JAMB Literature in English 1990 Past Questions

This question is based on Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel.
Lakunel is presented as a

This question is based on Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel.
...I am the twinkle of a Jewel
But he is the hind-quarters of a lion!...'
These lines suggest that

This question is based on Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel.
The central theme of the play is the

This question is based on Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel.
'...But there have been
No new reads cut by his servants
No new cots woven..'
It can be inferred from the above lines that

This question is based on Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel.
'...He risked his life that you may boast
A warrior-hunter for your lord...But you-
You sell him to the rhyming rabble
Gloating in your disloyalty...
In these lines the 'rhyming rabble' refers to

This question is based on George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man .
Petkoff [grinning] 'Sergius: tell Catherine that queer story his friend told us about how he escaped after Slivnitza. You remember.
About his being hid by two women'
Since the phrase 'two women in the above extract refers to Petkoff's own daughter and wife, his grinning is a case of

This question is based on George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man .
In what particular way did Raina demonstrate that she had fallen in love with Captain Bluntschli by the end of their first meeting?

This question is based on George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man .
'He did it like an operatic tenor. A regular handsome fellow, with flashing eyes and lovely moustache, shouting his war-cry and charging like Don Quixote at the windmills...'
This account of an important battle in the play carries a tone of

This question is based on George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man .
The way Louka carries out her duties as a maid at the Petkoff's household can best be described as

This question is based on selected poems from Wole Soyinka (ed.) Poems of Black Africa and D.I. Nwoga (ed.) West African Verse.
'...Tide and market come and go
And so shall your mother.'
The above lines from J.P. Clark's 'Streamside
Exchange' depict the

This question is based on selected poems from Wole Soyinka (ed.) Poems of Black Africa and D.I. Nwoga (ed.) West African Verse.
Gabriel Okara presents the Black in relation to the child-Front in his poem 'The Fisherman's invocation as a source of

This question is based on selected poems from Wole Soyinka (ed.) Poems of Black Africa and D.I. Nwoga (ed.) West African Verse.
'When our Dead come with their Dead
When they have spoken to us with their clumsy voices...'
These lines from Birago Diop's poem. 'Vanity', refer to

This question is based on selected poems from Wole Soyinka (ed.) Poems of Black Africa and D.I. Nwoga (ed.) West African Verse.
The words 'naked' and 'barefoot' as used in Christopher Okigbo's 'The Passage' suggest

This question is based on selected poems from Wole Soyinka (ed.) Poems of Black Africa and D.I. Nwoga (ed.) West African Verse.
Theo Luzuka's 'The Motoka' is cast in the mould of

This question is based on selected poems from Wole Soyinka (ed.) Poems of Black Africa and D.I. Nwoga (ed.) West African Verse.
As suggested in Agostinho Neto's 'Night', the problems the problem of the blackman today drive mostly from

This question is based on selected poems from Wole Soyinka (ed.) Poems of Black Africa and D.I. Nwoga (ed.) West African Verse.
...'the hawk will flutter and turn
On its wings and swoop for the mouse,
The dogs will run for the hare,
The hare for its little life.'
These lines from Kwesi Brew's 'The Dry Season' mean that

This question is based on selected poems from Wole Soyinka (ed.) Poems of Black Africa and D.I. Nwoga (ed.) West African Verse.
'...these white lilies tossed their little heads then
In the moon-steeped ponds;
There was bouncing gaiety in the crisp chirping
Of the cricket in the undergrowth,...
These lines from Kwesi Brew's 'The Executioner's
Dream suggest that

This question is based on selected poems from Wole Soyinka (ed.) Poems of Black Africa and D.I. Nwoga (ed.) West African Verse.
'The Fulani Creation Story' shows that

This question is based on Chinua Achebe's Arrow of God
'' This madness which they say you have must now begin to know its bounds. You are telling me to go and find cassava for you...''
In view of the speaker's aim, this statement is

This question is based on Chinua Achebe's Arrow of God
Which of the following BEST describes Ezeulu's mood when he was locked up in Okperi by the white administrator?

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

This question is based on Chinua Achebe's Arrow of God
The immediate cause of the war between Umuaro and Okperi was the

This question is based on Chinua Achebe's Arrow of God
''...It is praiseworthy to be brave and fearless, my son, but sometimes it is better to be a coward.
We often stand in the compound of a coward to point at the ruins where a brave man used to live. soon submit to the burial mat.''
In this passage, Ezeulu is pointing out to his son the wisdom in

This question is based on Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter
What is the source of Aissatou's success in life?

This question is based on Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter
Aunty Nabou's subtle influence over young Nabou was developed and effected through

This question is based on Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter
'Friendship has splendours that love knows not.
It grows stronger when crossed, whereas obstacles kill love. Friendship resists time, which wearies and severs couples. It has heights unknown to love'.
The friendship referred to in these lines is that between

This question is based on Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter
'... In spite of your voice and your gift of oratory, you preferred obscure work, less well paid but constructive for your country,...
This description refers to

This question is based on Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter
The letter from used in the novel is particularly effective because it

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
The basic idea of any given work of art is its

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
The epilogue in a literary composition is

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

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
A statement whose meaning is contrary to that openly expressed is an example of

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
Which of the following is central to narrative fiction?

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
Which of the following could be applicable to all genres?

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

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
In literary criticism, a casual reference to a figure or an event is regarded as an

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
A necessary quality of every work of literature is that it

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
'Beautiful Kareendi, flower of my heart. No one but you can type them. For I want to send them care of the address of your heart, by the post of your heart, to be read by the eye of your heart, thereafter to be kept within your heart, sealed there forever and ever'.
Devil on the Cross by Ngugi wa Thiong'o.
The aesthetic appeal of this seduction emanates from the predominant use of

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
'His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink,'
Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
The dominant device in this extract is

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
'I die, yet depart not,
I am bound, yet soar free;
Thou art and thou art not,
And ever shall be!'
'The City of Dreams' by Robert Buchanan. The literary device consciously used in the above extract is

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation
'She certainly doesn't want to play
Other Woman in some conventional, boring triangle. She doesn't feel like an other Woman; she isn't weedling or devious, she doesn't wear negligees or paint her toe nails. William may think she's exotic but she isn't really; she's straightforward, narrow and unadomed, a scientist; not of web-spinner, expert at the entrapment of husbands.
Life before Man by Margaret Atwood
According to the passage, the 'Other Woman' by definition is

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation
'I had a tent impression that there was something decidedly fine in Mr. Wopsle's elocution-not for old association's sake, I am afraid, but because it was very slow, very dreary, very up-hill and down-hill, and very unlike any way in which any man in any natural circumstances of life or death ever expressed himself about anything'.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
The uniqueness of Mr. Wopsle's speech is expressed in this passage through

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation
'As soon as the fellows were departed, the lawyer,
Who had, it seems, a case of pistols in the seat of the coach, informed the company, that if it had been daylight, and he could have submitted to the robbery; he likewise set forth that he had often met highwaymen when he travelled on horseback, but none ever durst attack him; concluding, that if he had not been more afraid for the lady than for himself, he should not have now parted with his money so easily.'
Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding
It can be inferred that the lawyer mentioned above is a

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation
'I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
But swear by thyself, that at my death thy sun
Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore;
And, having done that, thou hast done,
I fear no more.'
These lines from John Donne's 'Hymn to God the Father' contain examples of

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation
'A slight breeze murmured in the air. Grasses swayed as if in resentment. Over in the horizon, just beneath the spectrum of the ascending sun, horizontal brands of red cloud hung menacingly above the tips of the trees and morning air smelled of burnt clay.
The Victims by Isidore Okpewho
Effect in the above passage is achieved through the use of

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation
'America! there it lay, handy and tantalizing, allheat and scurry. All morning they had kept catching glimpses of it beyond the potholes as they stood in long lines, waiting to reach the tables where the immigration men in dacrion shirts checked their visas, inspected the X-ray pictures of their lungs that they held in their hands, decided whether to admit them or not. Getting into America was, it seemed, quite as hard as getting into heaven; and the trouble was... that as with heaven one couldn't know whether one would like it when one got there'.
The picture of America presented in this passage is that of a place

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation
'Having finished the paper, a second cup of coffee and a roll and butter, he rose; shook a crumb or two from his waist coat, and expanding his broad chest, smiled happily, not because he felt particularly light-hearted his happy smile was simply the result of a good digestion.
The character referred to in this passage

This question is based on George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man.

'That is a photograph of the gentleman - the patriot and hero - to whom I am betrothed',. The gentleman referred to in this passage is

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

.......Their eyes recede from tomorrow.
No sense of mission sustains them.'
These lines from Odia Of Ofeimun's 'The Prodigals express

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

A picaresque novel is a