Fill in the Blanks Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The right pair is 'would have forgotten; hadn't reminded'. The sentence is a third conditional about the past: 'I would have forgotten if you hadn't reminded me'. The result clause takes 'would have' + past participle and the condition takes 'if' + past perfect. Option B mixes present forms, option C uses 'were to forget' with a simple past, and option D puts the past perfect in both places, which leaves the main clause without 'would'.

Answer: A

The right pair is 'had made; arrived'. The coffee-making happened first and the arrival later, so the earlier action takes the past perfect 'had made' and the later action takes the simple past 'arrived': 'I had made the coffee before he arrived'. Using 'have made' brings in the present perfect, and 'had arrived' with 'before' reverses the order of the actions, so options B, C and D are wrong.

Answer: A

The word 'will study' should be replaced by 'studied'. The sentence says 'in 2020' and 'finished my engineering degree a year later', which are in the past, and the two verbs must agree in tense: 'I studied microbiology in 2020 and finished my engineering degree a year later'. The other options, have studied, will have studied and will be studying, are not past forms joined to 'finished'.

Answer: A

The key is 'Will'. 'Will you have coffee?' is an invitation, and offers and requests with 'will you' are accepted. 'Shall you', 'Can you' and 'May you' do not make a natural offer: 'May you have coffee' would be a wish, and 'Can you have coffee' asks about ability or permission. The answer follows the key and ordinary usage. 'Will you have coffee?' is a polite offer, in the same way as 'Will you have some tea?', and it is the usual idiom. 'May you have coffee' would be a blessing, 'Shall you' is stilted, and 'Can you have coffee' is a question about ability.

Answer: C

The right form is 'saw'. The adverb 'yesterday' marks a finished time in the past, so the simple past is used: 'I saw him yesterday after a long time'. The present perfect 'have seen' cannot be used with 'yesterday', the past perfect 'had seen' needs another past event, and 'would see' is a conditional. The speaker uses 'yesterday' and 'after a long time', which fix the event at a finished point in the past, so the simple past 'saw' is correct. The present perfect cannot take a past time word, and the past perfect needs a second, later event in the past.

Answer: A

The pair is roughly, most. The sentence says that tropical diseases occur in a zone stretching roughly from 1,000 miles north to 1,000 miles south of the equator, where roughly means approximately, and that most of their damage is done in poor countries.

Right from, just from and around from do not fit with stretching in that way, and loads and major do not combine well with of their damage, since loads of needs a plural noun. The first pair is therefore the one that is both natural and exact.

Answer: A

The pair is new, curve. The set phrase is brand new to you, and a learning curve is the rate at which a new skill is learnt, which is what the second sentence speaks of.

Marvel is not an adjective, novel could fit the first blank but graph does not fit the second, and nascent with arc does not form an idiom. So only new, curve gives both phrases correctly.

Answer: B

The words are became, into, agreed, accepted. The central government became increasingly divided, the country was partitioned into two dominions, both parties agreed to the plan behind the scenes, and the leaders publicly accepted it on 3 June 1947.

Got is wrong with divided in this sense, and of, to and between do not suit partitioned two dominions. Alluded to, proceeded and denounced do not fit the meaning of leaders approving the plan in public.

Answer: C

The blanks need its and from. India is bringing back one of its submarines, so the possessive its is needed, with no apostrophe, and a submarine is brought back from Russia.

It is a pronoun and cannot be followed by submarines, it's means it is, and its' is not a word. With Russia, the correct preposition for a source is from, and not with, to or for.

Answer: A

The words are on and worth. He is believed to be the richest man on the planet, since on is the preposition used with the planet, and the diamond is believed to be worth Rs 1,000 crore, where worth gives the value.

In the planet and at the planet are not used, and account, value and price do not fit before the amount in this way, since value and price would need of before the sum.