Fill in the Blanks Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The answer is latter.

The former ... the latter is the fixed pair for referring back to the first and second of two things just named: the son is the teacher and the daughter is the nurse.

Later is a different word, meaning afterwards in time, and is a common spelling trap here. Next does not refer back to an item already mentioned, and since latter fits, 'None of these' is wrong.

Answer: A

The answer is being praised: Jatin enjoys being praised.

Enjoy is followed by a gerund. Here the sense is passive: Jatin is the one who receives the praise, so the passive gerund being praised is needed.

'Enjoys praising' is the active gerund and would need an object (enjoys praising others); on its own it leaves the sentence incomplete. 'To praising' is wrong because 'enjoy' never takes 'to'. Since one option is correct, 'none of these' is wrong.

Answer: B

The answer is not to smoke: The doctor told him not to smoke.

A reported command uses 'tell + object + infinitive', and the negative is made by placing not before 'to': told him not to smoke. This reports the direct command "Do not smoke."

'To not smoke' splits the infinitive, which formal grammar treats as wrong. 'Told him do not smoke' mixes direct and reported speech without quotation marks. Since 'not to smoke' is correct, 'none of these' is wrong.

Answer: C

The answer is highly: The speaker delivered a highly impressive presentation.

Highly is an intensifier meaning very or to a great degree, and it collocates naturally with adjectives of praise and evaluation: highly impressive, highly successful, highly regarded.

Rarely and hardly are negative in sense (hardly impressive means scarcely impressive), which clashes with the positive tone. Merely means only, and 'a merely impressive presentation' is not natural English.

Answer: A

The answer is very: The child was very excited to visit the science museum.

Very is the general-purpose intensifier for gradable adjectives such as excited, happy and tired, and it sits before the adjective.

Totally goes with absolute adjectives (totally wrong, totally different) and is informal before excited. Deeply collocates with feelings such as moved, hurt or disappointed, not with excitement. Enough must follow the adjective (excited enough), so it cannot fill a blank before it.

Answer: B

The answer is heavily: The road was heavily crowded during the festival season.

Heavily is the adverb that collocates with words of density and load: heavily crowded, heavily populated, heavily congested traffic.

Badly goes with words of damage or need (badly damaged, badly needed). Strongly goes with opinions and feelings (strongly believe, strongly oppose), and firmly with fixing or holding (firmly fixed, firmly believe). None of them describes how crowded a road is.

Answer: A

The answer is extremely: The issue discussed in the meeting was extremely important for the organization.

Extremely is an intensifier meaning to a very great degree, and it fits any gradable adjective, including important.

Seriously collocates with ill, injured or damaged rather than important. Eventually means in the end and refers to time, so it cannot describe degree. Barely means only just, which contradicts the idea of an issue worth discussing.

Answer: D

The blanks are filled, in order, by birth, soul, he, sown, it, to.

Read the passage with them in: 'Our country gave birth to a mighty soul, and he shone like a beacon. And yet he was done to death. It could only occur because the seed for it was sown in the poison of hatred and enmity... it is the duty of all of us to fight this poison.' Each word is forced by the grammar. 'Gave birth' is the idiom and 'soul' is the noun a person can be called. 'And he shone' needs a subject pronoun for the one who was killed. 'Seed ... sown' is the standard pairing. 'It is the duty' needs a dummy subject, and 'to fight' is the infinitive after 'duty of all of us'.

Option A has 'berth' (a sleeping place) and 'sole' (a fish or a foot part). Option B has 'shoal' and 'shown', and 'this' cannot be the subject of 'shone'. Option C has 'they', which does not agree with the singular 'he' who was killed, and 'two' for 'to'. These are the homophone traps the question is built on.

Answer: C

The answer is could: 'When I was a child, I could understand adults but now I don't.'

'Could' is the past form of 'can' and expresses ability in the past, which is what the sentence contrasts with the present ('but now I don't').

'Do' is present tense and does not fit 'When I was a child'. 'Should' expresses obligation or advice, and 'must' expresses necessity; neither describes a past ability.

Answer: D

The answer is may: 'He may be lazy, but he is not stupid.'

'May' here makes a concession: it admits something may be true before the contrast introduced by 'but'.

'Needn't' expresses lack of necessity, 'mustn't' prohibition, and 'shall' future or obligation; none of them fits the pattern of conceding a point before 'but'.