Narrative Comprehension passage - Jamb English Language Past Questions and Answers

Question 31:

• JAMB 2019

Choose the most appropriate option for each group for questions
Alice, a small fragile-looking Ugandan mother, is dying of AIDS. She lives with her son and daughter in a tin-roofed shack on the .....1... of Kampala. When her husband died of AIDS in 1987, Alice discovered she was HIV positive. Frequent ...2..... of sickness forced her to give up her embroidery job. She was so depressed that she just wanted to eat. ....3.... by a neighbour, the mobile care unit from Nsambya hospital went to her home. They convinced her to start taking proper ..4....... After three months of ....5.... treatment, she regained her will to live. The AIDS time bomb .....6... on relentlessly. The World Health Organization ....7.... that 1.8 million Ugandans are HIV positive, nearly one in eight of the total population. The Ugandan AIDS Commission set up by President Museveni ..8...... the spread of the disease. However, under-porting and the lack of post-mortem and ...9..... makes it impossible to establish exact figures. No one ....10.... that it is a disaster far worse than the years of civil war.



When her husband died of AIDS in 1987, Alice discovered she was HIV positive. Frequent ...2..... of sickness forced her to give up her embroidery job.

A. Sufferings
B. Happenings
C. Rounds
D. Bouts

Question 32:

• JAMB 1981

Read the passage and answer the question that follows  It was a Sunday afternoon that I saw the lorry standing in front of the post office. I had seen it long before my brother saw it, but it was he who said to me “Don’t you think it odd that the post office should be open this afternoon? What do you think is happening? ‘Come round the corner, out of sight, and let’s watch’, I answered. My brother Michael was younger than me, so I kept him behind me, and peering round the corner told him what I saw. ‘There are four men coming out, carrying a very heavy box’ ‘Oh! I exclaimed. ‘It’s a safe, ‘I think they’re burglars, said my brother who was full of suspicion. ‘One of them has fallen over ‘I said; ‘the safe is too heavy for them’. You go and fetch the police said my brother, ‘and I’ll stay here and watch,’ ‘No you go and get them’, I replied, because I wanted to see what was going to happen. My brother ran off and then, suddenly, a man came running out of the post office, shouting, ‘Hurry! Hurry! Get it on the lorry!’ He joined the first four and they managed to get the safe up on to the back of the lorry. When they had done this, the man who had shouted got into the driver’s seat, but the lorry would not start. Just then my brother came back with three policemen. To cut a long story short, the men were all arrested and my brother and I had to go and give evidence before a magistrate. The men went to prison, of course, in the end, but you should have seen the face of the leader - it was contorted with rage — when he learned that the safe they had managed to steal was empty, and all the money was in the bank.




the brothers thought it was odd for the post office to be open because

A. Nobody works on Sundays
B. People should be in church
C. Post offices should open only five days in the week
D. They were ignorant
E. That was probably the second time they had seen it open on a Sunday

Question 33:

• JAMB 1981

Read the passage and answer the question that follows  It was a Sunday afternoon that I saw the lorry standing in front of the post office. I had seen it long before my brother saw it, but it was he who said to me “Don’t you think it odd that the post office should be open this afternoon? What do you think is happening? ‘Come round the corner, out of sight, and let’s watch’, I answered. My brother Michael was younger than me, so I kept him behind me, and peering round the corner told him what I saw. ‘There are four men coming out, carrying a very heavy box’ ‘Oh! I exclaimed. ‘It’s a safe, ‘I think they’re burglars, said my brother who was full of suspicion. ‘One of them has fallen over ‘I said; ‘the safe is too heavy for them’. You go and fetch the police said my brother, ‘and I’ll stay here and watch,’ ‘No you go and get them’, I replied, because I wanted to see what was going to happen. My brother ran off and then, suddenly, a man came running out of the post office, shouting, ‘Hurry! Hurry! Get it on the lorry!’ He joined the first four and they managed to get the safe up on to the back of the lorry. When they had done this, the man who had shouted got into the driver’s seat, but the lorry would not start. Just then my brother came back with three policemen. To cut a long story short, the men were all arrested and my brother and I had to go and give evidence before a magistrate. The men went to prison, of course, in the end, but you should have seen the face of the leader - it was contorted with rage — when he learned that the safe they had managed to steal was empty, and all the money was in the bank.




The narrator kept his younger brother behind him because

A. Big brothers must protect their younger ones
B. He wanted to relay all that was happening to him
C. His brother was too short for his liking
D. Younger brothers are not easily frightened
E. He was very brave

Question 34:

• JAMB 1981

Read the passage and answer the question that follows  It was a Sunday afternoon that I saw the lorry standing in front of the post office. I had seen it long before my brother saw it, but it was he who said to me “Don’t you think it odd that the post office should be open this afternoon? What do you think is happening? ‘Come round the corner, out of sight, and let’s watch’, I answered. My brother Michael was younger than me, so I kept him behind me, and peering round the corner told him what I saw. ‘There are four men coming out, carrying a very heavy box’ ‘Oh! I exclaimed. ‘It’s a safe, ‘I think they’re burglars, said my brother who was full of suspicion. ‘One of them has fallen over ‘I said; ‘the safe is too heavy for them’. You go and fetch the police said my brother, ‘and I’ll stay here and watch,’ ‘No you go and get them’, I replied, because I wanted to see what was going to happen. My brother ran off and then, suddenly, a man came running out of the post office, shouting, ‘Hurry! Hurry! Get it on the lorry!’ He joined the first four and they managed to get the safe up on to the back of the lorry. When they had done this, the man who had shouted got into the driver’s seat, but the lorry would not start. Just then my brother came back with three policemen. To cut a long story short, the men were all arrested and my brother and I had to go and give evidence before a magistrate. The men went to prison, of course, in the end, but you should have seen the face of the leader - it was contorted with rage — when he learned that the safe they had managed to steal was empty, and all the money was in the bank.




The brothers decided to call the police because

A. They thought they were burglars
B. Policemen are required on such occasions
C. Calling the policemen was the only thing they could have done
D. They were cowardly
E. They would have wished to give evidence in court

Question 35:

• JAMB 1981

Read the passage and answer the question that follows  It was a Sunday afternoon that I saw the lorry standing in front of the post office. I had seen it long before my brother saw it, but it was he who said to me “Don’t you think it odd that the post office should be open this afternoon? What do you think is happening? ‘Come round the corner, out of sight, and let’s watch’, I answered. My brother Michael was younger than me, so I kept him behind me, and peering round the corner told him what I saw. ‘There are four men coming out, carrying a very heavy box’ ‘Oh! I exclaimed. ‘It’s a safe, ‘I think they’re burglars, said my brother who was full of suspicion. ‘One of them has fallen over ‘I said; ‘the safe is too heavy for them’. You go and fetch the police said my brother, ‘and I’ll stay here and watch,’ ‘No you go and get them’, I replied, because I wanted to see what was going to happen. My brother ran off and then, suddenly, a man came running out of the post office, shouting, ‘Hurry! Hurry! Get it on the lorry!’ He joined the first four and they managed to get the safe up on to the back of the lorry. When they had done this, the man who had shouted got into the driver’s seat, but the lorry would not start. Just then my brother came back with three policemen. To cut a long story short, the men were all arrested and my brother and I had to go and give evidence before a magistrate. The men went to prison, of course, in the end, but you should have seen the face of the leader - it was contorted with rage — when he learned that the safe they had managed to steal was empty, and all the money was in the bank.




The robbers could not escape because

A. The safe was too heavy
B. They were sinners who deserve punishment
C. The engine of their lorry failed
D. They were not smart enough
E. Nemesis wanted to catch up with them