LITERARY APPRECIATION - Jamb Literature in English Past Questions and Answers

Question 121:

• JAMB 1986

'Nature sent him into the world strong and lusty, in a thriving condition, wearing his own hair on his head the proper branches of this reasoning vegetable, until the axe of intemperance has lopped off his green boughs, and left him a withered trunk...'
In this passage, axe of intemperance means

A. Hot temper
B. Cool temper
C. Evil mind
D. Recklessness.

Question 122:

• JAMB 1986

From that moment on he began to notice what was happening in town, but in a very inexact way, for Father Anthony Isabel, in part because of his age and in part also because he swore he had seen the devil on three occasions (something which seem to the town just a bit out of place), was considered by his parishioners as a good man, peaceful and obliging, but with his head habitually in the clouds.
The phrase, something which seemed to the town just a bit out of place, is an example of

A. Hyperbole
B. Understatement
C. Sarcasm
D. Synecdoche.

Question 123:

• JAMB 1986

'In Germany, under the law, everything is prohibited except that which is permitted, in the Soviet Union, everything is prohibited, including that which is permitted'. The last sentence is an example of

A. Innuendo
B. Paradox
C. Euphemism
D. Allusion.

Question 124:

• JAMB 1987

'I shall sleep under the roof of other heads of hair in shelter from storms'.
In Leopold Senghor's poem 'Long long you have held between your hands', the word 'storms' in the above line refers to

A. Sea storms
B. Rain storms
C. Storming raids by the racist police
D. Storms of passion.

Question 125:

• JAMB 1987

'Have you got any hands today?
'No, i am working alone. My helpers are on strike
'Would you like to engage me? My fees are reasonable.'
'No thank you'.
In this brief dialogue, the first line contains the device known as

A. Syncedoche
B. Paradox
C. Oxymoron
D. Hyperbole