Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Fecundity = fertility; the ability to produce abundantly (also of the mind – productiveness of ideas).

1. Synonym of fecundity → fertility.
2. Sentence: emotional stimulation gives the necessary fertility (richness) for creative imagination.
3. force, fulcrum, freedom do not mean fruitful production.

Trick: Fecund = fertile, fruitful; Fecundity = fertility.

Answer: (A) fertility

Concept: Steer clear of = to avoid someone or something.

1. 'avoided going to parties' = steered clear of going to parties.
2. 'cracked a joke', 'fired a cracker', 'whispered a secret' change the meaning entirely.
3. The gerund 'going' fits after 'steered clear of'.

Trick: Steer (a ship) clear of rocks = keep away = avoid.

Answer: (B) steered clear of

Concept: Quell = to suppress or put an end to a feeling (fear, anger, emotions) or a rebellion.

1. 'a desire to stop emotions' = to suppress emotions → quell.
2. Smash = break violently; Put out = extinguish (a fire).
3. Quiet is mainly about sound/calm, not suppressing feelings in this sense.

Trick: Quell fears, quell a riot, quell emotions – all mean suppress.

Answer: (C) Quell

Concept: Check each word letter by letter against its standard spelling.

1. refridgerator → refrigerator (no 'd').
2. litrature → literature.
3. allegater → alligator.
4. registration is correct.

Trick: refrigerator: fridge has 'd', refrigerator does not.

Answer: (C) registration

Concept: Spot the misspelt words in each sentence: delicious, aroma, freshly, cookies, wafted.

1. (A) delicius, freshely – wrong.
2. (B) arauma, freshely, cookes – wrong.
3. (D) arauma, waftad – wrong.
4. (C) has all words correct.

Trick: fresh + ly = freshly (no extra 'e'); aroma has no 'u'.

Answer: (C) The delicious aroma of freshly baked cookies wafted through the kitchen, making mouths water.

Concept: Aggravate = make a problem or pain worse. Its opposite is alleviate = make less severe.

1. Aggravate (worsen) ↔ Alleviate (ease).
2. Exasperate = irritate – close to aggravate, not opposite.
3. Humiliate = shame; Ignorant = unaware (an adjective).

Trick: Alleviate – think 'lighten' (Latin levis = light).

Answer: (B) Alleviate

Concept: A conditional clause with if is needed: the second part is an instruction that depends on the condition (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar).

1. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. – a condition followed by an imperative.
2. 'Yet', 'Until' and 'Unless' give illogical meaning.
3. 'Unless you have tears, prepare to shed them' contradicts itself.

Trick: Condition + command → 'If…, (do)…'.

Answer: (A) If you have tears,

Concept: Nouns formed from supreme end in -acy: supremacy.

1. Supremecy → Supremacy.
2. Passage, Reconsidered and Prevention are spelt correctly.
3. Similar: democracy, accuracy, privacy.

Trick: -acy endings: supremacy, democracy, legacy.

Answer: (D) Supremecy

Concept: When pigs fly = something that will never happen (used sarcastically).

1. Pigs cannot fly, so the event is impossible → never happen.
2. It is not about lasting long, deviating or being completed.
3. Example: 'He'll clean his room when pigs fly.'

Trick: Impossible condition = never happens.

Answer: (D) Something that will never happen

Concept: A verb is modified by an adverb. Cowardly is mainly an adjective (a cowardly act), so 'fight cowardly' is wrong; use 'fight in a cowardly manner' or 'fight like cowards'.

1. Segment 'trained never to' is a normal infinitive with 'never' before 'to' – correct.
2. 'Soldiers in' and 'the Indian Armed Forces are' are correct (plural subject + are).
3. Error lies in 'fight cowardly'.

Trick: Words ending in -ly like cowardly, friendly, lovely are adjectives → use 'in a … manner'.

Answer: (A) fight cowardly.

Concept: A collective noun acting as one unit takes a singular verb; simple present singular adds -s.

1. 'The committee' acts as one body → works.
2. 'is work', 'has work' are wrong verb forms.
3. 'worked' is past tense, but present tense is asked.

Trick: Singular subject (he/she/it/committee) + V₁+s in simple present.

Answer: (B) The committee works diligently to ensure fair and unbiased decision.

Concept: Disappear = dis + appear: one 's' (from dis-) and double 'p' (from appear).

1. Dissapear → Disappear.
2. Entrepreneur, Supersede, Vicinity are correct.
3. Similar: disappoint (one s, double p).

Trick: dis + appear → disappear: just join the two parts.

Answer: (C) Dissapear

Concept: Incinerate = destroy by burning. Its opposite is extinguish = put out a fire.

1. Incinerate (burn) ↔ Extinguish.
2. Blaze, Combust = burn – synonyms.
3. Oxidise – burning is oxidation, so it is related, not opposite.

Trick: Incinerator = machine that burns waste; extinguisher puts out fire.

Answer: (C) Extinguish

Concept: Bite off more than you can chew = take on a task that is too big or beyond one's ability.

1. 'difficult tasks beyond his capabilities' → bite off more than he can chew.
2. Pull someone's leg = tease; No pain no gain = effort brings reward.
3. Miss the boat = lose an opportunity.

Trick: Too big a bite to chew = too big a task to handle.

Answer: (B) Bite off more than you can chew

Concept: Foot has the irregular plural feet (never 'feets/foots'); a plural subject takes 'were' in the past.

1. The accident was yesterday → past tense.
2. 'feet' is plural → were, so her feet were burnt.
3. 'feet was' – number disagreement; 'foots' – wrong plural.

Trick: foot → feet, tooth → teeth, goose → geese (vowel change, no -s).

Answer: (C) her feet were

Concept: The correct idiom is a bird's eye view = a view from a high position, or a general overview.

1. Birds see the land from above → bird's eye view.
2. 'goose's', 'dog's', 'hornet's', 'fool's' eye view are not idioms.
3. (Compare 'hornet's nest' and 'fool's errand', which are different idioms.)

Trick: View from the sky = bird's eye view.

Answer: (D) bird's

Concept: Have one's head in the clouds = to be daydreaming, not paying attention to what is happening.

1. (A) Not paying attention during an important meeting – correct figurative use.
2. (B) A pilot is literally in the clouds; the use is literal/confusing.
3. (C) and (D) use it literally (looking at the sky, a cloud-shaped hat).

Trick: Idioms are figurative – reject options that use the words literally.

Answer: (A) He had his head in the clouds during an important meeting.

Concept: Vanquish = defeat thoroughly, conquer and subdue. The best opposite among the options is liberate = set free.

1. To vanquish is to overpower and bring under control; to liberate is to free from control.
2. Measure, Engage, Instill have no opposite relation to vanquish.
3. Context: the knight sets out to defeat the dragon.

Trick: Conquer/subdue ↔ liberate/free.

Answer: (A) Liberate

Concept: Nepotism = favouritism shown to relatives (especially in jobs or patronage) rather than on merit.

1. Patronage based on family ties → nepotism (Latin nepos = nephew).
2. Egotism = excessive self-importance.
3. Mannerism = habitual gesture; Neologism = a newly coined word.

Trick: nepos = nephew → favouring nephews/relatives = nepotism.

Answer: (D) Nepotism

Concept: Sacred cow = an idea, custom or institution held to be above criticism, i.e. unquestionable.

1. Derived from the cow being sacred and untouchable in Hinduism → cannot be questioned → unquestionable.
2. Interrogate is a verb meaning to question – opposite idea.
3. Harmful, Hateful are unrelated.

Trick: Sacred = cannot be touched or criticised.

Answer: (B) Unquestionable