WAEC - Literature In English (2020)

1
A situation where an audience is aware of an action a character is ignorant of is ________
Answer
(A)
dramatic irony
2
A fictional prose which is neither a novel nor a short story is a/an __________
Answer
(C)
novella
3
Condensed use of language is a dominant feature of  ___________
Answer
(B)
poetry
4
The sudden reversal of a character's fortune in a literary work is _________
Answer
(D)
peripeteia
5

Read the extract below and answer Questions 5 to 7.

With the pen, he wrote kings into reality

With his words, kingdoms arose,

Those same words, slaves inhaled

Their hands building walls, their feet tromping territories

His pen was like the breath of life.

The underlined words illustrate ________

Answer
(A)
hyperbole
6
hands and feet in line 4 illustrate _________
Answer
(D)
synecdoche
7
His pen was like the breath of life exemplifies ________
Answer
(D)
simile
8
Comic relief occurs in ________
Answer
(D)
tragedies
9
Students rarely read Julius Caesar these days illustrates ________
Answer
(B)
eponym
10
In Literature, the term poetic justice applies to __________
Answer
(D)
the rewarding of good characters and the punishing of bad ones.
11
Ascribing human moods to nature, as in a playful-breeze illustrates _________
Answer
(B)
pathetic fallacy
12
The end of a performance is followed by ________
Answer
(A)
a curtain call
13

Read the lines and answer the question:

The underlined words illustrate:

Marching along fifty score strong

Great hearted gentlemen singing this song

Answer
(A)
assonance
14
A short poem with a witty or sarcastic ending is a/an __________
Answer
(C)
epigram
15
 The big boulder blasted the house illustrates _________
Answer
(A)
alliteration
16

Read the extract and answer Questions 17 and 18.

I find no peace and all my war is done

I fear and hope. I burn and freeze like ice.

The dominant literary device used in the lines is ________

Answer
(C)
paradox
17

I find no peace and all my war is done

I fear and hope. I burn and freeze like ice.

The feeling of the narrator in the extract is to one of ________

Answer
(A)
Confusion
18
Which of the following is written by an African playwright?
Answer
(D)
The Blood of a stranger
19
Which of the following is written by a Non-African poet?
Answer
(C)
The Schoolboy
20

Read the passage and answer Questions 21 to 25.

On, on, on, over the countless miles of angry space roll the long heaving OT angry space roll the long heaving billows. Mountains and caves are here; for what is now the other; then all is but a boiling heap of rushing water. Pursuit, and flight and mad return of and savage struggle, ending up in a spouting up of foam that whitens the black night; incessant change of place and form and hue; constancy in nothing but eternal strife.

On, on, on, they roll and darker grows the night: and louder howls the wind and more clamorous and fierce become the million voices in the sea, when the wild cry goes forth upon the storm, "A ship!"

The most suitable title for the passage is ________

Answer
(B)
At Sea on a Stormy Night.
21
The predominant use of long vowels in the first sentence heightens the ______ of the waves
Answer
(D)
endless movement
22
The writer's attitude to the scene is one of _________
Answer
(A)
anxiety
23
The expression million voices is used as _________
Answer
(C)
hyperbole
24
A ship in the last line symbolises _________
Answer
(B)
hope
25

Read the poem and answer Questions 26 to 30.

Oft in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me

Fond memory brings the light

of other days around me:

The smiles, the tears

of boyhood years.

The words of love then spoken;

The eyes that shone

How dimm'd and.gone

The cheerful hearts now broken!

Thus in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me.

The theme is about the poet's _________

Answer
(D)
yearning for happier times gone
26

Read the poem and answer Questions 26 to 30.

Oft in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me

Fond memory brings the light

of other days around me:

The smiles, the tears

of boyhood years.

The words of love then spoken;

The eyes that shone

How dimm'd and.gone

The cheerful hearts now broken!

Thus in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me.

The theme of the poem is presented essentially through ________

Answer
(B)
contrast.
27

Read the poem and answer Questions 26 to 30.

Oft in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me

Fond memory brings the light

of other days around me:

The smiles, the tears

of boyhood years.

The words of love then spoken;

The eyes that shone

How dimm'd and.gone

The cheerful hearts now broken!

Thus in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me.

 

The two words that give hint of the poet's unhappiness are?

Answer
(C)
night and dimm'd
28

Read the poem and answer Questions 26 to 30.

Oft in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me

Fond memory brings the light

of other days around me:

The smiles, the tears

of boyhood years.

The words of love then spoken;

The eyes that shone

How dimm'd and.gone

The cheerful hearts now broken!

Thus in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me.

 

The poet refers to memory as being 'fond' and 'sad' because it brings?

Answer
(D)
smiles and tears
29

Read the poem and answer Questions 26 to 30.

Oft in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me

Fond memory brings the light

of other days around me:

The smiles, the tears

of boyhood years.

The words of love then spoken;

The eyes that shone

How dimm'd and.gone

The cheerful hearts now broken!

Thus in the stilly night

Ere slumber's chain has bound me.

 

The meaning of the expression, Ere slumber's chain has bound me is

Answer
(D)
since i cannot sleep
30

Read the extract and answer Questions 31 to 35.

Zounds, sir, y' are robbed! For shame, put on your gown!

Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul.

Even now, very now, an old black ram 

Is tupping your white eww. Arise. arise!

Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,

Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you

Arise i say!

 (Act 1, scene one,lines 83 - 89) 

The speaker is _________

Answer
(B)
Iago
31

Read the extract and answer Questions 31 to 35.

Zounds, sir, y' are robbed! For shame, put on your gown!

Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul.

Even now, very now, an old black ram
is tupping your white eww. 
Arise. arise!

Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,

Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you

Arise i say!

 (Act 1, scene one,lines 83 - 89) 

The listener's initial reaction to the speech is one of _________

Answer
(A)
anger
32

Read the extract and answer Questions 31 to 35.

Zounds, sir, y' are robbed! For shame, put on your gown!

Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul.

Even now, very now, an old black ram
is tupping your white eww. 
Arise. arise!

Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,

Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you

Arise i say!

 (Act 1, scene one,lines 83 - 89) 

The underlined expression implies an attitude of __________

Answer
(C)
racism
33

Read the extract and answer Questions 31 to 35.

Zounds, sir, y' are robbed! For shame, put on your gown!

Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul.

Even now, very now, an old black ram
is tupping your white eww. 
Arise. arise!

Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,

Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you

Arise i say!

 (Act 1, scene one,lines 83 - 89) 

... y' are robbed! refers to

Answer
(A)
Brabantio's r-ejection of Othello
34

Read the extract and answer Questions 31 to 35.

Zounds, sir, y' are robbed! For shame, put on your gown!

Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul.

Even now, very now, an old black ram
is tupping your white eww
Arise. arise!

Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,

Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you

Arise i say!

 (Act 1, scene one,lines 83 - 89) 

 

The speaker is ________

Answer
(B)
In front of Brabantio's house
35

Read the extract and answer Questions 36 to 40.
I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a
commander with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet
an officer. Drunk! And speak parrot! And squabble!
swagger! Swear! And discourse fustian with one's own
shadow! a thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no
name to be known by, let us call thee devil!
 (Act II, Scene Three, lines 262-267)

The speaker is

Answer
(A)
cassio
36

Read the extract and answer Questions 36 to 40.
I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a
commander with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet
an officer. Drunk! And speak parrot! And squabble!
swagger! Swear! And discourse fustian with one's own
shadow! a thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no
name to be known by, let us call thee devil!
 (Act II, Scene Three, lines 262-267)

The speaker is addressing

Answer
(B)
Iago
37

Read the extract and answer Questions 36 to 40.
I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a
commander with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet
an officer. Drunk! And speak parrot! And squabble!
swagger! Swear! And discourse fustian with one's own
shadow! a thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no
name to be known by, let us call thee devil!
 (Act II, Scene Three, lines 262-267)

The mood is that of

Answer
(B)
envy
38

Read the extract and answer Questions 36 to 40.
I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a
commander with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet
an officer. Drunk! And speak parrot! And squabble!
swagger! Swear! And discourse fustian with one's own
shadow! a thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no
name to be known by, let us call thee devil!
 (Act II, Scene Three, lines 262-267)

.... so good a commander refers to

Answer
(C)
Othelo
39

Read the extract and answer Questions 36 to 40.
I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a
commander with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet
an officer. Drunk! And speak parrot! And squabble!
swagger! Swear! And discourse fustian with one's own
shadow! a thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no
name to be known by, let us call thee devil!
 (Act II, Scene Three, lines 262-267)

The underlined expression exemplifies __________

Answer
(B)
apostrophe
40

Read the extract and answer Questions 41 to 45. 41.

This sight would make him do a desperate turn:

Yea, curse his better angel from his side,

Speaker Y: T is pitiful, but yet lago knows

A thousand times committed.

Cassio confessed it;

.. he ..., referred to by Speaker X, is __________

Answer
(A)
Brabantio
41
..do a desperate turn means _______
Answer
(D)
kill Othello
42
From the novel; Othello

Speaker Y's speech shows that _________

Answer
(C)
he is unrepentant
43
Speaker Y has just ______
Answer
(B)
killed, Desdemona
44
Just after this dialogue __________
Answer
(B)
Emilia realises her culpability
45

Read the extract and answer Questions 46 to 50.

O thou dull Moor, that handkerchief thou speak'st of

I found by fortune, and did give my husband;

For often with a solemn earnestness-

More than indeed belonged to such a trifie-

He begged of me to steal't. (Act V, Scene Two, lines 223 - 227)

The speaker is _________

Answer
(D)
Emilia