42 questions. Try each one, then open the answer to check yourself and read the explanation.
In J.C. De Graft's Sons and Daughters, James Ofosu's desire is to see Maanan trained as
Answer: B (an attorney)
James wants his children in 'respectable' professions; he wants Maanan to become a lawyer, though she wants to dance.
In J.C. De Graft's Sons and Daughters, the plot of the play is
Answer: A (linear)
The events follow one another in simple time order from beginning to end, so the plot is linear.
In J.C. De Graft's Sons and Daughters, what causes the strained relationship between James and Lawyer B?
Answer: A (Betrayal of trust.)
Lawyer B, James's friend and Maanan's supposed helper, tries to seduce her, betraying James's trust.
In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, when Friar Lawrence asks if the bride is ready, he wants to know if
Answer: A (Juliet is prepared)
On the morning of the planned wedding to Paris, the Friar asks whether Juliet is ready to go to church.
In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, what makes Juliet's night so tedious is the
Answer: D (unconsummated marriage with Romeo.)
Juliet has secretly married Romeo that day and waits impatiently for night when he will come to her, like a child who has new clothes but may not wear them yet.
The literary device used in the excerpt is
Answer: B (simile)
The day is compared to the night before a festival using 'as': a simile.
In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the atmosphere of tragedy in the play is created through the use of
Answer: A (dreams and foreboding)
From the prologue's 'star-crossed lovers' to Romeo's sense that some consequence 'yet hanging in the stars' awaits him, dreams and forebodings warn of the tragic end.
Shakespeare depicts love and idealism through the
Answer: D (balcony scene in the second Act.)
In the balcony scene the lovers declare their pure, idealistic love and decide to marry.
In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, the party approves the separation of couples only
Answer: B (where there are no children)
Divorce is not allowed in Oceania, but separation is permitted when a couple has no children.
In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, one of the themes of the novel is
Answer: B (repression)
The Party controls every thought and act of its members, so repression is a central theme.
In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Newspeak, the official language of Oceania, is devised to
Answer: A (meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc)
Newspeak is designed to serve Ingsoc by making disloyal thoughts impossible to express.
In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, the main concern of Winston in the novel is to
Answer: C (overthrow the party)
Winston hates Big Brother and joins what he thinks is the Brotherhood in order to bring the Party down.
In Ferdinand Oyono's The Old Man and the Medal, the word uncircumcised in the statement above by Nti refers to
Answer: B (the whites)
The villagers call the Europeans 'the uncircumcised'; Nti is angry at what the whites have done to Meka.
In Ferdinand Oyono's The Old Man and the Medal, the only two sons of Meka die fighting for
Answer: B (the colonialists)
Meka's two sons were killed fighting for France in the war, one of the sacrifices for which he is given a medal.
In Ferdinand Oyono's The Old Man and the Medal, Africanness is achieved in both
Answer: A (setting and characterization)
The African village setting and the African characters, with their customs and outlook, give the novel its African identity.
In Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood, in the society of Nwokocha Agbadi, a man's social power rating is determined by his
Answer: B (physical prowess)
Agbadi's world respects men for strength and courage, shown in hunting, fighting and wrestling.
The opportunity referred to in the extract above is
Answer: B (narrowly escaping being knocked down)
The speaker is glad to have escaped death narrowly and contrasts himself with Nnu Ego, who wants to throw away her life.
Thorn in Adeoti's Naked Soles symbolizes
Answer: D (suffering.)
A thorn pierces bare (naked) soles and causes pain, so it stands for suffering.
The phrase the sunset in Kunene's A Heritage of Liberation refers to
Answer: B (old age)
Sunset, the end of the day, stands for the end of life: old age.
The end of Give Me The Minstrel's Seat seems to suggest that one needs the
Answer: A (support of others)
The poem ends by showing that a person cannot stand alone but depends on the support of others.
According to Give Me The Minstrel's Seat, a woman is
Answer: D (a harbinger of good luck.)
The poem presents the woman as a bringer of good fortune to the home.
In Marvel's To His Coy Mistress, the poet-persona tries to
Answer: D (discuss the nature of man and the value of time.)
The speaker argues that life is short and time flies, so the lady should love him now: the poem is about human mortality and the value of time.
In Lawrence's Bat, the poet's attitude to bat is one of
Answer: C (contempt)
The speaker finds the bats ugly and repulsive and wants nothing to do with them: his attitude is contempt.
The first stanza of Eliot's The Journey of the Magi depicts the
Answer: A (hazards of the journey)
The first stanza lists the cold, the bad roads, the sore camels and hostile towns: the hardships of the journey.
In Cope's Sonnet VII, poets are presented as
Answer: D (researchers.)
In the poem poets are shown studying and searching into life like researchers.
A poetic device in which an idea in a line runs into another is called
Answer: B (enjambment)
Enjambment is when a sentence runs on from one line of verse to the next without a pause.
The use of sound pattern to suggest meaning in poetry is
Answer: A (rhythm)
Rhythm, the pattern of sounds and beats, can echo and reinforce what a poem says.
A conscious imitation of a literary work by another with the aim of ridicule is
Answer: D (parody.)
A parody imitates another work in order to make fun of it.
The use of gestures to communicate in drama is known as
Answer: C (mime)
Mime is acting through gesture and movement without words.
A short and witty remark is
Answer: C (an epigram)
An epigram is a brief, clever saying.
An expression that signifies a whole through its significant parts is
Answer: B (synecdoche)
Synecdoche uses a part to stand for the whole, as in 'all hands on deck'.
A structural arrangement of units of composition by which one element of equal importance with another is similarly placed is called
Answer: D (parallelism.)
Parallelism places ideas of equal weight in matching grammatical form, e.g. 'I came, I saw, I conquered'.
The pride that contributes to the fall of a tragic character in a play is known as
Answer: C (hubris)
Hubris is the excessive pride that brings about the hero's downfall.
A metrical foot of two stressed or long syllables is called
Answer: A (a spondee)
A spondee has two stressed syllables (DUM-DUM); a trochee is stressed then unstressed.
A group of three lyric stanzas in classical Greek poetry is referred to as
Answer: D (triad.)
In a Greek ode the strophe, antistrophe and epode together form a triad.
Biokun's mood in this passage is one of
Answer: A (desperation)
Biokun, who always mocked superstition, has gone to the shrine of Olokun to save Oroki: he will try anything, which shows desperation.
The imagery used in the second line of the extract above is
Answer: C (tactile)
'Touching other roots' appeals to the sense of touch: tactile imagery.
The lines above are an indictment of
Answer: C (flirtation)
The insects drink from one flower and fly on to fresh ones: the poem attacks those who move from lover to lover, i.e. flirtation.
The sound device used in the extract above is
Answer: A (rhyme)
The lines end in matching sounds: strong / along, tell / spell. The main sound device is rhyme.
A reference beyond the immediate purview of what is being presented is known as
Answer: A (allusion)
An allusion is a passing reference to something outside the text, such as a person, event or another work.
The subject matter of the extract above is
Answer: B (war)
Marching soldiers with heavy kits and skull-and-bones badges, and tattered pants hanging from the sky, describe war.
The narrative point of view used in the extract above can best be described as
Answer: A (omniscient)
The narrator stands outside the story yet tells us Tonderai's private thoughts and feelings: an all-knowing (omniscient) narrator.