Expositive Comprehension passage - Jamb English Language Past Questions and Answers

Question 1:

• JAMB 1979

Read each passage and answer the question that follow

The learning of a foreign language should be an integral part of every university education. As a discipline, it affords the mind excellent training. It utilizes skills needed in other subjects; the concentration required for memorizing music (not to mention for developing the ear for tone and pitch), the logical thinking for solving mathematical problems, even the deductive reasoning capabilities needed to comprehend philosophical concepts. The mind is stretched through the simple act of learning the grammatical patterns, vocabulary and phonological system of a language. At the same time, the student of a foreign language is acquiring a useful tool. This tool has a double advantage, for while most people (especially teachers) expound on the reward for being able to communicate in a second, third, or fourth language. Perhaps the more promising of the two, is being able to understand and hopefully appreciate another cultural group through their literature, their music and custom all of which are best assimilated through the medium of their language.


An appropriate title for the article from which this passage is taken could be

A. The need for foreign language learning in universities
B. An apology for the study of foreign languages in Nigerian universities
C. The need for studying French and Kiswahili in our colleges and universities
D. Why a foreign language should be studied by all who study music, mathematics or philosophy
E. The pros and consof foreign language learning in Nigerian universities

Question 2:

• JAMB 1979

Read each passage and answer the question that follow

The learning of a foreign language should be an integral part of every university education. As a discipline, it affords the mind excellent training. It utilizes skills needed in other subjects; the concentration required for memorizing music (not to mention for developing the ear for tone and pitch), the logical thinking for solving mathematical problems, even the deductive reasoning capabilities needed to comprehend philosophical concepts. The mind is stretched through the simple act of learning the grammatical patterns, vocabulary and phonological system of a language. At the same time, the student of a foreign language is acquiring a useful tool. This tool has a double advantage, for while most people (especially teachers) expound on the reward for being able to communicate in a second, third, or fourth language. Perhaps the more promising of the two, is being able to understand and hopefully appreciate another cultural group through their literature, their music and custom all of which are best assimilated through the medium of their language.


According to the passage the main reward for foreign language learner is

A. The ability to speak another language
B. Being able to speak the language
C. Being able to learn mathematics or music in a foreign language
D. Expanding the mind to acquire new knowledge and skills
E. None of the above

Question 3:

• JAMB 1979

Read each passage and answer the question that follow

The learning of a foreign language should be an integral part of every university education. As a discipline, it affords the mind excellent training. It utilizes skills needed in other subjects; the concentration required for memorizing music (not to mention for developing the ear for tone and pitch), the logical thinking for solving mathematical problems, even the deductive reasoning capabilities needed to comprehend philosophical concepts. The mind is stretched through the simple act of learning the grammatical patterns, vocabulary and phonological system of a language. At the same time, the student of a foreign language is acquiring a useful tool. This tool has a double advantage, for while most people (especially teachers) expound on the reward for being able to communicate in a second, third, or fourth language. Perhaps the more promising of the two, is being able to understand and hopefully appreciate another cultural group through their literature, their music and custom all of which are best assimilated through the medium of their language.


Which of the following statement is not made in the passage

A. All students should study a language in the university
B. Foreign language learning enables one appreciate other people's culture
C. Teacher emphasize ability to communicate as a reward or foreign language learning
D. Foreign language learning helps the study of other subjects
E. Foreign language learners are usually better students than others

Question 4:

• JAMB 1979

Read each passage and answer the question that follow

The learning of a foreign language should be an integral part of every university education. As a discipline, it affords the mind excellent training. It utilizes skills needed in other subjects; the concentration required for memorizing music (not to mention for developing the ear for tone and pitch), the logical thinking for solving mathematical problems, even the deductive reasoning capabilities needed to comprehend philosophical concepts. The mind is stretched through the simple act of learning the grammatical patterns, vocabulary and phonological system of a language. At the same time, the student of a foreign language is acquiring a useful tool. This tool has a double advantage, for while most people (especially teachers) expound on the reward for being able to communicate in a second, third, or fourth language. Perhaps the more promising of the two, is being able to understand and hopefully appreciate another cultural group through their literature, their music and custom all of which are best assimilated through the medium of their language.


'Discipline' as used in the above passage means

A. Punishment
B. Lecture
C. Skill
D. Training
E. Subject

Question 5:

• JAMB 1979

The earthly paradises of Bali and of the South Sea Islands, and the gentle, non-acquisitive civilization of Burma, have been aptly described and romanticized. One can add to then the Nicobar Islands, where a small population lived happily on a very low cultural level. But perhaps the most remarkable and the least known of these earthly paradise is the small kingdom of Hunza in the Himalayas, which was recently visited and enthusiastically described by the journalist, Noel Barber (Daily Mail, 5, 6, 8 June 1962). A fair-skinned population of 18,000, they lived in a fertile and almost inaccessible valley not far from the Sinking boarder, 8,000 feet up. A legend has it that they are the descendants of the three deserters from the army of Alexander the Great, who here with Persian wives which makes one inclined to believe that pacifism may be hereditary , because these people had no war in 2,000 years. They have no money, no crime and no diseases, they rarely die before ninety. Their psychosomatic control is almost unbelievable, childbirth is painless, and toothache, a joke; they keep their numbers stationary without contraceptives, and without abortion, but by sheer abstinence, though Noel; Barber saw the newborn son of a chuckling father aged eighty-nine. Their diet which consists of mostly apricot and raw vegetables may have something to do with their unshakable serenity. It makes one gasp with surprise that human nature can be like this. One is reminded of Island, but unlike the Palanese, the Hunza people have no art, only serenity!


it is said in the passage that Noel Barber has

A. Visited all the earthly paradise
B. Visited only the Nicobar Islands
C. Visited the Hunza in the Himalayas
D. Visited Hunza in the Himalayas in 5,6 and 8 June, 1962
E. Not done any of the above