. Hardcastle's ignorance of Young Marlow's true identity
  C) the insensitivity of Mrs Hardcastle
  D) Tony's misinformation of Young Marlow and Mr. Hastings
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 1983:

  This question is based on Ayi Kwei Armah's 'The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born'.

  '...no difference at all between the '' whitemen'' and their apes the layers and the merchants and now apes of the apes our Party men ...'

  The statement above refers to Koomson's

  Options:
  A) commitment to the plight of the poor man
  B) reaction to the politics of betrayal
  C) change of attitude to the plight of the poor man
  D) disgust with the ''whitemen'' who are apes
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 1984:

  Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.

  Close bosom-friend of the mating sun:

  Conspiring with him how to load and bless

  With fruit the vines that round the

  thatch-eves run;

  To bend with apples and moss'd cottage tress

  And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

  To swell the ground, and plump the hazel shells

  With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

  And still more, later flowers for bees,

  Until they think warm days will never cease,

  For summer has o'er brimm'd their clammy cells.

  The most important figure of speech in the above passage is

  Options:
  A) paradox
  B) personification
  C) metaphor
  D) simile
  E) onomatopoeia.
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 1985:

  A long story narrating a series of complicated events is called a

  Options:
  A) harrangue
  B) discourse
  C) monologue
  D) saga
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 1986: The tone of Wole Soyinka's 'Abiku is Options:
  A) arrogant and cynical
  B) mysterious and cunning
  C) understanding but cynical
  D) kind and thoughtful.
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 1987: "Carrying a heavy bundle of tightly wrapped bits and pieces of junk drooping over his face" The excerpt above exemplifies _______? Options:
  A) Irony
  B) synedoche
  C) symbolism
  D) euphemism
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 1988:

  This question is based on Chinua Achebe's Arrow of God

  '''It is good for a misfortune like this to happen once in a while,'he said, 'so that we can know the thoughts of our friends and neighbours. Unless the wind blows we do not see the fowl's rump.''

  The 'misfortune' referred to in this extract was the

  Options:
  A) misunderstanding between Akueke and her husand
  B) outrage which Oduche committed against the sacred python
  C) sending away of Ezeulu's sons to worship the whiteman's God
  D) ominous vist of Ezeulu's in-laws to his compound
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 1989:

  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.

  '...And your MP with a shining head and triple chin Will mourn your fate in a supplementary question at Question Time'.

  These lines in the context of Richard Ntiru's 'The Pauper', portray the MP as being

  Options:
  A) sympathetic
  B) sad
  C) indifferent
  D) hypocritical
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 1990:

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

  The atmosphere of Birago Diop's 'Vanity' is dominated by

  Options:
  A) joy
  B) hate
  C) love
  D) sadness
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .