10 questions from the JAMB 1991 Literature paper, with answers and explanations. Tap "Show answer" under each one when you are ready.
JAMB 1991Question 1 · Drama Set Texts
This question is based on Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel. The two characters that symbolize the lion and the jewel respectively are
A.Lakunle and Sidi
B.Baroka and Sadiku
C.Sadiku and Sidi
D.Baroka and Sidi
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Answer: D. Baroka and Sidi
Baroka's strength and predatory authority make him the lion, while Sidi's beauty makes her the coveted jewel.
JAMB 1991Question 2 · Drama Set Texts
This question is based on Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel. Which of the following divisions is used as`a technical device to denote the symbolic significance of certain events?
A.Day, morning and afternoon
B.Morning, noon and night
C.Morning, evening and midnight
D.Mid-day, midnight and morning
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Answer: B. Morning, noon and night
The play's three parts are titled Morning, Noon and Night, and the movement of the day frames its symbolic action.
JAMB 1991Question 3 · General Literary Principles
This question is based on General Literary Principles and Appreciation. One major narrative technique a novel shares with drama is
A.scenes
B.dialogue
C.soliloquy
D.sarcasm
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Answer: B. dialogue
Both novels and plays can advance action and reveal character through spoken dialogue.
JAMB 1991Question 4 · General Literary Principles
This question is based on General Literary Principles and Appreciation. In what type of play would the playwright introduce a comic relief to relieve tension already built up?
A.Farce
B.Comedy
C.Opera
D.Tragedy
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Answer: D. Tragedy
Comic relief is characteristically inserted into tragedy to release tension before serious action resumes.
JAMB 1991Question 5 · General Past Questions
This question is based on Chinua Achebe's Arrow of God 'Thereafter, any yam harvest in the fields was harvested in the name of the son' The 'son' referred to in the above quotation is
A.Ezeulu's dead son, Obika
B.Ezeulu's Christian son, Oduche
C.Mr. Good Country's son
D.Jesus Christ
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Answer: D. Jesus Christ
The converts harvest yams in the name of the Christian Son, Jesus Christ, as the church challenges Ulu's New Yam ritual.
JAMB 1991Question 6 · General Past Questions
This question is based on Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter '....One is a mother to shield when lightning streaks the night, when thunder shakes the earth, when mud bogs knock one down. One is a mother in order to love without beginning or end.' On what occasion do these lines occur in the novel?
A.At the burial ceremony of Ramatoulaye's husband
B.After the confession of Ramatoulaye's daughter, that she was pregnant
C.When Ramatoulaye was learning to drive the Flat 125
D.When Ramatoulaye saw her mother sick in bed
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Answer: B. After the confession of Ramatoulaye's daughter, that she was pregnant
Ramatoulaye reflects on unconditional motherhood while responding compassionately to her daughter's confession of pregnancy.
JAMB 1991Question 7 · General Past Questions
This question is based on General Literary Principles and Appreciation. 'His round cheeks, his round nose, his round chin were a cool, healthy red. In the globe of his face and neatly circular as if drawn in bright crayon, his narrow long, tip tilted eyes, clear a pale blue water, seemed out of place, as if two incompatible strains had collided in making him.' The picture presented above of a particular individual has
A.photographic clarity
B.satiric undertones
C.elements of exaggeration
D.derogatory connotations
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Answer: A. photographic clarity
The accumulation of exact shapes, colours and facial details produces an unusually clear visual or photographic portrait.
JAMB 1991Question 8 · General Past Questions
This question is based on General Literary Principles and Appreciation. 'I thank you God for creating me black For making of me Porter of all sorrows Sitting on my head The World I wear the Centaur's hide And I have carried the World since the first morning'. 'I Thank You God' by Benard Dadie The poet's attitude here is being
A.ironical
B.whimsical
C.sorrowful
D.sarcastic
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Answer: A. ironical
Thanking God for an identity described through bearing the world's sorrows creates an ironic tension between gratitude and suffering.
JAMB 1991Question 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. In J.P. Clark's 'Streamside Exchange', the bird's reply concerns
A.the coming of the tide
B.the uncertainty of the future
C.market days
D.mother's visit to the market
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Answer: B. the uncertainty of the future
The bird cannot assure the child when the absent mother will return, so its reply centres on uncertainty about what is to come.
JAMB 1991Question 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. 'Withering, burn, ghost, a scatter, dusty, half-bare The above combination of words from Kwesi Brew's 'The Dry Season' thematically suggests
A.destruction
B.confusion
C.desolation
D.death
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Answer: C. desolation
Images of withering, dust, ghosts and bareness combine to create a landscape of emptiness and desolation.
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