Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: ‘At heart’ is a fixed phrase meaning ‘in one’s real nature, basically’.

1. Pasteur got many honours, yet in his true nature he stayed simple → ‘a simple man at heart’.
2. ‘By heart’ means ‘from memory’ (learn by heart) – meaning does not fit.
3. ‘In heart’ and ‘on heart’ are not idiomatic here.

Trick: at heart = deep down; by heart = from memory.

Answer: (A) at

Concept: The passage narrates the past, so the verb after ‘when he’ must be in simple past.

1. ‘…his boyhood days, when he drew the familiar scenes of his birthplace’ – a completed past action.
2. ‘drawn’ is a past participle and needs ‘had/has’.
3. ‘draw/draws’ are present forms and break the past narration.

Trick: Past narration + no helping verb → V2 (drew).

Answer: (B) drew

Concept: We need a noun meaning ‘strong desire’ that can take ‘to be’ after it.

1. ‘the longing to be a great artist’ = his deep desire to become an artist; it ‘never wholly left him’.
2. ‘itching’ is informal and is not used as ‘the itching to be’.
3. ‘wishing’ is not used as a noun in this way; ‘loathing’ means hatred – opposite sense.

Yaad rakhein: longing = yearning (strong wish); loathing = hatred.

Answer: (C) longing

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

1. ‘He did become a great artist’ = he really became one (emphasis).
2. ‘did’ already shows past tense, so ‘became/becomes/becoming’ are wrong after it.

Trick: do/does/did + V1 – never V2 or V-ing.

Answer: (A) become

Concept: We need a verb meaning ‘gave up completely’, which collocates with ‘forever’.

1. After sixteen he gave up painting → he abandoned the brush forever.
2. ‘discharged’ (from duty/hospital), ‘released’ (set free) and ‘expelled’ (thrown out of a school/party) do not suit giving up a hobby.

Trick: abandon = give up / leave for good.

Answer: (D) abandoned

Concept: The fixed expression is ‘put (one’s) energy/soul into something’.

1. ‘into’ shows movement/investment of effort towards something → ‘put his soul and energy into his work’.
2. ‘inside’ shows position, not direction; ‘among’ needs a group; ‘over’ gives a wrong sense.

Yaad rakhein: put effort/heart/energy INTO work.

Answer: (C) into

Concept: Phrasal verb ‘wear out’ = to exhaust, to make very tired; past form ‘wore out’.

1. The same energy finally exhausted Pasteur → ‘this very energy that in the end wore him out’.
2. ‘blew out’ = extinguish (a candle); ‘let out’ = release; ‘cut out’ = remove – none mean exhaust.

Trick: wear out a person = tire him completely.

Answer: (A) wore

Concept: ‘More than just’ = not merely; it upgrades something beyond its ordinary status.

1. For Pasteur a patient was not merely a medical case → ‘more than just a case’.
2. ‘more than but’ is ungrammatical; ‘absolutely’ and ‘exactly’ do not combine with ‘more than’ in this sense.

Trick: more than just X = not only X but something greater.

Answer: (C) just

Concept: We say ‘fight against a disease’; the next words ‘as a battle’ confirm the idea of a fight.

1. He saw his struggle against hydrophobia (rabies) as a battle → ‘the fight against hydrophobia’.
2. ‘scuffle’ = a short, confused physical struggle; ‘mutiny’ = rebellion by soldiers/sailors; ‘rivalry’ = competition between people.

Yaad rakhein: fight against disease/poverty/corruption – standard collocation.

Answer: (A) fight

Concept: ‘Be determined to + V1’ = to have a firm resolve to do something.

1. ‘he was determined to win at any cost’ – fits ‘at any cost’ (firm resolve).
2. ‘was decided to win’ is incorrect (we say ‘he decided to win’).
3. ‘devised’ (planned) and ‘developed’ do not take ‘to win’ here.

Trick: was determined to … at any cost = firm resolve.

Answer: (C) determined

Concept: Relative pronoun ‘who’ refers to a person and acts as subject of its clause.

1. ‘someone who (I thought) was my friend Sandra’ – remove ‘I thought’: ‘someone who was my friend’ → subject needed, so ‘who’.
2. ‘which’ is for things; ‘such’ and ‘how’ are not relative pronouns for a person.

Trick: Drop the inserted ‘I thought’ and test – subject form ‘who’ fits.

Answer: (D) who

Concept: ‘Go up to someone’ = approach someone.

1. She approached the woman and touched her arm → ‘I went up to her’.
2. ‘by’ means near/past; ‘for’ shows purpose; ‘into’ means entering inside – none fit approaching a person.

Yaad rakhein: go up to / come up to = approach a person.

Answer: (C) to

Concept: The adverb must show that what happened was unexpected.

1. She was sure it was Sandra, but the woman was someone else → Surprisingly, it wasn’t Sandra.
2. ‘Correctly’, ‘Gladly’ and ‘Smoothly’ do not express the unexpected twist.

Trick: A sentence that reverses an expectation often starts with ‘Surprisingly’.

Answer: (A) Surprisingly

Concept: ‘Not … at all’ is an idiom meaning ‘not in the least’.

1. ‘it wasn’t Sandra at all’ = it was not Sandra in any way.
2. ‘of all’, ‘by all’, ‘with all’ do not give this emphatic negative sense.

Trick: not … at all = bilkul nahin.

Answer: (C) at

Concept: ‘Mistake A for B’ = wrongly think that A is B; past form ‘mistook’.

1. ‘I am sorry. I mistook you for a friend.’ – the ‘for’ after the blank demands ‘mistake’.
2. ‘misjudged’ (formed a wrong opinion) is not used with ‘for’; ‘disguised’ = changed appearance; ‘recognised’ is opposite.

Yaad rakhein: mistake … for … (confuse one person with another).

Answer: (C) mistook

Concept: We need a reaction verb used without an object, after ‘stared at my face and …’.

1. The woman was annoyed → she stared and scowled (frowned angrily); her face then ‘shocked’ the writer.
2. ‘stooped’ = bent down; ‘snored’ = breathed noisily in sleep; ‘scared’ needs an object (scared someone).

Trick: scowl = an angry frown.

Answer: (C) scowled

Concept: ‘Remind somebody of something’; the narrative is in simple past.

1. ‘She reminded me of a witch…’ – matches stared, shocked, snatched.
2. ‘remind/reminds’ are present; ‘was reminding’ (continuous) is not used for this state-like meaning.

Trick: Past story → simple past: reminded.

Answer: (B) reminded

Concept: Witches with long noses and staring eyes typically appear in children’s stories.

1. ‘a witch from a children’s story’ – natural collocation.
2. ‘myth’ = ancient traditional belief; ‘anecdote’ = short real-life incident; ‘epic’ = long heroic poem – none is the usual source for children.

Yaad rakhein: children’s story / children’s book – common phrase.

Answer: (A) story

Concept: ‘Before + clause’ shows one action happening earlier than another.

1. ‘Before I could realise what she was up to, she snatched my purse’ – she acted before the writer understood.
2. ‘No soon’ is wrong (correct form: No sooner had … than); ‘As soon’ lacks ‘as’; ‘After’ gives the wrong order of events.

Trick: Before I could… = too quick for me to react.

Answer: (B) Before

Concept: Two completed past actions joined by ‘and’ take the same tense (parallelism).

1. ‘she snatched my purse and escaped’ – ‘escaped’ is simple past, so ‘snatched’.
2. ‘was snatching’ (continuous), ‘snatches/snatch’ (present) break parallelism.

Trick: X-ed and Y-ed – keep both verbs in the same form.

Answer: (D) snatched