English Language 2006 Jamb Past Questions and Answers

Question 101 :

• JAMB 2006

  The passage below has gaps numbered 16 to 25. Immediately following each gap, four options are provided. Choose the most appropriate option for each gap. Each question carries 2 marks .
One of the most difficult and confusing aspect of English language is its spelling system. There is often ....16.... [A. discrepancy B. discord C. a similarity D. concord] between the punctuation of a word and its spelling. One cannot always tell how to spell a word ....17.... [A. throughout B. by C. as to D. as from] its pronunciation.
In order to understand the peculiarity of English spelling ....18....[A. difficulty B. confusion C. system D. code], it is good to know something about the history of the language. First, it is helpful to realize that English was originally spoken by people who could neither read nor write. While the ....19.... [A. middle-class B. educated C. less enlightened D. uneducated] people spoke English, the literate upper classes spoke French and wrote in Latin, later when English became a ....20.... [A. literary B. romantic C. written D. coded] language, there was no system for spelling its words. Moreover, the first writers of English were French speaking ....21... [A. newscasters B. scribes C. orators D. interpreters] who knew English only slightly: therefore, they carried many French spelling ....22.... [A. habits B. attitudes C. idiosyncrasies D. mannerisms] into English. In addition, these first writers of English, who were used to writing in Latin, often ....23.... [A. inserted B. interjected C. interpolated D. juxtaposed] letters into words even when they were not pronounced because the ....24.... [A. antecedent B. opposing C. corresponding D. synonymous] word in Latin was spelled that way. Finally, the confusion increased when the ....25.... [A. diction B.morphology C. orthography D. pronunciation] of certain words changed while the spelling remained the same.




In question number 24 choose the best option from the letters A-D that best completes the gap

A. Antecedent
B. Opposing
C. Corresponding
D. Synonymous