JAMB Literature in English questions: Literary appreciation: unseen prose

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

1. Question 1· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

   Read the passage and answer the question. Obinna had promised himself that he would not look back at the bus park. Yet as the bus pulled away from Ninth Mile, groaning like an old man climbing stairs, he turned and saw his mother still standing by the roadside, her wrapper flapping in the dust. He had always thought leaving would feel like flying. Instead it felt like a rope being slowly pulled from his hands, inch by inch, until only the burn remained. (An original passage written for AdmitMe practice.)

   Obinna's turning to look back shows that

   • Ahe was angry with his mother
   • Bhis feelings were stronger than his promise
   • Che had forgotten his bag
   • Dthe bus had stopped

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   Explanation and discussion

2. Question 2· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

   Read the passage below and answer the question. Mama Ngozi's shop stood at the corner of Ugbene Street like an old soldier who had refused to retire. Its zinc roof had rusted to the colour of kola nuts, and its door, which had not closed properly since the flood two rainy seasons ago, was held shut at night by a stone and a prayer. Yet every morning the children came, coins warm in their palms, to buy groundnuts and chin-chin, and every morning Mama Ngozi greeted each of them by name, as though each one were the first customer she had ever had. 'Business is not money,' she told her son Emeka, who had come home from Lagos with a phone that never stopped ringing and plans that never stopped growing. 'Business is people.' Emeka laughed and said she was living in the past. She only smiled and wiped the counter again.

   Mama Ngozi's words 'Business is people' show that she values

   • Alarge shops
   • Bquick profit
   • Cmodern technology
   • Dher relationships with customers

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   Explanation and discussion

3. Question 3· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

   Read the passage and answer the question. Obinna had promised himself that he would not look back at the bus park. Yet as the bus pulled away from Ninth Mile, groaning like an old man climbing stairs, he turned and saw his mother still standing by the roadside, her wrapper flapping in the dust. He had always thought leaving would feel like flying. Instead it felt like a rope being slowly pulled from his hands, inch by inch, until only the burn remained. (An original passage written for AdmitMe practice.)

   'groaning like an old man climbing stairs' is

   • Aa metaphor
   • Ba simile
   • Conomatopoeia only
   • Dapostrophe

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   Explanation and discussion

4. Question 4· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

   Read the passage and answer the question. Obinna had promised himself that he would not look back at the bus park. Yet as the bus pulled away from Ninth Mile, groaning like an old man climbing stairs, he turned and saw his mother still standing by the roadside, her wrapper flapping in the dust. He had always thought leaving would feel like flying. Instead it felt like a rope being slowly pulled from his hands, inch by inch, until only the burn remained. (An original passage written for AdmitMe practice.)

   The passage is mainly about

   • Aa wedding
   • Ba bus accident
   • Ca busy market
   • Dthe pain of leaving home

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   Explanation and discussion

5. Question 5· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

   Read the passage below and answer the question. When the bus finally coughed into Ore junction, Tunde had already decided that he would not cry. The hawkers surged forward, waving trays of roasted plantain and bottles of water above their heads like flags, and their voices rose into one long, cheerful quarrel. He pressed his forehead against the dusty window. Somewhere behind him, in a village whose name the city boys would laugh at, his grandmother was probably sweeping the compound, humming the song she always hummed when she was pretending not to be sad. 'You will come back a big man,' she had said, folding his two shirts as carefully as if they were made of gold. Tunde had nodded, because grown-ups like nodding. Now, watching a little girl his age balance a basin of oranges on her head, he wondered who had folded her shirts that morning.

   The passage is narrated from the point of view of a

   • Afirst-person narrator
   • Bthird-person narrator close to Tunde's thoughts
   • Csecond-person narrator
   • Dchorus of hawkers

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   Explanation and discussion

6. Question 6· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

   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.)

   Halima's refusal to cheer suggests that she is

   • Aasleep
   • Bhappy
   • Cpreoccupied with a personal worry
   • Dangry with the driver

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   Explanation and discussion

7. Question 7· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

   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 conductor's shout 'One chance!' is ironic because

   • Athere are many empty seats
   • Bthe bus is already overcrowded
   • Cthe bus has left
   • Dhe is silent

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   Explanation and discussion

8. Question 8· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

   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 narrative point of view in the passage is

   • Athird person
   • Bfirst person
   • Csecond person
   • Dstream of consciousness only

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   Explanation and discussion

9. Question 9· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

   Read the passage below and answer the question. Mama Ngozi's shop stood at the corner of Ugbene Street like an old soldier who had refused to retire. Its zinc roof had rusted to the colour of kola nuts, and its door, which had not closed properly since the flood two rainy seasons ago, was held shut at night by a stone and a prayer. Yet every morning the children came, coins warm in their palms, to buy groundnuts and chin-chin, and every morning Mama Ngozi greeted each of them by name, as though each one were the first customer she had ever had. 'Business is not money,' she told her son Emeka, who had come home from Lagos with a phone that never stopped ringing and plans that never stopped growing. 'Business is people.' Emeka laughed and said she was living in the past. She only smiled and wiped the counter again.

   The passage about Mama Ngozi's shop is told by

   • Aone of the children
   • BMama Ngozi herself
   • CEmeka
   • Da third-person narrator

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   Explanation and discussion

10. Question 10· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

    Read the passage below and answer the question. When the bus finally coughed into Ore junction, Tunde had already decided that he would not cry. The hawkers surged forward, waving trays of roasted plantain and bottles of water above their heads like flags, and their voices rose into one long, cheerful quarrel. He pressed his forehead against the dusty window. Somewhere behind him, in a village whose name the city boys would laugh at, his grandmother was probably sweeping the compound, humming the song she always hummed when she was pretending not to be sad. 'You will come back a big man,' she had said, folding his two shirts as carefully as if they were made of gold. Tunde had nodded, because grown-ups like nodding. Now, watching a little girl his age balance a basin of oranges on her head, he wondered who had folded her shirts that morning.

    The expression 'one long, cheerful quarrel' is an example of

    • Aoxymoron
    • Bhyperbole
    • Cmetonymy
    • Dapostrophe

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    Explanation and discussion

11. Question 11· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

    Read the passage below and answer the question. Mama Ngozi's shop stood at the corner of Ugbene Street like an old soldier who had refused to retire. Its zinc roof had rusted to the colour of kola nuts, and its door, which had not closed properly since the flood two rainy seasons ago, was held shut at night by a stone and a prayer. Yet every morning the children came, coins warm in their palms, to buy groundnuts and chin-chin, and every morning Mama Ngozi greeted each of them by name, as though each one were the first customer she had ever had. 'Business is not money,' she told her son Emeka, who had come home from Lagos with a phone that never stopped ringing and plans that never stopped growing. 'Business is people.' Emeka laughed and said she was living in the past. She only smiled and wiped the counter again.

    Mama Ngozi's reaction when Emeka laughs at her shows her

    • Aanger
    • Bquiet confidence
    • Cconfusion
    • Dshame

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    Explanation and discussion

12. Question 12· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

    Read the passage below and answer the question. Mama Ngozi's shop stood at the corner of Ugbene Street like an old soldier who had refused to retire. Its zinc roof had rusted to the colour of kola nuts, and its door, which had not closed properly since the flood two rainy seasons ago, was held shut at night by a stone and a prayer. Yet every morning the children came, coins warm in their palms, to buy groundnuts and chin-chin, and every morning Mama Ngozi greeted each of them by name, as though each one were the first customer she had ever had. 'Business is not money,' she told her son Emeka, who had come home from Lagos with a phone that never stopped ringing and plans that never stopped growing. 'Business is people.' Emeka laughed and said she was living in the past. She only smiled and wiped the counter again.

    The contrast between Mama Ngozi and Emeka in the passage is mainly between

    • Ahealth and illness
    • Bwealth and poverty
    • Ctraditional values and modern ambition
    • Dthe city and the sea

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    Explanation and discussion

13. Question 13· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

    Read the passage and answer the question. Obinna had promised himself that he would not look back at the bus park. Yet as the bus pulled away from Ninth Mile, groaning like an old man climbing stairs, he turned and saw his mother still standing by the roadside, her wrapper flapping in the dust. He had always thought leaving would feel like flying. Instead it felt like a rope being slowly pulled from his hands, inch by inch, until only the burn remained. (An original passage written for AdmitMe practice.)

    The passage is narrated

    • Ain the second person
    • Bin the first person
    • Cin the third person, close to Obinna's feelings
    • Dfrom the mother's point of view

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    Explanation and discussion

14. Question 14· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

    Read the passage below and answer the question. When the bus finally coughed into Ore junction, Tunde had already decided that he would not cry. The hawkers surged forward, waving trays of roasted plantain and bottles of water above their heads like flags, and their voices rose into one long, cheerful quarrel. He pressed his forehead against the dusty window. Somewhere behind him, in a village whose name the city boys would laugh at, his grandmother was probably sweeping the compound, humming the song she always hummed when she was pretending not to be sad. 'You will come back a big man,' she had said, folding his two shirts as carefully as if they were made of gold. Tunde had nodded, because grown-ups like nodding. Now, watching a little girl his age balance a basin of oranges on her head, he wondered who had folded her shirts that morning.

    'waving trays … above their heads like flags' is an example of

    • Ametaphor
    • Birony
    • Csimile
    • Dsynecdoche

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    Explanation and discussion

15. Question 15· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

    Read the passage below and answer the question. When the bus finally coughed into Ore junction, Tunde had already decided that he would not cry. The hawkers surged forward, waving trays of roasted plantain and bottles of water above their heads like flags, and their voices rose into one long, cheerful quarrel. He pressed his forehead against the dusty window. Somewhere behind him, in a village whose name the city boys would laugh at, his grandmother was probably sweeping the compound, humming the song she always hummed when she was pretending not to be sad. 'You will come back a big man,' she had said, folding his two shirts as carefully as if they were made of gold. Tunde had nodded, because grown-ups like nodding. Now, watching a little girl his age balance a basin of oranges on her head, he wondered who had folded her shirts that morning.

    The grandmother's humming suggests that she

    • Awas angry with Tunde
    • Bwas praying for rain
    • Cwas hiding her sadness
    • Dhad forgotten Tunde

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    Explanation and discussion

16. Question 16· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

    Read the passage below and answer the question. Mama Ngozi's shop stood at the corner of Ugbene Street like an old soldier who had refused to retire. Its zinc roof had rusted to the colour of kola nuts, and its door, which had not closed properly since the flood two rainy seasons ago, was held shut at night by a stone and a prayer. Yet every morning the children came, coins warm in their palms, to buy groundnuts and chin-chin, and every morning Mama Ngozi greeted each of them by name, as though each one were the first customer she had ever had. 'Business is not money,' she told her son Emeka, who had come home from Lagos with a phone that never stopped ringing and plans that never stopped growing. 'Business is people.' Emeka laughed and said she was living in the past. She only smiled and wiped the counter again.

    Comparing the shop to 'an old soldier who had refused to retire' suggests that the shop is

    • Aowned by the army
    • Babout to be pulled down
    • Cnewly built
    • Dold but still standing firm

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    Explanation and discussion

17. Question 17· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

    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.)

    'Laughter, like water, was being saved for the long road ahead' contains

    • Aa metaphor only
    • Ba simile
    • Conomatopoeia
    • Da rhetorical question

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    Explanation and discussion

18. Question 18· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

    Read the passage below and answer the question. When the bus finally coughed into Ore junction, Tunde had already decided that he would not cry. The hawkers surged forward, waving trays of roasted plantain and bottles of water above their heads like flags, and their voices rose into one long, cheerful quarrel. He pressed his forehead against the dusty window. Somewhere behind him, in a village whose name the city boys would laugh at, his grandmother was probably sweeping the compound, humming the song she always hummed when she was pretending not to be sad. 'You will come back a big man,' she had said, folding his two shirts as carefully as if they were made of gold. Tunde had nodded, because grown-ups like nodding. Now, watching a little girl his age balance a basin of oranges on her head, he wondered who had folded her shirts that morning.

    The writer's attitude to Tunde in the passage is best described as

    • Amocking
    • Bsympathetic
    • Cindifferent
    • Dhostile

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    Explanation and discussion

19. Question 19· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

    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

    • Alitotes
    • Bhyperbole
    • Cparadox
    • Dpersonification

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    Explanation and discussion

20. Question 20· Literary appreciation: unseen prose· JAMB

    Read the passage below and answer the question. Mama Ngozi's shop stood at the corner of Ugbene Street like an old soldier who had refused to retire. Its zinc roof had rusted to the colour of kola nuts, and its door, which had not closed properly since the flood two rainy seasons ago, was held shut at night by a stone and a prayer. Yet every morning the children came, coins warm in their palms, to buy groundnuts and chin-chin, and every morning Mama Ngozi greeted each of them by name, as though each one were the first customer she had ever had. 'Business is not money,' she told her son Emeka, who had come home from Lagos with a phone that never stopped ringing and plans that never stopped growing. 'Business is people.' Emeka laughed and said she was living in the past. She only smiled and wiped the counter again.

    'a phone that never stopped ringing and plans that never stopped growing' is an example of

    • Aapostrophe
    • Bantithesis
    • Cparallelism
    • Dbathos

    Show answer

    Explanation and discussion