Fill in the Blanks Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The appropriate connective is although.

The two clauses contrast: being rich would lead us to expect generosity, but he is a miser. 'Although' introduces a clause of concession, a fact that contrasts with the main clause: 'Although Ragu is rich, he is a miser.' (The paper prints 'he is miser'.)

'Where' introduces a place, 'as long as' a condition, and 'until' a time limit. None of them expresses the contrast between wealth and miserliness.

Answer: D

The correct connectives are Whenever/or/that: Whenever the opportunity arises, seize it without hesitating or fearing that you might fail.

Whenever means "at any time that", which suits an opportunity arising. Or joins the two things to avoid after without: hesitating, fearing. That introduces the clause saying what is feared.

Whoever refers to a person and cannot introduce a clause about an opportunity arising. Whichever needs a choice among things, and wherever is about place. And after without is less natural than or, and what or which cannot introduce the clause after fearing.

Answer: A

The correct conjunction is and: God made the country and man made the town.

The sentence joins two balanced statements of equal weight, so it needs the coordinating conjunction and, which adds one idea to the other. The line is William Cowper's well-known contrast between the countryside and the town.

Or would offer them as alternatives, which makes no sense here. Under and over are prepositions, not conjunctions, and cannot join two clauses.

Answer: B

The best match is (i) wasn't (ii) Even (iii) was (iv) Only.

Prof. P 'wasn't merely a man who narrated funny stories': he was more than a joke-teller. 'Even in his blackest moments he was capable of self-deprecating humor' supports that, since 'even' marks the extreme case of his humour.

Prof. Q 'was a man who hardly narrated funny stories'. 'Only in his blackest moments was he able to find humor' fits a man who rarely joked; 'only' at the start of the clause also explains the inverted word order 'was he able'.

Swapping 'Only' and 'Even' breaks both sentences: 'Only in his blackest moments he was capable ...' would need inversion, and 'Even ... was he able' is ungrammatical. 'Was merely' for P contradicts the praise that follows.

Answer: C

The correct completion is couldn't help laughing: The movie was funny and I couldn't help laughing.

The idiom cannot help (meaning cannot stop oneself from) is followed by a gerund, the -ing form of the verb. The negative is essential to the sense: the film was funny, so the speaker could not stop laughing.

'could help laughing' drops the negative and says the opposite. 'couldn't help laughed' uses a past form where the gerund is required, and 'could helped laughed' puts a past form after the modal could, which must take the base verb.

Answer: A

The answer is Steps, ameliorate: the doctors took steps to ameliorate the situation.

Take steps is the fixed phrase for acting to deal with something, and ameliorate means to make a bad situation better, which fits a worsening illness exactly.

Took modes and took approaches are not idiomatic English; one adopts an approach, one does not take it. Measures would collocate (take measures), but the second word is misspelt: the verb is enhance, and enhancing means increasing something good, which does not suit improving a crisis.

Answer: C

The answer is were: If only I were taller, I might be better at basketball.

If only introduces a wish about a present situation that is not true. Such unreal conditions take the past subjunctive, and in formal English the subjunctive of be is were for every subject, including I; the main clause then uses might.

Was is common in speech but is the informal form the question is testing against. Could needs a verb after it (could be). Had been would refer to the past and would need might have been in the main clause.

Answer: C

The correct form is Flung: 'He has just flung out of the room in a rage.'

Fling is an irregular verb: fling, flung, flung. The present perfect 'has just ...' needs the past participle, which is flung. 'To fling out of a room' means to rush out of it angrily, which suits 'in a rage'.

'Flinged' and 'flunged' are non-existent regular forms made by wrongly adding -ed. 'Flanged' is the past of flange (to fit with a projecting rim), an unrelated word.

Answer: D

The correct word is Any: 'He has hardly any money for his survival.'

Hardly is a negative adverb, meaning almost not. Like other negatives it is followed by any rather than some: 'hardly any money', 'hardly anyone', 'hardly ever'.

Some is used in affirmative sentences, so 'hardly some money' is wrong. Few and a few go with countable plural nouns ('a few coins'), while money is uncountable, so neither fits.

Answer: A

The correct conjunction is So: 'I had studied a lot, so I did really well on the test.'

The second clause states the result of the first, and so is the coordinating conjunction that introduces a result or consequence.

For introduces a reason, which would reverse the logic ('I did well, for I had studied'). But and yet introduce a contrast, which makes no sense when studying and doing well go together.