Study and practice Literature in English past questions with answers and detailed explanations. Then test your knowledge using our interactive CBT practice platform and prepare confidently for your upcoming examinations.
This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
A picaresque novel is a
Awork of fiction set in a utopian past recalling the splendour of rural life
Bpsychological novel with penetrating analyses of human emotions
Cfuturistic novel set in outer space
Dwork of fiction tracing the adventures of a scoundrel of low birth
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 2
jamb1990
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
Aa longing for the past
Ba lack of grogress
Cthe weight of tradition
Dan impatient attitude
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 3
jamb1990
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
ABluntschli
BSergius
CPetkoff
DDon Quixote
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 4
jamb1990
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
Ais excited by the news in the paper
Bis lonely and unhappy
Chas spent a long time over his food
Dis pleased with himself after a good meal
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 5
jamb1990
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
Aof unknown and uncertain qualities
Bchoked with red tape
Cas inviting as heaven itself
Doff-putting on account of the heat
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 6
jamb1990
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
Asubdued tone
Bvisual images
Cdetailed description
Dadequate punctuation
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 7
jamb1990
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
Apun
Bpersonification
Chyperbole
Dquibble
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 8
jamb1990
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
Abrave man
Blaw-enforcement agent allowed to carry pistols
Ccoward
Dgallant man who always protects ladies
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 9
jamb1990
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
Aa metaphor
Ban irony
Ca hyperbole
Da flashback
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 10
jamb1990
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
Abeautiful and vivacious
Bdishonest and deceitful and
Ccareless and dowdy
Dmanipulative and predatory
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 11
jamb1990
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
Ametaphysical conceit
Bparadox
Coxymoron
Dmeiosis
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 12
jamb1990
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
Aprogressive repetition
Bprogressive amplification
Cbold contrast
Drhyetorical emphasis
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 13
jamb1990
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
Asimile
Bmetaphor
Cmetonymy
Dsynecdoche
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 14
jamb1990
This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
A necessary quality of every work of literature is that it
Ashows a creative use of language
Bhas to be publishable in order to gain wide acceptance
Cteaches a moral lesson
Dcharacters or actors
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 15
jamb1990
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
Aalliteration
Ballegory
Callusion
Dambiguity
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 16
jamb1990
This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
A paradox is
Aapplied to a word or combination of words whose sound resembles the sense
Ba statement which seems self-contraditory or absurd, yet turns out to have a valid meaning
Can episode of pantomime introduced through gesture and bodily movement in a play
Dan elaborately conceived poem expressing an urban poet's nostalgia for life in the country
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 17
jamb1990
This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
Which of the following could be applicable to all genres?
ASymbolism
BRhythm
CAction
DNarration
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 18
jamb1990
This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
Which of the following is central to narrative fiction?
ASequence of events
BDialogue
CObjectivity
DSubjectivity
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 19
jamb1990
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
Ametaphor
Boxymoron
Cirony
Dpersonification
View Explanation & Discuss
Question 20
jamb1990
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
