Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Separable means able to be separated or divided.

1. Its opposite is Indivisible = that cannot be divided.
2. Branched, Judicious (wise) and Liable (responsible) are unrelated.

Trick: Separable = divisible; so the antonym is in-divisible.

Answer: (C) Indivisible

Concept: The word meaning 'relating to food or nutrition' is spelt Alimentary (alimentary canal).

1. Correct: Alimentary, not 'Alimentery'.
2. Alliterate (to use alliteration), Elementary and Illiterate are correct spellings.

Trick: Elementary and Alimentary both end in -ary.

Answer: (D) Alimentery

Concept: A planned future action is expressed with be going to + base verb: I am going to buy.

1. 'will be gone to buy' is ungrammatical.
2. (B) 'will going' and (D) 'will be buy' break verb rules; (C) 'going to buying' uses -ing after 'to'.
3. Correct: I am going to buy a cupboard …

Trick: am/is/are + going to + V1 = planned future.

Answer: (A) am going to buy

Concept: At a push (informal) means 'possibly, but only with difficulty'.

1. Sentence: she can finish by Friday – and, if she tries really hard, perhaps even by Wednesday.
2. So 'probably possible, but it will be difficult' fits.
3. (A), (C), (D) describe effort or methods, not difficult possibility.

Trick: At a push = 'if pushed hard, maybe'.

Answer: (B) probably possible, but it will be difficult

Concept: Lame means weak or unconvincing; a lame excuse is a weak, unbelievable excuse.

1. Example: 'My dog ate my homework' is a lame excuse.
2. It is still an excuse, so not 'No excuse'; and it is the opposite of 'Strong excuse'.

Trick: Lame = langda = weak.

Answer: (C) Weak excuse

Concept: The correct spelling is Column – it ends in a silent 'n' after 'm'.

1. Column, not 'Colomn'.
2. Scale, Peace and Square are spelt correctly.

Trick: Column, autumn, solemn, hymn – all have a silent 'n'.

Answer: (A) Colomn

Concept: Horde means a large group or crowd of people.

1. Flock is used for birds or sheep; Herd for cattle/animals.
2. Convocation is a formal assembly, e.g. a degree ceremony – not just any large group.

Trick: Horde of people, flock of birds, herd of cattle.

Answer: (D) Horde

Concept: One's heart goes out to someone means to feel deep sympathy for someone who is suffering.

1. In the sentence, people feel sympathy for the victims' families after a tragedy.
2. It is not praise (A) and not only for the deceased (C).

Trick: Heart goes out = dil se hamdardi.

Answer: (B) To feel sympathy for someone when they are distressed

Concept: Peculiar means strange, odd or unusual.

1. Synonym: Unusual.
2. Customary (usual) is nearly the opposite; Perplexed (confused) and Proven are unrelated.

Trick: Peculiar smell = strange/unusual smell.

Answer: (A) Unusual

Concept: To broach a subject means to raise or bring it up for discussion, usually a sensitive one.

1. No country was ready to bring up the topic of retreat.
2. Others (turn down, underestimate, disregard) give the wrong sense.

Trick: Broach = open a topic (like opening a cask).

Answer: (B) bring up for discussion

Concept: Indelible means permanent; that cannot be removed or forgotten (indelible ink).

1. Its opposite is temporary.
2. durable is close to a synonym; futile (useless) and solitary (alone) are unrelated.

Trick: Indelible ink on voters' fingers stays – the opposite is temporary.

Answer: (A) temporary

Concept: Toffee-nosed (British, informal) describes a snobbish person who thinks he belongs to a higher class and looks down on others.

1. Like 'nose in the air' – a snob.
2. (B) is 'pillar of society'; (C) is 'keep up appearances'; (D) is 'rough diamond'.

Trick: Toffee-nosed = naak oonchi = snob.

Answer: (A) A person who thinks he is of a high social class and looks down on people of lower class

Concept: In high spirits means very happy, lively and cheerful.

1. 'Spirits' here means mood, not alcohol – so 'Drunk' is a trap.
2. Annoying and Disturbed are negative moods.

Trick: High spirits = high mood = cheerful; low spirits = sad.

Answer: (D) Cheerful

Concept: A verb must be modified by an adverb or adverbial phrase. Scholarly is an adjective, though it ends in -ly.

1. 'defended his thesis scholarly' is wrong.
2. Correct: defended his thesis in a scholarly manner (or 'ably').
3. Parts 'The research fellow defended' and 'and obtained the degree' are fine.

Trick: -ly adjectives (scholarly, friendly, lovely) need 'in a … manner/way'.

Answer: (B) his thesis scholarly

Concept: Contrary means opposite in nature, direction or meaning.

1. Example: contrary to popular belief = opposite to it.
2. Straight, Crooked and Wobbly describe shape/stability, not opposition.

Trick: Contrary ≈ Opposite.

Answer: (D) Opposite

Concept: We need a phrase meaning "confirm / prove to be true". That phrase is bear out: "The evidence put forward could not bear out his guilt."

1. Bring up = raise a topic, or rear a child – not "confirm".
2. Break down = stop working / collapse emotionally – not "confirm".
3. Bear up = stay strong or cheerful in a difficult situation (e.g. "She is bearing up well after the loss") – it does not mean "confirm", so "could not bear up his guilt" makes no sense.
4. Blow off = ignore or skip something – not "confirm".

Yaad rakhein: bear out = prove/support (evidence bears out a claim); bear up = endure hardship. One letter of the particle changes the whole meaning.

Answer: The correct replacement is "bear out", which is not among the options; "Bear up" means "endure", so none of the four options fits the sentence as printed.

Concept: Pensive means deeply or seriously thoughtful, reflecting on something.

1. Opposite: Unreflective = not thinking deeply.
2. Frivolous (not serious) and Goofy (silly) are tempting but describe silliness, not absence of thought; Hollow = empty.

Trick: Pensive = reflective → antonym un-reflective.

Answer: (B) Unreflective

Concept: A dilemma is a problem or difficult situation with no easy way out. Its opposite is a solution.

1. The sentence contains the word 'solutions'; its base form 'solution' is option (D).
2. 'disliked', 'poorly', 'frequently' have no opposite relation with 'dilemma'.

Trick: Dilemma = problem ↔ Solution.

Answer: (D) solution

Concept: Portray means to show, represent or describe something.

1. Synonym: depict.
2. distort, garble and falsify mean to twist or misrepresent – opposite in spirit.

Trick: Portrait / portray / depict – all about showing.

Answer: (D) depict

Concept: A habitual action with 'always' takes the simple present: subject + V1. The verb 'encourage' takes object + to-infinitive.

1. 'I always encouraging' lacks a proper verb.
2. Correct: I always encourage people to read books.
3. (B) misses 'to', (C) is wrong voice, (D) 'to be reading' is unnatural.

Trick: encourage + somebody + to + V1.

Answer: (A) encourage people to read books