JAMB Literature in English 1985 Past Questions

Because of his fiery temper as a youth, Odewale was called the

'Is Aderopo jealous that i am sharing a bed with his mother? Very well then, let him come and sleep with his mother'.
Odewale's statement is a good example of

'Just because i am an Ijebu man, and do not belong to your tribe, the sight of me as your king gnaws at your liver, and rips your heart asunder...'
The speaker's statement is prompted by

Odewale: I thought you were leaving with your son Aderopo.
Ojuola: It is you i married your highness, not my son.
The exchange from The Gods are not to Blame is an example of

'He was a living example of the astonishing results that can occur when Western hypocrisy and commercial materialism are grafted on to a first rate African intelligence.'
The character described in the passage is the father of

In which of the following London neighborhoods mentioned in Great Expectations is Mr. Jagger's office located?

The major lesson Pip's experience in Great Expectations teaches us is that

Miss Havisham grooms Estella the way she does so as to make Estella

The characters of Joe and Biddy are contrasted with those of Pip and Estella in order to show

A 'gentleman' in the sense in which it is used in Great Expectations is

As Medza was getting near to his village on his way from Kala he drinks at the palm wine bar because

'It was at this stage in the proceedings, before i had even had time to get my personal emotions quietened down a little-let alone sorted out-that my Helen, the real object of my mission, for whom i had been prepared to fight a second Troy before the walls of Kala, appeared on the scene.
In this passage from Mission to Kala, allusion is made to

In Mission to Kala When Medza encounters Edima,
what strikes him about her is her

The narrator in Mission to Kala is

Who persuades Caesar to disregard Calpurnia's appeal?

'And for Mark Antony, think not of him;
For he can do no more of caesar's arm
When caesar's head is off'.
This means that Mark Antony

Brutus: This is sleepy tune. O murd'rous slumber!
Layest thou the leaden mace upon my boy,
That plays the music? Gentle knave, good night.
'Gentle knave' refers to

'Good friends, go in, and taste some wine with me;
And, we like friends, will straightway go together'.

This statement by Julius Caesar is an example of

In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare portrays the roman plebeians as

'Serrating down your back and front
Like beak of the sword-fish,
And both your ears, notched
As a bondsman to this house...'
The dominant figure of speech in the above lines from J.P. Clark's 'Abiku' is

'... like some fish
Doped out of the deep
I have bobbed up bellywise
From stream of sleep'.
The above lines from 'Night Rain' are intended to emphasize the fact that the speaker

In Soyinka's 'Abiku', the statement, 'The ripest fruit was saddest', is an example of

When David Diop in 'The Vultures' says that 'civilization kicked us in the face' and 'holy water slapped our cringing brows', he is using

The mood expressed in 'We Have Come Home' by Lenrie Peters is that of

In the poem 'The Vultures', David Diop expresses his

The poem 'Viaticum' portrays a ritual preparation for

In J.P Clarks 'Abiku' the word 'threshold' means

David Diop's poem 'The Vultures', ends in a

In the poem 'Piano AND Drums' Okara uses the drums to symbolize

What distinguishes poetry from other forms of literature is its

A play is a Tragedy when

In a work of Literature, the hero is one

Which of the following is a correct definition of the balled?

Assonance in poetry is the repetition of

'All day long, all along the line
Through tiny station, each exactly like the last chattering little black girls uncaged from school all day long,...'
For the girls mentioned here, the hours spent at school means

In a play denouement is the

The central organizing idea which unites character, action, language and style in a work of fiction is known as

'I too crossed the rivers, and the virgin ambushes of the forests,
Where Lianas hung down, more treacherous than serpents'.
In the eyes of the writer of these lines, the word 'Forests' stands for

''Mother, didn''t you hear me? I''ve bought the goat, hen and yams. don''t you want them anymore? Why do you continue to look at me like that?

I haven''t done anything wrong again, have i?

Answer me, speak to me, mother!''

The dominant mood in this passage is one of

'When we got off the bus he helped me to cross the road, holding me by the elbow. Submissively, I allowed my self to be led. Out on the square there was an African sun, and in my heart too, shading a flood of light'.
The narrator here is full of

'There kneels a jigger, a louse, a weevil, a flea, a bedbug! He is mistletoe, a parasite that lives on the trees of other people's lives!'
The speaker uses a string of

A trade, Sir, that, i hope, i may use with a safe conscience; which is, indeed, Sir, a mender of bad soles.
The passage is referring to a

At the end of that week I set off for Caxley. It was a grey day, with the downs covered in thick mist. The trees dripped sadly along the road to the market town, and the wet pavements were even more depressing.
The setting is best described as

A deliberate use of exaggeration for humour or emphasis is known as

'The pen is mightier than the sword' is an example of

In poetry, the elegiac mood typically attends the occasion or experience of

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

As a literary from the short story is most closely related to

'How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be acted over?'In this passage, lofty scene refers to

Get up you shameless hussy', she bellowed, ' you strumpet, you fallen woman! I don't know what your father and I have done to deserve such a child the events that happened later in Mission to Kala show that the speaker in the passage is