Fill in the Blanks Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The blank takes much: 'There isn't much water in the glass.'

'Water' is an uncountable noun, and in negative sentences and questions the quantifier used with an uncountable noun is much. The next sentence, 'It's empty', confirms the meaning of very little or none.

'Few' is used with plural countable nouns (few glasses), not with water. 'Some' is normally used in positive statements; a negative sentence takes 'any' or 'much'. 'Either' refers to one of two things and makes no sense before 'water' here.

Answer: A

The correct word is reign.

Reign means the period during which a king or queen rules, so "The King's reign was full of wars" means his period of rule saw many wars.

The other words sound alike but do not fit. A rein is the strap used to control a horse (or, figuratively, control, as in 'free rein'). Rain is water falling from clouds. Ran is the past tense of 'run' and is a verb, so it cannot follow the possessive 'King's'.

Answer: C

The modal is should.

'Should have' followed by a past participle expresses a past duty that was not carried out, often as a reproach: 'You should have asked me before you ate my lunch' means asking was the right thing to do, and you did not do it.

'Can have asked' is not idiomatic in this sense. 'Ought' needs 'to' ('ought to have asked'), so 'ought have' is ungrammatical. 'Will have asked' expresses a future completed action or an assumption, not a missed obligation.

Answer: D

The phrases that complete the passage are with great care, on the right track, on time.

The passage describes a diligent student: she worked with great care to finish before the deadline, stayed on the right track (focused and making correct progress) despite the challenges, and submitted her work on time, which ties back to the deadline.

The other sets clash with the sense. Working 'by accident' or 'at random' does not finish a project; staying 'out of order', 'under the weather' (unwell) or 'on edge' (nervous) is not a success; and submitting 'by mistake', 'off the record' or 'at the moment' does not fit a deadline.

Answer: B

The correct word is every: there is a bus every ten minutes.

Every is used with a period of time to say how often something happens at regular intervals: every day, every two hours, every ten minutes.

Each refers to individual members of a group and is not used for intervals of time in this way. 'Any ten minutes' would mean no particular ten minutes, and 'most ten minutes' is ungrammatical.

Answer: D

The correct phrase is as if I were.

'As if' introduces an imaginary or unreal comparison: they treat me as though I were their son, though I am not. For such unreal situations English uses the subjunctive were for all persons: as if I were, as if he were.

'As if I was' is common in casual speech but is not the standard form the question asks for. 'Like I am' states a fact rather than a comparison, and 'as if I will be' uses the wrong tense.

Answer: B

The correct word is nevertheless.

The sentence sets a contrast: she is short-tempered, yet she is interesting to be with. Nevertheless means 'in spite of that' and links the two contrasting ideas correctly.

'Even as' means 'at the same moment as'. 'Inspite' must be followed by 'of' and a noun ('in spite of her temper'). 'Meanwhile' means 'at the same time' and shows no contrast.

Answer: A

The correct word is security: the security officer.

A security officer is a person employed to guard a building such as a bank and watch for suspicious people, which fits someone who noticed a masked man leaving the bank.

An 'emergency officer' and a 'safety officer' have different jobs, dealing with emergencies and workplace hazards. 'Watchman' is itself a noun for a guard, so 'watchman officer' is not idiomatic.

Answer: D

The correct option is inspite of.

The blank is followed by a noun phrase, 'the low attendance', so a preposition meaning 'regardless of' is needed: the meeting will be held in spite of the low attendance. (The standard spelling is 'in spite of'; the paper prints it as one word.)

'Even when', 'although' and 'even if' are conjunctions and must be followed by a clause with a verb, such as 'although attendance is low', not by a noun phrase alone.

Answer: B

The most appropriate word is differentiate: they cannot differentiate the good from the bad.

To differentiate one thing from another is to recognise the difference between them, which is what people confused about values cannot do. The verb also takes the pattern differentiate X from Y that the sentence uses.

Divide means to split into parts, see does not take from in this sense, and alter means to change. None of them expresses telling good and bad apart.