Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Go back to square one = start again from the beginning because an attempt failed.

1. 'Square one' is the first box on a game board.
2. E.g. 'The software crashed and we had to go back to square one.'

Yaad rakhein: Similar idiom: 'back to the drawing board' – also means restarting after failure.

Answer: (A) To start over after a failure

Concept: Correct form: s-c-u-rr-i-l-o-u-s (double r, single l).

1. Scurrilous = insulting, abusive and scandalous – fits remarks that hurt the author.
2. scurilous (one r), scurrillous (double l), scurrellous (wrong vowel) are wrong.

Trick: Break it as 'scurr + ilous' – like 'scurry' keeps rr, then a single l as in 'perilous'.

Answer: (A) scurrilous

Concept: Repine = to feel or express discontent; to fret.

1. Closest meaning: complain.
2. Restore = bring back; celebrate and forgive have positive senses.

Yaad rakhein: Repine ≈ grumble, lament, mope; antonym – rejoice, be content.

Answer: (A) Complain

Concept: Veracious = truthful, habitually speaking the truth (from Latin verus, true).

1. Opposite = false, misleading → deceptive.
2. Truthful, honest, sincere are its synonyms.

Trick: 'Ver' = true (verify, verdict, veracity) – so the antonym must mean false.

Answer: (C) Deceptive

Concept: In the nick of time = at the last possible moment, just before it is too late.

1. E.g. 'The ambulance arrived in the nick of time.'
2. It is neither 'too early' nor 'late'.

Yaad rakhein: Similar: 'just in time', 'at the eleventh hour'.

Answer: (C) Just before it was too late

Concept: Correct form: a-tt-e-n-u-a-t-e (double t, single n).

1. Attenuate = to weaken or reduce in force/amount.
2. Atennuate, Attanuate, Atenuuate misplace double letters or vowels.

Trick: Split as 'at + tenu + ate' – 'tenu' as in 'tenuous' (thin, weak).

Answer: (A) Attenuate

Concept: Correct form: p-a-l-e-o-n-t-o-l-o-g-i-s-t ('paleo' + 'ontology' + '-ist').

1. A paleontologist studies fossils and ancient life.
2. Paleantologist and Paleontolagist change vowels; Palaontologist misses the e.

Trick: British spelling is 'palaeontologist'; among the options only (B) has every vowel in the right place.

Answer: (B) Paleontologist

Concept: The collective noun for crows is a murder.

1. Flock – sheep/birds in general; swarm – bees/insects; cluster – grapes/stars.

Yaad rakhein: Other odd collectives: a parliament of owls, a pride of lions, a school of fish, a gaggle of geese.

Answer: (A) Murder

Concept: Pedestrian = a person who goes on foot (Latin ped = foot).

1. Voyager – one who makes a long journey, esp. by sea.
2. Hiker – walks long distances in the countryside for pleasure; 'walker' is a general word, not the standard term.

Trick: 'Ped' = foot: pedal, pedicure, pedestrian.

Answer: (A) Pedestrian

Concept: Play down = make something seem less important or serious.

1. Sensitive information in a meeting is naturally something one tries to downplay.
2. Phase out = remove gradually; hand off = pass to someone; come across = find by chance.

Yaad rakhein: Opposite of 'play down' is 'play up' (exaggerate).

Answer: (A) play down

Concept: Confusion is uncountable: no plural, and it takes 'much', not 'many'.

1. 'so many confusions' is wrong.
2. Correct: '…they would not have had so much confusion.'
3. Parts 1–3 (third conditional 'Had… would not have') are correct.

Trick: Uncountable nouns like information, advice, furniture, luggage, confusion never take -s or 'many'.

Answer: (D) (4)

Concept: Simple present passive: am/is/are + V3; negative: aren't + V3.

1. Object 'pets' becomes subject; 'don't allow' → 'aren't allowed'.
2. Vague doer 'they' is usually dropped.
3. (B) present perfect, (C) past, (D) modal 'should' – tense changed.

Trick: Keep the tense: 'don't/doesn't' in active always maps to 'is/are not' in passive.

Answer: (A) Pets aren't allowed in this hotel.

Concept: Homonyms: same spelling, different meaning (here also different pronunciation).

1. In 'lead pencil', lead /led/ is the noun – the writing core (metal/graphite).
2. (A) and (D) use the same metal sense; (C) 'lead' = clue – a noun.
3. (B) lead /liːd/ = verb 'to guide' – a clearly different word with the same spelling.

Yaad rakhein: lead /led/ = metal (Pb); lead /liːd/ = to guide – a classic homograph pair, like 'tear' and 'wind'.

Answer: (B) He will lead the team to victory.

Concept: To make the sentence active, supply a doer for 'was reported'.

1. Given: passive with hidden agent – 'The meeting was reported to have been postponed…'
2. Active: a subject does the reporting → 'Officials reported that the meeting had been postponed…'
3. (B) and (C) are still passive; (A) 'The news reported' is awkward – news is not a doer of reporting here.

Trick: In voice change, first find the verb 'was reported' – the answer must have a real subject + 'reported'.

Answer: (D) Officials reported that the meeting had been postponed due to unforeseen circumstances.

Concept: 'So + adjective' is followed by 'that + clause', not by 'to + verb'.

1. 'so hungry to eat' ✗ → 'so hungry that he could eat the entire meal' ✓
2. Past main clause (was) → past modal 'could' in the result clause.
3. (C) 'eats' breaks tense; (D) 'might' shows doubt, not result.

Trick: Pairs to remember: so…that, such…that, too…to (too hungry to wait).

Answer: (A) that he could eat the entire meal

Concept: Latin comparatives ending in '-ior' are followed by 'to', not 'than'.

1. superior/inferior/senior/junior/prior + to.
2. 'more superior' is a double comparative – wrong.
3. So 'superior than' → 'superior to his colleague'.

Trick: '-ior' words + to; also 'prefer A to B'.

Answer: (A) superior to his colleague

Concept: Past perfect in reported speech stays past perfect when converted back to direct speech.

1. Reported: 'that the employees had neglected…' → direct: "The employees had neglected…"
2. Remove 'that', add commas and inverted commas; reporting verb 'complained' stays.
3. (A) 'did neglect', (C) present, (D) present perfect – all change the tense.

Trick: Past perfect has no further backshift, so it remains the same in both directions.

Answer: (B) The manager complained, "The employees had neglected the safety protocols during the inspection."

Concept: Past reporting verb ⇒ will → would; pronouns change by speaker/listener.

1. 'I' (Anita) → she; 'you' (the listener, i.e. the reporter) → me.
2. 'will meet' → 'would meet'.
3. Result: Anita said she would meet me at the station.

Yaad rakhein: Backshift chart: will → would, shall → should, can → could, may → might.

Answer: (B) Anita said she would meet me at the station.

Concept: Begin with the general statement, then who came, the arrangements, and the highlight.

1. 1 introduces the festival – the topic sentence.
2. 3 tells who joined; 2 describes the stalls set up for these visitors.
3. 4 ends with the performances that entertained 'the crowd'.

Trick: Only option (A) starts with sentence 1 – the only sentence that can open the paragraph.

Answer: (A) 1-3-2-4

Concept: In a process, arrange steps in the order they physically happen.

1. Choose the recipe (4) → buy ingredients (1) → knead dough (2) → bake bread (3).

Trick: Find the first and last steps: choosing a recipe must come first, baking last – only 4-1-2-3 fits both.

Answer: (A) 4-1-2-3