Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Enormous means very large in size or amount.

1. Synonyms: huge, vast, immense, massive.
2. 'Tiny' is its antonym; 'common' and 'ordinary' mean usual.
3. So 'massive' is the synonym.

Trick: Don't pick the antonym (tiny) in a synonym question.

Answer: (D) massive

Concept: A hard nut to crack is a person who is difficult to understand, deal with or persuade (also a difficult problem).

1. Example: The new manager is a hard nut to crack.
2. 'Comfortable situation' and 'easy problem' are opposite in sense.
3. 'Highly priced item' is unrelated; among the options, 'a difficult person' fits.

Yaad rakhein: hard nut = hard to break open = hard to handle.

Answer: (D) A difficult person

Concept: We say parts of the world – 'of' shows the parts belong to the whole world, and 'world' needs 'the'.

1. 'some parts in world' lacks 'the' and uses the wrong preposition.
2. 'some part of the world' – 'some … parts' should be plural here (several regions).
3. 'some world parts' is unidiomatic.

Trick: the world is unique → always 'the world'.

Answer: (C) some parts of the world

Concept: The idiom is to be taken unawares = to be surprised. The subject 'They' received the action, so the passive (were + V3) is needed.

1. 'were … taking unawares' is active continuous – wrong here.
2. Correct: 'They were completely taken unawares by the shocking remarks …'
3. 'by the shocking remarks' confirms the passive; other parts are correct.

Trick: 'by + doer' in the sentence → verb must be passive (be + V3).

Answer: (D) were completely taking unawares

Concept: When the subject receives the action, use need(s) + to be + V3 (passive infinitive).

1. The oven does not repair itself – it must be repaired, so: it needs to be repaired.
2. The subject 'microwave oven' is singular → 'needs'.
3. 'repairing is needed for it' is wordy; 'need to be repairing' and 'needing that it be repaired' are ungrammatical.

Trick: Thing + needs + to be + V3 (The car needs to be washed).

Answer: (C) needs to be repaired.

Concept: In reported (indirect) questions, the word order is that of a statement: wh-word + subject + verb.

1. 'asked … what was he doing' keeps the question order (verb before subject).
2. Correct: 'The magistrate asked the prisoner what he was doing with his hand …'
3. The other segments are correct.

Trick: After 'asked', no inversion: what he was, where she lived, why they came.

Answer: (C) what was he doing

Concept: 'was + V3' (was impressed) is simple past passive; the active voice uses V2, with the doer as subject.

1. Doer: 'the Madhubani painting Avika made'; receiver: 'I' → object 'me'.
2. was greatly impressed → greatly impressed me.
3. (A) present perfect, (D) present continuous; (B) changes the meaning and drops 'me'.

Trick: I → me when it becomes the object.

Answer: (C) The Madhubani painting Avika made greatly impressed me.

Concept: Talk over = to discuss something thoroughly, usually to reach a decision.

1. A committee discusses a matter in order to reach a consensus – so 'talked over the matter'.
2. 'Work up' = to develop/excite (work up an appetite); it does not mean discuss.
3. 'Worked for' = laboured for; 'came round' = regained consciousness / changed opinion.

Trick: talk over = discuss; consensus comes from discussion.

Answer: (B) talked over

Concept: Reverse the reported question: put it in question form inside quotes, shift the tense forward (could → can) and restore pronouns. 'Affectionately' can be shown by an address like 'dear'.

1. 'what she could do for me' → “What can I do for you?”
2. 'affectionately' → the loving address dear.
3. (A) keeps statement order and 'she/me'; (C) and (D) mix up the pronouns.

Trick: In direct speech: she (speaker) → I, me (listener) → you.

Answer: (B) She said to me, “What can I do for you, dear?”

Concept: When the reporting verb is in the present ('says'), the tense of the reported words does not change; only pronouns change.

1. Keep 'says' → She says, “… ”
2. 'she would like … when she grows up' → “I would like … when I grow up.”
3. (A) and (D) change 'says' to past; (C) keeps 'She' inside the quotes.

Trick: says/tells (present) → no tense change, only pronoun change.

Answer: (B) She says, “I would like to be an ambassador to a foreign country when I grow up.”

Concept: Link pronouns to their nouns and follow cause → effect markers such as 'Consequently'.

1. A mentions 'the people' → E: 'They had dug it two years before'.
2. D: there was never money for a wall around the well.
3. C: 'Consequently, the mouth … widened' – the result of having no wall.
4. B: so the well was dangerous, but no one worried → F: apart from a chicken, it seemed harmless.

Trick: 'Consequently' always follows its cause – D (no wall) → C (mouth widened).

Answer: (D) AEDCBF

Concept: Dilemma = a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two options.

1. Its synonym is quandary (a state of uncertainty about what to do).
2. 'Solution' is the opposite idea; 'advantage' and 'success' are unrelated.
3. Example: I am in a quandary/dilemma about which job to accept.

Yaad rakhein: dilemma = di (two) + lemma → caught between two choices.

Answer: (C) quandary

Concept: In clauses of condition with if, unless, when, till, as soon as referring to the future, the simple present is used, not 'will'.

1. 'unless you will water it' → 'unless you water it'.
2. 'will die' in the main clause is correct.
3. 'unless' itself means 'if not', so no extra 'not' is needed.

Trick: Unless/if-clause: no 'will'. Main clause: will.

Answer: (A) you will water

Concept: An action that began at a point in the past and is still continuing takes the present perfect continuous: has/have + been + V-ing, with 'since' (point of time) or 'for' (period).

1. 'Since 10 o'clock in the morning' marks the starting point of an action still going on.
2. So: he has been working on this design.
3. 'worked', 'was working', 'had worked' are past forms and do not connect the action to now.

Trick: since/for + continuing action → has/have been + V-ing.

Answer: (C) he has been working

Concept: Simple present active (V1/V5) → passive is/am/are + V3. A general subject like 'we' can be dropped in the passive.

1. Object 'this hall' becomes the subject (singular → is).
2. use → is used; 'by us' is usually omitted.
3. (B) past continuous, (C) present perfect, (D) present continuous – the tense changes.

Trick: V1 → is/are + V3; drop 'by us/them/people'.

Answer: (A) This hall is used on special occasions.

Concept: After 'It is/was', the pronoun that is the doer of the following 'who' clause takes the subjective (nominative) case.

1. 'It was ___ who encouraged me' – the blank is the person who did the encouraging (subject).
2. Subject forms: I, we, he, she, they → 'he' fits.
3. 'us' is objective and 'our' is possessive; 'we' includes the speaker, who cannot be the one encouraging himself ('me') – so it is illogical.

Trick: It was + subject pronoun + who … (It was he who …).

Answer: (B) he

Concept: Third conditional (an imaginary past): If + had (not) + V3, … would have + V3.

1. The main clause 'we would have reached' shows an unreal past result.
2. So the if-clause needs past perfect: If the police hadn't stopped us.
3. (C) and (D) keep wrong tense pairs ('hasn't … would reach', 'hadn't … will reach').

Trick: would have + V3 ↔ had + V3.

Answer: (A) hadn't stopped us we would have reached

Concept: Comprise takes a direct object, without any preposition. 'Consist of' or 'be composed of' take 'of'.

1. 'comprises from questions' – 'from' is wrong.
2. Correct: 'This question paper comprises questions …' or 'consists of questions …'.
3. The other segments are correct.

Trick: comprise (no preposition) = consist of = be composed of.

Answer: (D) comprises from

Concept: Present perfect active (has/have + V3) → passive has/have + been + V3; the helping verb agrees with the new subject.

1. New subject 'special trains' is plural → have been started.
2. has started → have been started by the Railway.
3. (C) uses 'has' with a plural subject; (A) present continuous; (D) future.

Trick: Check the number of the new subject: plural → have.

Answer: (B) Special trains have been started for the workers by the Railway.

Concept: A pronoun that is the object of a verb takes the objective case: me, him, her, us, them.

1. 'they can help neither you nor I' – 'I' is the object of 'help'.
2. Correct: 'neither you nor me'.
3. 'so elementary that', 'These tutorials are', 'they can help' are correct.

Trick: Remove 'neither you nor' – 'help I' sounds wrong, 'help me' is right.

Answer: (B) neither you nor I