WAEC Literature in English 2022 past questions
Ten questions from the 2022 WAEC Literature in English paper, with answers and explanations. We hold 62 questions from this paper, and the Skolra app has all of them.
WAEC Literature in English 2022 questions and answers
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1.
In drama, catharsis is the
- ATurning point at which the hero's fate reverses
- BComic relief inserted into a serious dramatic work
- CEmotional purging experienced by the audience at the close of a tragedyCorrect
- DCentral conflict that drives the plot forward
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Answer: C
Aristotle described catharsis as the release or purging of emotions — especially pity and fear — that the audience undergoes at the conclusion of a tragedy, leaving them emotionally cleansed rather than overwhelmed.
- A
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2.
Men swift to see things done , do not run their commanding.
The words in italics exemplify
- AAntithesis
- BSimile
- CAlliteration
- DParadoxCorrect
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Answer: D
Men renowned for their swiftness are said not to run their commanding, placing speed and deliberate restraint in the same subject — an apparent contradiction that yields a meaningful truth, which is the hallmark of paradox.
- A
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3.
Several hands stretched out for free meals at the refugee camp illustrates
- AIrony
- BPersonification
- CSynecdocheCorrect
- DMetaphor
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Answer: C
"Hands" stands in for the whole persons reaching out for food, substituting a single body part for the complete human beings — using a part to represent the whole, which is the figure of speech known as synecdoche.
- A
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4.
My bounty is as boundless as the sea my love as deep
The above lines illustrate
- APersonification
- BMetaphor
- CHyperbole
- DSimileCorrect
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Answer: D
The speaker compares her bounty and her love to the sea using the word "as," and any comparison that employs "as" or "like" to link two unlike things is a simile rather than a metaphor.
- A
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5.
At the fall of their house, the widow lost her husband, her sewing machine and her ear-rings illustrates
- Aparadox
- Bclimax
- Cpersonification
- DbathosCorrect
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Answer: D
The sentence lists the widow's losses in descending order of emotional significance—from her husband to a sewing machine to mere ear-rings—creating bathos as the gravity of bereavement is deflated by the inclusion of trivial objects.
- A
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6.
WOLE SOYINKA: The Lion and the Jewel
How is the contest between tradition and modernity presented in the play?
- AThe contest is presented as a straightforward and decisive victory of modernity over tradition
- BThe contest is embodied in the rival claims of Baroka and Lakunle on Sidi, with the Bale representing tradition and the schoolteacher representing modernityCorrect
- CThe tension between tradition and modernity is treated as only a minor subplot beside the main romantic intrigue
- DThe play presents tradition and modernity as equally valid and ultimately compatible ways of life that can coexist without conflict
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Answer: B
Soyinka stages the tradition-versus-modernity conflict as a contest for Sidi, with the cunning Baroka embodying rooted tradition and the Westernised Lakunle embodying hollow imitation of modernity; Baroka's triumph signals the play's complex, ironic appraisal of both forces.
- A
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7.
The warriors conquered my men and my country illustrates the use of
- APersonification
- BZeugmaCorrect
- CMetaphor
- DHyperbole
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Answer: B
The single verb "conquered" is made to govern two objects — "my men" and "my country" — in grammatically parallel but semantically different senses, which is precisely the figure of speech known as zeugma.
- A
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8.
Poetry gets bored of being alone
It wants to go outdoors to chew the winds.The mental picture evoked in the above lines is that of
- AA child crying from loneliness
- BA bird escaping from its cage
- CA writer struggling with writer's block
- DA restless living thing seeking freedom in the open airCorrect
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Answer: D
The lines give poetry human qualities and desires — boredom, the urge to go outside, and the vivid act of chewing winds — conjuring an image of a restless, living creature eager for activity in the open, not a static or enclosed one.
- A
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9.
Disguise in drama mostly portrays the theme of
- APoverty and suffering
- BLoyalty and betrayal
- CLove and romance
- DAppearance versus realityCorrect
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Answer: D
When a character disguises themselves, the gap between their true identity and the false persona they project drives the dramatic tension around what is genuine and what is fabricated, making appearance versus reality the theme disguise most consistently explores.
- A
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10.
A short play performed between the acts of a bigger play for entertainment is
- AInterludeCorrect
- BSoliloquy
- CEpilogue
- DPrologue
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Answer: A
An interlude is a short dramatic or musical entertainment performed between the acts of a longer play; a prologue and epilogue frame the entire production, while a soliloquy is a speech delivered by a single character within a scene.
- A
The questions come from past JAMB, WAEC and NECO papers. We use software to help write the answer options and explanations, and every answer is checked twice before it goes on the site. How we check
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Practise all 62 questions we hold from the 2022 paper, on a timed CBT screen
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