Fill in the Blanks Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The blanks take complemented, complimented.

Complement means to go well with something or complete it, so a dress that suits its wearer complemented her. Compliment means to praise, so the onlookers complimented her on her appearance. The two verbs sound the same and differ by one letter, which is the whole test.

'Complemented' in the second blank would say the people completed her appearance, not that they praised it. 'Complimented' in the first blank would have the dress praising her. That rules out every pairing except the one that uses complemented first and complimented second.

Answer: A

The word is undiminished.

The sentence turns on though: the judge's standing was shaken by false allegations, though it still remained something. A concessive clause sets up a contrast, so the blank must say that the standing survived the attack intact. Undiminished, not reduced in any way, gives exactly that contrast.

'Damaged' and 'uncertain' agree with 'shaken' instead of contrasting with it, so the 'though' would make no sense. 'Illegal' does not describe a person's standing in a community at all, and the allegations were false.

Answer: B

The blank takes the possessive determiner your: “Send your contributions at the earliest.”

The word in the blank must qualify the noun contributions, so it has to be a possessive form. Your is the possessive of you.

You are and its contraction you’re are subject and verb, which make no sense before a noun here (“Send you are contributions”). Yore is an archaic noun meaning long ago, as in “days of yore”, and only sounds like your. The question tests exactly this set of homophones.

Answer: C

The sentence is I would like to have bought a diamond ring.

'Would like to have + past participle' expresses a wish about the past that did not come true: the speaker wanted to buy the ring but did not. It is the standard form for an unfulfilled past desire.

'Have a liking to' is not idiomatic (one has a liking for something). 'Should have liked to have bought' doubles the perfect and is a clumsy double past, and 'may like' expresses a present possibility that does not fit with the perfect infinitive 'to have bought'.

Answer: C

The sentence is Food prices have been rising again this month.

Prices rise by themselves: 'rise' is intransitive and takes no object. The present perfect continuous 'have been rising' describes a process that started earlier and is still going on, which suits 'again this month'.

'Raise' is transitive and needs an object (the shops raised prices), so 'have raised' and 'have been raising' leave the verb without one. 'Have arose' uses the past tense 'arose' where the past participle 'arisen' is needed, so it is ungrammatical.

Answer: D

The word is unpopular.

The administrators' argument is that one more unreasonable measure 'would hardly make a difference' because the existing measures were already disliked. Only 'unpopular' supplies a quality that the new measure would merely add to: people already resented the measures, so another one would not change their attitude.

'Reflective' (thoughtful) and 'utopian' (idealistic, impractically perfect) contradict 'unreasonable', and 'luxuriant' means growing richly, which makes no sense of measures. None of them supports the 'hardly make a difference' reasoning.

Answer: A

The word is intrepidity.

The sentence contrasts what people expected (he was timid) with what surprised them. The surprise must be the opposite of timidity, which is intrepidity, fearlessness or boldness.

'Inability' and 'inertness' (lack of action) would fit a timid man and would not be a surprise. 'Inevitability' (being certain to happen) is not a personal quality that can be contrasted with timidity at all.

Answer: C

The best fit is (i) down (ii) out (iii) for (iv) on.

Each blank completes an idiom with 'head': to keep one's head down is to stay quiet and avoid attention or distraction; to head out is to set off (here, to bat); to have a head for something is to have a natural aptitude for it; and a cool head on one's shoulders means calm good sense.

'Head down to bat' does not mean setting off to bat, 'a head on batting' is not idiomatic, and 'a cool head for his shoulders' makes no sense. Keeping one's head 'on' before batting is also not the idiom intended. Only the combination down, out, for, on gives four correct idioms.

Answer: B

The sentence needs had been playing.

The rain 'suddenly started' at a moment in the past, and the playing was already in progress at that moment. An action continuing up to a past point is expressed by the past perfect continuous: 'We had been playing tennis in the lawn when it suddenly started to rain.'

'Have been playing' is the present perfect continuous, which links the action to the present and clashes with the past tense 'started'. 'Would have been playing' describes a hypothetical situation, and 'could be playing' a present possibility, neither of which fits a narrative of what actually happened.

Answer: A

The answer is exaggerates; engenders.

The manager's next sentence, 'False claims are not going to help', tells us the first blank describes inflating the figures: to exaggerate the numbers is to overstate them. The second sentence states what honesty produces, and engender means to give rise to or create, so 'Honesty engenders trust' completes the thought.

The other pairs fail. 'Excels the numbers' is not idiomatic and is not a false claim. 'Aggravates the numbers' misuses aggravate (to make worse), and honesty does not 'alleviate' trust, since alleviate means to lessen something bad. 'Diminishes' would be understating, not a false boast, and honesty does not 'eliminate' trust.