10 questions from the JAMB 1990 Literature paper, with answers and explanations. Tap "Show answer" under each one when you are ready.
JAMB 1990Question 1 · Drama Set Texts
This question is based on Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel. ...I am the twinkle of a Jewel But he is the hind-quarters of a lion!...' These lines suggest that
A.Sidi is superior to the Bale
B.Sidi is weaker than the Bale
C.Sidi is clever than the Bale
D.the Bale is violent
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Answer: A. Sidi is superior to the Bale
Sidi calls herself the attractive jewel and reduces Baroka to the less dignified hindquarters of the lion.
JAMB 1990Question 2 · General Past Questions
This question is based on Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel. '...He risked his life that you may boast A warrior-hunter for your lord...But you- You sell him to the rhyming rabble Gloating in your disloyalty... In these lines the 'rhyming rabble' refers to
A.clowns who wait on the Bale
B.children in Lakunle's school
C.professional singers
D.the mummers who dance in mockery of the Bale's rumoured impotence
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Answer: D. the mummers who dance in mockery of the Bale's rumoured impotence
The rhyming rabble are the performers who turn Baroka's supposed impotence into a mocking dance.
JAMB 1990Question 3 · General Past Questions
This question is based on Chinua Achebe's Arrow of God The immediate cause of the war between Umuaro and Okperi was the
A.land dispute
B.murder of Akukalia
C.intervention of Captain Winterbottom
D.siting of the colonial adminstrative headquarters at Okperi
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Answer: B. murder of Akukalia
The land dispute was the underlying grievance but Akukalia's killing immediately precipitated the war.
JAMB 1990Question 4 · General Past Questions
This question is based on Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter '... In spite of your voice and your gift of oratory, you preferred obscure work, less well paid but constructive for your country,... This description refers to
A.Modou Fall
B.Mawdo Ba
C.Daouda Dieng
D.Aissatou
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Answer: A. Modou Fall
The description of gifted oratory joined to obscure nation-building work refers to Modou Fall.
JAMB 1990Question 5 · General Past Questions
This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation. When a character in a literary work exists primarily to enhance, through contrast, the portrayal of the personal traits of another character is a
A.protagonist
B.antagonist
C.mirror character
D.foil
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Answer: D. foil
A foil reveals another character's qualities by providing a deliberate contrast.
JAMB 1990Question 6 · General Past Questions
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
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Answer: C. allusion
A brief indirect reference to a known person event or text is an allusion.
JAMB 1990Question 7 · General Past Questions
This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation 'As soon as the fellows were departed, the lawyer, Who had, it seems, a case of pistols in the seat of the coach, informed the company, that if it had been daylight, and he could have submitted to the robbery; he likewise set forth that he had often met highwaymen when he travelled on horseback, but none ever durst attack him; concluding, that if he had not been more afraid for the lady than for himself, he should not have now parted with his money so easily.' Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding It can be inferred that the lawyer mentioned above is a
A.brave man
B.law-enforcement agent allowed to carry pistols
C.coward
D.gallant man who always protects ladies
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Answer: C. coward
The lawyer boasts of what he would have done only after danger has passed which exposes his cowardice.
JAMB 1990Question 8 · General Past Questions
This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation. A picaresque novel is a
A.work of fiction set in a utopian past recalling the splendour of rural life
B.psychological novel with penetrating analyses of human emotions
C.futuristic novel set in outer space
D.work of fiction tracing the adventures of a scoundrel of low birth
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Answer: D. work of fiction tracing the adventures of a scoundrel of low birth
A picaresque novel follows the episodic adventures of a roguish low-born protagonist.
JAMB 1990Question 9 · Poetry Set Texts
This question is based on selected poems from Wole Soyinka (ed.) Poems of Black Africa and D.I. Nwoga (ed.) West African Verse. The words 'naked' and 'barefoot' as used in Christopher Okigbo's 'The Passage' suggest
A.affluence
B.primitivity
C.penury
D.reverence
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Answer: D. reverence
The speaker's naked and barefoot approach expresses humility and ritual reverence before the goddess.
JAMB 1990Question 10 · Poetry Set Texts
This question is based on selected poems from Wole Soyinka (ed.) Poems of Black Africa and D.I. Nwoga (ed.) West African Verse. 'The Fulani Creation Story' shows that
A.the world came about by a series of chance happenings
B.the world was created in three days
C.a logic of cause-and-effect underlies all creation
D.death came into the world when man set himself up as God's rival
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Answer: C. a logic of cause-and-effect underlies all creation
The creation story proceeds as a linked chain in which each created force causes or answers the one before it.
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