JAMB English Language questions: Comprehension and summary

50 questions with answers and explanations. Tap an option to check yourself.

1. Question 41· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

   When the rains failed for the third year running, the farmers of Dambatta did not wait for help from the city. Malam Sani, who had kept bees for twenty years, called a meeting under the neem tree beside the market. He reminded the farmers that the river still flowed in the dry season, though it lay two kilometres from most of their plots. Pumping water that far with diesel engines had always been too costly; the fuel alone swallowed whatever profit the harvest brought. This time the farmers pooled their savings and bought four solar pumps. The first months were difficult. Two pumps broke down because no one had been trained to clean the panels, and some members grumbled that their money had been wasted. Yet by the end of the season, the cooperative had harvested more tomatoes than in any year anyone could remember. Traders from Kano came to buy directly from them, and the farmers no longer had to accept whatever price the middlemen offered. Malam Sani refused to take credit. 'The sun was always here,' he said. 'We only learnt to work with it.'

   One benefit of the bigger harvest was that the farmers

   • Amoved to Kano
   • Bsold directly to traders instead of accepting the middlemen's price
   • Cstopped keeping bees
   • Dbought diesel engines

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   Explanation and discussion

2. Question 42· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

   Read the passage and answer the question. Every August the river reminds the people of Ogbaru that it was here first. It climbs over its banks quietly at night, so that families wake to find the floor of the parlour shining like a mirror. Children treat the first day as a holiday; their parents count the bags of rice already soaked and calculate how many weeks of school fees have floated away. Engineers from the state capital have visited many times. They measure, photograph and promise. The embankment they describe in their reports would be tall and straight, a wall the river could not climb. But the reports, like the river, rise and fall with the seasons, and the wall remains a picture on paper. This year the community decided not to wait. Young men dug channels to guide the water away from the market, and women's groups raised money to lift the clinic onto concrete pillars. It is not the wall of the engineers' dreams, but when the water came, the clinic stayed dry and the market opened on Monday as usual. (An original passage written for AdmitMe practice.)

   'the river reminds the people of Ogbaru that it was here first' suggests that

   • Apeople fish in the river daily
   • Bthe river is drying up
   • Cthe town is older than the river
   • Dthe river floods the town every year as if reclaiming its land

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   Explanation and discussion

3. Question 43· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

   Read the passage and answer the question. Every August the river reminds the people of Ogbaru that it was here first. It climbs over its banks quietly at night, so that families wake to find the floor of the parlour shining like a mirror. Children treat the first day as a holiday; their parents count the bags of rice already soaked and calculate how many weeks of school fees have floated away. Engineers from the state capital have visited many times. They measure, photograph and promise. The embankment they describe in their reports would be tall and straight, a wall the river could not climb. But the reports, like the river, rise and fall with the seasons, and the wall remains a picture on paper. This year the community decided not to wait. Young men dug channels to guide the water away from the market, and women's groups raised money to lift the clinic onto concrete pillars. It is not the wall of the engineers' dreams, but when the water came, the clinic stayed dry and the market opened on Monday as usual. (An original passage written for AdmitMe practice.)

   The parents react to the flood differently from the children because the parents

   • Athink about the money lost
   • Benjoy the holiday
   • Care engineers
   • Dlive elsewhere

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   Explanation and discussion

4. Question 44· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

   When the rains failed for the third year running, the farmers of Dambatta did not wait for help from the city. Malam Sani, who had kept bees for twenty years, called a meeting under the neem tree beside the market. He reminded the farmers that the river still flowed in the dry season, though it lay two kilometres from most of their plots. Pumping water that far with diesel engines had always been too costly; the fuel alone swallowed whatever profit the harvest brought. This time the farmers pooled their savings and bought four solar pumps. The first months were difficult. Two pumps broke down because no one had been trained to clean the panels, and some members grumbled that their money had been wasted. Yet by the end of the season, the cooperative had harvested more tomatoes than in any year anyone could remember. Traders from Kano came to buy directly from them, and the farmers no longer had to accept whatever price the middlemen offered. Malam Sani refused to take credit. 'The sun was always here,' he said. 'We only learnt to work with it.'

   Two of the solar pumps broke down early because

   • Athe pumps were of poor quality
   • Bthieves damaged them
   • Cno one had been trained to clean the panels
   • Dheavy rain flooded them

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   Explanation and discussion

5. Question 45· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

   Examination malpractice is often described as a problem of dishonest students, but the truth is more uncomfortable. In many cases, the cheating is organised by adults: parents who pay for 'special centres', teachers who dictate answers to protect their school's reputation, and officials who look away for a fee. A student who grows up in such a system learns a dangerous lesson: that certificates can be bought and that effort is for fools. The consequences reach far beyond the examination hall. Employers soon discover that a graduate's result tells them little about what he or she can actually do, and the value of every certificate, including those earned honestly, falls. Computer-based testing has reduced some forms of cheating, but technology alone cannot restore trust. That requires adults who model honesty, schools that are rewarded for genuine learning rather than inflated results, and penalties that fall on organisers as heavily as on candidates.

   What does the writer say about computer-based testing?

   • AIt has reduced some cheating but cannot alone restore trust
   • BIt has ended all cheating
   • CIt has made cheating easier
   • DIt should be abolished

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   Explanation and discussion

6. Question 46· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

   Examination malpractice is often described as a problem of dishonest students, but the truth is more uncomfortable. In many cases, the cheating is organised by adults: parents who pay for 'special centres', teachers who dictate answers to protect their school's reputation, and officials who look away for a fee. A student who grows up in such a system learns a dangerous lesson: that certificates can be bought and that effort is for fools. The consequences reach far beyond the examination hall. Employers soon discover that a graduate's result tells them little about what he or she can actually do, and the value of every certificate, including those earned honestly, falls. Computer-based testing has reduced some forms of cheating, but technology alone cannot restore trust. That requires adults who model honesty, schools that are rewarded for genuine learning rather than inflated results, and penalties that fall on organisers as heavily as on candidates.

   In the second passage, 'special centres' are

   • Acentres for students with disabilities
   • Bexamination centres where cheating is arranged for a fee
   • Cthe best schools in the country
   • Dcentres run by examination bodies to stop cheating

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   Explanation and discussion

7. Question 47· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

   For years, Mama Tobi kept her savings in a tin buried beneath the floor of her kiosk in Oshodi market. Banks, she said, were for people who wore ties. When a young agent set up a point-of-sale stand beside her stall, she watched him the way one watches a stranger's goat that has wandered into the yard: with curiosity, but ready to chase it away. It was a fire that changed her mind. One night in the dry season, flames swept through three rows of stalls, and although her kiosk survived, two of her neighbours lost everything they had saved. The next morning Mama Tobi asked the agent how an account worked. She still distrusts much of what she calls 'phone money', and she counts every receipt twice. But she now pays her suppliers without carrying cash through the crowded market, and she says she sleeps better. 'The tin was safe from thieves,' she admits, 'but not from fire. Money is like water; you must keep it in a vessel that does not leak.'

   Mama Tobi's final remark means that savings must be

   • Akept somewhere secure from every kind of loss
   • Bspent quickly before they disappear
   • Ckept in water
   • Dhidden from thieves only

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   Explanation and discussion

8. Question 48· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

   Ngozi had always believed that she was simply bad at mathematics. Her marks in the subject hovered around forty per cent, and she had come to treat each test as a judgement she could not appeal. In her final year, a new teacher, Mr Adeyemi, asked the class to keep a 'mistake diary'. After every exercise, they were to write down not just the wrong answers but the reason behind each one. Ngozi found the task tedious at first. Within a month, however, a pattern emerged: most of her errors came not from failing to understand the topic but from rushing through the first step of each problem. She began to slow down at the start and check her working before moving on. Her next test score was sixty-eight. 'You were never bad at mathematics,' Mr Adeyemi told her. 'You were careless with the beginning of your thinking.' Ngozi still keeps a mistake diary, though she now uses it for every subject.

   The main lesson of the passage is that

   • Astudying one's mistakes can improve performance
   • Bsome people can never learn mathematics
   • Cnew teachers are better than old ones
   • Ddiaries should be kept only for mathematics

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   Explanation and discussion

9. Question 49· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

   Social media has changed the way young Nigerians learn. A student in Maiduguri can now watch a chemistry lesson recorded in Lagos, join a study group with classmates across three states, and ask a question at midnight that someone answers before dawn. Critics, however, point to the cost. Notifications interrupt study time, and the endless scroll of entertainment can swallow hours that were meant for revision. Some teachers report that students who once read whole chapters now struggle to concentrate beyond a few paragraphs. The truth probably lies between these positions. Social media is a tool, and like a knife it can prepare a meal or wound the careless hand. Students who set clear limits, turning off notifications during study and following accounts that teach rather than distract, often find it a powerful ally. Those who let the platforms set the terms tend to lose the battle for their own attention. The question, then, is not whether students should use social media, but who is in control when they do.

   Students who 'lose the battle for their own attention'

   • Afight with their classmates
   • Bfail every examination
   • Ccan no longer control how they spend their time and focus
   • Dpay more attention than others

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   Explanation and discussion

10. Question 50· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

    Examination malpractice is often described as a problem of dishonest students, but the truth is more uncomfortable. In many cases, the cheating is organised by adults: parents who pay for 'special centres', teachers who dictate answers to protect their school's reputation, and officials who look away for a fee. A student who grows up in such a system learns a dangerous lesson: that certificates can be bought and that effort is for fools. The consequences reach far beyond the examination hall. Employers soon discover that a graduate's result tells them little about what he or she can actually do, and the value of every certificate, including those earned honestly, falls. Computer-based testing has reduced some forms of cheating, but technology alone cannot restore trust. That requires adults who model honesty, schools that are rewarded for genuine learning rather than inflated results, and penalties that fall on organisers as heavily as on candidates.

    According to the passage, widespread malpractice affects honestly earned certificates by

    • Acancelling them
    • Bmaking them more valuable
    • Clowering their value
    • Dhaving no effect on them

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    Explanation and discussion