WAEC Literature in English 2024 past questions
Ten questions from the 2024 WAEC Literature in English paper, with answers and explanations. We hold 56 questions from this paper, and the Skolra app has all of them.
WAEC Literature in English 2024 questions and answers
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1.
Ife is a woman of great virtue
She is a woman of great vice illustrate
- Airony
- BantithesisCorrect
- Coxymoron
- Dparadox
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Answer: B
Antithesis places contrasting ideas in parallel grammatical structures to highlight their opposition. Here 'great virtue' is set directly against 'great vice' in two structurally identical sentences. The deliberate balancing of opposing terms in parallel phrasing defines antithesis. - A
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2.
A narrative composed in the form of a letter is
- Aan epistolary novelCorrect
- Ba bildungsroman
- Ca diary novel
- Da picaresque novel
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Answer: A
An epistolary novel is told through letters exchanged between or written by characters. Famous examples include Richardson's Pamela and Clarissa. The word comes from the Greek epistolē, meaning letter. - A
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3.
The major divisions in a play are
- Astanzas
- Bchapters
- CactsCorrect
- Dcantos
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Answer: C
A play is divided into acts, the major structural units equivalent to chapters in a novel, which may be subdivided into scenes. Chapters belong to prose fiction, stanzas to poetry, and cantos to long narrative poems. - A
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4.
A narrative that extols the deeds of a heroic figure is a
- Aballad
- Belegy
- Csonnet
- DepicCorrect
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Answer: D
An epic is a long narrative work that celebrates the extraordinary deeds of a hero of great national or cultural significance, often with supernatural elements and vast settings. Examples include Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. A ballad tells a story in song, a sonnet is a 14-line lyric, and an elegy mourns the dead. - A
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5.
The device used in She gave him lots of cash and tender attention is
- Asimile
- Bmetaphor
- CzeugmaCorrect
- Dalliteration
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Answer: C
Zeugma occurs when one verb governs objects from different categories. Here 'gave' applies literally to 'cash' and figuratively to 'tender attention'. This grammatical yoking of unlike objects under one verb is the hallmark of zeugma. - A
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6.
SECTION A: AFRICAN PROSE
Examine the relationship between Adah and Bill.- ABill actively supports Adah's writing and helps her integrate into British professional life
- BAdah and Bill enjoy a partnership of mutual respect that collapses only due to financial pressure
- CBill is a lazy, abusive husband who destroys Adah's manuscript and exploits her financiallyCorrect
- DAdah and Bill separate amicably when Bill secures a well-paying position back in Nigeria
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Answer: C
In Buchi Emecheta's Second Class Citizen, Bill represents the patriarchal oppression that Adah must overcome. He refuses to work consistently, depends on Adah's earnings, and burns her first completed manuscript out of jealousy and spite, an act that crystallizes the destructive nature of his control over her. Their relationship charts the cost of colonial gender norms transplanted to the London immigrant experience and forms the central conflict driving Adah's eventual determination to be independent.
- A
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7.
Read the lines below and answer the question:
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness painsMy sense, as though of hemlock I have drunk
The mood of the poet is that of
- Ahope and anticipation
- Banger and frustration
- Cmelancholy and languorCorrect
- Djoy and exuberance
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Answer: C
These opening lines of Keats's 'Ode to a Nightingale' create a mood of heavy, drug-like melancholy. The 'drowsy numbness' and comparison to hemlock poison establish a languid, aching emotional state that pervades the entire ode. - A
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8.
Read the lines below and answer the question:
The curl of my lips, the swing of my waist, the
The ride of my breast, the stride of my steps, the
Flash of my tech and the palm of my hand
The line is an example of
- Aalliteration
- Bonomatopoeia
- Cassonance
- DanaphoraCorrect
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Answer: D
Each unit begins with 'the' ('the curl', 'the swing', 'the ride', 'the stride', 'the flash', 'the palm'), creating repetition of the same word at the start of successive phrases. Repeating a word at the beginning of successive clauses is the device called anaphora. - A
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9.
The dominant device used in Macbeth doth murdered sleep; the innocent sleep is
- Ametaphor
- Balliteration
- CpersonificationCorrect
- Dsimile
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Answer: C
Personification attributes human qualities to abstract concepts. Sleep is treated as a being that can be murdered and possesses the human quality of innocence. Attributing human vulnerability and moral character to an abstract state confirms personification as the dominant device. - A
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10.
The overwhelming confidence and pride that lead to the fall of the protagonist is
- AhubrisCorrect
- Bnemesis
- Ccatharsis
- Dhamartia
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Answer: A
Hubris is the excessive pride or arrogance that causes a tragic hero to overstep human limits and bring about their own downfall. Nemesis is the divine retribution that follows hubris, hamartia is the broader tragic flaw, and catharsis is the audience's emotional purgation. - 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 56 questions we hold from the 2024 paper, on a timed CBT screen
Every question has the answer and an explanation, in the Skolra app.