Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: A comparative (‘taller’) is followed by ‘than’, and the second part keeps its own correct tense.

1. ‘taller than I was a year ago’ – correct comparative + past ‘was’ with ‘a year ago’.
2. ‘that I were’ – ‘that’ cannot follow a comparative.
3. ‘as I was’ – ‘as’ does not follow ‘taller’; ‘than a year before’ drops the subject and is not natural.

Yaad rakhein: -er / more … than; as … as.

Answer: (C) No substitution

Concept: A Yes/No question is reported with ‘asked + if/whether’, in assertive order, with tense backshift.

1. said to → asked; ‘Is there’ → ‘if there was’ (assertive order, past).
2. me → me (first person follows the speaker ‘I’).
3. Answer: I asked the postman if there was a letter for me.

Trick: Yes/No question → if/whether + subject + verb.

Answer: (C) I asked the postman if there was a letter for me.

Concept: Present perfect continuous = has/have + been + V-ing.

1. ‘has being improving’ is wrong.
2. Correct: Her health has been steadily improving.
3. ‘since she started’ confirms perfect continuous tense.

Yaad rakhein: has/have + been + ing (never ‘has being’).

Answer: (D) Her health has being

Concept: For a wish (optative) ‘May + subject + be + V3’, the active form is ‘May + doer + V1 + object’.

1. Hidden doer of blessing = God.
2. be blessed → bless (V1 after ‘may’).
3. Active: May God bless you with good health!

Trick: After ‘may’, always V1: May God bless you.

Answer: (C) May God bless you with good health!

Concept: Simple past active (V2) → passive ‘was/were + V3’; the phrase ‘of all his possessions’ stays with the verb.

1. Object ‘the man’ → subject.
2. robbed (V2) → was robbed.
3. Passive: The man was robbed of all his possessions by someone.

Trick: Simple past: V2 → was/were + V3.

Answer: (C) The man was robbed of all his possessions by someone.

Concept: A ‘Let us …’ proposal is reported with ‘suggested/proposed that we should …’.

1. said to → suggested (to us).
2. Let us go → that we should go.
3. Answer: Mother suggested that we should go to the hills for a vacation.

Trick: Let us (proposal) → suggested that … should.

Answer: (D) Mother suggested that we should go to the hills for a vacation.

Concept: ‘Only’ used as an adjective meaning ‘single, sole’ before a particular noun takes the article ‘the’.

1. The mistake is a definite, specific one.
2. ‘only mistake’ → ‘the only mistake’.
3. Correct: This is the only mistake he has made in the dictation.

Yaad rakhein: the only, the same, the very + noun.

Answer: (B) only mistake

Concept: ‘Contradict’ means to deny a statement by saying the opposite.

1. Refute = prove a statement to be false – closest synonym.
2. Agree is the antonym.
3. Advise, shorten are unrelated.

Trick: contra = against + dict = say → speak against.

Answer: (A) refute

Concept: A noun/pronoun before a gerund (V-ing used as a noun) is put in the possessive form.

1. ‘granting’ is a gerund (object of ‘of’).
2. So we need possessive adjective ‘your’.
3. ‘yours’ is a pronoun (stands alone); ‘you’, ‘yourself’ are wrong here.

Yaad rakhein: Possessive + gerund: your coming, his leaving.

Answer: (C) your

Concept: ‘Boil down to’ means to be reduced to the main point; in short, to come down to.

1. The whole problem, in essence, is ‘lack of infrastructure’.
2. So it ‘sums up to’ one thing.
3. ‘Heats up to’ is the literal meaning – wrong in this context.

Yaad rakhein: boil down → reduce to the essence.

Answer: (B) sums up to

Concept: Join sentences with connectors (But, So, When) and time order.

1. A: went to pay fees → E: ‘But the teacher was absent’.
2. E → C: ‘So, fees would be collected the next day’.
3. C → B: coins stayed in pocket all day.
4. B → D: ‘When school got over’, coins began to speak → F: ‘They said …’.

Trick: Connectors ‘But’ and ‘So’ fix the pair E-C.

Answer: (D) AECBDF

Concept: ‘It is time for + someone + to + V1’ is a correct pattern (it does not need the past tense).

1. ‘It is time for the children to go to bed’ – correct infinitive.
2. ‘for going in bed’, ‘to being in bed’ are ungrammatical.
3. ‘should be in bed’ cannot follow ‘for the children’.

Yaad rakhein: It is time for X to V1 = It is time X + V2.

Answer: (D) No substitution

Concept: A Wh-question is reported with ‘asked + wh-word + subject + verb’ (assertive order), no ‘that’.

1. said to → asked (not ‘asked to’).
2. are you angry → she was angry (pronoun + tense change).
3. Answer: I asked my daughter why she was angry with me.

Trick: Wh-question → asked + why/what + S + V; no ‘that’.

Answer: (B) I asked my daughter why she was angry with me.

Concept: A completed action at a definite past time (in 1945) takes the simple past.

1. ‘in 1945’ = definite past time.
2. So: The Allies won the war in 1945.
3. Present perfect ‘have won’ is never used with a past time marker.

Yaad rakhein: Past year / yesterday / ago → simple past (V2).

Answer: (C) won

Concept: ‘Much’ is used with uncountable nouns; for countable people (us) we use ‘many’.

1. ‘us’ = countable persons.
2. ‘Much of us’ → ‘Many of us’.
3. Correct: Many of us lack the important virtue of patience.

Yaad rakhein: many → countable; much → uncountable.

Answer: (C) Much of us

Concept: After ‘kind of / sort of’ a singular countable noun takes no article.

1. ‘What kind of the book’ – the article ‘the’ is wrong.
2. Correct: What kind of book do you want?
3. ‘kinds of a book’ wrongly adds ‘a’ and plural ‘kinds’.

Yaad rakhein: kind of + noun (no a/an/the).

Answer: (B) kind of book

Concept: In a time clause (before, after, when, until) we use the simple present for a future action, not the continuous.

1. ‘before you are leaving’ is wrong.
2. Correct: … before you leave the room.
3. The main clause is an imperative (future idea), so the time clause uses V1.

Yaad rakhein: before / after / when / till + simple present.

Answer: (A) are leaving the room

Concept: A statement with more than one possible meaning is ambiguous.

1. Ambiguous = open to two or more interpretations.
2. Apparent = clearly visible; absurd = foolish.
3. Axiom = an accepted truth – one clear meaning.

Yaad rakhein: ambi = both (ambidextrous, ambivalent).

Answer: (C) ambiguous

Concept: ‘ordered … to + V1’ comes from a plain imperative; ‘then’ in reported speech goes back to ‘now’.

1. ordered → plain command (no ‘please’, which shows request).
2. to stop playing → ‘Stop playing’.
3. then → now: Mother said to the children, “Stop playing now.”

Trick: Indirect to direct: then → now, ordered → imperative.

Answer: (C) Mother said to the children, “Stop playing now.”

Concept: Start with the sentence that introduces the person by name; pronouns follow.

1. B introduces ‘Mahendra’ – opening sentence.
2. A: ‘His job’ – describes his work.
3. D: work sites changed, he moved place to place.
4. C: ‘So far’ he had worked at many sites – concludes.

Trick: Name first, then he/his.

Answer: (B) BADC