Passage Completion Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: There are several theories about why this happened

The sentence after the blank begins the most accepted one, and one needs a plural noun to be selected from. Only the keyed option supplies it, and this in it refers back to the dying out.

Answer: A

Correct answer: However, we're not so sure where they came from

Many scientists think they came from wolves follows the blank, so the blank must raise the question of origin, and however turns from what we know about dogs to what we do not. The other options are about what dogs are trained to do, which the paragraph never takes up.

Answer: B

Correct answer: A watchdog can stop a creature that is five to six times bigger

The sentence after the blank begins it is interesting, though, that these dogs, which can become terrifyingly wild, so the blank must have established that fierceness. Only the keyed option does; the facts about species, teeth and vision give nothing for though to contrast with.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Such relationships are the basis for the food webs and food pyramids

The sentence after the blank opens these food webs and pyramids, so both terms must already have been introduced, and such relationships ties the blank back to the interrelationships named before it. None of the other options mentions food webs at all.

Answer: B

Correct answer: I thought you liked hot weather.

Anurag replies yes, I do, but it's boiling today. Yes, I do can only answer a statement about what he likes, and but then qualifies it. A question about the weather report would be answered with whether he listens to it.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Don't you think the new student is a little strange?

Ricky answers I'm not sure. Why do you think he is?, so the blank must contain an opinion about a he whom Ricky can question. Molly's next line - he says nothing unless asked - is her evidence for calling him strange.

Answer: B

Correct answer: I didn't know there was going to be a match tonight.

Danny replies shame on you. The national team is playing against Germany, which is a reproach for not knowing about the match. Only the keyed line admits that ignorance. The others accept the invitation or object to pubs, neither of which earns the reproach.

Answer: A

Correct answer: It was not late, mom. It was only ten o'clock.

The mother answers it was too late for a girl at your age, so the daughter must have argued that it was not late. The reply also settles it: I don't want to discuss this ends an argument the daughter has started.

Answer: A

Correct answer: I don't but I promise that I will from now on.

The patient's closing line - of course I do, but I can't stop myself - admits a habit he cannot break, and the exchange only reaches it if he first concedes the dentist's charge. The two options claiming he has brushed regularly since childhood contradict the dentist, who is then never challenged, and taking offence would not lead to a discussion of sweets.

Answer: A

Correct answer: But the report has got over two hundred pages.

Rafi answers then you should have started reading it a long time ago, which is a reply to an objection that the task is too big. Only the keyed line raises that objection; agreeing with Rafi would leave then with nothing to answer.