Jamb English Language Past Questions For Year 1981
Question 81
Read the passage and answer the question that follows
It was a Sunday afternoon that I saw the lorry standing in front of the post office. I had seen it long before my brother saw it, but it was he who said to me “Don’t you think it odd that the post office should be open this afternoon? What do you think is happening? ‘Come round the corner, out of sight, and let’s watch’, I answered. My brother Michael was younger than me, so I kept him behind me, and peering round the corner told him what I saw. ‘There are four men coming out, carrying a very heavy box’ ‘Oh! I exclaimed. ‘It’s a safe, ‘I think they’re burglars, said my brother who was full of suspicion. ‘One of them has fallen over ‘I said; ‘the safe is too heavy for them’. You go and fetch the police said my brother, ‘and I’ll stay here and watch,’ ‘No you go and get them’, I replied, because I wanted to see what was going to happen. My brother ran off and then, suddenly, a man came running out of the post office, shouting, ‘Hurry! Hurry! Get it on the lorry!’ He joined the first four and they managed to get the safe up on to the back of the lorry. When they had done this, the man who had shouted got into the driver’s seat, but the lorry would not start. Just then my brother came back with three policemen. To cut a long story short, the men were all arrested and my brother and I had to go and give evidence before a magistrate. The men went to prison, of course, in the end, but you should have seen the face of the leader - it was contorted with rage – when he learned that the safe they had managed to steal was empty, and all the money was in the bank.
the leader of the robbers was angry because
- A. his gang was arrested
- B. the safe was empty
- C. they were all going to prison
- D. spending their loot would be impossible
- E. he was an irascible man
Question 82
Read the passage and answer the question that follows
It was a Sunday afternoon that I saw the lorry standing in front of the post office. I had seen it long before my brother saw it, but it was he who said to me “Don’t you think it odd that the post office should be open this afternoon? What do you think is happening? ‘Come round the corner, out of sight, and let’s watch’, I answered. My brother Michael was younger than me, so I kept him behind me, and peering round the corner told him what I saw. ‘There are four men coming out, carrying a very heavy box’ ‘Oh! I exclaimed. ‘It’s a safe, ‘I think they’re burglars, said my brother who was full of suspicion. ‘One of them has fallen over ‘I said; ‘the safe is too heavy for them’. You go and fetch the police said my brother, ‘and I’ll stay here and watch,’ ‘No you go and get them’, I replied, because I wanted to see what was going to happen. My brother ran off and then, suddenly, a man came running out of the post office, shouting, ‘Hurry! Hurry! Get it on the lorry!’ He joined the first four and they managed to get the safe up on to the back of the lorry. When they had done this, the man who had shouted got into the driver’s seat, but the lorry would not start. Just then my brother came back with three policemen. To cut a long story short, the men were all arrested and my brother and I had to go and give evidence before a magistrate. The men went to prison, of course, in the end, but you should have seen the face of the leader - it was contorted with rage – when he learned that the safe they had managed to steal was empty, and all the money was in the bank.
The robbers could not escape because
- A. the safe was too heavy
- B. they were sinners who deserve punishment
- C. the engine of their lorry failed
- D. they were not smart enough
- E. Nemesis wanted to catch up with them
Question 83
From time to time I hear someone say, ‘But Yoga comes from India, therefore is something “foreign” and I don’t see how we can make use of it’. Of course this is foolishness. It is like saying, ‘I don’t want to listen to the music of Bach because he was a German’, or it is like someone in India declaring, ‘We don’t want to use electricity, because Thomas Edison was an American’ Yoga is universal, it is a priceless gift from the East and its benefits are available to all of us who would accept them.
It is very tragic that many of us, not knowing the facts, have for many years confused Yogis (a person who practices ‘Yoga’ is a Yogi) with a certain class of people in India who are known a s Fakirs. Fakirs have gain extra ordinary control of their senses, but use this control to subject their bodies to abnormal conditions. For example, they sit on the famous ‘bed of nails’ stick pins and feats. They are generally persons of low mentality, and they perform these supernatural things for money, food, favours and so forth. These Fakirs should never be confused with Yogis nor do snake charmers or Indian rope trick practitioners have anything to do with Yoga. Yoga is a natural development for body and mind and a true Yogi will never permit anything harmful or unnatural to be done to his body or mind.
Finally, there is the question of ‘religion’. I am often asked, ‘Is Yoga a religion?’ My answer is, ‘Definitely not! For us, Yoga is a dynamic system of physical exercise and a practical and valuable philosophy to apply to everyday life. In short, Yoga is way of life and everyone, regardless of his religion, can benefit greatly from any6 one or all aspect of Yoga.
which one of the following in the authors opinion best complete this statement. The Indians would
- A. not use electricity because Thomas Edison was an American
- B. not use electricity because American electricity is inferior to some other kind of electricity
- C. not use electricity since they can substitute their own Yoga for it
- D. not use because Indians and Americans are friendly people
- E. use electricity irrespective of who discovered it
Question 84
From time to time I hear someone say, ‘But Yoga comes from India, therefore is something “foreign” and I don’t see how we can make use of it’. Of course this is foolishness. It is like saying, ‘I don’t want to listen to the music of Bach because he was a German’, or it is like someone in India declaring, ‘We don’t want to use electricity, because Thomas Edison was an American’ Yoga is universal, it is a priceless gift from the East and its benefits are available to all of us who would accept them.
It is very tragic that many of us, not knowing the facts, have for many years confused Yogis (a person who practices ‘Yoga’ is a Yogi) with a certain class of people in India who are known a s Fakirs. Fakirs have gain extra ordinary control of their senses, but use this control to subject their bodies to abnormal conditions. For example, they sit on the famous ‘bed of nails’ stick pins and feats. They are generally persons of low mentality, and they perform these supernatural things for money, food, favours and so forth. These Fakirs should never be confused with Yogis nor do snake charmers or Indian rope trick practitioners have anything to do with Yoga. Yoga is a natural development for body and mind and a true Yogi will never permit anything harmful or unnatural to be done to his body or mind.
Finally, there is the question of ‘religion’. I am often asked, ‘Is Yoga a religion?’ My answer is, ‘Definitely not! For us, Yoga is a dynamic system of physical exercise and a practical and valuable philosophy to apply to everyday life. In short, Yoga is way of life and everyone, regardless of his religion, can benefit greatly from any6 one or all aspect of Yoga.
which of the following statement is true according to the passage
- A. Yoga is foreign and therefore foolish
- B. to think that Yoga is foreign is foolish
- C. Yoga is foolish because it is foreign
- D. not to take advantage of Yoga on the ground that it is foreign is foolish
- E. it is foolish to take advantage of foreign practices
Question 85
The appearance of comparative peace which Max’s house presented to me that morning proved quite deceptive. Oh perhaps some of Chief Nanga’s ‘queen bee’ characteristics had rubbed off on me and transformed me into an independent little nucleus of activity which I brought with me into this new place. That first night I not only heard of the new political party about to be born but got myself enrolled as a foundation member. Max and some of his friends having watched with deepening disillusion the use to which our hard-won freedom was being put by corrupt, mediocre politicians had decided to come together and launch the Common People’s Convention.
There were eight young people in his room that evening. All but one were citizens of our country, mostly professional types. The only lady was a very beautiful lawyer who, I learnt afterwards, was engaged to Max whom she had first met at the London School of Economics. There was a trade-unionist, a doctor, another lawyer, a teacher and a newspaper columnist
Max introduced me without any previous consultation as a ‘trustworthy comrade who had only the other day had his girlfriend snatched from him by minister who shall remain nameless’. Naturally I did not care for that kind of image reputation. So I promptly intervened to point out that the woman in question was not strictly speaking my girlfriend but a casual acquaintance who both Chief Nanga and I knew.
‘So it was Chief Nanga, yes?’ said the European and everyone burst out laughing.
‘Who else could it be?’ said one of the others.
The Whiteman was apparently from one of the Eastern Bioc countries. He did not neglect to stress to me in an aside that he was there only as a friend of Max’s. He told me a lot of things quietly while the others were discussing some obscure details about the launching. I was as much interested in what he said as the way in which he said it. His English had an exotic quality occasionally – as when he said that it was good to see intellectuals like Max, myself and the rest coming out of their ‘tower or elephant tusk’ into active politics. And he often punctuated whatever he was saying with ‘yes’ spoken with the accent of a question.
The speaker was attentive to the European because
- A. he spoke funny English
- B. he was from an Eathern Bioc country
- C. what he said and how he said it interested him
- D. he is normally attentive to Europeans
- E. courtesy demands that he should be attentive
