Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Artifact = a man-made object, especially one of historical or cultural value.

1. 'Ancient' and 'cave' suggest a relic from the past — e.g. a pot, tool or ornament.
2. Currency, insect and burst of energy have no link with the word.

Trick: Arti-fact → 'art' + 'made' (factum): something made by human skill.

Answer: (C) An object made by humans, usually of historical or cultural significance

Concept: Daring = bold, ready to take risks; its opposite is a person who avoids risk.

1. Cautious = careful, avoiding danger → opposite of daring.
2. Confident is close to daring in sense; cheerful and clean are unrelated.

Trick: Eliminate options with similar or unrelated meaning first — only one option will point the other way.

Answer: (B) Cautious

Concept: A collocation is a word pair that natives naturally use together.

1. 'Significance' (a noun) goes naturally with 'major', 'great', 'particular'.
2. 'Vastly' is an adverb — it cannot qualify a noun.
3. 'Critical importance' and 'serious concern' are usual, but not 'critical/serious significance' here.

Trick: Blank before a noun needs an adjective — strike out '-ly' adverbs at once.

Answer: (B) major

Concept: Frequency adverbs (often, sometimes, hardly ever) come before the main verb, never between verb and object.

1. (A) 'visit often our grandparents' splits verb and object → wrong.
2. Correct: 'We often visit our grandparents on weekends.'
3. (B), (C), (D) place the adverb correctly before 'visits'.

Trick: Rule: Subject + often + verb + object (but after 'is/am/are').

Answer: (A) We visit often our grandparents on weekends.

Concept: Check each word letter by letter.

1. Correct spelling: Brilliant (b-r-i-l-l-i-a-n-t).
2. Company, Institute, Request are correct.

Trick: Brilliant has two 'i' sounds around a double 'l': br-ILL-iant.

Answer: (B) Brellient

Concept: 'Apple of discord' = the root cause of a quarrel or dispute.

1. The disputed land causes a fight between two families → 'apple of discord'.
2. Origin: Greek myth of the golden apple that started a quarrel among goddesses.

Trick: Discord (झगड़ा) always pairs with 'apple'; 'apple of one's eye' means someone very dear.

Answer: (C) apple

Concept: Reluctant = not willing to do something; hesitant.

1. Example: He was reluctant to lend money.
2. 'Eager and enthusiastic' is its opposite; the other two describe different moods.

Trick: Spot the antonym among the options (eager) — the meaning is usually its opposite option.

Answer: (C) Unwilling or hesitant

Concept: 'For' + period of time; 'since' + point of time (perfect tenses).

1. '5 years' is a duration → 'for 5 years'.
2. 'Since' would need a starting point, e.g. since 2020.

Trick: Ask: 'How long?' → for; 'From when?' → since.

Answer: (B) for

Concept: Perplexing = puzzling, hard to understand.

1. Research that people cannot understand is 'confusing'.
2. 'Clear' is the opposite; 'helpful' and 'exciting' do not fit the meaning.

Trick: Per-plex → 'complex' feel → confusing.

Answer: (C) Confusing

Concept: 'Unless' = 'if not'; it introduces a condition whose absence leads to the result.

1. Meaning: if men and women are NOT paid equally…, home work will have no value.
2. 'Although', 'Yet' show contrast; 'Up till' shows time — none gives a condition.

Trick: Replace the blank with 'If … not' — if the sentence makes sense, 'Unless' is right.

Answer: (A) Unless

Concept: The blank needs a noun meaning a judgement formed after careful analysis.

1. Assessment = evaluation/judgement of something.
2. Courtesy, shyness, timidity are personal qualities — they cannot be 'based on analysis'.

Trick: Clue words 'careful analysis' → evaluation → assessment.

Answer: (C) assessment

Concept: Check each word for doubled or missing letters.

1. Correct spelling: Philosophical — single 'l'.
2. Demonstrated, Students, Profound are correct.

Trick: Philo (love) + sophy (wisdom) + ical — no double letters anywhere.

Answer: (A) Phillosophical

Concept: 'During' is used before a named period (season, event) to mean 'throughout / in the course of'.

1. 'Summer' is a period → 'during summer'.
2. 'For' needs a length (for two months); 'at' a point of time; 'thoroughly' is an adverb.

Trick: Seasons/events (summer, war, the meeting) → during.

Answer: (B) during

Concept: A verb is described by an adverb, not by an adjective.

1. 'Worked' is a verb → needs 'efficiently', not 'efficient'.
2. Correct: The team worked extremely efficiently under pressure.
3. 'Extremely' (adverb) correctly modifies 'efficiently'.

Trick: Ask 'worked how?' — the answer must end in -ly.

Answer: (A) efficient

Concept: Gigantic = extremely large (from 'giant').

1. Huge = very big → synonym.
2. Tiny is the antonym; fragile (easily broken) and rough (uneven) are unrelated.

Trick: Gigantic ← giant → think size: huge, enormous, massive.

Answer: (A) Huge

Concept: A period of time like 'pregnancy' takes 'during'.

1. 'Alcohol use by women during pregnancy' = drinking while pregnant.
2. The same passage later uses 'maternal alcohol use during pregnancy' — a direct hint.

Trick: In cloze tests, look for the same phrase repeated later in the passage.

Answer: (B) during

Concept: 'Birth defects' is the standard term for abnormalities present at birth.

1. 'Physical and mental birth defects' fits the warning about harm to children.
2. 'Collects' is a verb; 'affection' and 'process' make no sense here.

Trick: Medical fixed phrase: birth + defects.

Answer: (B) defects

Concept: 'In response to' = as a reaction to.

1. The warning was a reaction to growing recognition of the syndrome → 'in response to'.
2. Recuse (withdraw), repose (rest), repulse (drive back) are look-alikes with wrong meanings.

Trick: Pattern 'in ___ to' + reaction → response.

Answer: (B) response

Concept: The adjective must show how serious the impairments are.

1. The passage mentions 'lifelong challenges' → impairments are severe (very serious).
2. 'Limited' contradicts this; 'social' and 'pivotal' do not describe physical/mental harm.

Trick: Use the passage's later clue ('lifelong challenges') to judge the tone of the blank.

Answer: (B) severe

Concept: The verb must express accepting a fact, followed by a 'that' clause.

1. 'Doctors and scientists recognise that…' = they acknowledge that…
2. Subsidise (fund), normalise (make normal), vaporise (turn to vapour) cannot introduce a fact.

Trick: Verbs of knowing/accepting (recognise, believe, admit) are followed by 'that'.

Answer: (D) recognise