Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Atheist = a person who does not believe God exists.

1. Renegade = one who betrays a group or cause.
2. Heretic = one holding views against accepted religious teaching (may still believe in God).
3. Apostate = one who gives up his religion.

Trick: 'a-' = without, 'theos' = God ⇒ a-theist = without God. (Theist believes; agnostic is unsure.)

Answer: (B) Atheist

Concept: Heresy = a belief opposed to established (especially religious) doctrine.

1. Sedition = speech or action inciting rebellion against the state.
2. Apostasy = giving up one's religion; Schism = split of a group into factions.

Yaad rakhein: Heresy (belief) → Heretic (person); Apostasy (act) → Apostate (person).

Answer: (B) Heresy

Concept: When rarely, seldom, never, hardly etc. begin a sentence, the helping verb comes before the subject.

1. Normal order: There has been …
2. Inverted after 'Rarely': Rarely has there been …
3. (B) and (D) are not inverted; (C) 'was been' is wrong.

Trick: Negative adverb first ⇒ make it look like a question: 'has there been?'

Answer: (A) has there been

Concept: General background → main idea → action → result.

1. 2 opens: rising demand makes cleaner energy urgent.
2. 1 names the answer: solar and wind as alternatives.
3. 3 shows action: governments/companies invest; 4 'This shift' sums up the benefits.

Trick: 'This shift' (4) needs a shift described before it, so 4 is last; 2 is the broadest, so first ⇒ only (A) and (C) start with 2, and 1 must precede 3.

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

Concept: Reconcile = make conflicting facts or views agree with each other.

1. The object is 'conflicting accounts', so the historian must bring them into agreement.
2. Revise = change/edit; retract = take back; retrospect = looking back (noun, not a verb).

Trick: 'Conflicting' is the clue word — conflicts get reconciled.

Answer: (A) reconcile

Concept: do/does/did is always followed by the base form (V1) of the verb.

1. Part (1): 'Hardly did the manager knew' — 'knew' is V2, wrong.
2. Correct: 'Hardly did the manager know that …'.
3. The inversion 'Hardly did' itself is fine.

Trick: Did + V2 is a double past — one past marker is enough.

Answer: (A) (1)

Concept: Present perfect passive: has/have + been + V3; in a question, 'Has' comes first.

1. Active: Has the technician repaired the faulty circuit?
2. Object becomes subject: the faulty circuit (singular ⇒ has).
3. Passive: Has the faulty circuit been repaired by the technician?

Trick: Tense must stay the same — keep 'Has … been'; (A), (C) and (D) change the tense or drop 'been'.

Answer: (B) Has the faulty circuit been repaired by the technician?

Concept: A noun clause beginning with 'What' acts as a singular subject.

1. Subject = 'What we need right now' (one thing).
2. Complement 'a strong leader' is also singular.
3. So 'are' must be 'is' ⇒ error in part (2).

Trick: Replace the 'What' clause with 'The thing' — 'The thing we need is a strong leader'.

Answer: (B) (2)

Concept: A homonym has the same spelling/sound but a different meaning.

1. Given sentence: 'current route' = present / now in use.
2. (A) 'ocean current' = a flow of water — a different meaning ✓.
3. (B), (C), (D) all use 'current' as 'present-day' — same meaning, so not homonyms here.

Trick: Three options share one meaning — the odd meaning out is the homonym.

Answer: (A) The ocean current was unusually strong near the bridge.

Concept: had been + V3 (passive) ⇔ had + V3 (active); tense stays past perfect.

1. Doer 'the researchers' becomes the subject.
2. 'had been completed' → 'had completed'.
3. Active: The researchers had completed the final report before the deadline.

Trick: Find the option that keeps 'had' — only (B).

Answer: (B) The researchers had completed the final report before the deadline.

Concept: Stubborn = firmly refusing to change one's opinion.

1. Intransigent = refusing to agree or compromise — same meaning.
2. Willing, compliant, submissive = ready to obey — opposite sense.

Trick: Three options mean 'obedient' — the lone different word is the synonym. Related words: obstinate, adamant, obdurate.

Answer: (A) Intransigent

Concept: Ugliness = being unpleasant to look at.

1. Pulchritude = beauty — the opposite.
2. Vileness (nastiness), grotesque (strangely ugly) and blemish (a mark/flaw) are all on the 'ugly' side.

Trick: When three options are clearly negative, the unfamiliar word is likely the antonym. Pulchritude ↔ pulchritudinous (beautiful).

Answer: (B) Pulchritude

Concept: Tone = the author's attitude in presenting ideas.

1. The author compares originality and imitation, lists the strengths and weaknesses of each and reaches a balanced view (synthesis).
2. Not cynical (no mockery), not sentimental (no emotion), not didactic (no moral preaching to the reader).

Trick: 'Yet', 'however', 'conversely', 'the truth lies in equilibrium' — weighing both sides = analytical.

Answer: (B) Analytical

Concept: Find the line where the author praises imitation.

1. The passage calls careful imitation an 'apprenticeship' leading to mastery and says it gives the 'scaffolding'.
2. So imitation is a base on which skill is built.
3. (A) and (C) are the views the author argues against; (D) goes too far.

Trick: 'Apprenticeship' and 'scaffolding' both mean a foundation stage.

Answer: (B) A foundational process for achieving mastery

Concept: 'Fetishization' = treating something with excessive, almost blind worship.

1. The author says this over-worship of originality may cut creators off from the long chain of past knowledge.
2. So it means praising originality too much while ignoring learning from the past.
3. (B), (C), (D) do not match this warning.

Trick: Read the line right after the phrase — it states the harm: separation from the past.

Answer: (A) Society's excessive glorification of originality at the expense of learning from the past

Concept: An echo is an earlier sound coming back; 'refracted' means bent or changed.

1. So every 'new' idea is an earlier idea returning in a changed form.
2. The author adds 'an evolution rather than an eruption' — growth from the past, not a sudden break.
3. (B), (C), (D) suggest replacing or rejecting the past — opposite of the author's view.

Trick: Echo = something that came before ⇒ choose the option with 'traces of earlier ideas'.

Answer: (A) Every creative idea carries traces of the ideas that came before it.

Concept: The main idea is usually in the closing lines.

1. The author says great works come from 'synthesis' — imitation as the base, originality building on it.
2. The past is to be transformed into something new, neither worshipped nor ignored.
3. (A) and (D) are isolation/rejection; (B) is mere preservation — all rejected by the author.

Trick: Balanced passages end with a 'middle path' — pick the option that combines both sides.

Answer: (C) The old and the new are synthesized into meaningful innovation

Concept: For skill or ability in a subject or activity, use 'good at'.

1. 'good in mathematics' → 'good at mathematics'.
2. 'good for' = beneficial (Exercise is good for health).
3. 'better'/'best' need a comparison, which the sentence does not have.

Yaad rakhein: good/bad/clever/expert at; weak in; good for (benefit); good to (kind to someone).

Answer: (B) is good at

Concept: With a past reporting verb (said), tenses shift one step back.

1. have been waiting → had been waiting.
2. We → they; here → there.
3. He said they had been waiting there for an hour.

Trick: Only 'have/has' changes to 'had'; 'been waiting' stays — (B) forgets the shift, (D) drops 'been'.

Answer: (C) He said they had been waiting there for an hour.

Concept: Problem → what is needed → specific plan → outcome.

1. 2 states the problem: congestion, pollution, strain.
2. 4 'these issues' points back to 2 and gives the general need.
3. 1 'therefore' gives the specific planning steps; 3 ends with the benefit for cities.

Trick: 'these issues' (4) must come right after the issues are listed (2) ⇒ 2-4 pair appears only in (B).

Answer: (B) 2, 4, 1, 3