Narrative Comprehension passage - Jamb English Language Past Questions and Answers

Question 101:

• JAMB 1989

As the stranger approached, shola noticed that he was handsome and her excitement increased. It was of such a man she had dreamt. He had fine, arrogant carriage, like a soldier or someone in authority. When he reached the end of the pier, he addressed them in a rich, deep voice that disturbed her as the voluptuous rising of the tide had gone.
‘You’re Tunde Onu, I’m told’, he said to her father.
‘That’s right, said her father.
‘The bus conductor told me you take people to the islands’, the man continued. I’d like to go there if you can take me.
Her father examined the man from head to foot, shrewdly measuring his capacity to pay. Then he said:
‘When were you thinking of going?’
‘Right away’.
‘That’s different story, for my boatman is gone to Badagry and he won’t be back before nightfall.
‘Oh!’ said the stranger. That’s too bad. You couldn’t get someone else instead of him?
‘I would have to think hard’, he said gloomily, for its not everyone would do for the job of going with me beyond the bay to the islands at this time of the year.
Shola understood her father’s manoeuvre and felt ashamed.


Which of the following is NOT true of the passage?

A. Shola did not approve of her father's behaviour towards the stranger
B. Shola's father could roe the stranger to the islands aolne had he wished
C. Shola's father exaggerated the difficulties in order to raise his fee
D. Shola had recently been disturbed by the tide

Question 102:

• JAMB 1989

As the stranger approached, shola noticed that he was handsome and her excitement increased. It was of such a man she had dreamt. He had fine, arrogant carriage, like a soldier or someone in authority. When he reached the end of the pier, he addressed them in a rich, deep voice that disturbed her as the voluptuous rising of the tide had gone.
‘You’re Tunde Onu, I’m told’, he said to her father.
‘That’s right, said her father.
‘The bus conductor told me you take people to the islands’, the man continued. I’d like to go there if you can take me.
Her father examined the man from head to foot, shrewdly measuring his capacity to pay. Then he said:
‘When were you thinking of going?’
‘Right away’.
‘That’s different story, for my boatman is gone to Badagry and he won’t be back before nightfall.
‘Oh!’ said the stranger. That’s too bad. You couldn’t get someone else instead of him?
‘I would have to think hard’, he said gloomily, for its not everyone would do for the job of going with me beyond the bay to the islands at this time of the year.
Shola understood her father’s manoeuvre and felt ashamed.


Which of the following is true of the stranger in the passage?

A. He was a proud and good looking man with a deep voice that annoyed shola
B. He was familiar with the people of the islands
C. He was a fine gentleman in need of help
D. He was too proud to reciprocate shola's love

Question 103:

• JAMB 1989

As the stranger approached, shola noticed that he was handsome and her excitement increased. It was of such a man she had dreamt. He had fine, arrogant carriage, like a soldier or someone in authority. When he reached the end of the pier, he addressed them in a rich, deep voice that disturbed her as the voluptuous rising of the tide had gone.
‘You’re Tunde Onu, I’m told’, he said to her father.
‘That’s right, said her father.
‘The bus conductor told me you take people to the islands’, the man continued. I’d like to go there if you can take me.
Her father examined the man from head to foot, shrewdly measuring his capacity to pay. Then he said:
‘When were you thinking of going?’
‘Right away’.
‘That’s different story, for my boatman is gone to Badagry and he won’t be back before nightfall.
‘Oh!’ said the stranger. That’s too bad. You couldn’t get someone else instead of him?
‘I would have to think hard’, he said gloomily, for its not everyone would do for the job of going with me beyond the bay to the islands at this time of the year.
Shola understood her father’s manoeuvre and felt ashamed.


'Manoeuvre' in the passage means

A. Shrewdness
B. Cleverness
C. Stupidity
D. Strategy

Question 104:

• JAMB 1989

As the stranger approached, shola noticed that he was handsome and her excitement increased. It was of such a man she had dreamt. He had fine, arrogant carriage, like a soldier or someone in authority. When he reached the end of the pier, he addressed them in a rich, deep voice that disturbed her as the voluptuous rising of the tide had gone.
‘You’re Tunde Onu, I’m told’, he said to her father.
‘That’s right, said her father.
‘The bus conductor told me you take people to the islands’, the man continued. I’d like to go there if you can take me.
Her father examined the man from head to foot, shrewdly measuring his capacity to pay. Then he said:
‘When were you thinking of going?’
‘Right away’.
‘That’s different story, for my boatman is gone to Badagry and he won’t be back before nightfall.
‘Oh!’ said the stranger. That’s too bad. You couldn’t get someone else instead of him?
‘I would have to think hard’, he said gloomily, for its not everyone would do for the job of going with me beyond the bay to the islands at this time of the year.
Shola understood her father’s manoeuvre and felt ashamed.


Which of the following is true of the passage?

A. The stranger was in a bad mood
B. The stranger came by bus
C. Shola and her father were idle when the stranger came
D. Shola's father measured the stranger from head to foot

Question 105:

• JAMB 1989

His eyes widened as they fell upon something strange. Something was moving slowly and cautiously along the gutter. The pale yellow and brown of the snake’s body glistened like a stream of flowing metal. By what mistake had the creature strayed into this unlikely place? Impossible to say. Yet there it was and its slow movements betrayed uneasiness and confusion.
As he watched it, his instinctive antipathy melted away. He could understand so well what the snake was feeling. He entered into the cold, narrow intelligence and shared its angry perplexity. Its movement were cramped, its advance difficulty and it was in constant danger of slipping over the edge. Now and then it lay still in dull reflection, nursing a cold anger that could find no vent.
Meanwhile the little plant bent downward by every puff of wind was beating its thin twings against the gutter like a birch. The snake seemed not to see the plant. It moved forward until a light touch from the twings fell upon its head. At this, it stopped and lifted its neck; the plant was now doing no more than lightly sway and dip. The snake, its head still reared, waited, flickering tongue. One could feel the angry heaving and straining in the sluggish brain-the dull red anger waiting to explode. Then came a strong gust sweeping along the wall and at once the twings thrashed down upon the furious head-thrashed down and beat it with a movement that seemed to osun both comic and dreadful. In a flash, the head reared itself higher, the neck drew back and there was a lunge at the twings and the empty air. O fatal act! To strike, the snake had been obliged to coil and its coiled body could not support itself upon the narrow ledge. No recovery was possible; it overbalanced and fell with a thud upon a small flat roof fifty feet below. There, osun saw the creature begin to writhe in agony. It could do no more than twist and turn upon the same spot
Osun was trembling but beneath his agitation there was a deep trouble wonder. Here was the little plants now waving with kind of jaunty cynicism and here was the snake writhing in agony. The world unquestionably was a place of mystery and horror. This was revealed in the writhing of the crippled snake in the jaunty waving of the innocent plant in the wind.


The snake was referred to as 'something strange' because the

A. Movement of the snake along the gutter was slow and caustious
B. Movement of the snake betrayed strange uneasiness and confusion
C. Colour of the snake's body was an unusual stream of flowing metal
D. Environment in which the snake was found was unusual