Fill in the Blanks Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The pair is time, down.

'A long time ago' is the usual opening of a story, and rain 'streams down' from heaven.

'While, up', 'eon, of' and 'duration, off' do not make sense in these places.

The story opening 'a long time ago' is a fixed phrase, and rain 'streams down' is an ordinary collocation. Checking the other pairs, 'a long while ago' is possible, but 'streamed up from heaven' cannot be right, as rain falls.

Answer: D

The pair is genius, success.

Steve Jobs is known as a marketing genius, and the sentence says that, unlike many others, he was a fairly quick success. The pairs with 'nerd' or 'geek' do not suit 'marketing', and 'honcho, experience' does not fit 'a fairly quick ...'.

So genius and success are the right words.

'Marketing genius' is a normal phrase and 'a fairly quick success' makes sense, while 'marketing nerd' and 'marketing geek' are less natural phrases. 'Marketing honcho' means leader but 'quick experience' is not meaningful. So the pair that makes sense in both places is genius and success.

Answer: D

The pair is construction, increase.

The construction of barrages and dams obstructed the fish, and efforts to conserve the hilsa would aim to increase its number.

'Decrease' and 'decline' contradict conservation, and 'making' and 'hike' are not natural with barrages and with a number of fish.

The second blank must mean something that conservation efforts aim at, and the number of hilsa must increase for conservation to succeed. The first blank, 'construction of barrages and dams', is the usual phrase. The pairs with 'decrease' or 'decline' do not suit the aim of conserving fish.

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.