Fill in the Blanks Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The correct word is avid.

An avid reader is one who reads eagerly and a lot, which fits someone with a huge collection of books. A/an before the blank also works with 'avid', which starts with a vowel sound.

'Sincere' and 'attractive' do not describe reading habits, and 'diligent' means hardworking and starts with a consonant sound.

'Avid' means keen or enthusiastic, as in 'an avid reader' or 'an avid fan'. A person with a huge collection of books is likely to be an eager reader. 'A/an' is a hint that the word should begin with a vowel for 'an', and 'avid' does so.

Answer: D

The correct option is 'During dinner,'.

'During' is a preposition used with a noun for a period of time within which something happens. 'While' is followed by a clause, not just a noun, and 'in dinner' and 'on dinner' are not idiomatic.

So 'During dinner, we talked about politics' is the correct sentence.

'During' is followed by a noun that names an event or a period, such as 'during the war' or 'during dinner'. 'While' needs a verb after it, for example 'while we had dinner'. 'In dinner' and 'on dinner' do not exist in English.

Answer: D

The correct phrase is 'put up with'.

'Put up with' means to tolerate. Mandela could not tolerate the racial discrimination in his country.

'Run after' means chase, 'hold over' means postpone and 'put together' means assemble, none of which fits.

'Put up with' is a phrasal verb meaning to tolerate or endure something unpleasant. The sentence says that Mandela could not tolerate racial discrimination. The other phrasal verbs, 'run after', 'hold over' and 'put together', have unrelated meanings.

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.