Descriptive Comprehension Passage - Englishlanguage Jamb Past Questions and Answers

Question 31 :

• JAMB 1981

this book consist of lectures given by me at Cambridge. Though they have been largely rewritten, I have kept a good deal of their original lecture-form, as being (I hope) rather less formal and less dogmatic. For to dogmatism, those who write on language seem, for some reason, particularly prone; and I should like to make clear at once that, if at times I have put my view strongly, I do not forget that such matters of taste must remain mere matters of opinion.
In addition I have included a good many specimen passages from various authors. Perhaps I have quoted too much. But a book on style without abundant examples seems to me as ineffectual as a book on art, or biology without abundant illustrations. Many of these passages are in French. That may be Gallomanian on my part and I must apologize if they trouble some readers. But some ability to read French prose does seem to me most desirable for anyone who would write well in English. I have tried to choose pieces not too difficult in syntax or vocabulary. And in these days less than ever can we afford to be better insular.




the author says that writers on language are

A. Inclined to be dogmatic
B. Opposed to dogmatism
C. Unlikely to be dogmatic
D. Resolved to be dogmatic
E. Ready to be dogmatic

Question 32 :

• JAMB 1981

this book consist of lectures given by me at Cambridge. Though they have been largely rewritten, I have kept a good deal of their original lecture-form, as being (I hope) rather less formal and less dogmatic. For to dogmatism, those who write on language seem, for some reason, particularly prone; and I should like to make clear at once that, if at times I have put my view strongly, I do not forget that such matters of taste must remain mere matters of opinion.
In addition I have included a good many specimen passages from various authors. Perhaps I have quoted too much. But a book on style without abundant examples seems to me as ineffectual as a book on art, or biology without abundant illustrations. Many of these passages are in French. That may be Gallomanian on my part and I must apologize if they trouble some readers. But some ability to read French prose does seem to me most desirable for anyone who would write well in English. I have tried to choose pieces not too difficult in syntax or vocabulary. And in these days less than ever can we afford to be better insular.




in the author's opinion, a book on style

A. Can do with few examples
B. Need not have any examples
C. Is a book on art
D. Will be intellectual with many examples
E. Will be ineffectual with insufficient examples

Question 33 :

• JAMB 1981

this book consist of lectures given by me at Cambridge. Though they have been largely rewritten, I have kept a good deal of their original lecture-form, as being (I hope) rather less formal and less dogmatic. For to dogmatism, those who write on language seem, for some reason, particularly prone; and I should like to make clear at once that, if at times I have put my view strongly, I do not forget that such matters of taste must remain mere matters of opinion.
In addition I have included a good many specimen passages from various authors. Perhaps I have quoted too much. But a book on style without abundant examples seems to me as ineffectual as a book on art, or biology without abundant illustrations. Many of these passages are in French. That may be Gallomanian on my part and I must apologize if they trouble some readers. But some ability to read French prose does seem to me most desirable for anyone who would write well in English. I have tried to choose pieces not too difficult in syntax or vocabulary. And in these days less than ever can we afford to be better insular.




to write English well, the author says it is helpful to

A. To be able to write French farily well
B. To be able to read Frecnch fairly well
C. Know French thoroughly
D. Must never be insular
E. Do all of the above

Question 34 :

• JAMB 1981

this book consist of lectures given by me at Cambridge. Though they have been largely rewritten, I have kept a good deal of their original lecture-form, as being (I hope) rather less formal and less dogmatic. For to dogmatism, those who write on language seem, for some reason, particularly prone; and I should like to make clear at once that, if at times I have put my view strongly, I do not forget that such matters of taste must remain mere matters of opinion.
In addition I have included a good many specimen passages from various authors. Perhaps I have quoted too much. But a book on style without abundant examples seems to me as ineffectual as a book on art, or biology without abundant illustrations. Many of these passages are in French. That may be Gallomanian on my part and I must apologize if they trouble some readers. But some ability to read French prose does seem to me most desirable for anyone who would write well in English. I have tried to choose pieces not too difficult in syntax or vocabulary. And in these days less than ever can we afford to be better insular.




our understanding of the last sentence in the passage is that we

A. Can now afford to be insular
B. Can be insular in future
C. Can not afford to be insular
D. Must never be insular
E. Must now be more insular

Question 35 :

• JAMB 1982

  In 1968 Nigeria was the world biggest producer of groundnuts (averaging 712,600 tonnes a year), the second producer of cocoa (203, 600 tonnes) after Ghana, the fourth producer of tin (13,264 tonnes) and the biggest producer of columbite. Oil palm, growing wild and in plantation in the south, supplied half the world’s export of palm kernels (407, 200 tonnes) and seventy per cent of the world’s export of palm oil (152, 700tonnes). Nigeria forests covered some 310, 800 square kilometres and produced about 1.132 million cubic metres of timber a year, for export as logs, sawn timber or plywood sheets. Rubber was grown by peasant farmers and, increasingly in plantation; and was partially processed in local factories. The ancient livestock industry of the north still supplies the whole country. About a million cattle are slaughtered annually, and the trade is now being modernized and expanded. As a by-product of the type of skin inaccurately called ‘Moroccan leather’ comes from Nigeria.




According to the passage Nigeria used to be the be the world's biggest producer of

A. Groundnuts
B. Palm oil
C. Rubber
D. Groundnuts and columbites
E. Palm kernels, groundnuts and cocoa