Pick out the most effective word(s) from the given words to fill in the blank to make the sentence meaningfully complete.
The telephone ...... several times before I answered it.
Answer: C
Correct answer: Had rung
The ringing was complete before the answering, and both are in the past, so the earlier action takes the past perfect.
Was ringing and would ring do not mark the sequence, and has rung ties a past event to the present, which before I answered forbids.
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He passed the examination in the first class because he ......
Answer: C
Correct answer: had worked hard for it
The passing came after the work, so the earlier action needs the past perfect.
Worked hardly means the opposite - hardly means scarcely, not diligently. The two continuous forms fail to place the work before the result.
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Jawaharlal spent his childhood ...... Anand Bhawan.
Answer: A
Correct answer: At
A named house or institution is treated as a point on the map, so it takes at: at Anand Bhawan.
In would refer to the inside of the building rather than to the place, and on and across are impossible with a house.
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If negotiations are to prove fruitful, there must not only be sincerity on each side, but there must also be ...... in the sincerity of the other side.
Answer: A
Correct answer: Faith
The sentence needs a noun that takes in, and faith in is the natural pairing with sincerity.
Belief is close but reads awkwardly beside sincerity, and substance and certainty do not describe trust in another party.
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I hate sitting ...... him as he always smells of garlic.
Answer: D
Correct answer: Beside
Beside means at the side of; besides means in addition to. Only the first makes sense of sitting next to someone.
Along and at cannot govern a person in this way.
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Some regions of our country still remain ...... to the average man.
Answer: A
Correct answer: inaccessible
Regions that cannot be reached are inaccessible, and the word takes to, which the sentence supplies.
Impenetrable describes something that cannot be got through, such as a forest, rather than a region one cannot get to; impermeable is about liquids, and impossible does not take to the average man in this sense.
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It ...... that Prashant will not be selected for the post
Answer: D
Correct answer: Seems
It seems that… is the impersonal construction English uses to report an impression.
Looks and feels need as if, and believes requires a person as its subject - it cannot believe anything.
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In Bush, Saddam was up ...... more than his match.
Answer: C
Correct answer: Against
Be up against means to be faced with a difficulty or an opponent, which is exactly the situation described.
Up for means willing, up to means capable of or engaged in, and up into is not an idiom.
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I haven't seen you ...... a week.
Answer: C
Correct answer: For
A stretch of time takes for; a starting point takes since. A week is a stretch.
Since would need a point such as last Monday, and within and from do not fit a negative perfect of this kind.
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I listened, but I had no idea what he was ...... about.
Answer: B
Correct answer: Talking
Talk about is the phrase the blank needs, since about follows.
Tell and discuss take a direct object with no preposition, and say takes the words said, not the topic.
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