Jamb Literature in English 1978 Past Questions and Answers

Question 36:

• JAMB 1978

Wole Soyinka's 'Telephone Conversation' is

A. An attack on the British telephone system
B. A complaint about the difficulty of getting telephones installed in private houses
C. About the colour of Soyinka's passport
D. A humorous but satirical comment on colour prejudice in Britain
E. About the game of hide and seek

Question 37:

• JAMB 1978

Romeo and Juliet
Juliet:O serpent heart,hid with a flowering face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave
Beautiful tyrant:Fiend angelical
Dove-feathered raven!wolfish-ravening lamb
Despised substance of divinest show!
A damned saint,an honorable villain!
(From Romeo and Juliet)
Juliet is referring in the above passage to

A. Tybalt
B. Mercutio
C. Old Capulet
D. Lady Montague
E. Romeo

Question 38:

• JAMB 1978

Maria:If you desire the spleen,and will laugh
yourself into stitches,follow me.yond gull
Malvolio is turned heathen,a very renegado;
saved by believing rightly,can never believe
such impossible passages of grossness.
He's in yellow stockings.
Sir Toby:And cross-gartered?
Maria:Most villainously;like a pendant that keeps
a school in church.i have dogged him:
like his murderer.He does obey every point
of the letter that i dropped to betray him:
he does smile his face into more lines than
is in the new map with the augmentation of
the indies:you have not seen such a thing as
'tis.I can hardly forbear hurling things at
him:if she do,he'll smile and take it for
a great favour.
(Twelfth Night)
Which of the following statements reflects best the situation revealed above

A. Malvolio is greatly admired by Maria nad Sir Toby
B. Malvolio's dress and bearing will please Lady Olivia very much
C. Malvolio is decieved into doing things hated by Olivia
D. Malvolio is a heathen and pendant
E. The Author of Twelfth Night pokes fun at foolishly misguided people like Malvolio here

Question 39:

• JAMB 1978

New Year's Eve Midnight
Now the bells are tolling-
A year is dead.
And my heart is slowly beating
the Nunc Dimittis
to all my hopes and mute
yewnings of a year
and ghosts hover round
dream beyond dream
Dream beyond dream
mingling with the dying
bell-sounds fading
into memories
like rain drops
falling into a river.
And now the bells are chimming-
A year is born.
And my heart-bell is ringing
in dawn
But it's shrouded things i see
dimly stride
on heart-canopied paths
to a riverside
The mood of the above poem is

A. Optimism
B. Pessimism
C. Optimism mixed with pessimism
D. Much optimism qualified by a little pessimism
E. Much pessimism lightened by a little optimism

Question 40:

• JAMB 1978

In the fiction No Longer At Ease by Chinua Achebe,Obuajulu Okonkwo's fall can be traced to the fact that

A. The Nigerian society is often wicked to the individual
B. He is at bottom a very bad man
C. He believes in using bribes to get to the top
D. The weaknesses within him and the society unite to pull him down
E. He fancies women too much