Oral literature is best described as literature that is

composed and transmitted by word of mouth

translated from another language

West African Examinations Council

WASSCE Literature-In-English · Paper 1 — Objective

Multiple-choice. This is the paper the CBT simulator practises.

50 exam-style questions, written to the West African Examinations Council format and free to read. The answers are here too — what they do not tell you is how many you would get right with a clock running.

Sit this paper timed All WASSCE Literature-In-English papers

1. A prose narrative shorter than a novel but longer than a short story is a:

2. A secondary storyline running alongside the main plot is a

3. "Speech is silver, silence is golden" balances two contrasting ideas in parallel form. This device is

4. "The child is father of the man" appears self-contradictory yet contains a truth. This is a

5. When an object in a work stands for a larger idea throughout, the device is

6. A poem written in praise of a person, often a ruler, is a

7. A short story with animal characters that teaches a moral lesson is a

8. A long narrative poem celebrating the deeds of a hero is an

9. The regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem is its:

10. Oral literature is best described as literature that is

11. A speech in which a character alone on stage reveals inner thoughts is a:

12. A deliberate pause within a line of verse is called a

13. A traditional story explaining natural phenomena or the origin of a people is a

14. The line "The wind whispered through the trees" contains:

15. A play on words that exploits two meanings of the same sound is a

16. Instructions in a play script telling actors how to move and speak are called

17. An interruption in the narrative to present an earlier event is a

18. An account of a person's life written by that person is an

19. The part of a plot that introduces the characters and situation is the

20. Saying "the crown decided" to mean the monarch decided is:

21. The three main genres of literature are

22. A line of poetry that runs on into the next without a pause illustrates:

23. A brief reference to a well-known person, event or work is:

24. The use of a short witty saying expressing a general truth, as in "Better late than never", is an

25. A short traditional saying that expresses a general truth, widely used in African speech, is a

26. A play in which improbable events and exaggerated characters are used purely to provoke laughter is a

27. Dramatic irony occurs when:

28. A short poem expressing the personal feelings of a single speaker is a

29. "He is not unkind to his workers" understates the point by denying its opposite. This device is

30. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is known as

31. A narrator who knows the thoughts of every character is:

32. A collection of poems or short pieces by different authors is called an

33. The purging of pity and fear that an audience experiences at the end of a tragedy is called

34. A prose work longer than a short story but shorter than a novel is a

35. A humorous scene inserted into a serious play to relieve tension is called

36. A narrative poem, often of unknown authorship, telling a story in simple stanzas is a

37. The repetition of initial consonant sounds in a line of verse is:

38. The expression "a deafening silence" is an example of:

39. The character who opposes the protagonist is the

40. A character built around a single trait and showing little depth is described as

41. A metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one is called

42. Addressing an absent person or an abstract idea as though present, as in "O Death, where is thy sting?", is

43. A line of verse containing five metrical feet is a

44. A play written to be performed, in which the protagonist falls through a flaw of character, is a:

45. A recurring image, idea or situation in a literary work is called a

46. The struggle between a character and an outside force is:

47. A song of mourning performed at a funeral is a

48. A character who undergoes significant change in the course of a work is described as

49. A poem of fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter is a:

50. The moment of greatest tension, at which the action turns, is the:

Reading these is not the same as sitting them.