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JAMB UTME - Literature In English - 1990

Question 1 Report

This question is based on General Literature Principles and Literary Appreciation

'America! there it lay, handy and tantalizing, allheat and scurry. All morning they had kept catching glimpses of it beyond the potholes as they stood in long lines, waiting to reach the tables where the immigration men in dacrion shirts checked their visas, inspected the X-ray pictures of their lungs that they held in their hands, decided whether to admit them or not. Getting into America was, it seemed, quite as hard as getting into heaven; and the trouble was... that as with heaven one couldn't know whether one would like it when one got there'.

The picture of America presented in this passage is that of a place

Answer Details
The passage presents America as a place with unknown and uncertain qualities, where getting in is as hard as getting into heaven and one can't know whether they'll like it when they get there. Despite being tantalizing and alluring, the process of getting in involves waiting in long lines, being checked for visas and X-rayed for lung health, which creates an image of a place that is difficult to enter and bureaucratic. Furthermore, the mention of the heat does not necessarily imply that America is off-putting, but rather adds to the image of a place that is full of activity and energy.