Argumentative/persuasive Comprehension passage - Jamb English Language Past Questions and Answers

Question 26:

• JAMB 1986

  It may be argued that museums as an institution and an agency for transmitting cultural heritage are an artificial creature, so far as objects are removed from their natural or proper environments and put into museums which are a different environment altogether. However, it seems that museums themselves have come to be accepted and recognized as the best equipped institutions devised by man for the assemblage of cultural objects and their presentation and preservation for the present and future generations.
  The artificial character of museums is however being gradually transformed into a cultural reality. Thus, just as one goes to the theatre for plays and other performing arts; the mosque, the church or the shrine for worship; the library for the printed word; today, it is to the museums one goes to see evidence of man’s material outfit. For, no other institution or place so readily comes to mind as museums do when evidence of material culture is sought. Herein lies the importance of museums as cultural institutions and an agency for transmitting culture.


According to the passage which of the following is NOT part of the main functions of museums?

A. Presevatic
B. Generation
C. Presentation
D. Assemblage

Question 27:

• JAMB 1986

  It may be argued that museums as an institution and an agency for transmitting cultural heritage are an artificial creature, so far as objects are removed from their natural or proper environments and put into museums which are a different environment altogether. However, it seems that museums themselves have come to be accepted and recognized as the best equipped institutions devised by man for the assemblage of cultural objects and their presentation and preservation for the present and future generations.
  The artificial character of museums is however being gradually transformed into a cultural reality. Thus, just as one goes to the theatre for plays and other performing arts; the mosque, the church or the shrine for worship; the library for the printed word; today, it is to the museums one goes to see evidence of man’s material outfit. For, no other institution or place so readily comes to mind as museums do when evidence of material culture is sought. Herein lies the importance of museums as cultural institutions and an agency for transmitting culture.


The evidence of material culture can best be sought in the

A. Theatre and other performing arts
B. Library and the museum
C. Museum only
D. Museum more than any other institution

Question 28:

• JAMB 1986

  It may be argued that museums as an institution and an agency for transmitting cultural heritage are an artificial creature, so far as objects are removed from their natural or proper environments and put into museums which are a different environment altogether. However, it seems that museums themselves have come to be accepted and recognized as the best equipped institutions devised by man for the assemblage of cultural objects and their presentation and preservation for the present and future generations.
  The artificial character of museums is however being gradually transformed into a cultural reality. Thus, just as one goes to the theatre for plays and other performing arts; the mosque, the church or the shrine for worship; the library for the printed word; today, it is to the museums one goes to see evidence of man’s material outfit. For, no other institution or place so readily comes to mind as museums do when evidence of material culture is sought. Herein lies the importance of museums as cultural institutions and an agency for transmitting culture.


Which of the following phrases in the passage does NOT express the artificial character of museums?

A. Removed from
B. For transmitting
C. Put into
D. Devised by

Question 29:

• JAMB 1987

The endeavor to maintain proper standard of fairness in journalism must be pursued. It is fatally easy for the journalist to deviate from the straight path. There is his natural desire to ‘make a story’ and insidious temptation to twist facts to square with his paper’s policy. Both are as indefensible as the framing of misleading headlines for the sake of effect. The conscientious journalist must check any tendency to bias, and guard against the dangers inherent in personal antipathies or friendships, and in traditional oppositions between rival schools of thought. When a political opponent, whose stupidity habitually provokes attack, makes an effective speech, honesty requires that he be given credit for it. Where personal relationships might make it easier and more congenial to keep silent than to criticize, the journalist must never forget his duty to the public and the supreme importance of recording the truth


when may a journalist have to act against his own inclination?

A. When his friends act stupidly
B. When he becomes weak and decrepit
C. When his enemies make mistake
D. When his political opponents frame misleading head lines
E. After he has been given a bribe

Question 30:

• JAMB 1987

The endeavor to maintain proper standard of fairness in journalism must be pursued. It is fatally easy for the journalist to deviate from the straight path. There is his natural desire to ‘make a story’ and insidious temptation to twist facts to square with his paper’s policy. Both are as indefensible as the framing of misleading headlines for the sake of effect. The conscientious journalist must check any tendency to bias, and guard against the dangers inherent in personal antipathies or friendships, and in traditional oppositions between rival schools of thought. When a political opponent, whose stupidity habitually provokes attack, makes an effective speech, honesty requires that he be given credit for it. Where personal relationships might make it easier and more congenial to keep silent than to criticize, the journalist must never forget his duty to the public and the supreme importance of recording the truth


A journalist would be able to uphold the tenets of his profession if

A. He seeks publicity
B. He tries to achieve popularity
C. He resists temptation to bias
D. He canmanipulate his story to lease his employers
E. He trie to protect his friends