Jamb English Language 1987 Past Questions and Answers

Question 96:

• JAMB 1987

Manager: Mr.Mbu, I would not describe you as an inefficient worker; I therefore find it difficult to understand why the conference room is so untidy, in spite of the fact that I had reminded you of the meeting scheduled to take place there this afternoon.
Secretary: Sir, I did instruct the cleaner to tidy up the place before meeting
Manager: Are you trying to hold the cleaner responsible for the untidy condition of the room?
Secretary: Partly, sir, I gave him an instruction which he failed to carry out. It is certainly my intention to make a formal complaint against him for dereliction of duty.
Manager: And would you wash your hands off any blame after that? Do you think that just making a formal complaint against the cleaner absolves you of all blame? When do you consider an assignment as properly executed; when the execution is properly supervised or not? Was it sufficient for you to give instruction to the cleaner with out ensuring that he actually carried them out?
Secretary: Sir, I do not see what else I could have done, short of doing the job myself. The cleaner Is a six-footer and I could not have intimidated him physically.
Manager: I see, I await your complaints against the cleaner, but I shall not forget that you allowed a board meeting to take place in an untidy conference room.


The secretary's attitude seems to be

A. Manager sir, you empolyed this huge and recalcitrant cleaner and i am not to do his job for him
B. It is not the duty of a secretary to enforce the instruction he gives to his junior workers
C. I am a secretary by profession not a cleaner
D. It is not terribly important how tidy the conference room is for the meeting

Question 97:

• JAMB 1987

Manager: Mr.Mbu, I would not describe you as an inefficient worker; I therefore find it difficult to understand why the conference room is so untidy, in spite of the fact that I had reminded you of the meeting scheduled to take place there this afternoon.
Secretary: Sir, I did instruct the cleaner to tidy up the place before meeting
Manager: Are you trying to hold the cleaner responsible for the untidy condition of the room?
Secretary: Partly, sir, I gave him an instruction which he failed to carry out. It is certainly my intention to make a formal complaint against him for dereliction of duty.
Manager: And would you wash your hands off any blame after that? Do you think that just making a formal complaint against the cleaner absolves you of all blame? When do you consider an assignment as properly executed; when the execution is properly supervised or not? Was it sufficient for you to give instruction to the cleaner with out ensuring that he actually carried them out?
Secretary: Sir, I do not see what else I could have done, short of doing the job myself. The cleaner Is a six-footer and I could not have intimidated him physically.
Manager: I see, I await your complaints against the cleaner, but I shall not forget that you allowed a board meeting to take place in an untidy conference room.


The last comment by the manager suggests that he

A. Is going to hold the secretary responsible for what has happened
B. Is likely to reprimand both the secretary and the cleaner for dereliction of duty
C. Will punish the cleaner but warn the secretary
D. Wil warn the cleaner and punish the secretary

Question 98:

• JAMB 1987

So far I have been speaking of science in its universality, viewed from the perspective of the world at large. For the context of our own country and our sister developing countries, many of the factors mentioned earlier are not very important. For example, pollution, deterioration of the environment and population explosion are not yet serious problems for us in this country.
Let me now turn to a more specific area, namely the question of scientific choice for developing countries. There is no doubt that role which science s and technology have played in the upliftment of the material and economic well-being of the developed nation will, and does, influence the criteria that the Third World nations must choose in order to establish their science policies and priorities.
But the criteria to be used by this nation do not have the same as those which have brought the developed countries to their present stage of evolution. For while human beings have the same problems, their solutions, to be meaningful will have to be sought within some relevant frame of reference, such as the available resources and expertise, social values, place and time in the historical scale.


frame of reference' in this passage (line 11 means)

A. Point of information
B. Range of authority
C. Economic pattern
D. Contex of situation
E. Wholesome choice

Question 99:

• JAMB 1987

Primitive man was probably more concerned with fire as a source of warmth and as a means of cooking food than as a source of light. Before the discovered less laborious ways of making fire, he had to preserve it and whenever he went on a journey he carried a firebrand with him. He discovered that the firebrand, from which the torch may well have developed, could be used for illumination was probably incidental to the primary purpose of preserving a flame.
Lamps too probably developed by accident. Early man may had his first conception of a lamp while watching a twing or fibre burning in the molten fat dropped from roasting carcass. All he had to do was to fashion a vessel to contain fat and float a lighted reed in it. Such lamps which were made of hollow stones or sea-shells have persisted in identical form up to quite recent times.


Primitive man carried a firebrand during his journeys mainly for

A. Illumination
B. Cooking of food
C. Flame perservation
D. Warmth

Question 100:

• JAMB 1987

Primitive man was probably more concerned with fire as a source of warmth and as a means of cooking food than as a source of light. Before the discovered less laborious ways of making fire, he had to preserve it and whenever he went on a journey he carried a firebrand with him. He discovered that the firebrand, from which the torch may well have developed, could be used for illumination was probably incidental to the primary purpose of preserving a flame.
Lamps too probably developed by accident. Early man may had his first conception of a lamp while watching a twing or fibre burning in the molten fat dropped from roasting carcass. All he had to do was to fashion a vessel to contain fat and float a lighted reed in it. Such lamps which were made of hollow stones or sea-shells have persisted in identical form up to quite recent times.


According to the passage, the torch probably developed from a

A. Firebrand
B. Twing
C. Lamp
D. Fibre