Expositive Comprehension passage - Jamb English Language Past Questions and Answers

Question 161:

• JAMB 2001

The passage below has gaps numbered 6 to 15. Immediately following each gap are provided. Choose the most appropriate option for each gap.  Before any detailed analysis begins, the first thing to do with the data is to check through the field record book and questionnaires for any........6......[A. records B. events C. odds D. mistakes], inconsistencies and incompleteness. In some cases, it may be possible to correct any discovered shortcomings. When it is possible to carry out these........7......[A. plans B. possibilities C. corrections D. expectations].
  In most scientific......8.....[A. experiment B. data C. conclusion D. questionnaires] such revisits are clearly impossible. This is true of many surveys too. A road traffic survey.......9......[A. conducted B. experimented C. classified D. precoded] to find out the amount and frequency of daily traffic between two towns cannot be expected to be........10.....[A. reproducible B. undertaken C. observed D. produced]. There is no way of going back to check whether the number of vehicles reported for any particular hour is correct or not. With open-ended questions the......11.....[A. methods B. responses C. errors D. conclusion] have to be classified into relatively small number of groups. The process of classifying answers and of sometimes identifying them by number and letter is called.......12.......[A. recording B. recoding C. encoding D. coding]. When closed-ended questions are used, it is possible to code all the possible answers before they are actually received. This is called........13.....[A. precoding B. coding C. encoding D. recoding]. What is done, a check through the answers for proper classification, numbering and lettering is still called for at this stage. This whole process of checking through questionnaires and notebooks is called......14.....[A. editing B. posting C. listing D. auditing]. Collected data will eventually have to be used in drawing......15.....[A. references B. examples C. conclusions D. analogies] and writing a report about the population from which it came.


In question number 14 above, choose the best option from the letters A-D that best completes the gab.

A. Editing
B. Posting
C. Listing
D. Auditing

Question 162:

• JAMB 2001

The passage below has gaps numbered 6 to 15. Immediately following each gap are provided. Choose the most appropriate option for each gap.  Before any detailed analysis begins, the first thing to do with the data is to check through the field record book and questionnaires for any........6......[A. records B. events C. odds D. mistakes], inconsistencies and incompleteness. In some cases, it may be possible to correct any discovered shortcomings. When it is possible to carry out these........7......[A. plans B. possibilities C. corrections D. expectations].
  In most scientific......8.....[A. experiment B. data C. conclusion D. questionnaires] such revisits are clearly impossible. This is true of many surveys too. A road traffic survey.......9......[A. conducted B. experimented C. classified D. precoded] to find out the amount and frequency of daily traffic between two towns cannot be expected to be........10.....[A. reproducible B. undertaken C. observed D. produced]. There is no way of going back to check whether the number of vehicles reported for any particular hour is correct or not. With open-ended questions the......11.....[A. methods B. responses C. errors D. conclusion] have to be classified into relatively small number of groups. The process of classifying answers and of sometimes identifying them by number and letter is called.......12.......[A. recording B. recoding C. encoding D. coding]. When closed-ended questions are used, it is possible to code all the possible answers before they are actually received. This is called........13.....[A. precoding B. coding C. encoding D. recoding]. What is done, a check through the answers for proper classification, numbering and lettering is still called for at this stage. This whole process of checking through questionnaires and notebooks is called......14.....[A. editing B. posting C. listing D. auditing]. Collected data will eventually have to be used in drawing......15.....[A. references B. examples C. conclusions D. analogies] and writing a report about the population from which it came.


In question number 15 above, choose the best option from the letters A-D that best completes the gab.

A. References
B. Examples
C. Conclusions
D. Analogies

Question 163:

• JAMB 2001

 The emergence of a standard dialect produces the phenomenon known as ‘accent’ which is quite different from dialect. In the process of learning a foreign language, it is normal to transfer the patterns of an indigenous language to those of the foreign language. With time, however those of form and most of orthography and phonology gradually get eliminated. This is because these can easily be identified and corrected. They are easy to correct because they do not involve patterns of muscular movement. It is necessary to correct them because otherwise they could seriously impair intelligibility.
  With phonetic patterns, on the other hand, there is a great deal of intelligibility tolerance because muscular patterns are involved thus making correction difficult when observed. Besides, phonetic patterns do not impair intelligibility much. Hence the transference of phonetic habits from one language to another is both easier to tolerate and more difficult to avoid than transference at the lexico-grammatical level. It follows that a speaker who is learning a second dialect does so with an accent since the muscles of his speech organs would have crystallized in response to the phonetics of his native language which he learnt first. The speaker therefore speaks the second dialect with the phonetic features of his native dialect. The learning of a standard language is simply the learning of a second dialect- that which has been standardized.
  Members of a language community control at least two dialects and use both dialects in different situations. In the rural areas, the native dialect is used in most situations since there is less movement. Therefore, rural dwellers tend to be parochial and maintain the homogeneity of their dialect. In the urban community, on the other hand, there is more demand on the standard dialect than on the rural one. This is because people from different regions converge here. In order to ensure mutual intelligibility resulting from the pressure of communication, a great deal of demand is made on the standard dialect which now becomes the lingua frenca amongst them.


The word 'those' as used in the passage refers to

A. Forms of orthography and phonology
B. Patterns of an indigenous language
C. Foreign languages
D. Indigenous languages

Question 164:

• JAMB 2001

 The emergence of a standard dialect produces the phenomenon known as ‘accent’ which is quite different from dialect. In the process of learning a foreign language, it is normal to transfer the patterns of an indigenous language to those of the foreign language. With time, however those of form and most of orthography and phonology gradually get eliminated. This is because these can easily be identified and corrected. They are easy to correct because they do not involve patterns of muscular movement. It is necessary to correct them because otherwise they could seriously impair intelligibility.
  With phonetic patterns, on the other hand, there is a great deal of intelligibility tolerance because muscular patterns are involved thus making correction difficult when observed. Besides, phonetic patterns do not impair intelligibility much. Hence the transference of phonetic habits from one language to another is both easier to tolerate and more difficult to avoid than transference at the lexico-grammatical level. It follows that a speaker who is learning a second dialect does so with an accent since the muscles of his speech organs would have crystallized in response to the phonetics of his native language which he learnt first. The speaker therefore speaks the second dialect with the phonetic features of his native dialect. The learning of a standard language is simply the learning of a second dialect- that which has been standardized.
  Members of a language community control at least two dialects and use both dialects in different situations. In the rural areas, the native dialect is used in most situations since there is less movement. Therefore, rural dwellers tend to be parochial and maintain the homogeneity of their dialect. In the urban community, on the other hand, there is more demand on the standard dialect than on the rural one. This is because people from different regions converge here. In order to ensure mutual intelligibility resulting from the pressure of communication, a great deal of demand is made on the standard dialect which now becomes the lingua frenca amongst them.


Phonetic patterns allow for intelligibility tolerance because

A. They are involved and difficult to avoid
B. They involve muscular patterns which later crystalize
C. They give rise to the phenomenon of accent which is easy to tolerate
D. Transference is both difficult to avoid anf easy to tolerate

Question 165:

• JAMB 2001

 The emergence of a standard dialect produces the phenomenon known as ‘accent’ which is quite different from dialect. In the process of learning a foreign language, it is normal to transfer the patterns of an indigenous language to those of the foreign language. With time, however those of form and most of orthography and phonology gradually get eliminated. This is because these can easily be identified and corrected. They are easy to correct because they do not involve patterns of muscular movement. It is necessary to correct them because otherwise they could seriously impair intelligibility.
  With phonetic patterns, on the other hand, there is a great deal of intelligibility tolerance because muscular patterns are involved thus making correction difficult when observed. Besides, phonetic patterns do not impair intelligibility much. Hence the transference of phonetic habits from one language to another is both easier to tolerate and more difficult to avoid than transference at the lexico-grammatical level. It follows that a speaker who is learning a second dialect does so with an accent since the muscles of his speech organs would have crystallized in response to the phonetics of his native language which he learnt first. The speaker therefore speaks the second dialect with the phonetic features of his native dialect. The learning of a standard language is simply the learning of a second dialect- that which has been standardized.
  Members of a language community control at least two dialects and use both dialects in different situations. In the rural areas, the native dialect is used in most situations since there is less movement. Therefore, rural dwellers tend to be parochial and maintain the homogeneity of their dialect. In the urban community, on the other hand, there is more demand on the standard dialect than on the rural one. This is because people from different regions converge here. In order to ensure mutual intelligibility resulting from the pressure of communication, a great deal of demand is made on the standard dialect which now becomes the lingua frenca amongst them.


According to the passage

A. A lingua franca is the consequence of a standard dialect
B. A foreign language produces the transference of the correct patterns of dialect features
C. Mutual intelligibility is the consequence of the presssure of communication
D. Speech organs are shaped by indegenous languages