Jamb Literature in English 1990 Past Questions and Answers

Question 36:

• JAMB 1990

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
A paradox is

A. Applied to a word or combination of words whose sound resembles the sense
B. A statement which seems self-contraditory or absurd, yet turns out to have a valid meaning
C. An episode of pantomime introduced through gesture and bodily movement in a play
D. An elaborately conceived poem expressing an urban poet's nostalgia for life in the country

Question 37:

• JAMB 1990

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
In literary criticism, a casual reference to a figure or an event is regarded as an

A. Alliteration
B. Allegory
C. Allusion
D. Ambiguity

Question 38:

• JAMB 1990

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
A necessary quality of every work of literature is that it

A. Shows a creative use of language
B. Has to be publishable in order to gain wide acceptance
C. Teaches a moral lesson
D. Characters or actors

Question 39:

• JAMB 1990

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
'Beautiful Kareendi, flower of my heart. No one but you can type them. For I want to send them care of the address of your heart, by the post of your heart, to be read by the eye of your heart, thereafter to be kept within your heart, sealed there forever and ever'. Devil on the Cross by Ngugi wa Thiong'o.
The aesthetic appeal of this seduction emanates from the predominant use of

A. Simile
B. Metaphor
C. Metonymy
D. Synecdoche

Question 40:

• JAMB 1990

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation.
'His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink,' Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
The dominant device in this extract is

A. Progressive repetition
B. Progressive amplification
C. Bold contrast
D. Rhyetorical emphasis