JOINT UNIVERSITIES PRELIMINARY EXAMINATIONS BOARD

SEPTEMBER 2021 EXAMINATIONS

LITERATURE-IN-ENGLISH Time Allowed: 3 hours

SECTION A: MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

Answer all questions in this section.

Use the OMR answer sheet provided to answer the questions.

Follow the instructions on the OMR sheet.

SECTION B: ESSAY QUESTIONS

Answer FOUR questions; ONE question from each course.
Ensure you read and follow all the Instructions on the cover page of the Answer Booklet.

JAT 509 Turn Over

1
SECTION A: MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS.
Answer All Questions.

1. Aeschylus introduced an actor known as the

A. Antagonist to drama.
B. Deuteragonist to drama.
C. protagonist to drama.
D. tritagonist to drama.

2. In a typical Greek theatre, the altar of the gods is located at the

A. centre of the stage.
B. right side of the stage.
C. entrance of the theatre.
D. orchestra.

3. Exodus in Greek theatre occurs after the

A. parados.
B. epilogue.
C. stasimon.
D. prologue.

4. According to Aristotle, comedy originated from

A. choral songs.
B. phallic songs.
C. heroic songs.
D. satiric songs.

5. One difference between Greek and Renaissance tragedies is that in Renaissance, there is
A. a protagonist who introduces the theme.
B. the interference of God in the affairs of men.
C. a prologue which gives the background to the action.
D. a comic character who douses the tragic tension.

6. A dramatic work with a sensational plot is

A. satiric.
2
 B. melodramatic.
C. tragicomedic.
D. farcical.

7. A plot is linear when the

A. play ends in the same way it begins.
B. actions are without complications.
C. incidents progress chronologically.
D. events are linked by similar characters.

8. Of all the periods, Modern drama pays more attention to

A. character.
B. plot.
C. diction.
D. theme.

9. In drama, in medias res is the

A. giving of details in the middle of the exposition.
B. opening of a plot in the middle of action.
C. using flashback in the middle of the plot.
D. resolving conflict in the middle of the play.

10. In Marxist drama, a veritable tool against oppression is

A. unity.
B. religion.
C. poverty.
D. wealth.

11. As reflected in African drama, it may be concluded that the effect of the meeting with
Europe on Africa is
A. exploitative.
B. emancipating.
C. disappointing.
D. two-edged.

3
12. Interlude is a
A. comic play that is sung.
B. lenthy dramatic composition.
C. play conveying information.
D. short dramatic entertainment.

13. Unlike Modern drama, stage setting in Elizabethan theatre was reflected in
A. costume.
B. directions.
C. lighting.
D. dialogue.

14. A defining element of the modern novel is

A. voice
B. human characters
C. realism
D. episodic plot

15. An idea that recurs throughout a story is

A. image.
B. motif.
C. subject.
D. theme.

16. A new generation African novelist is

A. Ayi Kwei Armah.
B. Ngugi wa Thiong’o.
C. Uzo Iweala.
D. Elechi Amadi.

17. What distinguishes literature from other disciplines is the use of human
A. history
B. imagination

4
 C. interaction
D. mystery

18. The dominant figure of speech in the statement “Givers never lack” is
A. consonance.
B. paradox.
C. litotes.
D. oxymoron.

19. A plot that does not show a chain connection between one event and another is
A. organic.
B. chronological.
C. linear.
D. episodic.

20. A prose narrative that ridicules an entity to precipitate change is

A. sarcastic.
B. ironic.
C. didactic.
D. satiric.

21. The Victorian era differs markedly from the Romantic period because in the Victorian
period,
A. poetry became most popular.
B. Criticism became most popular.
C. Drama became most popular.
D. Prose became most popular.

22. The novel is developed from an earlier form called

A. novella.
B. romance.
C. picaresque.
D. gothic.

5
23. A prominent female novelist of the Victorian period is
A. Mary Ann Evans
B. Edith Wharton
C. Toni Morrison
D. Doris Lessing

24. A major shift evident in African post-colonial writing from that of the colonial is reflected
in the conflict between
A. African leaders and their people.
B. men and women.
C. Colonialists and the colonised.
D. man and nature.

25. The principle of rewarding and punishing action in drama is called

A. Poetic License.
B. Poetic Justice.
C. Poetic Diction.
D. Poetic Retribution.

26. The term “bathos” is also known as

A. rising action.
B. climax.
C. exposition.
D. anticlimax.

27. A metrical line of four feet is

A. pentametre.
B. heptametre.
C. tetrametre.
D. monometre.

28. Which of these periods is not reflected in the poems studied?

A. Renaissance.
B. Victorian.

6
 C. Modern.
D. Classical.

29. The predominant theme in T. S. Elliot’s ‘The Wasteland’ concerns

A. death.
B. darkness.
C. dryness.
D. danger.

30. “Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!” The Expression from ‘Ode to a
Nightingale’ illustrates
A. apostrophe.
B. euphemism.
C. antithesis.
D. hyperbole.

Use the poem below to answer the next two Questions

The royal throne of kings, this scept’red isle

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars
This other Eden, demi-paradise

31. The rhyme scheme is

A. aba.
B. abc.
C. abb.
D. aab.

32. The last line illustrates the use of

A. allusion.
B. apostrophe.
C. metaphor.
D. hyperbole.

7
33. The persona in ‘Song of Ocol’ espouses
A. Western values.
B. African values.
C. spiritual values.
D. moral values.

34. In ‘Eye of the Earth’, the persona eulogises

A. physical nature.
B. spiritual forces.
C. ancestral cord.
D. romantic love.

Use the extract below to answer the next three Questions

We brought away from battle

And much their land bemoaned them
Two thousand head of cattle
And the head of him who owned them
(Thomas Love Peacock – ‘The War Song of Dinas Vawr’)

35. The type of rhyme used is

A. enclosed rhyme.
B. coupled rhyme.
C. alternate rhyme.
D. eye rhyme.

36. The second line illustrates

A. euphemism.
B. paradox.
C. personification.
D. litotes.

37. It can be inferred from the poem that the persona is the
A. victim.
B. vassal.
C. victor.
D. villain.

8
38. The essential elements that define plot are
A. cause and effect.
B. theme and suspense.
C. structure and setting.
D. conflict and climax.

39. Criticism that sees meaning of a text basically through the author’s life is
A. philosophical.
B. sociological.
C. biographical.
D. analytical.

40. The systematic study of versification is

A. prosody.
B. eulogy.
C. cacophony.
D. melody.

Use the extract below to answer the next four Questions

The thought that he would drive Anne Murchison home late that night ran like a golden
thread through the events of the party that Francis and Julia went to, and he laughed
uproariously at dull jokes, dried a tear when Mabel Mercer told him about the death of her
kitten, and stretched, yawned, sighed, and grunted like any other man with a rendezvous
at the back of his mind.
(Culled from John Cheever – ‘Country Husband’)

41. The expression “…ran like a golden thread” illustrates

A. metaphor.
B. simile.
C. personification.
D. hyperbole.

42. The expression “…he laughed uproariously at dull jokes” denotes

A. litotes.
B. hyperbole.
C. paradox.
9
 D. irony.

43. “… stretched, yawned, sighed and grunted” contains which images?

A. Kinesthetic, visual and auditory.
B. Kinesthetic, thermal and tactile.
C. Kinesthetic, thermal and olfactory.
D. Kinesthetic, tactile and auditory.

44. It can be deduced from the passage that the character being described is
A. responsible.
B. pretentious.
C. comedic.
D. bored.

45. A character saying he will not do a thing and then going ahead to do it exemplifies
A. paralipsis.
B. innuendo.
C. paradox.
D. chiasmus.

Use the extract below to answer the next two Questions.

There was a young lady of Riga

Who smiled when she rode on a tiger
They returned from the ride
With the lady inside,
And a smile on the face of the tiger
(Anonymous)

46. The poem is a/an

A. dirge.
B. epitaph.
C. allegory.
D. limerick.

10
47. The last line in the poem evidences the presence of
A. irony
B. pun
C. paradox
D. antithesis

Use the extract below to answer the next two Questions

“A succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained
form, seemed to thrust me violently back.”

(Edgar Allan Poe – ‘The Cask of Amontillado’)

48. The dominant device presented here is

A. personification.
B. metaphor.
C. hyperbole.
D. onomatopoeia.

49. The image evoked from the expression is that of a

A. screaming man.
B. terrible man.
C. frightened dog.
D. barking dog.

50. Seeing that there’s no other way,

I turn his absence into a chair.
I can sit in it,
gaze out through the window
(Roo Barson – ‘After a Death’)
To the persona, the chair becomes a symbol of
A. grief.
B. consolation.
C. rejection.
D. loss.

11
SECTION B: ESSAY QUESTIONS.
Answer FOUR Questions; One Question from each Course.

LIT 001: INTRODUCTION TO DRAMA

1. Examine the statement that identifying the tragic hero of Sophocles’ Antigone is
contentious. [15 marks]
2. Demonstrate how irony is used as a device in King Oedipus. [15 marks]
3. Show how I Will Marry When I Want is a Marxist drama. [15 marks]
4. Discuss armed robbery as a symbol of failure of governance in Once Upon Four Robbers.
[15 marks]

LIT 002: INTRODUCTION TO PROSE FICTION

5. Explain the significance of Coketown in Charles Dickens’ Hard Times. [15 marks]
6. Describe the treatment of women in the Victorian era as portrayed in George Eliot’s
The Mill on the Floss. [15 marks]
7. Highlight the significance of the strike in Sembene Ousmane’s God’s Bits of Wood.
[15 marks]
8. Comment on Chinua Achebe’s mode of narration in Anthills of the Savannah.
[15 marks]

LIT 003: INTRODUCTION TO POETRY

9. Discuss T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland as a representation of the 20th century poem.
[15 marks]
10. Describe the presentation of the earth in Niyi Osundare’s “Homecall” in Eye of the Earth.
[15 marks]
11. Explain the theme of injustice in Gbemisola Adeoti’s “Hard lines” [15 marks]
12. Discuss the significance of dreams as a technique for recreating man in Faerie Queene.
[15 marks]

12
LIT 004: LITERARY APPRECIATION AND PRACTICAL CRTICISM
Use the questions below to show your understanding of the passage that follows:
Why stop fasting at this particular moment, after forty days of it? He had held out for a long time,
an illimitably long time; why stop now, when he was in his best fasting form or rather, not yet
quite in his best fasting form? Why should he be cheated of the fame he would get for fasting
longer, for being not only the record hunger artist of all time, which presumable he was already,
but for beating his own record by a performance beyond human imagination, since he felt that
there were no limits to his capacity for fasting? His public pretended to admire him so much, why
should it have so little patience with him; if he could endure fasting longer, why shouldn’t the
public endure it? Besides, he was tired, he was comfortable sitting in the straw, and now he was
supposed to lift himself to his full height and go down to a meal the very thought of which gave
him a nausea that only the presence of the ladies kept him from betraying, and even that with an
effort.
(Culled from Franz Kafka – ‘A hunger Artist’)

13. (a) Justifying your choice, state the point of view employed in the passage.

(b) Evaluate the subject’s perception of the audience.

(c) Which critical approach is most suitable in the analysis of the passage? Justify your choice.
[15 marks]

14. Use the questions below to show an understanding of the poem that follows:

Save us from the night

From bleak open highways
Without end, and the fluorescent
Oases of gas stations
from the gunning of immortal
engines past midnight
when time has no meaning,
from all night cafes,
their ghoulish slices of pie
(Roo Borson – ‘Save us From’)

(a) With reference to the words, phrases and devices employed, explain the concern of this
poem.
(b) Which critical approach is most suitable in the analysis of the passage? Justify your choice.
[15 marks]

13