JAMB Literature in English 1995 Past Questions

This question is based on Wole Soyinka's
The Trials of Brother Jero.
The spotlight on the dark stage in the opening of the reveals

This question is based on Wole Soyinka's
The Trials of Brother Jero.
'...This morning alone I have been thrice in conflict with the daughters of discord. First there was...'The omission in the conflict in the above statement from the play refers to

This question is based on Wole Soyinka's
The Trials of Brother Jero.
Jero is aptly described in the play as

This question is based on Wole Soyinka's
The Trials of Brother Jero.

The most significant factors driving members to Jero's church in the play are

This question is based on Wole Soyinka's
The Trials of Brother Jero.
The most immediate service that Jero wishes to saddle MEMBER with at the end of the play is to

This question is based on Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer.
In the play, most characters act in ignorance while the audience is aware of the true situation. This is an example of

This question is based on Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer.
For Young Marlow, which of the following is the most objectionable aspect of marriage?

This question is based on Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer.
Kate, Hardcastle's daughter, agrees to her father's choice of a husband for her but is critical of the

This question is based on Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer.
Mrs. Hardcastle is depicted as

This question is based on Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer.
The writer's satire is most biting when applied to

This question is based on Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer.
The play is concerned principally with

This question is based on Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer.
X: I am told he's a man of an excellent understanding
Y: Is he?
X: Very generous.
Y: I believe I shall like him.
X: Young and brave.
Y: I'm sure I shall like him.
X: And very handsome.
Y:....,I'll have him.
Who are the speakers X and Y and about whom are they speaking ?

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.) A Pageant of Longer Poems.
In 'Hurrah for Thunder', Christopher Okigbo celebrates

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.) A Pageant of Longer Poems.
'The eye that looks down will surely see the nose
The finger that fits should be used to pick the nose
The lines above from 'Hurrah for Thunder' bear two major connotations.
These are

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.) A Pageant of Longer Poems.
The repetition of the line 'They Too Are Earth' has the effect of

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.) A Pageant of Longer Poems.
Oswald Mtshali's 'They Washerwoman's Prayer' is

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.) A Pageant of Longer Poems.
The phrase 'location indifferent' in 'Telephone Conversation' conveys Wole Soyinka's

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.) A Pageant of Longer Poems.
'Returning is not possible
And going forward is a great difficulty'
Sorrow' depict

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.) A Pageant of Longer Poems.
'The is my son, mine own Telemachus To whom I leave the scepter and the isle.'
In the lines above from Tennyson's Ulysses', scepter' and 'isle' are a poetic device called

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.) A Pageant of Longer Poems.
The persona in 'My Last Duchess' regards the painting as

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.) A Pageant of Longer Poems.
Wordsworth's 'The Solitary Reaper' is preoccupied with the

This question is based on zaynab Alkali's The Stillborn.
'And in spite of everything, in the soft cradle of her heart, there was another baby forming'.
What baby is being referred to in the above statement?

This question is based on zaynab Alkali's The Stillborn.
Li got more accustomed to her home because she

This question is based on zaynab Alkali's The Stillborn.
'My blood is hot, but my flesh is famished...
The rains have come, the field is prepared,
But my field remains untilled,...
The statement above reflects the

This question is based on zaynab Alkali's The Stillborn.
Grandma informs Li in the novel that her salt-pot is empty because

This question is based on zaynab Alkali's The Stillborn.
The dominant tone of the novel is one of

This question is based on zaynab Alkali's The Stillborn.
The major concern of the novel is the

This question is based on Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge.
One of the main features that sustains the reader's interest in the novel is the

This question is based on Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge.
What is represented by the characters of Henchard and Farfrae in the novel is the

This question is based on Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge.
Characterization in the novel is designed to show that man's fate is determined by

This question is based on Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbirdge.
Henchard arranged a meeting with Susan that the Ring instead of in his house because

This question is based on Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbirdge.
Hardy employs the character of Henchard to propagate the notion of

This question is based on Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbirdge.
The goal of the novel is to expose the

This question is based on Thomas Hardy''s The Mayor of Casterbirdge.

What makes the novel a tragedy?

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
An inherent quality of the lyric is that it must

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
The narrator that tells his story as if all actions in the story revolve around him is

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
The literary term which describes the angle at which a writer tells his story is

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
A character who remains unchanged in a work of art is called

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
A satire employs

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
The figure of speech in which a poet implicitly compares an object or idea with another totally different object or idea is called a

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
'what time night it is
I do not know
Except that like some fish
Doped out of the deep
I have bobbed up bellywise'.
J.P. Clark, 'Night Rain'
Which of the following figures of speech is employed above ?

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
A figure of speech in which an absent person or an object is addressed as if present is referred to as

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
When a writer refers to past events to throw light on current ones he is employing

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
'I love to pass my fingers,
As tide through weeds of the sea
And wind the tall fern-fronds
Through the strands of your hair
Dark as night that screens the naked moon.'
J.P. Clark, 'Olokun'
The dominant poetic techniques employed in the lines above is

This question is based on Literary Principles.
'You Kiss her on the cheek
As white people do,
You Kiss her open-sore lips
As white people do,
You suck slimy saliva
From each other's mouths,
As white people do.'
Okot p' Bitek 'Song of Lawino'
The writer of the lines above uses repetition

This question is based on Literary Principles.
The branch of knowledge that places emphasis on beauty is

This question is based on Literary Principles.
'I cannot blind myself
to putrefying carcasses in the market place
pulling giant vultures
from the sky.
Odia Ofeimun, 'How Can I Sing?
The tone of the lines above is one of

This question is based on Literary Principles.
The madman has entered our house with violence
Defiling our sacred grounds
Claiming the single truth of the universe
Bending down our high priests with iron,'
Mazizi Kunene, 'Progress'
The imagery of the lines above captures the idea of

This question is based on Literary Principles.
'BEHOLD her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and blinds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.'
The rhyming scheme in the first stanza of 'The Solitary Reaper' above is

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.) A Pageant of Longer Poems.

'I hear your call
I hear if far away
I hear it break the circle'
The device in which the first two words of the lines above from Okara's 'The Call of the River NUN' are invaried while the rest very is called