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JAMB UTME Literature 2025 past questions and answers

This 2025 JAMB UTME Literature set has 40 practice questions. Try these 5 free sample questions, tap a question to reveal the answer and explanation. Then practise the whole 2025 set with instant marking.

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Sample JAMB UTME Literature 2025 questions

1. A poem has fourteen lines arranged as an octave followed by a sestet, with a turn in thought at line nine. Which form does this structure most strongly suggest?
  1. Shakespearean sonnet
  2. Petrarchan sonnet
  3. Villanelle
  4. Ballad stanza

Answer: B. Petrarchan sonnet

The Petrarchan sonnet commonly consists of an eight-line octave and a six-line sestet, often separated by a volta.

2. A poem uses irregular line lengths and no consistent end-rhyme or metrical pattern, yet its images and syntax create a deliberate rhythm. What is its most likely form?
  1. Heroic couplet
  2. Blank verse
  3. A limerick
  4. Free verse

Answer: D. Free verse

Free verse does not follow a fixed metre or rhyme scheme, although it can still have carefully shaped rhythms.

3. Read the lines: "At dawn she crossed the market square / carrying the letter no one dared / to open." Which technique carries a grammatical phrase beyond the end of a line?
  1. Enjambment
  2. End-stopping
  3. Caesura
  4. Refrain

Answer: A. Enjambment

The phrase continues across the line break without a terminal pause, which is enjambment.

4. In the line "The gate swung wide — and nobody came," what is the main function of the dash in the middle of the line?
  1. It marks an end rhyme
  2. It creates a refrain
  3. It marks a caesura or pause
  4. It signals a change of speaker

Answer: C. It marks a caesura or pause

The dash creates a pause within the line, functioning as a caesura.

5. A poem is spoken by an elderly lighthouse keeper who recalls a storm, though the poet is a young inland writer. The keeper is best described as the poem's
  1. audience
  2. persona
  3. editor
  4. rhyme scheme

Answer: B. persona

The persona is the constructed speaking voice in a poem and need not be identical to its author.

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