LITERARY APPRECIATION - Jamb Literature in English Past Questions and Answers

Question 201:

• JAMB 1997

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
I have received your letter. By way of a reply, I am beginning this diary, my prop is my distress. Our long association has taught me that confiding in others allays pain.
Mariama Ba, 'So Long a Letter'
By employing the first person narrator, the author of the passage above achieves

A. Sympathy
B. Confidentiality
C. Authenticity
D. Irony

Question 202:

• JAMB 1997

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
'There was something very disturbing about his features today, there was something which suggested an untidiness of a sort rather like a cotton dress washed in salty water and worn until it reeks of human sweet. There was something very vulnerable about his looks, something quite restless.
Nuruddin Farah, 'Sweet and Sour Milk'
The passage above illustrates the use of

A. Climax
B. Deus ex machina
C. Trance
D. Suspense

Question 203:

• JAMB 1997

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
Sound effects in the theater are realizable through the use of

A. Props
B. Acoustics
C. Proscenium
D. Echoes

Question 204:

• JAMB 1997

This question is based on General Literary Principles.
The Christs
are still in performing miracles
in the market places
heroding the masses with imperatives
feeding the hungry
with 21-gun salutes
for victories that are yet to be won.'
Odia Ofeimun, 'The Messiahs'
The attitude of the poet to his subject in the lines above is

A. Ironic
B. Sarcastic
C. Benevolent
D. Explosive

Question 205:

• JAMB 1997

This question is based on Literary Principles.
'Otto's wife was a potter. Nessa remembered Sandra Davis telling her this. Not just a wife, not just a mother - as Nessa's own mother had been, as all the women in her childhood were and were expected to be; cooks and floor scrubbers, fanatical table polishers and chairback starchers, nest builders.
Georgina Hammick, 'Habits'
In the passage above, it can be inferred that Otto's wife

A. Scrubbed floors and polished tables like the other women
B. Was a potter and was thereforespared other domestic jobs
C. Was a potter like Nessa's mother
D. Was a potter in addition to being a wife andmother