Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Match the exact idea: eating too much.

1. Glutton = a person who eats excessively.
2. Connoisseur = expert judge of taste; Epicure = lover of fine food.
3. Sybarite = one fond of luxury and pleasure.

Trick: Epicure cares about quality; glutton about quantity.

Answer: (A) Glutton

Concept: A relative pronoun is needed to join the second clause to the first.

1. Antecedent = 'proposals' (things) → 'which'.
2. 'none of which met the criteria' joins correctly after the comma.
3. 'who' is for persons; 'them/those' would create a run-on sentence.

Yaad rakhein: Pattern: some of which / none of which / all of whom (for people).

Answer: (B) which

Concept: Negative adverb at the start → auxiliary comes before the subject.

1. Structure: Hardly + had + subject + V3 + when + past simple.
2. Here: Hardly HAD the team completed … when the boss called.
3. 'did/have/was' do not fit with 'completed … called'.

Trick: Hardly/Scarcely → when; No sooner → than. Both take 'had' in the past.

Answer: (C) had

Concept: Find the word with the same meaning.

1. Childish = immature, like a child.
2. Juvenile = young or immature in behaviour — same sense.
3. Old, wise, mature are opposite in meaning.

Trick: Three options share one idea (grown-up); the odd one out is the synonym.

Answer: (D) Juvenile

Concept: Verb agrees with its real subject, even after a long interruption.

1. 'which' refers to 'the inconsistent support' — singular.
2. Remove the middle phrase: 'support … which contributes to a decline'.
3. So 'contribute' in part (4) must be 'contributes'.

Trick: Bracket out commas-wrapped phrases ('despite being crucial for success') to find the subject quickly.

Answer: (D) (4)

Concept: Keep the tense: had been + V-ing → had been being + V3.

1. Object 'the collected data' becomes the subject.
2. 'had been analyzing' → 'had been being analyzed'.
3. (B), (C) are ungrammatical; (D) shifts to past perfect simple.

Yaad rakhein: Strictly, perfect-continuous passives are rare in use, but in exam questions the matching-tense option is taken as correct.

Answer: (A) The collected data had been being analyzed by the research team for weeks before publishing the results.

Concept: Find the sentence where the word carries a different sense.

1. Pauldron = armour plate for the shoulder.
2. (A), (B), (D): knight's shoulder, polished armour, strapped over tunic — all armour.
3. (C) applies it to a snail's shell — a different sense.

Trick: Ask 'Could a soldier wear it here?' — only in (C) the answer is no.

Answer: (C) The snail retracted beneath its thick pauldron.

Concept: Imperative with 'please' → 'requested + object + to + V1'.

1. 'said to me' → 'requested me'; 'please' is dropped.
2. 'help me' → 'to help him'; 'this' → 'that'.
3. Result: Ravi requested me to help him with that task.

Trick: Look for three changes together: requested, to + verb, this → that. Only (A) has all three.

Answer: (A) Ravi requested me to help him with that task.

Concept: Extirpate = destroy completely, root out.

1. Exterminate, remove, eradicate all mean the same as extirpate.
2. Opposite = establish (to set up firmly).
3. So 'establish' is the antonym.

Trick: Three options are synonyms of each other; the one left out is the antonym.

Answer: (B) Establish

Concept: Pick the date the passage links to ISRO itself.

1. 1962 = INCOSPAR under Vikram Sarabhai.
2. 1969 = formation of ISRO, called a turning point.
3. 1975 = Aryabhata launch.

Trick: Match the exact name asked (ISRO, not INCOSPAR) in the passage before choosing a year.

Answer: (B) 1969

Concept: Locate the sentence on the lunar south pole.

1. The passage credits Chandrayaan-3 (2023) with India's first landing near the Moon's south pole.
2. Mangalyaan went to Mars; Gaganyaan is for human flight.
3. Chandrayaan-2 is not mentioned for this feat.

Yaad rakhein: Chandrayaan-3's lander Vikram touched down on 23 August 2023, now marked as National Space Day.

Answer: (C) Chandrayaan-3

Concept: Find how the passage describes Gaganyaan.

1. It is called India's first human spaceflight programme.
2. It marks a step toward manned missions.
3. Mars rover, space station and satellites are not linked to it.

Trick: Keywords 'human' and 'manned' in the passage map directly to option (B).

Answer: (B) Conduct India's first human spaceflight

Concept: Tick off the challenges the passage actually lists.

1. Listed: limited budgets, brain drain, need for technological upgrades.
2. Nothing in the passage says people lack interest in space.
3. So (C) is the one not mentioned.

Trick: For NOT-questions, match each option to the passage and choose the one with no match.

Answer: (C) Lack of public interest

Concept: The last sentence states the vision.

1. Vision: affordability + innovation + global collaboration.
2. 'At any cost' and 'depend entirely' contradict the passage.
3. 'Only manned missions' is too narrow.

Trick: Extreme words like 'only', 'entirely', 'at any cost' usually mark wrong options in RC.

Answer: (B) To combine affordability, innovation, and collaboration

Concept: Unreal past: If + had + V3, … would have + V3.

1. Main clause 'would have baked' = third conditional.
2. So the if-clause needs past perfect: 'had known'.
3. 'If she had known you were coming, she would have baked a cake.'

Trick: 'would have' in one half ⇒ 'had + V3' in the other half.

Answer: (B) had known you were coming

Concept: 'It is high time' + subject + past simple.

1. The structure shows something already overdue.
2. 'should start' is wrong after 'high time'.
3. So the verb takes its past form: 'started'.

Yaad rakhein: Same rule: 'It is time', 'It is about time' + past simple; or 'It is high time + to + V1' (without a subject).

Answer: (A) started preparing for the exam

Concept: Reverse the backshift of tense.

1. Reported past perfect 'had been postponed' comes from present perfect.
2. So inside the quotes the verb becomes 'has been postponed'.
3. (C) keeps 'had been' inside quotes; (A) and (D) change the tense.

Trick: Backshift chart in reverse: had + V3 → has/have + V3 (or past simple).

Answer: (B) "The meeting has been postponed to Monday," said the manager to the staff.

Concept: Neither … nor must be followed by parallel structures.

1. After 'nor' comes 'hire' (V1).
2. Write 'seeks neither to expand … nor to hire'; 'to neither expand' splits the pattern.
3. The error is in part (1).

Yaad rakhein: Same parallelism rule for either…or, both…and, not only…but also.

Answer: (A) (1)

Concept: Follow time order: before → invention → effect → result.

1. 4 describes the situation before (hand-copied manuscripts).
2. 1 introduces the printing press; 2 ('This breakthrough') gives its effect.
3. 3 ('As a result') concludes → 4-1-2-3.

Trick: 'This …' and 'As a result' can never open a paragraph — use them to fix 2 and 3 after 1.

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

Concept: Some words go together as fixed pairs.

1. 'Diametrically opposed (to)' = completely opposite.
2. Averse = unwilling; diverse = varied; reverse does not pair with 'diametrically'.
3. So 'opposed' fits.

Yaad rakhein: Other fixed pairs: 'bitterly opposed', 'poles apart', 'diametrically opposite'.

Answer: (D) opposed