Jamb English Language 2023 Past Questions and Answers

Question 116:

• JAMB 2023

Read the passage carefully and answer this question.

May your road be rough. I am not cursing you: I am wishing you what I wish myself every year, I therefore repeat, may you have a hard time this year. May there be troubles for you this year. If you are not sure of what to say back, why not just say "same to you" – I ask for no more.

Our successes are conditioned by the amount of risk we are about to take. Earlier today, I visited a local farmer about five kilometers from where I live. He could not have been 55, but he said he was already too old to farm vigorously. He still suffered, he said, from the energy he displayed as a farmer in his younger days. Around his hut were two pepperbushes. There were cocoyam growing around him. There were snail shells which had given him meat. There must have been more snails around the banana trees than I saw. He hardly ever went to town to buy things. He was self-sufficient. The car, the television or radio and the newspaper were things he could live without. He had no ambition whatsoever, he told me.

I am not sure if you are already envious of him, but were we all to revert to such a life, we would be driven back like aimless sheep to cave dwelling. On the other hand, try to put yourself in the shoes of the Russian or American astronauts. Any moment you are shot into space, you have to be mentally alert, else, if you forget what to do, one of the things that might happen to you is that you could forever become a satellite going round until you die of starvation, and even then, your dead body would continue the gyration.

Naturally, they may have some slight foreboding on the contingency of their non-return. However, it is their courage for going in spite of these apprehensions that makes the world hail them so loudly today.
(Akinyemi, A., Olupe, F., & Adetutu, S. (2012): Rubrics of for Schools and Colleges. Divine Glory Printers, Abeokuta.)






The farmer in the passage ......


A. Used to be self-sufficient
B. Had a dream to expand his farm
C. Is more envied than the astronauts
D. Lives a life too simple

Question 117:

• JAMB 2023

Read the passage carefully and answer this question.

May your road be rough. I am not cursing you: I am wishing you what I wish myself every year, I therefore repeat, may you have a hard time this year. May there be troubles for you this year. If you are not sure of what to say back, why not just say "same to you" – I ask for no more.

Our successes are conditioned by the amount of risk we are about to take. Earlier today, I visited a local farmer about five kilometers from where I live. He could not have been 55, but he said he was already too old to farm vigorously. He still suffered, he said, from the energy he displayed as a farmer in his younger days. Around his hut were two pepperbushes. There were cocoyam growing around him. There were snail shells which had given him meat. There must have been more snails around the banana trees than I saw. He hardly ever went to town to buy things. He was self-sufficient. The car, the television or radio and the newspaper were things he could live without. He had no ambition whatsoever, he told me.

I am not sure if you are already envious of him, but were we all to revert to such a life, we would be driven back like aimless sheep to cave dwelling. On the other hand, try to put yourself in the shoes of the Russian or American astronauts. Any moment you are shot into space, you have to be mentally alert, else, if you forget what to do, one of the things that might happen to you is that you could forever become a satellite going round until you die of starvation, and even then, your dead body would continue the gyration.

Naturally, they may have some slight foreboding on the contingency of their non-return. However, it is their courage for going in spite of these apprehensions that makes the world hail them so loudly today.
(Akinyemi, A., Olupe, F., & Adetutu, S. (2012): Rubrics of for Schools and Colleges. Divine Glory Printers, Abeokuta.)






According to the passage, success depends on ......


A. Challenges
B. Brawn
C. Risks
D. Brain

Question 118:

• JAMB 2023

Read the passage carefully and answer this question.

May your road be rough. I am not cursing you: I am wishing you what I wish myself every year, I therefore repeat, may you have a hard time this year. May there be troubles for you this year. If you are not sure of what to say back, why not just say "same to you" – I ask for no more.

Our successes are conditioned by the amount of risk we are about to take. Earlier today, I visited a local farmer about five kilometers from where I live. He could not have been 55, but he said he was already too old to farm vigorously. He still suffered, he said, from the energy he displayed as a farmer in his younger days. Around his hut were two pepperbushes. There were cocoyam growing around him. There were snail shells which had given him meat. There must have been more snails around the banana trees than I saw. He hardly ever went to town to buy things. He was self-sufficient. The car, the television or radio and the newspaper were things he could live without. He had no ambition whatsoever, he told me.

I am not sure if you are already envious of him, but were we all to revert to such a life, we would be driven back like aimless sheep to cave dwelling. On the other hand, try to put yourself in the shoes of the Russian or American astronauts. Any moment you are shot into space, you have to be mentally alert, else, if you forget what to do, one of the things that might happen to you is that you could forever become a satellite going round until you die of starvation, and even then, your dead body would continue the gyration.

Naturally, they may have some slight foreboding on the contingency of their non-return. However, it is their courage for going in spite of these apprehensions that makes the world hail them so loudly today.
(Akinyemi, A., Olupe, F., & Adetutu, S. (2012): Rubrics of for Schools and Colleges. Divine Glory Printers, Abeokuta.)






What sort of life, according to the passage, will drive people back like aimless sheep back to cave dwelling?

A. Life without risks
B. Life without science and technology
C. Life without ambition
D. Life without hope

Question 119:

• JAMB 2023

Read the passage carefully and answer this question.

May your road be rough. I am not cursing you: I am wishing you what I wish myself every year, I therefore repeat, may you have a hard time this year. May there be troubles for you this year. If you are not sure of what to say back, why not just say "same to you" – I ask for no more.

Our successes are conditioned by the amount of risk we are about to take. Earlier today, I visited a local farmer about five kilometers from where I live. He could not have been 55, but he said he was already too old to farm vigorously. He still suffered, he said, from the energy he displayed as a farmer in his younger days. Around his hut were two pepperbushes. There were cocoyam growing around him. There were snail shells which had given him meat. There must have been more snails around the banana trees than I saw. He hardly ever went to town to buy things. He was self-sufficient. The car, the television or radio and the newspaper were things he could live without. He had no ambition whatsoever, he told me.

I am not sure if you are already envious of him, but were we all to revert to such a life, we would be driven back like aimless sheep to cave dwelling. On the other hand, try to put yourself in the shoes of the Russian or American astronauts. Any moment you are shot into space, you have to be mentally alert, else, if you forget what to do, one of the things that might happen to you is that you could forever become a satellite going round until you die of starvation, and even then, your dead body would continue the gyration.

Naturally, they may have some slight foreboding on the contingency of their non-return. However, it is their courage for going in spite of these apprehensions that makes the world hail them so loudly today.
(Akinyemi, A., Olupe, F., & Adetutu, S. (2012): Rubrics of for Schools and Colleges. Divine Glory Printers, Abeokuta.)






"Rough" in the first sentence of the passage means ......



A. Mountains and molehills
B. The dangers attributed to space travel
C. Challenges that will breed opportunities
D. Difficulties