Fill in the Blanks Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The pair is whose, other.

'A wonderful musician whose name was Arion' needs the possessive 'whose'. 'No other person could play the lyre' is the correct phrase.

'Who's' means 'who is', and 'whom' and 'which' do not suit a person's name. 'Another', 'any' and 'some' do not fit after 'No'.

The first blank needs a possessive word because it is followed by the noun 'name': 'whose name was Arion'. The second blank needs a word that follows 'No', and 'No other person' is the natural phrase. 'Who's name' would be an error, because 'who's' stands for 'who is'.

Answer: C

The pair is surge, giving.

A gift can bring a 'surge' of happiness, and the joy of 'giving' a gift is compared with the pleasure of receiving one. 'Rush' also suits the first blank, but 'taking' does not fit the second.

'Flood, faking' and 'whirlpool, hiding' do not make sense.

The phrase 'a surge of happiness' is a common collocation. The second blank follows 'the joy of' and before 'a gift', so it needs an '-ing' form of a verb opposite to receiving, which is 'giving'. The joy of giving is a common expression.

Answer: C

The word is unfortunate.

Few fortunate students get higher education, so the majority are unfortunate, the opposite. 'Blessed' means fortunate, 'cursed' is much stronger and 'tragic' describes events.

So unfortunate is the most suitable.

The first sentence says only a few fortunate students get higher education, so the majority are in the opposite position. 'Unfortunate' is the direct opposite of 'fortunate'. 'Blessed' means the same as fortunate, and 'cursed' and 'tragic' are far stronger than the sentence needs.

Answer: C

The right choice is reach, hand, upto, but. 'Go beyond the orbit of the earth and reach the orbit of the moon' keeps both verbs in the base form after 'go', and 'On the other hand' is the fixed phrase. 'Upto the International Space Station' fits 'only', and the last blank needs a contrast, 'not possible for everyone, but suborbital tourism is a possible alternative'. 'Reached' breaks the tense, 'hands' spoils the idiom, and 'since' or 'and' do not give the contrast.

Answer: A

The correct choice is curse, over, keep, but. 'A blessing or a curse' needs a noun after 'a', so 'cursing' is wrong. 'Breathe in over 10,000 litres' means more than that quantity, and 'between' would need two things. 'Try to keep the air clean' takes the base form, not 'keeping'. The final blank links the food that can be seen with the air that cannot, so a contrast word 'but' is needed rather than 'because' or 'since'. 'A blessing or a curse' needs a noun that is the opposite of 'blessing', which is 'curse'.

Answer: D

The right choice is sources, most, effects, affected. 'Several sources' is a countable plural, 'one of the most important' is the superlative form that the sentence needs, and 'harmful effects' needs the noun 'effects', since 'affects' is a verb. 'The worst affected persons' needs the adjective 'affected', not 'effected'. 'Many' and 'much' fail in the second blank, and 'affects' or 'effected' fail in the last two. Among the options, only the fourth keeps all four blanks grammatical: 'sources' (plural noun), 'most' (superlative), 'effects' (noun) and 'affected' (adjective).

Answer: C

The correct choice is many, message, choose, electronic. 'Many copies' is correct because 'copies' is countable. 'To force the message on people' is the sense intended, and 'massage' is a different word. After 'would not otherwise' the verb takes its base form, so 'choose' fits and 'chosen' does not. 'Electronic junk mail' needs the adjective 'electronic', not the noun 'electronics', and 'much' cannot go with a plural noun. The second blank needs a noun, the third a verb in the base form and the fourth an adjective, and only the third option supplies a noun, a base verb and an adjective in those places.

Answer: B

The idiom is 'burst into flames'. 'Burst in' means to enter suddenly and does not take 'flames'. 'Burst onto' is used for appearing suddenly, as on a scene. 'Bursts out' has a third person singular verb that does not agree with 'The jeep crashed and', which is in the past tense. Only 'burst into' completes the sentence correctly. The same phrase appears in 'the car burst into flames', which is the common use of the idiom after a crash.

Answer: C

The right order is sent, cent, scent. The friend 'sent' (past tense of send) a gift, the gift was worth 99 'cent', and it was imported 'scent', meaning perfume. The words are homophones, so only their meanings fix the order. 'Sent' cannot be the object, 'scent' cannot be the verb, and 'cent' cannot be the gift, so the other orders do not make sense. In the sentence 'sent' is the verb, 'cent' the unit of money and 'scent' the perfume, so each of these three words fits only one blank.

Answer: C

The phrase is bear with: the chairman asked the shareholders to bear with him.

To bear with someone is to be patient with them, which fits a chairman facing aggrieved shareholders. Bear here is the verb meaning to tolerate or endure.

Bare means to uncover or expose, so 'bare with' and 'bare' are homophone errors. Bore is the past tense of bear (or a verb meaning to drill or to weary someone), and 'requested ... to bore with him' is ungrammatical after 'to', which needs the base form.