Waec Literature in English Past Questions and Answers

Question 1546:

• WAEC 2021

Read the poem below and answer questions 26 to 30.
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile
And mouths with myriad subtleties,

Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile but O great god, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet and long the mile,
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!


The rhyme scheme of the first stanza is ____________

A. Aabcc
B. Ababac
C. Aabbc
D. Abbac

Question 1547:

• WAEC 2021

Read the poem below and answer questions 26 to 30.
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile
And mouths with myriad subtleties,

Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile but O great god, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet and long the mile,
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!


The dominant mood is one of ____________

A. Sadness
B. Fear
C. Joy
D. Optimism

Question 1548:

• WAEC 2021

Read the poem below and answer questions 26 to 30.
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile
And mouths with myriad subtleties,

Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile but O great god, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet and long the mile,
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!


We wear the mask that grins and lies illustrate

A. Irony
B. Personification
C. Synecdoche
D. Alliteration

Question 1549:

• WAEC 2021

A Midsummer Night's Read the extract below and answer questions 31 to 35.
X: You do impeach your modesty too much,
To leave the city and commit yourself
Into the hands of one that loves you not;
To trust the opportunity of night
And the ill counsel of a desert place

Y: With the rich worth of your virginity.
Your virtue is my privilege: for that
it is not night when I do see your face,
Therefore I think I am not in the night;


Speaker X is ____________

A. Hermia
B. Philostrate
C. Demetrius
D. Lysander

Question 1550:

• WAEC 2021

A Midsummer Night's Read the extract below and answer questions 31 to 35.
X: You do impeach your modesty too much,
To leave the city and commit yourself
Into the hands of one that loves you not;
To trust the opportunity of night
And the ill counsel of a desert place

Y: With the rich worth of your virginity.
Your virtue is my privilege: for that
it is not night when I do see your face,
Therefore I think I am not in the night;


Speaker Y is ____________

A. Titania
B. Pease blossom
C. Hippolyta
D. Helena