JAMB and WAEC English Language questions

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

1. Question 101· 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.'

   Why did Mama Tobi keep her savings in a tin?

   • AShe believed banks were not meant for people like her
   • BThe agent advised her to
   • CThe tin earned her interest
   • DThe market rules required it

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   Explanation and discussion

2. Question 102· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

   In the crowded streets of Ajegunle, plastic bottles were once nothing but a nuisance. They blocked gutters, floated in floodwater and piled up beside every market stall. Then a group of young graduates, unable to find office jobs, began paying children a few naira for every kilogram of bottles they collected. The bottles were washed, shredded and sold to a factory that turned them into polyester fibre. Within two years the group employed thirty people, and the streets around their depot were noticeably cleaner. Not everyone was convinced. Some residents complained that the depot smelled, and a few landlords worried that the business would attract scavengers. The founders responded by moving the washing area indoors and inviting neighbours to visit. 'People fear what they do not understand,' one of them explained. 'Once they saw that we were cleaning their environment and paying their children, the complaints faded.' Today, the group is helping to start similar projects in other parts of Lagos. Their story suggests that a problem, looked at differently, may contain its own solution.

   The last sentence of the first passage means that

   • ALagos has no problems
   • Bproblems always solve themselves
   • Cplastic is the solution to every problem
   • Da problem can sometimes be turned into an opportunity

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   Explanation and discussion

3. Question 103· 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.

   Before Mr Adeyemi came, Ngozi regarded her mathematics tests as

   • Aeasy exercises
   • Bunimportant
   • Cchances to learn
   • Dverdicts she could not change

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   Explanation and discussion

4. Question 104· 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.

   The comparison of social media with a knife suggests that social media

   • Ais neither good nor bad in itself; its effect depends on use
   • Bis always dangerous
   • Cshould be used only in the kitchen
   • Dis mainly useful for cooking lessons

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   Explanation and discussion

5. Question 105· 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.'

   'The fuel alone swallowed whatever profit the harvest brought' means that the fuel

   • Awas stolen from the farm
   • Bmade the harvest bigger
   • Cwas cheaper than the farmers expected
   • Dcost as much as, or more than, the profit

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   Explanation and discussion

6. Question 106· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

   Read the passage and answer the question. When Mallam Sani first heard that he could send money to his son in Lagos with a few presses on a phone, he laughed. For forty years he had trusted only two things: the cattle in his pen and the bag of notes hidden under his mat. Money, he said, should be heavy enough to feel. His son, however, was patient. On his next visit he showed his father how a small agent's kiosk in the village could turn cash into a message and a message back into cash. The first transfer was only two thousand naira, sent to buy medicine for an aunt in Kano. When the aunt called to say the money had arrived before the bus that would have carried it could even leave the motor park, the old man was silent for a long time. Today the kiosk is the busiest place in the village after the mosque. Farmers receive payment for their grain before the lorry is out of sight; traders no longer travel with bundles of notes that tempt robbers on the highway. Yet Mallam Sani has not completely changed. He still keeps a few notes under his mat. 'A phone can lose its battery,' he explains with a smile, 'but paper does not need charging.' (An original passage written for AdmitMe practice.)

   Mallam Sani laughed at first because he

   • Abelieved money should be something he could physically hold
   • Bdid not own a phone
   • Cwas angry with his son
   • Dthought Lagos was too far away

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   Explanation and discussion

7. Question 107· 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, a student raised in such a system learns that

   • Aeffort is pointless because certificates can be bought
   • Bhonesty always pays
   • Cteachers are always right
   • Dexaminations are easy

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   Explanation and discussion

8. Question 108· 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.

   According to the first passage, one benefit of social media for students is that

   • Ait replaces textbooks
   • Bit removes the need for teachers
   • Cit makes examinations easier
   • Dquestions can be answered at any hour

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   Explanation and discussion

9. Question 109· 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 reports, like the river, rise and fall with the seasons' means that

   • Athe river is measured often
   • Bthe reports get wet
   • Cthe engineers live by the river
   • Dpromises come every season but nothing is done

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   Explanation and discussion

10. Question 110· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

    On the morning of her examination, Halima arrived at the CBT centre an hour early, clutching her registration slip as though it might blow away. The hall was already crowded with candidates, some revising from dog-eared notes, others staring blankly at the wall. When the doors opened, an official checked each face against a photograph and pointed candidates to numbered seats. Halima's computer flickered twice before the login screen appeared, and for one terrible moment she thought her chance had vanished with the electricity. But the generator roared to life outside, and the screen steadied. She read the first question three times before she understood it, and her heart sank. Then she remembered her brother's advice: 'Answer the questions you know first; the hard ones will still be there when you return.' She skipped ahead, found a comprehension passage she could manage, and felt her breathing slow. By the time the clock showed ten minutes left, she had answered every question and was checking her work. Walking out into the sunlight, she could not say whether she had done well. She knew only that she had not let panic make her decisions for her.

    Why did Halima think for a moment that her chance had vanished?

    • AShe arrived late
    • BShe had lost her slip
    • CHer computer flickered and she feared a power failure
    • DThe official refused her entry

    Show answer

    Explanation and discussion

11. Question 111· 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.

    The main point of the second passage is that examination malpractice

    • Adoes not affect employers
    • Bis caused only by lazy students
    • Chas been ended by computer-based testing
    • Dis often organised by adults, not only by students

    Show answer

    Explanation and discussion

12. Question 112· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

    Read the passage and answer the question. When Mallam Sani first heard that he could send money to his son in Lagos with a few presses on a phone, he laughed. For forty years he had trusted only two things: the cattle in his pen and the bag of notes hidden under his mat. Money, he said, should be heavy enough to feel. His son, however, was patient. On his next visit he showed his father how a small agent's kiosk in the village could turn cash into a message and a message back into cash. The first transfer was only two thousand naira, sent to buy medicine for an aunt in Kano. When the aunt called to say the money had arrived before the bus that would have carried it could even leave the motor park, the old man was silent for a long time. Today the kiosk is the busiest place in the village after the mosque. Farmers receive payment for their grain before the lorry is out of sight; traders no longer travel with bundles of notes that tempt robbers on the highway. Yet Mallam Sani has not completely changed. He still keeps a few notes under his mat. 'A phone can lose its battery,' he explains with a smile, 'but paper does not need charging.' (An original passage written for AdmitMe practice.)

    Mallam Sani's final remark shows that he is

    • Acautious and still keeps cash as a back-up
    • Bcompletely against phones
    • Ccareless with money
    • Dangry with the kiosk agent

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    Explanation and discussion

13. Question 113· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

    Many people assume that intelligence is fixed at birth, that a child is either 'brilliant' or 'dull' and nothing can change it. Research on learning suggests otherwise. When students are praised for effort rather than for being clever, they are more willing to attempt difficult problems, and they recover more quickly from failure. Students told that they are naturally gifted, on the other hand, often avoid challenges, fearing that a poor result will expose them as ordinary after all. This does not mean that all praise for effort is useful. Praising a student for working hard on a method that is clearly not working may simply encourage wasted energy. The most helpful feedback, researchers argue, names the strategy: 'You checked each step, and that is why you found the error.' Such comments teach students what to repeat. Parents and teachers, therefore, should be careful about the words they choose, for a careless label can follow a child for years.

    The passage mainly argues that

    • Agifted students never fail
    • Bintelligence is fixed at birth
    • Cteachers should stop praising students
    • Dthe way students are praised affects how they learn

    Show answer

    Explanation and discussion

14. Question 114· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

    On the morning of her examination, Halima arrived at the CBT centre an hour early, clutching her registration slip as though it might blow away. The hall was already crowded with candidates, some revising from dog-eared notes, others staring blankly at the wall. When the doors opened, an official checked each face against a photograph and pointed candidates to numbered seats. Halima's computer flickered twice before the login screen appeared, and for one terrible moment she thought her chance had vanished with the electricity. But the generator roared to life outside, and the screen steadied. She read the first question three times before she understood it, and her heart sank. Then she remembered her brother's advice: 'Answer the questions you know first; the hard ones will still be there when you return.' She skipped ahead, found a comprehension passage she could manage, and felt her breathing slow. By the time the clock showed ten minutes left, she had answered every question and was checking her work. Walking out into the sunlight, she could not say whether she had done well. She knew only that she had not let panic make her decisions for her.

    'She felt her breathing slow' shows that Halima was

    • Arunning out of time
    • Bbecoming ill
    • Cfalling asleep
    • Dbecoming calmer

    Show answer

    Explanation and discussion

15. Question 115· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

    Many people assume that intelligence is fixed at birth, that a child is either 'brilliant' or 'dull' and nothing can change it. Research on learning suggests otherwise. When students are praised for effort rather than for being clever, they are more willing to attempt difficult problems, and they recover more quickly from failure. Students told that they are naturally gifted, on the other hand, often avoid challenges, fearing that a poor result will expose them as ordinary after all. This does not mean that all praise for effort is useful. Praising a student for working hard on a method that is clearly not working may simply encourage wasted energy. The most helpful feedback, researchers argue, names the strategy: 'You checked each step, and that is why you found the error.' Such comments teach students what to repeat. Parents and teachers, therefore, should be careful about the words they choose, for a careless label can follow a child for years.

    According to the passage, praise for effort can be unhelpful when

    • Athe praise is given in public
    • Bthe student is very young
    • Cthe student keeps working hard on a method that is not working
    • Dthe student is gifted

    Show answer

    Explanation and discussion

16. Question 116· 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 word 'tedious', as used in the passage, means

    • Aexciting
    • Bdull and tiring
    • Chard to understand
    • Ddangerous

    Show answer

    Explanation and discussion

17. Question 117· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

    Read the passage and answer the question. When Mallam Sani first heard that he could send money to his son in Lagos with a few presses on a phone, he laughed. For forty years he had trusted only two things: the cattle in his pen and the bag of notes hidden under his mat. Money, he said, should be heavy enough to feel. His son, however, was patient. On his next visit he showed his father how a small agent's kiosk in the village could turn cash into a message and a message back into cash. The first transfer was only two thousand naira, sent to buy medicine for an aunt in Kano. When the aunt called to say the money had arrived before the bus that would have carried it could even leave the motor park, the old man was silent for a long time. Today the kiosk is the busiest place in the village after the mosque. Farmers receive payment for their grain before the lorry is out of sight; traders no longer travel with bundles of notes that tempt robbers on the highway. Yet Mallam Sani has not completely changed. He still keeps a few notes under his mat. 'A phone can lose its battery,' he explains with a smile, 'but paper does not need charging.' (An original passage written for AdmitMe practice.)

    What changed the old man's mind about mobile money?

    • Ahis son's anger
    • Ba radio advertisement
    • Ca robbery on the highway
    • Dhow quickly the money reached Kano

    Show answer

    Explanation and discussion

18. Question 118· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

    In the crowded streets of Ajegunle, plastic bottles were once nothing but a nuisance. They blocked gutters, floated in floodwater and piled up beside every market stall. Then a group of young graduates, unable to find office jobs, began paying children a few naira for every kilogram of bottles they collected. The bottles were washed, shredded and sold to a factory that turned them into polyester fibre. Within two years the group employed thirty people, and the streets around their depot were noticeably cleaner. Not everyone was convinced. Some residents complained that the depot smelled, and a few landlords worried that the business would attract scavengers. The founders responded by moving the washing area indoors and inviting neighbours to visit. 'People fear what they do not understand,' one of them explained. 'Once they saw that we were cleaning their environment and paying their children, the complaints faded.' Today, the group is helping to start similar projects in other parts of Lagos. Their story suggests that a problem, looked at differently, may contain its own solution.

    Why did the young graduates start the business?

    • AThey wanted to leave Lagos
    • BThe government asked them to
    • CThey owned a factory
    • DThey could not find office jobs

    Show answer

    Explanation and discussion

19. Question 119· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

    Read the passage and answer the question. When Mallam Sani first heard that he could send money to his son in Lagos with a few presses on a phone, he laughed. For forty years he had trusted only two things: the cattle in his pen and the bag of notes hidden under his mat. Money, he said, should be heavy enough to feel. His son, however, was patient. On his next visit he showed his father how a small agent's kiosk in the village could turn cash into a message and a message back into cash. The first transfer was only two thousand naira, sent to buy medicine for an aunt in Kano. When the aunt called to say the money had arrived before the bus that would have carried it could even leave the motor park, the old man was silent for a long time. Today the kiosk is the busiest place in the village after the mosque. Farmers receive payment for their grain before the lorry is out of sight; traders no longer travel with bundles of notes that tempt robbers on the highway. Yet Mallam Sani has not completely changed. He still keeps a few notes under his mat. 'A phone can lose its battery,' he explains with a smile, 'but paper does not need charging.' (An original passage written for AdmitMe practice.)

    Describing the kiosk as 'the busiest place in the village after the mosque' suggests that it is

    • Aa place of worship
    • Bbigger than the mosque
    • Cvery popular
    • Drarely used

    Show answer

    Explanation and discussion

20. Question 120· Comprehension and summary· JAMB

    In the crowded streets of Ajegunle, plastic bottles were once nothing but a nuisance. They blocked gutters, floated in floodwater and piled up beside every market stall. Then a group of young graduates, unable to find office jobs, began paying children a few naira for every kilogram of bottles they collected. The bottles were washed, shredded and sold to a factory that turned them into polyester fibre. Within two years the group employed thirty people, and the streets around their depot were noticeably cleaner. Not everyone was convinced. Some residents complained that the depot smelled, and a few landlords worried that the business would attract scavengers. The founders responded by moving the washing area indoors and inviting neighbours to visit. 'People fear what they do not understand,' one of them explained. 'Once they saw that we were cleaning their environment and paying their children, the complaints faded.' Today, the group is helping to start similar projects in other parts of Lagos. Their story suggests that a problem, looked at differently, may contain its own solution.

    How did the founders respond to residents' complaints?

    • AThey took the residents to court
    • BThey closed the depot
    • CThey moved the washing area indoors and invited neighbours to visit
    • DThey stopped paying the children

    Show answer

    Explanation and discussion