Expositive Comprehension passage - Jamb English Language Past Questions and Answers

Question 61:

• JAMB 1986

  Farming is the most important aspect of agriculture that has attracted attention within the last few years. Agriculture has several other aspects like fishery, livestock and poultry. All these are also important in that they have to do with the production of food items which human beings consume for survival.
  In many parts of world today, farming has been regarded as the mainstay of the economy. Crops such as cocoa, rubber and cotton have been produced in such commercial quantity that they are sold to other countries. Some countries have a better comparative advantage in producing certain farm crops than other countries. In these other countries, there is the need to spend a lot of money on agriculture, particularly farming. Most farmers use outmoded tools. A lot of them have no place to store their crops, most of which are always destroyed by insects and pests before harvest time. All these have adverse effects on their productivity.
  The government can do a lot to help farmers. Farmers’ co-operative societies can be encouraged and loans can be made available to farmers through government institutions, like banks and finance corporations. Farmers can be taught how to build good storage structures for their produce. All these and a lot more can help to improve the condition of farming in these countries.


Some countries produce more and better crops than others because the farmers in the former

A. Are more educated
B. Have greater manpower
C. Have more modern equipment
D. Have more fertile land

Question 62:

• JAMB 1986

  Farming is the most important aspect of agriculture that has attracted attention within the last few years. Agriculture has several other aspects like fishery, livestock and poultry. All these are also important in that they have to do with the production of food items which human beings consume for survival.
  In many parts of world today, farming has been regarded as the mainstay of the economy. Crops such as cocoa, rubber and cotton have been produced in such commercial quantity that they are sold to other countries. Some countries have a better comparative advantage in producing certain farm crops than other countries. In these other countries, there is the need to spend a lot of money on agriculture, particularly farming. Most farmers use outmoded tools. A lot of them have no place to store their crops, most of which are always destroyed by insects and pests before harvest time. All these have adverse effects on their productivity.
  The government can do a lot to help farmers. Farmers’ co-operative societies can be encouraged and loans can be made available to farmers through government institutions, like banks and finance corporations. Farmers can be taught how to build good storage structures for their produce. All these and a lot more can help to improve the condition of farming in these countries.


In order to help improve the state of farming, the government should

A. Give all farmers enough money to work with
B. Sell enoughfertilizer to all farmers
C. Find ways of financing and modernizing the farming syster
D. Help farmers with the storage of their crops

Question 63:

• JAMB 1986

  Farming is the most important aspect of agriculture that has attracted attention within the last few years. Agriculture has several other aspects like fishery, livestock and poultry. All these are also important in that they have to do with the production of food items which human beings consume for survival.
  In many parts of world today, farming has been regarded as the mainstay of the economy. Crops such as cocoa, rubber and cotton have been produced in such commercial quantity that they are sold to other countries. Some countries have a better comparative advantage in producing certain farm crops than other countries. In these other countries, there is the need to spend a lot of money on agriculture, particularly farming. Most farmers use outmoded tools. A lot of them have no place to store their crops, most of which are always destroyed by insects and pests before harvest time. All these have adverse effects on their productivity.
  The government can do a lot to help farmers. Farmers’ co-operative societies can be encouraged and loans can be made available to farmers through government institutions, like banks and finance corporations. Farmers can be taught how to build good storage structures for their produce. All these and a lot more can help to improve the condition of farming in these countries.


A lot crop harvested are wasted because farmers

A. Allow insects and pests to destroy their crops
B. Do not have enough money to invest in harvesters
C. Do not have good storage facitilities
D. Harvest too much at a time

Question 64:

• JAMB 1987

There are one or two things this country can teach others, one of them is the art of writing obituaries. One suspects that the reason why some of our newspapers still manage to break even is because of the great amount of revenue they derive from obituaries. It is not unusual for about one quarter of the volume of an average daily to be constituted of obituaries and in in memorial alone. One possible explanation for this, it has been argued, is that Nigerians value their dead greatly. And there is a saying amongst us that you do not say evil things against the dead. This is obviously the philosophy behind the large dose of encomiums with which our dead are bestowed. From evidences of these obituaries and in memorial, every dead Nigerian must have been something of a saint while alive. This would explain why the death of most Nigerians is attributed to the evil Machinations of the wicked. Only very few people in our country die natural death, and even when they do, the obituaries, etc always give the impression that such deaths constitute the saddest loss to befall the deceased family. And that is why writers of these obituaries and their allied advertisements are experts on ‘mortuary stylistics’. This ‘mortuary stylistics’ the study in the art of eulogizing the dead and making their loss sound so heart breaking, is one of the commodities we can export to other countries.


The tone of this passage is

A. Angry
B. Satirical
C. Non-commital
D. Pleasant

Question 65:

• JAMB 1987

There are one or two things this country can teach others, one of them is the art of writing obituaries. One suspects that the reason why some of our newspapers still manage to break even is because of the great amount of revenue they derive from obituaries. It is not unusual for about one quarter of the volume of an average daily to be constituted of obituaries and in in memorial alone. One possible explanation for this, it has been argued, is that Nigerians value their dead greatly. And there is a saying amongst us that you do not say evil things against the dead. This is obviously the philosophy behind the large dose of encomiums with which our dead are bestowed. From evidences of these obituaries and in memorial, every dead Nigerian must have been something of a saint while alive. This would explain why the death of most Nigerians is attributed to the evil Machinations of the wicked. Only very few people in our country die natural death, and even when they do, the obituaries, etc always give the impression that such deaths constitute the saddest loss to befall the deceased family. And that is why writers of these obituaries and their allied advertisements are experts on ‘mortuary stylistics’. This ‘mortuary stylistics’ the study in the art of eulogizing the dead and making their loss sound so heart breaking, is one of the commodities we can export to other countries.


'Mortuary stylistics' as used in the passage refers to the

A. Art of writing obtuaries
B. Text of obtuaries
C. Study of obtuaries
D. Art of eulogizing the dead