English Language 2004 Jamb Past Questions and Answers

Question 106 :

• JAMB 2004

Read the passage below carefully and answer the questions that follow.  If once in a lifetime, you see a blue moon, don’t think your eyes are playing tricks on you. It is caused by dust in our upper atmosphere; ice crystals are what make you see rings around the moon. .
  Over the centuries, magical powers have been attributed to the moon. it has been said to bring on lunacy, affect the growth of plants, eyes of cats, spots of panthers, functions of women and activities of ghosts France once had a law against cutting timber except during a waning moon. The moon and to a lesser degree the sun, does cause the ocean tides because of their gravitational pull. But a common mistake of primitive people is to think that everything timed in the same rhythm as the moon is caused by it.
  All the moon gazing, probing and measuring has never solved the big problem it’s origin One theory is that it began as a planet, got too near the more massive earth, was captured ‘and turned into a satellite. Another is that the moon is the result of a giant tidal bulge forming on our earth’s surface, separating, then spinning off into space. If the latter theory is true, scientists say, there would be two clues; the moon would consist of lighter material than the earth, and the earth would be left with a scar. As a matter of fact, the moon does weigh less. And the Pacific Ocean does have a scarlike bottom of basaltic rocks instead of the granite rocks instead of the granite rocks usually found near the earth’s surface.
  But the assumption that, if man can get to the moon, he’ll find the answer is unfounded. Man has been on the earth hundreds of thousands of yours without determining the earth’s origin. Scientist, of course, will never give up either quest.
  Indeed, ‘for thousands of years the moon has worked a spell of fascination over all the people on its near neighbour, the earth. The ancient worshipped this lamp in the sky and speculated about it endlessly. Modern astronomers continue to explore its mysteries almost every night of the year, and with reason.
  Age’s ego, before artificial light was known, it was known, it was important as illumination at night. As everyone knows, the moon has no light of its own; it shines with the cold reflection of the distant sun, but actually the moon is a poor mirror, reflecting only a fourteenth of the sunlight received. The earth reflects a third of its sunlight providing its satellite with ‘earth light ‘sixty times as bright as the best moonlight. That’s why we sometimes see the whole moon faintly when the sun is lighting up only a narrow crescent.


The passage suggests that a is a

A. Trick of the moon
B. Regular event
C. Rare phenomenon
D. Life-long opportunity

Question 107 :

• JAMB 2004

Read the passage below carefully and answer the questions that follow.  If once in a lifetime, you see a blue moon, don’t think your eyes are playing tricks on you. It is caused by dust in our upper atmosphere; ice crystals are what make you see rings around the moon. .
  Over the centuries, magical powers have been attributed to the moon. it has been said to bring on lunacy, affect the growth of plants, eyes of cats, spots of panthers, functions of women and activities of ghosts France once had a law against cutting timber except during a waning moon. The moon and to a lesser degree the sun, does cause the ocean tides because of their gravitational pull. But a common mistake of primitive people is to think that everything timed in the same rhythm as the moon is caused by it.
  All the moon gazing, probing and measuring has never solved the big problem it’s origin One theory is that it began as a planet, got too near the more massive earth, was captured ‘and turned into a satellite. Another is that the moon is the result of a giant tidal bulge forming on our earth’s surface, separating, then spinning off into space. If the latter theory is true, scientists say, there would be two clues; the moon would consist of lighter material than the earth, and the earth would be left with a scar. As a matter of fact, the moon does weigh less. And the Pacific Ocean does have a scarlike bottom of basaltic rocks instead of the granite rocks instead of the granite rocks usually found near the earth’s surface.
  But the assumption that, if man can get to the moon, he’ll find the answer is unfounded. Man has been on the earth hundreds of thousands of yours without determining the earth’s origin. Scientist, of course, will never give up either quest.
  Indeed, ‘for thousands of years the moon has worked a spell of fascination over all the people on its near neighbour, the earth. The ancient worshipped this lamp in the sky and speculated about it endlessly. Modern astronomers continue to explore its mysteries almost every night of the year, and with reason.
  Age’s ego, before artificial light was known, it was known, it was important as illumination at night. As everyone knows, the moon has no light of its own; it shines with the cold reflection of the distant sun, but actually the moon is a poor mirror, reflecting only a fourteenth of the sunlight received. The earth reflects a third of its sunlight providing its satellite with ‘earth light ‘sixty times as bright as the best moonlight. That’s why we sometimes see the whole moon faintly when the sun is lighting up only a narrow crescent.


The sentence over the centuries, magical powers have been attributed to the moonsuggests that

A. It is a common belief that the moon has magical powers
B. People perform magic with the moon
C. The moon actually possesses magical powers
D. The moon reflects magical powers from the sun's rays

Question 108 :

• JAMB 2004

Read the passage below carefully and answer the questions that follow.  If once in a lifetime, you see a blue moon, don’t think your eyes are playing tricks on you. It is caused by dust in our upper atmosphere; ice crystals are what make you see rings around the moon. .
  Over the centuries, magical powers have been attributed to the moon. it has been said to bring on lunacy, affect the growth of plants, eyes of cats, spots of panthers, functions of women and activities of ghosts France once had a law against cutting timber except during a waning moon. The moon and to a lesser degree the sun, does cause the ocean tides because of their gravitational pull. But a common mistake of primitive people is to think that everything timed in the same rhythm as the moon is caused by it.
  All the moon gazing, probing and measuring has never solved the big problem it’s origin One theory is that it began as a planet, got too near the more massive earth, was captured ‘and turned into a satellite. Another is that the moon is the result of a giant tidal bulge forming on our earth’s surface, separating, then spinning off into space. If the latter theory is true, scientists say, there would be two clues; the moon would consist of lighter material than the earth, and the earth would be left with a scar. As a matter of fact, the moon does weigh less. And the Pacific Ocean does have a scarlike bottom of basaltic rocks instead of the granite rocks instead of the granite rocks usually found near the earth’s surface.
  But the assumption that, if man can get to the moon, he’ll find the answer is unfounded. Man has been on the earth hundreds of thousands of yours without determining the earth’s origin. Scientist, of course, will never give up either quest.
  Indeed, ‘for thousands of years the moon has worked a spell of fascination over all the people on its near neighbour, the earth. The ancient worshipped this lamp in the sky and speculated about it endlessly. Modern astronomers continue to explore its mysteries almost every night of the year, and with reason.
  Age’s ego, before artificial light was known, it was known, it was important as illumination at night. As everyone knows, the moon has no light of its own; it shines with the cold reflection of the distant sun, but actually the moon is a poor mirror, reflecting only a fourteenth of the sunlight received. The earth reflects a third of its sunlight providing its satellite with ‘earth light ‘sixty times as bright as the best moonlight. That’s why we sometimes see the whole moon faintly when the sun is lighting up only a narrow crescent.


The expression ''either quest'' refers to the origin of

A. Neither the moon nor the earth
B. The moon or the earth
C. The moon
D. The earth

Question 109 :

• JAMB 2004

Read the passage below carefully and answer the questions that follow.  If once in a lifetime, you see a blue moon, don’t think your eyes are playing tricks on you. It is caused by dust in our upper atmosphere; ice crystals are what make you see rings around the moon. .
  Over the centuries, magical powers have been attributed to the moon. it has been said to bring on lunacy, affect the growth of plants, eyes of cats, spots of panthers, functions of women and activities of ghosts France once had a law against cutting timber except during a waning moon. The moon and to a lesser degree the sun, does cause the ocean tides because of their gravitational pull. But a common mistake of primitive people is to think that everything timed in the same rhythm as the moon is caused by it.
  All the moon gazing, probing and measuring has never solved the big problem it’s origin One theory is that it began as a planet, got too near the more massive earth, was captured ‘and turned into a satellite. Another is that the moon is the result of a giant tidal bulge forming on our earth’s surface, separating, then spinning off into space. If the latter theory is true, scientists say, there would be two clues; the moon would consist of lighter material than the earth, and the earth would be left with a scar. As a matter of fact, the moon does weigh less. And the Pacific Ocean does have a scarlike bottom of basaltic rocks instead of the granite rocks instead of the granite rocks usually found near the earth’s surface.
  But the assumption that, if man can get to the moon, he’ll find the answer is unfounded. Man has been on the earth hundreds of thousands of yours without determining the earth’s origin. Scientist, of course, will never give up either quest.
  Indeed, ‘for thousands of years the moon has worked a spell of fascination over all the people on its near neighbour, the earth. The ancient worshipped this lamp in the sky and speculated about it endlessly. Modern astronomers continue to explore its mysteries almost every night of the year, and with reason.
  Age’s ego, before artificial light was known, it was known, it was important as illumination at night. As everyone knows, the moon has no light of its own; it shines with the cold reflection of the distant sun, but actually the moon is a poor mirror, reflecting only a fourteenth of the sunlight received. The earth reflects a third of its sunlight providing its satellite with ‘earth light ‘sixty times as bright as the best moonlight. That’s why we sometimes see the whole moon faintly when the sun is lighting up only a narrow crescent.


A suitable title for the passage is

A. The Magical Powers of the Moon
B. The Lunar Cycle
C. Facts about the Moon
D. Moon - Gazing

Question 110 :

• JAMB 2004

  We knew early in our life that the atmosphere in our home was different from that in many other homes, where husbands and wives quarrel and where was drunkenness, laziness or indifference — things we never saw in our family. We chafed and grumbled at the strictness of my father’s regime. We went to hide whenever we broke the rules too visibly. We knew, nevertheless, that our parents wanted good things for us. Some of these, such as the insistence on our going to school and never missing a day, we accepted readily enough, although, like most other children, we occasionally yielded to the temptation to play truant. However, in other cases such as their effort to keep us out of contact with the difficult life- the drinking and fighting and beer-brewing and gambling- their failure was inevitable. They could not keep us insulated. By the time we move about, we were already seeing things with eyes and judging things by the standards we had absorbed from them.
  It was borne in on me and my brothers at a very early age that our father was an uncommon man. for one thing, in most African families, work around the home was women’s work. So we were vastly impressed by the fact that whenever my mother was away, my father could and did do all her jobs-cooking, cleaning and looking after us. We lived in this way in a community in which housework was regarded as being beneath male dignity. Even in families which, like ours, produced boy after boy-our sister came fifth-it simply meant that the mother carried a greater and greater burden of work. In our family, nevertheless; the boys did girls ‘work and my father did it with us.
  One of the prime chores of life in the family was fetching water from the pump down the street, some two hundred metres from our door. Since the pump was not unlocked until six in the morning and there was always crowding, a system had developed whereby you got out before dawn, placed your twenty-litre tin in line, and then went home, returning latter to take your place. Often, of course, tins would be moved back in line, and others moved ahead. This could be corrected if none of these in front were too big a challenge.
  When taps were substituted for the pumps, the first one installed was nearly a kilometre away from our house and we had to make the trek with the water tins balanced on our heads — an indignity because this was the way girls, not proud males, carried their derisive laughter. We did our jobs doggedly, that notwithstanding, because our father and mother expected it of us. Out of choice, our father did everything we did, including fetching water on occasion, and commanded us by sheer force of his example.


Which of the following statement captures the family's approach to house work?

A. The boys were not allowed to do girls work
B. Their mother did the cooking and cleaning willingly
C. No job was reserved for anyone on the basis of gender
D. The water needed was provided by everyone