literature Past Questions And Answers

Literature Past Questions And Answers

Based on George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four

Two minutes hate is a programme designed for

A. parents
B. thought police
C. the community
D. children

View Discussion (0)JAMB 2012

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Read the extract and answer the following question.

As wagish boys in a game themselves forswear;

So the boy Love is perjured everywhere;

For ere Demetrius looked on Hermia's eyne,

He hailed down oaths that he was only mine;

And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,

So he dissolved and showers of oaths did melt

The speaker has just said farewell to

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

View Discussion (0)WAEC 2023 OBJ

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African Poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.): A Pageant of Longer Poems.

Dzogbesa Lisa in Kofi Awoonor's 'Songs of Sorrow' can be equated to

A. salvation
B. despondence
C. poverty
D. fate

View Discussion (0)JAMB 1998

This question is based on Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbrvilles.

At what time does Tess often look so transformed before Angel Clare?

A. At 3 am on their way to milking the cow
B. At 12 midnight while retiring to bed
C. At 12 noon
D. At twilight

View Discussion (0)JAMB 2007

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Read the extract below and answer the question:

Lysander riddles very prettily;

Now much beshrew my manners and my pride, If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.

But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy Lie further off, in human modesty;

Such separation as may well be said

Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid;

So far be distant, and good night, sweet friend: Thy love ne'er alter, till thy sweet life end!

The speaker and the addressee are

A. father and daughter
B. master and servant
C. lovers
D. friends

View Discussion (0)WAEC 2023 OBJ

This question is based on George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Winston Smith begins his rebellion against the power of the state by

A. purchasing arms
B. keeping a private diary
C. opposing the law
D. educating the youth

View Discussion (0)JAMB 2008

NON-AFRICAN DRAMA; Nikolai Gogol: The Government Inspector

Discuss the theme of corruption in the play.

Explanation

The theme of corruption in the play

In this play, a penniless young traveler is mistaken for a government inspector from St. Petersburg by the Mayor and his officials. The Mayor and his officials are easily fooled because of guilt caused by their corrupt practices. The play therefore highlights the corrupt practices of the Mayor and his officials which render them vulnerable to panic and consequently, easily taken in by the fake 'Inspector General'.

(i) Both the mayor and his officials are corrupt. They handle government affairs with nonchalance. They display lackadaisical and hypocritical behaviour towards their duties to the government and the people.

(ii) The Mayor condones the negligence of duty among his officials and this leads to the great panic which makes them mistake a common traveler (Hlestakov) for the Inspector General.

(iii) The Mayor orders the postmaster to unseal every letter passing through the post-office and read through it for any implicating information or petition.

(iv) The Mayor starves the convicts and orders the flogging of the sergeant's wife. He knows that the streets are dirty and the whole town is like a `pothouse' but does nothing about it.

(v) The Mayor and his officials see the proposed visit of the Government Inspector as a punishment for their corrupt practices and that is why they bribe the Government Inspector. Other instances of corruption perpetrated in the play include the following

a. The judge takes bribes.

b. The post-master has been opening and reading people's letters.

c. The Charity Commissioner pays lip service to his job; he does not care whether the patients get well or not before they are discharged since the doctor does not understand a word of the Russian Language.

d. The School Superintendent condones the teachers' unorthodox approach to teaching since he cannot control them.

e. The Mayor gets the police superintendent to accept that the police are perfectly contented' when they are not.

f. The Mayor engages in petty dealings with the traders and orders soldiers to harass them. He collects their goods without paying and compels them to pay tributes to him on All Saints days.

g. The Mayor's handling of the supposed Government Inspector (Hlestakov) clearly shows how deeply corruption has eaten into the system. The Mayor lures Hlestakov to his house as an important guest and this proves his undoing as Helestakov woos his daughter (Marya) after flirting with his wife (Anna)

h. All the officials bribe Hlestakov in the form of 'loans' in order not to have the skeletons in their cupboards exposed.

View Discussion (0)WAEC 2006 THEORY

Read the extract below and answer the question

A : Let me choose,

For as I am, live upon the rack.

B : Upon the rack, Bassanio? then confess

What treason there is mingled with your love.

(Act Three Scene 11)

Speaker B is

A. Lorenzo
B. Nerissa
C. Portia
D. Gratiano

View Discussion (0)WAEC 2004 OBJ

This question is based on Literary Principles.'

Immersed in the great depression, they had kept their families together, kept their feet from touching bottom, and kept their faith in the future-their children's future more than their own John Updike, Beech: A Book

In the above passage, ''Kept their feet from touching bottom'' suggests staying

A. afloat literally
B. buoyant economically
C. alive
D. affluent

View Discussion (0)JAMB 1993

100

Read the extract ans answer your question

M : No, as I am a man.

N : There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple\If the ill spirit have so fair a house,

Good things will strive to dwell with it.

(Act 1, scene two lines 459 - 462)

Speaker M means to

A. defend himself
B. kill himself
C. escape from prison
D. dine with N

View Discussion (0)WAEC 2012 OBJ