This set of 2018 WASSCE Literature questions is a useful revision tool for all secondary school students and teachers. It will serve those preparing for the coming WAEC Literature-in-English examination in many ways.
Are you about to sit for JAMB or NECO Literature in Nigeria? You can study these 2018 WASSCE Literature questions and answers as part of your preparations for the 2022 or 2023 Literature questions.
The reason is simply this. A Literature test about literary techniques, terms and devices will remain the same across the board. Expect any future Literature exam paper for 2023 or 2024 (and after) to contain questions that seek to test the candidate’s understanding of terms like metaphor, rhyme, theme and characterization.
As you read these past questions from the 2018 WASSCE Literature paper, you will come across the above and a lot more. Note each question and the corresponding answer carefully and compare them to other WAEC Literature past questions.
It is always best to have access to as many WASSCE Literature past questions as you can. At Cegast Academy, you will find a ton of WAEC Literature past questions from as far back as 2003 up to date.
Our aim is to assist you to prepare yourself or your students (if you are a high school Literature tutor) for WAEC/NECO/JAMB Literature questions for 2022, 2023, 2024 and even beyond.
Instructions for 2018 WASSCE Literature Questions
Answer all the questions.
Each question is followed by four options lettered A to D. Find the correct option for each question and shade in pencil on your answer sheet, the answer space which bears the same letter as the option you have chosen. Give only one answer to each question
An example is given below.
‘All the world’s is a stage’ is an example of
A. metaphor
B. paradox
C. allusion
D. personification
The correct answer is metaphor, which is lettered A, and therefore answer space A would be shaded.
Think carefully before you shade the answers spaces; erase completely any answer you wish to change
Do all rough work on this question paper
Now answer the following questions
PART 1
2007 WAEC Literature Objective Questions and Answers
2005 WAEC Economics Objective Questions and Answers
2020 WASSCE CRS Questions and Answers
WASSCE 2020 Social Studies Questions and Answers
General Knowledge of Literature Questions 1-10
1. In a literary work, time and place constitute its
A. mood
B. structure
C. setting
D. plot
2. A play that makes use of humorous incidents and characters and ends happily is a
A. satire
B. melodrama
C. tragicomedy
D. comedy
3. The repetition of recurring lines in a ballad is the
A. refrain
B. rhyme
C. stanza
D. intermission
Read the lines and answer question 4
Fatou is a woman of great virtue
Fatou is a woman of great vice
4. The lines illustrate
A. pathos
B. antithesis
C. burlesque
D. parody
5. The epistolary novel is written in the form of a
A. biography
B. diary
C. memoir
D. letter
6. She is black, beautiful, brilliant and benevolent illustrates
A. alliteration
B. assonance
C. conceit
D. onomatopoeia
7. And all my sour-sweet days
I will lament and love
Illustrates the use of
A. conceit
B. synecdoche
C. paradox
D. oxymoron
Read the lines and answer questions 8 and 9
There stood Hassan, stiff and tongue-tied
Sorry for his loss of strength
Grieving that to him she’d lied
Oh, sweet Delie, now at charming arm’s length
8. The stanza is made up of
A. alternate rhyme
B. internal rhyme
C. end-stopped lines
D. rhyming couplets
9. The tone is one of
A. sympathy
B. persuasion
C. mockery
D. disappointment
10. Drunkenness reveals what soberness conceals illustrates
A. couplet
B. farce
C. limerick
More Familiar Repeated Topics
In the next set of 2018 WASSCE Literature questions, you will come across common literary devices taught in most high schools. Pun, litotes, synecdoche and inversion.
Indeed, as I’ve always told you, these topics will be repeated in subsequent WAEC exams. Compare some of these 2018 WASSCE Literature questions and answers with those in the May/June 2009 WAEC Literature objective question paper. You will be surprised at the similarities.
The important thing is to strictly follow the WAEC Literature syllabus for both school and private candidates. I promise you it will make your life a lot easier.
Questions 11-20
Read the line and answer question 11
In she ran across the field and wept
11. The metre is
A. iambic
B. anapaest
C. dactylic
12. A literary work in which the characters and events represent qualities or ideas is
A. a fable
B. an allegory
C. an allusion
D. a parable
13. An inconsistent use of metre and rhyme in poetry is
A. free verse
B. narrative verse
C. regular verse
D. blank verse
14. A scene in a tragic play that is intended to ease tension is known as
A. catharsis
B. suspense
C. anticlimax
D. comic relief
15. Her lips are ripe cherries exemplifies
A. metonymy
B. synecdoche
C. conceit
D. zeugma
16. That it will rain is not unlikely illustrates the use of
A. litotes
B. metaphor
C. irony
D. repetition
Read the lines and answer question 17
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love
17. This illustrates
A. metaphor
B. euphemism
C. inversion
D. personification
Read the extract and answer question 18
The hungry judges soon the sentence sign
And wretches hang that jurymen may dine
18. The extract exemplifies
A. pathos
B. epithet
C. epilogue
D. bathos
19. I am a mender of bad soles illustrates
A pun
B. oxymoron
C. synecdoche
D. metaphor
20. A literary work that imitates and ridicules the style of another to amuse readers is a
A. mime
B. parody
C. pantomime
D. slapstick
2018 WASSCE Literature Unseen Prose and Poetry
It is possible to score full marks in the Unseen Prose and Poetry section of your WASSCE Literature test. Study the ones here very carefully. Try to determine why the correct answers are what they are. This way, you will stand a better chance of doing well in the 2023 or 2024 WAEC Literature exam.
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PART II
UNSEEN PROSE AND POETRY
Unseen Prose: Questions 21-25
Read the passage and answer questions 21 – 25
“Why Mother!” the old man gasped. “You’d better take your coat off and get washed –and there we’ll have supper”. All through the meal, he paused to stop eating and stared at his wife. He was shocked, but the food tasted good and he ate well. After supper, he went out and sat down on the steps of the new barn- the barn in which he had planned to keep his cows, but which Sarah had converted to a house.
After the supper dishes were cleared away and everything was cleaned, Sarah joined him. The twilight was deepening. There was a clear green glow in the sky. Sarah bent over and touched her husband on one of his thin sinewy shoulders.
“Father!”
The old man’s shoulder moved. He was weeping. “ Why don’t do that Father,” said Sarah. I’ll-put in the-walls- window everything you want”
Sarah touched her apron up to her eyes; she was overcome by her triumph. Adoniram was like a fortress whose walls had come tumbling down. “Why, Mother” he said hoarsely, “ I hadn’t any idea this meant so much to you”
21. The atmosphere is
A. calm
B. noisy
C. tense
D. ominous
22. The relationship between the characters is expressed through
A. dialogue
B. humour
C. suspense
D. flashback
23. The underlined sentence is
A. ironic
B. hyperbolic
C. onomatopoeic
D. euphemistic
24. The conflict in the passage arises from
A. the timing of supper
B. competing interests of the couple
C. the choice of names
D. the wife’s lack of respect
25. Adoniram was like a fortress whose walls had come tumbling down is an example of
A. simile
B. eulogy
C. irony
D. inversion
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Unseen Poem: Questions 26-30
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Read the poem and answer questions 26 – 30
He was a big man, says the size of his shoes
On a pile of broken dishes by the house;
A tall man too, says the length of his bed
In an upstairs room; and a good, God fearing man
Says the bible with a broken back
On the floor below the window, dusty with sun;
But not a man for farming, says the fields
Cluttered with boulders and a leaky barn.
26. The dominant literary device is
A. assonance
B. euphemism
C. personification
D. symbolism
27. The poet succeeds in
A. defending the man
B. admonishing the man
C. praising the man
D. ridiculing the man
28. The impression that the man is dead is conveyed through the use of
A. irony
B. euphemism
C. exaggeration
D. sarcasm
29. Most of the words used in the poem appeal to the sense of
A. sight
B. taste
C. touch
D. smell
30. The subject matter of the poem is
A. an abandoned farmhouse
B. a lighthouse
C. a new farm
D. an abandoned farm
Wrapping it up
How did you find the above Nov/Dec 2018 WASSCE Literature questions for private candidates? You might also like to take a quick look at other WAEC past questions on History, Government and Christian Religious Studies. Feel free to use these practice tests and quizzes to know how well you are doing with your studies.
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