Literature in EnglishLiterary appreciation: unseen proseJAMB

Read the passage and answer the question. The bus to Jos had been waiting for two hours, and still the conductor shouted, 'One chance! One chance!' as though the seats were not already groaning under three passengers each. Halima pressed her bag of groundnuts against her knees and watched an old man argue with a goat that had climbed onto the luggage rack. Nobody laughed. Laughter, like water, was being saved for the long road ahead. When the engine finally coughed itself awake, a cheer rose from the passengers, the kind of cheer usually reserved for a winning goal. Halima did not cheer. She was thinking of the letter in her pocket, the one she had not yet found the courage to read. (An original passage written for AdmitMe practice.)

'the engine finally coughed itself awake' is an example of

An AdmitMe practice question, written for the JAMB syllabus. Not an official past question.