Fill in the Blanks Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The sentence is Scarcely did Mohan step on the ladder when it broke.

Scarcely and hardly pair with when (or before) to show that one event followed the other almost at once. When the sentence opens with scarcely, the subject and auxiliary are inverted (did Mohan step), and the second clause begins with when.

Than is the partner of no sooner, not of scarcely, so 'than it broke' mixes two patterns. Then is an adverb of time, not a correlative conjunction, and 'it broke' on its own leaves two clauses joined by nothing.

Answer: B

The correct preposition is with: Jaya is not well acquainted with me.

Acquainted takes with both for people and for subjects: one is acquainted with a person, or acquainted with the facts. The fixed phrase is acquainted with.

Acquainted to and acquainted of are common errors and are not standard English. Acquainted from has no meaning. A useful check is the related noun: one has an acquaintance with someone, never an acquaintance to them.

Answer: B

The correct completion is whom I can trust: I don't know whom I can trust.

In the clause, I is the subject and the pronoun is the object of trust (I can trust him), so the formal object form whom is required.

'Who I can trust' is common in speech but uses the subject form where an object is needed, which the exam treats as an error. 'How can I trust' keeps question word order inside a reported clause (it should be 'how I can trust') and also leaves trust without an object. 'To who I can trust' adds a preposition the verb does not take, and uses who after it.

Answer: C

Both blanks take to: Aisha's work is superior to her brother's, although he is senior to her at college.

Superior and senior belong to a small group of adjectives borrowed from Latin comparatives (superior, inferior, senior, junior, prior, anterior, posterior). They already carry the meaning of comparison, so they are followed by to, never by than.

That rules out every option containing than in either blank. 'From, then' is wrong twice: neither adjective takes from, and then is an adverb of time.

Answer: C

The correct word is Besides: besides his uncle, he has six other male relations.

Besides means in addition to, which is what the sentence needs: the uncle plus six others.

Beside, without the s, means next to (he sat beside his uncle), so it gives the wrong sense. In spite of (which the option misspells as one word) and despite express contrast, which does not fit. Despite of is also ungrammatical, because despite is never followed by of.

Answer: A

The verb is am: I, John, am an honest man.

John is in apposition to I; it names the speaker but does not replace the subject. The subject is still the first person pronoun I, and the present tense of be that agrees with I is am.

Is would agree with John as a third person subject, which is the trap the commas set. Were is plural or subjunctive and wrong here. Will be shifts the statement to the future, which does not suit a description of the speaker's character.

Answer: C

The answer is has: the aircrew has not come yet.

Aircrew is a collective noun. When the group is thought of as a single unit, as here (the crew as a whole has not arrived), it takes a singular verb. Yet with a negative calls for the present perfect, so the full verb is has not come.

Have treats the crew as separate individuals, a usage found in British English but not the one the key accepts. Is not come is an archaic form of the perfect, and will not come yet clashes with yet, which looks back to the present moment.

Answer: C

The correct word is than: no sooner had the fight begun than he ran away.

No sooner is a comparative expression, so it is completed by than. The pattern is fixed: No sooner had X happened than Y happened, with the inverted auxiliary after no sooner.

Then is the commonest mistake here; it is an adverb of time and cannot complete the comparison. Immediately and therefore are adverbs too, and neither forms a correlative with no sooner. Compare scarcely and hardly, which take when.

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.