WAEC Literature in English 2000 past questions and answers

An epigram is a short, witty poem or saying.

A eulogy praises a person's good qualities and achievements, often at a funeral.

Animal Farm uses animals to ridicule political tyranny: it is a satire (and an allegory).

An elegy laments the dead.

A malapropism is the comic misuse of a word for one that sounds like it (e.g. 'allegory' for 'alligator').

The protagonist is the main character.

A soliloquy is spoken by a character alone, revealing inner thoughts.

The Petrarchan sonnet has an octave (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines).

'Hands' (a part) stands for the sailors (the whole): synecdoche.

A quatrain has four lines.

Nature is made to share human sorrow (streams stop flowing, flocks show compassion): pathetic fallacy.

'Flow' and 'show' end the two lines with the same sound: they rhyme.

Two rhyming lines make a couplet.

'Shakespeare' stands for Shakespeare's works: metonymy.

Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy ending in marriages.

The repeated 'f' sounds (fair, foam, flew, furrow, followed, free) are alliteration.

Apostrophe is speaking directly to someone absent or to a thing.

'Poisonous pleasure' joins two opposite ideas side by side: an oxymoron.

Mime tells a story with gestures, without words.

A round (dynamic) character changes and develops; a flat character stays the same.

Joy is a butterfly that loves Nature's light and sings sweetly: natural and satisfying.

Joy is 'born of parents poor' and Pleasure 'cannot sing': both are treated as persons.

The poem sets Joy against Pleasure (butterfly vs moth, day vs night): contrast.

The moth dances at night by artificial light, unlike the butterfly in Nature's light.

Pleasure is said to be a moth, without 'like' or 'as': a metaphor.

The passage shows the many sufferings of a retreating army (cold, hunger, disease, terror): the agony of war.

The writer dwells on the soldiers' hunger, cold, disease and weakness in a sympathetic way, so the writer's mood is one of pity. The fear of the French is the soldiers' feeling, not the writer's.

The bleak scenery (rain, sleet, snow on the mountain passes) creates the mood.

The sentence builds up hunger, exposure, the sword and finally disease: a climax.

Valentine reports to Orsino that Olivia will not admit him and will mourn her brother for seven years.

Valentine brings Olivia's answer back to Duke Orsino.

'Her face' is Olivia's: she will stay veiled for seven years.

The message answers Orsino's suit: it concerns his love for Olivia.

In Act II Scene 1 Antonio begs to go with Sebastian, who wants to go alone.

Sebastian asks Antonio's leave to 'bear my evils alone': he wants him to stay behind.

'The malignancy of my fate might distemper yours': his bad luck might spread to Antonio.

Act II Scene 1 is set on the sea-coast where Sebastian has landed.

Sebastian believes his sister drowned and speaks of his dark fate: he is sad.

Orsino asks Cesario how he likes the music and guesses he is in love.

Act II Scene 4 takes place in the Duke's palace.

Cesario (Viola) is the Duke's page: master and servant.

Viola admits her eye has 'stayed upon' someone she loves, meaning Orsino himself.

Orsino loves Olivia, who rejects him; Viola loves Orsino, who doesn't know it.

Sebastian wants to see the sights of the city (Act III Scene 3).

Sebastian is speaking to Antonio, who has followed him into the town.

Antonio declines to walk the streets because he is wanted for fighting the Count's galleys.

Malvolio quotes the forged letter ('Cast thy humble slough').

Malvolio thinks it is from Olivia, but Maria actually wrote it in Olivia's handwriting.

Narrator tells the background: birth of a son to Adetusa and Ojuola, Baba Fakunle's prophecy.
Baby given to Gbonka to kill; survives, raised by Ogundele in Ijekun.
Adetusa's death and Odewale's arrival, victory over Ikolu and crowning; marriage to Ojuola.
Significance: sets up dramatic irony (audience knows the truth); creates suspense about how it will be revealed.
Introduces the theme of fate; adapts Oedipus to Yoruba setting; economy of plot.

Summarise the prologue and explain what it does for the play.

Ojuola: queen to two kings; dignified, calm, caring mother and wife.
Acts with grace: consoles the people, calms Odewale's anger, defends Aderopo.
Shows respect for the gods and tradition.
On learning the truth she takes her own life privately in her chamber, preserving dignity.
Conclusion: yes, her life and death are royal and dignified (or argue the opposite with reasons).

Take a stand and support it.

Ananse is cunning: sends Anansewa's photograph and letters to four chiefs at once.
Collects gifts from all without commitment.
Manipulates Anansewa into typing letters without knowing their meaning.
Stages her mock death to escape the crisis.
Persuasive, smooth talker; also loving and ambitious for her future.
Conclusion: largely justified; cunning but not wicked.

Assess with incidents.

Ananse's poverty and plan; photographs and letters to four chiefs.
Gifts pour in; outdooring ceremony.
Chief-Who-Is-Chief and Togbe Klu both announce coming to perform the marriage rites on the same day.
Ananse trapped; decides Anansewa must 'die'.
He announces her death; mourning and funeral arrangements; messengers come with condolences.

Narrate events in order.

Raina: daughter of the Petkoffs; romantic, idealistic, poses; truthful underneath, falls for Bluntschli.
Louka: servant; proud, ambitious, realistic, defiant of her class.
Similar: both young, attractive, both engaged to/involved with Sergius; both deceive.
Contrast: Raina rich and sheltered, Louka poor; Raina romantic, Louka practical.
Ends: Raina with Bluntschli, Louka with Sergius.

Show likenesses and differences with examples.

Romantic 'higher love' of Raina and Sergius is shown as false.
Sergius flirts with Louka behind Raina's back.
Raina and Bluntschli grow to real love through honesty.
Louka and Nicola: love and class/ambition.
Shaw mocks romantic illusions; realistic love based on understanding wins.

Show how each couple reveals Shaw's view of love.

Mr Hardcastle: loves old things and country life; kind host; fond of his daughter; honest.
Mrs Hardcastle: vain, follows town fashion, spoils Tony, greedy over Constance's jewels.
Both quarrel; both are fooled (he by Marlow's rudeness, she by Tony's ride).
Contrast: he is sensible and generous; she is foolish and selfish.
Both love their child (he Kate, she Tony).

Compare and contrast with examples.

Lovable, mischievous country squire; leader at the Three Pigeons.
His trick (house as inn) sets off the whole comedy.
Comic scenes with his mother: horse-pond ride, jewels.
Helps the lovers and ends happily free to marry whom he likes.
Simple, illiterate yet shrewd; a source of laughter and happy resolution.

Show both 'comic' and 'hero' aspects.

Dennis Brutus, a political prisoner on Robben Island.
Some prisoners lose their minds: 'some go mad'.
Isolation and boredom; loss of contact with family.
Despair; shows inhumanity of apartheid prisons.
Devices: plain, factual tone; repetition; imagery of madness and loneliness.

Show the sufferings described and how language conveys them.

Nightfall in Soweto (Mtshali): personification of night as a beast/enemy; similes ('like a dreaded disease'); metaphor of prey; rhetorical questions; imagery of violence.
Letters to Martha (Brutus): simple direct diction; understatement; repetition; images of madness and isolation; conversational letter form.
Effect: both show suffering under apartheid.

Discuss devices in both poems with examples and effects.

Robert Frost; two characters: the speaker and his neighbour.
Setting: spring, two farms divided by a stone wall.
Conflict: speaker questions the wall; neighbour insists 'Good fences make good neighbours'.
Dialogue and action: walking the wall, replacing stones.
Characterisation: neighbour 'like an old-stone savage armed'.
Ends with repetition of the neighbour's line: unresolved conflict.

Identify each dramatic element with an example.

Admiration: addresses the urn as a bride, foster-child, historian.
Envy of its permanence and frozen happiness.
Awareness of its limits: 'cold pastoral', figures can never fulfil love.
Reverence for art as conveying truth: 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty'.
Mixed attitude: wonder, longing and some irony.

Show how his feelings shift through the poem.

Spiritual: prays, communes with the snake, observes purity (abstains, washes).
Highly skilled, creative craftsman; total concentration.
Respected by the community; enjoys the praise-singer's praise (a little vain).
Calm, dignified, joyful at completing the work.
Shows tradition and magic in his craft.

List traits with details from the ceremony.

First encounter: as a child he plays with a snake; rescued; shows his innocence and the danger.
Second: the little black snake, his father's guiding spirit; respected by all.
Father explains the snake gives foreknowledge and success.
Laye wonders whether he will inherit it; school pulls him away.
Significance: introduces the supernatural, family tradition and the conflict between tradition and modern education.

Explain each encounter and its meaning.

Adaku (Ekwueme's mother): over-protective; Ekwueme tied to her; Ahurole resents it.
She keeps feeding and fussing over him; he measures women by her.
Wonuma (Ahurole's mother): spoils Ahurole; encourages her suspicion of Ihuoma.
Suggests the love potion, which drives Ekwueme mad.
Both mothers' interference leads to the breakup.

Show each mother's part.

Ekwueme's close friend; jovial, witty, talkative, good drummer and singer.
Teases and advises Ekwueme; helps in his courtship of Ihuoma.
Gives comic relief and local colour.
Loyal: stands by Ekwueme in trouble.
Role: confidant through whom we learn Ekwueme's feelings.

Traits with examples, then role.

Abuse of power/dictatorship (Napoleon).
Propaganda and lies (Squealer).
Greed and privilege of rulers (pigs take milk, apples, beds, whisky).
Ignorance and gullibility of the masses (sheep, Boxer).
Betrayal of revolutionary ideals; corruption of leaders.
Three vices fully illustrated.

Choose three and illustrate each.

Seven Commandments painted after the Rebellion.
Bed rule: 'No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets'.
Alcohol: 'No animal shall drink alcohol to excess'.
Killing: 'No animal shall kill any other animal without cause'.
Finally all replaced by 'All animals are equal but some are more equal than others'.
Changes done secretly at night by Squealer; explained away.

Show the changes in order and how they were made.

Black Dog arrives, waits for Billy; they fight; Black Dog flees wounded.
Billy suffers a stroke; Dr Livesey warns him about rum.
Blind Pew comes, forces Jim to lead him to Billy, delivers the black spot.
Billy has a second stroke and dies.
Effects: fear, drinking, illness and death; leads to the opening of his chest and the map.

Narrate both visits and their effects.

(a) Billy Bones: old sea-dog, Flint's mate; rough, drunken, frightened; his chest holds the map; his death starts the story.
(b) Jim Hawkins: narrator; brave, curious, lucky; overhears the mutiny, cuts the Hispaniola loose, saves the party.
(c) Ben Gunn: marooned pirate; wild, half-mad; found the treasure; helps defeat the pirates.
Two characters covered with traits and roles.

Pick two; give traits and role for each.