Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Match the job description 'in charge of a museum' with the exact title.

1. Curator = the person who manages a museum's collection and exhibits.
2. Conservator restores/preserves objects; Director heads an organisation; Historian studies the past.

Trick: Curator ~ 'cure/care' → one who takes care of the collection.

Answer: (C) Curator

Concept: A collective noun acting as one unit takes a singular verb.

1. (A) 'Twenty percent of the students' → plural verb 'speak' ✔. (B) A time span treated as one amount → 'is' ✔. (C) correct.
2. (D) 'undivided in their decision' shows the committee acted as ONE body, so 'were' is wrong.
3. Correct: The selection committee was undivided in its decision…

Trick: Words like 'unanimous / undivided / united' signal one body → singular verb.

Answer: (D) The selection committee were undivided in their decision to hire the new recruits.

Concept: Choose the idiom meaning 'without any warning'.

1. A 'sudden choice' surprised the investors → needs 'unexpectedly'.
2. Out of the blue = suddenly, unexpectedly.
3. Off the wall = strange; behind closed doors = secretly; under fire = being criticised.

Trick: 'Sudden' in the sentence is the clue word for 'out of the blue'.

Answer: (B) out of the blue

Concept: Pick the phrasal verb that means 'to arouse feelings'.

1. Stir up = provoke/awaken emotions → a moving speech stirs up strong emotions.
2. Put up = tolerate/host; bring out = reveal or publish; give off = emit (smell, heat).

Trick: Stirring a pot makes things rise – stirring up makes feelings rise.

Answer: (C) stirred up

Concept: Malicious = intending to cause harm.

1. Pernicious = harmful, destructive → closest in meaning.
2. Harmless, benevolent, helpful are all opposite in sense (kind, not harmful).

Trick: Three options are 'nice' words – the odd harmful word is the synonym.

Answer: (C) Pernicious

Concept: Philosophical = concerned with deep questions of life and existence.

1. Existential = relating to existence and the meaning of life → closest match.
2. Practical is nearly the opposite; decorative and cosmic do not fit.

Trick: Philosophy asks 'why do we exist?' → existential.

Answer: (D) Existential

Concept: Use on with specific days and dates; in with months, years, seasons.

1. 'in the 11th of August' is wrong – a date needs 'on'.
2. 'during' and 'at' do not go with a date.
3. Correct: His birthday is on the …th of August. (the option prints 9th, but the preposition is what is tested).

Trick: IN for long (month/year), ON for a day/date, AT for a clock time.

Answer: (A) on the 9th of August

Concept: By + time = not later than that time (a deadline).

1. Submitting is a one-time action with a deadline → 'by Friday' is correct.
2. 'till/until' show a continuing action up to a point; 'at Friday' is wrong (days take 'on').

Trick: Deadline → BY; continuous action → TILL/UNTIL.

Answer: (D) No substitution

Concept: Homonyms: same spelling and sound, different meaning.

1. In the given sentence, 'file' = a metal tool for smoothing.
2. (A), (D) also mean the tool; (C) is the verb 'to smooth (nails)' – same idea.
3. (B) 'file' = a folder of papers → a completely different meaning.

Trick: Find the option where the word is no longer a 'tool' or 'rubbing' – that's the homonym.

Answer: (B) He put all the important papers in a single file.

Concept: Simple past active → was/were + V3 in passive.

1. Object 'the plants' (plural) becomes subject → 'were'.
2. Watered (V3) stays; 'by the gardener' added.
3. → The plants were watered by the gardner every morning.

Trick: Check only two things: tense (past) and number (plural) → 'were + V3'.

Answer: (B) The plants were watered by the gardner every morning.

Concept: Two clues: formal praise + a person who has died.

1. Eulogy = a speech/writing praising someone who has died (often at a funeral).
2. Panegyric = praise in general (not specifically for the dead); sermon = religious talk; editorial = newspaper opinion.

Trick: Eu = good, logy = words → 'good words' at a funeral.

Answer: (C) Eulogy

Concept: Quash = suppress, crush, put an end to.

1. Foment = stir up, provoke (trouble) → the opposite.
2. Rescind, retract, abrogate all mean cancel/withdraw – similar to quash.

Trick: Three options mean 'cancel' – the odd one out is the antonym.

Answer: (C) Foment

Concept: Wh-question → 'asked + wh-word + statement order', with tense and place-word changes.

1. said to → asked; 'was built' → 'had been built'.
2. here → there; this → that.
3. Pronoun 'his' stays (the man). Only (B) has all changes.

Trick: Eliminate fast: 'her colleague' (C, D) and 'this river' (A) are wrong.

Answer: (B) The man asked his colleague when the bridge had been built there on that river.

Concept: Active of 'has been being + V3' is 'has/have been + V-ing' with the doer as subject.

1. Doer is unstated → use 'They'.
2. Present perfect continuous: They have been debating for years whether the policy will be enacted or not.
3. (C) is still passive; (D) is ungrammatical; (B) changes the structure.

Trick: Active must start with the doer (They) and contain V-ing – only (A).

Answer: (A) They have been debating for years whether the new policy will be enacted or not.

Concept: Reported question: asked + wh-word + subject + verb; tense back-shifts.

1. you → I; 'are doing' → 'was doing'.
2. today → that day.
3. (B) keeps question order 'was I' ✘; (C), (D) keep 'today' ✘.

Trick: Spot two changes: statement order (I was) + 'that day'.

Answer: (A) Peter asked what I was doing that day.

Concept: Check each word letter by letter.

1. Correct spelling: Obfuscate (o-b-f-u-s-c-a-t-e) = to make unclear.
2. Given 'Obfucsate' swaps s and c.
3. Resilient, Accommodate (double c, double m), Perseverance are correct.

Trick: Obfu-SCATE: think 'scatter the meaning'.

Answer: (B) Obfucsate

Concept: Present perfect active → has/have been + V3.

1. Object 'China' (singular) becomes subject → 'has been'.
2. → China has been visited by them many times.

Trick: Active 'have/has' stays in passive as 'has/have been' – tense never changes.

Answer: (B) China has been visited by them many times.

Concept: Reverse the reporting changes: pronouns back to first person, 'would' back to 'will'.

1. she → I, her → my; would → will.
2. Direct: Ruksar said, "I will not leave my job."
3. (C) keeps 'would' and has mismatched quotes; (B), (D) keep 'she'.

Trick: Direct speech = speaker's exact words, so it must have 'I'.

Answer: (A) Ruksar said, "I will not leave my job."

Concept: Scan the passage for each option word.

1. 'While' – opens 'While improvements in digital connectivity…'.
2. 'Aside from' – 'Aside from digital threats…'; 'and' – used many times.
3. 'Because' does not appear anywhere.

Trick: Search for the rarest word first – it is usually the missing one.

Answer: (C) Because

Concept: Relative pronouns (who, whom, whose, which, that) join a clause to a noun.

1. In (C), 'which' refers back to 'a distorted reality' and begins a clause.
2. (A), (B), (D) have no who/which/that linking a clause.

Trick: Just hunt for who/which/that/whose in the options.

Answer: (C) Countless users cultivate a distorted reality, which frequently results in jealousy.