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Literature in English Past Questions

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.

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Past Questions

2,378 questions

Question 1 of 20 2,378 total questions

Question 671

jamb 1999

This question is based on William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

She bore a mind that envy could not but call fair The statement above characterizes.

AMaria

BOlivia

CRoderigo

DViola

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Question 672

jamb 1999

This question is based on General Literary Principles.

In drama, the term climax is used

Aas a figure of speech connoting beauty

Bfor the point of highest dramatic tension

Cwhen the crisis in the play is resolved

Dwhen the hero's tragic flaw is revealed

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Question 673

jamb 1999

This question is based on Literary Principles.
'You amble on
we can no longer
wait for nature's course
we must deliver
you
with
force'
Amelia House, 'Our Sun Rises'
The mood in the lines above is one of

Afear

Bsorrow

Cjoy

Dindignation

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Question 674

jamb 1999

This question is based on Literary Principles.
'There was another, Sule. He put himself in uniform, made one for his five-year-old son, and marched with the infant from dawn till noon every market day on the main road singing 'Kayiwawa beturi, ''the theme song of his Burmese days.
Kofi Awoonor, '' This Earth, My Brother'
The character in the poem above is obviously a

Aveteran

Bprisoner

Cmercenary

Drefugee

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Question 675

jamb 1999

This question is based on Literary Principles.
'Ibadan,
running splash of rust
and gold - flung and scattered
among seven hills like broken
china in the sun.'
J.P Clark, 'Ibadan'
The poem above is memorable for its

Apun

Bheroism

Cmetaphor

Dlyricism

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Question 676

jamb 1999

This question is based on Literary Principles.
'He always thought of the sea as a la mar which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman'.
Hemingway, 'The Old Man and the Sea'
In the passage above, the sea is

Aromanticised

Bpersonified

Ccriticised

Dpraised

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Question 677

jamb 1999

This question is based on Literary Principles.
'At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious. Its walls had been lined with human remains piled to the vault overhead. In the fashion of the great catacombs of Paris. Three sides of this interior crypt were still ornamented in this manner. From the fourth the bones had been thrown down , and lay promiscuously upon the earth, forming at one point a mound of some size',
E. Pope, 'Cask of Amontillado'
In the passage above, the author evokes the atmosphere of

Acannibalism

Bmonstrosity

Cevil

Ddoom

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Question 678

jamb 1999

This question is based on Literary Principles.
'Standing on the veranda, I see my sons Alioune and Malick arriving in tears. They are in a pitiable state; torn clothes, bodies covered in dust from a fall, knees bleeding beneath the shorts. There is a larg hole in the right sleeve of Malick's sweater; the arm on the same side hangs down limply. One of the boys supporting him explained to me:
'A motorcyclist knocked down Malick and Alioune.
We were playing football'''
Mariama Ba, 'So Long a Letter'
The use of the present tense in the passage

Amakes it dramatic

Bheightens its objectivity

Ccaptures the narrator's anger

Dmakes it farcical

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Question 679

jamb 1999

This question is based on Literary Principles.

The commissioner, who was also the local magistrate, peered at the two men. He did not go near because, fastidiously, he too wished to avoid the odour of travel that clung to them. Except for the alpaca jacket, which he wore in the office, he was a model of starched and expensive neatness from his lean skull to the gleaming toes of his formal shoes.

Alex La Guma, 'Time of the Butcherbird'

From the except above, the writer condemns the Commissioner by employing a

Aconvenient setting

Bcontemptuous tone

Cstark metaphor

Dgraphic description

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Question 680

jamb 1999

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
A metaphor in which objects, persons and events in a story are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself is

Afable

Bpersonification

Callegory

Dsymbolism

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Question 681

jamb 1999

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
The theme of a literary work is the

Adominant pre-occupation of the work

Binteresting issues raised in the work

Cdifferent views on a particular topic

Dpsychological issues in the work

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Question 682

jamb 1999

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
The arrangement of incidents in a novel in which one action precipitates another is called

Asub theme

Bchronology

Csuspense

Dcausality

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Question 683

jamb 1999

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
The device used by writers to give truths by indirection is called

Airony

Bparadox

Chyperbole

Dsatire

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Question 684

jamb 1999

This question is based on General Literary Principles
A humorous play based on an unrealistic situation is considered in drama as

Acomedy

Btragdy

Cfarce

Dburlesque

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Question 685

jamb 1999

This question is based on General Literary Principles
'Whereat: with blade, with bloody blameful blade.
He bravely broached his boiling bloody best'.
The dominant figure of speech in the lines above is

Asimile

Balliteration

Cassonance

Drepetition

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Question 686

jamb 1999

This question is based on General Literary Principles
A foil in drama is also known as

Aflat character

Bprotagonist

Cround character

Dantagonist

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Question 687

jamb 1999

This question is based on General Literary Principles
A couplet refers to

Atwo successive lines of rhyming verse

Btwo stanzas that cannot stand alone

Cfour irregular verses in stanzas

Dpoetry that is actd on stage

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Question 688

jamb 1999

This question is based on General Literary Principles
A denouement in a play

Acauses conflicts

Bcreates conflicts

Cresolves conflicts

Dcreates catastrophe

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Question 689

jamb 1999

This question is based on General Literary Principles
The line 'under snakeskin shoes and Mercedes tyres' in Osundare's 'They Too are the Earth' is a good example of

Aalliteration

Bmetonymy

Ccontrast

Dsimilitude

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Question 690

jamb 1999

This question is based on General Literary Principles
'Nightfall! Nightfall!
You are my mortal enemy'.
The figurative name for the manner in which nightfall is directly addressed as though present in Mtshali's 'Nightfall inSoweto' is

Aan ode

Ballusion

Capostrophe

Ddramatic

View Explanation & Discuss

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