English-Language Exam Past Questions and Answers | JAMB, WAEC and NECO

English is the study of the English language. The goal is to improve communication skills by practicing listening, speaking, reading, writing, and understanding language rules like pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.

• Question 1601:

  In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fills the gap(s).:

  The chairman's daughter's laughter was with no _____ to ridicule the applicant

  Options:
  A) intention
  B) intend
  C) intendment
  D) intent
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 1602:

  Fill the blank spaces with the most appropriate of options A-E:

  His hair needs _____

  Options:
  A) to cut
  B) to have cut
  C) being cut
  D) to be cutting
  E) cutting
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is E .
• Question 1603:

  In the question below choose the option nearest in meaning to the word(s) or phrase underlined:

  Look at the tell-tale signs of battering on her

  Options:
  A) confirming looks
  B) suspicious marks
  C) revealing marks
  D) signifying marks
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 1604:

  Fill the blank spaces with the most appropriate of options A-E:

  I ….. him before he came into the room.

  Options:
  A) Have seen
  B) Have not
  C) Used to see
  D) See
  E) Had seen
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is E .
• Question 1605:

  The root of problem which bedevil rural dwellers in Nigeria can be traced to the sad fact that work opportunities are so restricted that they cannot work their way out of poverty and misery. Though a great number of Nigerians still live in the villages and small towns, work opportunities exist mainly in the big cities where development efforts are concentrated. The reason usually given for his obvious lapse is that it is easier to establish industries and to find finance and markets to keep them going in the big cities and towns than in the rural areas where productivity is low because of mass illiteracy and poverty.

  As capital is the product of human work, rural dwellers who are desperate enough to overcome poverty often leave the villages in search of some kind of existence in the big cities and towns. Therefore, rural unemployment in Nigeria produces mass migration into the cities, leading to a rate of urban growth which seriously taxes the resources of even the biggest cities like Ibadan, Lagos, Abuja and Kano. Form the sad experience of these cities; it is easy to see how rural unemployment can become urban unemployment with the attendant social problems like robbery, overcrowding and the growth of shanties or slums.

  Such problems cannot be wished away but will remain with us until deliberate efforts are made to bring health to economic life outside the big cities in order to check the migration of destitute rural dwellers into town and cities that cannot absorb them.

  It is necessary; therefore, that at least an important part of the development effort should bypass the bid cities and be concerned with the provision of viable infrastructure in the small town s and villages. In this connection, it is necessary to emphasize that the primary need is workplaces. The task should be to bring into existence thousands or millions of new workplaces in the rural areas and small towns in order to maximize work opportunities for rural dwellers.

  For this proposition to make sense, first, the work opportunities should be created in the rural areas where the majority of the people live, not where they tend to migrate for lack of opportunities. Second, the production method employed must be relatively simple, so that the demands for high skills are minimized not only in the production process itself but also in matters of organization, raw material supply, financing, marketing and so forth. Third, production should be mainly from local materials and for local use. Lastly, rural workplaces should be cheap enough so that they can be created in large numbers. These four requirements together meet the description of what is usually called ‘cottage industry’. Millions of them are needed for rural transformation in Nigeria and to check the dangerous process of mutual poisoning between urban and rural areas in the country.

  the expression mutual poisoning as used in the passage suggest that Options:
  A) rural and urban areas complement each other
  B) migration can make urban and rural people sick
  C) rural people violates urban hygiene
  D) migration negates effective urban and rural life
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is D .
• Question 1606:

  Questions below are based on Bolaji Abdullahi's "Sweet Sixteen"

  In the novel, we learnt that

  Options:
  A) it pays to be diligent and hardworking
  B) beauty without character is nothing
  C) love and companionship are a no-go-area for teenagers
  D) one should follow the propagation of the media
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 1607:
  A British electronics manufacturer has built a factory in which quartz crystals can be grown in 3 weeks. The natural growth of quartz takes 3 million years, and very often the crystals are not sufficiently pure to satisfy the precise needs of science. However, the manufactured crystals are exceptionally pure, and this is important because quartz, in transistors is used in an astonishing number of devices where constant accuracy is required: radio and television transmitters and receivers, space satellites and computers are familiar examples. In order to make artificial quartz, very small pieces of the natural crystal imported from Brazil are placed in long, narrow, steel cylinders. A high pressure and a high temperature are maintained within the cylinders for 3 weeks, and at the end of this the small fragments have grown to the required weight of one pound. The quartz is then ready to be made into the tiny transistors that have replaced the much larger thermionic valves.
  Transistors have Options:
  A) helped to rodce quartz
  B) made radio and television inaccessible to the working populace
  C) made transmitters and receivers smaller and lighter
  D) retarded progress in electronics
  E) made transmitters and receivers bigger and heavier
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 1608:

  Whatever may be its wider implications, the explosion of hydrogen bomb is, for the meteorologist, simply another atmospheric disturbance. It should therefore be classed with certain rare natural...such as volcanic ...12... But there are certain features of a man-made disturbance that requires special examination. As with all events on this ...13...It is impossible to describe what happens in details. However we can be reasonably sure of the main effects, and most impressive of these arises from ...14...The immediate result of the ...15... is that the air surrounding the bomb is raised very rapidly to an enormously high...16... The hot gases expand violently as great....17...compressing the air around them into what is called...18... or blast wave that is responsible for much of terrible destructive power of the weapon.

  Another kind of wave arises because of the weight of the air. The force of the explosion lifts the ...19...waves. Waves of this type are normally felt by human beings and they have their effect on the weather.

  Adapted from Ayoola K.(2007) University for All Students, Lagos, Nigeria: Olive Free Venture

  Choose the most appropriate answer in the numbered 13 Options:
  A) skate
  B) snow
  C) scale
  D) scanner
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is C .
• Question 1609:

  The word in capital letters has an emphatic stress, Choose the option that best fits the expression in the sentence?

  The electricity in OUR premises comes from a generator?

  Options:
  A) Is the electricity in your compound supplied by a generator
  B) Is the electricity in your neighbour's premises supplied by a generator
  C) Does the electricity in your premises come from NEPA
  D) Does everybody in your street receive electricity from generator
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .
• Question 1610:

  In the question below choose the option nearest in meaning to the word(s) or phrase underlined:

  His attempts were nipped in the bud

  Options:
  A) unsuccessful
  B) cut short
  C) frustrated
  D) disqualified
  Show Answer
  The correct answer is B .