JAMB Use Of English 2025
Questions & Answers

A test-taker could mistakenly select an option related to success or control rather than coordination. Since 'concerted' denotes coordinated or joint action, its semantic opposite is 'dissipated', which implies scattered or disorganized efforts. Common mistake: choosing a word based on general positivity rather than precise antonym meaning.

A student might mistakenly choose a word meaning brave or harsh rather than looking for a direct opposite. Because 'outrageous' means shocking or deeply offensive, the exact opposite meaning is 'pleasant', describing agreeable jokes. Common mistake: picking a synonym instead of an antonym.

One might mistakenly select a word meaning to cover or conclude instead of revealing. Given that 'conceals' means to hide or keep secret, the direct opposite is 'exposes', meaning to reveal or bring to light. Common mistake: confusing concealment with physical covering.

A test-taker could mistakenly choose unorganized instead of a direct visual antonym. Since 'extremely fascinating' means highly captivating or attractive, the opposite is 'repulsive', meaning causing strong dislike or revulsion. Common mistake: selecting a structural opposite rather than a semantic meaning opposite.

A student might mistakenly choose reward or disgrace instead of the true conceptual opposite. Because 'discredit' means loss of reputation or shame, the direct opposite is 'honor', representing high respect and acclaim. Common mistake: selecting a synonym instead of an antonym for the underlined term.

1) Distractor check: Students might pick 'cleanly swept the office' because it mistakenly translates the idiom literally into physical sweeping. 2) Reasoning to the answer: The idiom 'clean sweep' refers to an absolute removal or clearing out of personnel. Applying this meaning, the phrase 'completely got rid' accurately matches the context of removing all old hands from the office. Common mistake: Translating figurative idioms literally instead of interpreting their conceptual meaning.

1) Distractor check: A student might lean toward 'nobody's business' due to a misunderstanding of common conversational idioms about personal experiences. 2) Reasoning to the answer: The phrase 'nothing to write home about' describes something that is ordinary, average, or unexciting. Translating this concept to the quality of the aircraft ride, 'not remarkable' correctly captures the lack of noteworthy features. Common mistake: Confusing common idiomatic phrases of mediocrity with privacy or secrecy.

1) Distractor check: Option A ('use the old roads') is a tempting trap because it relies on the literal physical meaning of the word 'tracks' rather than the figurative idiom. 2) Reasoning to the answer: The expression 'get off the beaten tracks' directs people away from conventional behavior to adopt innovative approaches. Therefore, 'find new ways' properly reflects the guidance given regarding community matters. Common mistake: Selecting literal interpretations of figurative expressions.

1) Distractor check: 'Inflamed' might look plausible if a student associates emotional appeals with anger or agitation. 2) Reasoning to the answer: Being 'passionate' means that a feeling or statement is deeply felt and charged with strong emotion. In the context of a call for calm, 'intense' accurately represents the high level of earnest emotion behind the appeal. Common mistake: Equating intense emotion with negativity or agitation.

1) Distractor check: Students could choose 'jump about' by mistakenly associating an expression of excitement with physical motion. 2) Reasoning to the answer: To 'stutter' is to speak with involuntary breaks, repetitions, or hesitation. Among the choices, 'stammer' is the exact synonym for speaking hesitantly, making it fit the context of vocalizing excitement. Common mistake: Confusing verbal hesitation with physical actions of excitement.

1) Distractor check: 'Hostile' is a potential trap if a student misreads a serious, quiet mood as aggressive or unfriendly. 2) Reasoning to the answer: The term 'pensive' describes someone absorbed in deep or serious thought. Connecting this to the brother's unusual demeanor, 'thoughtful' fits the context perfectly. Common mistake: Mistaking a reflective and quiet psychological state for hostility.

1) Distractor check: A student might choose 'inefficiency' because a poor administrator is often presumed to be incompetent at work. 2) Reasoning to the answer: The word 'apathy' specifically denotes a state of lacking interest, concern, or enthusiasm. Translating this attitude to the workplace, 'indifference' properly describes the administrator's observed behavior toward subordinates. Common mistake: Confusing a lack of emotional engagement (apathy) with poor job performance (inefficiency).

1) Distractor check: 'Source' could be mistakenly selected if a student confuses checking where a claim came from with checking its truthfulness. 2) Reasoning to the answer: 'Authenticity' relates directly to the quality of being genuine, authentic, or real. Thus, 'genuineness' appropriately matches the requirement to verify the reporter's claims before taking action. Common mistake: Confusing the origin of a claim with its intrinsic truth or validity.

1) Distractor check: Option C ('travel by boat') is a humorous distractor that incorrectly plays on the literal nautical meaning of launching a vessel. 2) Reasoning to the answer: To 'launch' an event or campaign means to initiate or begin it. Consequently, 'start off' corresponds directly to the chief initiating the fund-raising appeal. Common mistake: Taking metaphorical verbs like launch in their literal physical or nautical contexts.

1) Distractor check: 'Feel cold' is a common literal trap for students who fail to recognize this specific emotional idiom. 2) Reasoning to the answer: Developing 'cold feet' is an idiom indicating a sudden loss of courage or hesitation regarding a planned event. Therefore, 'be reluctant' accurately reflects the bride's growing hesitation as her wedding day nears. Common mistake: Interpreting idiomatic expressions literally instead of looking up their figurative meanings.

1) Distractor check: 'Large' or 'huge' might be chosen if a student mistakenly thinks the phrase refers to physical anatomy rather than personality. 2) Reasoning to the answer: Having a 'big heart' is an idiom used to describe someone who is exceptionally kind, caring, and generous. Within the context of his personality contrasting with a witty conversation, 'warm' fits best. Common mistake: Confusing anatomical descriptions with idiomatic traits of character.

1) Distractor check: 'Comprehensible' might be chosen if a student confuses missing the target with failing to understand something. 2) Reasoning to the answer: The phrase 'wide of the mark' means failing to hit the target, rendering statements incorrect or off-point. Thus, 'irrelevant' correctly describes observations that miss the point entirely. Common mistake: Assuming an incorrect statement automatically means it was hard to understand.

1) Distractor check: 'Bitterness' might tempt a student who associates strong negative feelings with anger or resentment. 2) Reasoning to the answer: An 'aversion' is defined as a strong or fixed dislike toward someone or something. Given the context of sharing opinions on war films, 'dislike' captures the exact sentiment. Common mistake: Confusing a preference-based dislike with general bitterness.

1) Distractor check: 'Designed a plan' might be chosen if a student thinks the minister carefully engineered the strategy from scratch over the months. 2) Reasoning to the answer: The phrasal verb 'hit on' means to suddenly find, stumble upon, or discover a clever idea or solution. Therefore, 'discovered plan' fits the context of the minister finding a strategy after months of lobbying. Common mistake: Confusing the creation of an idea with the sudden discovery or realization of it.

1) Distractor check: 'Efficient' is a frequent distractor because students often mistake bossy behavior for high professional competence. 2) Reasoning to the answer: To be 'officious' means to be assertively and annoyingly domineering or overly eager to assert authority. Matching this unpleasant trait to why everyone hates the school prefect, 'over-zealous' is the correct choice. Common mistake: Equating annoying over-involvement with genuine workplace or school efficiency.

1) Distractor check: 'Have seen' is often incorrectly selected because students confuse present time frames with past narrative sequences. 2) Reasoning to the answer: The sentence describes two points in the past: meeting Amadi yesterday and an earlier point six months prior. To properly indicate an action completed before another past event, the past perfect tense 'had seen' is required. Common mistake: Using present perfect forms instead of past perfect when sequencing two past actions.

1) Distractor check: 'Coarse' is a spelling trap that sounds identical to the correct word but means rough in texture. 2) Reasoning to the answer: The fixed idiomatic expression 'in the course of' means during the progress or progression of an event. Applying this standard phrase to a discussion, 'course' is the correct spelling and word choice. Common mistake: Confusing homophones like course and coarse in fixed expressions.

1) Distractor check: 'Dear life' without the plural possessive might look simpler, but it misses grammatical agreement with the plural subject. 2) Reasoning to the answer: The idiom requires pluralizing the pronoun to match the group running away, making 'their dear lives' the proper idiom for pedestrians fleeing danger. Common mistake: Forgetting to match plural pronouns to the subjects within fixed idioms.

1) Distractor check: 'Outskirt' in the singular is a common trap for students who do not realize the term is standardly pluralized in this context. 2) Reasoning to the answer: The outer residential areas or boundaries of a town are referred to by the fixed plural noun phrase 'outskirts'. Thus, placing the factory there requires 'outskirts'. Common mistake: Using the singular form when referring to geographical peripheries.

1) Distractor check: 'Ammunitions' is an appealing distractor because students assume both nouns in a pair must be pluralized. 2) Reasoning to the answer: While 'arms' takes a plural form, 'ammunition' functions as an uncountable noun and does not take an 's' at the end. Therefore, 'arms and ammunition' is grammatically correct. Common mistake: Over-regularizing uncountable nouns by adding unnecessary plural suffixes.

1) Distractor check: 'White new cotton' violates standard descriptive adjective sequencing rules by placing color before age. 2) Reasoning to the answer: English adjective order dictates that age or newness comes before color, which precedes material. Following the rule of age, color, and material, 'new white cotton' is the correct sequence. Common mistake: Violating standard descriptive adjective order by mixing up age and color placement.

1) Distractor check: 'Make out' is a frequent confusion because students mix up phrasal verbs that start with 'make'. 2) Reasoning to the answer: The phrasal verb 'make do' means to manage with limited resources or whatever is currently available. In the context of sleeping in a hut and enduring basic meals while hunting, 'make do' fits precisely. Common mistake: Confusing 'make do' with other similar-sounding phrasal verbs like make out or make good.

1) Distractor check: 'At' or 'by' might sound natural colloquially, leading to frequent preposition errors. 2) Reasoning to the answer: The adjective 'disgusted' routinely pairs with the preposition 'with' when reacting to a situation, action, or state of being. Therefore, 'disgusted with' is the required combination for the committee's reaction. Common mistake: Pairing emotional adjectives with incorrect prepositions out of habit.

1) Distractor check: 'Small light-green racing' is often missed because students struggle with compound adjective hierarchies involving purpose and color. 2) Reasoning to the answer: Size comes first, followed by color, and the ultimate purpose or classifier comes last. Following this dimension, color, and type arrangement, 'small light-green racing' is correct. Common mistake: Placing the category or purpose noun ahead of descriptive color or size adjectives.

1) Distractor check: 'Done' or 'did' might be picked by students who forget that modal-like expressions require specific root forms. 2) Reasoning to the answer: The semi-modal construction 'had better' must always be followed immediately by the bare infinitive or base verb form. Applying this grammatical rule, 'do' is the only correct choice following the recommendation. Common mistake: Following 'had better' with past tense or participle verbs.

Options A, B, and C might tempt a student due to their similar lexical elements, but they contain grammatical errors regarding pronoun placement and redundancy. The phrase 'the taste of which I do not like' is selected because it properly structures the relative clause to fit the context of disliking the stew. Common mistake: Using redundant pronouns like 'it' inside the relative clause.

Options B, C, and D are plausible because they involve visual or interactive verbs, yet they fail to capture the specific meaning of locating someone. The correct choice is 'find' because it signifies the ability to locate a person when searching on campus. Common mistake: Confusing the act of locating someone with merely looking at them.

Options A, B, and C are easy distractors since they sound identical or visually similar to the correct term. The word 'guidelines' is chosen because it denotes instructions, which accurately matches the context of the local government polls. Common mistake: Splitting or misspelling the compound noun into two words or incorrect variants.

Options A, C, and D might seem correct if one confuses subject and object pronouns in a compound structure. The option 'me' is right because the sentence requires an object pronoun following the verb invited, fitting seamlessly into the context of the invitation. Common mistake: Using subjective pronouns like 'I' after a conjunction in the object position.

Options A, C, and D are synonyms rather than antonyms, making them incorrect since the prompt asks for the opposite in meaning. The word 'careless' is chosen because it directly contradicts the careful nature of meticulous planning. Common mistake: Selecting a synonym instead of an antonym.

Options A, C, and D represent conservative or timid traits, which are the opposites of the underlined word. The term 'bold' is correct because it mirrors the daring nature of an audacious decision that shocked the team. Common mistake: Choosing a word that denotes caution rather than boldness.

Options B, C, and D alter the tense incorrectly, which might tempt those unfamiliar with the subjunctive mood. The base form 'submit' is correct because it uses the subjunctive for directives, fitting the context of the teacher's instruction. Common mistake: Applying standard tense inflection after verbs of demand or insistence.

Options B, C, and D use plural verbs that might seem to agree with the plural noun 'candidates'. The singular verb 'is' is correct because the pronoun 'neither' is singular, fitting the context of evaluating suitability. Common mistake: Matching the verb to the nearest noun instead of the singular subject pronoun.

Options A, B, and D are common prepositions that often collocate with various verbs, making them tempting distractors. The preposition 'of' is correct because it forms the standard phrasal pairing 'accused of', fitting the context of the legal accusation. Common mistake: Using 'for' or 'with' instead of the standard preposition 'of'.

Options A, C, and D present concepts that either contradict the text or are entirely unmentioned. Overcrowding is correct because the passage explicitly lists it as a challenge resulting from rapid urbanization. Common mistake: Choosing external facts not found within the provided reading passage.