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 591:

  This question is based on Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter .

  '...princes master their feelings to fulfil their duties 'Others' bend their heads and, in silence, accept a destiny that oppresses them. That, briefly put, is the internal ordering of our society, with its absurd divisions....'

  In the above excerpt from her letter to Mawdo Ba, Aissatou sees society as

  Options:
  A) benefiting the ruling classes
  B) unequal and unjust
  C) oppressing the working classes
  D) giving every person his just deserts
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 592:

  This question is based on Ahmed Yerima's Attahiru.

  Lord Lugard and the British military find it easy to penetrate the Sokoto Caliphate because the

  Options:
  A) Muslim faithfuls fight with bows and arrows while the British solders use rifles
  B) Emir of Zazzau calls the whitemen to save him from the attack of a fellow Muslim, the Emir of Kontagora
  C) emirates of Sokoto and Zaria have not been friends since the reign of Caliph Abduirahman
  D) emirates are only united to fight the whitemen when it is the turn of Sokoto
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 593:

  'Was it for this you took such constant care

  The bodkin, comb and essence to prepare?

  For this your locks in paper durance bound?

  For this with tort'ring iron wreath'd round?

  The dominant figure of speech in the above passage is

  Options:
  A) synecdoche
  B) rhetorical questions
  C) parody
  D) apostrophe.
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 594:

  This question is based on William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

  The principal function of the play-within-the-play in Hamlet is to

  Options:
  A) amuse Claudius
  B) confirm the claim of the ghost
  C) divert attention from the main event
  D) create some comic relief in the tragedy
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 595:

  This question is based on Literary Appreciation.

  'Thomas Gradgrind, sir. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two is not to be talked into allowing for anything over.'

  Charles Dickens, Hard Times

  From the passage above, Thomas Gradgrind is

  Options:
  A) dogmatic
  B) hostile
  C) theoretical
  D) eloguent
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 596:

  This question is based on Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

  'Phases' in the novel refers to

  Options:
  A) phases of the moon and their effects on the plot
  B) moments of awareness of Tess'misfortune
  C) points of conflict between good and evil
  D) stages of development in the life of Tess
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 597:

  This question is based on General Literary Principles.

  Poems that are not written in meter or regular line length are called

  Options:
  A) short verses
  B) rhythmic verses
  C) free verses
  D) irregular verses
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 598: Shakespeare based the story of Julius Caesar on Options:
  A) actual historical records
  B) plutarch's lives
  C) Greek mythology
  D) John Bunyan's lives.
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is A .
• Question 599: A sub-plot is Options:
  A) a major turn or complication in the main story
  B) the second part of the main plot
  C) a secondary plot dealing with a different theme
  D) an aspect of the main plot recited by a different narrator
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 600:

  This question is based on General Literary Principles.

  A panegyric poem is composed to

  Options:
  A) abuse
  B) condemn
  C) praise
  D) elaborate
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .