Fill in the Blanks Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The sentence is I would like to have bought a diamond ring.

'Would like to have + past participle' expresses a wish about the past that did not come true: the speaker wanted to buy the ring but did not. It is the standard form for an unfulfilled past desire.

'Have a liking to' is not idiomatic (one has a liking for something). 'Should have liked to have bought' doubles the perfect and is a clumsy double past, and 'may like' expresses a present possibility that does not fit with the perfect infinitive 'to have bought'.

Answer: C

The sentence is Food prices have been rising again this month.

Prices rise by themselves: 'rise' is intransitive and takes no object. The present perfect continuous 'have been rising' describes a process that started earlier and is still going on, which suits 'again this month'.

'Raise' is transitive and needs an object (the shops raised prices), so 'have raised' and 'have been raising' leave the verb without one. 'Have arose' uses the past tense 'arose' where the past participle 'arisen' is needed, so it is ungrammatical.

Answer: D

The word is unpopular.

The administrators' argument is that one more unreasonable measure 'would hardly make a difference' because the existing measures were already disliked. Only 'unpopular' supplies a quality that the new measure would merely add to: people already resented the measures, so another one would not change their attitude.

'Reflective' (thoughtful) and 'utopian' (idealistic, impractically perfect) contradict 'unreasonable', and 'luxuriant' means growing richly, which makes no sense of measures. None of them supports the 'hardly make a difference' reasoning.

Answer: A

The word is intrepidity.

The sentence contrasts what people expected (he was timid) with what surprised them. The surprise must be the opposite of timidity, which is intrepidity, fearlessness or boldness.

'Inability' and 'inertness' (lack of action) would fit a timid man and would not be a surprise. 'Inevitability' (being certain to happen) is not a personal quality that can be contrasted with timidity at all.

Answer: C

Correct answer: on

Smile on is the fixed idiom for showing favour, and it is the form the proverb takes: fate smiles on those who….

One smiles at a person one is amused by, but smile with, over and round are not English in this sense.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Avidly

A miser gazing at his gold looks with greed, and avidly is the adverb for eager, hungry attention.

Admiringly and thoughtfully would make him a connoisseur rather than a miser, and earnestly describes sincerity, not desire.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Chance

Chance to do something is the standard pattern for an opportunity created by circumstance - here, by catching the earlier train.

Luck and possibility are not followed by a to-infinitive in this way, and occasion means a particular event rather than an opening in one's day.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Herd

English uses a different collective noun for each kind of animal, and cattle go in a herd.

A flock is of sheep or birds, a swarm of insects, and group is too general to be the tested answer.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Ripe

Fruit ready to be picked is ripe; the word is used of fruit and of little else.

Mature suits a person or a tree rather than the grapes themselves, and ready and advanced do not carry the specific sense of fruit fit to eat.

Answer: D

Correct answer: On

Depend is always followed by on or upon.

No other preposition is possible with this verb, which is what makes the question a test of collocation rather than of meaning.